Snowtown Murders- Part 2 (Serial Killer)

ACCORDING TO THE CITY OF EVIL EPISODE ON THE SNOWTOWN MURDERS, ADELAIDE IS CONSIDERED THE “MURDER CAPITAL OF AUSTRALIA.” BUT AUTHOR SEAN FEWSTER SAYS IT’S MORE LIKE THE “BIZARRE CRIME CAPITAL.” MANY INSANE MURDERS OCCURRED THERE WITH ONE OF THE MORE DISTURBING ONES BEING ABOUT THE 64 ANIMALS IN THE ZOO THAT WERE FOUND DEAD OF STABBINGS, BROKEN NECKS, AND BEATINGS. YOU MAY BE ASKING YOURSELF, “SELF, WHY IS TYRELLA TALKING ABOUT ADELAIDE WHEN THIS CASE IS CALLED ‘SNOWTOWN MURDERS’?” WELL, FRIENDS, THAT’S BECAUSE WHILE ADELAIDE WAS THE TRUE EPICENTER OF TODAY’S CASE; SNOWTOWN (ABOUT AN HOUR-AND-A-HALF NORTH OF ADELAIDE) WAS UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE AN EMPTY BANK….

FOR PART 1, CLICK HERE.

Re-Enter Jaime Vlassakis

Not long after the men were arrested the detectives got a surprise visitor. Jaime Vlassakis. If you’ll remember Vlassakis was Bunting’s step-son. Vlassakis spoke with the detectives and told them that he had information. A lot of information. Vlassakis worked out a deal for a lesser sentence because he was going to implicate himself in these murders, but the police took it because they wanted their big fish. Vlassakis gave a confession that covered murders he’d heard John Bunting brag about, murders he himself had seen, and still more that he had participated in.

Vlassakis told the detectives everything he knew. Every disgusting, disturbing detail. He was able to name every victim in the barrels as well as others. Vlassakis told them about Bunting confessing to him that he had killed Clinton Trezise back in late July or early August of 1992. Bunting wouldn’t murder anyone else for another 3 years. Vlassakis told them about 26-year-old Ray Davies’ murder.

Ray was murdered between December 25th, 1995 and January 21, 1996. Ray was intellectually disabled and lived in the caravan behind Suzanne Allen’s house when Bunting was dating Suzanne. Suzanne and Ray had once been in a relationship and he lived in her house. But after Christmas with her daughter and her grandsons, one of the boys told his mom that Davies had sexually assaulted him. Suzanne accused Ray of molesting her grandsons and broke up with him, but one source said “they remained friends” and she let him live in the caravan. Based solely on this, Bunting went all vigilante justice and he and Wagner killed Ray. After they strangled him with a garrott, beat his genitals and crushed his toes with pliers, they buried his body in their backyard. Once they disposed of the body, they thoroughly cleaned Ray’s caravan and moved it to another house where it was re-painted and sold within 2 months.

Bunting continued to collect Ray’s disability payments. Suzanne became collateral damage when Bunting and Wagner feared she would talk and they’d get caught. They murdered her sometime between November 20th, 1996 and December 10th, 1996,Vlassakis told the detectives about Troy Youde. 21-year-old Troy had been Vlassakis’ step-brother and Vlassakis had told Bunting that Troy had molested him as a teen. There isn’t anything other than Vlassakis’ word to corroborate this, but that’s all Bunting needed. Troy was in his bedroom when Bunting, Haydon, and Wagner showed up with Vlassakis in tow. The men dragged Troy to the bathroom where they brutally tortured him. They burned him and crushed his toes with pliers. They tortured him until they’d had enough and then they murdered him.

Vlassakis told the detectives about 19-year-old Michael Gardiner. Michael was another openly gay man and this was enough motive for Bunting. He found his homosexuality “offensive.” Michael was murdered sometime between August 31st and September 17th of 1997. After he was murdered, Bunting had a friend named Fred Brooks call Michael’s friends pretending to be him to keep him alive in a way and keep the police away. He had Fred request Michael’s wallet from the friends because “Michael” needed “his” ID. Bunting wanted Michael’s money.

