Until I stumbled upon this book, I had never heard of Katherine Knight. As a matter of fact, I really haven’t heard of many female cannibals in general.

Of course there are the Jodi Arias’s, Aileen Wuornos’s, and Karla Homolka’s of the world, but most often you hear of women committing filicide, poisonings, crimes of passion, murders for life insurance policies, drug related homicides… those sorts of things.

I believe that’s why this book is so alluring. Katherine Knight is a true monster! And don’t be fooled, the uniqueness about Katherine’s crimes doesn’t end at the cannibalism… Her mercilessness goes much further beyond that.

Synopsis

Katherine Knight was born into a dreadful family where she had suffered years of sexual abuse by her brothers and step brothers. Possibly because of this, even as a child Katherine was known to be quick tempered and constantly on the lookout for someone to turn into a victim.

Katherine soon found her “happy place” when she landed a job in a slaughterhouse. This is where she was able to brush up on her knife skills and take  her anger out on innocent and unsuspecting animals. That is, until John came along.

John Price had been warned by everybody that Katherine Knight was bad news. Hell, even Katherine’s own mother warned him! But John didn’t listen, which would prove to be a fatal mistake.

After John didn’t show up to work, concerned coworkers called the authorities. Upon entering John’s house, what the police found was unlike anything they had ever seen, and it ended up being one of the most shocking crimes in Australian history.

Take Note: Jealousy is Ugly!

This story is a classic nature vs. nurture scenario. In my opinion, it takes at least two to tango, and Katherine Knight was tango-ing all over the damn place.

It becomes abundantly clear that Katherine Knight was severely abused as a child and was either born with, or had developed, mental health issues early on in her life. Her serious mental health problems were left untreated and only got worse as her life progressed.

The book details Katherine’s early years as well as her dating life, where she displays a pattern of extreme jealously and abandonment issues in every relationship she has. Katherine was always violent, controlling, manipulating, and abusive. Despite this, men claimed to stay with her because of her looks, sexual experience, and charm, but there’s only so much one man can take, good god!

So, in the story, we are told about a few lovers who were able escape her grasp alive, but we all knew that there would be one man who wouldn’t. It’s why there’s a book, after all, right? Unfortunately, that man happened to be John Price.

John Price and Katherine Knight had a horrible relationship filled with abuse and manipulation, mostly on Katherine’s end. John Price was warned by everyone to stay as far away from Katherine as he could, but sadly, there was always something that kept John from leaving no matter how terrible the abuse got.

My review.

(Some spoilers about the crimes are ahead and I included a warning prior.) 

Although the story covers Katherine’s entire life leading up to the crime, the book itself is very short! Sometimes this can be refreshing, as it is an easy listen, or read, depending on your format.

The writing isn’t very special or unique, but I suppose it didn’t need to be. At the end of the day the book is well put together and stuck to a clear and concise timeline. When it comes to a true crime book, I always appreciate and prefer that. Personally, I do not need non fiction to be written creatively or mysteriously; please leave out the creative and jumbled timeline that complicates the facts. Thank you. 🙂

However, I will note that most of the book’s contents can be discovered by doing a quick google search. There aren’t any interviews, survivor stories, or unique insights included in this novel, and that is a damn shame. I think this book could’ve been elevated had it included some investigative journalism or real hard research beyond a brisk goog.

I also was a little bit let down by the lack of coverage and information there was on the crime itself. And, as we find out, the book title may have been a bit misleading, which always drives me crazy! You can’t judge a book by its cover, that is true… But you should be able to judge it by the title, am I right?! 

In case you don’t want to read about the crime itself, I’ll let you know right here that I rated this 3/5 stars.

My Rating: ★★★☆☆

Continue on reading on if you want to know a little bit about the crime itself.

(Spoiler Warning)

Without giving away too much detail, after already stabbing John Price the day prior, Katherine Knight decapitated and skinned Price in his home. She hung the skin up on a meat hook and positioned his very bare body on a chair in the living room. Katherine then set out to prepare Price to be fed to his children. (Savage af!)

However, the cannibalism never actually came to fruition, hence why I believe the title was slightly misleading.

Katherine did cook the meat with some vegetables, set out the plates with little name tags for each kid, but was busted before her plan could take place. (Thank god.)

Regardless of how the book is written or if there were unique experiences included/not included, the crime itself, as well as Katherine’s tragic life, is fascinating enough to carry the entire book.

What did you think of Katherine Knight’s crimes?

I’m dying to know. 

xoxo,

Ande Strega