He's not someone I admire by any stretch. However, I'd like to know what was true and what wasn't about his criminal history - what was proven, what was probably true and what was false. I suspect plenty of what we hear was false.
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Chopper Reid dies
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Groupie_
time to return the traditional Richmond yellow
RIP chop chop
NSWCROW
Make me an Admin!
inb4 " Look what you've gone and done.....YA MUM's UPSET !!!! "
SayWhatAgain
Club Legend
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Nice to see ya bald patch is gone Keithy... Nah suits you mate 
West Coast Weasel
Club Legend
Like others here, not a fan of the fact that his infamy is a result of his criminal past but had heard anecdotes that he was an approachable local around Collingwood who was more or less reformed. Didn't realised that he refused a liver transplant, saying that he didn't deserve one. Takes a lot of balls to not want to cheat death
vast
Hall of Famer
Had a guy talk us about organ transplants at work last week. It would be very unlikely that he would have gotten one anyway. He probably knew this. Though luckily he never put someone through the anguish of tellng him there is no liver for him still.
Dan Cooper
Victory Salute
His books were entertaining - I read a few of them - but I took most of it with a grain of salt. The stuff contained in his early books seems to have been more accurate than the later stuff, much of which seemed to be almost pure fiction.
That synopsis seem to be the same take one of the police officers writing for today’s HS took. That copper could spin a yarn and as the years went by the yarn got bigger.
Dan Cooper
Victory Salute
Initially he probably only thought there'd be a book or two in it for him - so I reckon he used most of his repertoire up in them. After that it was fantasy time - it read that way anyway.
UmpiringFooty
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The only thing that doesn't sit well with me is the flogging he copped from Derryn Hinch. Derryn should know by now that he has to be extremely careful about what he says about others in the media. Sure Chopper had various firearms charges against him and was always in trouble but he certainly was an icon in this world. What Derryn Hinch doesn't realise is that Chopper Read was somebody's father, Somebody's husband and somebody's best mate who has now passed away from cancer. Time to respect.
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His initial estimate of deaths that he'd been involved in was something like 19, which I think he revised to 4-7. I've only read his first three or four books and I reckon who would have gone well over that kill count just in the yarns from those. I'm tipping a lot of it was made up, or borrowed from other crooks. He had a great alibi: that he couldn't use names or places because he didn't want an investigation being opened. Plenty of his stories seemed like pure unadulterated bullshit to me, but then again I (and most of his audience) don't come from that world, so what would we know?
I did like the chapters that he wrote on specific underworld figures and crimes though, his perspective on those things was always pretty interesting.
I'm pretty neutral towards Chopper, don't have much time for the Chopper fanbois though.
I did like the chapters that he wrote on specific underworld figures and crimes though, his perspective on those things was always pretty interesting.
I'm pretty neutral towards Chopper, don't have much time for the Chopper fanbois though.
- Banned
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One of my idols, yeah I idolise crims but that's cause I was born in this ****ed up generation.
Yet you'd prefer to be a sheep rather than try and change anything.
rocker_oz33
TheBrownDog
RIP Chopper medicare Reed.
Ghostwriter
Cancelled
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RIP
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He wasn't murdered so why is this on the crime board?
rocker_oz33
TheBrownDog
Hes a/was a crime figure.
lemon chicken
Cancelled
Just saw a 60 minutes ad, he has done an interview with them in the last few weeks apparently admits to 4 unsolved murders.
Dan Cooper
Victory Salute
Interesting...
Hard one to judge. Seems a completely loose cannon in his younger years, as evidenced by his complete inability to st y out of jail.
But seems to have made a decision to leave that life and some stage, and instead become a figure of entertainment. Which he did do with a fair degree of success, leaving crime behind. I guess you could almost say he rehabilitated, in his own way.
Had no doubt many of his tales are exaggerated or invented, but I think it's probably part of that process. His new life was to entertain so he had to deliver.
But seems to have made a decision to leave that life and some stage, and instead become a figure of entertainment. Which he did do with a fair degree of success, leaving crime behind. I guess you could almost say he rehabilitated, in his own way.
Had no doubt many of his tales are exaggerated or invented, but I think it's probably part of that process. His new life was to entertain so he had to deliver.
Dan Cooper
Victory Salute
I think people would have attended his show purely out of his notoriety. He toured with people like Mark "Jacko" Jackson, Roger Rogerson and Warwick Capper.
I read a book by a guy who was once Chopper Read's bodyguard - Mark 'Hammer' Dixon - and he used to travel to those shows with him. In the book Dixon says Chopper often gambled away most of the takings and he sometimes struggled to get paid as a result.
I saw his show with Jacko many years ago. Chopper came on last and was pretty pissed... he spoke reasonably well though, despite what some would think of the subject matter - some would find it funny, others repulsive.
Jacko stole the show though, absolutely hilarious. A lot of great stories from his football days.
Fair few crime fanboys there. Chopper did a Q&A and there were blokes, it was like they were meeting the Queen or the President. Not to mention bidding wars for Chopper "memorabilia", many of which ran into the thousands.
Dan Cooper
Victory Salute
In his book “Hammer Bash for Cash”, Mark 'Hammer' Dixon described Roger Rogerson as "his childhood hero" and said when he met him he was "absolutely awestruck".
Some of us have more unusual personal heroes than others I guess.
