What happens when the threads of a disturbed mind and unresolved trauma weave a tapestry of horror? Shannon and Danica, invite you to step into the shadows of Katherine Knight's life—a journey that goes much deeper than the murder of John. As we sift through the debris of Katherine's chilling past, from her family's dysfunction to the darkness of sexual abuse and the birth of a bully, we lay bare the formative tragedies that shaped a life destined for violence.
Pull up a chair and listen intently as we dissect the complexities of Katherine's abusive marriage with David, the stark warnings ignored, and her battles with severe postpartum depression. The story takes a heart-stopping turn with the moment she placed her infant on railway tracks, an act that echoes the era's failures in mental health and criminal justice. The conversation does not shy away from scrutinizing the system's response—or lack thereof—to Katherine's escalating violent behavior, prompting a sober reflection on how individual trauma often intersects with systemic shortcomings.
Your heart will race as we unravel the grotesque details of Katherine's most heinous act—the brutal murder of her partner, John. We walk you through the terrifying moments, her shocking display of violence as she transformed a symbol of love into one of inexplicable brutality, and the subsequent life sentence that could not undo what was done. As always, we're eager to continue the conversation with you on social media and hear your thoughts on this harrowing tale that sheds light on the irreversible consequences of unchecked mental illness and rage. Join us for a story that neither Shannon nor I could have anticipated, as we grapple with the very real, very human aftermath of a life mired in darkness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_rape_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20court%20case%20Oregon%20v,rape%20were%20viewed%20and%20treated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunting_(rail)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder
https://www.smh.com.au/national/knight-loses-appeal-for-skinning
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
What happens when the threads of a disturbed mind and unresolved trauma weave a tapestry of horror? Shannon and Danica, invite you to step into the shadows of Katherine Knight's life—a journey that goes much deeper than the murder of John. As we sift through the debris of Katherine's chilling past, from her family's dysfunction to the darkness of sexual abuse and the birth of a bully, we lay bare the formative tragedies that shaped a life destined for violence.
Pull up a chair and listen intently as we dissect the complexities of Katherine's abusive marriage with David, the stark warnings ignored, and her battles with severe postpartum depression. The story takes a heart-stopping turn with the moment she placed her infant on railway tracks, an act that echoes the era's failures in mental health and criminal justice. The conversation does not shy away from scrutinizing the system's response—or lack thereof—to Katherine's escalating violent behavior, prompting a sober reflection on how individual trauma often intersects with systemic shortcomings.
Your heart will race as we unravel the grotesque details of Katherine's most heinous act—the brutal murder of her partner, John. We walk you through the terrifying moments, her shocking display of violence as she transformed a symbol of love into one of inexplicable brutality, and the subsequent life sentence that could not undo what was done. As always, we're eager to continue the conversation with you on social media and hear your thoughts on this harrowing tale that sheds light on the irreversible consequences of unchecked mental illness and rage. Join us for a story that neither Shannon nor I could have anticipated, as we grapple with the very real, very human aftermath of a life mired in darkness.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marital_rape_in_the_United_States#:~:text=The%20court%20case%20Oregon%20v,rape%20were%20viewed%20and%20treated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shunting_(rail)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder
https://www.smh.com.au/national/knight-loses-appeal-for-skinning
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1336304093519465
https://twitter.com/Murder_Mimosas
https://www.instagram.com/murder.mimosas/
murder.mimosas@gmail.com
https://uppbeat.io/t/the-wayward-hearts/a-calm-hellfire
License code: ZJZ99QK39IWFF0FB
Darkcast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Murder and Mimosas, a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 3:Bringing you murder stories with Mimosas in hand.
Speaker 2:Just a quick disclaimer before we get started. Our show is Murder and Mimosas. It's a true crime podcast. This means that we do discuss crimes including, but not limited to, disappearances, murder and sexual assault. All our episodes are told with the respect of the victims and the victims' families in mind. We strive to ensure that we provide factual information, with some information that is more verifiable than others. With that, grab your Mimosas and let's dive in.
