Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
75 - Thanksgiving Gobble
54 Plays4 months ago
For this Thanksgiving replay episode, Jeff and Sam revisit two unforgettable stories from the archives.
Jeff brings back the astonishing tale of Virginia Hall, the legendary one-legged spy who infiltrated Nazi-occupied France, built vast resistance networks, and repeatedly escaped capture. Her courage made her one of the most feared operatives of WWII — and one of the most decorated women in U.S. intelligence history.
Sam revisits the chilling and infamous case of Katherine Knight, the first Australian woman sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Known for her history of violence, obsession, and escalating brutality, Katherine Knight ultimately committed one of the most shocking crimes in Australian history — one that still haunts the nation decades later.
A feast of courage, horror, and history… perfect for Thanksgiving.
Visit us on Linktree for the collection of links, find us on Instagram, or email us anytime at jeffandsamshow@gmail.com.
Jeff’s Sources (Virginia Hall – replay from Ep. 41):
- Biography – Virginia Hall
https://www.biography.com/historical-figure/virginia-hall - CIA – Virginia Hall: The Limping Lady
https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/virginia-hall/ - Smithsonian Magazine – The True Story of Virginia Hall
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-american-spy-who-helped-defeat-nazis-180974602/ - History.com – Virginia Hall Was One of the Most Dangerous Spies of WWII
https://www.history.com/news/virginia-hall-spy-wwii
Sam’s Sources (Katherine Knight – replay from Ep. 10):
- The Guardian – Katherine Knight: The Murder That Shocked Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/feb/03/australia - Australian Broadcasting Corporation – Katherine Knight Case Overview
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-20/katherine-knight-murder-case-remembered/9067836 - Crime Library – The Katherine Knight Story
https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-murders/katherine-knight/ - Sydney Morning Herald – Inside the Katherine Knight Case
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/katherine-knight-the-gruesome-details-20150303-13t6k4.html
Recommended
Transcript
Gratitude and Thanksgiving Humor
00:00:01
Speaker
Hey everybody, it's me, Jeff. So Sam and i we're taking the week off because it's Thanksgiving. Because it is Thanksgiving, both Sam and I want to tell you all how thankful we are that you listened to this imperfectly perfect little show.
00:00:17
Speaker
It really does mean the world to us, especially when you all come up to us and say something we said made you laugh out loud, or a sound we made makes you laugh out loud. That It just means the world to us.
00:00:31
Speaker
So Sam's not here at the table with me this week and it feels kind of awkward. Like I'm, you know, talking to the voices in my head, which maybe I am. i did ask her if she wanted to say something to you all. And this was her reply.
00:00:45
Speaker
She said, quote, I'm sorry. We can't record live ish this week. Just remind everybody that Turkey sucks. Deep frying is never a good idea. and carving instruments are for the birds, not those annoying family members.
00:01:00
Speaker
Stay weird, stay wild, and have a drink from me. Also, then she said, quote, then i want you, Jeff, to do your best impression of a turkey gobble.
00:01:12
Speaker
To which I replied, damn it, now I've got to do that. She said, quote, goddamn right you do, and you can be sure I'll be listening. So Samantha, my dear,
00:01:25
Speaker
This is for you.
Turkey Gobble Challenge
00:01:27
Speaker
this is i do not have a good turkey gobble game, but, you know, whatever. Gobble, gobble, gobble, gobble, go
00:01:36
Speaker
okay dine esh so but i did yesterday for everybody listening i walked around and i asked people to give me their best turkey gobble right i want to hear like good ones something that i can compare myself to turns out some people are really really good at it Some people, like me, are really, really, really bad at it.
00:01:59
Speaker
Some people can't do it because they start laughing. And then there's one that kind of sounds like it's a bird flying through the air and mid-flight collides with a plane. So take a listen to these. And Alan, thank you so much for compiling these into one soundbite.
00:02:19
Speaker
Oh!
00:02:22
Speaker
Oh!
