Sydney Noir
Page 30
33 Winter, 1976 pp. 96–109 cited in Perkins, Working Girls, p. 134
34 ‘Rents Doubled in Vice Area as Houses Close’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 4, 31 May 1968
35 Wright, Cards, Dice and Pennies, pp. 94–95
36 Reeves, Real Freeman, pp. 22–23
37 Shand, King of Thieves
38 Royal Commission of Inquiry in respect of certain matters relating to allegations of organised crime in clubs (1973–74), (‘Moffitt Royal Commission’), transcript p. 925
39 Clyde Paton, I Was a Prison Parson, Tempo Books, Dee Why West 1974
40 Another example of how Brifman, like many others, was still toggling between the old imperial and the new decimal currency, five years after the latter had been introduced.
41 Brifman transcript, Q43
42 Brifman transcript, Q71
43 ‘M.L.C. Denies Discussion on Killing Question’; Sydney Morning Herald, p. 8, 30 August 1968
44 Alan Saffron, Gentle Satan, p. 47
45 McNab, The Usual Suspect, p. 57
46 For example, in Rae Frances’ Selling Sex, p. 259
47 Keillor’s trial file, throughout
48 ‘Prisoners Held in Borg Case Inquiry’, no byline, the Sydney Morning Herald, p. 9, 1 October 1968
49 ‘Sydney Gambling Schools ‘Fold’ in Police Blitz; Sydney Morning Herald, p. 19, 9 July 1967
50 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 41
51 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 145
52 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 42
53 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 146
54 Perkins in Shields, All Our Labours, p. 181
55 Barbara Sullivan, The Politics of Sex: Prostitution and Pornography in Australia Since 1945, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997, pp. 110–111. Sullivan gives a comprehensive overview of the Askin government’s attempts to quash prostitution.
56 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 196
57 ‘Arson – 7th House Burns in Vice War’, no byline, The Sun, 5 December 1968
58 ‘MLA calls for Vice Inquiry’, no byline, Sun-Herald, p. 40, 2 June 1968
59 Brifman transcript, Q176, 177
60 Ibid., Q148, 150, 151
61 McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 186–187
62 Ibid., p. 198
63 Lisa Oldmeadow, ‘Six Days to Live: American Servicemen in Australia on Rest and Recreation Leave During the Vietnam War’, thesis for the University of Sydney, 2003 p. 69
64 Perkins, Working Girls, p. 137
65 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 44
66 Perkins, Working Girls, p. 131
67 Richard Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 44
68 ‘$800 fine on US soldier on drug charge’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 4, 12 December 1968
1969 • THE VENUS OF THE REEF
1 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 180
2 Brifman transcript, Q97
3 ‘$5000 Call-Girl – Threats by Rich Clients’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, 15 June 1969
4 Perkins, Working Girls, pp. 357–358
5 ‘Ex-Sergeant Sobs Giving Evidence’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 8, 22 August 1969; ‘Ex-sergeant’s dismissal appeal fails’; no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 10, 30 August 1969
6 Brifman transcript, Q72
7 Ibid., Q75, 77
8 Ibid., Q109
9 Reeves, Freeman, pp. 42–43
10 Bertram Wainer, It Isn’t Nice, Alpha Books, Sydney 1972, p. 104
11 Ibid., p. 107
12 Evan Whitton, Can of Worms II, Fairfax Library, Broadway 2007, p. 16
13 Australian Crime Intelligence Centre memorandum on Abraham Gilbert Saffron; No. OC 76/1 of 17 May 1976
14 ‘“Molotov cocktail” left in tavern’, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 5, June 23 1969