Speaker 3:Welcome back. I'm Shannon and I'm Danica. Today we're going to be telling you the gruesome story of Catherine Knott. So grab your Mimosas, you sit while we share. It was February 28, 2000 when John Process neighbor noticed his car was still in the driveway. The neighbor thought it was a little unusual. I mean, john had been over-drinking at his house that night. While it was unusual for John not to be gone by six in the morning, it wasn't alarming. Yet John's employer sent a co-worker to John's house to see why John wasn't at work. The co-worker and the neighbor knock on John's bedroom window but they don't get an answer. They go to the front door and notice blood on the door and they call the police right away. Once the police arrive they knock down the door and find John's dead body and Catherine Knott is ex-girlfriend, unconscious on the floor. Apparently she had taken pills to try to kill herself after she had killed John. Of course you want to know what on earth she inspired that night, and we will get to that. But first let's look into who Catherine is and what her life was like up until that night.
Speaker 3:So Catherine was one of eight children. Her mother, barbara, had married a man named Jack, and the two of them lived in Aberdeen, australia. The couple had four boys. Barbara began stepping out on her husband, but this best friend and co-worker cannot, jack, found out and the couple split up. Two of the boys lived with their father and the younger two lived with their aunt. Now I'm not sure why the boys were split up like they were. I can find out why Barbara wasn't at least keeping the younger two, but I do know there was so much hostility from the town towards Barbara and Ken that they ended up moving to a new town.
Speaker 2:I mean this seems kind of extreme, but I guess communities were probably more closer knit back then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and divorce in general was a lot less common back then too. So Barbara and Ken end up having four kids together, one of which was Catherine in 1955 and her twin sister In 1959, jack dies, and the two older boys are sent to live with Barbara and Ken. Ken was an alcoholic and was abusive not only to his wife but his children. Barbara also said Ken raped her at least 10 times a day. I'm not sure why she allowed this to happen when she left Jack for another man but she's putting up with this.
Speaker 3:Also, I'm thinking if he's raping her numerous times a day, the kids have to be hearing this at times and it's got to be messing with their heads. I mean, do they think this is what sex is? If they understand what's going on at all, Like all kinds of dysfunctional homes, they probably think this is normal. Barbara isn't reporting the rapes and, honestly, if she had, I don't know if they would have even done anything back then.
Speaker 2:True. I mean I don't know much about Australia, but I know that for the United States it was not until like 1978 when a spouse finally stood trial for raping his wife, and it's really sad that it took that long. But I know for a long time there was this idea that it's not rape if it's your spouse.
Speaker 3:Right, so we don't know how often this was reported, though, if at all. While her father didn't sexually abuse her, catherine says that her brother molested her until she was 11.
Speaker 2:Like you just said, though, they probably think this is normal behavior from what's going on in the house and what they've been subjected to.
Speaker 3:Right. So Barbara doesn't have a life or friends and she confides in her two daughters about her sex life and how much she hates sex and men in general. Catherine wasn't really close to her mother, but she was close to her sister and she had an uncle, oscar Knot, that was like a father figure to her, but he ended up committing suicide in 1969, which Catherine didn't take well.
Speaker 2:So obviously I don't know what he was like, but it sounds like he may have been the only stable adult in her life or the closest thing to a stable adult in the life that she was living, and it's obvious his mental health wasn't well, so that's a bit of a concern.
Speaker 3:Right. So after his death, catherine said that his ghost would have visited her, and she actually maintains to this day that that's what happens. Maybe it's a coping mechanism, but that's for another podcast to figure out. So Catherine didn't really have any friends in high school to speak of. She was described as a bully and, to be honest, I get that. Oh yeah, for sure I've used.
Speaker 2:People usually hurt other people and they don't want to have anyone close to them because they don't want to reveal these secrets about themselves, and so that's what they know, and it gives them a sense of empowerment and control that they have not had in their past, when they aren't the ones that are being hurt for a change.
Speaker 3:Right. So she did jump one boy at school with a weapon and she herself was injured by a teacher, but that turned out to be the teacher defending herself. I really wish I had more tea to tell about that, because, like the Anika, you're a teacher and that makes me wonder how this transpired.
