Solved The Bodies in the Barrels...

[kickazz]

"It's a bit misleading calling it Snowtown Murders as only one was killed in the town. Obviously the bodies were kept in a Snowtown bank, it is still misleading... Bodies in the Barrels is the right way of calling the case...!"

agreed. I often think the using of a place name as a metonym for horrendous crime to be terribly unfair on that said place. Especially for a small town.

 

[benneth]

An excellent piece of cinema.

I can't say how many times I've watched wolf Creek or matyrs, but this was just too much.

 

[Papa G]

Susan Mitchell's All Things Bright and Beautiful is a chilling but good read on the subject. One of the points she made was that Bunting was able to get away with what he was doing for so long is because those he killed lived on the fringes of society, often estranged from family, and when they went missing, no one noticed.

That part of Adelaide, the outer northern suburbs, really is a ghetto. Just hopelessness abounds. As soon as the weather gets a bit warm, everything just turns brown. It's an absolute dump whereby the rest of Adelaide drives through on the way to the Barossa, staying on the highway, never diverting. Apart from some Aboriginal settlements, it would have to be one of the most disadvantaged areas in Australia. Just generations living on government handouts, booze, drugs and violence.

 

[Max Rockatansky]

A thing that annoyed me about the Snowtown film is that they got someone goodlooking to play Jamie Vlassakis when in real life he was one bloody ugly bastard. I assume the filmmakers did that to make his character somewhat sympathetic and i don't think he deserved any sympathy.

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

agreed. I often think the using of a place name as a metonym for horrendous crime to be terribly unfair on that said place. Especially for a small town.

I feel the same, which is why I feel for small towns like Snowtown, as their reputation has been tarnished...

 

[treefingers]

• 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.

Just horrific.

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

The worst killing out of the lot... Just disgusting...

 

[benneth]

That is messed up. Blokes like that should be hanged, drawn and quartered.

 

[nicky]

They play the Snowtown movie on Foxtel a fair bit. I watched it once and have to say it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to watch. Just sickening, disturbing, macabre etc etc etc.

I watched it on a plane and had to turn it off when it got to "that scene". I can't watch torture and or extreme violence - i would love to watch an edited version of the film because it looked very good.

 

[benneth]

I watched it on a plane and had to turn it off when it got to "that scene". I can't watch torture and or extreme violence - i would love to watch an edited version of the film because it looked very good.

I turned it off when the brothers were play fighting and one of them casually starts buggering the other.

There was just something so sinister about that scene.

Edit, I did watch the full movie eventually, are you talking about the bath tub scene?

 

[Ghostwriter]

Agree with HtB, in ten years time Snowtown will be regarded as one of Australia's great movies, an interesting factoid about the movie is that there are no images of cops or cop cars in the film at all.

 

[rayven]

• 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.

Just horrific.

You forgot the bit about him being diagnosed schizophrenic while laying dead in a garage in Murray Bridge, them he was put on medication and pensioned off.

That is something that has not been addressed....if they can diagnose dead people this, imagine how wrong they could get it with live people?

 

[rayven]

This one concerned me the most. The whole idea of multiple killers setting you up to murder you, leaving you with zero chance of defending yourself, and the gruesome way they did it, well it just seems like it could have happened to anybody. I lived in a country town for several months. It just makes you question everybody you know.

I learnt a fair bit about this, a few of the victims and killers lived in my town and I grew up in the nth burbs until I was a teenager. When they were operating, I am someone who would of been in their sights had they been in my town.

These guys are not unique, what is unique is how far they went, alot of people out there operating like them, just not going quite so far.

 

[Mr_Bojangles]

How do you South Australians feel about it now? Is it a source of shame in Adelaide? Is it something people just don't talk about? I know WA had the Birnies but that was nothing compared to this.

 

[OrdinaryJoel]

How do you South Australians feel about it now? Is it a source of shame in Adelaide? Is it something people just don't talk about? I know WA had the Birnies but that was nothing compared to this.

