Beyond Bad

By: Sandra Lee

Narrated by: Kate Hood

Length: 10 hrs and 59 mins

Publisher's summary

Here is the shocking, true story of Australia's most horrific crime. Cruel and evil, Katherine Knight showed no mercy when she butchered her lover in a crime that put her behind bars in an Australian prison for a record life sentence.

Swinging from a meat-hook, John Price's entire skin was in one piece, including his hair, face, ears, nose, mouth, and genitals. Slashes and stab holes tore through the human pelt, a testimony to the wounds he suffered before dying.

Knight, a 44-year-old abattoir worker, had stabbed father-of-three John Price 37 times, skinned his body, cooked his head, and served him up as a meal for his children. Drawing on first-hand accounts, Beyond Bad tells what motivated Knight to commit such a heinous act and how it rocked the small town where she lived. This is a horrifying story of love, lust, revenge, and murder that is all the more shocking because it really happened.

©2002 Sandra Lee (P)2003 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"Given the horrific nature of the material, Kate Hood narrates with the dispassionate charge of a reporter doing her job as objectively as possible." ( AudioFile)

WHOA!

This story was so unbelieveable that I could not stop listening to it. Just when you thought you heard everything evil, this takes the cake! Not for the weak stomach.

Wow....just wow

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes because the narrator was good and the story is just.....I was familiar with it having seen a documentary on it on You Tube once (it has seen been taken down) and found the story appalling then, the book made it even more so.

I thought I understood evil. I thought I understood psychosis. Knight.....oh no. I don't think anyone can understand her and I would guess the police that entered the scene that became "her final act" will need therapy all of their lives.

Who was your favorite character and why?

David Kellett (when I watched the documentary his mother was the sweetest thing) who seems to have found himself in a bad situation that just got worse....but he managed to survive.

Have you listened to any of Kate Hood’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have not actually but I certainly thought it added to this book.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Well yes, actually, just a deep revulsion and the knowledge that we never really know someone and for that matter, we will override our own better judgement when our intuition is saying "RUN" and we say "AH, I am making too much out of this". This story alone should tell people that when your gut says "run"...you run and you don't look back.

Any additional comments?

It is gory. It will leave you reeling but it is a true story that really happened and perhaps that is why the story has to be told. The author also brings up the background of Knight so you wonder if this was nature and nurture, nature or more nurture (or lack thereof).

Evil can come disguised in matronly looking packages at times. THIS was one of those times.

Interesting

I hesitated to buy this book because I thought it would be too gruesome and while the crime is gruesome indeed so much of the book is the fascinating story of a very different lifestyle from my own that I found it more compeling and thought provoking than creepy all told. None of the story makes any kind of 'sense' and that's the most believable and intriguing part of all. (Although- I will say that if your girlfriend stabs your puppy to death it might be a good time to move on.)

Oh Boy....

Yes, this woman is beyond bad. Its truly a shame that someone from this woman's past didn't speak up and do something about her and her mental state long before she was able to commit murder. All of the signs were there.
Once I acclimated myself to the "down under" accent I couldn't stop listening to this book.
Its intriguing and sad all at the same time. Doing a search on this woman AFTER listening to this revealed even more about this family. But don't do the search until after listening to this. Otherwise it will ruin a lot of the information. Highly recommended. Good narrator too.

Compelling storytelling

What a twisted story! And the reader - one of the bests!
Highly recommended to any tru crime fan with a taste for the psychological aspect of a perpetrator.

Don't miss this one!

This book was extremely interesting and Kathleen is quite fascinating. I work with woman who are victims of Domestic Violence and Kathleen has ALL the key traits of a DV offender. The relationships she entered were also with men that could themselves be violent but Kathleen took violence to a new level. She was all about "Power & Control". I would not want to be sharing a cell with her I don't think I would sleep a wink.
The book was well written and well read. Highly recommend.

not so bad

There were creepy parts in this book to be sure, but most of it was made up of exhaustive family tree data, historical research, and court proceedings. I particularly enjoyed getting into the lead investigator's head on how careful & smart he had to be to not risk losing a true conviction via a default insanity defense. The differentiators in this case become obvious later on. Tr?s Law & Order but real! Definitely learned a lot and I'm glad I read it.

beyond good

the narrater was excellent. i enjoyed the book very much. i will most likely listen to this book again.

Fantastic reading

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I had a passing familiarity with this case but didn't know anything about the lives of the people involved. The author doesn't spare any details; the description of the crime and the crime scene could not have been more graphic unless it came with photographs. Not for the squeamish.

Who was your favorite character and why?

John "Pricey" Price. The author seems to have talked to everyone who knew him, not just his friends and family. He sounds like a genuinely nice, everyday guy with a big heart who never believed the worst of anybody, including his abusive girlfriend. It's hard not to read this book without feeling what a loss his death was to his community.

What about Kate Hood’s performance did you like?

She did a great job with all of the voices, and seemed to be enjoying the story.nIt was easy to imagine what each person looked like just based on the way that his or her voice was rendered. I listened to some parts over and over again (like the story told at the funeral) just because I loved the way that she narrated them.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

She killed one man's dog. She got another man fired. And she was just getting started.

Any additional comments?

I hope to hear more of Kate Hood's narrations.

Sick and Enthally

This book was enthralling, while at times sickening, but even those parts were thoroughly captivating. Before reading this book, I knew nothing of Katherine Knight and her gruesome tale. I was appalled at the lack of attention to her apparent mental illness shown by a long history of angry assaults, both verbally and physically. Everyone involved in her life should have seen this coming. She exemplifies Borderline Personality Disorder to a "T". The author and the reader did a fabulous job in telling this true-crime story, that lead to a "Jeffrey Daumer-like" conclusion. I coudn't put it down.