Mark Brandon Read

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Mark Brandon Read (born November 17, 1954 in Melbourne , † October 9, 2013 in Melbourne ) was an Australian criminal and author. He wrote several semi-biographical crime novels and children's books. The 2000 film Chopper is based on his life.

Life

Read in 1954 as the son of a veteran of the Korean War was born. His mother was a Seventh-day Adventist . He spent the first five years of his life in the home. He grew up in the suburbs of Collingwood , Thomastown, Fitzroy and Preston . According to his own account, he lost “several hundred fights” during school time and was beaten by his father. In an interview with 60 Minutes , he said he played Russian roulette with himself. He asked the reporter if she would play that too. Despite her denial, he pointed a gun at her and pulled the trigger, but without consequences, as there was no cartridge in the drum at this point. Read had been under state guardianship since he was 14 and was repeatedly admitted to psychiatric treatment, where he was treated with electroshock therapy.

Read married Australian tax clerk Mary-Ann Hodge in 1995 while at Risdon Prison in Tasmania. From this marriage came the son Charlie. After the divorce in 2001, he married his long-time girlfriend Margaret Cassar on January 19, 2003. With her he had a second son, Roy Brandon.

Read contracted hepatitis C, presumably from a contaminated razor in prison . Despite being placed on the liver transplant list in March 2008, he refused to undergo surgery.

Liver cancer was diagnosed in April 2012. An operation in July 2012 did not have the desired effect.

Read died in Parkville , Melbourne in October 2013 at the age of 58 .

Criminal life

Although Read was young, he was involved in several street fights and was the leader of the Surrey Road gang. At first he started robbing drug dealers, and later kidnapped and abused other criminal members. He often amputated his victims' toes with a screwdriver to make them compliant and make them work for Read.

Between the ages of 20 and 38, he was only out of prison for a total of 13 months. While incarcerated in the H-wing of Pentridge Prison, he started a prison war in the late 1970s. His gang The Overcoat Gang (who wore long coats all year round to hide their weapons) fought against another gang during this time. As a result, Read had his ear cut off by a fellow inmate in prison. As a result, he was temporarily moved from the H-wing to the psychiatric wing.

In 1992, Read was charged with shooting Michael Edward Collins in the chest while driving a car. The projectile was found in the back seat of the car. Although he pleaded not guilty, he was sentenced to indefinite term of aggravated assault. After he was released in early 1998, he was questioned about Collins's mysterious disappearance in 2002. In an interview broadcast eleven days after Read's death, he said he was responsible for Collin's murder. He does not regret this, since Collin was so "stupid" to shoot him twice.

Read also admitted being involved in 19 murders and 11 attempted murders. In the New York Times he said: “Look, honestly, I haven't killed that many people, probably about four or seven, depending on how you look at it.” (Translated: “Look, I don't have that many people killed, probably four or seven - depending on how you want to judge it. ")

further activities

In 2001, Read, with his scars and injuries, was featured in a commercial by the Pedestrian Council of Australia as a warning example of drunk driving .

In 2005 Read toured Australia with the title I'm Innocent with Mark Jackson, later with former detective Roger Rogerson and comedian Doug Chappel. Read made several guest appearances on Chappels Show Comics Live in your Lounge at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival

In 2006, Read was seen again in a commercial, this time against domestic violence. On March 13, 2006, he released a rap album Interview with a Madman .

Read approved the use of his name for a type of beer called Chopper Heavy . The beer is produced in  Rutherglen , the city where the most famous Australian bush ranger Ned Kelly comes from.

On December 15, 2008, Read claims to have been attacked by an unknown person with a tomahawk . After Read escaped into his car, he got away with minor injuries. The attacker was never identified.

author

Read wrote several crime novels, more than 500,000 of which were sold. He later spoke to them himself for audio books, which also sold successfully.

Read's first book from 1991,  Chopper: From the Inside , was a compilation of letters he wrote in Melbourne's Pentridge Prison. It contained stories and anecdotes of his criminal life inside and outside the prison. The other books were also based on it. Only with the appearance of Chopper 5: Pulp Faction were fictional stories added. Attempts to ban his children's book Hooky the Cripple failed.

Read appeared on several radio and TV shows to promote his books. He wrote regularly for several magazines such as Ralph or Zoo weekly .

His character was the model for several skits in The Ronnie John's Half Hour , where he was partly played by Heath Franklin . While not all of it was correct, Read found this funny itself. Science fiction -author William Gibson created the character Keith Blackwell in the last two books of his Bridge - trilogy after him.

Movie

The film Chopper, with Eric Bana as Read, is based on the stories of his books and other research. Sometimes there are contradictions to Read's own statements.

Works

Discography

  • Interview with a Madman (2006)
  • The Smell of Love EP - Chopper Read and The Blue Flames (1997)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The life, times and crimes of notorious celebrity crook Mark 'Chopper' Read (en) . In: Herald Sun , October 10, 2013. Retrieved October 12, 2013. 
  2. ↑ Chopper Read reveals he has cancer (en) . In: The Sydney Morning Herald , April 26, 2012. 
  3. ↑ Dying 'Chopper' refuses transplant (en) . In: Sunday Mail (SA) , June 14, 2008. 
  4. ^ Adrian Lowe: Cancer-stricken Chopper 'has weeks to live' (en) . In: The Sydney Morning Herald , April 27, 2012. 
  5. ↑ Hepatitis like a prison accessory, says Mark Read (en) . In: The Australian , August 28, 2012. 
  6. ↑ Adam Carey: Mark 'Chopper' Read admitted to hospital (en) . In: The Age , September 30, 2013. 
  7. ↑ "Chopper Read crime figure and author dead from liver cancer aged 58" , The Age website, October 9, 2013.
  8. ↑ "Chopper Read dies" , ABC website, October 9, 2013.
  9. ↑ "Mark 'Chopper' Read dead" ( Memento of the original from October 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , ninemsn website, 9 October 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / news.ninemsn.com.au
  10. ↑ Chopper on Filmjournal.com ( Memento from January 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ↑ Mark 'Chopper' Read not sorry - or afraid to die of cancer
  12. ^ Matt Siegel: Australia's Brand Name for Ferocity, Softened by Time (en) . In: The New York Times , April 12, 2013. 
  13. ^ News and Gossip
  14. ↑ https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/85672
  15. ↑ Chopper Read in 'tomahawk' street fight attack
  16. ↑ Video on YouTube
  17. ^ Books
  18. ↑ Road to nowhere / Mark 'Chopper' Read with Simone Ubaldi . Trove / NLA. Retrieved August 27, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Read, Mark Brandon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian criminal and author
DATE OF BIRTH 17th November 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Melbourne
DATE OF DEATH October 9, 2013
Place of death Melbourne