Killing for Pleasure: The Definitive Story of the Snowtown Serial Murders

by Debi Marshall

The bestselling account of one of South Australia's worst series of crimes - the bodies in the barrels.

A disused bank vault holding eight dismembered bodies immersed in barrels of acid. Two bodies buried in a suburban backyard. A further two found in the bush. Such was the findings of one of South Australia's most horrific murder trials.

Informed by material never seen before - an interview with Bunting's last lover Elizabeth Harvey, and with the Crown's key eye-witness James Vlassakis and with details of the torture and crimes not previously released - this is a tensely woven and microscopic examination of tawdry lives and tragic deaths.

Four men who tortured and killed for fun, for power. Four men who kept each other's dark secrets for years. By the time the police investigation concluded, the story had invited comparison with the nightmare of Rosemary and Fred West, the British House of Horrors. Details of what the killers did to their victims before and after their deaths were deemed so depraved that suppression orders were in place throughout the trial. But the killers were not insane. They made deliberate choices to kill and lived in a culture of complete anarchy, sadistic violence, deviance and chaos.

Journalist and author Debi Marshall explores the killers' psychopathic makeup in minute and harrowing detail. She charts the victims' exposure to generational paedophilia, incest, unemployment and hopelessness. Marshall covers the exhaustive trials and interviews the lawyers who ran them. Through interviews, she captures the voices of the victim's families and examines the police and forensic investigation and then wades into the social structure that spawned the people in this story.

This book was used as a primary source for the acclaimed Australian feature film, Snowtown.

Genres: True Crime, Crime, Nonfiction, Australia

404 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The infamous Australian serial killer 'bodies-in-barrels' murders. "Twelve bodies, three killers, one accomplice and a maniacal murder spree that went undetected for seven years..."

The entire book is sadness personified. Everyone directly involved ... victims, murderers, family, friends ... have led lives steeped in neglect, abandonment, and poverty. Lives shredded by paedophilia, incest, and physical/sexual/emotional abuse. Lives destroyed by irresponsible parenting, a pitiful lack of education, and drugs/alcohol. Add to all of that the mental/physical disabilities of many participants, the children turned loose to run wild without constraints, and the lack of duty of care on the part of the various government agencies, and the result is gruesome ... extremely gruesome.

And, unfortunately, it's not just in Australia. It's everywhere. Multitudes upon multitudes of human beings drowning in these vile conditions of absolute despair.

It makes my heart ache. Why? Why can't we be better than this? Why do humans care so little for their fellow man/woman?

3 Stars = I liked the book. I'm glad I read it.

[♥ Marlene♥]

Blimey. Everybody and their mothers are raped and sodomized in this book.


At first you read about so and so being raped as a little boy and you feel awful, but then this person's mum was also raped and then we get to know the next person and he too was used by many pedophiles and or neighbourhood boys.


What the hell is going on in Australia???



It became so depressing I had to pick something a little more cheerful to read.

Will go on and read this one too but the days are so dark here and depressing I need something that makes me laugh and O boy Marian Keyes is so good at it.

[Rhonda]

I am finding this book very difficult to finish. Not because it is not well written, but because of the content.

This is the saddest non fiction book I have ever read. Everyone associated with the Snowtown murders was a victim of child abuse and rape at a very young age.
I am a person that always se's the best in everyone, and thinks there is a reason behind every tragedy. But the people involved in this were all victims from a young age and knew no different and could not get off the roundabout.

I do intend to finish the book when i am a better frame of mind myself, to cope with this.
It is a very well written and detailed book,and Debi is a great writer. Writing this also must have been difficult.

[Karen]

Quick comments, rather than a full review, but for those that aren't aware - this is a book about the notorious South Australian "Snowtown" killings. There's only ever been a couple of other books that have taken me longer to read - KILLING FOR PLEASURE has been picked up, read a bit and put down since 2006.

Not because of the writing, or the analysis or even the nature of the crimes - this book covers one of those completely inexplicable, sad, pointless, horrible crimes that really did happen - as unlikely as that could possibly be. It also attempts to look for some answers, albeit seemingly on the basis of the author's own research - there appears to be little by way of official explanations or consideration. Ultimately this was a very difficult book to read because this is real life and this is about the nature of a place and society that allowed twelve people (they know about) to disappear over seven years.

[Baz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank goodness that's over. This book is about 200 pages longer than it needed to be. It is drawn out and exaggerated. It's a shame because I wanted an informative story with facts and action. Unfortunately this just seemed like a drawn out way to fill 400 pages. In some parts, the 'author' (who seems more like a journalist for News of the World) spits out details that she and nobody else could have possibly known about the pasts of the victims/killers just to sensationalise her story more. It is an understatement to say I struggled through the first half because of this. So many superfluous details riddled the first half, then things started to pick up. The pace lifted and stories became facts. This was short lived. A generous 3 stars was on the cards until I read the line "this is a system in desperate need of colonic irrigation" straight after she discusses rape and paedophilia.
She doesn't let the truth get in the way of a good story that's for sure.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Killing For Pleasure by Debi Marshall is about eleven murders in Australia between 1992 and 1999. The murders were carried out by a small group of people with the group being led by a depraved runt of a man named John Bunting.

Coming in at over 400 pages, the deeply researched and minutely detailed book reads like an epic. Details regarding the murders are graphic and may not be for every reader, however, the information revealed is not done in a lurid manner meant to titillate. It is clear the details are added to accurately portray the events and to depict the depraved savagery of Bunting and those that assisted him during these years.

In some areas of the book, the mere massive amount of detail and excellent research does slow the reader down, however, if one is looking for a definitive accounting of these murders, Killing For Pleasure is that book.

Killing For Pleasure is recommended to those favorable to in-depth, true crime books, however, be forewarned, some depictions of violence are quite graphic. Also, the 2011 film The Snowtown Murders is also based on these murders and while this is a very well done film, it also is quite disturbing (one amazing thing about the film is the selection of actors and how well they resemble the actual people in real life).

[Anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am afraid I could not get past page 137 on this one. Thus far it was very detailed on the family background/history of all characters. Broadly speaking you could probably say all were 'victims' in this tale of woe. This genre is in the past for me now ... on to something more uplifting.

[Smut Librarian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive but sometimes confusing because of the number of different people involved. But a very engaging and informative read.

[Melvin Chinwag · Rating 1 out of 5]

So poorly written I struggled to get through it. The victims and their families deserve better than this type of breathy sensationalism riddled with errors (did this book even have an editor?) by an author whose ego appears to have overridden any journalistic ability she may have once possessed.

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would've got four stars from me, except for the author having some sort of weird crush on Bunting and making that disgustingly obvious in the way she describes him. I also don't like the tone of contempt she uses when describing the victims and other hangers-on whose only crime was being intellectually disabled. It's like she respects Bunting more than she respects them.

As with other books I've read on Snowtown, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone in this case, victims as well as killers. What a sick, sad bunch of people: paedophiles, junkies, thieves, negligent and abusive parents.

Ugh.

[Sunnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A depressing picture of deprived area of Australian suburbia .

The Snowtown Murders also known as the Bodies in the Barrle murders is to date the worst series of serial killings in Australia.
How a group of 3 men exploited the vulnerable in a deprived suburb of Adelaide and tortured and murdered 12 people for no other reason than the fun of it and to gain access to their social security benefits.

[Sean Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit of a slog to read. Not because it was badly written, but because it just got too depressing and stomach churning in parts. A lot of the histories of the victims (and the killers) were mired in sexual abuse and depravity and at times you felt like a Silkwood shower was needed in order to cleanse your own soul.

[Stringy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent with lots of interviews with survivors and bystanders. Compassionate and understanding of the difficult lives led by these people. But also not shying away from the very disturbing actions of Bunting and his gang, and the bleak history of everyone involved. (Not recommended for anyone sensitive to incidents of child abuse.)

[Lucy · Rating 3 out of 5]

it was alright it got a bit boring to the end. also i took 5 years to read but highkey just bc im slow everyones claim of it took ages bc terrible content that wasnt me, but i have read books with more disturbing content so it was probs easier for me than //fresh ppl

[Teresa Obrien · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very hard to follow, story lines all over the place.

[Peter Metcalfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well written book on a subject that threatens your mind with a powerful impact. Not for the faint of heart.

[Mara Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to read as it kept skipping from one person to next for first 200 pages. It should have started with the middle of the book where Snowtown is introduced. It gets better from then on.

[🫀 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has been at the bottom of my purse for months, going with me everywhere as I slowly, slowly flipped through it. Most of it was read in the past couple of days. I have to read another nonfiction book about murder for a school project and didn’t want to risk jumbling up the details of two unconnected situations by reading about them simultaneously. Also I wanted to have this finished before James Vlassaskis’s nonparole period ends (which should be May/June if I understand correctly) so that when a decision is made I could have an informed opinion.

On one hand, being a journalist is hard, and I can understand that covering this story in particular would be extremely difficult. The web of people involved is intricate and complex, the evidence is gruesome, and the court issued an unprecedented amount of suppression orders on what information the public could know. This book is the result of years of hard work on Ms. Marshall’s part, and I do think it’s an achievement. But that doesn’t mean it’s without flaws.

