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Chopper (Floradale/Macmillan) #2
Hits and Memories
Underworld executioner Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read was released from Pentridge Prison in November, 1991, vowing never to return. He became a bizarre celebrity as his autobiography "Chopper From the Inside" became a bestseller. Six months later he was back in jail writing his second volume of memoirs. This is it.
212 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
6 people are currently reading
98 people want to read
About the author
Mark Brandon Read
31 books48 followersMark Brandon "Chopper" Read is an Australian ex-criminal who wrote a series of semi-autobiographical and fictional crime novels.
--from wikipedia
--from wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 8, 2023
Uncle Chop Chop Back in the Clink
6 February 2023 – Canberra
Well, I’m sitting in the Virgin Australia lounge at Canberra Airport, having just finished work, and I’ll stand by my opinion that airline lounges are actually really good if you are a business class traveller, especially since if there is time between when you get up and when the plane leaves, you’re probably not going to be sightseeing. As for a tourist, yeah, I probably wouldn’t recommend them, unless you get them for work (not that companies pamper their employees anymore).
I could go on about how much I really don’t like Canberra, but I won’t, and instead, I’ll comment on this book. One thing that I have discovered is that if you are reading one of Chopper’s books in Australia you will have people come and speak to you, some of them even claiming to either have a relative who knows him, is a blood relation, or simply has all of the books. Actually, I had some joker want to take me out to dinner because, well, he saw me reading the book, and then tried setting me up with some random chick. Honestly, it just all seemed way too weird.
Another thing that I should mention, and that is that there is all this talk about how Chopper became a best-selling author despite the fact that he was an uneducated crook. The reality is that yeah, he did achieve a notoriety that not many people in the criminal world get (as he said, there will be three criminals that Australians will remember – Ned Kelly, Squizzy Taylor, and himself), but he did actually have some help (though he never actually mentions it). That would be a couple of true crime journalists who initially interviewed him in Pentridge, and he just continued writing to them, so they collected his letters and published them as a book. I suspect that they made an absolute killing from this.
So, the book is basically him talking about his life between when he got released from Pentridge and decided to retire to Tasmania, and his trial over the shooting of Sid Collins, which landed him up in Risdon. As it turns out, a lot of his books were written while he was in Risdon, and half the reason was because the prosecutor managed to get him labelled as a pretty dangerous dude, and should be locked up forever. He did manage to get that ruling overturned, but as he said, the stuff he did do, he never got done for, and the stuff he didn’t do, he did get done for – a lot of Charles Manson to be honest.
Yeah, normally, I don’t read about true crime, probably because I don’t find it all that sexy and glamourous. Well, okay, Hollywood does portray it as such, which is a bit of a shame because it really does give people the wrong impression. Honestly, you’re as likely to make a fortune dealing drugs as you are starting a business. The problem is that we only see the godfathers, the scarfaces, and the Walter Whites, and despite the fact that they do have some pretty horrific endings, people seem to ignore that part, probably because they think that it won’t happen to them – you know, live the advantages but avoid the disadvantages – yeah, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that – and Uncle Chop Chop agrees as well.
Look, it isn’t too bad a book, and I guess the reason that I ended up reading it is because Uncle Chop Chop does have a bit of a cult following, and honestly, compared to a lot of other popular authors out there, he is a lot more down to Earth, and serious as well, despite the fact that he pretty much stated that he is quite right-wing (though he was using that in reference to the Neo-Nazi’s, who he simply had absolutely no time for whatsoever). Mind you, I don’t necessarily agree with his gun policy, namely because if you are the citizenry, if we are invaded, then there is no such thing as an unarmed civilian and everybody is fair game. Okay, people don’t play fair when it comes to war, but the reality is, as we have seen in Ukraine, when a country is invaded, people end up becoming quick learners.
6 February 2023 – Canberra
Well, I’m sitting in the Virgin Australia lounge at Canberra Airport, having just finished work, and I’ll stand by my opinion that airline lounges are actually really good if you are a business class traveller, especially since if there is time between when you get up and when the plane leaves, you’re probably not going to be sightseeing. As for a tourist, yeah, I probably wouldn’t recommend them, unless you get them for work (not that companies pamper their employees anymore).
I could go on about how much I really don’t like Canberra, but I won’t, and instead, I’ll comment on this book. One thing that I have discovered is that if you are reading one of Chopper’s books in Australia you will have people come and speak to you, some of them even claiming to either have a relative who knows him, is a blood relation, or simply has all of the books. Actually, I had some joker want to take me out to dinner because, well, he saw me reading the book, and then tried setting me up with some random chick. Honestly, it just all seemed way too weird.
Another thing that I should mention, and that is that there is all this talk about how Chopper became a best-selling author despite the fact that he was an uneducated crook. The reality is that yeah, he did achieve a notoriety that not many people in the criminal world get (as he said, there will be three criminals that Australians will remember – Ned Kelly, Squizzy Taylor, and himself), but he did actually have some help (though he never actually mentions it). That would be a couple of true crime journalists who initially interviewed him in Pentridge, and he just continued writing to them, so they collected his letters and published them as a book. I suspect that they made an absolute killing from this.
So, the book is basically him talking about his life between when he got released from Pentridge and decided to retire to Tasmania, and his trial over the shooting of Sid Collins, which landed him up in Risdon. As it turns out, a lot of his books were written while he was in Risdon, and half the reason was because the prosecutor managed to get him labelled as a pretty dangerous dude, and should be locked up forever. He did manage to get that ruling overturned, but as he said, the stuff he did do, he never got done for, and the stuff he didn’t do, he did get done for – a lot of Charles Manson to be honest.
Yeah, normally, I don’t read about true crime, probably because I don’t find it all that sexy and glamourous. Well, okay, Hollywood does portray it as such, which is a bit of a shame because it really does give people the wrong impression. Honestly, you’re as likely to make a fortune dealing drugs as you are starting a business. The problem is that we only see the godfathers, the scarfaces, and the Walter Whites, and despite the fact that they do have some pretty horrific endings, people seem to ignore that part, probably because they think that it won’t happen to them – you know, live the advantages but avoid the disadvantages – yeah, unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that – and Uncle Chop Chop agrees as well.
Look, it isn’t too bad a book, and I guess the reason that I ended up reading it is because Uncle Chop Chop does have a bit of a cult following, and honestly, compared to a lot of other popular authors out there, he is a lot more down to Earth, and serious as well, despite the fact that he pretty much stated that he is quite right-wing (though he was using that in reference to the Neo-Nazi’s, who he simply had absolutely no time for whatsoever). Mind you, I don’t necessarily agree with his gun policy, namely because if you are the citizenry, if we are invaded, then there is no such thing as an unarmed civilian and everybody is fair game. Okay, people don’t play fair when it comes to war, but the reality is, as we have seen in Ukraine, when a country is invaded, people end up becoming quick learners.
April 5, 2014
This is Chopper's second foray into the world of writing, and he doesn't disappoint. His stories are brutal and graphic; and serves as a reminder for the rest of us as to why we don't go poking our noses into business that doesn't concern us.
May 26, 2018
Amazing book
This book is amazing a lot of things hard to image that took place I’m currently on his 3rd book my mission is to read them all
This book is amazing a lot of things hard to image that took place I’m currently on his 3rd book my mission is to read them all
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews