Abe Saffron, the king of Sydney’s vice rackets, had a long friendship with Dudley Doherty, a top spy with the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Doherty used his accountancy skills to draw up a false set of books for Saffron’s racketeering to evade taxation, a criminal offence. They went to brothels together, shared prostitutes and he attended Saffron’s wedding in 1947 at the Great Synagogue in Elizabeth Street followed by a lavish party at Saffron’s private nightclub, the Roosevelt, in Potts Point.
By any stretch of the imagination, it was an astonishing liaison: Abe Saffron, the nightclub and brothel owner known as “The Boss of the Cross” and “Mr Sin”, and Dudley Doherty, the high-flying mole-hunter whose job was to weed out communists and socialists from the labour movement.
They met during World War 2 at the 5th Base Ordnance Depot army base at Moorebank in Sydney’s south-west where Corporal Dudley Doherty was serving the war effort while Private Saffron was using the black market, rationing and coupons to serve himself.
By the time he was demobbed, Saffron had made enough money to open his first nightclub, the Roosevelt, serving cheap cocktails and hiring Frank Sinatra to give it “an American feel”.
As his vice empire grew, Abe Saffron became known as the “Mr Big of Australian crime” who had police commissioners, some judges, barristers, solicitors and the NSW Premier Sir Robert Askin in his pocket.
Although Saffron only served jail time for tax evasion – like Al Capone – his name was linked with extortion, arson, prostitution, bribery, narcotics dealing, insurance fraud and murder.
Now Brisbane writer, Sandra Hogan, has written a page-turning thriller telling the true story of Dudley Doherty’s double life as an anti-communist zealot for ASIO while working for his friend Abe Saffron.
Two award-winning writers – Susan Johnson and Matthew Condon – have endorsed her book. “You will never again think of spies in the same way,” wrote Ms Johnson while Condon, who has written extensively on crime in Queensland [Three Crooked Kings trilogy], wrote this commendation: “A story teeming with clandestine assignations, hidden cameras, gangsters, Soviet defectors and informants, all lurking beneath the dreary predictability of suburban life.”
Dudley Doherty was a true ASIO believer. He saw himself as “a warrior against communism” who was keeping the world safe from the communists of Russia and China. His wife Joan, who also became an ASIO agent, was suspicious of “anyone who was not normal”. This led her to spy on people who adopted “alternative life-styles”. She treated them with suspicion and often contempt.
Abe Saffron had similar views to Doherty. He thought he was a law-abiding, generous, philanthropic citizen whose purpose in life was to help others.
Dudley and Joan Doherty were worshipped by their family, friends and ASIO colleagues while Abe Saffron was a faithful friend to the cream of Sydney “society”. Their powers of self-delusion were remarkable. Most Australians regarded them as “low lifes” who were “lower than a snake’s arse”.
Ms Hogan has told a Cold War story which is terrifying in its truthfulness and accuracy. Learning about Menzies, ASIO and Vladimir Petrov and his wife Evdokia is a refresher course in what the Liberal Party stands for.
With My Little Eye by Sandra Hogan, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 2021
This review was first published in Come the Revolution.
Alex Mitchell is a former State Political Editor of Sydney’s Sun-Herald and a regular Friday contributor to John Menadue’s Pearls & Irritations. His latest book is Murder in Melbourne – The Untold Story of Palestinian exchange student Aiia Maasarwe.
Comments
16 responses to “‘Mr Sin’ aka Abe Saffron had a little mate at ASIO headquarters”
Thank you Alex for this article showing the link between Abe Saffron and an ASIO agent.
As a person who has an ASIO file and who has viewed, this article was of great interest . The main reason I had a file on me was that I was involved in the peace movement against the US war against Indochina and the Indonesian’s illegal and brutal invasion and occupation of East Timor. i was also involved in left wings politics.
