Katherine Knight had known chaos all her life. And there was a good reason for that. Katherine Knight was the cause of all the chaos.
Katherine Knight was born on October 24th, 1955 in Tenterfield, New South Wales, Australia. Her upbringing was unconventional for the time. Her parents had come together as the result of a sordid affair, and were the talk of the town of Aberdeen – leaving many of their children, born prior to the affair, behind.
The gossip led Katherine’s parents to leave Aberdeen for Moree, where they resided when Katherine, and her twin sister, were born.
Knight and her sister were faced with their father’s violent and alcoholic tendencies, which their mother took out on them. They both grew up hearing extensive details of their mother being raped by their father, and how much she hated men in general. It’s speculated that some of this deep-seeded hatred and resentment ingrained itself in Katherine.
Knight often talked of being physically and sexually abused by family members during her childhood, but maintained that her father never touched her. Members of the family confirm that his happened, but it stopped when Knight began fighting back.
In high school, Knight was known for being a bully and starting fights. She had a reputation for having her mother’s fiery temper, and her mother’s love for foul language.
However, when she was calm, she was known to have won awards for her good behaviour. It seemed as though Katherine Knight could have her moments of niceties. She knew when to use them, and she used them wisely.
At fifteen, Knight left school – without learning how to read or write – and gained employment at a clothing factory. A year later, she was employed at the local abattoir. There, she moved up the ranks quickly, and was given her own set of knives. Knives that she always kept in top shape. By all accounts, working at the abattoir was Knight’s dream job. And she was very, very good at what she did.
Along with her reputation for foul language and her temper, Knight was also known as vindictive. It was said that if you did wrong by her, she’d get you back ten times worse. Many people who crossed her path would learn that very lesson.
In 1973, Knight met her coworker David Stanford Kellett. He was an alcoholic, much like her father had been. And yet, this didn’t detract from her attraction to Kellett. He was prone to fistfights, and Knight was prone to being physically threatening to anyone who ticked her off. They were quite smitten with each other.
A year later, in 1974, the pair married when Knight turned 18. On their wedding night, Kellett was nearly strangled by an irate Knight. She was angry with him. He fell asleep before she was fully sexually satisfied, and that simply would not do.
That one night would set the precedent for the marriage. It was often violent, and full of alcohol-fuelled rage and chaos. Though Kellett had a penchant for being unfaithful, he never raised a hand to Knight. She did enough damage all on her own.
On one occasion, Knight flew into such a rage over Kellett arriving home late from darts that she hit him over the back of the head with a frying pan. When police were called, Knight acted meek and quiet – choosing a moment of niceness. She kept up the facade for as long as it took Kellett to drop the assault charges against her.
In 1976, Knight gave birth to their first child. But her abuse hadn’t let up over the years. Kellett left Knight soon after the birth, and moved to Queensland with another woman. He was fed up with her abuse, and wanted a fresh start. Knight was furious.
She blamed the baby. She thought it was the baby’s fault that Kellett had left her. So incensed, Knight tried to inflict harm on her baby twice – once by throwing the baby’s stroller from side to side, and once by leaving the baby on train tracks. Both times, the baby was saved. And both times, Knight was institutionalized and released shortly thereafter. Upon one of her releases, things came to a head.
On August 3rd, 1976, Knight threatened a woman with a knife, slashing her face, and demanding that she drive her to Queensland in order to find Kellett. Upon stopping at a service station, the woman managed to escape, but Knight took her young son hostage. Knight was disarmed by police, who attacked her with brooms, and was admitted to Morisset Psychiatric Hospital.
While hospitalized, Knight made many death threats against many people, including Kellett and his mother. Even though he’d been warned about the threats, Kellett moved back to Aberdeen with his mother. He was more scared that Knight would act on her threats than he was of her abuse.
Three days later, on August 9th, 1976, Knight was released into the care of Kellett and his mother.
After a while, they moved to Woodbridge, a suburb of Brisbane, where Knight gained employment at the Dinmore meatworks in Ipswich. In 1980, Knight and Kellett had their second child. In 1984, Knight called an end to the marriage. She left Kellett and moved back to her parent’s home in Aberdeen. Throughout the 10 year marriage, Knight’s abuse against Kellett never let up.
