Snowtown murders

Snowtown killers
Born	John Bunting Robert Wagner Mark Haydon James Vlassakis
Details
Victims	12
Span of crimes	August 1992 – May 1999
Country	Australia
State	South Australia
Date apprehended	21 May 1999

The Snowtown murders – also known as the Bodies-in-Barrels murders – were a series of homicides that took place in South Australia between August 1992 and May 1999. The name "Snowtown murders" refers to the town where the bodies were found; despite the fact only one of the eleven victims was killed there, and none of the victims or the perpetrators were from Snowtown. The crimes were uncovered when the remains of eight victims were found in barrels of acid located in a rented former bank building on 20 May 1999, hence the other name.

The town of Snowtown is 145 kilometres (90 mi) north of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. The bodies had been held in a series of locations in South Australia at different times and were only moved to Snowtown in early 1999 after the accused became aware that police were investigating them regarding several missing person cases, very late in a crime spree that had spanned almost seven years. The eight bodies were found in six plastic barrels in the disused bank vault. Three days later, two bodies were found buried in a backyard in the Adelaide suburb of Salisbury North. By the end of June, nine of the 10 victims had been identified. The discoveries followed a lengthy, covert criminal investigation by South Australian Police. During the investigation, two deaths already known to authorities were determined to have been perpetrated by the same murderers. A twelfth charge relating to the death of Suzanne Allen was dropped due to lack of evidence.

Four men were arrested and charged over the murders. Three of the men were convicted of murder and given life sentences; the fourth was convicted of assisting. The court decided that John Justin Bunting was the ringleader of this conspiracy. More than 250 suppression orders prevented publication of details of this case. In early 2011, a judge lifted the remaining orders in response to a request by the producers of the film Snowtown, a dramatization of the murders.

Perpetrators

• John Justin Bunting (b. 1966 in Inala, Queensland) was convicted of murdering all listed victims except Suzanne Allen. He was found to have been the leader of the perpetrators. Forensic psychiatrist Professor Kevin Howells, who has worked at Broadmoor Hospital in the United Kingdom suggested [1] that Bunting's behaviour lacks emotion and the capacity to empathise with his victims. Howells observed that Bunting fits the profile of a psychopathic killer who derives satisfaction from controlling his victims. When he was young, his favourite pastime was burning insects in acid. During his teenage years, he was a neo-Nazi. In adulthood, Bunting developed a deep hatred of paedophiles and homosexuals.
• Robert Joe Wagner was befriended by Bunting in 1991. He was encouraged by Bunting to assist him in the various murders, and complied.
• Mark Ray Haydon was not convicted of any of the murders, but pleaded guilty to helping the serial killers dispose of the bodies.
• James Spyridon Vlassakis, along with his mother and half-brother, lived with Bunting, and was gradually drawn into helping with the murders and torture. Initially declined to co-operate as his mother was implicated. He became the Crown's star witness following her death.
• Elizabeth Harvey, Vlassakis' mother, who knew about the murders, and with Bunting's encouragement, assisted in one of them, died of cancer after the arrests of Bunting, Wagner, Vlassakis, and Haydon.
• Thomas Trevilyan assisted in the murder of Barry Lane in 1997, murdered by the other gang members prior to police involvement.
• Jodie Elliott, sister of Mark Ray Haydon's wife Elizabeth Haydon, was a woman with below-average intelligence who had become besotted with Bunting. She impersonated a deceased former acquaintance of Bunting's, Suzanne Allen, to collect her social security payments. Elliott's son, Frederick Brooks, was later murdered by the gang.

The murders

Bunting moved into the Salisbury North home in 1991 and quickly befriended Wagner, Wagner's boyfriend Barry Lane, and Mark Haydon, who all lived nearby.