I find I have to respectfully disagree with Patrick Donnelly in his assertion that ASIO is not a spy organisation. It is a spy organisation, but for much of its history it has been spying on trade unionists, activists in the peace, social justice, anti racists and those in the many social movements in Australian society. ASIO was failing to keep tabs on organisations and individuals who did represent a security threat to Australia.
i o agree with Patrick when he claims that ASIO is used by those in government to protect and extend their power and when he raises the question about to whom is it accountable.
In 1973 after the Croatian Nazi organisation – Ustashi – had carried out terrorist acts in Melbourne and Sydney, the then AG Lionel Murphy requested information about Ustashi from ASIO. The organisation failed to respond so Murphy ordered the Commonwealth Police to raid its head office in Melbourne – an action that brought howls of protest from conservative politicians.
The fact was that ASIO had kept very few files on Ustashi – a terrorist organisation, but had many files on those Australians in the peace, union and social movements.
This came at a time when young Ustashi members were able to get training within the Australian Army and a number of them were sent to the former Yugoslavia to commit terrorist acts.. It is also no secret that a number of Liberal Party politicians spoke at Ustashi meetings and identified with its aims.
Professor David Horner, who wrote an official history of ASIO, revealed that the ASIO leadership had employed Nazi war criminals because of its obsession in identifying communists in Australian society.because the organisation’ s leaders believed that the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was a subversive organisation. Later the Royal Commission into Intelligence and Security led by Robert Hope decided in its final report in 1977 that the CPA was not a subversive organisation. He also stated that ASIO files were in such disorder it was impossible to write a comprehensive history about it.
Australians have the right to demand that our security organisations are used to genuinely protect our security against terrorists and not spy on Australians who are uing their democratic freedom to make Australia and the world a fairer and safer place. Nor should our security organisations be used as Alexander Downer and John Howard did to spy on a friendly nation – Timor-Leste – with the hope of defauding it from its resources.
Yes, sadly ‘spy’ has overtones of looking covertly at foreign based institutuions. Spying is much easier when part or all of the leadership cadre are in fact part of ASIO or others…. It suggests a lack of knowledge then uncovered by actions.
ASIO will usually these days, be organizing, assiting agents provocateurs. They will as a competent counterspy organization, be controlling the opposition.
These are not ‘our’ organizations. Falling into shortsightedness and following the conditioning of nation states is designed into the system. ‘We’ are the world’s elites. We organize. Others follow and are happy to do so. Wealth is created. Ensuring peace means some communism is essential. Health etc are crucial to slave productivity. Nowadays we have to call them workers…. Mortgages etc., ensure they must work.
Presumably the Ustashi were controlled by another part of the Deep State. Australians understand Australians …. keeping discrete parts of the deep state separate is also part of the Dep state function. Recall that large numbers of German soldiers who were Ukrainian, were sent bak to the Ukraine, in the CCCP, post WWII. Divide and …
The world is both simpler and more complex than ‘The Australian’ tells us!
Nations are not friendly. Nation is a concept. Dogs are friendly, if they are well fed.
The unscrambling of the Portuguese Empire is taking far longer than is acceptable, but it is what it is. Downer did what he had to do. Feeding the oil corporations can be necessary, but greed for royalties is now the Australian way… We are the wealthiest country/island/nation on the planet, but it seems that using ‘our’ reserves is subordinated to using thsoe of our neighbours. Human greed. Our servant corporations have become masters, at least in some areas.
Getting caught is always enbarrassing. Prosecuting and being perceived to be persecuting a decent spy is now merely making the embarrassment worse. We depsperately need a change of government and Labor will do a good job for two admins at least. Turnbull was correct in saying he was dumped because he might have won the election! He still has many miles left in him…
I could go on and suggest changes, but why bother?
I agree with you Patrick that nations are not always friendly – especially when they are led by governments that are under the control of big interests which in the US is the Military & Industrial Complex and in Australia by the oil, coal and gas corporations.
It behoves citizens who value human rights, fairness, social justice and compassion to work to make governments change. Some examples are the international and peace movements against the US war in Indochina, apartheid in South Africa, CIA support for fascism in Chile, the the Indonesian war against East Timor etc.
