Torture, depravity and cannibalism became the trademarks of Australia's worst serial killers, writes Pádraig Collins
On the surface South Australia is a quiet state. Originally populated by free settlers rather than freed convicts, its capital, Adelaide, is known as the "city of churches". Its people sound different to this day. The Adelaide accent is closer to how New Zealanders speak than the "Strine" vernacular.
But South Australia also has a long history of being Australia's murder state. Every decade since the 1958 rape and murder of nine-year-old Mary Hattam, further atrocities have been committed here. This week, Australia's worst serial killers, John Bunting and Robert Wagner, were convicted of the so-called bodies-in-the-barrels murders at Snowtown, north of Adelaide.
Bunting, who saw himself as a paedophile-killing vigilante, was convicted of murdering 11 people and Wagner seven. Wagner had pleaded guilty to another three murders before the trial began. Defying an instruction from Justice Brian Martin to stand in the dock during sentencing, the men were given mandatory life terms on each count.
From early 1994 when their first victim, Clinton Trezise (22), was murdered, until May 20th 1999, when police discovered eight bodies in plastic barrels in a disused bank vault at Snowtown, Bunting and Wagner and their accomplices killed over and over again. After the bodies were discovered, investigating police said it was difficult for them to know that some of the victims were missing because of the lives they led. Loners and misfits living on the edge of society, these were not people who were necessarily reported missing by anyone.
The victims moved in the same circles as each other - and their killers - in Adelaide's northern suburbs. Sexual abuse was rife among them. Convicted paedophile Barry Lane, who had been in a homosexual relationship with Wagner, helped bury the body of Trezise. Soon he would be a victim himself - tortured and strangled by his former lover.
Despite making little effort to cover their tracks, the killers were able to murder 11 times before the authorities caught up with them (they were acquitted of a 12th murder charge). In fact, they had left so many clues that the prosecution's case took from last October to July to hear in court. The killers' defence took 80 minutes. The trial in South Australia's Supreme Court cost $15 million (€8.5 million) and was the longest in the state's history. A 15-person jury was empanelled on October 16th last year, but three of them were excused during the proceedings. More than 220 witnesses gave evidence and 1,000 exhibits were presented to the court.
The key witness was James Vlassakis (23) who, two years ago, pleaded guilty to four of the Snowtown murders. A heroin addict, Vlassakis vomited while confessing to police and later wept in court during more than a month of shocking, repulsive evidence about the torturing of victims. He was sentenced last year to a non-parole period of 26 years and is held in isolation, on methadone, in an unidentified South Australia prison. A fourth man, Mark Haydon, was allegedly involved in three of the murders and will face trial next year.
Vlassakis became enthralled with Bunting - said to have a powerful, manipulative personality - after his mother, Christine Harvey, moved in with Bunting and took the then 14-year-old Vlassakis with her. Harvey, who has since died of cancer, was involved in the murder of Ray Davies (26), who lived in a caravan in the back yard of Suzanne Allen's home and was alleged to have sexually abused Allen's grandchildren. Allen's dismembered body was later found in 11 garbage bags but the jury was unable to reach verdicts for either accused over her death.
Vlassakis was already a victim of sexual abuse by his stepbrother Troy Youde by the time he went to live with Bunting. Youde was later, while asleep, beaten with wood by Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis. He was then dragged into a bathroom, tortured and made to apologise for abusing his stepbrother.
While the first victim, Trezise, was killed by a hammer blow to the head (because Bunting said he was a paedophile), later killings became ever more sadistic and gruesome. The court heard evidence of dismemberment, of flesh being ripped from a body, decapitation, the removal of arms and legs, strangulation, electric shocks, torture and cannibalism. Tape recordings of the voices of victims who were being tortured and about to be murdered were played in court. The tapes were recorded by Bunting and Wagner and played by them to relatives of victims to persuade them they were still alive.
In his summing-up to the jury last week, Justice Martin said that at one point there was a probable attempt to cut off the leg of victim David Johnson (22). A piece of flesh 18cm by 18cm was missing from his lower thigh. Later on the night they killed Johnson, the killers showed off the flesh to a friend, saying it was wombat.
Marcus Johnson discovered his son was killed by his stepson, Vlassakis. Johnson was also the stepfather of Troy Youde.
"It's been a horrible experience, the words, the things that were said in there," he said. "It's incredible to listen to some of that, what went on, with my son, with Troy, my stepson, and all those other victims."
In the days before his son's body was found in the Snowtown bank vault, Marcus Johnson was visited by Vlassakis and Wagner. They told him that David was in hiding and had sent them to collect his things.
"I helped Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis pack up a rack full of designer jackets and tops and other clothing," Johnson told the court. He said he felt the convicted men had shown no contrition. "I've been looking at them for the last two-and-a-half to three months, and I feel there's no remorse there, none at all."
But why did Wagner and Bunting murder so many people, slowly, methodically and with unimaginable cruelty? It was not about money, although $95,000 was stolen from eight of the victims. Prosecutor Wendy Abraham described them during the trial as "in the business of killing". Bunting and Wagner themselves bragged about killing, and Bunting called it "playing". While there is no provision under South Australian law for their case files to be marked "never to be released", the judge can decline to set a non-parole period, effectively ensuring they die in prison. Justice Martin is thought likely to do that at a hearing on October 29th.
While South Australia's polite society is again wondering what it is about their state and murder, the owner of the disused bank in Snowtown, Sherlee Randylle, is thinking in economic terms. She's considering turning it into a backpacker's hostel.