It's one of the most notorious crimes in SA history, and I think the stigma still lingers around for many...

But that is the norm when talking about sickening crimes regardless.

I haven't experienced it yet, but I've seen many people use this crime as a method to put down South Australia... So it is a source of shame if you think about it...

 

[rocker_oz33]

All the repeats of crime investigation australia start this or next friday inc this case on the ci channel (617) on foxtel.

 

[rayven]

All the repeats of crime investigation australia start this or next friday inc this case on the ci channel (617) on foxtel.

I recommend reading Pudneys book...

http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Snowtown.html?id=PsB0PgAACAAJ

 

[bradrowe#32]

That part of Adelaide, the outer northern suburbs, really is a ghetto. Just hopelessness abounds. As soon as the weather gets a bit warm, everything just turns brown. It's an absolute dump whereby the rest of Adelaide drives through on the way to the Barossa, staying on the highway, never diverting. Apart from some Aboriginal settlements, it would have to be one of the most disadvantaged areas in Australia. Just generations living on government handouts, booze, drugs and violence.

When I drove to Perth earlier in the year I went through Adelaide and couldn't believe the northern parts. Just looked really shitty and then the drive up to Snowtown was the bleakest stretch of road I've seen. The bank is interesting; no signs or anything, it's just locked behind metal doors. There were three cars lined up taking photos when I drove past.

 

[Ghostwriter]

How do you South Australians feel about it now? Is it a source of shame in Adelaide? Is it something people just don't talk about? I know WA had the Birnies but that was nothing compared to this.

No more shameful than the Mr Cruel crimes in Victoria or the Skaf rapings in Sydney, the Milat killings in NSW, the Sian Kingi rape and murder in QLD, at least the cops caught the perps, still haven't caught the Claremont killer over your way have they?, I don't feel any extra shame, of course people talk about it, terrible crimes committed by the fringes of society.

 

[Ebert80]

If anything, its at least a sign that SA has an effective police force, capable of catching such offenders.

 

[nicky]

It's one of the most notorious crimes in SA history, and I think the stigma still lingers around for many...

But that is the norm when talking about sickening crimes regardless.

I haven't experienced it yet, but I've seen many people use this crime as a method to put down South Australia... So it is a source of shame if you think about it...

This is the worst crime in terms of serial killing that i know of due to the amount of perpetrators involved, vulnerable victims and various other reasons.

I don't relate this to adelaide though.

 

[Hard_to_Beat]

I turned it off when the brothers were play fighting and one of them casually starts buggering the other.

There was just something so sinister about that scene.

Good art confronts you.

The performance of Daniel Henshall and the supporting cast is outstanding.

I agree with Jozeph, in time this will be recognised as an Australian cinema masterpiece, much like Wake in Fright.

 

[rocker_oz33]

Kinda a crime thats it takes something like this to happen,to make a cinema masterpiece.

 

[rayven]

If anything, its at least a sign that SA has an effective police force, capable of catching such offenders.

Murders could of been stopped after 1 victim, if the police forensics hadn't ruled out the body being of who it belonged too.

Then there was multiple requests by elizabeth coppers for resources as the bodies barreled up to find out why Wagner was withdrawing out of missing persons accounts. They didn't even contact centerlink to arrange an interview for the missing persons they knew someone else was getting there payments FFS!

Apparantly they had enough to go on before the last two were killed, but wanted to be sure

 

[dav3]

I got called in for jury duty for the start of the (first) Mark Haydon trial, but was fortunate enough to not get called up. Since most of our time there was spent sitting around doing nothing some of us sat in on a couple of sessions, it was strange listening to it as they were getting timelines out of Vlassakis for when and where tools were found or used. I couldn't imagine going through 3 months of it, especially since the jury was dismissed and they had to start over. The whole thing became a hell of a lot stranger when I watched Snowtown and discovered half of the movie was shot in an ex's parents house, watching someone get killed in a bathroom where I'd brushed my teeth was a bit surreal.