In his last interview before he died from liver cancer last week, notorious ex-criminal Mark ''Chopper'' Read has confessed to killing four people.

In a tell-all interview with 60 Minutes screened on Sunday night he told presenter Tara Brown that he committed his first murder when he was a teenager.

The confession comes as a shock, as Read, who had been convicted for violent crimes including armed robbery, assaults, arson and kidnapping, had never been convicted of murder.

His first murder, he said, was committed in 1971 when Chopper was only 17. It was an organised hit on union heavy Desmond Costello, who was involved in the ''waterfront wars'' of 1970s Melbourne among the painters and dockers.