00:02:44
Speaker
wait wait wait i didn't i thought you were go to start recording ko comfort what and good go
00:03:12
Speaker
I swear i could listen to that over and over again. it just makes me smile. So there you go. ah Best gobbles, best gobbles.
Introduction to Virginia Hall Rerun
00:03:22
Speaker
We are going to give you a rerun this week.
00:03:25
Speaker
I chose the story that I did about Virginia Hall, the badass woman who helped fight the Nazis. Sam, being the Sam that she is, that we adore, she chose the story about the woman who cooked her husband and was planning on feeding him to people.
00:03:43
Speaker
Because Sam is Sam. That's the one she chose. So happy Thanksgiving, everybody. And, you know, enjoy eating all that food.
00:03:54
Speaker
Don't talk politics. Let the drunk family members, you know, fight it out in the yard if need be And cheers, queers.
00:04:04
Speaker
Have a good one. Your turn. Is it my turn? is indeed. Okay.
00:04:12
Speaker
So. I want to say, I'm not going to say the book yet. Hold on. So here's the beginning of the story.
Virginia Hall's Espionage Journey
00:04:20
Speaker
She had a difficult choice to make. Ahead of her was a snow-covered passage through the Pyrenees, the mountains separating France and Spain.
00:04:29
Speaker
Behind her was Nazi-occupied France. Another bad turn in the unpredictable landscape of World War two To plow forward through 30 miles of dangerous hiking on foot would be demanding in the extreme.
00:04:45
Speaker
But if she stayed, she'd almost certainly be captured by the Nazis, who now considered her their most feared and dangerous Allied spy. The Nazis had stuck wanted posters all over the country hoping to capture her, kill her, or even worse.
00:05:01
Speaker
Some spies, she knew, had been hanged from butcher's but hooks. She looked at her longtime companion, Cuthbert, Rather than provide moral support, the clumsy Cuthbert would do nothing but slow her down and make the trip through the Pyrenees even more treacherous.
00:05:19
Speaker
Even so, what decision was there really? i mean, uncertainty was better better than certain death or even torture. And there was still a war to be won.
00:05:31
Speaker
She took her rucksack and she began stomping through the the snow toward Spain. Cuthbert matching her stride for stride. Cuthbert was what she had named her wooden leg.
00:05:43
Speaker
And this is going to be a hell of a journey. This is the courageous story of a badass woman, master of disguise, and a fierce spy who changed the course of World War two This is the story of Virginia Hall.
00:06:02
Speaker
Do you know who I'm talking about? no I'm going to have so much fun telling you this story then because... The book that I used, one of the main sources for this story was a book called A Woman of No Importance by Sonya Purnell, the untold story of an American spy who helped win World War II. a really thought we were finally going to get that story, but I will take this one in instead.
00:06:31
Speaker
So that was your little buildup, okay? I mean, I did it. I did it. I'm teetering on the edge of my seat. Okay. Virginia Hall was born in Baltimore in 1906. She was born into a wealthy family. She was a tomboy. She was also very intelligent.
00:06:46
Speaker
Immediately after high school, she went to college. This wasn't exactly what her mom wanted because she wanted Virginia to marry wealthy. course. She does get engaged with a man, but he keeps cheating on her. So she's like, fuck this.
00:07:02
Speaker
um She attends Radcliffe, and then she and attends Barnard College. She studies economics and languages. She wants to be a diplomat and represent the United States, but this is the 1920s, and diplomatic jobs for women at the time were...
00:07:18
Speaker
Well, they weren't. They weren't a thing. But she is going to try. so to do this, she studies French and Italian and even Spanish. She actually finished her studies in Europe and returned to America right before the Great Depression.
00:07:33
Speaker
She couldn't become a U.S. diplomat because she was a woman. So she moved to Poland, where she would work as a secretary for the embassy. ah She would then apply over it and over to become a diplomat, but she was rejected every single time.
