In February 2000, Katherine Knight - a mother of four - committed a crime so shocking and unsettling, many people drew comparisons between her and some of the most depraved and prolific Australian serial killers. While she only murdered one victim - her boyfriend of several years, John Price - the acts Knight subjected the man's body to after viciously stabbing him to death reminded many in Australia of crimes perpetrated by the world's worst cannibal serial killers.
When police discovered Knight's deeds the morning after she ended Price's life in the home the couple had shared in New South Wales, they were disgusted by what they found at the bloody crime scene. The following year, Knight was convicted of the shocking murder, and the judge in charge of sentencing the middle-aged mother was so disturbed by her crimes, he imposed a penalty no other woman in Australia has ever received.
Disturbing And Fascinating Facts About Australian Cannibal Katherine Knight,
She Killed A Former Boyfriend's Puppy
After her marriage to her first husband ended, Knight met David Saunders in 1986 and the couple quickly moved in together. However, like with her past and future relationships, Knight became violent and jealous shortly after they started dating.
During their tumultuous relationship, Knight stabbed Saunders with scissors and hit him with an iron - causing him to require stitches and suffer broken ribs - but one day she decided to hurt her boyfriend not by assaulting him but by harming his two-month-old dingo puppy. While Knight later said she killed the puppy by cutting his throat with a knife because Saunders had punched her in the stomach while she was pregnant, Saunders claimed she hurt the baby dingo simply to upset him.
She Cooked His Body Parts And May Have Eaten Some Of His Corpse
After decapitating Price's corpse, Knight placed his head in a pot on her stove and cooked it with a variety of vegetables to created a grotesque and grisly stew. In addition to boiling her dead boyfriend's head, Knight cut pieces of meat from Price's buttocks, which she roasted in the oven.
Then, Knight placed plates of her boyfriend's cooked flesh - which she served with vegetables, baked potatoes, and gravy - on the dining table, even writing place cards complete with malicious messages for Price's adult children that she set next to each repulsive meal. An additional portion of Price's cooked buttocks was discovered in the backyard, leading some to suspect Knight may have engaged in cannibalism before tossing the meat outside for her dogs to eat.
She Stabbed Her Boyfriend To Death
On Febrary 29, 2000, 44-year-old Katherine Knight put on a black negligee and had sex with her boyfriend, 45-year-old John Price, at their home in Aberdeen, New South Wales, Australia. Shortly after the couple had sex, Price fell asleep, only to be awoken moments later by his girlfriend of several years stabbing him repeatedly in the chest.
Despite suffering multiple injuries, Price managed to escape from the bedroom, leaving a bloody trail behind him as he made his way to the front door. Tragically, Price was unable to the flee the house, and he ultimately died of the 37 stab wounds Knight had inflicted with a butcher's knife.
She Removed The Skin From Her Victim's Body
After Price died from the nearly 40 stab wounds Knight inflicted on both the front and back of his body - hitting multiple vital organs in the process - she used her experience butchering animals to dismember his lifeless corpse. Knight used a knife to remove Price's skin from his body, hanging his hide from a meat hook she'd installed in her living room.
After skinning Price's corpse, Knight cut off his head and sliced hunks of flesh from his buttocks. While stabbing her boyfriend to death, skinning his corpse, and dismembering his body was horrifying enough, what Knight did next was particularly depraved and disturbing.
She Had A Long History Of Violence
During her five year relationship with Price - which began when she started having an affair with him while she was still dating one of her co-workers from the slaughterhouse - Knight violently attacked her boyfriend multiple times, often over his refusal to marry her.
In the 1970s, Knight was married to her first husband, David Kellet, and she actually fractured his skull by hitting him in the head with a frying pan simply because he came home late one night.
After Knight split from Kellet in August 1976, she convinced a neighbor and her 16-year-old daughter to give her a ride, claiming she needed to take her child to the hospital for medical treatment. However, once inside the vehicle, Knight pulled a knife on the woman and her daughter, demanding that they take her to find her estranged husband. A struggle ensued, and Knight ended up slashing the woman underneath her eye, an incident that resulted in Knight spending time in a psychiatric hospital, not jail.
Her Victim Suspected She Was Going To Murder Him Shortly Before She Stabbed Him To Death
In the weeks leading up to his murder, Price was subjected to multiple violent attacks by Knight. In fact, just prior to killing her boyfriend on February 29, 2000, Knight stabbed Price in the chest, an assault that caused him to kick his girlfriend out of the home they shared in Aberdeen.
Fearing she would harm him again, Price went to a magistrate's court on the morning of his murder and got a restraining order to keep Knight away from him and his children. Later that day, Price told his co-workers he was afraid of his girlfriend, even stating that if he didn't come in to work the next day, it would probably be because Knight had killed him.
She Left Her Baby On Railroad Tracks
Not surprisingly, Knight's violence didn't end with the men she dated and married, and her children were also subjected to her violent and unstable behavior. Soon after Knight gave birth to her first child in 1976 - a daughter she and her first husband named Melissa - people saw her pushing her newborn around town in a stroller, purposefully slamming the baby carriage into the fences that lined the streets. Following this incident, Knight was hospitalized and diagnosed with post-partum depression.
While she received treatment for post-partum depression, Knight's disturbing behavior towards her young daughter continued when she placed the stroller - with two-month-old Melissa inside - on the railroad tracks shortly before a train was set to arrive. Thankfully, an elderly man spotted the baby carriage and moved the infant out of harm's way, most likely saving the girl's life.
She Said She Didn't Remember Killing And Skinning Her Victim
When Price failed to show up for work on March 1, 2000, his supervisor sent someone to the home he shared with Knight to check on his well-being. Price's co-worker immediately noticed blood on the house's front door, so he contacted law enforcement to report his concerns.
When officers arrived at the home, they forced the door open and found a bloody scene, including Price's skinned body and his hide hanging from a meat hook. In the house, officials also discovered Knight, who was in a coma after she's taken a large quantity of pills in an effort to end her own life. Knight was rushed to the hospital for medical treatment and she eventually recovered from the failed suicide attempt. When investigators asked Knight why she killed her boyfriend, she told the authorities she had no memory of stabbing Price 37 times, skinning his body, cutting of his head, and cooking his remains.
She Strangled Her First Husband On Their Wedding Night
From the very beginning of their marriage, Knight subjected her first husband Kellet to disturbing acts of violence. In fact, on the couple's wedding night, Knight actually choked her new husband because he fell asleep after having sex with her three times, a sexual performance she deemed inadequate.
Despite the ominous beginning to their marriage, Knight and Kellet - who started dating in 1973 - were together until 1984 and their union produced two daughters. After their relationship ended, Knight went on to have two more children with two other men, making this unstable and dangerous woman a mother of four.
The Authorities Sewed Her Victim's Skin Back Onto His Body
Knight - who had once worked in a slaughterhouse where she dismembered animals - removed Price's head and skin using the same knives she'd used to decapitate pigs. In fact, Knight skinned her boyfriend's corpse with such expertise and precision, she was able to leave the entire hide intact, including Price's nose, ears, genitals, mouth, and hair.
Investigators discovered Price's pelt hanging from a butcher's hook in the home the dead man had once shared with his girlfriend, as well as his head in a pot on the stove. They also found his skinned, headless corpse, and because Knight had removed Price's skin so cleanly, medical officials were later able to sew it back on to his body.