Saffron Incorporated: The first King of the Cross and fifty years of sex, murder, music and mayhem

by Stuart Coupe

Let's get the story of Abraham Gilbert Saffron down. Just the facts, Your Honour.

Wherever you find entertainers performing in neon-lit pubs and clubs, chances are you will find a wannabe gangster or two hanging around. Selling sex and drugs has always been a way to make a fast buck - and potential customers are more open to temptation in pubs, bars, dance halls and nightclubs.

Abe Saffron figured all this out very quickly. He was a chancer who kickstarted his criminal career SP bookmaking and receiving stolen goods. While he earned himself a quid or two, he wanted much more, and he was ruthless enough to seize any moment to get it ... no matter what he had to do.

Running pubs opened up opportunities for young Abe. By the 1940s, American servicemen on leave from the war were flooding Sydney looking for booze, food, girls, sex and entertainment - and a lot of all of it. And they had cash. Lots of cash.

Saffron was ready to take their money. A wily operator, his rise coincided with the arrival of the nightclub era. He was not the first crime figure to tap into the world of entertainment, and others would emulate him, but he would become one of the most feared and most powerful in Australia. His tentacles stretched around the country and his name dominated news headlines and police briefs for decades. Even after his death, his shadow still hovers over the industry.

In SAFFRON INCORPORATED, music industry legend Stuart Coupe shows how showbusiness and the underworld are intrinsically linked - from nightclub fires, corrupt cops, cocaine, smack, illegal gambling, vice, celebrities, standover men and rock'n'roll promoters, musicians who partied hard and lost their way, dodgy accountants and gangland shootings - one man, the original King of the Cross, lay the foundations for more than fifty years of intrigue, murder and mayhem. 

'Eye-opening and absorbing' THE AUSTRALIAN

'Immensely entertaining' SYDNEY ARTS GUIDE

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 26, 2025

Reviews

[GL F · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘…fascinating insights of Kings Cross through the decades…’

STUART COUPE’s romp through Kings Cross through the 50s, 60s and 70s is colourful and packed full of insights.

I got a real sense of time and place, and loved learning the history of a place I thought I knew well.

[Robyn G….y · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an Australian, I was very familiar with the Saffron name and because I worked in the entertainment industry, I knew a number of the venues that Stuart mentioned.

I also met Abe Saffron when searching for a venue that would be suitable, for a record launch that I was responsible for organising, as the publicist of a record company I was working for at that time. Saffron had some of the best places in Kings Cross, it was inevitable that we would meet.

The book gives the reader insight into the seedy underworld of Kings Cross from the 40’s through to the 90’s, before it was gentrified, as it is today. There were crooked police and politicians who, when payed off with wads of money, which was given out in paper bags, kept things in order.
Better to keep things calm and allow the patrons to these venues, enjoy a night out and spend their money on booze, drugs and whatever else was on offer.

I spent time in those venues and Stuart is spot on when it comes to who frequented The Manzil Room, Benny’s and Arthur’s in particular, because after a gig, the people involved with the tours and the bands entourage would make a B-line for a place to party.

They were fun times!

[David Cook · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather poor level of journalism and a failure of history. The repetitive, disjoined tale might have benefited from a capable editor. His repeated referrals to other, more authoritative sources was evidence of his own lack of insight. And he must have been paid by the page as the largely un-Saffron related personal experiences of drugs and the music industry seemed a strain at best.

One wonders what David Hickie would have made of the story.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really a bit torn with this book - not saying that the author didn't do a comprehensive job of it, it's just that, in a way, the subject has let him down. Coupe is probably right on the money by suggesting that Saffron didn't do nearly half of what he was accused of, but consequently the book drags - for me anyway.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

The name Abe Saffron is synonymous with not just Kings Cross in Sydney but also many nefarious activities in New South Wales and other States of Australia. This book is like an overview of his life and his ties to the area. I read a paperback version of it.

[Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

What did I learn from this book? Abe Saffron covered his tracks pretty well. So well in fact that most of the book is written hypothetically. Kind of a pointless read really. Part two is a bunch of random anecdotes from the music business.
Not for me.