Speaker 2:Okay, Me too, because I don't think that ever the teacher that I could deal with that. But also I have babies, the little ones, right, so if they're a little older, I have heard some horror stories for sure. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:So she ends up dropping out of school at 15 and although she's 15, she still doesn't know how to read or write. The lack of reading didn't stop her from getting a job, and she gets one at a clothing factory. She was there for about a year until what she says is her dream job was offered to her. This dream job is cutting up awful at the local slaughterhouse.
Speaker 2:Say what this is her dream job and went on earth is awful other than like the adjective, but I don't think that's what you mean.
Speaker 3:No, I mean if we could all be living our dreams like her. So awful is animal organs that you can eat, like liver or other organs. I guess she really excelled at this job because she was swiftly promoted to the boning department oh, moving up in the world already. And with that promotion she was giving her very own set of butcher knives. And where does one keep their very own set of butcher knives? She may be wondering.
Speaker 2:I don't know. I don't have my own set of butcher knives. I wasn't really wondering that, but I don't know at work in a drawer in the kitchen.
Speaker 3:Not Catherine. She hung these lovely knives over her bed each night because she said, and I quote, they would always be handy if I needed them. End quote.
Speaker 2:I mean some people sleep with a gun in the nightstand, so that I guess that's fair.
Speaker 3:I do, but I mean over your bed. Are you really going to be able to get to him that quickly?
Speaker 2:I'm not going to be worried about them falling down and impaling me in my sleep. But that's just my itty-tutting, yeah.
Speaker 3:So Catherine met David Kettleman in 1973. He also worked at the slaughterhouse and the two became an item. Sadly, like her father, david had a drinking problem. He attributed his drinking problems to his past job at the railway. He saw his best friend killed right in front of him in a shunting accident. You said hunting. No, hunting. It's where they put the rolling stock together to make a train. I had to look it up and never occurred to me that this could be dangerous. But there were a lot of deaths like that. I guess the cargoes are so heavy that if you're in between them trying to hook them together you can be killed if they collide. Then there was a school bus hit by the train where he began trying to rescue children out of the bus and sadly six children died.
Speaker 2:That's got to be a lot to deal with emotionally, mentally. I was going to try and say one and then the other. It was a mission, emotionally and mentally.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a lot. I wonder who left that job, though. The two got married in 1974 and this is a quote from Catherine's mother to David on their wedding day. Quote you better watch this one. She'll effing kill you. Bear her up the wrong way or do the wrong thing and you're effed. Don't ever think of playing up on her. She'll effing kill you. End quote.
Speaker 2:I mean do we know if she's serious or is this the problem, like trying to scare him into being a loyal husband, like a dad with shotguns out? I did that with my best friend Wait, before she got engaged. I was like if you hurt her, I want you to lose my podcast. I know lots of ways, just remember that, but I would never.
Speaker 3:Well, I think with most moms we could chalk it up to empty threads or playful fun even. But she was probably serious because on their wedding night she tried to strangle him. She later said this was because after having sex only three times, he fell asleep.
Speaker 2:Well, the nerve of it. This is supposed to be the best night ever. Only three times in one night. I mean, I'm not saying that what she did was right, just saying I understand you know. Seriously, though, do you should have the marriage annulled, like right then? Those red flags are flying everywhere, and I have a feeling there were plenty before they got married too. We do see that she has her father's appetite for sex, and also his anger and physical abuse when she doesn't get her way.
Speaker 3:She learned behaviors and this won't be the last of the abuse. When she was pregnant she burnt all of his shoes and clothes because he came back late from a darks competition and when he got home she hit him in the head with a frying pan, fracturing his skull. Very repulsive, he took off to a neighbor's house after he was hit and he fell to the floor in their house. The police were called, but Catherine talked him into dropping the charges and we all hear the jokes about being hit with a frying pan. I just made one.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, the abuse continued and David ended up leaving Catherine not long after their first child was born, for another woman.