15 McNab, The Usual Suspect, p 71
16 Kwitny, Crimes, p. 64
17 Stannard, ‘The Three-fingered Banker’
18 Oldmeadow, ‘Six Days to Live’, p. 56
19 Michael Fitzjames interview with author, 19 June 2015
20 Ellis and Stacey, Kings Cross Sydney, p. 36
21 Ibid.
22 Quoted in Oldmeadow, ‘Six days to Live’, p. 48
23 ‘R and R Centre’, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 4, 3 July 1969
24 Brifman, transcript, Q97
25 Ibid., Q351
26 Ibid., Q352
27 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 2667
28 Brifman transcript, Q352
29 Reeves, Mr Big, p. 170
30 Ibid., p. 170
31 Freeman, George Freeman, p. 137
32 Brifman transcript, Q109
33 Ibid., Q77
34 Ibid., Q327, 328
35 ‘Sydney’s Richest Call-Girl’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, 8 August June 1969, pp. 1–2, Brifman gave her own account of the party in Q84
36 Brifman transcript, Q84
37 ‘Threats by Rich Clients’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, 15 June 1969
38 ‘$200 Paid for Strip’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, 13 July 1969
39 Brifman transcript, Q36
40 ‘Rich Lovers Dumped – Gorgeous Playgirl Vanishes’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, 29 June 1969
41 Brifman transcript, Q333
42 Whisky staff member interview with author, August 2015
43 Ibid.
44 Bernard Delaney, Narc!: Inside the Australian Bureau of Narcotics, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1979, p. 15
45 ‘Two in US Forces gaoled on drug counts’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 December 1969, p. 4
46 Michael Fitzjames interview with author, 19 June 2015
47 ‘Marianne to have a complete rest’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 July 1969, p. 6
48 On 8 July 1969
49 Brifman transcript, Q97
50 Ibid., Q234
51 Ibid., Q236
52 Ibid., Q111
53 Ibid., Q285
54 Darcy Dugan with Michael Tatlow, Bloodhouse, HarperCollins, Sydney 2012 55 Sydney Morning Herald , 18 May 1972
56 Dugan, Bloodhouse, pp. 311–336
57 Frances, Selling Sex, p. 261
58 Ibid., p. 260
59 Perkins, Working Girls, p. 182
60 Moffitt Royal Commission transcript p. 1002
61 Reeves, Mr Big, pp. 113–114
62 Grabosky, Sydney in Ferment, pp. 30, 33
63 Ibid., p. 143
64 Police Department Annual Report 1966, p. 24
65 Police Department Annual Report 1969, p. 8
66 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 134
67 ‘Oz Guide to the Sydney Underworld’ in Oz 1965
68 Delaney, Narc!, p. 3
69 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 43
70 In Ian Fleming’s 1966 short story ‘The Living Daylights’, Bond takes Tuinal before shooting a KGB sniper. From Wikipedia
71 Letter to the Editor from Dick Pollitt, Mosman, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 15, 20 September 2016
72 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 123
73 In targeting women, the manufacturers of phenacetin were replicating the demographics of an earlier drug epidemic; the widespread abuse of opium-based ‘patent’ medicines, available over-the-counter, in the second half of the 19th century. ‘Both the anecdotal and statistical evidence indicates that most American, British, and Australian addicts were middle-class women’; Alfred McCoy, The Politics of Heroin, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago 2003, p. 8.
74 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 43
75 http://www.news.com.au/national/cancer-council-nsw-bex-powder-killed-more-than-pain/story-fncynjr2-1227041736061
76 Brifman transcript, Q160
1970 • RAKING IT IN
1 Wood Royal Commission vol. 1, p. 67
2 Ibid., p. 47
3 Ibid., p. 51
4 Ibid., p 53
5 Delaney, Narc!, p. 137
6 The police found out what had happened, traced the car and retrieved ‘their’ money. Writer, Bumper, p.
279.
7 Delaney, Narc!, p. 12
8 Ibid., p. 14
9 The last person to speak to Fergusson, just before he shot himself in CIB headquarters, was Detective Sergeant Frank Charlton, who continually crops up in this narrative. To our minds this is less an indication of suspicious circumstances than another demonstration of how the Noir world was a very small one.
