Shirley Brifman: a timeline of a brothel madam and whistleblower
Updated
Shirley Brifman was a mother, brothel madam and police corruption whistleblower in Queensland and NSW during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
She died at the age of 35 from a "drug overdose", but now the Queensland Government wants a coroner to look into whether foul play was involved.
Look back on a timeline of her colourful life.
Shirley Emerson born in Queensland
December 7, 1935
Shirley Margaret Emerson was born in Atherton, in far north Queensland. She was the 13th child of labourer James Emerson and his wife Beatrice.
According to Three Crooked Kings, a book by Brisbane journalist Matthew Condon, the Emerson's family struggled through poverty, her father was an alcoholic and her brothers also had run-ins with the law.
Marriage and rumours
1955
Emerson, who had a passion for fashionable clothes and was the queen of a military debutante ball in Atherton, had re-located to Cairns. She worked behind the bar of the Court House Hotel, which would come to be owned by Polish immigrant Sonny Brifman.
Brifman's wife died and within a year Emerson had moved in with him. The following year she fell pregnant and they were married in 1957.
According to Condon's book, rumours began to circulate that Shirley Brifman had begun working as a sex worker.
Run-ins with 'The Rat Pack'
1958
The Brifmans moved to Brisbane, where Mrs Brifman worked in a brothel under the name "Marge Chapple".
She met Tony Murphy, Glen Hallahan and Terry Lewis — corrupt police officers who would rise to the top of the force and later be known by the nickname "The Rat Pack".
Royal commission evidence
1963
The city's brothels had been officially closed, but sex workers like Brifman were able to still operate in hotels because of their relationship with corrupt police.
A royal commission was called into sex work at Brisbane's National Hotel.
Brifman, who had moved to Sydney with her husband, was called to give evidence.
"She denied she had ever been a prostitute and accused the chief witness to police misconduct at the hotel of having 'done an abortion on me'. Although her testimony was almost wholly false, she succeeded in impairing the inquiry," author Phil Dickie wrote.
Infamous ABC interview
June 15, 1971
The Brifmans, who had set up a number of brothels in NSW, were charged with offences related to sex work.
While out on bail she contacted the ABC and sat down for an interview with the This Day Tonight program. She made claims of corruption against police in both NSW and Queensland, and said that she had fabricated evidence at the National Hotel inquiry.
Dickie wrote that Mrs Briffman named more than 50 corrupt police from both states.
Brifman found dead
March 4, 1972
Having fled back to Queensland, the Brifmans and their three children began living in a police safe house on Bonney Avenue, Clayfield.
It was now matter of weeks before Tony Murphy's perjury trial, which Brifman had been called to front as the chief witness.
According to Condon's book, a stranger came to the door and handed her a vial late at night.
The next morning the 35-year-old was found dead in a bedroom by her children, her head propped up by pillows.
"She was lying back...half sitting up. Her hand was frozen in the air," daughter Mary Anne told Condon.
The cause of death was listed as "barbiturate intoxication". Police at the time did not consider her death to be suspicious and the case was closed.
Mary Anne said she was convinced corrupt police were responsible. Her mother was faced with a situation where she had to have an overdose and die, or risk being tortured or her family attacked, she claimed.
The Fitzgerald Inquiry, which exposed widespread corruption in the state, failed to find any link between Murphy and Brifman's death.
Daughter's appeal for inquest
April 12, 2015
Mary Anne Brifman said she would be petitioning the State Government to look into her mother's death.
She claimed there was still evidence that could be investigated and witnesses who could be interviewed.
Queensland Government announcement
January 19, 2017
Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath announced that she has asked the state coroner to make further inquiries into Brifman's death "in the interest of justice".
"The coroner will, upon making those inquiries, be in the position to determine whether an inquest should be held," Ms D'ath said.
Topics: death, law-crime-and-justice, corruption, history, qld, nsw, brisbane-4000, clayfield-4011, atherton-4883, sydney-2000
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