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Mark "Chopper" Read AI simulator
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Mark "Chopper" Read AI simulator
(@Mark "Chopper" Read_simulator)
Mark "Chopper" Read
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (17 November 1954 – 9 October 2013) was an Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author. Read wrote a series of semi-autobiographical fictional crime novels and children's books. The 2000 film Chopper is based on his life.
Read was born on 17 November 1954 to former army and World War II veteran of Irish descent, Keith Read, and a mother who was a devout Seventh-day Adventist. He grew up in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood and Fitzroy. He was bullied at school, saying that by the age of 15 he had been on the "losing end of several hundred fights" and that his father, usually on his mother's recommendation, beat him often. Read was also molested as a child. He was made a ward of the state by the age of 14, and was placed in several mental institutions as a teenager, where he stated he underwent electroshock therapy.
When he was still young,[vague] Read was already an accomplished street fighter and the leader of the Surrey Road gang, which had a notorious reputation for violence. He began his criminal career by robbing drug dealers based in massage parlours in the Prahran area. He later graduated to kidnapping and torturing members of the criminal underworld, often using a blowtorch or bolt cutters to remove the toes of his victims as an incentive for them to produce enough money so that Read would leave them alive.
Read spent only 13 months outside prison between the ages of 20 and 38, having been convicted of crimes including armed robbery, firearm offences, assault, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping. While in Pentridge Prison's H division in the late 1970s, Read launched a prison war with Jimmy Loughan.[page needed] "The Overcoat Gang" wore long coats all year round to conceal their weapons, and were involved in several hundred acts of violence against a larger gang during this period. Around this time, Read had a fellow inmate cut both of his ears off to be able to leave H division temporarily. In his biography, Read claimed this was to avoid an ambush by other inmates by being transferred to the mental health wing. His later works state that he did so to "win a bet".[citation needed] The nickname "Chopper" was given to him long before this, from a cartoon character during his childhood named Chopper who was a dog featured in Yakky Doodle.
In 1978, while Read was incarcerated, his associate Amos Atkinson held 30 people hostage at The Waiters Restaurant in Melbourne while demanding Read's release. After shots were fired, the siege was lifted when Atkinson's mother, in her dressing gown, arrived at the restaurant to act as go-between. Atkinson's mother hit him over the head with her handbag and told him to "stop being so stupid". Atkinson then surrendered.
Read was stabbed by members of the Overcoat Gang to prevent his plan to cripple every other inmate in the division.To avoid retribution for this plan Read spread the theory that his friends wished to benefit from a contract put on Read's head by the Painters' and Dockers' Union.[page needed] Another theory is that James "Jimmy" Loughnan, a friend of Read, with Patrick "Blue" Barnes, wished to benefit from a contract put on Read's head by the Painters' and Dockers' Union. Read lost several feet of intestine in the attack. Read was serving a 16½-year sentence after attacking a judge to get Loughnan released from prison. Loughnan later died in the Jika Jika fire at Pentridge in 1987.
In the TV series Tough Nuts, Read also spoke of his mid-1980s to early 1990s rivalry with Alphonse Gangitano. Read explained that he had a disagreement with Gangitano regarding an elderly neighbourhood hero, whom Gangitano admired. It is alleged by Read that Gangitano burst open a toilet cubicle door[where?] with a number of associates and began a serious assault on Read, who made his escape but not before smearing his faeces into Gangitano's face.
In 1992, Read was convicted of shooting Sidney Michael Edward Collins in the chest. The incident took place in Read's car, which was in the driveway of Collins' residence at Evandale, Tasmania. The bullet was recovered from the back seat of the vehicle and Collins named Read as the shooter. Pleading not guilty, Read was convicted of committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm, a downgraded charge from attempted murder and sentenced as a "dangerous criminal" to indefinite detention.
Mark "Chopper" Read
Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (17 November 1954 – 9 October 2013) was an Australian convicted criminal, gang member and author. Read wrote a series of semi-autobiographical fictional crime novels and children's books. The 2000 film Chopper is based on his life.
Read was born on 17 November 1954 to former army and World War II veteran of Irish descent, Keith Read, and a mother who was a devout Seventh-day Adventist. He grew up in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood and Fitzroy. He was bullied at school, saying that by the age of 15 he had been on the "losing end of several hundred fights" and that his father, usually on his mother's recommendation, beat him often. Read was also molested as a child. He was made a ward of the state by the age of 14, and was placed in several mental institutions as a teenager, where he stated he underwent electroshock therapy.
When he was still young,[vague] Read was already an accomplished street fighter and the leader of the Surrey Road gang, which had a notorious reputation for violence. He began his criminal career by robbing drug dealers based in massage parlours in the Prahran area. He later graduated to kidnapping and torturing members of the criminal underworld, often using a blowtorch or bolt cutters to remove the toes of his victims as an incentive for them to produce enough money so that Read would leave them alive.
Read spent only 13 months outside prison between the ages of 20 and 38, having been convicted of crimes including armed robbery, firearm offences, assault, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping. While in Pentridge Prison's H division in the late 1970s, Read launched a prison war with Jimmy Loughan.[page needed] "The Overcoat Gang" wore long coats all year round to conceal their weapons, and were involved in several hundred acts of violence against a larger gang during this period. Around this time, Read had a fellow inmate cut both of his ears off to be able to leave H division temporarily. In his biography, Read claimed this was to avoid an ambush by other inmates by being transferred to the mental health wing. His later works state that he did so to "win a bet".[citation needed] The nickname "Chopper" was given to him long before this, from a cartoon character during his childhood named Chopper who was a dog featured in Yakky Doodle.
In 1978, while Read was incarcerated, his associate Amos Atkinson held 30 people hostage at The Waiters Restaurant in Melbourne while demanding Read's release. After shots were fired, the siege was lifted when Atkinson's mother, in her dressing gown, arrived at the restaurant to act as go-between. Atkinson's mother hit him over the head with her handbag and told him to "stop being so stupid". Atkinson then surrendered.
Read was stabbed by members of the Overcoat Gang to prevent his plan to cripple every other inmate in the division.To avoid retribution for this plan Read spread the theory that his friends wished to benefit from a contract put on Read's head by the Painters' and Dockers' Union.[page needed] Another theory is that James "Jimmy" Loughnan, a friend of Read, with Patrick "Blue" Barnes, wished to benefit from a contract put on Read's head by the Painters' and Dockers' Union. Read lost several feet of intestine in the attack. Read was serving a 16½-year sentence after attacking a judge to get Loughnan released from prison. Loughnan later died in the Jika Jika fire at Pentridge in 1987.
In the TV series Tough Nuts, Read also spoke of his mid-1980s to early 1990s rivalry with Alphonse Gangitano. Read explained that he had a disagreement with Gangitano regarding an elderly neighbourhood hero, whom Gangitano admired. It is alleged by Read that Gangitano burst open a toilet cubicle door[where?] with a number of associates and began a serious assault on Read, who made his escape but not before smearing his faeces into Gangitano's face.
In 1992, Read was convicted of shooting Sidney Michael Edward Collins in the chest. The incident took place in Read's car, which was in the driveway of Collins' residence at Evandale, Tasmania. The bullet was recovered from the back seat of the vehicle and Collins named Read as the shooter. Pleading not guilty, Read was convicted of committing an unlawful act intended to cause bodily harm, a downgraded charge from attempted murder and sentenced as a "dangerous criminal" to indefinite detention.