The authoritative book on the murders that stunned the nation by the only journalist who has covered the trials continuously for the last five years. It is a horrifying and gripping account of ritualistic domination, brutal torture and murder that reveals how a group of damaged people preyed on their own lovers, friends and family with unstoppable rage.
In early June 1999, four men from Adelaide's bleak northern suburbs - John Bunting, Mark Haydon, Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis - were arrested for the killings that were to become known as the 'bodies-in-the-barrels' murders. As the macabre details of yet another bizarre South Australian crime spree were reported by the press, it became apparent that the most prolific serial killings in Australia's history had been committed by self-styled vigilantes, who justified their actions by claiming their victims were paedophiles. Their leader was John Justin Bunting, and for most of the 1990s, he and his proteges were part of a group of damaged people that preyed upon itself. Lovers, friends, relatives and enemies were caught up in a web of Bunting's unappeasable rage as the disadvantaged of Adelaide's northern suburbs fell victim to vicious murder, and their meagre possessions and identities were stolen to gain tens of thousands of dollars in welfare benefits.
THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR SALE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Andrew McGarry is a journalist with The Australian and has been reporting on the case since it broke in 1999. In The Snowtown Murders he examines the darkest side of human nature and gives us insight into the court case, the longest trial in South Australian history, that has dominated the past five years of his life.