Sydney Noir
Page 31
7 Hall, Disorganized Crime, pp. 207–208
8 Loughnan, Askin, p. 337
9 ‘Askin: The Verdict’, Sun-Herald, p. 14, 28 November 1993
10 Loughnan, Askin, p. 326
11 Saffron, Gentle Satan, pp. 84–85
12 Ibid., p. 99
13 Ibid., p. 101
14 Alfred McCoy, ‘Sport as Modern Mythology’ in Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan eds., Sport – Money, Morality and the Media, UNSW Press, Kensington 1981, p. 56
15 Royal Commission of Inquiry into Off-the-Course Betting in NSW, p. 28
16 Loughnan, Askin, pp. 221–222
17 Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, pp. 76–78
18 Norman Abjorensen, ‘Leadership in the Liberal Party: Bolte, Askin and the Post-War Ascendancy’, thesis ANU, 2004, pp. 291–292 19 Loughnan, Askin, p. 335
20 Ibid., p. 337
21 Ibid., p. 338
22 Ibid, p. 328
23 Nation Review, 6 September 1974
Sources
The previous pages are based on the best information available, but the facts for this period are often uncertain or absent. We have accepted evidence on the basis of ‘on the balance of probabilities’ rather than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’. Insisting on a higher degree of certainty would have made this book unfeasible, and we believe a book like this is necessary for a complete understanding of the history of Sydney.
We would welcome correspondence from readers wishing to correct or add to our account, for future editions of the book. Such correspondence will be treated confidentially unless the reader specifies otherwise. You can contact us through PO Box 177 Potts Point NSW 1335, or at the blog set up at the Sydney Crime Museum for discussion of the matters raised in this book. www.sydneycrimemuseum.com.au
Our major sources are as follows.
THE CANON
We owe a considerable debt to a small number of important books.
Bob Bottom, The Godfather in Australia, Reed, Sydney 1979
Alfred McCoy, Drug Traffic, Harper & Row, Sydney 1980
David Hickie, The Prince and the Premier, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1985
Evan Whitton, Can of Worms II, The Fairfax Library, Broadway 1986
Richard Hall, Disorganized Crime, University of Queensland Press, Brisbane 1986
We have relied on the above authors and have the greatest respect for their work, which at times required moral and even physical courage. Sometimes we respectfully disagree, believing that the passage of the years has affected some of their conclusions. They were working at a time when awareness of organised crime was still developing.
For a while it was reasonable for smart and informed people to believe a lot of what they heard. And wide-eyed youth, too: readers who can remember newspapers may recall the impact of the exposés in publications like the Nation Review and the National Times. This was in a climate in which what might be called the canonical view of Sydney Noir was established – although Hall’s book, as its title suggests, argues with the canon in some important ways. After 1986, almost no new information or interpretations of significance would come to light about corruption during the Golden Years. One of the aims of our book is to review the canonical perspective.
It seems to us that in trying to make sense of things in the heat of battle, as it were, the authors of the canon sometimes attributed too much importance and significance to what they knew. Their knowledge of the underworld, while impressive and on which we still largely depend, was limited and random, known only by accidents such as the occurrence of a murder, the discovery of a meeting, or a few sentences from a source with partial knowledge or a hidden agenda. Based on this, the writers sometimes developed theories for events that seem to us doubtful, even though we still might not know what the real explanations are.
The writers of the 1970s and 1980s were driven by the belief that crime in Australia was far more organised than most people were aware. It was a belief that served them and us well, to a point, although sometimes they over-shot. We can now see, again in retrospect (and claiming no credit for the fact we happen to be writing many years later, when some matters are arguably clearer), that they exaggerated the extent of centralisation and organisation.
In a sense, they, and we, are like the blind men in the Indian parable, who touch different parts of an elephant and then give different accounts of the same creature – none quite accurate, even though there is no doubt of the creature’s existence.
MEMOIR
In contrast to the flood of confessional literature by criminals in the United States, there are only a small number of first person accounts of Sydney Noir by crooks, or indeed by cops. Of the most important three, one is the record of interviews conducted by New South Wales and Queensland Police with Shirley Brifman in 1971. The second is the unreliable George Freeman: An Autobiography (1988), and the third is the memoir entitled Chow Hayes – Gunman, as told to David Hickie (1990).