Speaker 2:Okay, not going to lie Kind of surprised that he had the hones enough to cheat on her, because I would be terrified of what she would do to him and to her, if she found out.
Speaker 1:Hello, my name is DJ. I'm the host of the mythical true crime podcast. Join me and the dark cast network of indie podcast creators as we delve into the mysterious and the macabre, exploring captivating tales of true crime legends and unsolved mysteries from the realms of mythology and reality. Uncover the dark, true tales of modern legends with our spoken narratives that blend history, crime and the supernatural. Starting season three, you could listen to the newest episodes every other week, as well as all my backlog episodes on anywhere you could listen to your podcasts Exactly.
Speaker 3:You never know how it's going to go with someone that maybe isn't the most stable person. The day after he left Catherine, she was pushing their daughter, melissa, in the stroller down the street. When I say pushing, I'm using those words loosely. She was thrashing the stroller violently all around the street. She was admitted to st Elmo's hospital and diagnosed with postpartum depression.
Speaker 2:We hear about mothers being plagued by this all the time, and it's pretty common for women to experience this on some level. I'll be honest, I struggled with this after I gave birth, but, degree, but there aren't a lot that are hospitalized for it. So you know not that I shouldn't, you know not that they shouldn't we? We know plenty of Murders, of mothers killing their kids due to postpartum depression. How long was she in the hospital?
Speaker 3:She was in there for several weeks but should have been in their locker when she was released. She put two month old Melissa on the railroad tracks not long before the train was to come by. There was a man in town that was in the area and he rescued Melissa literally minutes before the train came. Not only that, but after she put the infant on the tracks, after I'm stalled an axe and was threatening to kill people in town with it, she was arrested and put back in the hospital the same day for postpartum depression again, but she was miraculously cured the next day and able to sign herself out.
Speaker 2:Okay, but we should you arrested. They just let her sign herself out like it's a day camp and she willy-nilly leaves.
Speaker 3:I know. I know it doesn't make sense to me either. If you're arrested, I get. Maybe they assume you need mental health help and but if you don't, your butt needs to be carried right on over to the jail. But that's not what happened here. Although they deemed her as cured, a few days after she got out she slashes a woman's face with an off, demanding she take her to Queensland to find David. The woman got away when they stopped at a service station and called the police. When the police got there, though, catherine had a boy she was holding hostage with an off. Now, this is what all the sources, I say, found, but there was never an explanation as to why the police start hitting her With a broom and they disarm her.
Speaker 2:Are they witches? Did they fly in on what? Why they got rooms? They had tasers right, or maybe they didn't, I don't know. But she doesn't feel very police. This is very witchy, please see, not so much.
Speaker 3:Well, shockingly enough, they didn't, and police didn't have taser guns until 1993, which I had no idea. It took that long, and and that was in the states. I'm not even sure about there. As unorthodox as it may have been, it worked. Catherine is arrested and admitted to a more set psychiatric hospital.
Speaker 2:This time, Okay, I get to come like the mental health issues clearly are thing, but at some point they have to put this woman in jail or keep her in the hospital. This whole quick turnaround, it's just not helping.
Speaker 3:Well why she's in the hospital. She tells her nurses that she went to that particular station because the mechanic there fixed David's car, which in turn he was able to use to leave her. Since he did this terrible thing, she was gonna kill him, then find David and kill him and David's mother. The police told David this and instead of getting I don't know, maybe a restraining order, he leaves his girlfriend and moves back to Aberdeen to take care of Catherine when she was released.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry I'm processing this because, like I can't tell if he's a saint or but crazy, how long was she in there before they released her?
Speaker 3:this time she was in there about three months this time. Oddly enough, the couple seemed to be living a somewhat normal life for a while. Catherine gets a job at another slaughterhouse. They have another daughter in 1980 and, for reasons I'm not clear on, catherine leaves David in 1984 and moves to her parents house. She later gets her own place and begins seeing another man, also named David, but this is David Saunders. He ended up moving in with her and her daughters, but not fully. When is that even me? Well, he moved in with Catherine, but he opted to keep his apartment.
