Lot's Wife Edition 8 2013
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GOODBYE,<br />
MR. CHOPS<br />
Bren Carruthers<br />
On October 9, Mark Brandon ‘Chopper’ Read finally submitted to his long<br />
battle with liver issues, and passed away. He was, to many, an archetypal<br />
villain. A prolific stand-over man, he once claimed to have killed nineteen<br />
men in his life, but was never sentenced for murder, instead spending a<br />
good portion of his adult life behind bars for kidnapping, assault, arson,<br />
and armed robbery.<br />
Chopper was a man of significant, almost theatrical charisma. With<br />
the crafted swagger of a larrikin “bloke’s bloke” persona, he became an<br />
Australian icon, and a hero for the underclass. Australia, and Melbourne in<br />
particular, has always had a curious fascination with criminal figures, quite<br />
likely stemming from our convict past and to Australia’s most-loved folk<br />
hero, Ned Kelly. Chopper was only too happy to exploit that fascination.<br />
As a personality, he was so unique that Eric Bana’s remarkably accurate<br />
portrayal in 2000’s film Chopper catapulted both Bana and Read to international<br />
fame, and launched Bana’s Hollywood career. An impersonation also<br />
helped secure Heath Franklin a comedy career.<br />
Yet, one of Chopper’s most defining traits was his ability to inspire<br />
fear in the hearts of the public, even in death. As I mentioned in passing<br />
to friends that I would be writing this article on the life of Chopper Read,<br />
reactions were largely of apprehension and concern.<br />
I once, very briefly, crossed paths with Chopper on cold night in 2008<br />
at the Leinster Arms Hotel, hidden away in the back streets of Collingwood.<br />
At that time, news of his illness had just become public knowledge. Pausing<br />
for just a moment to subtly analyse the hunched figure, I saw Chopper as a<br />
sickly, jaundiced figure, so far removed from the caricature of him that exists<br />
in the minds of the public. Here was just a man… where was this myth?<br />
According to his own accounts, Mark Read was once a fat kid living<br />
in the suburbs of Melbourne, where he was routinely bullied by his peers<br />
and beaten by his father. He became a ward of the state at the age of 14, and<br />
spent his teens in and out of psychiatric care. His teens were spent swinging<br />
between the dual pains of street fighting and electro-shock therapy. His<br />
brutal upbringing was the catalyst for his life of crime.<br />
In a twisted offshoot of vigilantism, he established his own moral<br />
code, and began to target fellow criminals, recognising that it was far<br />
more profitable, but also more importantly that his victims were far more<br />
deserving of his wrath than the general public. He was particularly noted<br />
for torturing drug dealers with blowtorches, and using bolt-cutters to avail<br />
members of the criminal underworld of their toes, in a less-than-subtle<br />
attempt to inspire them to pay their debts. It was these actions as a ‘headhunter’<br />
that he became feared, first in the world of organised crime, then in<br />
the public realm at large.<br />
Years of incarceration followed. Between the ages of 20 and 38, Read<br />
spent only 13 months outside prison walls. Whilst inside, he waged a relentless<br />
and savage prison war, famously asking a fellow inmate to slice off his<br />
ears so that he could be transferred to the mental health wing of the prison,<br />
so that he could retreat to relative safety. Yet, despite his violent past, Chopper<br />
walked out of prison for the final time in 1998 as both a more mellow,<br />
mature man, and an accomplished best-selling author. On the birth of his<br />
son Charlie, not long after his release, he wrote, “Fatherhood changed me. I<br />
reckon I became a human being at 45, when I saw my first boy born… that’s<br />
the moment I joined the human race.”<br />
Now feeling truly human, he once again capitalised on the public’s<br />
penchant for celebrity criminals, this time parlaying his fame into new<br />
ventures: a comedy career, an endless stream of writing gigs, a terrible rap<br />
album – even a children’s book, Hooky The Cripple. Grappling with more<br />
serious issues, he also appeared in advertisements speaking out against<br />
drink driving and domestic violence, and along with his film royalties,<br />
the proceeds from those appearances were donated to charity in full. And<br />
throughout his illness, from the initial diagnosis of Hepatitis C, until the<br />
liver cancer and cirrhosis that cost him his life, he continuously rejected the<br />
offer of a liver transplant, saying that he was undeserving, and didn’t want<br />
one when it could be used to save another life. When once he boasted that<br />
he had killed 19 men, in his final days he conceded that he had lied, and<br />
had only killed “about four or seven, depending on how you look at it”, as<br />
he allowed his hard man persona to fade.<br />
Even in the criminal world, nothing is black and white, good and<br />
evil. Chopper Read was a violent criminal and an admitted killer, and<br />
no-one could ever condone or absolve him of his actions. But he was also a<br />
victim of circumstance – a hurting child, a mentally ill teen, and a complex,<br />
troubled soul. We can only hope that he, like his claimed victims, can<br />
finally rest in peace.<br />
LOT’S WIFE EDITION 8 • <strong>2013</strong><br />
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