Other memoirs of particular if selective value are Geoffrey Reading’s High Climbers (1989), Philip Arantz’s A Collusion of Powers (1993), Bill Jenkings’ As Crime Goes By (1992), and Bernard Delaney’s Narc! (1979).
Although written as a novel and set largely in the decade before the Golden Years, Lew Wright’s 1967 Cards, Dice and Pennies contains a uniquely detailed personal observation of the Noir world.
BIOGRAPHIES
The canonical view of the period has been fleshed out by a crop of books that have appeared over the last decade or so. Prominent among these are Tony Reeves’ biographies of Lennie McPherson, Abe Saffron, and George Freeman. Reeves’ books are detailed and fascinating, but largely undocumented.
It is notable that in a period when it was almost impossible to have been a major Australian politician and not have one’s life written up, no biography has ever been published of Robert Askin.
OFFICIAL RECORDS
These are surprisingly thin, either non-existent or unavailable. The NSW Police did not even have an intelligence unit during the years covered by this book, and many of the police who did know what was going on had their reasons for not writing much down. The main official records are the Brifman interviews already noted, police annual reports, and files of trials and coronial inquests.
NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
These are often extremely useful where the facts are concerned, and completely unreliable when they offer hypotheses and explanations, which were usually prompted by police agendas.
In Sydney during the Golden Years, four newspapers had the capacity to influence public opinion – and police careers. These were the daily broadsheet the Sydney Morning Herald , and the tabloids The Sun, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mirror. The tabloids all had Sunday counterparts.
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sun were owned by the Fairfax family, the Telegraph by Sir Frank Packer’s Australian Consolidated Press, and the Mirror by Rupert Murdoch. In 1972 Packer sold the Telegraph to Murdoch. The tabloids specialised in crime: they were the house journals of Sydney Noir.
INTERVIEWS
Interviews with people who were there, like Elizabeth Burton, ‘Margaret Smith’, and others who have generously given of their time, were extremely helpful but rare. People who were involved in Sydney Noir remain reluctant to talk about it, especially on the record, even though it all happened so long ago. In some cases, they say this is because drugs have given the underworld such a bad name.
Reluctance to talk is hardly new, and explains why authors have had to rely so much on anonymous sources. But it also means the basis for claims of total corruption remains weak.
ACADEMIC STUDIES
Two theses of considerable significance to our project are those by Lisa Oldmeadow on R&R, and Paul Loughnan on Robert Askin. We are grateful to both authors for their work.
Bibliography
BOOKS
Arantz, Philip, A Collusion of Powers, self-published, Dunedoo 1993
Bishop, Steve, The Most Dangerous Detective: The Outrageous Gl
en Patrick Hallahan, self-published, kindle 2nd edition, October 2015
Bottom, Bob, The Godfather in Australia, Reed, Terrey Hills 1979
Bottom, Bob, Without Fear or Favour, Sun Books, South Melbourne 1984
Brawley, Sean, Beating the Odds: Thirty Years of the Totalizator Agency Board of NSW, Focus Publishing, Double Bay 1995
Cashman, Richard, and McKernan, Michael, eds., Sport: Money, Morality and the Media, UNSW Press, Kensington 1981
Condon, Matthew, Three Crooked Kings, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia 2013
Dalton, Robin, Aunts Up the Cross, Viking, Ringwood 1998
Delaney, Bernard: Narc!: Inside the Australian Bureau of Narcotics, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1979
Dickie, Phil, The Road to Fitzgerald and Beyond, Queensland University Press, St Lucia 1988