Speaker 2:Okay, but like, why even move in with her if you're gonna keep your apartment?
Speaker 3:I'm not sure, I'm just guessing. But maybe he saw red flags and didn't want to fully commit and they have to look for something else. But again, that's just speculation, maybe.
Speaker 2:David number one or David number two?
Speaker 3:I don't know if he would be smart enough, but maybe so. As you can imagine, this didn't really set well with Catherine. She was always wondering what he was doing at this apartment, which maybe the only time I can understand her mindset. This is what I don't get, though. They would have thoughts about the apartment and she would get mad and throw him out. He would go back to his apartment, which thankfully he had, and then she would come back home to move back. This was a whole crazy vicious cycle, but when you fear this, you can kind of understand him keeping the apartment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if he's gonna keep getting kicked out, he needs a place to stay, and I even get this probably stems from her being insecure, especially because she was cheated on by David number one. But why does David number two keep coming back?
Speaker 3:Honestly, I can't tell you, in fact, if it's worse. In 1987 she saw this, his two month old Dingo Puppy's neck. She told them this is what will happen if you ever cheat on me, Then knock some out. With what but a frying pan to the head.
Speaker 2:No, okay, he left for good after this, didn't he? Because that's all you need. Well, you really needed a lot less than that, but this has got to be like straw that broke the camel's back.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, most people would, but he didn't. The couple actually end up having a daughter and buying a house together after this. By no means did the two live happily ever after. They are having an argument one day and Catherine hits him in the face with an iron and then proceeds to stab him in the stomach with scissors.
Speaker 2:With a frying pan? Probably not.
Speaker 3:So, from what I can gather, he didn't call the police because there is no record of him being arrested or of her being arrested. For that, he does take off into hiding and eventually comes back to see his daughter and get his clothes. Catherine, true to form, had up all his clothes and got a restraining order on David. It is finally the end for this couple, though she does have another relationship with a former co-worker. His name David no, his name is John Chillingworth, but there aren't a lot of details about that. They had a son together in 1991, and they were together for about three years when she left home for a man she was having an affair with.
Speaker 2:I wonder if John knew what her past was like with the Davids and if he knows how lucky he was to only spend three years with her and get out without a frying pan or other household items to the head.
Speaker 3:Exactly. Hopefully he wasn't too heartbroken under the breakup. So when John and Catherine had began seeing each other, he had been divorced since 1988. He had three children and the two Otis lived with him, but he had a two-year-old daughter that lived with her mother. Oddly enough, john knew all about her past when she moved in with him in 1995. By 1998, the two were still not engaged and although they lived together, catherine wanted to be married and this started to really cause arguments in the relationship. So one day, while she was feeling a little vengeful about the lack of marriage proposal, she took a video of things around the house. John took from work and sent this video to his boss.
Speaker 2:I'm sure this went over real well, Like he got down one knee right away. Please marry me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I'm not sure what she thought would come from this, but not a proposal. John got fired from his job. He was making really good money and had been there for 17 years. He gave to her out of his house that very day.
Speaker 2:Good for him. He might be the first one with a brain. The others they're scared of him.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't give him too much credit yet. After a few months they got back together, but he did refuse to let her move back in with him.
Speaker 2:I'm sure that just went over perfectly for her. No proposal loses his job and now she isn't allowed to live with them. I mean, how did old Catherine take that?
Speaker 3:Honestly not well. They were fighting all the time. He lost practically all his friends because they didn't want to be around the fighting or around Catherine. Catherine began to get physically abusive with John when they would get into fights and then she ended up stabbing him in the chest in February of 2000. He said he was done for good now and he got a restraining order. He told his cold workers if he didn't come to work the next day it would be because Catherine killed him. Cold workers begged him not to go home, but he said he needed to go home because he was afraid Catherine would kill his kids. If he didn't, he gets home and his kids aren't there.