Vlassakis then told about the murder 18-year-old Frederick “Fred” Brooks. He told them that Fred had been murdered between September 16th and 19th of 1998 when Bunting (who had been in a relationship with Fred’s mom at some point) made the assumption that Fred was a pedophile. Fred’s torture would be one of the more grotesque of this case. Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis burned Fred with cigarettes and did their signature toe crushing with pliers thing, but this time, they also stuck a lit sparkler into his penis and held him down while it burned all the way. The men also attached a Variac machine to Fred’s testicles. This machine would deliver electric shocks to Fred’s testicles. Finally, they shoved a rag into his mouth and let him choke to death.

Vlassakis kept talking. He told them about the muder of 21-year-old Gavin Porter between April 3rd and 8th of 1998. Gavin was a friend of Vlassakis, but Bunting knew he was a drug addict. In Bunting’s eyes, Gavin’s addiction made him a “waste.” Then, in October or November of 1998, Bunting hadn’t killed in a while so he was getting itchy. For no other reason than that, he put a target on 29-year-old, Gary O’Dwyer. He was also on disability due to a car accident so I’m sure that added to the appeal for Bunting to kill him. Gary was killed in his own home like many of the victims.

During all of this time, Barry Lane had been on Bunting’s radar, but he’d let him live because he needed him. But his usefulness came to an end in October/November of 1997. Barry Lane was very open with his sexuality and, like we said, was known to dress in women’s clothing and go by the name Vanessa. Bunting considered him “dirty” and, as a convicted pedophile Lane had 2 strikes against him. The only thing keeping him alive was his ability to lead Bunting to victims. His third strike came when Bunting decided that Lane was no longer of any use to him and Lane was getting chatty about the murder of Clinton Trezise. Bunting provided Lane with a script of things to say. Later, they would take the recordings and splice them into a message for Lane’s mother. It would tell her that Lane was leaving to move to Queensland and that he didn’t want her to ever contact him again. After they murdered Lane, they stole his car and continued to claim his disability payments.

Thomas Trevilyan was 18-years-old when he participated in the murder of Barry Lane, but he was known to be “erratic” and because of that, Bunting saw him as a potential threat to his safety. Thomas might talk and Bunting couldn’t have that. In November of 1997, Thomas was hanged by Bunting and Wagner in an attempt to make it appear as though Thomas committed suicide. Then there was Elizabeth Haydon. Vlassakis told detectives that Bunting thought that she knew too much. She was married to Mark Haydon and Haydon had been involved in many of the murders, not to mention that Bunting had never liked her, and she was drawing disability.

So, in November of 1998, Elizabeth became their next victim. While her husband and children were reportedly out of the house, Bunting and Wagner came in. They claim that she “behaved sexually” and they considered her “dirty and treacherous.” They tortured and killed her inside her house. Sources say that when Haydon was shown the remains of his wife, he laughed and wasn’t upset. When the men were later interviewed (separately) they all told different accounts of what happened with the Land Cruiser.

Finally, Vlassakis tells detectives about the last victim: 24-year-old David Johnson. David had been a step-brother of Vlassakis as well. As we told you in the beginning, David had been hoping to buy a new computer and Vlassakis told him that he knew where he could get one. Vlassakis took David to the abandoned bank that was rented by Bunting and Haydon. Once there, David was jumped by Bunting, Wagner, and Haydon. They did their typical spiel of making David read a script they could later edit to make his family think he left, and then they tortured him. They also obtained his banking info, but when Wagner and Vlassakis went to the active bank to test the information from David, Bunting couldn’t control himself. By the time Wagner and Vlassakis returned, Bunting had killed David.