The various victims were mainly chosen on a whim by John Bunting for imagined infractions. He especially hated pedophiles, and some victims were murdered after Bunting was informed of their alleged sexual behaviour with children, usually based on flimsy evidence or rumour. Others were killed due to dislike of obese people, or drug users or because they were gay men. Most of the victims were friends or acquaintances of at least one of the group. Others were relatives, sometimes living in the same house as one of the killers. Others were briefly befriended and drawn into the group as they were picked as easy targets to satisfy Bunting's desire to commit murder. Usually victims' social security and bank details were obtained, and the murderers or their associates impersonated the victims to continue to collect their pensions after their deaths. Although a total of $97,200 was obtained in this manner, social security fraud was not judged to have been the primary motive for the killings.

The final murder was conducted in the bank building after the barrels had been moved there for storage. Of the scene encountered in this building, one Snowtown officer said: "It was a scene from the worst nightmare you've ever had; I don't think any of us was prepared for what we saw." The building was littered with tools used by the killers to torture and murder their victims, including:

• Knives
• A bloodstained saw
• Double barrelled shotgun
• Coils of rope
• Rolls of tape
• Rubber gloves
• Cloths
• A Variac metallurgy tool that the killers used to administer electric shocks to the genitals and other sensitive parts of the victim's body

The pathologists report later revealed that prolonged torture had taken place using everyday tools such as pincers, pliers and clamps. Examples of all of these implements were found in the vault. Wendy Abraham QC, the deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, reported at the Supreme Court of South Australia that the victims were forced to call their torturers 'God', 'Master', 'Chief Inspector' and 'Lord Sir'.

Ray Davies was garrotted with a piece of rope and a tyre lever after being placed in a bath, attacked with clubs, repeatedly beaten about his genitals and had a toe crushed with a pair of pliers.

Frederick Brooks received electric shocks to his penis and testicles, and had a sparkler inserted into his urethra and then lit after which this torture was repeated a second time; after his toes were crushed and his nose and ears burned with cigarettes, he was allowed to choke to death on his gag.

A piece of the flesh of the eleventh and final victim, David Johnson, was fried and eaten by Bunting and Wagner.

The victims timeline

• Clinton Trezise, 22 (d. Aug 1992): Nicknamed "Happy Pants", Trezise was involved in a sexual relationship with Barry Lane which infuriated Bunting. He was visiting Bunton's housing trust home in Waterloo Corner Road in Salisbury North when he was killed in Bunting's living room by being bludgeoned with a blunt object. Bunting then rang Wagner and Lane who helped dispose of the body. Tresize was found buried in a shallow grave alongside Middle Beach Road at Lower Light, South Australia in 1994 but his identity was to remain unknown for another five years.

• Ray Davies, 26 (d. Dec 1995): Davies was a mentally handicapped man who frequently accompanied Lane in picking up men at the local "beats" and was well known locally for exposing himself to school children. He began a relationship with Suzanne Allen and, following their break-up, he moved into a caravan in Allen's back yard in Ghent Street, one block from Bunting's home. On December 26, 1995 Allen's grandson told her that Davies had been sexually abusing him and Allen and her daughter Annette left home to report it at the local police station. While they were gone, Bunting and Wagner picked Davies up and drove 127 kilometres (79 mi) to a property Bunting was renting at Bakara in the Riverland near Nildottie where they beat him, particularly in the genitals. They later drove Davies back to Bunting's home and invited Elizabeth Harvey to join them in torturing him. Harvey stabbed Davies in the legs several times after which Harvey and Wagner strangled him while Bunting watched. The body was buried in a 3.5 metres (11 ft) deep hole in the backyard. Bunting later told Harvey's 15 year old son James Vlassakis that his mother had killed Davies. Davies was never reported missing.

In 1996 Bunting, Harvey and her sons had moved to live in Bakara. Allen was infatuated with him and followed to spend a weekend at the Bakara house. After sleeping with her he told her there was nothing between them and she returned home. She was devastated and started writing emotional letters to him. Bunting stayed in Bakara for several months before moving to live in Murray Bridge.