Back in Aberdeen, Knight returned to work at the abattoir, then moved to a rented home in Muswellbrook in order to be closer to work. Upon injuring her back, Knight could no longer work, but was given a disability pension. Due to her injury, Knight was then given a Housing Commission residence in Aberdeen as she no longer needed to be close to the abattoir. She took the liberty of hanging her carving knives over her bed.
Her injury certainly didn’t impede on her need for companionship, though.
Two years after leaving Kellett, Knight met 38-year-old David Saunders in 1986, and her cycle of chaos would start all over again.
Saunders was subject to Knight’s abuse early. A few months after meeting, he moved in with Knight and her two children. They fought often, usually over Knight being unnecessarily jealous, and she’d forcibly throw him out. She’d force him to move back to his own apartment, only to follow a short time later, and beg him to return. This pattern repeated so often, the neighbours soon lost count.
They also lost count of how much abuse Knight was inflicting on Saunders.
After a particularly nasty row in May of 1987, Knight vowed to prove to Saunders just what would happen to him if he ever had an affair or left her. She took his 2-month-old puppy and slit its throat right in front of him. Then, she proceeded to knock him out with a frying pan. Even by this time, he was too scared to leave.
A year later, in June of 1988, Knight gave birth to her third child, but her first with Saunders. Now a family of five, she pressed Saunders to put a deposit down on a house.
A year after that, she paid for the house in full when her workers’ compensation deposit came through from her injury. Her knife collection was, once again, mounted by the bed. In fact, the entirety of the house was decorated with “animal skins, skulls, horns, rusty animal traps, leather jackets, old boots, machetes, rakes, and pitchforks”. A statement – and a major red flag.
By this time, Knight had a reputation around Aberdeen. She was nasty, violent, and abusive. Most people knew to steer clear. And it seemed Saunders was learning that lesson.
After a row, Knight went after Saunders. She went for his face with an iron, and then stabbed him in the stomach with scissors. Saunders fled, and recovered. He attempted to return to the home to fetch his belongings, but found that Knight had cut or burned them all.
Saunders feared being spotted by Knight, or members of her family, so he went into hiding. She searched for him, but couldn’t find him. His friends and colleagues thwarted her at every turn. So, Knight decided to exact her revenge.
She went to the police with a sob story of abuse, and told them repeatedly that she was afraid of him. She effectively ruined his good name. When Saunders returned to visit family, he found that Knight had had the injustice to have an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) issued to her against him.
Despite Knight’s spotty reputation, she didn’t remain alone for long. In 1990, she began dating John Chillingworth, a 43-year-old former co-worker from the Aberdeen abattoir. She quickly became pregnant with his child. Her two oldest had left home by then, leaving her with a toddler and an infant.
This relationship didn’t prove to be particularly violent, though it was full of stress and strife. The couple fought often, which led Knight to seek out an affair with her last lover, John Price.
John Price, born on April 4th, 1955, was a father of three, and well-liked by everyone around him. He was a miner with a reputation as a hard worker, and a gentle soul. He was warned, repeatedly, to steer clear of Katherine Knight, but he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. People were capable of change. Weren’t they?
In 1995, Knight moved into his house, where he lived with his two oldest children – the youngest remaining with the mother. They liked her well enough, but she wasn’t as kind to them as their mother.
John and his ex-wife remained on very amicable terms – especially when it came to their children. This was a constant thorn in Knight’s side, and the cause of a lot of violent arguments.
In 1998, Knight tried to force John to marry her. He refused. Knight wanted revenge. And she knew just what to do.
John had scavenged out of date medical kits from his company’s rubbish bins. Knight videotaped the items in John’s home, and sent the tape to his boss. Despite being a loyal employee, the company was left with no choice but to fire John after 17 years of service.
John was furious, and ended his relationship with Knight, throwing her out of the house. She moved back to her own home – the home she’d forced Saunders to put a deposit on – and began plotting how to get John back. But it wasn’t easy.
The entire town had heard of what she’d done, and tried to keep her away from John. It didn’t help that she continuously and consistently badmouthed him to anyone who would listen.
Even months later, when John reconciled with Knight, the slander didn’t stop. In fact, the slander, the arguments, and the revenge only got worse when he refused, over and over again, to let her move back into his home.
