Glossary entry
Walk-talk
WAWK-tawk
Definition
WAWK-tawk
A conversation held while walking outdoors, on the assumption that any fixed location is under electronic surveillance.
“After the Kenilworth transcripts became public in 1969 every boss in the country conducted his serious business on foot.”
The practice is a direct response to the microphone. Once it was established that a social club, an office or a kitchen could be wired, the only reliably private place was the open air, chosen at random and reached on foot.
It was sound reasoning that failed anyway. Anthony Corallo took the precaution seriously and was convicted on two years of recordings made in his own car, because the one place he had not thought to treat as hostile was the space between the meetings.