• Suzanne Allen, 47 (d. 1996): According to Vlassakis, Bunting had told him that he and Wagner had travelled to Adelaide to visit Allen and found her dead from a heart attack in her bathroom. They had then conducted what Bunting called a "slice and dice" operation. Her remains were later found wrapped in 11 plastic bags, buried 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) above Davies remains in the garden of the house at Salisbury North. Her death was concealed and the group continued to collect her pension. Based on the evidence presented at trial, the coroner could not rule out death by natural causes and the jury was unable to decide without doubt that she had been murdered.

• Michael Gardiner, 19 (d. Sept 1997): Gardiner was a cross-dressing openly gay man who was a friend of Wagner's then girlfriend's cousin. One day Gardiner was babysitting Wagner's girlfriend's children when Wagner returned to find Gardiner with his hand over one of the children's mouths as part of a game they were playing. Wagner misinterpreted the situation and flew into a rage. Some time later the cousin went away for a holiday and Gardiner agreed to house-sit, informing her that he intended to move to Goolwa when she returned. Bunting and Wagner picked him up and drove to Bunting's Murray Bridge home where they strangled him. Gardiner was not missed as everyone assumed he had moved to Goolwa and Bunting had Frederick Brooks call friends of Gardiner and impersonate him.

Barry Lane was a "pre-op" transsexual who went by the name of Vanessa. He was in a relationship with Wagner at the time Bunting first moved into their neighbourhood and met them in 1991. Bunting had accepted Lane into his circle of friends because Lane kept him informed of the activities of local paedophiles. He put all this information on a chart on a wall in a spare room with the names of actual or suspected paedophiles written on Post-it notes connected with bits of pink and blue wool. Bunting called it "The Wall of Spiders", rock spider being Australian slang for a paedophile. After Lane was accused of molesting a local boy, someone firebombed Lane and Wagner's Bingham Road house and Bunting told him never to come around again and made other threats. Wagner left Lane and acquired a girlfriend while Lane became engaged to a woman who had several children and moved into her Hectorville home. He also formed a relationship with Thomas Trevilyan who moved in with Lane in April 1997.

• Barry Lane, 42 (d. Oct 1997): Lane was traumatised by the killing of Tresize and had told his mother and Bunting's former girlfriend about it. The former girlfriend questioned Bunting about Lane's claims and he admitted they were true. Around the same time Trevilyan told Bunting that Lane had been sexually abusing him. On 17 October, Bunting, Wagner and Trevilyan picked up Lane. Early the following morning Lane's mother received a phone call from him. On orders from Bunting, Lane verbally abused his mother who could hear Trevilyan in the background prompting him with what to say. After telling his mother he was going to Queensland she hung up. They now took Lane to his fiance's home where they tortured him for details of his bank accounts. After crushing his toes with pliers he was strangled. Returning home and finding Lane gone, his fiance rang the police to report him missing. Lane's body had in fact been wrapped in a carpet and left in her home for four days, every time she fed her pets, she had to step over the roll of carpet to reach their bowl. Bunting and Wagner later collected the body while she was out and disposed of it.

• Thomas Trevilyan, 18 (d. Nov 1997): Trevilyan was delusional and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. He believed he was a soldier and always wore army fatigues, carried a knife and believed the Grim Reaper was going to kill him. He had moved in with Wagner after Lane's death but Wagner's girlfriend did not like him. On November 4, 1997, Wagners girlfriend's son was playing with a puppy when Trevilyan began chasing it in an attempt to kill the puppy with his knife, he was stopped but that afternoon Bunting told Wagner and Vlassakis that Trevilyan had started to "fuck up" and "go mental" and that he would be a risk and along with Wagner they took him for a drive. The next day Trevilyan was found hanging from a tree in Humbug Scrub in the Adelaide Hills near Kersbrook. Given his history of past suicide attempts, the coroner found Trevilyan had committed suicide.