Wagner had been upset that he didn’t get to “play.” The men dismembered David and cut off pieces of his flesh. Then, they took the flesh to the friend’s house across the street in a plastic glove. The men told their friend that they brought some meat. They fried the flesh up and ate it. They also served some to their unsuspecting friend!

That was May 9th, 1999. Less than 2 weeks later, the police were in the vault.

At the bank, police also discovered a plethora of knives, saws, double barrel shotguns, rope, tape, gloves, pliers, clamps, cloth, and the Variac machine they’d used on Fred Brooks (and probably others). Police found out, probably from Vlassakis’ confession, that Bunting made his victims call him “God,” “Master,” “Lord Sir,” or “Chief Inspector.” They also found out that during the murders, Bunting often played the “Throwing Copper” album by the band, Live (specifically during the murders of Troy Youde, David Johnson, and Fred Brooks).

the rest

Bunting and Wagner were charged with 11 counts of murder and would stand trial together. Mark Haydon would be tried separately and on lesser charges involving assisting in the murders. Jaime Vlassakis pleaded guilty to 4 counts of murder (Troy Youde, Gary O’Dwyer, Fred Brooks, and David Johnson) on June 9, 2001 and agreed to be the star witness for the other men in return for a lesser sentence. He was the prosecution’s way of giving context to all of these horrific murders. He was the storyteller. And what a story he told. He covered the 8 years between the 1st murder of Clinton Trezise and the last or David Johnson and his statement that was taken between July and September of 2001 was 2,000 pages long. 2,000!

It was said that Vlassakis was remorseful, and that he apologized for what he’d done. Bunting and Wagner on the other hand very obviously didn’t give a shit about what they had done. They were reportedly “cold and calm” during court and showed 0 remorse. While Bunting and crew were motivated by greed in a way, it was very obvious that the torture was thoroughly enjoyed by Bunting and Wagner (at least). The gang was greedy and would typically kill people who were vulnerable. Many of the victims were described as having “low intelligence.” Most were receiving disability payments or some other form of support. Bunting, Wagner, Haydon, and Vlassakis used this as part of their reason for killing.

However, much like Joey’s reasons for putting Chandler in a box, their reasons were three-fold.

Money
The person had become a risk
It hurts (and they enjoy that)

In the end, the men were able to steal about $95,000 in welfare benefits, but Bunting was said to have referred to the money as “icing on the cake.” Forensic evidence put all three men (Bunting, Wagner, and Haydon) in the vault. Bunting and Haydon’s names were on the rental agreement for the bank and financial records proved they stole the money from their victims. During the trial, 3 jurors had to be released from the case. They couldn’t handle hearing all the details.

Judge, jury, and victims’ families had to sit and listen to the cassette tapes the men had made of their victims reading the scripts Bunting gave them. The recordings have never been released due to how graphic they are. During sentencing, Bunting’s asshole behavior and lack of remorse continued. He couldn’t even be bothered to listen to the verdict and sentencing. Instead, he read a fucking book. Nevertheless, on September 8th, 2003, John Justin Bunting was convicted and sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole. It was determined that there was no chance for him to be rehabilitated.

Robert Joe Wagner was convicted and sentenced to life without parole. Mark Ray Haydon received a 25-year sentence with a 18 year minimum on his lesser charges. James “Jaime” Spyridon Vlassakis got life with a 26 year minimum. The jury had been unable to make a decision about Suzanne Allen’s murder. Bunting and Wagner had said that she died of natural causes and they just buried her. The jury decided that there wasn’t sufficient evidence to prove or disprove this.

During sentencing, Wagner said, “Pedophiles were doing things to children. The authorities didn’t do anything about it. I decided to take action. I took that action. Thank you.” But really, most of their victims were not proven to be pedophiles nor had any of them been reported to the police for the police to be able to do anything. This case is still considered one of the “biggest, longest trials in South Australia legal history.”

