IN ONE EMOTIONAL CALL, CALLER SAID: "WOW, YOU SHOULD SEE WHAT THEY'RE SHOWING ON THE TV, MAN! CAN I HAVE A LARGE WITH SAUSAGE AND PEPPERONI TO GO?"
NEW YORK - Ron Jones, owner of Fox's Pizza in Baldwin, Pennsylvania, said today he will make public the tapes of September 11 pizza telephone orders at his pizza shop. "I've steadfastly refused to release these tapes for six years," Jones said, "because of their grueling content" relating to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. He says he has reconsidered in light of the tapes' "extraordinary historical significance," not to mention a book he is writing based on the tapes that he expects will bring him a "tidy payday."
None of the callers on the tapes had any connection with the World Trade Center; all of them made the calls from Western Pennsylvania. But Jones insists a few of the calls contain "indirect, oblique but implied references" to the terrorist attacks that were occurring that day, and thus "provide a window into the souls of the terrorists."
On one of the calls, a male caller is heard to say, "You should see what they're showing on TV, dude [referring to the World Trade Center attacks]. Wow! Can I have a large with pepperoni and sausage to go?" Jones refers to that call as "spine-tingling." A female caller is heard to ask: "Did you see the TV? I was just in New York last summer, and boy am I glad I'm not there now."
Several callers asked, "Do you deliver?"
Jones predicts the "gut-wrenching calls" will be studied by scholars "for centuries to come." An informal poll shows the public is divided as to whether the tapes should be released. Melissa Lugosi-Bloomberg of Baldwin echoed the majority: "The real question is, why did they record those calls in the first place? And then why did they save them?"