• Gavin Porter, 29 (d. Apr 1998): Porter was a diagnosed schizophrenic who had spent many years in mental institutions. Following the death of his mother he moved to Adelaide from Victoria in 1997 where he met 17 year old Vlassakis and moved in with him. Both were heroin addicts and after Bunting, Elizabeth Harvey and her children, including Vlassakis moved to Murray Bridge in late 1997, Porter also moved in. Bunting decided he should be the next victim after he was pricked by a discarded syringe Porter had left on the couch in the living room. Porter was attacked by Bunting and Wagner while sleeping in his car parked on the property but he awoke and managed to stab Bunting in the hand with a screwdriver before being overpowered and strangled. Vlassakis was shown Porters body before it was disposed of.

Police investigating the disappearance of Lane discovered that a withdrawal was being made from Lane's account at an automatic teller machine (ATM) at the same service station every pension day. They installed surveillance cameras and got footage of Wagner making the withdrawals. Due to his links with Bunting, both were now put under surveillance and had their telephones tapped.

• Troy Youde, 21 (d. Aug 1998): Vlassakis' half-brother and son of Elizabeth Harvey he had recently moved into Bunting's Murray Bridge house. Vlassakis had been sexually abused by Youde when he was younger and had previously told Bunting about it. One night Bunting, Wagner and Mark Haydon woke Vlassakis and told him they were going to get Youde. They beat Youde while he was asleep in bed and then Vlassakis handcuffed him while the others tied him up. They then dragged Youde out of bed and put him in a bath where they beat him again and forced him to give them his financial details. Youde was told to address the four by the names Sir, God, Master and Chief Inspector and crushed his toes with pliers if he failed to use the correct name for one of them. Bunting now got Youde to repeat a series of numbers, words and phrases which he recorded after which Youde was strangled.

Using a program called Sound Forge, Bunting used the recording to create messages from Youde and later from future victims, telling friends that they were going away. These messages would later become known as the Voices from the Dead when Bunting put the messages together with a backing track called Selling the Drama which appealed to him due to the songs anti paedophila chorus. By now Bunting had developed a language around the killings. He referred to those he didn't like as wastes, paedophiles were rock spiders, drug users and people who ate or drank too much were dirties. Potential victims needed to go to the clinic, wanting to kill someone was wanting to play while someone being made good meant they had been killed. Bunting called his own actions making Smurfs...he later explained: "first they go blue then they go poo".

• Fred Brooks, 18 (d. Sep 1998): The intellectually disabled son of Jodie Elliott who was Elizabeth Haydons' sister. Elliot had moved to South Australia in late 1997 to be near her sister. Bunting became obsessed with the idea that Brooks was "touching up" young girls and repeatedly told the others that something had to "happen" to him. One day in September 1998, Brooks was excited as he had been notified that morning that he had been accepted into the Air Force Cadets. He was invited to a party that night but was also invited to join Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis in a break and enter so he accepted their offer instead. He went to Buntings house where he was asked to try on some handcuffs to see if he could get out of them if caught by the police. Once handcuffed he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks and had lit cigarettes stubbed out in his nose and ears. Wagner burnt a smiley face on Brooks forehead with a lighter. Bunting inserted a sparkler into his urethra and then lit it, after which this torture was repeated a second time; after his toes were crushed he was left to choke to death on his gag.

• Gary O'Dwyer, 29 (d. Nov 1998): O'Dwyer had been mentally and physically disabled in an car accident some five years earlier. In 1998 he left his foster home to live by himself in Murray Bridge, unfortunately the house was close to Buntings. O'Dwyer was a stranger, picked simply because he looked like Troy Youde. Vlassakis befriended O'Dwyer and encouraged him to invite Bunting and Wagner over for drinks. He was bound and tortured in his home in Frances Street, Murray Bridge, by Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis. The trio left in the afternoon leaving O'Dwyer tied up but returned later that night and strangled him. The body was taken to Mark Haydons' home where it was placed in a barrel.