She wanted him to suffer for not doing things her way. She tried to turn his children against him, telling them that he wasn’t their birth father, and that he didn’t love them.
When that didn’t work, she tried to enlist the help of her nephew. She tired to bribe him into stealing and burning John’s car, and then instructed him to throw acid in John’s face. The nephew steadfastly refused both requests.
John deeply regretted rekindling the relationship. He’d lost many friends over it, and had very few places to turn when arguments turn violent. Knight’s abuse was increasing with extreme urgency, and John was terrified of what Knight would do when he tried to put an end to the relationship. He knew there was no way for the split to be amicable.
The last straw occurred in February of 2000, when Knight’s abuse resulted in John being stabbed in the chest. On the 29th, he went to the Scone Magistrate’s Court in order to obtain a restraining order against Knight to keep himself safe. When he arrived at work, he ‘joked’ with his colleagues that if he didn’t return the next day, it was likely because Knight had murdered him.
That night, he returned home and thankfully didn’t find Knight anywhere near. He spent time with the neighbours, and then returned home at 11PM to go to bed.
However, Knight entered the house while Price was asleep. She woke him up for sex, and then he fell back asleep.
The next morning, John’s neighbours and colleagues were concerned. John’s car was still in his drive, and he hadn’t turned up for work. A colleague was sent to check on him. A neighbour and the colleagues attempted to wake John by banging on his bedroom window. When that didn’t work, they walked around the house. Seeing blood on the front door, they were quick to alert the police.
Police arrived around 8 AM and broke down the back laundry room door, alert for anything. What they found was a scene straight out of a horror movie.
They found John’s body in the hallway. According to blood evidence, it appeared as if Knight had stabbed him while he was sleeping, waking him. He tried to turn on the light, then he took off, and she gave chase. It appeared as though he managed to make it out the front door, but was either pulled back inside, or stumbled back in. Then, Knight dragged him to the hallway, where he bled out.
John Price was stabbed at least 37 times, both front and back. Many of the stab wounds extended into his vital organs.
Those weren’t the only discoveries police would make.
They found a sheet hanging from a doorway that led to the lounge room. The sheet was John Price’s skin. Katherine Knight had used her skills from working at the abattoir to skin John Price after she’d killed him. She’d also decapitated him, and carved through parts of his body.
In the kitchen, police found pieces of cooked meat served up with “baked potato, pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, cabbage, yellow squash, and gravy”. There was enough for two servings, place cards placed beside them with the names of John’s eldest children on them.
In a pot on the stove, police found John’s head marinating with vegetables.
Next, police found Knight passed out in the bedroom. She’d murdered, skinned, and cooked John Price, and then attempted to overdose on sleeping pills, leaving behind a trail of chaos for his children to find.
Katherine Knight was sent to hospital to recover from her attempted overdose, and was arrested immediately for the murder of John Price.
When she was later asked why she’d done it, she claimed she had absolutely no recollection of the event. However, she did admit to being responsible.
Despite taking responsibility, Knight still entered a plea of not guilty at her arraignment on March 2nd, 2001 – a whole year after the fact.
Katherine Knight’s trial began on October 15th, 2001. Her defense counsel attempted to claim that she was the victim of battery. They claimed that she had a history of abusive relationships. Which she did. However, it was Katherine Knight who was the abuser.
Knowing the case wasn’t going to go her way, Knight changed her plea to guilty, and the jury was dismissed. Knight was then sent for psychiatric evaluation, where she wad diagnosed by two psychiatrists with borderline personality disorder.
On November 8th, 2001, Katherine Knight was sentence to life imprisonment, with a mark on her papers stating that she was “never to be released”.
In June of 2006, Katherine Knight attempted to appeal her life sentence. Her appeal was dismissed.
Katherine Knight knew chaos all her life. And for the most part, she was the cause of it.
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Sources:
Casefile True Crime podcast – Case 12 – Katherine Knight
Katherine Knight Slaughtered Her Boyfriend and Made Him Into Stew – Katie Serena – All That’s Interesting
Disturbing and Fascinating Facts About Australian Cannibal Katherine Knight – Cat McAuliffe – Ranker
Katherine Knight Wikipedia page