Scratch the surface of Balmain’s local history and you find Balmain and Rozelle are fascinating suburbs. This story is one of the most interesting.
Abraham ‘Abe’ Gilbert Saffron was an Australian hotelier, nightclub owner and property developer who became one of the major figures associated with organised crime in Australia in the latter half of the 20th century.
The media referred to him as ‘Mr Sin’.
He died 20 years ago this week, aged 86.
Born in Annandale and educated at Leichhardt High alongside (“Balmain boys don’t cry”) Neville Wran, Abe Saffron purchased the West End Hotel, now the Balmain Hotel, in Mullens Street in January 1946. He had just been demobbed from the army after the war.
The hotel was the base for his early expansion into the Sydney pub and nightlife scene during the 1940s, before later developments like the infamous Roosevelt Club at Kings Cross, followed by Les Girls and The Pink Pussycat strip club, to name a few.
He hid his growing involvement in illegal gambling and black-market activities by presenting himself as a simple retail merchant with a partial interest in his father’s Annandale clothing store.
Just two months after buying the Balmain venue, he transferred the licence, valued at about £5,300, to his brother, Philip Saffron.
The venue was a major watering hole for shipbuilders, boilermakers and the notorious Painters and Dockers’ Union. This heavy-drinking, industrial demographic generated massive cash flow, which Saffron routinely used across his empire to launder funds and expand into illegal nightclubs and bookmaking.
The West End Hotel allowed him to purchase alcohol, which was delivered through the front door and immediately dispatched out the back door to his other illegal venues, primarily gambling and prostitution.
For several decades, members of government, the judiciary and the media made repeated allegations that Saffron was involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including alcohol sales, dealing in stolen goods, illegal gambling, prostitution, drug dealing, bribery and extortion.
He was charged with a range of offences including “scandalous conduct”, possession of an unlicensed firearm and possession of stolen goods, but his only major conviction was for federal tax evasion in 1987. He spent 17 months in jail.
Along the way he was blamed for the unsolved disappearance and suspected murder of Juanita Nielsen and the Luna Park Ghost Train fire, which claimed seven lives.
One of many colourful characters who achieved fame while living or working in Balmain and Rozelle.
Local history is another reminder that there’s always more to discover about the community around us.