00:07:49
Speaker
The first year they lost her application. i mean, typical, you know. The second year she actually hand-delivered the application. She showed them that she could speak other language. She showed them that she was a college graduate. She passed the application portion, and when it was time for her to go to the interview, she was told the wrong location of the interview.
00:08:11
Speaker
The U.S. would not let her become a diplomat, period. So she transferred to Turkey. Okay. So now it's 1933 and she's working as a secretary at the embassy.
00:08:22
Speaker
She waits for her next opportunity to become a diplomat. While she's waiting, she goes out hunting with her friends and they're hunting for snipes. That is a tiny little bird. And it's actually where the term sniper the term sniper comes from.
00:08:36
Speaker
They're really hard to hit, but Virginia, she's really good at it. But as she's hunting, she hops over the fence and she forgot to turn the safety on for her gun and she accidentally shot herself in the foot.
00:08:48
Speaker
She was taken to the hospital. An infection set in. Gangrene set in Now this is before the widespread use of antibiotics. so the doc said, to save you, we have to amputate the leg below the knee.
00:09:00
Speaker
Virginia has the amputation, makes a full recovery, and gets a wooden leg. And she continues on trying to become an American diplomat. But now they have another reason to not hire her.
00:09:11
Speaker
She is a woman, and now she is disabled with just one leg. She named her wooden leg Cuthbert. Cuthbert was a monk and a mystic and a miracle worker and saint of England in the 600s.
00:09:26
Speaker
Reference Vikings. Go ahead. Oh, tell me. no go ahead. Okay. It's unclear if Virginia knew of the saint from her studies or from her travels. She doesn't really like taking no for an answer, so she starts to lobby for the rules to be changed. But that doesn't work. So in 1940, Germany invaded France and Virginia was like, peace out.
00:09:47
Speaker
I'm headed to France to volunteer for the ambulance corps and drive ambulances to save soldiers. And that is what she did. She went to an active war zone to drive ambulances. France falls to the Nazis and she flees to Spain over the Pyrenees.
00:10:02
Speaker
Virginia meets British Intel agent at the train station in Spain where she's like the British Intel agent was like, Holy fuck. She's impressive. They swap phone numbers. And actually he was like, also take this number. This is my friend. He may be ah able to help you find a job in England.
00:10:18
Speaker
That was the phone number for Nicholas Boddington. He is the head guy at the British SOE or the special operations executive. It's like the CIA. No, SIS.
00:10:29
Speaker
Uh-huh. They immediately want her. He'll...
00:10:35
Speaker
She speaks German and French in addition to English. She once lived in France and she understands the culture. But best of all, she's American. So she can use her passport and her real documents to give the Germans to get into France.
00:10:50
Speaker
She posed as a journalist to do this. She goes to France and trains for the next six months, learning everything she needed to know about espionage. Now she's a spy.
00:11:01
Speaker
So in December of 1941, she goes to Vichy, France. Vichy is technically a free state, but it's really under the German rule. She's po posing as a journalist for the New York Post. And once she was in she built a spy network.
00:11:17
Speaker
She didn't join other spies. She built the network from scratch because this was so dangerous. And she was, number one, a woman, and number two, had a wooden leg, good old Cuthbert. The British gave her cyanide tablets and some money just in case she got caught.
00:11:36
Speaker
So Virginia turns up in Lyon, France, ah no place to stay. um Many of the people were displaced. She lived with the nuns at first. She had a curfew. Finally, she gets a hotel where she sets up her headquarters.
00:11:49
Speaker
She goes straight to the U.S. Embassy. The U.S. is like, nope, America's neutral. We don't want any of that. But the second in the command of the U.S. Embassy pulls her aside and said he's willing to help.
00:12:00
Speaker
It just takes that one person, you know? This is how she starts to communicate with London. At the U.S. s Embassy, they have a diplomatic protection, so the second-in-command sends her messages to London, and they aren't screened by the Nazis because of the diplomatic protection.
