From the Inside: Chopper 1 (22 page)

Nick is a prime example. Before I burnt his house down and shot up his mum’s home it was a case of Nick the Greek Who? Now he is a criminal superstar.

You might think I treated him a little harshly, but look at it this way. When Nick’s grandchildren sit at his feet and say ‘What did you do in the old days, Grandad?’ he can say to them with pride, ‘Chopper Read burnt my house down’. There we have the sum total of Nick the Greek’s claim to fame. God save us all.

People who ask me why I burnt his house down obviously don’t know Nick. Any reasonable person who met him would either want to knock him out or burn his house down. He is an obnoxious character who really can’t kick a goal.

On reflection, I believe that Nick the Greek should be set on fire himself on a regular basis. As a street fighter he would make a great ladies’ hairdresser. In the world of real criminals Nick is not noted for his bravery.

Look at his working history, he has been a car salesman and a drug dealer. I wouldn’t buy a vehicle from him, unless it was a used fire truck.

A short post script to me burning down Nick the Greek’s house in Footscray. Every Christmas since then I have sent him a Christmas card and on it I write.

‘Dear Nick,

I shook your nerves and I rattled your brain,
My kind of love just drove you insane,
I broke your will,
Oh what a thrill,
Goodness gracious great balls of fire,‘
Ha Ha,
Thinking of you always, Chopper.’

Paul Steven Haig and Robert Wright

Paul Steven Haig is one of the most notorious convicted mass murderers in Australia. He has admitted to killing six people in an 11-month period. His victims include women and a nine-year-old boy.

Haig killed Caulfield pizza shop owner Bruno Cingolani on December 7, 1978, spinster Evelyn Abrahams at the Prahran Tattersalls agency where she worked on September 21, 1978, criminal Wayne Keith Smith on June 27, 1979, Sheryl Anne Gardener and her son, Danny William Mitchell, on July 22, 1979, and was involved in the murder Eve Karlson. He is serving six life sentences for the murders plus 15 years for robberies and malicious wounding. He says that he has now changed and no longer considers himself a criminal.

During the murder spree he teamed up with Robert Wright, who was also convicted over multiple murders.

Wright had a history of escaping from jail. He was one of the most violent men in the jail. Wright was one of the live prison inmates who died in the Jika Jika division fire in 1987.

He was considered to be the ring leader of the group and the man who had the idea to start the fire as a protest. He was furious because his application to be moved from Jika had been rejected. The plan was to start the fire to destroy the unit. The men underestimated the density of the smoke and were overcome and died before prison officers could get to them.

*

I KNEW Haig on the outside in the sharpie days of the 1970s. He was always a quiet sort of fellow, very meek and non-violent. His friendship with Robert Wright was odd but not homosexual. Haig stated in court once he was a homosexual but he wasn’t. Why he would want to claim that he was a homosexual was a puzzle. If he walked into a gay liberation meeting they would call the police. He teamed up with Wright for a while but Robert ended up hating him.

If Wright hadn’t died in the Jika Jika fire I think he would have ended up killing Haig. Wright used to joke that if Haig tried to earn his living as a male prostitute he would have died of starvation. He is not, and never has been a homosexual.

Wright told me that Haig once read a book on an American psychopath mass killer who was homosexual and maybe Haig thought that was a good image to have. And as for his newfound love of God — the number of nutters in jail who give their hearts to God is frightening. I certainly wouldn’t want to kneel for a quiet word of prayer in front of that congregation, let me tell you.

Wright told me that Haig’s new Christian feelings were about as real as his homosexuality. Anyone thinking that Haig is just a bible-bashing poofter is making a big mistake. If a homosexual priest went to Haig with the offer of some activity in the shower room he would be a dead man. If Jack the Ripper met Haig on a dark night, Jack would shit himself.

I knew Bobby Wright since we were both young blokes in Prahran. Mad Charlie told me he used to stand over Wright for his lunch money at Prahran Tech. I used to love to tease him about that, even though I was never sure if it was true. I left school at 15 and never went to Prahran Tech. But we got around a few pool rooms together, knocked about now and again as young guys, not real friends, just now and again knockabout mates.

