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In October 1999, John Katsilometes reported that Cipriano had crank phoned "just about every emergency report worthy of national coverage," such as those regarding the Columbine High School shootings and the car crash death of Princess Diana. On June 25, 1996, a collection album of recordings of Janks' phone-call pranks, titled King of the Cranks, was released on compact disc and cassette tape via the labels Atlantic Records and Ozone Music. When Cipriano called with his real voice asking Lewis about Howard Stern when the show aired, Lewis called him a "schmuck." Cipriano then compiled samples of King's voice and ordered them in a way that would trick the producers into believing it was really King talking on the phone. The first time he did this was in 1991 he lied to producers of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon that he was a representative for King in order to make a call on the show, saying that King wanted to make a "pledge" to Lewis. Ĭipriano also telephoned shows that wouldn't take calls while on air.
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In 1992, his prank calling expanded to live news series he faked as a witness of an earthquake that took place in Landers, California, when calling to CNN. He then made prank calls to other interview television shows such as those of Phil Donahue and CNN's Sonya Freedman in the early 1990s. Ĭipriano's national live television airing prank call career began with talk shows his first call was in 1989, when he telephoned to Larry King's talk show Larry King Live. Howard Stern is the person referenced in all of Cipriano's last comments in each of the prank calls, and the Captain Janks alter ego has become a recurring character on Stern's show. Cipriano began his prank calling career in 1989, when he telephoned local Philadelphia television shows and sent tapes of his calls to The Howard Stern Show.

"How many times must they fall for the same prank? They never learn, and when they screw up and put a prank caller on the air, they cry 'foul.' How about if the viewers start asking, 'How could CNN let that happen as much as it does? Don't they check their sources?' My pranks are never about the story itself, just the organization that is covering the story."Ĭipriano was inspired to do prank calls from hearing tapes of the Tube Bar prank calls. He attributed his actions to addiction to his prescription painkillers, and took urinalysis tests during his probation. O'Neill to eight years of probation, and he was required to pay $5,926 for the businesses he scammed. He was sentenced by Montgomery County Court judge Steven T. On February 8, 2010, Cipriano pled guilty to charges of theft by deception and deceptive business practices these charges were a result of fifteen cases in thirteen different food and entertainment businesses in the counties of Montgomery, Chester, Berks, Lehigh and Bucks from October 2006 to April 2009, where he deposited from contracts to make appearances at the places but never showed up. On a May 19, 2014, episode of The Howard Stern Show, Cipriano revealed that he was gay.
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As of 2014, he is a truck driver who resides in North Wales, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1999, he revealed he was working "for a company that manufactures toilet seats and other plastics." In 19, it was reported he was working at a gas station. In a 1996 interview, Cipriano claimed to have lost his former shipping clerk position at a medical laboratory not long ago. The name for his alter ego Captain Janks derived from the name of the real-life army captain of the same name. All of Janks' calls reference Howard Stern and his radio series, and the Captain Janks alter ego has become a recurring character on the show.Ĭipriano served in the army from 1985 to 1988.
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1 for television- and radio-show screeners." Janks and The Washington Post have described the calls as commentary on the lack of source verification done in news outlets. He has been labeled by The Washington Post as the "nemesis of news outlets," "the news media's greatest crank caller," and by the Philadelphia City Paper as "public enemy No. Thomas Michael Cipriano (born March 28, 1966), also known as Captain Janks, is an American practical joker most notable for making prank calls to live television shows and news networks since the late 1980s, such as Larry King Live, CNN and ABC News.