Speaker 4:In a world where the ordinary meets the extraordinary. Prepare the journey beyond the veil of reality to uncover secrets that defy explanation. Welcome to a dead letter podcast where we delve into the mysterious and unexplained phenomena that have fascinated humans for centuries. In each episode, we will explore some of the most intriguing and spying tinkling aspects of the paranormal world. But beware, for the line between reality and the supernatural is thinner than you think. Will you dare to listen?
Speaker 2:Holy crap, are his kids dead? What did she do to his kids?
Speaker 3:Well, she wasn't there, but she sent his kids to a sleepover.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was afraid for real that she killed them, because that would not surprise me. So did he end up staying in his house then, since they weren't there?
Speaker 3:Yes and no. So he went over to the neighbor's house to hang out and then when he got home about 11 that night, catherine did get into the house and she had bought herself some black lingerie. That day John is sleeping and she takes a shower Not really sure why, but okay. So she wakes up John and they have sex, and then he goes back to sleep.
Speaker 2:He got a restraining order like that day. Come on, you can't be scared of her unless she's sleeping with you. That's not how that works.
Speaker 3:Well why he lay sleeping. Catherine stabbed him with a butcher knife. From what they can gather from the crime scene, he most likely woke up and tried to turn the light on, and while Catherine chased him through the house, From what they can tell, he got to the front door and outside. Then he either stumbled back inside or she dragged him in where he died when he bled out on the floor. It's unclear how it all went down, but John ended up being stabbed 37 times, If that wasn't brutal enough.
Speaker 3:Once he was dead, Catherine skinned him. She took his skin and hung it from a hook and severed his head. I know all this sounds like it can't get any more grotesque, but not only did she sever his head, but she cut up his body and put parts of it. She had it on plates to serve his children when they came home. She also baked potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, beetroot, zucchini, cabbage, squash and gravy. She plaited this up and put notes for his children by each plate. The police found a third plate thrown on the back lawn and the police assumed she made it for herself but just couldn't eat it.
Speaker 2:I literally think I'm gonna be sick. You imagine like the added trauma for these children, had they eaten their own father.
Speaker 3:No, and it really made my stomach turn to when I read this. So Catherine arranged what was left of his body over a soda bottle and crossed his legs. She also left a note on a blood splattered picture of John that accused him of raping her daughter. This was never founded, by the way. Thank God they didn't send her to the hospital again. Thank God they didn't send her to the hospital again. She pled not guilty. They began jury selection and they have all kinds of people dropping out because of the graphic nature of the pictures they were gonna have to endure. Catherine changes her plea to guilty after they begin the jury selection. The judge ordered her to have a psychiatric evaluation to make sure she knew what she was doing.
Speaker 2:And that's something they do before trial. Why after I?
Speaker 3:Don't know, since this is Australia, but yeah, it makes more sense to me anyway to do it beforehand. It was concluded that she was borderline personality disorder but was sane. I Mean.
Speaker 2:Are there any treatments or medications for this?
Speaker 3:It's Mainly controlled with psychotherapy. You can medicate the depression and anxiety factors, but it has a lot of various things you can't control with medication. In fact, some they can be in remission by the age of 40. Of course, this doesn't seem to be the case with Catherine. Sadly, though, with all her children have been exposed to, I would have to assume this is gonna be something that really affects their lives too, and they will probably continue the cycle if they don't get help. The judge sent it's her to life in prison and had her marked as never to be released on her papers. The first time this happened to a woman in Australia 2006, catherine appealed, claiming that life in prison without the possibility of parole was too severe for the crime.
Speaker 2:What? What kind of fantasy land does she live in?
Speaker 3:I kid you not. The judge had the good sense to dismiss the appeal, though Catherine is still in prison. I don't know what became of her kids, or Johns for that matter. I know they deserve their privacy and have been through enough. So there you have it, danica. If anyone ever says they got their dream job at the slaughterhouse, just keep your distance. So join us next week for our next episode. We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers.
Speaker 2:If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermovz on Instagram. You can also find us at murdermovz on TikTok Twitter and if you have a case you would like us to do, you can send that to murdermovz at Gino comm. And lastly, we are on Facebook at murder, and the most is podcast where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please write your view us on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcast.