In an interview on with Adam
Shand on Channel 9's Sunday program (aired on March 18, 2007), Read said
that "the Italians" were the real winners in Melbourne's
gangland wars.
Read said that
convicted gangland murderer Carl
Williams may have the score on the
board, but ultimately he is the loser.
Read named the
real winner of the so-called gangland war as
Mick
Gatto.
"Mick
Gatto's got more brains (than
Williams)," Read said.
"He was
sitting there playing chess quietly."
Williams pleaded
guilty last month to three murders after a
number of his former associates turned on
him.
Gatto had
earlier beaten a charge of murdering
Williams' hitman associate Andrew
Veniamin on the grounds of
self-defence.
He is now free
and running a crane company.
In his
interview, Read says Gatto used Italian
criminal philosophy, which in such
situations is usually superior to the
Australian version.
"Italians
are prepared to lose 20 or 30 people in a
gangland war in order to ultimately win
it," he said.
"Whereas
Australians ... when in doubt, shoot
everybody."
Read also
criticised Williams' choice of hitmen.
"He
(Williams) must be in his cell now wondering
what possessed him to hire these
knuckleheads, these junkies, these dogs and
these scumbags to go and do these killings
for him," he said.
"Now
they're dobbing each other in, whereas the
Italians have stuck staunch and haven't said
a word."
On April 8, 2007, the Sunday Herald Sun
reported that Read was being investigated after declaring himself
bankrupt with a credit card debt of almost $80,000.
Chopper had amassed the debt in only two months,
before filing for bankruptcy.
Read said he also owed $140,000 to 12 people who
gave him private loans.
In documents filed with Insolvency Trustee
Services Australia, he said all he had to his name was $100 and a 27-year-old
ute.
But bankruptcy investigators wanted to know what
had happened to the cash Read earned from his 11 books, artworks that sold for
up to $8000 and a string of business ventures.
Read said officials raided his home as part of
what he called a "heavy-handed" investigation.
"They think I have got treasures hidden
somewhere," he said.
Bankruptcy documents revealed Read amassed a
total of $78,328 on four credit cards in April and May 2006, then filed for
bankruptcy in November.
Read told the Sunday Herald Sun that a
gambling addiction, failed art gallery, lack of work and the cost of looking
after his family led to his financial collapse.
He insisted he had not made a financial killing
out of his ventures.
More than 500,000 copies of Read's books have
been sold and he also made a name for himself as a public speaker in a
travelling roadshow with former footballer Mark Jackson.
His business partner, Frank Deaney was still
selling a range of Chopper-signed items.
More than 30 items, including artworks and an
autographed meat cleaver, were auctioned on eBay during the week the story
broke, some selling for several hundred dollars.
A recent lunch with Chopper for four people,
complete with signed souvenir machetes, sold online for $4050.
But Read denied he had become wealthy.
"I made very little money out of selling the
books," he said.
And he said he didn't receive a cent from the
acclaimed movie about his life, which starred Eric Bana.
Read said he spent much of his money supporting
his wife, Margaret, and their three-year-old son, as well as his former wife and
seven-year-old son.
Read vowed to pay the money back and said he had
given up a gambling habit that cost him $1000 a day on blackjack and roulette
tables.
"I had a problem with gambling for about 12
months," he said. "I don't really go (to casinos) any more."
His latest ventures were designed to pay off
debts.
"I reckon I can pay it back," he said.
Read said authorities had seized valuable
possessions, including a 1953 portrait of the Queen he claims is signed by her.
Victorian bankruptcy receiver Adam Toma confirmed
Read's file was under administration.
"It is being administered in the same way as
anyone else's would," he said.
On
May 1, 2007, Chopper spoke to the media outside court and said
that he would outlive underworld serial killer Carl
Williams.
Read does not believe Williams, who on the same
day faced
the third day of a Supreme Court plea hearing related to three gangland
killings, will survive in prison because "he hasn't got enough jail
smarts".
He said Williams would be a target in prison.
"He'll be scared to death.
"He'll be on strict protection. He'll be
frightened to death. He'll have to watch out for low-flying pocket knives."
Justice Betty King was deciding whether or not to
impose a minimum sentence on Williams after he pleaded guilty to three of the
murders he has pending.
Williams was already serving a jail term for the
2003 murder of hot dog vendor and suspected drug dealer Michael
Marshall.
Chopper had just appeared in
Melbourne Magistrates' Court and was
fined $300 after pleading guilty to careless driving.
Read, who said he was asleep during most of hearing,
agreed to plead guilty after police struck out two more serious driving
charges over an incident involving a parked car in Clifton Hill last August.
He walked from court alongside his heavily tattooed minder, Tony
"The Face" Cronin and thanked his legal team for defending him while
he dozed through the case.