Bunting was tiring of Elizabeth Harvey and was spending a lot of time with Jodie Elliott. He told Harvey's son James Vlassakis that he was only sleeping with Elliott to keep her from informing on them and Vlassakis cooperated by driving Bunting back and forth between their home in Murray Bridge and Elliott's home in Adelaide. Bunting told Harvey that he had got a job as a truck driver to explain why he was spending so much time away from home. Behind her back, Bunting called Elliot "the village idiot" and used her to help him steal money from victim's bank accounts and to later claim Elizabeth Haydon's Centrelink benefits.

• Elizabeth Haydon, 37 (d. Nov 1998): Mark Haydon's wife. Haydon told Bunting that he had told his wife about the murders. Bunting hated Elizabeth and told Vlassakis that her knowing was a problem. On 20 November 1998, Elliott was asked to take Mark Haydon into the city to keep him out of the house for a few hours. Bunting and Wagner killed her in her bath. When Haydon returned two hours later Bunting told him that Elizabeth had made a sexual advance on him and that when he rejected her she had stormed out of the house.

Up to now, the bodies had been stored in barrels in Haydon's shed. Bunting now decided there was a need to relocate and transported them in Haydons' Toyota Land Cruiser to a friends property on the Adelaide Plains near the Clare Valley. He told the friends that the barrels contained Kangaroo carcasses.

Several days later Elizabeth Haydon's brother filed a missing persons report. Her brother did not believe her husband's explanations for her disappearance, which seemed contradictory in the varying versions he gave, and the brother also did not believe she would leave without her two young sons. Police found it suspicious that her husband had not reported her missing, and on investigating her disappearance they immediately linked her to Bunting, Wagner and the disappearance of Barry Lane. They searched the Haydon property, including the shed where the barrels had been stored but found nothing. Noting Haydon's Land Cruiser was missing, they circulated its number plate and description.

Bunting still had Haydons barrel in his car and he took it to Vlassakis house in Murray Bridge where they placed it in a car in the backyard. Not long after, Vlassakis moved to Strathalbyn, forgetting about the barrel, it was left behind in Murray Bridge. Several months later Buntings friends told him they were moving to Snowtown and he asked them to take the barrels with them. They agreed, but told him that the barrels were starting to smell and to come get them. Bunting and Haydon travelled to Snowtown where they signed a lease for the house and adjoining unused bank and they moved the barrels into the vault. Ironically, the bank building was next door to the local police station. Checking the barrels, Bunting noticed that the one containing Elizabeth Haydon was missing, he contacted Vlassakis and became enraged when he found that it had been accidentally left behind in Murray Bridge. They both collected the barrel and put it in the vault with the others.

In January 1999, Jodie Elliott was admitted to an Adelaide psychiatric facility after suffering a nervous breakdown. Elliott spends her days rocking back and forth while holding a porcelain doll she has named "Jodie Bunting".

• David Johnson, 24 (d. May 1999): Johnson was Vlassakis' step-brother. Bunting didn't like him because he was fastidious with his cleanliness and appearance and in Bunting's mind, a "yuppie", Bunting would often refer to him as a "faggot" and say he needed to die. It had been almost six months since the last murder and Bunting began talking about "getting" Johnson and suggested that Vlassakis find a way to get him to the bank in Snowtown. On May 9, 1999 Vlassakis told Johnson that there was a computer for sale cheap in Snowtown and he agreed to go with Vlassakis to buy it. He was seized as soon as he entered the building and the ritual of beatings, torture and voice recording began. Bunting also played his Voices from the Dead mix tape. After getting his ATM details, Wagner and Vlassakis now took Johnson's ATM card to a roadhouse in Port Wakefield to withdraw some cash but the machine printed out a message saying "Not authorized. Cancelled" and they returned to Snowtown where Bunting assumed the account had no money in it. Johnson was already dead and Bunting explained that he had gotten free and threatened him with a knife so he had no choice but to overpower and kill him. Wagner cut a piece of flesh from Johnson's body and the trio later returned to Adelaide where Wagner and Bunting cooked and ate the flesh. Johnson was the only victim who died in Snowtown.