10 NSW Coroner’s Court file: Inquest into the death of Donald Fergusson
11 For example: ‘We have also been told by a senior officer of the Commonwealth Police Force that Leonard Arthur McPherson told him during a personal interview that Nielsen had been murdered and that “the person responsible for it was the same person who killed Superintendent Don Fergusson”. The Commonwealth policeman confirmed to me that this was a direct reference to former Detective-Sergeant Fred Krahe …’ Tony Reeves quoted in Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 283; see also Evan Whitton at http://justinianarchive.com/1002-article
12 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 293
13 Reeves, George Freeman, p. 18
14 ‘CIB Chief Killed Himself’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 April 1970
15 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 293
16 Whitton, Can of Worms II, p. 16
17 Wainer, It Isn’t Nice, p. 113
18 The account of the episode comes from ‘White Slave Racket – Sydney Girls Sold’, no byline, Sunday Mirror, pp. 1–2, 1 March 1970
19 Brifman transcript, Q70
20 Ibid., Q 264, 180
21 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 226
22 Canberra Times, 10 March 1970
23 James Morton and Susanna Lobez, Dangerous To Know, Melbourne University Press, Carlton 2009
24 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 2755
25 The date of March comes from the charges against Sonny Brifman: ‘Man, Wife, “Alleged Corruption of Police”’, no byline, Canberra Times, p. 9, 18 March 1972; see also Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 226
26 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 2755 forward
27 Brifman transcript, Q111
28 Ibid., Q152
29 Ibid., Q180
30 Ibid., Q154
31 Ibid., Q111
32 The Venus Room: Reeves, Mr Sin, p. 76. The teenage runaway: Roberta Perkins, Working Girls, p. 325. Teenage boys: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-12/bobby-veen-one-of-australias-longest-serving-prisoner/7115350
33 Brifman transcript, Q111
34 Ibid., Q98
35 Ibid., Q84
36 Ibid., Q113
37 Mary Anne Brifman quoted in Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 2780
38 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 226
39 Delaney, Narc!, p. v
40 Ibid., pp. 54–71
41 Ibid., pp. 30–31
42 Ibid., pp. 21–29
43 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 203
44 ‘Raid on Club – 64 fined’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 10, 19 May 1970
45 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 203
46 Ibid., p. 203
47 Hickie, The Prince and The Premier, p. 42
48 Author’s interview with family member of Harry Paizis, 2016
49 McNab, The Usual Suspect, p. 101
50 Ibid., p. 115
51 Ibid., p. 115
52 ‘Court Told Dead Man a Criminal’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 8, 24 June 1970
53 Sydney Morning Herald, 10 June 1970
54 Police Department Annual Report 1969, p. 17
55 Loughnan, Askin, p. 245
56 Police Department Annual Report 1970, p. 18
57 Ibid.
58 Loughnan, Askin, pp. 245–253
59 Shand, King of Thieves, p. 117
60 Reeves, Mr Big, p. 118
61 Ibid., p. 142 but not specific about date
62 Ibid., p. 152; Moffitt transcript pp. 995–6
63 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 44
64 Ellis and Stacey, Kings Cross Sydney, p. 66
65 Dale Richards interview with author 15 April 2015
66 Michael Fitzjames interview with author 19 June 2015
67 Burton interview with authors 20 June 2015
68 Police Annual Report 1970, p. 10
69 Arantz, Collusion, p. 64
70 Brifman transcript, Q349
71 Mary Anne Brifman quoted in Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 3004
72 Ibid., loc. 2767
73 James Cunningham, ‘ ’Loo “Queen” dies’, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 18, 25 November 1970
74 Jenkings, As Crime Goes By, p. 135
75 Ellis and Stacey, Kings Cross Sydney, p. 36
76 Our thanks to Louis Nowra’s fine book, Kings Cross: A Biography, UNSW Press, Kensington 2013, pp. 485–6 for alerting us to this tragic incident
77 Ellis and Stacey, Kings Cross Sydney, p. 56
78 The account of the murder, investigation and trial comes from Regina vs. Gary Neil Porth, Central Criminal Court of NSW, May 1971
79 A day later, another record of interview with Smith would be attested by Detective Sergeant ‘Crest’, who had, according to Shirley Brifman, been receiving $100 a week from her until six months earlier.