Mark "Chopper" Read (second from left) with his support team —
manager Andrew "Hill of Grace" Roper (left), lawyer Bernie Balmer and
chauffeur Tony Cronin — outside court.
Photo: Pat Scala
"I'd like to thank the sterling work of my
lawyer Bernie Balmer here, he did an excellent job," Read said.
"I was asleep through most of the
proceedings, I didn't hear a word he said, but I know he said brilliant words on
my behalf. He got me out of it, as always."
When asked why he struggled to stay awake, Read
said: "Courtrooms always put me to sleep."
Read lamented the mundane nature of his latest offence.
"It's one of the less eventful ones, (it
was) a waste of time them even taking me to court," he said. "It's
rubbish, I bumped into some car and that's it."
The court heard Read, of Collingwood, was trying
to park his black Ford ute in Clifton Hill on August 14, 2006, when his
vehicle made contact with the front of a blue Peugeot.
When questioned by police, Read denied he
had struck or damaged the car, saying: "There was no damage, there was no
accident."
The owner of the car had told police the
collision caused $1500 damage to the front of his car.
Mr Balmer said Read, who was working as a painter
and public speaker, denied he had caused any damage to the car.
While his client had a chequered criminal
history, he had maintained an unblemished driving record and should be treated
leniently, he said.
"It's a wonderful day when you can arrive in
court representing Mr Read and say there are no priors, your honour," Mr
Balmer said.
"He says this is the first accident he's
ever had."
Magistrate Catherine Lamble described the charge
as minor.
Read was convicted and fined $300.
On March 13, 2008, Blues legend Peter Bosustow told how he played peacemaker between a leading underworld figure and a convicted murderer.
Bosustow said he'd been asked by Chopper Read to smooth relations with Mick Gatto and the so-called Carlton Crew.
The high-flying forward knew Gatto, along with Alphonse Gangitano and Mark and Jason Moran, through their fervent support for the Blues.
"You'd meet them as a celebrity footballer, and that's the way they would treat you," Bosustow told the Herald Sun.
He said they didn't regard him as a member of the underworld.
Bosustow, who played 65 games with the Blues between 1981 and 1983, and Read have done more than 300 public speaking engagements together since 2001.
He recalled the day Read told him he'd "had a problem with Mick Gatto, and Alphonse and Jason as well".
"I said to him that Mick was a one-eyed Carlton supporter, so he asked me to go and speak to Mick for him.
"I said I would. I was oblivious to what was going on. I wasn't in that area. So I just bowled into one of the Carlton restaurants one day, and Mick was there with his minder.
"We both shook hands and I sat down. I said, 'I need to talk to you about Chopper Read.'
"He said, 'Oh, yes.'
"I asked, 'Do you have a problem with Chopper Read?' He said, 'Absolutely not.' And I said, 'Well, Chopper said to me exactly the same thing.'
"He said, 'Buzz. If you see Chopper, then you tell him if I see him in Lygon St on a cafe strip I'll have a coffee with him'.
"And that was it. I reported to Chopper and he said, 'Good. That's it'."
Known widely as "The Buzz", Bosustow was close to Mark and Jason Moran, who were killed in Melbourne's violent underworld feuds.
One of the connections was through the Morans' grandfather, Leo Brooks, a Blues stalwart with whom Bosustow boarded when he came to Melbourne from Perth.
Leo Brooks died about a month before Mark Moran was murdered.
Bosustow recalled Brooks's funeral, where mourners included 30 or 40 gangsters, including Jason Moran in handcuffs.
"I spoke to Jason a week and a half before he was murdered. He was in Perth to 'sort out something'," Bosustow said.
"That's the sort of guy he was. Business was business to him and pleasure was a different thing."
Asked if he believed Moran had an inkling of what lay ahead for him, Bosustow said: "I think he knew. He had to be very silly if he didn't know.
"I spoke to Mark about four weeks before he was murdered. He was petrified."
Bosustow said he did not attend either brother's funeral.
He said the Underbelly TV series, which cannot be shown in Victoria for legal reasons, was a hit in Western Australia, where he lives.
"It's captured the imagination of everyone here. Everybody is talking about it," he said.
"Jason and Mark are household names. I don't know if that is good. Jason was a very vicious boy."
The couple had a
baby boy, Charlie, named after Read's long-time friend 'Mad' Charlie 
Read, speculated about the death of 
In May 2002, Read
caused a stir with the release of his latest publication, the children's picture
book, 'Hooky the Cripple".
On
February 21, 2007, 3AW's Derryn Hinch reported that Chopper Read was auctioning a tour on E-Bay in which
Read
would escort the lucky bidders around Melbourne to the scenes of 33 shootings
which he was involved in.