Arrest

On May 16, 1999 a Snowtown police patrol saw a Land Cruiser in a driveway and did a licence plate check which came back as a "vehicle of interest" for a missing person case. The police knocked on the door of the house and were told that the vehicle had been left in their driveway after being used to bring barrels to Snowtown and that the owner had taken the barrels to a bank on the other side of the railway tracks. The following morning police let themselves into the bank and opened the vault. On 21 May police arrested Haydon, Bunting and Wagner for the murder of Elizabeth Haydon.

The storage of bodies

The bodies in barrels were variously stored in several places before finally being moved to the bank vault in Snowtown. These included a shed behind Bunting's house at Murray Bridge in April 1998; the three barrels were then moved to Haydon's property at Smithfield Plains later in 1998. Then five barrels were stored in a Toyota Land Cruiser at Hoyleton, a locality on the Adelaide Plains near the Clare Valley, with a sixth in a Mitsubishi Sigma back at Murray Bridge. Both of these vehicles were later moved to Snowtown and the barrels moved into the bank vault, which had been rented by Haydon, using the name "Mark Lawrence", the name he had used before he married.

Of the Snowtown location one local police source said, "From what I understand there was no person involved in those murders from within Snowtown or the surrounding district. They were murdered elsewhere and the drums were brought to Snowtown because it was a quiet little town and there was a premises ideal for the persons involved."

Examiners attempting to identify the remains found them mummified rather than dissolved, that being the apparent reason for storing the bodies in acid. The killers had chosen hydrochloric acid which mummified the remains.

The discovery of the barrels in May 1999 in Snowtown was the culmination of two years of criminal investigation. Police involvement with the then unlinked crimes had begun with the disappearance of Barry Lane in 1997. After Elizabeth Haydon's disappearance, the police installed a listening device in Mark Haydon's house in Smithfield Plains, recordings which were later used as court evidence. The loading activity at the old bank led to the bank building being searched.

The remains found at Lower Light were later determined to have been those of Clinton Trezise, who had been murdered in Bunting's living room at Salisbury North. Ray Davies and Suzanne Allen were found buried in the back yard of that house.

Trials

After a series of pre-trial hearings, the first of the accused to be sentenced was Vlassakis, who was given four life sentences on 21 June 2001 after pleading guilty to four murders. Later that year, Bunting, Haydon and Wagner each pleaded not guilty to 10 counts of murder. Many of the charges against Haydon were later dropped due to insufficient evidence.

The Supreme Court trial for Wagner and Bunting began on 14 October 2002 and within a short space of time the court experienced difficulties with the jury. At least one juror refused to continue due to the horror of the evidence and some sources report that a total of three jurors withdrew from the panel for this reason. Both Bunting and Wagner were found guilty on 8 September 2003. Bunting was convicted of 11 murders and Wagner, who had pleaded guilty to three murders, was convicted of seven; both appealed their convictions. They were each sentenced to imprisonment for life on each count to be served cumulatively; the presiding judge, Justice Brian Martin, stated that the men were "in the business of killing for pleasure" and were also "incapable of true rehabilitation".

The proceedings against Haydon continued into 2004, and on 2 August a trial opened in which he was charged with two counts of murder and six counts of "assisting offenders". Haydon testified that he was not party to the crimes. However, on 19 December, the jury returned from four days of deliberations, convicting Haydon of five counts of assisting in the crimes and reaching no verdict on the two counts of murder and the remaining charge of assistance. Haydon was held in detention as of December 2004 awaiting a possible retrial. In May 2005 the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by Bunting and Wagner, who have now exhausted their avenues of appeal in South Australia. In September 2005 the murder charges against Haydon were dropped in return for guilty pleas to two new charges of assisting in the killings of his wife, Elizabeth Haydon, and Troy Youde. Prosecutors also agreed to drop an additional charge of assisting offenders in relation to the murder of David Johnson.

