Showing results by author "Mark "Chopper" Read" in All Categories

Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read is the son of a strict Seventh Day Adventist mother and a shell-shocked former soldier who slept with a loaded gun at his side. Bullied at school, he grew up dreaming of revenge ("There are none so merciless as those who have been shown no mercy", as he later noted). He became a criminal legend who terrorised drug dealers, pimps, thieves and armed robbers on the streets and in jail - but boasts he never hurt an innocent member of the public.

Never get too close to anyone, because you might have to kill them. Meet Mark ‘Chopper’ Read. You think you know him. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies in Australia. He's been the subject of an internationally successful film. His one-man shows have toured Australia to sell-out crowds. He's the most recognisable criminal brand name in Australia. But the truth is... you don't know him at all.

You'll have heard a few of these stories before, but not like this. It's a step-by-step history of my twenty-three years behind bars; what day to day life was really like in jail, what I did to survive and why I'll never go back. It's not a nice story.

Underworld standover man and executioner Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read was released from Pentridge Prison in November, 1991, vowing never to return. Six months later, he was back in jail charged with the shooting of a biker, and busy writing his second volume of memoirs.