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

[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?