James Vlassakis, Snowtown participant, granted conditional parole after 27 years

James Vlassakis, the youngest of three men convicted in Australia’s notorious Snowtown “bodies in the barrels” murders, has been granted conditional parole after serving more than 27 years in prison, a written review decision dated September 14 says.

What prompted the parole decision

The killings were discovered in May 1999 when eight dismembered bodies were found in plastic barrels in the vault of an abandoned bank in Snowtown, north of Adelaide. Investigators later found 12 bodies in all, including two in the backyard of an Adelaide home, and a jury was unable to return a verdict over one of the deaths.

Vlassakis admitted to four of the killings and gave evidence for the prosecution against other offenders. He was sentenced with a minimum term of 26 years before eligibility for parole.

Legal reviews and appeals

A parole board originally granted Vlassakis conditional release last year, but that decision was overturned after South Australia’s attorney-general ordered a review. Following a challenge in the Court of Appeal, a fresh administrative review upheld the earlier decision to release him on parole.

The parole administrative review commissioner, David Lovell, said he found no “cogent reasons” to block Vlassakis’s parole because of the risk he posed on release or to community safety. In his written decision dated September 14, Lovell wrote:

“I dismiss the Attorney-General’s application and affirm the decision of the Parole Board, dated 5 August 2025, to release Mr James Spyridon Vlassakis on parole.”

Background on other convictions in the case

In 2003, a jury convicted John Justin Bunting of 11 counts of murder in relation to the Snowtown killings and convicted Robert Joe Wagner of seven counts of murder. Prosecutors said Bunting and Wagner tortured and killed victims, allegedly motivated by a hatred of paedophiles and gay people.

The review noted that Vlassakis had reportedly been 18 when he took part in his first killing and that he had looked up to Bunting as a “father figure.” The commissioner observed that the same power dynamic could not be replicated because Bunting is serving life imprisonment without parole and Vlassakis is now of a more mature age.

Next steps

The administrative review affirmed the Parole Board’s decision and allowed Vlassakis’s conditional release to stand. The reviewer’s findings and the court challenge led to the finalisation of the parole outcome documented in the September 14 decision.