We still need to stop our government from supporting the Indonesian military while it still commits genocide and human rights abuses against West Papuans, Achehnese and progressive Indonesians.
Was Doherty featured in the ASIO histories? I’d check, but sadly mine inadvertently went into the Lifeline bin. As a PR puff piece, this gets a A+, as a review a D. To take one point, on what basis does Mr Mitchell assert the book’s accuracy in such glowing terms? It does seem like an interesting story though. I’ll have to check it out next time I am in the bookstore, and see what research the author has undertaken (beyond interviewing Doherty’s daughter), at least on the Doherty side. And thanks to Ms Osborn, I’ll listen to the Kanowski interview too.
Didn’t Jamie have a top-gun from Home Affairs arranging expedited visas for various money launderers and junket operators?
Pyramid theory posits that as we examine those who ascend in power, it is obvious that all sides of society get closer and closer together.
ASIO is not a spy organization, it is a extra legal police organization. It tries to identify threats to its masters, who may not be the current political party. It is thereofre a part of a hidden permanent government that seeks to extend its power into every facet of the nation.
It is not known to whom it is actually accountable. The FBI was able to threaten POTUS. ASIO would not be doing its job if it was not also capable of identifying the weaknesses of politicians and public servants and others.
Would it attempt to misuse those ‘files’? Who guards the guardians? The Irish, catholic, Labor and labour movements were a strong threat to Imperial values. Some say they still are. Then the new immigration population pools are also a threat.
The monitoring of vice is a very important part of protecting and extorting the powerful.
What are the current connections? Why are criminal ‘identities’ tolerated and protected? Why is corruption encouraged? It is all about the degree of control and ensuring that the barrel does not completely fill with rotten apples? The police are notorious for protecting Fences, those who buy stoelen property, as they pass information on those who have stolen that property, often with violence.
There is a lot of hypocrisy about human conduct. Celebrating the vices is one means of entrapping others while ensuring that those who enjoy them are immune to coercion.
In 30 years time, people will know that catastrophe is imminent …. and no human actions can prevent it.
Are you sure of your position Patrick? I would have thought that ASIO is embedded within the Coalition and vice versa and ASIOs prime objective was to do the bidding of their “five eyes” masters and keep the Labour Party out of power and the treasury benches in “safe hands”!
ASIO is part of what is now called the “DEEP STATE”. It does not actually answer to the surface institutions. ‘Liberals’, ‘Labor’ etc are just terms. Individuals within those and the rest of the Deep state, answer to their brothers and to the crown, two different masters. 5 Eyes etc are taxpayer funded institutions that exist to ensure those who control capital actually know what is going on.
Before you decry this, it is why we are so much wealthier than China, hitherto anyway. Effectively, we out trade others. Keeping those in ASIO etc busy and skilled and believing, is part of the management of these organizations. Many of those upon whom they spy are actyually part of those who control ASIO. The Liberals etc do not control ASIO. Those who control the Liberals, usually, most of the time, herding cats etc., control ASIO. They have strong and entrenched local representatives, to whom I render my compliments!
Keeping one ‘party’ of ambitious backbiters in power is a means of creating revolt. Why would anyone do that? The Crown, for want of a better word, is extremely skilled and exceptionally civilized. Managing instability that they foment, is one aspect of the elephant, that we as blind, but wiseoutsiders, are describing.
It is not simple. That is for the Betas. They cannot think, but do have great ability to recall their instructions, without constant supervision.
I recommend you study a few different aspects of the Russian Revolution?
That’s interesting Patrick, I have read some of the Russian Revolution but I had never thought of it having application to western democracies. Can you suggest any books in particular. I like your point how the “controllers” every now and then let another party have a go……. to let some steam from the pressure cooker!
This will be a good read. Sue Ellen Kushner, a daughter of the Doherty’s, told her story to Sandra Hogan. She was interviewed by Sara Kanowski on ABC Conversations in February. Fascinating and very funny to hear her describing her family. That is worth listening to.
Thanks. I must catch up!