It starts with the smell.

Long before police opened a bank vault in Snowtown and found eight barrels of human remains soaking in acid, there was a quiet boy in Inala digging tunnels under his family home, torturing bugs in jars and learning all the wrong lessons about power, pain and “cleansing” the world.

In this first part of our deep dive into the Snowtown “bodies in the barrels” murders, host Shawnee traces the story back to its true beginning:

• John Bunting’s childhood in Inala, his sexual abuse, and his obsession with torture and Nazi ideology
  

• The twisted “protector” who taught him to see paedophiles, gay men and trans people as the same enemy
  

• His move to Salisbury North and the formation of his inner circle: Robert Wagner, Vanessa (Barry) Lane and Mark Haydon
  

• The first known murders: Clinton Trezise, Ray Davies, Suzanne Allen, Michelle Gardner & Vanessa Lane
  

• How tunnels, sheds, welfare fraud and plastic barrels became part of a system of “cleansing” that would end in a bank vault in Snowtown
  

This isn’t just a story about what police found in a small-town bank. It’s about abuse, hate, poverty and complicity — and how they combined to create a killer who believed he was doing the world a favour.

⚠️ Content warning: This episode contains discussion of child sexual abuse, torture, homophobia, transphobia, graphic violence and murder. Listener discretion is strongly advised.

Listen to Part One now, and follow You’re Killing Me so you don’t miss Part Two of Snowtown: The Bodies in the Barrels.