00:12:16
Speaker
So now she's established a way to communicate and a connection from France with the outside world. Next, Virginia has a two-pronged plan, okay?
00:12:28
Speaker
Next up the guy up, she goes to the gynecologist. But not for her, for the Nazis. She wants to fuck up the Nazis. Find a gynecologist, done.
00:12:38
Speaker
Then she finds a brothel, done. She befriends the owner of the brothel. She gets the gynecologist and the brothel owner owner to start working together. The brothel owner sends all of his sex workers to the gynecologist to see which ones have and do not have STDs. He gave them all a clean bill of health, but a lot of them did have STDs.
00:12:59
Speaker
And those with the STDs, the brothel owner is only going to let them sleep with the Nazis. It's sort of diabolical. Virginia wants to destroy the Nazis from the inside out and make them enjoy it.
00:13:13
Speaker
oh Virginia starts sending messages to London asking for supply drops in the countryside. She gets them. They're dropping off guns. They're dropping off explosives. She's giving them that... or She is giving that money to the guerrilla fighters who are doing everything they can to fight the Nazis.
00:13:29
Speaker
She's also bribing officials. And they are giving... her in those supply bags heroin because the first part was fucking up the Nazis by giving them STDs and the second part was fucking them up by getting them addicted to heroin. oh okay.
00:13:46
Speaker
So meanwhile, Virginia is building a hell of a sp spy network at the same time. So many new spies come in and she helps them get set up. And Virginia and the new spies are sending wireless transmissions back to London.
00:13:59
Speaker
But the problem is now the Nazis can trace the transmissions and some of the new spies are getting caught. In October 1941, Virginia and the 12 other spies decide to meet up, talk about the cool things they've been doing, maybe make a plan.
00:14:15
Speaker
Basically, they just really wanted to meet each other. And this was a mistake for a spy. Virginia, she's too smart for this. She knew this was a mistake. She doesn't go. All the other spies get busted by the Gestapo.
00:14:28
Speaker
Now, once ah once again, Virginia is the only spy on the ground and the only spy able to communicate with London. ah one She sends a message to London. She said all the other spies were captured. And as for her, the German Gestapo now know exactly what she looks like. And they have these drawings of her.
00:14:48
Speaker
They know that she walks with a limp. They're now calling her the Limping Lady. And they've also nicknamed her Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt.
00:15:00
Speaker
And now Virginia Hall is the Gestapo's most wanted person. This man named Klaus Barbie was over the Gestapo and fucking hated her. i will love that. Yes.
00:15:13
Speaker
fact, Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo, why do I get ahead of myself? i'll always do that. He said, a would do anything to find that limping Canadian bitch. Limping Canadian bitch. The Gestapo believed that she was Canadian because Americans, well, they just can't speak other languages. Of course.
00:15:32
Speaker
London said, get out. They basically, they know who you are They know you have a limp. They know that every time you walk, there's a certain kind of distinct noise that your wooden leg makes and they're going to catch you.
00:15:44
Speaker
Virginia basically said, nah, I'm good. She decides to plan a jailbreak for the 12 spies who were captured. Again, the risk. She has the wooden leg. The wooden leg makes the sound.
00:15:57
Speaker
As the fates would have it, France is no longer getting shoes anymore because everything is so scarce, so they start making their own shoes out of wood, and suddenly a lot of people are walking around making the same wood noise that Virginia is making.
00:16:12
Speaker
This disguises her. She finds the prison. She convinces them to give her a roster of prisoners. Using that, she found the wife of a prisoner outside, made friends with her, and convinces her to help.
00:16:25
Speaker
She has the other prisoner's wife start smuggling stuff into the spies on the inside. They're baking stuff into cakes and taking it in Things like handcuff keys are in the cake and screwdrivers are in the cake. This is going so well that she gets a 70-year-old double amputee from World War I to use his wheelchair to smuggle in a briefcase with an entire wireless set in it.
00:16:48
Speaker
He sits on it on his wheelchair and smuggles it in. The spies on the inside, they know how to use this. So the spies start using it and never get caught. Now they're sending messages to London from inside the prison.
00:17:01
Speaker
A month goes by and Virginia has smuggled into the prison everything they need to escape. And the craziest plan of all is that Virginia had the idea to use someone to smuggle in a shit ton of alcohol.
00:17:15
Speaker
She knows that the German Gestapo will drink it all. And that night, that's exactly what happens. They're all getting drunk. All the while, the prisoners are the spies are escaping the prison, scaling the wall where she meets them on the other side and takes them to a safe house where they stay for two weeks.
00:17:34
Speaker
All the while, the Gestapo is looking everywhere for them. Then she gets him out of the country. Like, she's such a badass. Oh, she's like the badassiest of badass whatever. Right. jeff But because did...
00:17:49
Speaker
she did But because she did all this, 500 members of the Gestapo are now looking for her, the limping lady, Artemis. Virginia's like, peace out.
00:18:00
Speaker
I'm out of here. But the only way to get across the Pyrenees, only way out was to go across the Pyrenees.
Virginia Hall's Resistance Leadership
00:18:07
Speaker
um And the worst snowstorm in over 200 years from France into Spain over 30 miles.
00:18:15
Speaker
Now imagine how long it would take for you and me to do this with both of our legs. I'd be dead. It takes Virginia two days with her wooden leg. What? And all the while she's commun in communication with London using the little radio.
00:18:30
Speaker
And in one of the messages, she said that Cuthbert is giving her problems, and she now has a sore on her leg from the wooden prosthetic. Back in France, at her hotel at her hotel room, what was her hotel room, the Gestapo has ransacked it.
00:18:43
Speaker
Now they know who she is. She arrives in Spain, finally, only to be arrested for illegal immigration. She sends a message to London, who then sends it to America, and they finally come and bail her out, and it's off to London, she goes.
00:18:59
Speaker
But she wants back in. Like, she's not done. And the SOE is like, no way Your cover is blown. So then she goes to work with the Americans back in America. She works with the OSS, which is like the predecessor of the CIA.
00:19:13
Speaker
Before it was the CIA. That's what I said. She takes the class in wireless transmitting. She has way more. She has so much more experience than any of the other men.
00:19:24
Speaker
of course. In the CIA a at this time. I mean, can you imagine? They're like, well, been sitting here with this computer. And she was like. I've never had to send a real message before. but And she's like, the Gestapo, they want me. They call me Artemis, you know? want secret name from an enemy force. What?
00:19:43
Speaker
She realizes that, okay, she has more experience than them, but she and she wants to go back in, and they're going to let her, but she realizes that she needs a disguise. The OSS hire a Hollywood makeup artist to make her look a lot older, tactic that is still used.
00:20:01
Speaker
ah She goes to a dentist in London where she lets the dentist drill her teeth down and the OSS sneaks her back into France via a boat, drops her off, and she's completely alone. And again, she develops a huge spy network, but this time she's an elderly milkmaid with bad teeth.
00:20:25
Speaker
And now the French resistance is underway and they have a lot of guerrilla fighters, but Virginia thinks they could be more strategic with their mission. So over the next year, she establishes a chain of command and then gets them to coordinate attacks. And by 1944, Virginia Hall had put together an army, three battalions, 1,500 guerrilla fighters, all against the Germans.
00:20:49
Speaker
Americans were dropping off supplies like guns and explosives. She was notified that in June of 1944, D-Day was going to happen. And in the weeks leading up to D-Day, Virginia and her army sabotaged road roadways, railroads, and bridges, preventing the Germans from reinforcing the beaches where this was going to happen.
00:21:11
Speaker
Then D-Day happened. Once the war was over, Virginia would go back to America and start working for the CIA. She monitored communism in Eastern Europe.
