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)

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.

18 of 19 people found this review helpful

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.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Really startling story! and great author!

This is the story of a woman who is, simply put, very disturbed, She conducts a charade of a life, leaving chaos in her wake. It ends with her murdering her boyfriend and mutilating his corpse in a really gruesome manner. Actually, it doesn't quite end there. There is a trial, sentencing, prison. Not to spoil the story, but she tells the author she is happy there in prison. I would imagine so - she is finally safe from herself. I HIGHLY recommend this book *IF* you can stomach some really awful, really graphic scenes - starting with graphic descriptions of animals being skinned in a slaughterhouse. It's a really good story, and really well narrated.

Now here's the thing: This author is really remarkable. First of all, aside from this story just sort of coming out of the blue (as all her books seem to do), this book is really well written. Second, check out her other titles. She covers a wide range of topics - some you would not ordinarily expect a woman to cover. One of her titles is an autobiography. I'm picking it up! Apparently she's a TV chef! I don't watch TV so would have missed her, but definitely want to read her story!

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

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.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

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.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Gripping true crime

Not for the faint hearted, but well worth it for true crime fans.

5 of 6 people found this review helpful

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.)

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

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.

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

beyond good

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

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

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.

Not for the faint hearted...

'Beyond Bad' is a narrative of a particularly grisly murder. This is not an investigation and several aspects of the episode are not cleared up. The murderer did not cooperate.

The murderer was an experienced abattoir worker who apparently loved her work. There are detailed descriptions of the process of killing cattle and preparing carcasses. This is relevant to the subject matter so is not gratuitous.

This is a detailed family history of the murderer, the victim and previous partners that gives a clear impression of how both families are left devastated by the slaying. The reader is left with a view of life in outback Australia that reinforces a stereotype of the hard working, hard drinking 'compo', mateship culture. Domestic violence appears to be routine. Compo is Australian slang for compensation.

As the story unfolds chronologically the interval between the events related shortens until the grisly murder. Each blow is described in terms of location on the body, the progress of the hopeless flight of the victim and physical consequence of the blow for the victim.

The book then continues to describe the trial and sentencing. There is some discussion of the mental state of the killer but once again no real insight ? we don't get 'inside' the head of the killer.

The author provides a sound technical description that is consistent in terms of the level of detail. However the contrast between the domestic life in the outback with the bloody detail of the murder does make this a deeply shocking narrative.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Predictable

What did you like best about Beyond Bad? What did you like least?

listened to the end but did not improve lot's of repeated information.

If this book were a film would you go see it?

Film would be much better