Coroner to probe ‘suicide’ death of brothel madam and whistleblower Shirley Brifman in 1972

IN 1971, she went on national TV to expose dozens of corrupt cops in Queensland and NSW. In 1972, she was found dead in a police safe house in what was ruled a drug overdose. Now new questions are being asked about how this former brothel madam died.

Shirley Margaret Brifman, 35, was found dead of what police ruled was a drug overdose on March 4, 1972.

QUEENSLAND Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath has instructed the State Coroner to make inquiries into the mysterious death of notorious former brothel madam and whistleblower Shirley Brifman 45 years ago.

Shirley Margaret Brifman, 35, was found dead of what police ruled was a drug overdose on March 4, 1972. She had been living with her husband and four children in a police safe house in Clayfield, in Brisbane’s inner-north, and within weeks was due to appear as chief witness against senior Queensland detective Tony Murphy in a perjury trial.

Brifman, originally from the Atherton Tablelands in Far North Queensland, had been paying off corrupt police since the late 1950s and had become one of Australia’s most famous vice queens.

Then in 1971 she went on national television and blew the whistle on dozens of corrupt Queensland and NSW police.

Over time she would became one of the most infamous figures in Queensland’s corrupt history, and her alleged “suicide” has remained an open wound that has been conjectured on and debated for almost half a century.

Attorney-General D’Ath said yesterday she believed Brifman had died “in such circumstances” as to warrant further investigation.

“At the time of her death, Ms Brifman was due to appear as a chief witness in a perjury case,” Ms D’Ath said. “Ms Brifman’s body was found by her daughter (Mary Anne) at a Queensland Police Service ‘safe house’ at Clayfield.

“No inquest has ever been held in relation to her death and I believe that Ms Brifman died in such circumstances as to require the Coroner to make inquiries.

“I understand there also may be some people in possession of further information relating to Ms Brifman’s death.

“In recent years there has been some public interest around the circumstances into Ms Brifman’s death and I believe it is in the interest of justice for the Coroner to make further inquiries.

“The Coroner will, upon making those inquiries, be in the position to determine whether an inquest should be held.”

Brifman’s daughter Mary Anne says she was never interviewed by police, at the time or subsequently, about her mother’s death.

In April 2015, Brifman’s daughter, Mary Anne, of Sydney, petitioned the Attorney-General’s department for an inquest into her mother’s death, and met with department officials in Brisbane.

Mary Anne and other siblings found the body that morning at Clayfield in 1972. She said her mother’s hand was twisted “into a claw”.

Mary Anne added that a “visitor” had come to the flat the night before and given her mother a vial of deadly drugs which she was instructed to take, or else her children would be harmed.

Mary Anne said she was never interviewed by police, at the time or subsequently, about her mother’s death or the lead-up to the supposed suicide, and that the death scene that day was completely compromised.

In 1972 the coroner recommended no inquest into Brifman’s death given the police had deemed there were no suspicious circumstances. Brifman’s file was marked IDU – inquest deemed unnecessary.

Shirley Brifman

Years later, Mary Anne tried to bring her doubts about her mother’s death to the attention of the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption (1987-89), but again nothing was done.

Shirley Brifman, who had for years been one of Murphy’s informants and recipients of her financial largesse, particularly in the 1960s, told investigators before her death that she had given false evidence at the National Hotel inquiry into police misconduct in Brisbane in 1963/64, and that she had been “coached” in her answers to the inquiry by Murphy and other member of the infamous “Rat Pack” of corrupt officers, Glen Hallahan.

She told the inquiry – before Justice Harry Gibbs – that she was not a prostitute. Murphy also falsely testified he was not aware Brifman was a working prostitute at the time.

As a result of Brifman’s interviews with police through the second half of 1971, police charged Murphy with perjury and suspended him from duty. His case was to go ahead in April 1972. On the death of Brifman, the case collapsed. Murphy returned to the police force.

Mary Anne said she knew the identity of the “visitor” to the flat that night, and said she had several witnesses ready to bring forward.

“My mother’s death had an horrendous impact on my life,” said Mary Anne, who runs a brothel in Sydney. “It left me in fear and I have suffered severe depression. I think I have a right to a voice at last. I need to express it. There is a trail of evidence to be followed up.

“There are witnesses still alive today that can be interviewed.

“As a mature woman, I am not asking for pity, I am asking for justice to be served.”

In addition, the whereabouts of Brifman’s “suicide file” remains unknown. Over the years police have claimed it was routinely “destroyed”.

When the Fitzgerald inquiry was announced in May 1987, retired assistant commissioner Tony Murphy asked his friend and then police commissioner Sir Terence Lewis for permission to view the Brifman file. Permission was granted.

Brifman’s husband, Sonny, was so convinced Shirley had met with foul play he ensured she was buried as opposed to being cremated, as was the Brifman family tradition, and hoped that forensic science technology might one day catch up with the mystery of his wife’s death.

Shirley’s body was flown to Atherton and interred in the town’s lawn and general cemetery. She was buried in Section K, Plot 12, in what the reverend who conducted the service said was one of the most expensive caskets ever seen in a country cemetery.

To date, there is no headstone marking her grave.

Originally published as Coroner to probe ‘suicide’ death of brothel madam and whistleblower Shirley Brifman in 1972