By MAMAMIA NEWS
One of Australia’s most infamous criminals, Mark “Chopper” Read, has reportedly died at the age of 58.
Read had been battling liver cancer since April 2012. He says his illness started when he contracted hepatitis C while in prison.
Read is the criminal who is famous for having both his ears cut off by a fellow inmate so that he could leave temporarily.
He spent at least 23 years in prison for crimes including armed robbery, assault, arson and impersonating a police officer.
In his later life he became a successful writer of semi-autobiographical and fictional books.
In 2000, a movie “Chopper” was made about Read’s life. Eric Bana played the lead role.
Read was reportedly released from hospital only two days ago to be with family and friends.
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Im unsure why people are asking why this was written about. Sure he was a criminal but he was famous in Australian history which makes it news worthy. You dont have to have liked the guy...
For some weird reason my comment had an edit button. I hit it out of curiosity, but then tried to share it again. Instead, the comment disappeared and subsequent comments have not been posted. So, I will try again.
I found some info on him on Wikipedia, here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...
"Read was born on 17 November 1954 to a former army father and a mother who was a devout Seventh-day Adventist. He was placed in a children's home for the first five years of his life. He grew up in the Melbourne suburbs of Collingwood, Thomastown, Fitzroy and Preston. He was bullied at school, claiming 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 as a child. Read was made a ward of the state by the age of 14 and was placed in several mental institutions as a teenager, where, he later claimed, he was subjected to electroshock therapy."
Given all that, it makes his criminal behaviour rather less surprising. I am not trying to say he was a hero, or minimise anything he did when he was younger, but I think the amazing thing about his life is that he found the resources to move on to a happier, less violent existence. I hope his passing was peaceful.
My sympathies to his wife and sons.