The Life and Times of Roger Rogerson

Part 1

Part 2

About Abe Saffron

Abraham Gilbert (Abe) Saffron (6 October 1919 - 15 September 2006), was an Australian nightclub owner and property developer who was reputed to have been one of the major figures in Australian organised crime in the latter half of the 20th century.

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 illegal 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 unlicenced firearm and possession of stolen goods, but his only major conviction was for tax evasion.

He gained nationwide notoriety, earning the nicknames "Mr Sin", "a Mr Big of Australian crime" and "the boss of the Cross" (a reference to the Kings Cross red-light district, where he owned numerous businesses).

He was alleged to have been involved in police corruption and bribing politicians. Saffron always vigorously denied such accusations, however, and was renowned for the extent to which he was willing to sue for libel against his accusers.

Saffron was born in Annandale in 1919, of Russian Jewish descent. He was educated at Annandale and Leichhardt primary schools and at the highly prestigious Fort Street High School. Although his mother hoped he would become a doctor, Saffron left school at 15 and began his business career in the family's drapery firm in the late 1930s. He enlisted in the Australian Army on 5 August 1940, and reached the rank of Corporal before being discharged 4 January 1944. Saffron did not serve overseas.

The real king of the Cross

Story by Bridget McManus

BEFORE Bob Trimbole and John Ibrahim, before George Freeman and Terry Clark, there was an Australian underworld figure with a story so dirty and so colourful it could span several Underbelly seasons. The original ''Mr Sin'', Abe Saffron, recently featured on an episode of Nine's Australian Families of Crime and an ABC documentary, Mr Sin, screens this week.

Perhaps his relatively recent surfacing in the current stream of true-crime television specials is because even four years after his death, certain people still aren't talking about the man who ruled Kings Cross from the 1950s.

''Police officers in particular wouldn't talk because they feel the story is still alive,'' says the writer and director of Mr Sin, Hugh Piper. ''I really tried with the NSW police force and I can't help but feel I was fobbed off.''