A true crime jaunt about a meme-man.
Democracy Manifest/Succulent Chinese Meal Guy is a rather famous (and ludicrous) arrest video taken in Australia in the early 90’s. If you have never seen the video in question, I’ll pop in here now for your viewing pleasure. While notable at the time, it became absolute meme fodder about ten years ago when someone decided to put it online.
And once you watch the video, you’ll have no doubt as to why this happened. The man being arrested has a thespian’s knack for getting attention and is putting every ounce of energy he possesses into getting it.
However, despite the man’s forceful presence and memorable booming voice, it was years before anyone put a name to the face.
Well, Mark Dapin has now written a book about him. Dapin had had a number of forays into crime writing before but was starting to get a little conflicted about it. He was actually working on another book about prison breaks when he received a phone call from a man whose booming voice could approach Brian Blessed proportions, stating: “ You must include my own escape from custody!”
That man was, of course, the Succulent Chinese Meal Guy himself—Jack Karlson.
Now, how did he get Dapin’s number, you ask? A former inmate of a high-security prison had passed it onto him. This method of contact and the fact that Carson was eager to talk about prison breaks makes it no surprise when Jack Karlson turns out to be part of Australia’s criminal demimonde.
And he’d like that term. He’d like that it sounds a little intellectual and sophisticated. You get the impression that Karlson wanted people to forget his background; born Cecil George Edwards, Karlson grew up in Queensland before being sent off to a boy’s home at a very young age. Of course, this quickly led him to start hanging around older crims, and you can guess what happens from there.
What interested me the most though was just how enmeshed Karlson was in the criminal underworld. Not only has he more than one prison break to his name—and I won’t mention the details here because I don’t want to spoil them—he also performed in prison theatre and taught himself to paint. He has also managed to rub shoulders with some very unsavoury characters, among them Neddy Smith, Mark ‘Chopper’ Reed and contract killer Christopher Dale Flannery, the Mr Rent-a-Kill of the title. (Every time that man’s name turns up in crime stories from the past decades, you know something horrific is going to happen; Flannery even popped his head up in the Fine Cotton Fiasco.)
And to top that off, in the messy aftermath of someone else’s prison breakout, his wife was murdered.
Karlson’s story can be very engrossing at times, but you come to see that he himself isn’t exactly a great person. And this is something Dapin wrestles a bit as well. We are pulled in by these terrible stories about terrible people, but in the end, even though some of them are charismatic, they are still terrible people. It won’t stop me from indulging in memes—the moment is hilarious—but that doesn’t mean I believe Karlson is a great guy.
But if you have an interest in true crime, Carnage might be right up your alley. And to top everything off, I’m just going to mention that the crime Karlson was arrested for in the video? The supposed dine-and-dash?
They got the wrong man.
Prison breaks, Guilty. Not paying for his succulent Chinese meals? No.
