Abe Saffron and the dance of the flaming arseholes - National Mass Media

The dance of the flaming arseholes was a Venus Room speciality. One that was guaranteed to ‘whip’ a reticent (for business) crowd into a boisterous, drunken, sexual frenzy!

After stripping completely naked ‘in the crowd’, a dancer would then mount a tiny stage and locate a copy of the morning daily broadsheet, “The Sydney Morning Herald,” for purposes other than reading! A section of the newspaper (usually local politics) was then carefully rolled into a long cone, the point of which was inserted in the entertainer’s arse; the broadsheet was then ignited at the other end. The dancer then gyrated wildly and shook her haunches at the raucous crowd covering some with spending embers and flaming fragments of newspaper until it burnt too close for comfort. The trick was to ‘dance’ and ‘flame’ as long as possible. Needless to say this working man’s entertainment was wildly popular with patrons -- I believe a Bondi boy who formed a short liaison with the dancer persuaded her to perform this number on the bar at the Nelson Hotel, Bondi Junction; predictably, it was a flaming success with Bondi patrons as well! But it’s all ancient history today.

Coincidentally, the Sun-Herald, the Sunday version of the SMH, today ran an “exclusive” on the soon to be released book, “Gentle Satan: My Father, Abe Saffron”, by Abe’s son, Alan Saffron -- Abe died in 2006.

The report, which is actually a clumsy attempt to publicise the book, laments the fact that the names of currently serving, high-ranking, NSW police cannot be published for “legal reasons!” How do you expect to promote and sell the book if the names are withheld? Since when is exposing corrupt police and doing the community a service illegal, unless of course the book is a croc of shit?

Perhaps the ‘journalist’ is referring to another incident that unfolded at the Venus Room.

Sydney in the seventies was the capital of organised crime in Australian; every self-respecting hoodlum wanted a piece of the action, including blow-ins from Victoria and Queensland. Sydney police at this stage had a lucrative symbiotic relationship with local crime figures and jealously guarded their MUTUAL enterprises, especially the lucrative drug trade. Any outa-towners that attempted to encroach on local activities would, not surprisingly, end up dead.

One particular Queensland hood by the name of Donny ‘the glove’ Smith, couldn’t take a hint and persisted in his attempts to enter the lucrative Sydney crime economy. Corrupt NSW police were not pleased that an outsider was reducing their profits so they arranged to meet Smith at the Venus Room for 'talks'. As the meeting was with police it was a simple matter to ensure that Smith attended unarmed. However, little did that bumpkin thug know police had arranged for Abe Saffron’s ‘manager,’ Jimmy Anderson, to eliminate Smith during the meeting.

During the course of ‘talks’ an argument erupted and Anderson on cue grabbed a revolver from under the bar and opened up on Smith, shooting him twice in the upper body. The Queensland yokel still hadn’t realised who had sold him out and began screaming for someone (the police) to give him a gun. The smirking expressions on the faces of police finally alerted Smith who then ran for the street. The police and Anderson panicked, as their well-planned murder was becoming a public event! Anderson, who in fact was a ‘dog’ and coward, chased the unarmed Smith into the street and pumped another 2 or 3 rounds into him ensuring he would not survive.

Perhaps it was the very prompt appearance of one Sargent, at the time now COMMISSIONER, KEN MORONEY, who immediately assessed the incident as 'SELF-DEFENCE' that sparked the numerous accusations and rumours regarding Police/Moroney's ‘integrity!’

I need not continue, as this journalistic exercise/demonstration is complete; making an accidental syntactical or grammatical error at this stage would not be welcome.

The question that goes begging in Alan Saffron’s book and in the minds of novice reporters is whether recently retired NSW Police Commissioner, Ken Moroney, had been actively involved with the criminal underworld and crime boss, Abe Saffron?

All it took was a couple of phone calls, Lisa; there’s a wealth of information out there for real journalists. Get down and get dirty if you want REAL NEWS, and steer clear of the packaged ‘information’ masquerading as news today.

Whether your Editor approves or not, publish -- there are a million sites to choose from!

Excerpt from Moroney's retirement address:

"The honour of becoming the commissioner of police is something I could not have imagined as a 19-year-old," he says. "My main ambition was to get through my probation!"

The year was 1965 and the police force was dominated by strong, tough men. Mr Moroney recalls, "These were men who by and large had come out of the Second World War. They had chests full of medals from the war.

They may not have had university qualifications indeed, if anything, they’d graduated from the University of Hard Knocks. I learned an enormous amount from these men, and each of them in their own way probably shaped me to the person that I am today."

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