FBI Files Show Wide "Deep Throat" Investigation

The papers are among 498 pages from the FBI file on Gerard Damiano, who directed the movie and died in October. Released this month following a Freedom of Information Act request by the AP, they are just a glimpse into Damiano's roughly 4,800-page file. More than 1,000 additional pages were withheld under FOIA exemptions and because they duplicated other material; the balance of the file has not yet been reviewed and released.

Many parts of the released files are whited out and the FBI's ultimate targets are unclear, but the seriousness with which the agency treated the investigation is unquestionable.

Authorities have long said the movie was made with mafia money — and the FBI has linked the mob with porn over the years — but the file includes no mention of mob links.

The file includes memos between the FBI's top men — L. Patrick Gray, William Ruckelshaus and Clarence Kelley, successive heads of the agency after J. Edgar Hoover — and field offices so widespread, it seemed nearly all of the country's biggest cities were involved.

While much of the probe centered in New York, where many involved in the film lived, and Miami, where it was largely shot, agents from Honolulu to Detroit were involved.