Origins & Early Life

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 Keith Read, an army and World War II veteran of Irish descent, and a mother who was a devout Seventh-day Adventist.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He grew up in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood and Fitzroy. Read was bullied at school; he said 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; he stated that he underwent electroshock therapy there. When he was still young, Read was already an accomplished street fighter and the leader of the Surrey Road gang, which had a reputation for violence.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He began his criminal career by robbing drug dealers based in massage parlours in the Prahran area. He later graduated to kidnapping and torturing...

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