Robert wasn’t half as mad as people thought. He’d act a bit psycho to get people going and he wasn’t any sort of a fighter. In fact, poor Robert couldn’t beat time with a bass drum. I don’t know, to others he was a psychopathic killer, but when you’ve known a guy since he was a kid, you see him in a different light. My old dad still carries a handmade leather wallet with KEITH engraved into the leather that Robert Wright made for him.

One thing people outside Pentridge don’t know, Robert Wright was without a shadow of doubt the finest chess player in the prison system. Totally unbeatable among the prisoners and staff who challenged him.

I beat Robert in six moves once, but I had a bit of a psychological advantage . . . I was carrying a tomahawk at the time. I’m sure Robert let me win to be on the safe side. Ha, ha.

Robert and Jimmy Loughnan were known as Heckle and Jeckle, but the crazy psycho act was just that.

Craig Minogue was on the other side of the unit when it went up. He nearly died as well. What can anyone really say.

Jimmy Loughnan and Robert Wright cut the throat of and nearly killed Sydney crim Colin Stratton in Jika Jika. Stratton had pistol whipped Robert’s sister.

Frankie Waghorn

Frankie Waghorn is considered one of the toughest men in prison. He was found guilty and then granted a re-trial over the stabbing murder of John Turner. In 1991 he stood trial again and was convicted of the murder.

*

IF there is anyone around who can throw a punch harder than Frankie Waghorn, I haven’t met him.

We have been friends without cross words for some 20 years. The only time it came close to bloodshed, and this is something Frankie doesn’t even know, was after his fight with Mad Charlie in B Division in 1975. Afterwards I asked Charlie if he wanted revenge, and revenge would have meant big bloodshed. Frankie was, and still is, a respected and feared criminal identity, and bloodshed against Frank would have started a gang war inside Pentridge that would have moved to the streets after release.

Frankie Waghorn would punch the false teeth out of an elephant. Charlie, when faced with real life and death blood and guts, preferred to take a low profile and shake hands. In a way I’m glad as Frankie Waghorn is a good friend.

Frankie was arrested for the murder of Johnny Turner in 1989. Turner was the beloved nephew of old time gangster and underworld figure, Joseph Patrick Turner. Rumours of revenge soon turned to handshakes when Frankie Waghorn walked into the Jika Jika hotel in Fitzroy. Old Joey didn’t want a war. A war with Waghorn also meant a war with me, and whatever else I may do badly, I don’t lose gang wars. While other kids were playing marbles, I was playing war, and reading military history.

I am personally convinced Frank didn’t kill Johnny Turner. Frank wouldn’t need a knife to kill anyone. He punches so hard he would have punched Turner into the wall and left him there as an air vent.

Frankie Waghorn is a pretty good jail house cook. However, he is nowhere near Slim Minogue’s standard.

When Frankie first started to cook for me I was convinced he thought that Cordon Bleu was a French bank robber.

He could have received 10 with a 7 year minimum for any dish he made but, through trial and error, he ended up doing a fantastic fried rice, with smoked oysters, capsicums, onions, garlic, paprika, egg, and assorted spice which would have gone down well at The Flower Drum Chinese Restaurant.

The trouble was that Frankie only knew how to cook fried rice. If you eat fried rice seven days a week, it can get on your nerves, so he tried Italian stew. Frankie is no Italian and for a moment there I thought it was a plot to kill me. But he improved on that with spaghetti, meat balls, garlic, paprika, onions, capsicums and HP sauce. Very tasty.

Now and again we wash it down with a nice bottle of el cheapo plonk, a red or white, or the odd drop of Dimple Scotch whisky. Well, if the junkies can get their stuff in, I see no reason why I should go without.

Keith Faure

Keith George Faure is a murderer, armed robber and a career criminal who is considered one of the major players in the Victorian underworld. He was the criminal who stood against Read in the Pentridge civil war which went for more than five years.

Faure has been convicted of two manslaughters, armed robbery and the shooting of a policeman.

He was convicted of shooting Senior-Constable Michael Pratt in the back during the robbery of an ANZ bank in Clifton Hill on June 4, 1976.

Faure shot Pratt as the off duty policeman tried to stop the robbery.

Pratt received the George Cross for bravery but was forced to retire because of his injuries.

