Chopper Unchopped (249 page)

A POEM to Justice Frank Vincent, who was also chairman of the Parole Board.

Ha ha.

I request to be transferred into One Yard for protection because there are prisoners in this division that firmly believe that I bashed Bobby Barron on behalf of the prison officers. This is not true, but it is a very hard thing to disprove.

Comments

Read has proved to be a standover type, his application is not re commended.

(They were right. I did bash Barron. But I did the prison service a favour. Bobby was a much more pleasant personality after I hit him with a spade.)

To Mr H Poden, Parole officer, Head Office
Memorandum
Mark Read
File No 74/4480

The above named is scheduled to be released on parole some time next August and you have been assigned as his parole officer.

Released from jail 1977

N L Doyle.
FILE NOTE
74/4480
April 26, 1976

Interviewed in G Division. He is to appear in court (St Kilda) tomorrow 27/4/78 on charges of assault. He does not know when his Supreme Court case is on.

Mark is in a quite jocular state, asking how much do I think he’ll get for his offences. Explains he doesn’t think he’s done anything really serious. With regard to the assault, he claims that the man he attacked was a hoon and he deserved what he got, the police stood and watched him and agreed it was deserved. Mark feels he has done the community a service. Asked about his attempted abduction of Judge Martin, had he thought he could pull it off? Says yes …

Asked about his ears: says decided he would do a ‘Van Gogh’, needed to draw attention to himself drastically as wrists didn’t attract enough attention, ‘everybody does that.’ States that he got Kevin Taylor to cut them off. He started to saw at one and then Mark said, ‘Don’t saw, slash it off’, which Taylor did. He then did the same to the other one and then vomited. Mark under the impression that you didn’t lose much blood when you cut ears off and was surprised to lose five pints. Also thought it could be sewn back on again quite easily. Thought he might be declared insane after this but when advised could end up a Governor’s Pleasure, decided ‘he couldn’t win’.

Mark seems to want assurances that his offences are not really serious, whilst inviting the prison officer to assure that they really are extremely audacious and daring. No comments were elicited.

The relation of these offences by Read were done in a light-hearted and humorous fashion, which made it extremely difficult to keep a straight face. However there is little doubt that Mark’s impetuosity is extremely dangerous. I do not think that anyone would disagree that this lad is a true-blue psychopath. An earlier diagnosis of autism is interesting, as is father’s presentation.

Transferred to Geelong

Chief or senior prison officer’s report:
No problem since he arrived at Geelong

Welfare Officer’s Report:
Mark has been at Geelong for several months and appears to have settled in satisfactorily. He mixes little with other inmates with the exception of a select few. He makes few requests and no demands.

Governor’s report:
Read has not encountered any problems since his arrival at Geelong. He is a deep-thinking type who keeps very much to himself. He needs supervision because of his record and his heavy medication. Recommended that he remain at Geelong. Review in December 1984.

Prisoner Read has been at Geelong since March 1984. His conduct on the surface has been excellent. Lately he has been receiving what he calls ‘gifts from other prisoners’. He has never purchased a canteen, but is never without canteen items.

Prisoner’s name: READ, Mark Brandon.

Transfer details: To H Division.

Reason for transfer: Suspected of standing over other prisoners for personal gain.

(What can I say? Not one drop of blood was spilt at Geelong. People, out of the goodness of their hearts, offer you gifts and you should hurt their feelings by rebuffing them? Surely not. When the Queen goes for a walk to stretch her royal legs, people give her flowers. When she has a birthday, the king of Bongo Congo sends her an umbrella stand made from an elephant’s foot and no-one gives a stuff. They didn’t send the old dear back to Pentridge for copping the occasional sling.) December 28, 1984

Released from jail in November, 1986

Mark Read

Read attended this evening at 6pm as required. He instantly recognised a large potential problem in another pre-releasee. Apparently Read was involved in an incident in prison in 1975 where the other man was hit with a baseball bat, and there has been ill-feeling between the groups ever since.

Both parties reacted significantly this evening, which makes the writer feel there is probably mostly truth in the allegations. It is our intention to have Read report to the centre at 1pm this Thursday, November 27, to ‘do’ his three hours.

At this time, a future possible placement will be discussed, as a psychiatric referral (which has been requested by Read).

