| Original Message |
Sean Patrick Callan (no login)
Posted Jan 22, 2007 12:34 AM
Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read
Chopper is the star of the Melbourne underworld after a movie about his life was released in 2000.
Read's criminal history - which spans 27 years - includes trying to kidnap a judge at gun-point, stabbing a man with scissors, impersonating a police officer and shooting a drug dealer.
Read spent 23 years in prison, was stabbed, had his ears cut off and had a prison baton broken over his head.
In 1979 notorious murderer, Greg "Bluey" Brazel slit Read's stomach open during a prison brawl.
Chopper, being Chopper, burst his stiches the next day doing push ups to get fit enough for a random attack on Brazel.
Read is now a best-selling author and celebrity.
Chopper was a close friend of underworld figure 'Mad' Charlie Hegyalji.
In one of his books, Read wrote that Hegyalji bit off the nose of an enemy as a teenager and was given his name 'Mad' Charlie.
In late 1970's Read, Hegyalji and Nick "The Greek" Apostolides were standing over criminals and relieving them of their illicit earnings.
Apostolides was portrayed by Vince Colosimo as Neville Bartos in the Chopper movie.
Hegyalji was shot dead in front of his home in November 1998.
Chopper named his son Charlie after Hegyalji.
In July 1991, Melbourne underworld figure, Alphonse Gangitano left Australia just as Mark' Chopper' Read was released from jail.
He had apparently put out a $30,000 contract to kill Read. This came after the now famous criminal had refused to ensure Gangitano's safety upon his impending release from Pentridge.
Read once appeared at Gangitano's home in Carlton to demand cash from a robbery.
Chopper was apparently armed with gelignite and a fearful Gangitano escaped through a rear exit. It has been suggested that Read was then jumped on by an associate of Gangitano's, a man known as perhaps Australia' hardest puncher.
On August 5, 1991, John Silvester wrote a story in the Herald-Sun which spoke of Gangitano leaving the country in fear of Chopper.
'....One of the biggest names in the Melbourne underworld has fled Australia because he fears a contract has been taken out on his life.
The man, with a known history of violence, left Melbourne about two weeks ago vowing not to return for at least two years.
He has taken his de facto wife, child and another relative to Italy.
Underworld sources said yesterday he believed two men had decided to take up the contract to kill him.
The criminal, heavily involved in extortion, illegal gambling and corruption, is known to have taken extra precautions before fleeing. He has kept close to a number of his associates who have acted as bodyguards for him.
Police said the man was considered to be one of the leading figures in a syndicate known as the "Carlton Crew". He has lived in a well-protected house in a Melbourne eastern suburb.
Several criminal groups have checked the house trying to find a way to breach the security. So far they have failed. At one stage, a group of criminals was considering using land mines to kill the gangster but gave up the plan because they feared killing innocent people.
Victorian and federal police as well as investigators for the National Crime Authority have taken an interest in the gangster's activities. But although he has been charged with a string of minor offences he has avoided being charged over big crimes.
The criminal has told friends he is concerned there may be an underworld war when standover man Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read is released from jail in the next few months.
Read has said he has nothing but contempt for the "Carlton Crew" and has referred to the gangster who has fled Australia as "The Plastic Godfather". But he has denied there will be violence when he is released from jail.
Police said they had heard the gangster had packed his bags and left Australia.
"He may be gone for two years, but I think he'll wait a few months until the heat is off and then slip back in," a senior policeman said. "He has an expensive lifestyle so he'll get back to his old tricks as soon as he can. "He'll be back - you can bet on it."
Gangitano returned to Australia as Chopper returned to jail. After a short time of freedom, Read was sent to Risdon Prison in Tasmania for shooting an associate in the stomach.
In 1992, the former president of the Victorian Outlaws was shot in the stomach with a 9mm bullet at point-blank range.
Sydney Collins, then 36, claimed in court that underworld toecutter Mark "Chopper'' Read pulled the trigger.
Read's lawyer suggested the bikie had framed her client because the real gunman was a fellow motorcycle gang member.
In 1995, Read married Mary-Ann whilst in Risdon.
Mrs Read, formerly Hodge, married Read after a year-long engagement.
An attractive, well-spoken woman employed with the Australian Taxation Office, said she had read one of Chopper's books and visited him at Risdon in 1993.
Read was being held in maximum security indefinitely after being deemed a dangerous criminal.
Read was released in 1998 after his dangerous criminal tag was overturned on appeal and the pair moved to a farmhouse at Richmond, Tasmania.
