1933 - 1968

Bondi resident and brothel king Joe Borg migrated to Australia from Malta when he was 22. Within three years, his name began appearing in NSW police records as a "gunman, thief, shop-breaker and pimp".

His nickname was “king of Palmer Street” after he purchased multiple terrace houses and converted them into brothels. The street was known as "The Doors” for the way prostitutes solicited in doorways that fronted footpaths.

At 35, Borg was making $1M a year renting rooms to prostitutes who worked in an industry that was largely unregulated. A network of elderly Maltese “cockatoos” (lookouts) protected him from police interference or criminal stand-over.

Borg’s profits sparked a struggle for control of The Doors in the Darlinghurst area. Borg was under pressure from rivals at the time of his murder outside his home in Brighton Boulevard, North Bondi, in 1968 when a bomb detonated in his car. Three men – two waiters and a painter and docker – were convicted of the contract killing, but doubt remains over who paid them.

Borg’s murder did not stop the battle for control over The Doors. Several days after the bombing, police reported death threats made against Sydney’s vice queen, Tilly Devine, who vacated her Palmer Street terrace several months later. Violence flared and seven terraces in The Doors area burned in arson attacks.

While the number of leading criminal figures declined in the 1970s, the scope and range of their activities expanded. Two royal commissions identified the same three colourful Sydney crime identities: Lennie McPherson, Stan Smith and George Freeman.

Borg’s chapter in Sydney’s criminal history came to an unlikely end. In his will, Borg bequeathed all his assets to the RSPCA on condition that it care for his Alsatian and four cats. Its Victorian chapter refused money from the sale of the 14 brothels, but the NSW chapter accepted. The largest of 23 floral tributes at his graveside was sent by the RSPCA with the inscription: “In Gratitude from all the Homeless Animals”.

Image courtesy the Sydney Morning Herald.