David Burnham

David Bright Burnham (January 24, 1933 – October 1, 2024) was an American investigative journalist who worked for The New York Times. His work investigating corruption in the New York Police Department, in which a key source was detective Frank Serpico, served as a basis for the 1973 film Serpico.

Background Burnham was born in Boston on January 24, 1933, and raised in New Canaan, Connecticut. He served in the U.S. Army in the 11th Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division. He was also known for writing a series of articles about labor union activist Karen Silkwood, who mysteriously died while en route to meet Burnham to share evidence that the nuclear facility where she worked knew that its workers were exposed to unhealthy levels of plutonium.

Personal life and death Burnham and his first wife, writer Sophy Doub, had two children and later divorced. 1972: Newspaper Reporters Association of New York City Schaefer Gold Typewriter Award for Public Service 1987: Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship 1990: Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Best Book: A Law Unto Itself: Power, Politics, and the IRS 1992: Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship in Bellagio, Italy 2006: National Freedom of Information Act Hall of Fame Inductee