More from Snowtown

[jack_ryder]

ferkster and I were doing research on Snowtown for a Short and Sweet submission before we realised we just couldn't do it justice in under ten minutes (or even in one act.)

The abuse of the victims was hard enough to read about in the two published accounts of the murders, but there's still more coming out.

Comments

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

I'm learning not to click on links to stories about the Snowtown murders.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

its all too graphic, huh.

[capnoblivious.livejournal.com]

More than that: it's inhumanly vile.

At every stage, these people sicken and disgust me - on a visceral level, that makes me feel dirty for even knowing about it.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

it *is* highly disturbing.

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

Much of the really bad stuff has been kept from the public account (though it appears in the two books, and may have appeared in the SA press.) I'll never look at sparklers the same way again.

But what is necessary to understand, and learn from the Snowtown murders, is the existence of an underclass created the circumstances by which Bunting and his associates could continue to torture and kill their victims - and claim their welfare benefits. It "evolved" from acts of so-called vengeance against so-called paedophiles (though it seems that one of their first victims was actually a paedophile) to ongoing welfare fraud.

Ponder that, the next time you hear someone call for the execution of paedophiles.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the sparlers. Dare I ask?

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

ummm, Bunting would thread them into the (male) victim's member and then light them.

Sorry, but you wanted to know.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

woah! I did want to know. I too will never look at them the same.

Its more than just welafare fraud - its seriously twisted individuals

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

The welfare fraud is what most people remember, but it appears to have been a side effect of the killings. Bunting's original motivation was ridding his community of paedophiles (according to the book I read, anyway.) His taste of killing, and torture required that he broaden his client base, so to speak. I keep forgetting the name of his main accomplice - Robert Wagner (not the guy from Hart to Hart). The welfare fraud grew out of their attempts to throw police and relatives off the scent by pretending that their victims were still alive - even to the extent of James Vlassakis (the accomplice who became crown witness) appearing in place of one of their victims to a Centrelink interview.

One of the most harrowing scenes I read (which we were going to convert to a play) was Bunting forcing one of his victims to recite a list of words and numbers into a computer, so that Bunting could re-edit them into phone messages to convince the victim's partner and relatives that he was still alive.

[girliejones.livejournal.com]

Yes I vaguely remember that they had one of the victims leave a message on an answering phone to prove they were still alive.

It was quite the operation really wasn't it?

[(Anonymous)]

There is no way you could do justice unless it was a ten minute musical...that's about two to three songs...

Sorry that was poor taste I know, I realised this when the dismembered legs of a chorus line came tapping across the stage of my skull...

I'll stop now

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

Funny thing was, I kept thinking of "Snowtown the Musical" when we were trying to figure out how to do it. It would probably make a good opera.

[(Anonymous)]

Well I suppose it's not much different from Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber who makes pies out of his victims but still

the Berko of Saville

[jack-ryder.livejournal.com]

there would be a major problem with making Bunting a tragic figure (like Sondheim made Sweeney). Bunting was nothing more than a monster, although a product of his environment. The point of view character I would use was the poor bastard Bunting and his mates used as an accessory. Apart from the victims he appears to be the most tragic character.

[ferkster.livejournal.com]

Yep. Hard to make Bunting into a character you felt anything but horror for. The two issues we had to tackle in making it into drama were finding a character the audience could remotely like and care about and after our initial research I don't think either of us were wanting to spent the time in Bunting's world we would need to do the the writing.