00:21:23
Speaker
President Truman wanted to give Virginia Hall the Distinguished Service Cross, which is the highest ever civilian honor. He wanted to make her a hero. Virginia did not want this. Too many people she knew died from being known.
00:21:37
Speaker
So she said, no, thank you, sir. And he insisted. um So instead, um General Donovan awarded Virginia this. And Virginia had one request, and that was that it would be awarded to her in a private ceremony with only one witness, her mom.
00:21:56
Speaker
She was made in honor of the member of the Order of the British Empire, and she was also awarded the Croix de Guerre by France. Virginia retired at the age of 60. She and her husband moved to a farm in the country out in Barnesville, Maryland.
00:22:13
Speaker
And at the age of 76 in 1982, she passed away. And until that point, the public didn't know anything about any of this until they read her obituary. The limping lady, AKA Virginia Hall, also known as probably the deadliest spy of world war two left behind no memoir.
00:22:32
Speaker
She granted no interviews and she spoke little about her overseas life, even with her relatives. And that is the story of the bad-ass woman, Virginia Hall.
00:22:44
Speaker
Damn. Fucking hell. Right? Dude. I mean,
00:22:54
Speaker
I've had this idea of who she was, but when I sat down to write this out using all these sources that I was using and I put this together, it's not when you put something down in words where you're really like, oh, or she really like changed shit. because you come Yeah, you combined.
00:23:11
Speaker
i like fool Damn. was... yeah to him geoff that was
00:23:21
Speaker
If that one is even better than that one, which I think it is, holy crap. Yeah, that one, this we're looking at a certain book that I have.
00:23:34
Speaker
He's been talking about it for a year. favorite human being ever. Besides me. Yes, and Ashley and Alan and all my family. but I love you. No, but ah that one's going to be its own thing.
00:23:48
Speaker
i know. And it's going to be completely different than this, but. Not really. know, but that's... I'll do it. I'll do it. And ashley she's helping me with that one. And it's it's got to be for me. It's got to be this caliber right here.
00:24:02
Speaker
Well, I don't doubt it will be. i mean, that was awesome. Way to go, Virginia. Virginia fucking Hall. Artemis. The limping lady, Artemis. With Cuthbert. With Cuthbert.
00:24:15
Speaker
I love that. I love the... I love in the beginning... Yeah, that was a really good intro. Well done. Yeah. cuthberts That's it's one of my favorite stories so far.
00:24:27
Speaker
I think that that tops it too for me. All right. This is never to be released.
00:24:37
Speaker
This is one of those very much unfairytale-ish love stories. There's a small town in Australia known by the name of Aberdeen, New South Wales that is known primarily for its abattoirs. think that's how you pronounce it, which is just a super snazzy name for a slaughterhouse. Okay. Like just call a slaughterhouse, but abattoir.
00:25:02
Speaker
Catherine Knight was born October 24, 1955 another small Australian town.
Catherine Knight's Violent History
00:25:10
Speaker
She was the love child of a scandalous affair.
00:25:13
Speaker
Her mother was already married and had four sons with her husband, who was actually the guy who introduced her to the man that became the father of Catherine. Slap in the face, right? Their affair became increasingly violent. He raped her multiple times per day.
00:25:28
Speaker
After the birth of Catherine, the violence and the drinking continued.
00:25:33
Speaker
Throughout her childhood, she claimed to be sexually abused by multiple family members until the age of 11. She was troubled in school, known for being a violent bully herself.
00:25:45
Speaker
She didn't know how to read or write. mean, I guess that's a thing. And dropped out of school at the age of 15. She started working in a clothing factory.
00:25:58
Speaker
One year later, by the age of 16, she a tree achieved her dream job of working in a slaughterhouse and removing the internal organs of the animals.
00:26:10
Speaker
She loved the job so much that for the rest of her free life, she slept with her first butchering knives mounted over her bed. Your face. hey That makes me uncomfortable. right Your face just completely changed.
00:26:28
Speaker
It was great. In 1974, Catherine married raging alcoholic with whom she'd already had problems and concerns during their dating years, but they got married anyway.
