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'Bodies in barrels' killers jailed
ADELAIDE, Australia -- Two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for Australia's worst serial killings, known as the Snowtown 'bodies-in-the-barrels' murders. A South Australian Supreme Court jury found the two men, John Justin Bunting and Robert Joe Wagner guilty of multiple counts of murder on Monday. Bunting, 37, was convicted of 11 murders while the co-accused Wagner, 31, was found guilty of seven murders. Wagner had pleaded guilty to three counts of murder before the trial began last October. Bunting was charged with 12 murders and Wagner eight, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on one of the murder counts, Australian media reported. Another man, James Spyridon Vlassakis pleaded guilty on four counts and was sentenced to life in prison for each case in June, 2001. A fourth man charged over the murders, Mark Ray Haydon, will be tried later. The tiny rural wheatbelt town of Snowtown, about 150 kilometers north of Adelaide, became the focus of international media attention when a police missing persons investigation found the bodies of eight victims inside plastic barrels in a disused bank vault. Two other bodies were found buried in an Adelaide backyard, and another two bodies were found elsewhere. In an earlier pre-trial hearing, prosecutors said the victims had been either friends or relatives of the defendants During the trial, which lasted over 11 months, jurors heard how Bunting and Wagner killed for pleasure, the Australian Associated Press reported. Jurors were told the pair had a incessant hatred of pedophiles and homosexuals and would torture their victims. Toes were crushed with pliers, electric shocks were inflicted and sparklers were inserted into one victim's penis and lit, AAP reported. One victim was completely dismembered and almost entirely de-fleshed, the court heard. The flesh of another victim was presented to Bunting as a surprise gift from Wagner. The murders were the worst serial killings in Australian history. The previous worst were the so-called backpacker murders in which seven people died in New South Wales between 1989 and 1992. Ivan Milat was convicted for those murders and is serving seven life sentences.
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