The couple had a baby boy, Charlie, named after 'Mad' Charlie Hegyalji.
At first the relationship went well, but Read would eventually return to Melbourne when the marriage broke up in 2001. In 2002 Read would say the marriage was a sham.
Chopper drunk on McFeast
Wednesday 18 March 1998
by Halliwell Hannah
The debut of McFeast Live (16/3) on the ABC got off to a controversial start when Elle McFeast's first guest appeared on the show drunk.
Mark "Chopper" Reed, an infamous criminal and author of about seven books on the Australian crime scene, appeared bleary eyed and spoke with a slur. The glare of television lights seemed to bother him as he struggled to answer McFeast's questions about toe-cutting and other sordid criminal activities.
Finally he admitted the obvious and slurred....
"You've had me stuck in your b$##@% Green Room drinking Melbourne Bitter. I've just done six cans. Then you bring me on as p%$$#@ as a parrot and ask me in-depth questions. I'm obviously drunk. I'm no use to anybody. It's not fair".
At one stage he took out his false teeth and announced with pride...
"These are the James Bond, the carte blanche, the rolls royce of false teeth and I'd like you to pay some form of b$##@% respect to these false teeth"
After oggling McFeast's cleavage and mumbling some incoherent answers, the Earless One was lead off to a corner of the set by the cheeky host, and left there to quietly booze on for the remainder of the show.
Click here for the transcript of the ABC's 2001 interview with Read from 'Australian Story'
In November 2001, Chopper's marriage to Mary-Ann broke up and he returned to live in Collingwood, Melbourne with a woman called Margaret.
There he worked behind a local bar part-time.
In January 2002 it was reported that "Chopper" was back in Melbourne and plans to marry his former girlfriend, Margaret Cassar, next year.
Read turned his back on the farm he shared with his wife in Tasmania and taken up residence in Melbourne with his former girlfriend. He says "farming life wasn't for me" and that he left with just the clothes on his back and enough money to get out of Tasmania.
Now settled back in Melbourne, Read says a trip up the street to run errands takes hours. "I sign autographs everywhere I go."
But Read's violent life has taken its toll. Three weeks ago, he collapsed in the foyer of St Vincent's Hospital and was diagnosed with a diseased liver.
Read, a notorious thug and standover man and a best-selling author — his books are said to be the most commonly shoplifted titles in Australia — says he has left crime behind. He has never made excuses for his life of crime and never taken on the role of victim. "I bashed people for money. I picked on drug dealers because I knew they don't go to the police," Read says.
Now he spends his days gainfully employed. His 10th book is due for release in time for Christmas, his second book has just been released in Britain, he has a lucrative contract with a manufacturer of sunglasses and plans to join the guest speaker circuit next year.
He also plans to publish three children's stories early next year.
Chopper Drink-Drive Advertisement Wins Gold at Cannes
Sunday 24 June 2001
“Following the awarding of a Bronze Lion earlier in the week, in the Press-Poster section for a school-crossing road safety advertisement, Saatchi and Saatchi Australia won a Gold Lion in the Film section at ‘Cannes Lions 2001’, for its brilliant and provocative drink-drive commercial featuring hit-man Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read. Both advertisements were produced on behalf of the Pedestrian Council of Australia,” said Mr Harold Scruby, Chairman of the PCA.
“The International Advertising Festival, Cannes Lions, is the largest rendezvous for marketing and advertising professionals from all over the world and features the most prestigious advertising awards. Around 9,000 delegates from the advertising and allied industries gather each year at this famous event to celebrate the crème de la crème of creativity in all major media. The Gold Lion award was won in a field of over 6,000 entries from all over the word.
“The advertisement features ‘Chopper’ Read speaking directly to camera at his kitchen table. He undoes his shirt, pointing to different areas on his body where he has been assaulted in prison and says: ‘When I was in prison…I got slashed in the face…my ears cut off… a butcher’s knife here, an ice-pick here, etc., etc … If you drink and drive and you're unfortunate enough to hit somebody, you ought to pray to God that you don't go to prison.’
All parties donated their time and services, without payment, as part of their commitment to reducing the Australian road toll.
View the Saatchi & Saatchi "Cannes Lions" Gold Award "Chopper" Commercial
In April 2002, Read came out in the Herald Sun and disowned the movie. He said that it was 'pure fiction' and that he wants nothing to do with the film. "They used all my jokes and they didn't even invite me to the opening," Read complained.
