‘Ask me anything’: Snowtown serial killer Robert Wagner seeks ‘interesting mail’ from women in post on prison pen pals website

SNOWTOWN serial killer Robert Wagner is destined to die in prison — but is using an online forum in an effort to meet women in the outside world.

SNOWTOWN serial killer Robert Wagner is destined to die in prison — but is using an online forum in an effort to meet women in the outside world.

Wagner, who is serving 10 life sentences without the possibility of parole, has established a profile on a US-based website which connects prisoners and people on the outside.

The infamous killer’s profile on the Prison Pen Pals website states he is “keen to meet women who are up for exchanging interesting material with each other”.

Wagner’s profile is believed to have been set up by a friend or acquaintance on the outside.

It has drawn an angry response from victims’ groups and a pledge from South Australian authorities that he will never succeed in communicating with the outside world.

Homicide Victim Support Group of SA founder Lynette Nitschke said she was disgusted by Wagner’s profile.

“They had a choice to commit their crimes and it should be part of their punishment or rehabilitation not to have contact with the outside world,” Ms Nitschke said.

“This is only hurtful to their victims, I know of victims in the past who have had to deal with an offender getting married in prison and that was extremely upsetting for them.”

Wagner, 42, and his accomplice John Bunting are among a small group of the worst Australian murderers with no chance of parole, including backpacker killer Ivan Milat, Victorian serial sex killer Peter Dupas and Port Arthur gunman Martin Bryant.

Bunting and Wagner were charged with 12 murders between 1992 and 1999 — with Wagner eventually convicted of 10 and Bunting 11 murders following South Australia’s longest criminal trial.

The vile serial killing spree culminated in Wagner and Bunting cooking and eating the flesh of their final victim, David Johnson, who was murdered inside the Snowtown bank vault where police discovered the remains of eight victims inside six barrels in May 1999.

But Wagner’s quest for pen pals appears doomed to failure, with the Department of Correctional Services asking the Prison Pen Pals website to remove Wagner’s profile.

“The Department first and foremost has a duty of care to victims of crime and does not condone the activities of the prisoner pen pal website in question,” a spokesman said.

“No prisoner in South Australia is permitted internet access and any prisoner profile listed on

this or similar sites would have been created by someone external to a correctional facility.”

The spokesman said Wagner’s mail was heavily-vetted and any letters would be intercepted before they reached the serial killer.

However the sister of one of Wagner’s victims, Garry O’Dwyer, said she was not totally opposed to Wagner contacting people outside his high-security cell at Yatala Labour Prison.

Denise, who did not want to use her current surname, said Wagner should be entitled to write to people on the outside as long as the letters were vetted by prison staff.

“Obviously it makes me ill and it’s ugly to me personally because he’s the killer of my brother but I seem to think it should be within his rights if people want to communicate with a person like that,” she said.

“I certainly think that in (Wagner’s) mind he would be thinking ‘oh wow, I’m such a sex God’ because of course there would be some strange females that would be attracted to that.

“He is honest and upfront on his profile about what he is in prison for, so if people want to communicate with him that’s up to them.”

Mr O’Dwyer, 29, suffered disabilities from a car crash and was brutally tortured and killed by Bunting, Wagner and James Vlassakis at his Murray Bridge home in November 1998.

Denise said she and her family had previously been harassed by people who falsely believed her younger brother was involved in sex crimes, such as following the release of the Snowtown movie.

When he was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences without parole, Wagner stood in the dock of the Supreme Court and read a statement.

“Pedophiles were doing terrible things to children. The authorities didn’t do anything about it. I decided to take action. I took that action. Thank you.”

Most of Bunting and Wagner’s eventual victims were not sex offenders, and the pair systematically drained the bank accounts of the dead before their eventual arrest.

Websites such as Prison Pen Pals are a phenomenon in the US, while there are 27 Australian prisoners with current profiles on the site.

Commissioner for Victims’ Rights Michael O’Connell said there were differing views on whether prisoners should be allowed contact with the outside world.

“For some victims, allowing prisoners who have committed heinous crimes to solicit penpals via the internet, is downright offensive — indeed abhorrent,” Mr O’Connell said.

“Some people who become pen pals have developed relationships with prisoners. Prisoners’ posts on some of these web sites read like those on ‘dating sites’, rather than pleas from people seeking to rehabilitate.”

A spokesman for Prison Pen Pals said the purpose of the website was “for prisoners to have pen pals, if somebody chooses to write to them”.

“We provide a Pen Pal service, we have no control over who writes to these prisoners, or if anybody writes to them,” the spokesman said.

“We do understand the feelings of the victims, however, we do provide a service.”