Chopper v Gangitano: Inside a vicious underworld rivalry
From hurling fistfuls of excrement to dynamite, almost nothing was off limits in the feud between “Chopper” Read and Alphonse Gangitano.
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In a new series we look at the biggest rivalries of Melbourne’s underworld, beginning with Mark “Chopper’’ Read and “The Black Prince of Lygon St’’ Alphonse Gangitano.
Mark “Chopper’’ Read made plenty of enemies. He liked it that way.
As the leader of Pentridge Prison’s “Overcoat Gang’’, he sought control of prison politics by bashing veteran criminals, particularly the hard nuts from the Painters and Dockers penned up with him.
But outside Pentridge Prison’s bluestone walls he had a special war with a man he churlishly labelled a “plastic Godfather’’ — Alphonse Gangitano.
To his dying day, Read would mock Gangitano even though his old adversary had been dead for 15 years.
Read spent little more than a year outside of prison walls between the ages of 20 and 38 but it didn’t stop him making Gangitano’s life a nightmare.
Call it old school versus private school or psychopath versus egotist, their power struggle had all the hallmarks of a street brawler going toe-to-toe with a prize fighter.
But Read had an extra dollop of destructive force Gangitano found hard to counter.
Like many who faced the unpredictable “Chopper’’ in the underworld, his disarming charm turned to ultra violence with barely a change of gear.
That’s what made him so scary.
During their feud in the 1980s and early 1990s, Gangitano was afraid of him because Read was unafraid of consequences. He seemed to enjoy pain, if not withstand it with a smile. And he was willing to fight to the death.
The reason for the fallout is unclear, but Read once recalled a disagreement between the pair about a “neighbourhood hero’’ Gangitano admired.
Read also recounted an attack upon him in a toilet cubicle by Gangitano and his associates.
After Gangitano kicked the door in he and his goons launched blows upon Read.
An ever resourceful Read fought back with whatever he had at his disposal. Gangitano was, allegedly, hit with a face full of excrement.
Read, who infamously had his ears cut off in an effort to be sent to a prison psychiatric ward, kept what was left of it to the ground to keep track of Gangitano, who avoided him.
Among the many ill-conceived plots Read had to kill off the “Black Prince’’ was to explode landmines at his adversary’s eastern suburbs home. But, knowing others would likely be killed, he scrapped the idea.
Gangitano could relax when Read was in jail, which was most of the time. But Gangitano made sure he knew when the standover man was due for release.
When Chopper was nearing the end of one of his last prison stints in the early 1990s, Gangitano sent a proxy into prison to broker peace while also putting a price on Read’s head.
Neither plan worked out so Gangitano took his family overseas for a couple of years as Read returned to the streets in 1991.
But Read had hoped to go straight, before shooting another rival, Syd Collins, in Tasmania, earning a stint in Risdon Prison.
Read also understood the impact of theatre.
Among the most memorable of their encounters, Read said, was when he walked into a nightclub looking for Gangitano who was meant to be the club’s “protection’’.
There was nothing unusual, it seemed, as Read strolled the floor until he found the Black Prince.
Beneath his jacket he exposed two sticks of dynamite strapped to his chest which he could easily ignite with the lit cigar between his fingers.
Gangitano knew he was mad enough to light the wick.
He didn’t hang about and ran to the nearest bathroom and escaped through a window.
Read, however, found it more difficult to handle jailhouse criminals more like himself.
He came off second best in two epic “sneak go’’ attacks.
One was with his mate Jimmy Loughnan. Another to get the better of him was friend turned rival, Greg “Bluey’’ Brazel.
Brazel was, like Read, institutionalised from an early age. And like the hulking standover man seemed to be carefree about the consequences of his actions.
Instead of grimacing, he smiled when police bashed him.
Brazel also had bragging rights over Read. For a time he was considered the most dangerous inmate in the prison system.
Brazel showed him why in 1979.
The pair were friends before, as Brazel was prone to do, decided to slash him with a makeshift prison knife known as a ‘shiv’.
Read recalled in a Collingwood pub that his intestines were spilling out onto the floor after the excellent “sneak go’’.
Although attacks from “friends’’ featured in Read’s prison life, he immediately vowed revenge.
As recorded in the book “Tough: 101 Australian Gangsters’’, Read split his stitches the next day performing push-ups to get in shape for a counter-attack.
While Read would eventually find a path away from crime as a top-selling author, comedian and painter after spending most of his life in prison, Brazel would not.
A three-time murderer, Brazel remains in a maximum-security prison.
Read died in 2013 after spending the 1990s and 2000s as a cult celebrity figure earned largely from his ‘’Chopper’’ series of books.
His fame went from cult status to household name after the release of the 2000 movie Chopper.
But he hated the scene in which he was depicted bashing his onscreen girlfriend, Tanya, which he said never happened.
And although Read always admitted he embellished his criminal history, he always contended his feud with Gangitano was his fiercest.
Read outlasted him by 15 years.
Gangitano’s most dangerous rival was likely his trusted ally, Jason Moran, who is believed to have shot him in his Templestowe home in 1998.
Originally published as Chopper v Gangitano: Inside a vicious underworld rivalry
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