Read said the movie was a s much a shock to him as it was to Keith Faure, Read's old rival who had complained in court that the depiction of his death at the start of the movie had caused him anxiety and caused him to crash his car into a pole.
read was also peeved that Margaret failed to rate a mention in the film after being with him for so many years.
On May 2, 2002, Kath Pettingill, Victor Peirce's mother, spoke of retribution on talk-back radio the morning after the shooting of her son, saying that the killers 'could run but they can't hide....from me.'
She intimated that she would shoot two people, one a 'big-mouth' the host, Neil Mitchell, believed to be celebrity gangster, Mark' Chopper' Read.
When asked if the family would seek retribution for Victor's shooting, a voice in the background screamed and enthusiastic "Yes!"
Read then called in speaking highly of Pierce and denying any involvement.
Read, speculated about the death of Pierce, a man he'd known for 14 years. He had no doubt Peirce was shot in a busy Port Melbourne shopping strip last night because of his heavy involvement in drugs.
On May 2, 2002: Chopper Read spoke to Jon Faine on ABC Melbourne about his 30 year relationship with Victor Peirce.
Victor Pierce (who was acquitted of the Walsh Street Police Murders) was gunned down in Bay Street, Port Melbourne. "Chopper" speculates that drug debts may have motivated the shooting.
Chopper placed a a provocative death notice in the Herald Sun the day before Victor Peirce's funeral.
In a disparaging reference to Kath's glass eye -- earned in a shooting incident many years ago -- Read wrote: "Don't worry Vic, Kath will keep an eye on things."
In May 2002, Read caused a stir with the release of his latest publication, the children's picture book, 'Hooky the Cripple".
Set in the 16th Century, 'Hooky' is about a hunchbacked son of a prostitute who stabs a bullying butcher in the head 21 times, eventually going to trial for murder.
2002: Fairytale Couple?
John Collis reports on a modern tale of a curious collaboration - Mark "Chopper" Read, Australia's most-credentialed crime novelist, and the enfant terrible of the Archibald Prize, Adam Cullen, who have joined forces to create Chopper's latest work.
On June 4, 2002, the Federal Education Minister was rebuked by Read after he wrongly called Read a "convicted murderer."
Read was on the end of a verbal assault in Parliament, during which Dr Nelson attacked a decision in Queensland to recommend Read's latest book, "Hooky the cripple", for Queensland schools.
Read told the Herald Sun he was not a convicted murderer.
"I was acquitted of the only murder charge I was arrested on." The six year sentence he served prior to his 1998 release was for malicious wounding. The victim lived.
Of Dr Nelson's description of him as a "self-confessed murderer, criminal, assailant, arsonist, torturer", Read said: "Well, he's got that right. It does not mean its the truth. It just means I've said I've done these things."
Dr Nelson's spokesman said the minister was "sorry for misrepresenting the crimes of Read".
In a Herald Sun story published on June 10, 2002, the estranged wife of Mark Read denied their marriage was a sham.
Mary-Ann Read said that when she married Read in Risdon Prison, Tasmania, in 1995 it was because she loved him.
But faced with comments he made the previous week that their marriage was just a sham, she said: "I just can't let this go by."
Read left his wife and child to return to live in Melbourne in 2001.
Mrs. Read, the mother of Chopper's two year-old son ,Charles, said she was disgusted by his comments on a national radio program that the marriage was a ploy to get him out of jail.
"I did it out of love - and that's the truth," Mary-Ann said from her farm near Richmond, Tasmania.
Mrs Read said she had never spoken out about her husband but could no longer tolerate his comments.
"This is the first one I have responded to because it was cruel and uncalled for," she said.
In the radio interview, Read also described another woman, Margaret, as the only woman he had ever loved.
He went on to say that he had married one of the local 'hillbillies'.
But Mrs Read revealed that Read had telephoned her hours before the interview went to air and asked to take him back.
"Mark was on the phone begging for reconciliation," she said.
Mrs Read also sad that when she re-married, there was no indication her husband was going to get out of jail.
"I was quite prepared, when we got married, that he would not be released and that we would never have a future together," she said.
"I was prepared to stand by him. I loved him that much."
"I worked hard for him knowing his parole paper were stamped, "Never to be Released," Mary-Ann added.
On June 10, 2002, Read appeared on Terry Willesee's "Across Australia" program on Sky News Channel.
Read fielded several questions about his new book, (Hooky the Cripple) and was truly at ease in front of the cameras.
