Horror, Sleaze and Trash.

A rare photo of James Spyridon Vlassakis, who was involved in the “Snowtown Murders” in Australia, also known as “The Bodies-in-Barrels murders”. When he was a teenager, his single mother met John Bunting, and the charming, manipulative Bunting quickly formed a bond with Jamie. Jamie moved in with Bunting who became a father figure to him.

Bunting was not just a charming guy, he was also extremely sadistic and lethal. Between 1992 and 1999 he, with the help of Robert Wagner, Mark Haydon,tand eventually James, tortured and murdered 12 people. His victims ranged in age and gender, and he’d collect their Centrelink disability payments. Bunting convinced his cohorts that the victims were all involved in pedophilia, although there was no proof of this. Jamie became involved in drugs, dropped out of high school and became involved once he helped Bunting torture and kill his stepbrother who regularly raped Vlassakis. After this point, Vlassakis became increasingly involved in the brutal murders, and it is believed Bunting spent years grooming him into this role.

In 2002, investigators discovered barrels containing disintegrating human remains of eight victims in an abandoned bank vault in the Snowtown area of Adelaide. During his trial, Vlassakis confessed everything, and testified against Bunting and Wagner as a key witness. He was granted an order to completely obscure his true identity and whereabouts for his own safety. There are very few photos of him available to the public. He confessed to four murders and was sentenced to a minimum of 25 years.