The prosecution spent 174 days calling 227 witnesses and spent about $15 million dollars. The defense rested after 18 minutes. There were more than 200 suppression orders issued during the trial and a “record number of victim impact statements.” Elizabeth Harvey (John Bunting’s wife and Jaime Vlassakis’ mom) would likely have been one of the people tried for these murders. However, she died of cancer not long after the arrests, but she was there for many of the murders and was a participant in a few.

Associate Professor of Criminology at Bond University, Wayne Petherick told the City of Evil documentary that other than the crimes they commit being extraordinary, serial killers are “mostly unremarkable people.” He said that they aren’t the “criminal masterminds we see on TV and in movies for the most part. Generally, they are more lucky than smart. It was also mentioned by a few experts in the documentaries that the fact that the torture was so intensive and went on for so long shows that Bunting, Wagner, and Haydon (and possibly Vlassakis) were enjoying themselves.

Bunting had created his own little cult using the philosophy that there are insiders (them) and there are outsiders (homosexuals and pedophiles, perceived or real) and the insiders are right and everyone else is wrong. This case was also considered unique because there are so few cases where serial killers work in groups. They tend to be solo artists, but Bunting’s murder cult was one of the few instances where a group of killers worked together. Another unique side to this was that the killers targeted people they knew. Much like Charle Ng and Leonard Lake (another unusual instance of serial killers and team work), these killers didn’t venture outside of their known associates. Everyone in their victim list was easily connected back to them.

Because of Bunting and his friends, Snowtown became synonymous with murder. This small area of Southern Australia and it’s population of under 500 had become split in how to deal with their new reputation. Some people embraced their new identity. They began developing and selling souvenirs and welcomed the people who came to Snowtown to take pictures of the bank. Meanwhile, the other side of the population was trying to move beyond this nightmarish piece of their history. They even went so far as to consider changing the name of the town that had been established in 1878. But the name change didn’t occur and Snowtown is still the name. Instead, they try and discourage the dark tourists who want to come visit.

updated information

While Robert Wagner will be spending the rest of his life in prison, that doesn’t mean he can’t find love right? He was using a prison pen pal to try and meet women. According to his profile, he was “keen to meet women who are up for exchanging interesting material with each other.” However, the Department of Corrections has requested that the site take Wagner’s profile down.

A spokesman said, “The Department first and foremost has a duty of care to victims of crime and does not condone the activities of the prisoner pen pal website in question. No prisoner in South Australia is permitted internet access and any prisoner profile listed on this or similar sites would have been created by someone external to a correctional facility.” The spokesman also said that Wagner’s mail is very carefully monitored and filtered. No letter from a “pen pal” would make it to him anyway.

Robert Wagner wasn’t finished with his life yet though. He also applied to the Supreme Court to get parole. Apparently, according to ABC News, under Australian law a prisoner without parole can attempt to get a parole date if they apply to the sentencing board. However, the court can decline this if they feel it’s inappropriate. They can take into consideration things like the gravity of the offense and decide that it’s best to keep that person behind bars.

The judge in this case, Brian Martin said, “I cannot make an order that you are never to be released…If I had the power to make an order that you are never to be released, I would unhesitatingly make that order.” However, nothing said whether or not this was granted. Other than Wagner’s anitics, not much is known about the killers today. Everyone else is being quiet and Jaime Vlassakis has had his identity protected by the court since he was a minor.

The house on Waterloo Corner has been demolished by the South Australian Housing Trust. The bank, which also had a 4-bedroom house attached, was placed for auction in February of 2012. However, the “reserve price” was $200,000 and the auction was only able to reach about $150,000. Then, there was an “open house” where an entrance fee was charged and would be given to charity. They raised $700. That same year, the bank was sold to people who wanted to live in the house and set up a business in the bank. They bought it for $185,000 and intended to place a plaque to honor the victims of this tragedy.

There was also a feature film created in 2011 based on the details of this case and has a 6.6 out of 10 stars on IMDB. The movie appears to be based around Jaime and his family. Roger Ebert called the movie “a chilling study of an evil, dominant personality and his victims.”