Callers were very 'matey' indeed with one calling him a "modern day Ned Kelly," adding that we should rejoice that we can read about him now and not in 200 years." Big statement but I don't believe Read's name has been connected to cop killing as was national hero, Ned Kelly.
At the end of the interview, Read was asked whether or not he was surprised at the support he received from all but one caller.
His answer was quite pertinent to this day and age.
Read said that "Australian's used to be like a flock of sheep that followed the first goat but over have become very, very sceptical."
"Sceptical about people who tell them what they should believe and should think and who they should hate and who they should like," Chopper continued.
"And when you hear someone on a current affairs show slagging the guts out of some poor character, the general public sit back and make up their own minds."
"The last twenty years, Australians have seen far too many perversions from our politicians, our Governor's General, the clergy, the Police Force...they've seen these people really debase themselves in the vomit of corruption."
"And then they hear the media slagging off me and they say, "why should I listen to you...you said the 'bishop' was a good bloke you know...The people make up their own mind and won't be told what to think."
Take a look at it, corrupt cops, corrupt and lying government's and governor's generals, paedophile priests....all over the world....who can you trust?
On July 22, 2002, the Herald Sun reported that a controversial anti-drink-driving advertisement featuring Mark Read has been voted by Australia's advertising industry as the best television commercial of the year.
Developed by Saatchi and Saatchi advertising and the Pedestrian Council of Australia, the advertisement also won best community service advertisement.
Read donated his time free for the ad in which he warns: "When I was in prison, I got slashed in the face, my ears cut off . . . If you drink and drive and you're unfortunate enough to hit somebody, you ought to pray to God that you don't go to prison,"
Pedestrian council chairman Harold Scruby said it was very hard to get and retain public attention.
On September 12, 2002 the Age reported that Sid Collins, a former bikie who survived being shot by Chopper more than a decade before may have met an untimely end on the New South Wales north coast.
Collins, who was shot in the chest by Read because he "thought too much", vanished in suspicious circumstances during a trip from his Gold Coast home to NSW to recover an underworld debt the previous month.
Mr Collins, a member of the Black Uhlans outlaw motorcycle gang, was reported missing on September 1 by his son.
Police searched his home and interviewed neighbours.
Mr Collins' XR8 ute was found the next day more than 100 kilometres away near Tabulam, a small town west of Casino on the NSW north coast.
Police from Casino's Criminal Investigation Unit conducted a line search of a remote property near Tabulam last Thursday.
Forensic police also excavated a small section of a local property but a NSW police spokesman said nothing of significance was found. Neighbours said the property's owners kept to themselves but had guests at unusual hours.
NSW police are treating Mr Collins' disappearance as a homicide.
Mr Collins, 46, is well known to police across Australia and is believed to have been operating a mail-order-bride business from his Gold Coast home in partnership with his wife, based in Russia.
Mr Collins is believed to have moved recently from Tasmania to the Gold Coast.
"He has not been any trouble since he came up here, but we certainly knew to keep an eye on him," a Queensland police source said.
Mr Read was sentenced to eight years in Hobart's Risdon Prison in 1992 for attempted murder after shooting Mr Collins, an associate, in the chest.
On October 30, 2002 New South Wales detectives interviewed Read over the disappearance and suspected murder of Sid Collins.
Read went with his solicitor, Bernie Balmer, to be interviewed by two Casino-based criminal investigation unit detectives as well as Victorian homicide squad detective Ron Iddles at the St Kilda police complex.
He denied any knowledge of Mr Collins' whereabouts and accused the NSW detectives of harassment, claiming they had only interviewed him so they could claim a trip south for the spring racing carnival.
"They wanted to know whether I killed or whether I was responsible for (Collins') disappearance. It seems to me they've received a lot of information that I know something about it," Read said. "I had to put them straight. I reckon he's faked his own death and is living in a motel room somewhere. He's a scurrilous individual.
"(Their trip) coincides with the spring racing carnival . . . and I pointed this out to them. They're probably down here putting bets on for Sid Collins."
A NSW police spokesman denied the trip was timed to coincide with the racing carnival and said the detectives were following a routine line of inquiry.
November 11, 2002: Chopper for Hollywood
Rumour has it that Mark "Chopper" Read is set to become a movie star after signing a two movie deal. A 3AW rumour file caller said Read would star in two films "along the lines of Crocodile Dundee which would entail public investment." As the AW morning team of Ross Stephenson and John Burns suggested, "bad news for crocodiles." Stay tuned!
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