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From The Desk -Based On BullSh*t · Real Crime with Adam Shand

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: A Poche Production. Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, Adam Shand. And this is my Friday
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: feature from the desk. A question for all you true
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: crime buffs. Why did so many of us want to
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: believe Chopper Reed? Or if we didn't, why do we
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: tolerate being gulled by him and paying good money for it?
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: His books alone sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide... and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: continue to sell? These are questions I've been asking myself
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: as I investigate the real story of arguably Australia's most
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: famous criminal. Certainly he's the only local crook I've known
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to have the New York Times newspaper publish an obituary
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: when he died in 2013. Not bad for a highly
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: unsuccessful crook and a crime author who couldn't spell. Chopper
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: told us he was a ruthless, remorseless enforcer, who inhabited
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: a world of extreme violence. We bought his books, watched
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: his interviews, laughed at his often macabre jokes and turned
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: him into a national celebrity. But shock horror! What if
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: much of what we believed about Chopper wasn't true? What
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: if a small number of violent incidents had been exaggerated
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: and embellished into an enormous criminal mythology? And why were
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: we so willing to believe him? Perhaps It's because Australians
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: have always had a soft spot for the larrikin, the outlaw,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the man who thumbs his nose at authority. But Mark
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: wasn't even that. He was an inmate who worked with
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: the screws against fellow inmates and then came out of
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: jail and worked with the police against other crooks. His
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: motto was never to plead guilty, but he invariably did,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: except when facing a murder charge. From Ned Kelly onwards,
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: we've had a peculiar habit of turning criminals into folk heroes.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Kelly's famous manifesto, the Gerilderie Letter, transformed a common thief
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: and cop killer into a national symbol of resistance. The
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: key element of that myth-making was that the full version
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: of the letter wasn't made available to the public until 1930.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Kelly wanted it published in 1879 after the robbery of
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  Speaker 1: the bank in Gerilderie, but only summaries were published at
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the time. It was published in instalments between the 29th
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: of September and the 2nd of October 1930 in Adelaide's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Register News pictorial newspaper. Then it was published again later
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: that year in the Melbourne Herald newspaper. It was only
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: in 2000 the public got to see the original when
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the handwritten document was donated to the Victorian State Library
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and made available online. By then, the facts of Ned
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Kelly's criminal exploits had been camouflaged by the legends Kelly
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: must have been disappointed to have his views suppressed before
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: his execution in November 1880. But in death, Ned continues
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to win the public relations war just as Chopper is.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Mark Reed wrote his autobiography in 1991 while still in jail.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: Chopper from the inside paraded fiction as fact from the
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: very first page. But it created the story that was
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: later immortalised in the Chopper movies. when the great earless
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: one was played by Eric Banner. I argue that this
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: version of Chopper from 2000 was so successful and attractive
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that Mark decided to incorporate elements of it into his
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: own public performance. And why not, when the character was
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: originally an invention anyway? Mark reads Chopper was funny. He
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: was outrageous. He was a brilliant storyteller who understood his audience.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: He made violence sound entertaining, even absurd. His missing ears,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: tattoos and prison record gave him an authenticity that few
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: people thought to question. Least of all, a generation of
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  Speaker 1: journalists that flocked to him whenever a colourful underworld quote
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: was needed. Mark offered us a glimpse into a dangerous
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: world most of us would never experience. We could enjoy
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: the excitement of the underworld from the safety of our
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: living rooms. There was also the comforting fiction of a
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: criminal with a moral code. Chopper portrayed himself as a
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: man who preyed on other criminals, not ordinary innocent people.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: But was that really true? Chopper understood the power of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: reputation better than almost anyone, and perhaps the media understood
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: it too. The more dangerous Chopper appeared, the better the headlines,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: the bigger the book sales, and the more compelling the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: TV interviews. Everyone had something to gain from keeping the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: legend alive. Which brings me to an uncomfortable possibility. Perhaps
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Chopper and the Australian public entered into an unspoken agreement.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: He would tell us outrageous stories and we wouldn't look
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: too closely at whether they were true. He got fame,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: money and a fearsome reputation. We got entertainment, laughter and
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: a uniquely Australian anti-hero. And perhaps journalists, publishers and filmmakers
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: were just as invested in preserving that mythology. Chopper didn't
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: necessarily fool Australia. Perhaps Australia was a willing participant in
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: the deception. I'm currently making The Real Chopper, a podcast
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: series that'll separate the man from the myth. I'm examining
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: the actual evidence behind his reputation, the incidents that really happened,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: the stories that grew in the telling, and the role
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: we all played in creating the legends. even his posthumous
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: confession of four murders. And I want to hear from you.
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  Speaker 1: Did you believe Chopper? Did you admire him? Did you
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: think he was a fraud? And has your opinion changed
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: over the years? And if you knew him personally, encountered him,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: or have first-hand information, I'd particularly like to hear from you.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: Because this investigation isn't just about who Chopper really was.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: It's also about why we wanted to believe the stories
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: he told us. You can send me your thoughts and
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: true stories about Chopper or Mark Reed, whichever. This is
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the last time I'll be doing this, so don't be shy.
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Contact me on adamshandwriter at gmail.com or you can look
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: me up on Facebook. The link is in the show notes.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: But as always, if you've got a crime you want
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: to report, please call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: I'm Adam Shand from The Desk. Thanks for listening. Thanks
• 7:08
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• 7:12
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• 7:16
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• 7:18
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• 7:22
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• 7:25
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• 7:28
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• 7:31
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