David Burnham, a former New York Times investigative reporter whose work uncovering corruption in the New York Police Department circa the 1970s inspired the twice Oscar-nominated Serpico, died earlier this week at 91.
Per the Times, he died after a choking incident at dinner, at his home in Spruce Head, Maine, which caused his heart to stop.
Detective Frank Serpico, an undercover officer who had been trying to get the police department to crack down on the graft, worked as Burnham’s chief source, becoming the eventual subject of the 1973 crime thriller in which Al Pacino played him.
FRANK SERPICO, Frank Serpico, 2017. ©Sundance Selects/courtesy Everett Collection
Commemorating the reporter, Serpico wrote on social media, “Couldn’t have done it without you David,” alongside a thumbs up and praying emoji.
Burnham was hired by the Times in 1967 after telling the late metropolitan editor Arthur Gelb that the news organization’s coverage of law enforcement was “not very smart.” A year after his hiring, he garnered a major scoop about how officers on overnight shifts routinely slept in their patrol cars. While an assistant editor initially dismissed the reportage, Burnham took time to piece together the article on his own time, eventually scoring front page publication.
Burnham’s magnum opus, however, was his three-part exposé series that launched April 25, 1970, which resulted in public hearings and the ruined reputation of top officials, including then-mayor John Lindsay. The investigative reports outlined how officers extorted millions of dollars annually from businesses, drug dealers and gamblers amid citywide coverups.
His work also launched the Knapp commission, the investigative commission that Lindsay was pressured to form led by lawyer Whitman Knapp. Serpico was a star witness, which led to the indictment of dozens of police officers and a few convictions.
While Serpico was adapted from the nonfiction book by Peter Maas, the detective had initially asked Burnham to collaborate on a book with him. Burnham declined.
Later in his career, Burnham transferred to the paper’s Washington bureau, where his work consisted of investigating safety hazards at nuclear power plants, leading him to become the go-to journalist for industry whistleblowers.
Another major story of Burnham’s concerned Karen Silkwood, an Oklahoma nuclear facility worker, whose suspicious death after being contaminated by plutonium became the subject of the 1983 Meryl Streep film Silkwood. Co-written by Nora Ephron, the drama racked up five Academy Award nominations and also starred Kurt Russell and Cher. At the time, Burnham told Ephron she was not allowed to use his name in the film.
Explaining his reasoning in a 1984 essay for the Times, he wrote, “To be a character in a historical event which has been reinterpeted by Hollywood for its own dramatic purposes is an irritating and frustrating experience.”