The final outstanding murder charges against John Bunting and Robert Wagner, concerning Suzanne Allen, were dropped on 7 May 2007, when a jury was unable to reach a verdict. Several of the jury members have since undergone counselling to help cope with their experience.

At his sentencing, Wagner rose in the dock and stated:

"Paedophiles were doing terrible things to children. The authorities didn't do anything about it. I decided to take action. I took that action. Thank you."

Unlike serial killings where normally no more than two people are involved, six people were directly involved in this case and a number of people had suspicions or had been told of the murders yet none of these associates had gone to police with any concerns. The most important aspect that allowed the murders to continue for almost seven years was the public's attitude towards paedophilia. Bunting had a blind hatred of paedophiles and homosexuals that was obvious to anyone he spoke to. Following a rant by Bunting in court regarding what he thought should be done to paedophiles, the father of one of Bunting's victims was asked if this attitude had hinted that Bunting could be a murderer, he replied that many people had the same feelings and that during conversations with Bunting, he himself would talk about how he would kill the man who had abused his ex-wife’s children.

Community impact

Bunting and Wagner have been described, alongside backpacker murders killer Ivan Milat as Australia's worst serial killers.

The particulars of the case, especially the manner in which the victims were found, horrified and fascinated the public. The murders garnered Snowtown much unwanted attention, and the town is now best known for the murders. According to local residents, following the discovery in the disused bank vault, a steady stream of unwelcome visitors would stop to look at and photograph the building. This continues today with tourists regularly having themselves photographed in front of the building with one shop selling locally made souvenirs. Props used in the filming of the Snowtown movie, including barrels and black plastic sheeting, remain in the vault.

At the time, the local press reported a suggestion that the town's name be changed to avoid the stigma now associated with it, although this suggestion was rejected. One suggested new name in press reports was "Rosetown". Locally, the murders are referred to as "the situation".

The house in Salisbury North, owned by the South Australian Housing Trust, was demolished and a block of units for the elderly was built in its place. The bank, with a four bedroom attached house was placed on the market in February 2012 but only reached half its reserve price of $200,000. After holding an open day which raised $700 for charity through charging an entrance fee, the property sold on 27 September for just over $185,000 with the new owners intending to live in the house while running a business from the bank. A plaque will be installed to commemorate the victims.

In media and popular culture

A film, Snowtown, regarding the life of John Bunting was released in Australia on 19 May 2011.

See also

• Crime Investigation Australia (TV series)
• List of serial killers by country

External links and references

News articles:

• "SA: Chronology of Events in the Bodies-in-Barrels Case". Australian Associated Press, 19 December 2004.
• "The victims". Melbourne: The Age. 9 September 2003.
• Debelle, Penelope (9 September 2003). "Sadists get life". Melbourne: The Age.
• "Chamber of horrors". Sydney Morning Herald. 9 September 2003.
• "Bodies-in-barrels trial not over". The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 December 2004.
• "Serial murders macabre reminder of South Australia's past". The 7.30 Report. 24 May 1999.
• "Snowtown killers likely to die in jail". Lateline (news). 8 September 2003.
• "Snowtown killers 'cooked victim's flesh'". ABC (Australia). 19 September 2005.

Books:

• Snowtown Murders: The Real Story Behind the Bodies in the Barrels Killings, Andrew McGarry, ISBN 0-7333-1482-1
• Snowtown: The Bodies In Barrels Murders: The Grisly Story of Australia's Worst Serial Killings, Jeremy Pudney, ISBN 0-7322-6716-1
• All Things Bright And Beautiful: Murder In The City Of Light, Susan Mitchell, ISBN 1-4050-3610-9

Web sites:

• The story of the murders
• An overview of the case