Read made his last public appearance in front of a sold-out audience at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre a fortnight ago. Chopper Read has died of liver cancer. Credit:Jon Reid "Despite his failing health, he delighted the audience with his skills as a raconteur and storyteller," Mr Parisi said. "This is how he would wish to be remembered, as someone who spun a great yarn and made many people laugh." Read's death was a tragic loss for his wife Margaret and his sons Roy and Charlie.

"For more than 15 years, Mark has lived a quiet life with Margaret in Collingwood. He worked as a writer, painter and public speaker, paid his taxes and took care of his family. Back in the day: Mark 'Chopper' Read is escorted to a police divvy van. "At the time of his death, we ask that people reflect on how Mark was able to overcome his past and, after more than 23 years in prison, find a way to re-enter 'normal' society. "It is as a husband, father and friend that Mark will be missed most deeply." The family requested privacy in their time of grief.

Read spent much of his adult life in prison for committing multiple violent crimes, and gained infamy in his younger days for sometimes using a blowtorch or bolt cutters to remove the toes of his targets. Beneath his incredible machismo was a very gentle, straight-shooting giant of an Australian man. He also had a fellow Pentridge Prison inmate slice off both of his ears while in jail. Read later used his career in crime as the basis for a series of best-selling true crime books, although exactly how ''true'' many of the stories are has been questioned. "Look, honestly, I haven't killed that many people," Read said in an interview with The New York Times earlier this year, "probably about four or seven, depending on how you look at it.''

Read was diagnosed with liver cancer in April last year and he also had cirrhosis. He said his illness started after contracting hepatitis C while in prison. Wilhelmina McGee won't quickly forget the first bloke to walk into the Leinster Arms Hotel when she and her husband bought it in 2001. "Chopper" would become a good mate and regular source of entertainment. "He lived his life pretty hard," she said. Even in the past four years, when his drink of choice was a "raspberry lemonade", Chopper could hold the room with his humour. "The 12 years I've known Mark I've never seen a bad side, an angry side, I don't know what he did in his previous life, but he was just a normal family man," she said. "He told so many stories over the years I don't even know where to start.''

To his former publicist and friend Di Rolle, Read was simply "a unique Australian character". Loading "Beneath his incredible machismo was a very gentle, straight-shooting giant of an Australian man,'' she said. "There's only ever going to be one Chopper Read."