Dugan, Darcy, with Tatlow, Michael, Bloodhouse, HarperCollins, Sydney 2012
Ellis, Rennie and Stacey, Wesley, Kings Cross Sydney, Thomas Nelson (Australia) Ltd, Sydney and Melbourne 1971
Frances, Raelene, Selling Sex: A Hidden History of Prostitution, UNSW Press, Kensington 2007
Freeman, George, George Freeman: An Autobiography , self-published, Miranda 1988
Grabosky, Peter, Sydney in Ferment: Crime, Dissent and Official Reaction 1788 to 1973, ANU Press, Canberra 1977
Hall, Richard, Disorganized Crime, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia 1986
Hickie, David, Chow Hayes – Gunman, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde 1990
Hickie, David, The Prince and the Premier, Angus & Robertson, North Ryde 1985
Horne, Donald, Time of Hope, Angus & Robertson, Sydney 1980
Jenkings, Bill, As Crime Goes By: The Life and Times of ‘Bondi’ Bill Jenkings, with Norm Lipson and Tony Barnao, Ironbark Press, Randwick 1992
Jiggens, John, The Sydney Connection: Nugan Hand, Murray Riley and the Murder of Donald MacKay, Network to Investigate the Mackay Murder, Hill End Queensland 2004
Joffe, Edward, Hancock’s Last Stand: The Series that Never Was, Book Guild Publishing Ltd, London 1998
Johnston, George, A Cartload of Clay, Collins, London 1971
Kwitny, Jonathan, The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA, W.W. Norton & Company, New York 1987
McCoy, Alfred W, Drug Traffic: Narcotics and Organised Crime in Australia, Harper & Row Publishers, Sydney 1980
McCoy, Alfred W., The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade, 2nd revised edition, Lawrence Hill Books, Chicago 2003
McNab, Duncan, The Usual Suspect: The Life of Abe Saffron, Pan Macmillan, Sydney 2005
Morton, James and Lobez, Susanna, Dangerous To Know, Melbourne University Press, Carlton 2009
Neville, Richard, Hippie Hippie Shake, William Heinemann, Melbourne 1995
Nowra, Louis, Kings Cross: A Biography, UNSW Press, Kensington 2013
Paton, Clyde, I Was a Prison Parson, Tempo Books, Dee Why West 1974
Perkins, Kevin, The Gambling Man, Polynesian Press, Kingdom of Tonga 1990
Perkins, Roberta, Working Girls: Prostitutes, their Life and Social Control, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra 1991
Reading, Geoffrey, High Climbers, John Ferguson Pty Ltd, Surry Hills 1989
Rees, Peter, Killing Juanita, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest 2005
Reeves, Tony, The Real George Freeman, Michael Joseph, Camberwell 2011
Reeves, Tony, Mr Big: Lennie McPherson and His Life of Crime, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest 2005
Reeves, Tony, Mr Sin: The Abe Saffron Dossier, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest 2007
Saffron, Alan, Gentle Satan, Michael Jospeh, Camberwell 2008
Shand, Adam, King of Thieves, Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest 2010
Shields, John (ed.), All Our Labours: Oral Histories of Working Life in Twentieth Century Sydney, UNSW Press, Kensington 1992
Sullivan, Barbara, The Politics of Sex: Prostitution and Pornography in Australia since 1945, Cambridge University Press, 1997
Wainer, Bertram, It Isn’t Nice, Alpha Books, Sydney 1972
Whitaker, Anne-Maree, Pictorial History Kings Cross, Kingsclear Books, Alexandria 2012
Whitton, Evan, Can of Worms II, Fairfax Library, Broadway 2007
Winter, Marcel, Prostitution in Australia, Purtaboi, Sydney 1976
Wright, Lew, Cards, Dice and Pennies, Horwitz Publications, Sydney 1967
Writer, Larry, Bumper: The Life and Times of Frank ‘Bumper’ Farrell, Hachette Australia, Sydney 2011
THESES
Abjorensen, Norman, ‘Leadership in the Liberal Party: Bolte, Askin and the Post-War Ascendancy’, Australian National University, 2004
Loughnan, Paul, ‘A History of the Askin Government 1965–1975’, University of New England, Armidale 2016 (available from the university as an ebook)
Oldmeadow, Lisa, ‘Six Days to Live: American Servicemen in Australia on Rest and Recreation leave during the Vietnam War’, University of Sydney, 2003