00:26:39
Speaker
i'm fine I'm actually horrified about where this is going to go because you're having fun reading it. I am. So prior to them getting married, after the engagement, Catherine's mother tried very hard to tell him to call off the wedding.
00:26:54
Speaker
She stated she's got to screw loose somewhere. right
00:27:01
Speaker
You think one, just one? And she was referring to her own daughter. Okay. wonder if she knew the Reverend. Watch for it. On their wedding night, he was heavily intoxicated because he's a raging alcoholic, obviously, and he married just married this crazy woman.
00:27:18
Speaker
He passed out after having sex the first time. Catherine became enraged that he wouldn't go for another round. She began strangling him. He woke up and managed to fight her off, but they stayed married for 10 years after that. And i just must say, absolute facepalm.
00:27:39
Speaker
Come on, man. There's got to be something else out there. yeah
00:27:45
Speaker
During their marriage, he cheated on her regularly. Once he even left her and their two children. She became so distraught that she took their two-month-old...
00:27:58
Speaker
to the railroad tracks and left it on the tracks, hoping it would be run over by a train. Luckily the thing, the kid lived, all right? The kid's alive. um But somebody intervened, removed the baby from the tracks, called the book.
00:28:15
Speaker
So the marriage, he was cheating on her regularly. He left her at least once and left her with the children. She was so distraught, she took the two-month-old baby, put it on the railroad tracks, hoping that it would get run over. She was losing her mind. Somebody intervened. The baby survives.
00:28:30
Speaker
She was diagnosed with postpartum depression. She got admitted to a psychiatric facility after threatening to kill the mechanic who fixed her husband's car because she claimed that him fixing the car made it possible for her husband to cheat and leave her. Yeah.
00:28:47
Speaker
I mean, I guess that's one way of thinking of it.
00:28:54
Speaker
This husband stayed with her for a brief period of time, even after she was discharged from the psych hospital. Eventually, he left her and the children shortly after they got back together. In 1986, she started into a new whirlwind and shortish relationship.
00:29:12
Speaker
This guy moved in with her and her children, but he kept his own apartment. Big mistake on his part. She was livid that he wouldn't get rid of it. And because of her impressive jealousy, she believed that he was cheating on her.
00:29:27
Speaker
This is a quote, by the way, in order to show, quote, what she was capable of, end quote. She slit the throat of his dingo pucky puppy. And I just want you to know.
00:29:41
Speaker
i don't understand what you just said. Of his dingo puppy? Yeah, like like it's basically a dog, but it's an Australian dog. Oh, okay. okay i want her to fuck absolutely right off because, yeah you know, I'm good with like humans, dead, murder. I'm good with that. But don't fuck with the dogs. I'm just saying.
00:30:04
Speaker
Just don't fuck with dogs. Yeah. It's horrible. However, this fucking dude stayed with her. Come on. You kill my dog, I kill you.
00:30:18
Speaker
Plain and simple. And I will write that in blood. You're dead.
00:30:24
Speaker
They had a daughter together. After she killed his dog.
00:30:31
Speaker
Shortly after the birth of the daughter, he finally, i guess, got some balls or some scents and he left her. Because she attacked him with a pair of scissors.
00:30:43
Speaker
I was going to say what made him leave. What was it that made him leave? But it wasn't the killing of the dog. I mean, that's my thing. Hurt me. I'm good. Or the being strangled before that. Oh, no, this is the second dude.
00:30:54
Speaker
oh Oh, yeah. yeah okay The first the first husband left. He was the alcoholic. This one was just a dumbass. So now we're in 18 1987 ish. She has another new relationship. Lasted about two years.
00:31:09
Speaker
Yielded it one son. No reports of violence or assault. Okay. But plot twist. He left her because he found out that she was cheating on him with a man named John Charles Thomas Price.