80 Frances, Selling Sex, p. 2
81 ‘Soldier Gaoled for Killing Prostitute’, no byline, Sydney Morning Herald, p. 11, 15 May 1971
1971 • READING PADDY’S BOOK
1 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 234
2 Australian Dictionary of Biography, website: Askin, Sir Robert William
3 Evan Whitton, Can of Worms II, p. 292
4 Brifman transcript, Q352
5 Freeman, George Freeman, p. 142
6 Brifman transcript, Q86
7 Ibid., Q86
8 Ibid., Q362
9 Transcript of trial of Reg Varley 1973, pp. 1385–6, 1404–8, sentencing comments
10 Bob Bottom, Without Fear or Favour, Sun Books, South Melbourne 1984, p. 27
11 ‘Crims Grab Clubs’, Sunday Telegraph, 25 July 1971
12 McCoy, Drug Traffic, pp. 215–216
13 ‘Crims Grab Clubs’, Sunday Telegraph, 25 July 1971
14 Moffitt transcript, p. 777
15 ‘The Tivoli is Alive and Well: Sydney’s Booming Club Scene’ by Kevin Kemp, National Times, 22 May 1972
16 Moffitt Report, p. 77
17 Arantz, Collusion, p. 25
18 Moffitt Report, p. 5
19 Police Department Annual Report 1970, pp. 9, 24
20 Brifman transcript, Q86
21 Ibid., Q84
22 Jenkings, As Crime Goes By, pp. 155–156
23 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, loc. 149
24 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, pp. 252, 254
25 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective loc. 3157; Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 253
26 Brifman transcript, Q334
27 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, p. 256
28 Morton and Lobez, Gangland Sydney, Ch. 8
29 Duncan McNab, Waterfront: Graft, Corruption and Violence – Australia’s Crime Frontier from 1788 to Now, Hachette Australia, Sydney 2015, Ch. 29
30 ‘Opioid overdose mortality rate among people aged 15–44 years in Australia 1965– 1997, deaths per million population’. From a 2005 paper by Dr John Jiggens of the Queensland University of Technology. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/3442/1/3442.pdf
31 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 268
32 Ibid., p. 260, Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 44 and Frances, Selling Sex, p. 260 all give 1966 as the beginning of R&R in Sydney
33 Published in the Annual of the Australian American Association, August 1976 – cited by Oldmeadow, ‘Six Days to Live’, p. 2; Ellis and Stacey, Kings Cross Sydney, p. 29 have ‘225,000 up to June 1971’. If both figures are correct, this would have the rate of R&R arrivals increasing by 30 per cent in the last six months of 1971 – a time when in fact the program was winding down.
34 ‘about 300,000: by dictionaryofsydney.org and the ABC http://www.abc.net.au/archive
s/80days/stories/2012/01/19/3411498.htm; ‘more than 300,000’ Tony Reeves in Mr Sin, p. 99
35 Hall, Disorganized Crime, p. 44
36 Sydney Morning Herald, 7 December 1971
1972 • AN END AND A BEGINNING
1 Reading, High Climbers, pp. 23–24
2 Ibid., p. 10
3 Transcript of trial of Reg Varley in 1973, pp. 1404–5, sentencing comments
4 Reading, High Climbers, p. 64
5 Kwitny, The Crimes of Patriots, p. 64
6 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 284
7 Jenkings, As Crime Goes By, p. 156
8 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, p. 33
9 Ibid., p. 169
10 Condon, Three Crooked Kings, pp. 278–284
11 ‘Daughter’s desperate mission to solve one of Brisbane underworld’s darkest mysteries’, by Matthew Condon, Courier Mail, 13 April 2015
12 ‘Girl, 13, was in brothel’; Canberra Times, p. 9, 27 September 1972
13 Bishop, The Most Dangerous Detective, p. 187
14 Police Department Annual Report 1971, p. 5
15 Police Department Annual Report 1972 (signed April 1973), p. 5
16 Phil Dickie, The Road to Fitzgerald and Beyond, Queensland University Press, St Lucia 1988, p. 27
17 Whitton, Can of Worms II, p. 17
18 Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 1972
19 Jenkings, As Crime Goes By, p. 157
20 Freeman, George Freeman, p. 141
21 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, pp. 283–284
22 Richard Dixon, interview with author, March 2015 23 Moffitt Report, p. 135
24 Moffitt Transcript, p. 1218; Moffitt Report, p. 102 25 Moffitt Report, p. 86; Moffitt Transcript, p. 55–56 26 Moffitt Transcript, p. 69
27 Karl Bonnette interview with author, April 2010
28 NSW Police Department Annual Report 1972, p. 7 29 McCoy, Drug Traffic, p. 314
30 Moffitt Report, p. 24
31 Ibid., p. 79
32 Reading, High Climbers, p. 118
33 Moffitt Report, p. 25
34 Ibid., p. 38
35 Brifman, transcript, Q73
36 Perkins, Working Girls, p. 302
37 Brifman transcript, Q129
38 Ibid., Q260
39 Ibid., Q224
AN OPEN QUESTION: WAS ROBERT ASKIN CORRUPT?
1 David Hickie, National Times, 13 September 1981, ‘Askin: Friend to Organised Crime’, pp. 1, 8
2 Ibid.
3 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, p. 59
4 Ibid., p. 65
5 Ibid, p. 60
6 Loughnan, Askin, pp. 320–322