DOCUMENTS
Brifman transcript: contained in ‘Criminal History of A.G. Saffron and Records of Police interviews 1977–78’ (Title of documents tabled in South Australian Parliament April 1978)
Final report of the Royal Commision into the NSW Police Service 1995–97, vol. 1, Sydney 1997
NSW Coroner’s Court files
67/957: Raymond Patrick O’Connor
68/305: Barry Leonard Flock
68/324: Anne Borg
200/70: Donald George Fergusson
NSW Supreme Court Registry
Regina vs. Attard & Mifsud
Regina vs. Gary Neil Porth
NSW Police Department, Annual Reports
Report and transcripts of the Royal Commission of Inquiry in respect of certain matters relating to allegations of organised crime in clubs, Sydney 1974
Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Alleged Telephone Interceptions, Canberra 1986
Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Off-the-course Betting in NSW, Sydney 1963
NEWSPAPERS, JOURNALS
Australian Police Journal
Daily Telegraph
The Guardian
Mirror
Nation Review
National Times
Oz
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday Mirror
Tharunka
WEBSITES
https://www.scribd.com/doc/24405735/17/John-Wesley-Egan-and-the-CIA%E2%80%99s-Secret-War
http://netk.net.au/Whitton/Worms28.asp
INTERVIEWS
Karl Bonnette, April 2010
Elizabeth Burton, June 2015
Richard Dixon, March 2015
Michael Fitzjames, June 2015
Dale Richards, April 2015
‘Margaret Smith’, June 2015
Bill Taylor, May 2015
Various anonymous interviews
Acknowledgments
Our thanks to the journalists and authors who revealed so many of the facts in what follows, at a time when this had the power to educate and change. In particular we thank the authors of the canon of books published between 1979 and 1986: Bob Bottom, Al McCoy, David Hickie, Evan Whitton and the late Dick Hall. We are also grateful to those who spoke to us for this book, both on and off the record. Thanks to our agent Margaret Connolly and publisher Phillipa McGuinness.
Michael Duffy thanks Bob Bottom, Gavin Harris, Paul Loughnan, Geoff Schuberg, Gary Sturgess and Max Suich, for discussions about Sydney Noir that in some cases have occurred over many years.
Nick Hordern thanks Michael Fitzjames, Ward O’Neill, Dale Richards, ‘Margaret Smith’ and Gavin Souter for their recollections and Alexandra Hordern for the legwork.
None of these generous individuals necessarily agrees with the conclusions of this book.
Index
Note: This index does not contain pseudonyms, titles or nicknames unless they are necessary for purposes of identification. PS refers to images in the picture section.
ABC TV
This Day Tonight xii, 217
Abeles, Peter 283
Abjorensen, Norman 284
abortion
and Allan 182–83
and Askin 99
and Wainer 147–48, 182–83
Abrahams, Lionel 231
Ainsworth 233
alcohol 213
Askin legislation 99–100
consumption 66–68
Galea, Perce and Maxwell Royal Commission 62
sly grog 36, 106
Aldridge, Gordon 101
Allan, Norman
and abortion 182–83
and Arantz 234–41
and Brifman, Shirley 159
career 80–85
and computerisation 203
and Devine 206
and Farrell 81
and Hickie article x, 274; The Prince and the Premier 275
and Kelly, Ray 4
and McPherson 90–91
and Mellish 124–26
on permissive society 80
and police recordkeeping 172
and retirement 257
and Thommo’s Two-up school 60
and Vietnam Moratorium 198
Amaya, Inez 109, 162
Anderson, Frederick ‘Fred’ 153
and Double Bay Crime Summits 264
and McPherson 10, 153
and Whisky a Go Go 163–64
Anderson, Jim 66
Commonwealth Police informant 263
and Latin Quarter 64
and Rex Hotel 23
and Smith, Donald 195–96
Andrews, Reginald 14
Annandale
and Freeman 40
and Saffron, Abraham 36
Arantz, Philip
and computerisation 171–73
dismissed from Police, appeals 256–57
leaks 234–41
and police culture 201–204
on McNeill 232
and Mellish 124–26
and Reilly 97–98
and Walker, Robert 13
Armed Hold-up Squad 138, 139, 149, 163, 232
Armstrong, Alexander 127
Armstrong, John 75
Askin, Mollie (b. Underhill) 30
and Comalco 197
and drugs 80
Askin, Robert (Robin) PS