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Murder in Tiny Towns: Australia’s Notorious Rural Killers
Rural settings can be just as dangerous as big cities
There’s a tendency to think major crime only happens in the city — “down these mean streets” where dark alleys and doorways inspire murder and mayhem. Cities make perfect places for murder, where people are more anonymous and someone going missing may not in fact be missed. But small country towns and villages also can be a hotbed of crime, both fictional (Midsomer Murders) and true. Australia is no different.
Over the past few years, both novels and true crime books have explored some of the bizarre or brutal crimes that can happen in small places here. Australia is a huge country with hundreds of tiny towns, some of which have become notorious. One of the most infamous in South Australia is Snowtown, in what has come to be known as the “Snowtown murders” or the “bodies in the barrels” murders. None of the killers came from or lived in Snowtown, and only one of the eleven victims was killed there. But eight of the bodies were dismembered and put in barrels, then kept in an abandoned bank vault in the town.
The murders, committed between 1992 and 1999, were carried out by three men: John Bunting, Robert Wagner and James Vlassakis, and Mark Haydon was convicted of assisting them with disposing of the bodies…