He was convicted of killing Shane Dennis Rowland in a Richmond house on May 1, 1976.

He was also convicted of the November 1976 killing fellow Pentridge inmate Alan Sopulak, who was stabbed nine times with a sharpened butter knife.

Faure was first charged with breaking and entering when he was 11. He has a history of escape, theft and violence.

He gives his occupations as Painter and Docker, slaughterman and abalone sheller.

Within weeks of being released early from jail in late 1987 he was involved in the armed robbery of a Thorn-bury jewellery shop which left a man dead. Faure was sentenced to 13 years for his involvement.

In 1990, he was stabbed twice in the chest in Pentridge’s B Division.

His wife, Sandra, lived with armed robber, Graeme Jensen, who was killed by police in 1988.

Faure broke the long standing underworld code and made a statement to police after the killing. He claimed to know that Jensen was carrying a gun at the time he was killed.

He said Jensen had to carry a gun because he was afraid that Faure’s friends would kill him for living with Sandra.

Faure later repudiated the statement to the Coronial Inquest.

But criminals have long memories and according to Read, Faure’s statement to the police has left him a marked man.

*

I THINK, that before too long there will be a major underworld war as a result of a statement made by police to Keith Faure.

Keithy went against the Walsh Street crew in an under the counter manner that now has been found out. This will only end when Keithy is killed or a gang war will break out on his release.

Keithy was once an enemy of mine so this one will be interesting to watch. The Carlton Crew have also been sent a copy of Keithy’s statement as they have backed him for years. Faure has little or no support left in the criminal world, but if this came down to a battle of the streets I wouldn’t discount him for one second. It should be a nice old bloodbath cither way. Neither side is what I would call heavy thinkers regarding tactics and in the world of blood and guts, gun against gun, I would describe both sides as a total comedy of errors. Keithy Faure was once a power of sorts in the criminal world, but this has finished him. Even if he wins the physical battle, he is finished.

I am pleased to say that this will be one shit fight in Melbourne that does not involve my good self, however, I am looking forward to some high comedy as a result of it. What’s life without a giggle. Personally, I wouldn’t take either side to a shit fight on a dark night.

Amos Atkinson

One of the original members of the overcoat gang and a man with a taste for gang war almost equal to Chopper’s was Amos Atkinson.

From the age of 12 he wanted to be a gangster. He used to have pictures of Al Capone stuck on his bedroom walls.

He was expelled from school when he went to classes drunk at the age of 13 and soon graduated to stealing cars. By the age of 18 he was serving eight years in Pentridge for armed robbery.

He teamed up with Read and took part in a war which raged behind the walls of Pentridge for five years.

In 1979, he cut off his ears to become a member of the Van Gogh Club in Pentridge a year after Read lost his own.

In 1978, Atkinson held 30 people hostage at gunpoint in a Melbourne restaurant, The Italian Waiters’ Club, in a failed bid to have Read released from jail.

Atkinson said that if Read was not released within 24 hours he would begin to kill hostages. The siege failed after four hours and Atkinson was arrested. Atkinson fired shots at police during a wild cab ride outside the club before the siege began.

He was convicted and sentenced to five years for the offences.

But Read and Atkinson were later to fall out. Read said Atkinson failed to warn him he had been earmarked to be killed in a knife attack inside H Division.

Read no longer considers Atkinson an ally.

*

I SUSPECT that Amos Atkinson started to dislike me way back in the early 1980s in Jika Jika. He was in unit two, side two and I was in unit two, side one.

Amos had been sent a beautiful electric clock radio, he went out to sign for it and took it out of the box. I was standing at the glass doorway watching. Amos had a look of almost childlike wonder on his face, he was so delighted with the new clock radio. I yelled out in front of the screws, ‘Amos, white man make big magic in little box. Ha ha.’

Amos smashed the lovely clock radio on the cement floor and went to his cell, the bloody sook. Some people just can’t take a joke.

When I got out of jail in November 1986, I found Amos living in a de facto relationship with a white girl. She was a nice enough young lass, but I found the relationship distasteful. In the wee hours of the morning in 1987 I pulled up outside Amos’s house, blind drunk, stood on the front lawn and let off three shots to awaken the household. Then, at the top of my voice I proceeded to sing that old country and western classic: