Mark 'Chopper' Read obituary

Not since Ned Kelly has an Australian criminal enjoyed such public adulation as Mark “Chopper” Read. Unlike Kelly, Read lived to enjoy his infamy, becoming a bestselling author and the subject of a hit film. The heavily tattooed, garrulous Read, who has died aged 58, blended the swaggering Australian “good bloke” persona with a belief in righteous violence.

A street thug who claimed to have spent only 13 months out of prison between the ages of 20 and 38, Read learned to read and write in jail and in 1990 began corresponding with a Melbourne journalist, John Silvester. He and his colleague Andrew Rule edited the letters to create a book, Chopper, From the Inside: The Confessions of Mark Brandon Read (1991), about Read’s exploits. Silvester, now crime reporter at the Age in Melbourne, has written: “There is no doubt some of Read’s stories are embellished, polished or, in some cases, stolen, but there is also no doubt that through the 1970s and 80s he was one of the most dangerous men in Australia.”

Chopper was an instant success, going on to sell more than 200,000 copies, and Read followed it with Hits and Memories (1992) and How to Shoot Friends and Influence People (1993). He went on to produce books at a rate of roughly one a year for more than a decade: initially, he wrote autobiographical tales, but then turned to crime fiction and even children’s books.

He became internationally famous mainly due to the success of the 2000 film Chopper, based on his autobiography. A critical and box office hit, Chopper catapulted its director, Andrew Dominik, and star, Eric Bana, on to Hollywood’s A-list. Bana, a comedian who had been recommended by Read for the part, brilliantly captured the mix of violence and wry naivety the role demanded. The film’s success led to Read developing a cult following, and he began writing columns for the British men’s magazines FHM and Nuts. Read donated all his earnings from the film to Melbourne’s Royal Children’s hospital.

The son of an ex-army father and a fervently religious mother, Read was born and raised in the suburbs of Melbourne. He spent his first five years in a children’s home. He was reunited with his parents, but things were difficult, and he was bullied at school. Made a ward of the state at 14, he was placed in psychiatric institutions and subjected to electro-shock treatment. His brutal childhood led Read to develop his “hard man” persona, and his skills at dishing out violence and enduring pain saw him become a street gang leader by his mid-teens.

Read quickly realised that stealing from drug dealers was much more profitable than preying on ordinary citizens: not only do dealers possess large sums of cash, he reasoned, but they cannot complain about their losses to the police. He would later use these activities to promote himself as the scourge of Melbourne’s underground, a criminal who stole from criminals and (supposedly) never harmed an innocent person.

Read was regularly arrested and in the mid-70s was sentenced to 17 years in Pentridge prison, Melbourne, for kidnapping a judge (in an attempt to get a member of his gang freed). Inside, Read became involved in prison gang wars. With matters getting out of hand, Read requested a transfer to another wing of the prison. When he was refused, Read asked a fellow inmate to cut both his ears off. He wrote: “They said there was no way I would be getting a transfer, so I made the simple decision that ears off = transfer. Believe me, it works.” According to some accounts, the name “Chopper” stemmed from this episode, though others attributed it to his habit of cutting off his victims’ toes using boltcutters. Others said it was an earlier, childhood nickname.

Not long after this, Read was stabbed repeatedly by members of his own gang, who wanted to kill him because they feared his thirst for a prison gang war was becoming uncontrollable. Read survived, but lost several feet of bowel and intestine in the attack.

Read was still being held under maximum security when his books became popular. He began to receive prison visits from Mary-Ann Hodge, who had read one of them, and the couple married in 1995. Three years later, he was released from jail, and the couple moved to a farmhouse in Tasmania. After a son, Charlie, was born, Read wrote: “Fatherhood changed me. I reckon I became a human being at 45, when I saw my first boy born … That’s the moment I joined the human race.”

The marriage ended in 2001, Read finding farm life in Tasmania boring. He married Margaret Casser in 2003 and their son, Roy, was born the following year. “When I was 50 and I saw my second boy born, I became a fully paid-up member of the human race,” wrote Read. “I have no regrets, but those moments told me what I should have been – a good human being.”

Read was by now a fully fledged Australian icon, his total book sales having passed 500,000 and his live performances, in which he showed a gift for comedy, selling out theatres. He began exhibiting paintings and in 2006 released a rap album, Interview with a Madman. He appeared in public service advertisements warning against drink driving and domestic violence. He liked to boast that he had killed 19 people and attempted the murder of 11 others, but also said he would “never let the truth get in the way of a good yarn”.

Declaring himself bankrupt – due to a gambling addiction – in 2007, he also announced that he had hepatitis C, but would not be applying for the liver transplant that might save him. He had recently received treatment for liver cancer.

He is survived by Margaret and his sons.