Frederick Brooks

**Frederick "Fred" Robert Brooks** (March 7, 1981 - September 1998) was an Australian man who was killed by John Bunting, Robert Wagner and Jamie Vlassakis.

## Backstory

John Bunting, driven to murder by his hatred for paedophiles and homosexuals, has been described as a skilled manipulator of people and "Australia's worst serial killer". Bunting had fashioned a "rock spider wall" on a wall of a spare room in his house. The chart, created using paper notes and wool, was an interconnected web of names of people Bunting suspected to be paedophiles or homosexuals.

Bunting met Robert Wagner when he moved to Waterloo Corner Road. Wagner was living with Vanessa Lane (formerly Barry Lane) at the time. Wagner assisted Bunting in disposing of the body of his first victim, Clinton Trezise. Wagner later assisted Bunting in the remaining ten Snowtown murders.

Jamie Vlassakis met John Bunting when aged fourteen and looked up to Bunting as a father figure. It was alleged Bunting groomed Vlassakis into committing serial murders.

Frederick Brooks was the son of Jodie Elliott who was Elizabeth Haydons' sister. Elliot had moved to South Australia in late 1997 to be near her sister.

## Events

Bunting became obsessed with the idea that Brooks was "touching up" young girls and repeatedly told the others that something had to "happen" to him.

One day in September 1998, Brooks was excited as he had been notified that morning that he had been accepted into the Air Force Cadets. He was invited to a party that night but was also invited to join Bunting, Wagner and Vlassakis in a break and enter so he accepted their offer instead.

Vlassakis, Wagner and Bunting tortured the young Brooks, in a bath tub. As with previous victims, he was handcuffed and thumbcuffed. They beat and tortured him, and forced him to call them by vaunted titles.

Lit cigarettes were inserted into his ears and his nostrils, and left to smolder. A lit sparkler was shoved up his urethra. He was made to speak into a recording device, including his banking information and that he had molested young girls. A syringe was used multiply to inject various substances into his testicles, which were wired to a Variac, sending electrical impulses through his body. His toes were crushed by a pliers. Finally, a rag was stuffed into his mouth, and he was beaten until his body gave up.

His corpse was wrapped in plastic, then thrown into the trunk of a car. Brooks’ body was found in the a barrel in the Snowtown bank vault.

## Aftermath

The Supreme Court trial for John Bunting began on 14 October 2002. He was convicted of eleven murders and found guilty on 8 September 2003. He was sentenced to 11 life sentences without the possibility of parole and is incarcerated at Yatala Labour Prison in Adelaide.

Robert Wagner was found guilty of ten counts of murder. He was sentenced to 10 life sentences without the possibility of parole and has been incarcerated since 2003.

Jamie Vlassakis is currently serving four consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 26 years for his role in the Snowtown murders. Vlassakis confessed to four murders, including the murder of his stepbrother, David Johnson and half-brother Troy Youde as well as the murders of Gary O'Dwyer and Frederick Brooks.

## Other Victims of the Snowtown Murders

* Clinton Trezise, aged 22
* Ray Davies, aged 26
* Vanessa Lane, aged 42
* Michelle Gardiner, aged 19
* Thomas Trevilyan, aged 18
* Gavin Porter, aged 31
* Troy Youde, aged 21
* Gary O'Dwyer, aged 29
* Elizabeth Haydon, aged 37
* David Johnson, aged 24