Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis granted parole

Snowtown serial killer James Vlassakis will be released from prison on parole after a review upheld an earlier decision of the South Australian Parole Board.

Vlassakis has been behind bars for more than 26 years after pleading guilty to four of the 12 “bodies in the barrels” murders in Snowtown in 1999.

He was eligible for parole last year, but the state government stepped in and requested a review of the decision.

Today’s meeting found the original decision would stand.

Commissioner David Cameron Lovell KC said Vlassakis came under the influence of John Bunting, who Vlassakis looked up to as a “father figure”.

Bunting was the ringleader in the barrels murders and was convicted of 11 killings in 2003.

“It is clear that this same power dynamic cannot be replicated, given Mr Bunting was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole and that Mr Vlassakis is now of a more mature age,” Lovell KC said.

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“It is correct that Mr Vlassakis had significant problems with drugs before being taken into custody and the Parole Board, in its reasons, addressed that issue.

“In his 26 years of incarceration Mr Vlassakis has only returned 3 positive results from 29 tests, one of these related to medication he was prescribed.

“It is well known that it is difficult for prison authorities to prevent illicit drugs from entering the prison environment and the board evidently regarded Mr Vlassakis’ drug related breaches as minor.

“The board also noted that Mr Vlassakis had completed alcohol and drug intervention programs while in prison.

“Additionally, if released on parole, Mr Vlassakis would be subject to random drug testing and a positive result, revealing the use of illicit substances would be a breach of parole conditions that could see him returned to custody.”

The crime that rocked a country town

Vlassakis was the youngest of the three men jailed over the shocking Snowtown murders, which were carried out in the 1990s.

Fellow serial killer Robert Joe Wagner was sentenced to 10 life sentences over the infamous killing spree, while Bunting is serving life under maximum security.

Police discovered eight dismembered bodies in barrels in an abandoned bank vault in 1999.

Another two bodies uncovered in the backyard of fellow convicted killer Bunting’s former home in Salisbury North, in Adelaide’s northern outskirts.

Remains discovered in Lower Light, north of Adelaide, were also linked to the case.

Bunting and Wagner will never be eligible for freedom.

Residents of Snowtown discussed changing the name of the town in 2024, due to concerns that it still suffers from the stigma of the bodies in the barrels murders.

“Any crime that you name after a location, it’s such a burden on that location,” Derryn Stringer from the Snowtown Progress Association said at the time.

“It was a concept put forward to try and put an end to this, so that my kids and their kids aren’t standing in front of cameras talking about something that happened 20, 30, 40 years ago.”