[...phone fishin...]
Aha! That's what I'm after. I'm skeptical about the electrical power in those old phones. If you could get them near water... how dangerous could they be?
We often think of a severe burn, or cooking of the flesh, along the path of the current. This happens at high voltages, as in the electric chair.
But accidental "electrocution" often happens from household voltages and quite low currents which interfere just for an instant with the electrical rhythm of the heart and cause it to stop or go whacky. (Is this what is call defribrilation?)