Blood Stain [Paperback]

Peter Lalor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2005

This horrific true crime work tells the story of Katherine Knight, a grandmother and slaughter house worker who became Australia's most notorious female murderer. Author Peter Lalor covered the case for a top daily newspaper in Australia and interviewed Knight's ex-lovers, family, friends, and a former cop who worked on the investigation to present this chilling true story.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Peter Lalor is a senior feature writer with the Daily Telegraph where he covered the Knight case. He has also reported for the Sunday Observer, Sunday Age, and Sun News Pictorial.

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Allen & Unwin (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1865088781
• ISBN-13: 978-1865088785
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,395,264 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Death Down Under, December 29, 2005

By 

TundraVision (o/~ from the Land of Sky Blue Waters o/~) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Stain (Paperback)

Barb & Ken Knight's baby girl Kathy grew up to be a gramma and one mean piece of work. Having honed the art of killing, knifing, slicing, and dicing to a fine art prior to the closing of the abattoir in Aberdeen, Australia, she turned her vocational training to the man she thought done her wrong - making a meal of which Hannibal Lector himself would have been happy to partake. The scariest part is that Kathy's real.

Peter Lalor, local journalist, has done a fine work of writing about the lives and times of the Knights, the crimes, the victims, and the Aussie Law and Order folk. Of Kathy's piece de resistance, he aptly sums: "it was a crime that would have appalled Edgar Allan Poe and humbled the imaginings of Stephen King."

As should be with all books in the True Crime genre, there are orientating photos in the center. For the non-local reader, a map of New South Wales would have been welcome, as would a glossary in the back: tip = dump? Chooks = chickens? And what to make of this sentence: "Bob Price has an esky in a car in the carpark and is topping up constantly." Nonetheless, an excellent account of a terrible true tale. /TundraVision, Amazon US reviewer.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unforgettable, November 9, 2005

By 

Slaughterhouse Sue (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Stain (Paperback)

This is a horrific book and at times I wanted to close my eyes, but Lalor is a compelling writer who won't let you go. I picked it up and could not put it down. It is the story of the most awful woman imaginable who commits the most awful crime imaginable, or at least it seems so until you understand the sort of person she was and sort of world she lived in. A slaughter house worker she stabbed, skinned, beheaded and cooked her partner in a night of passionate, murderous indulgence. Strangely enough none of her ex partners are surprised by what she did.

If you love crime you will love this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outrage in the Outback, August 14, 2007

By 

Shanna McQueen "True Crime Valentine" (Lubbock, Texas) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blood Stain (Paperback)

Peter Lalor tells a compelling story of mental illness, domestic violence, family dysfunction, and a murder so gruesome the lead detective developed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder following a walk-through of the crime scene. With descriptions that paint a disturbing picture, and extensive research about the murderess and her family, this story is unforgettable. Following is an introduction to the author and his unique style. Lalor writes:

"Something hangs in the archway between the kitchen and the living room, contorted and shapeless. Some sort of drape. It's the first thing you notice. It takes a moment, then you realize. It's him. John Price. At least it's his skin hanging like a wetsuit on a nail. A man melted like a Dali clock. A human curtain. The face is a sick rubber mask without a skull to give it shape. The eye holes vacant under an exaggerated eyebrow arch.... The rest is slashed and punctured, hanging in porcine strips right down to his flanged feet. A patch of pubic hair offers some orientation."

With a long history of mental illness, sexual abuse, and family dysfunction extending back several generations, Katherine Knight, at the age of 20, left her newborn on the railroad tracks and held a mother and her children hostage in a service station... brandishing one of her prized abbatoir knives. The following morning, when the terrified mother visited the police station to file charges against Knight, she was told it was pointless. Similarly, following other rages and psychiatric hospitalizations, Knight was often discharged within days, hospital administrators stating there was really very little they could do.

I am not familiar with Australian law or the mental health assistance available there; however, Knight was clearly disturbed and a danger to herself and others. I cannot accept that in 1976, the year of her first serious run-in with the law, Knight could not have been charged with a felony and disciplined accordingly. The mental health system also shirked responsibility and failed miserably. Despite numerous suicide attempts and violence toward others, Katherine Knight was regarded with a mixture of pity and fear, but offered no significant help of any kind.

With few consequences for her outrageous behavior, and deteriorating under the strain of untreated mental illness for another 25 years, Katherine Knight finally did what she had threatened to do to so many others. She murdered her male partner. Fueled by fantasy and revenge, she then skinned him with a skillful hand, later severing his head and boiling it in a pot with vegetables.

Dinner is served.

Alternately horrifying and gruesome, BLOOD STAIN is a gripping account of a woman gone mad. The author writes like no one else and weaves together the details of a tragic and terrifying descent into the dark corners of human desire and emotional instability. Highly recommended, True Crime fans will cheer!