Abe Saffron and Sydney's corrupt cops - a podcast by The Age and Sydney Morning Herald

Abraham Gilbert Saffron was a successful Sydney businessman who hated his nickname and spent a fortune trying to have it expunged from the record by threatening anyone who used it publicly.

The name was Mr Sin and it was well deserved. He built a vice empire on a triangular business model – the three points were bribery, blackmail and arson.

He organised sex, often with under-age boys and girls, secretly photographing patrons to use against them. 

He paid bribes to police - $750 per club for local police and $5000 a week for senior police and was so brazen he repeatedly visited the bent Deputy Commissioner Bill Allen at headquarters.

Six of Saffron’s many properties caught fire between 1980 and 1982 - all deliberately lit. 

On June 9, 1979, the ghost train at Sydney’s Luna Park was engulfed in flames, killing six children and the father of one of them. It was a property Saffron wanted to own.

The police investigation was a disgrace, not because of incompetence but corruption.

Saffron said he wasn’t involved but he would, wouldn’t he?

 

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