A hospital spokesman would not comment on how Mr Saffron died.
In June last year, a NSW Supreme Court jury found two crime writers guilty of defaming Mr Saffron by describing him as crime boss in a book on Australian gangsters.
Mr Saffron, a well-known Kings Cross nightclub operator, successfully proved he was defamed in Andrew Rule and John Silvester's book, Tough: 101 Australian Gangsters.
Mr Saffron was listed as number 83, among such company as Arthur "Neddy" Smith and Lenny "Mr Big" McPherson.
He successfully sued the two authors and the book's publishers and distributors for defamation.
But the jurors decided Mr Saffron was not defamed by information that police knew him as Mr Sin, that he once whipped a girl at a party, and could have torched six of his own nightclubs for the insurance payouts.