Have you ever read a review for a show like Shameless or Malcolm in the Middle or My Name is Earl that’s like “and somehow the characters stay bright through the nightmarish landscape that surrounds them in their disgusting unbelievable poverty” and you’re just like “wtf these are just ordinary people.” That’s what this book is like. Every person involved, perpetrator and victim alike, was a suburbanite on welfare. A class status that the author admits within the text of the book is a “foreign country” to her, and, oh boy, does it show. Yes, many of the subjects endured extreme and outrageous abuse, but many of the aspects of their environment that are described with horror are just totally normal things. It’s distracting and a huge part of why this was such a slow read.

The other problem with this book is that there is a lot of stuff taken for granted as fact that I can’t determine where she got the information from or why she sees it as factual. I’m sure some of these were judgements made based on suppressed information (and how the amount of suppressed information might be warping the public understanding of this case is another can of worms) but at least some of these are the result of sources that really should have been looked at more critically. Also a lot of the more general things said about serial killers and crime are just flat out wrong.

If you are specifically searching out information on this case for whatever reason, then I recommend this book despite the above mentioned flaws. But I can’t see myself recommending this book to anyone else.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marshall took a seemingly complex and interesting case and somehow made it dreadfully boring.

Side note, I prefer crime books as hard copies since I like to put faces to the names. I ordered this book, at great expense, and the miserly number of photographs included were almost as disappointing as the rest of the book.

To make reading this book bearable you could play a drinking game with yourself and take a shot every time Marshall uses "poetic" language to describe one of the many overweight victims. Cheers.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the definitive story

Well written, this book not only follows the murders but the lives of those involved, both killers and victims. It explores the culture that helped create a group of murderers and victims and contains first hand accounts from some of those involved in the lives and deaths of both.

[Payton Tag · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting perspective on the killings and insight into the lives of the people involved. But much of this book ready too much like an essay. The small parts of story telling were fairly compelling but just not frequent enough. The book was far too bulky, with much of the content focusing on the trials, etc which made it very slow reading.

[margy moran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snowtown

Born and breed in Adelaide I’ve wanted to read this book ... I had to put it down a couple of times as it was really graphic... Well written ... extensive detail ..... A really good book

[Peter S · Rating 5 out of 5]

I felt this book was extremely well researched. A tragic story of those at the lower edges of society and the depraved undertakings of a small group who imposed their will and misguided beliefs on them.
It is well remembered as a critical episode in crime in Australia.

[Caroline B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has RUINED my LIFE

FIVE STARS

[Erin Ledo]

This one I simply can't rate. It was a slow read with a lot of confronting information. A very dark sad story.

[Keybo Taheri · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't review this book based on the subject content. This non-fiction novel was written about Snowtown Australia's worst serial killings. While trying to tell the story of what actually happened seemed quite a difficult task, the author also tries to make sense of why it happened. Due to hundreds of suppression orders made by the courts on this case, I imagine the task of writing this book would have been very difficult. The author tracks down people associated with the murderer's as well as their victims which also would have been a daunting task. The story does not flow as well as it could have for a true crime novel, I read this book in a couple of weeks, despite the repulsive content. I thought the author, actually played down the graphic details of the crimes to make it more appealing for the market. The author did reveal new angles on the case, which is also commendable. I was surprised the author at one point blamed and attacked the killer's reading of the bestseller author Stephen King on the crimes (which I am also guilty of reading). It made me wonder why the author chose to write on such a horrifying crime case. The author also wrote about the effect the crimes had on the Snowtown community, the suburb of Salisbury and the community. The novel was simply not as indepth or graphic as it should have been which is something the reader should be appreciative of if they knew the true nature of these crimes. This is a true crime case that should not be ignored and I am glad the author often asked the questions that others would dare not to ask.

[Sandy Saunders · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was never really interested in the Snowtown murders although it was a major news item in Australia when it happened. This book changed my mind by the end of the first chapter and I was sorry to finish it.
Debi Marshall researched the background for five years and it really shows in the depth of the details.
These poor victims had nothing to their name, were abused by their own family in many instances but they still had a life to live until they met John Bunting. Their deaths were distressing to read about and it horrifies me that anyone could get pleasure out of literally torturing a person to death, not just once but a dozen times. Worse still is that John Bunting had willing helpers.
I never really thought I could believe in the death penalty but in John Buntings case I’d convict and sentence him in a flash.
Once again Debi Marshall has proven to be an excellent author and I commend her for really putting in the time and effort to write an incredible book.