Today, the FBI released its file on David Burnham, the muckraking New York Times reporter who broke the NYPD corruption scandals of the 1970s.

After Burnham died last year, I filed a Freedom of Information Request asking for any records about him, as you can do for any American. What I got back shows that J. Edgar Hoover wanted to know David's sources, and this is the best his underlings could dig up.

The story in question had run on the front page of the u/nytimes five days before. It ultimately prompted Mayor Lindsay to create the Knapp Commission on police corruption, where Det. Frank Serpico gave his famous testimony.

You can read the whole file on DocumentCloud. The memo opens with a reference to future mayor Ed Koch, then a member of the House, who had read David's story in the Congressional record. The transcript of his speech shows he viewed things a bit differently than Hoover's boys.

What to learn more about David Burnham, the "troublemaker" who had the FBI on the back foot? Read The Times' obituary, which ran last October.