Notorious Australian killer Mark 'Chopper' Read, whose life was turned into a Hollywood movie, dies of cancer

Mark 'Chopper' read was one of Australia's most notorious criminals

He claimed to have killed 19 people but was never convicted of murder

After a life behind bars he became a bestselling author of crime novels



He died of liver cancer, aged 58, after refusing a transplant

One of Australia’s most notorious criminals has died at the age of 58 after a battle with liver cancer.

Mark ‘Chopper’ Read allegedly killed over a dozen people, but was never found guilty of murder, and instead rose to become a bestselling author whose life was turned into a big-hit movie.

Read, who spent 23 years in prison for a variety of crimes including assault and armed robbery, wrote several books detailing his long career of violence, including one entitled ‘How to Shoot Friends and Influence People’.

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Life of crime: Mark 'Chopper' Read, a self-confessed killer and career criminal turned bestselling author, died of liver cancer aged 58 after refusing a transplant

Read became a ward of the state in his teens and was certified medically insane three times, aged 15, 19 and 23.



Between the ages of 20 and 28, he only spent a total of 13 months outside prison gates, having been convicted of crimes including armed robbery, firearm offences, assault, arson, impersonating a police officer and kidnapping.



He rose in the underworld by stealing from drug dealers and ‘targeting criminals’ by claiming debts they owed each other.

He was known for torturing his victims with blowtorches, although he said in interviews he never hurt an innocent person.



He once tried to kidnap a judge at gunpoint in a failed attempt to get a friend freed from prison. He claimed to have survived being stabbed, shot, run over by a car and beaten in the head with a hammer.



Feared and famed: 'Chopper' Reid famously had his ears cut off in order to secure his removal from a prison ward and only spent 13 months in freedom from the age of 20 to 28 Premonition: 'Chopper' acknowledged his terminal illness to his Twitter followers last month before he was taken to hospital

He gained international fame in 2000 after Australian-born actor Eric Bana played him in the film ‘Chopper’, a movie which launched the actors career.

Read revealed in 2008 that he was suffering from liver cancer as a

‘A fortnight ago, Mark made his last public appearance in front of a sold-out audience at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre,’ his manager, Andrew Parisi, said in a statement.

‘Despite his failing health, he delighted the audience with his skills as a raconteur and storyteller. This is how he would wish to be remembered, as someone who spun a great yarn and made many people laugh.’

Read was active on Twitter and had over 10,000 followers, to whom he posted a poignant message after his last performance stating ‘That was my last public appearance. That's all she wrote, ladies and gentlemen.’

On-screen criminal: The 2000 film about Read's life, entitled 'Chopper' launched actor Eric Bana's Hollywood career

Read’s suitable nickname is said to have hailed from a 1970s comicbook character, but he truly earned it during one of his prison stints when he asked a fellow inmate to cut his ears off.

It was a drastic move, but a successful one as Read got his wish to get transferred to a different cell block.

Although he claimed to have murdered 19 people, and attempted to kill a further 11, he was never convicted of the deeds.

The closest he came to a murder conviction was a 1987 trial where he confessed to shooting and killing a man outside a nightclub in a Melbourne suburb, but he was acquitted on the grounds of self-defence.

‘If you're waiting for a heartfelt apology or a tearful rendition of Danny Boy, you'll be a long time waiting because I don't regret nothing I did.

'I don't regret my past,’ he told Andrew Denton in 2007.

After he was released from prison for the final time in 1998, he transformed himself into a crime writer and painter, and spoke out against drunk driving and violence against women.

‘I know most of you out there may hate my guts - I'm not a very popular person,’ he once said in a drunk driving awareness commercial.



‘But you drink and you drive, you're a murdering maggot just the same as I am.’

Critics have accused ‘Chopper’ of exaggerating his crimes in a bid to gain publicity and build his reputation and Read himself once stated ‘I am not going to tell you what is true and what is not’.

His crime novels sold over 500,000 copies and in 2002 he co-authored a children's book called Hooky The Cripple: The Grim Tale Of A Hunchback Who Triumphs.

After an eight-year marriage to tax accountant Mary-Ann Hodge, mother of his oldest son Charlie, he married his long-term friend Margaret in 2003 and had son Charlie the same year.

Read contracted Hepatitis C in prison, as a result of using a blood-stained razor – or so Read claimed himself.

In 2008 he revealed that he had liver cancer and was in need of a transplant, but that he refused on the grounds that he did not deserve one.

.I'm not going to ask for a liver transplant, it's not fair,’ he told ABC.

‘I'm 55 years old. I'm not going to put my name down against some 10-year-old kid.’