Read left the centre (with permission) at 7.30pm.

In November 1986, I was released from Bendigo prison and ordered to report to the pre-release attendance centre in Carlton, it was situated near Lygon Street. In fact, it could be seen clearly from the Bowling Green Hotel, where Dennis Allen sometimes drank while waiting for his mother, who also had to report there. When I went in, she saw me and ran screaming into the office ranting and raving about how I had bashed her young son Dennis over his pinhead with a baseball bat. Actually, I did him a favour, because he had a head which needed regular panel beating.

There was some other non-event, two-bob gangster there as well, who joined in on the baseball bat story, and complained that I’d hit him with a baseball bat as well. Who did these characters think I was, Babe Ruth?

I told the people in charge that this was total nonsense.

I had in fact hit Allen over the head nine times with a large rolling pin. I thought he ‘kneaded’ it, ha ha.

As for the other numbskull, I hit him with a mop bucket. There was never a baseball bat in sight. Nevertheless, they refused to accept me at the attendance centre. All in all, they sent me to two more attendance centres, but it was the same old story.

Every time I would walk in, some crim would run to the office and sob out a story about how I had allegedly flogged him inside. In the end, they told me not to come in and just to check in via the phone. The Parole Board ended up sending me to Tasmania as it was easier for all concerned.

My popularity or lack of it in criminal circles was always a problem for the Parole Board. I was as popular as a hand grenade in a wedding cake. Bugger it, popularity has never been the aim of the game in my mind.

Mark Brandon Read
Unit 11/ No 1, Blyth St
Ravenswood, Launceston
Tasmania 7250

Hello Mr Jeffery,

It is I, Chopper, alive and well in the rural splendour of Tasmania. I’m on the dole, I’ve got a bank account with the Launceston Bank of Savings.

Dad introduced me to the police within half an hour of me getting off the plane. My sins in the mainland mean nothing in their eyes down here. If anyone farts in my general direction, from a distance of 300 yards, they are in bother. Ha ha.

Thank you for your help and understanding in this matter. Maybe one day I may be able to do you a kindness. What more can I say apart from take care and thank you once again.

After Read was released from jail on November 24, 1986, he claimed to be finished with crime and living quietly in Tasmania. But retirement was not for him; he secretly returned to Melbourne for hit-run raids on drug dealers. In the early hours of June 12, 1987, Read went to the Bojangles Nightclub and shot dead ‘Sammy the Turk’, Siam Ozerkam. Read was charged with murder. But while he never denied shooting Ozerkam in the left eye with a shotgun at point-blank range, he claimed it was self defence. In the end, to his surprise, the jury believed him and he was acquitted of murder.

Mark Brandon Read
H Div
PO Box 114
Coburg, Vic, 3058

Dear Mr Jeffery,

I received a couple of notices from the parole people – orders for the cancellation of my pre-release permit. Is this a normal state of affairs? And how does this leave me?

Should I be granted bail or found not guilty at court, what the hell did you tell them in your report?

If I am granted bail can anything be done? A bribe is not totally out of the question. If I am found not guilty, where do I stand? I hope this does not mean my parole is cancelled.

My God, all this fuss over a wog. Murder should be a five bob fine. Murder is too strong a word in this instance. I guess one could explain it away as Anglo-Turkish relations gone wrong.

I’d rather be tried by 12 than carried by six. Surely the Parole Board can wait to flex their biceps ’till after I’m found guilty, and that hasn’t happened yet. God is a Mason and a white man and he will protect me.

Let me know what’s going on.

July 29, 1987
To Mr Mark Read,
H Division, Pentridge

Dear Mark,

In answer to your question regarding pre-release. It is the practice of the Parole Board to cancel a pre-release permit when the conditions of the permit cannot be complied with. In your case you are in custody and cannot comply with the conditions. Should you be given bail the board does have the power to then release you on pre-release, but looking at the charge you are now facing I do not believe the board would release you.

Should you be found not guilty or the matter is withdrawn by the Crown, the board would look at your case. The board has the power to keep you inside or release you, that is up to the board. I would think that the chances of being released are good, but that is only my opinion.

Mark, a bribe is totally out of the question. I am not prepared to comment on your comments about Anglo-Turkish relations, or if God is a Mason.