The Troubled Relationship of Catherine Knight and John Price
00:31:27
Speaker
John Price had two of his own teenage kids and he made enough money to keep Catherine comfortable.
00:31:35
Speaker
By 1995, the couple had moved in together. Catherine suggested that they get married, but John declined.
00:31:45
Speaker
Smart. Right? But what follows is not. Okay. So began her not so slow swirl toward their finale.
00:31:58
Speaker
Oh my God, this is gonna be like a wrecking ball. so bad. John Price, AKA. For the Mariannes and the Lenas and the. Be done. Be done now. Stop.
00:32:12
Speaker
I don't even know what's coming, but. Be done. done Turn it off now. We'll see you next time. Take care own mental health. Love you guys. you're wonderful. i't mean not Okay, go. John Price, AKA Pricey, was known by all as a wonderful man, a hard drinker, but an even hard worker and a better man.
00:32:34
Speaker
Catherine Knight was known for being jealous, vindictive, and a physical powerhouse. Actually how she was described. By early 2000, John was scared. So they've been together for about 10 years now because she was cheating on her husband or her other boyfriend with him.
00:32:56
Speaker
She was frequently angry and began crazy. acting crazy
00:33:02
Speaker
began just now. As he became more and more scared, he actually worked up the courage to leave her once. But he went back to her.
00:33:15
Speaker
She got him fired. I feel like this is a typical abusive relationship. Yeah. But the man is the one being abused, which is actually something that they bring up about this because Price who Pricey, who was well liked by everyone,
00:33:35
Speaker
was his, a' his claims were rejected because he's a dude. Right. And I think that that's something that having been in an abusive relationship, like I know what it's like for my side of things, but you tell yourself that you're crazy. Right. And you tell yourself that you're misinterpreting things. They tell you that you're crazy. And then that one time that you do reach out, it's not,
00:34:04
Speaker
it's not felt or heard or or understood. It's 10, it's known to be 10 times worse for a dude, right? So through all of this tumultuous period, she got him fired for, and I quote, stealing, okay, an expired first aid kit that was going to be thrown away anyway from his job site because she thought that he was possibly cheating on him. She didn't know, but she was angry.
00:34:33
Speaker
And she's vindictive. He told many of his friends and his boss that he was worried for his own safety. He was even quoted to have told his boss that she's going to do me in.
00:34:47
Speaker
In early February of 2000, they got into a massive fight where she tried to stab him in the chest. She calls the police during this fight.
00:34:59
Speaker
Okay. But when they arrive, the police are obviously aware that something is not right about this. So he asks them to make her leave.
00:35:10
Speaker
She leaves. He obtains a restraining order against her. But then he lets her back.
00:35:18
Speaker
See, it is the same. It's the same. um Two days later, on February 29th, He returns home from work, checks in with his neighbors. Hey, how you doing?
00:35:31
Speaker
Goes to bed after eating dinner. He's in bed around 2300, 11 o'clock p.m. She comes home shortly after. She eats dinner. She watches TV, showers, and goes to bed.
00:35:43
Speaker
They have sex. John falls asleep.
00:35:48
Speaker
On March 1st, he doesn't show up to work and his boss and coworkers are immediately alarmed. They immediately call the police. Well, hey, because he said like 74 times before, something's happen to me.
00:36:02
Speaker
And he again, he was known as a really hard worker. So regardless of anything, he was oh you was on time. He was there. He worked hard. And so for him to not show up without saying anything, they knew something was wrong. So then all of a sudden these people start their wheels turn and they start thinking, oh damn, maybe I should have taken this seriously.
00:36:24
Speaker
The police go to his home and notice that his car is in the driveway. They go to knock on the door, but they notice that there's blood on the door. There's no answer when they call it out for him. They force entry into the home into complete darkness, like shutters drawn, blackout curtains, like everything, it's dark.
00:36:47
Speaker
They enter through the front hallway. This is giving me like seven, the movie seven mixed with the movie ha Hannibal Silence of the Lambs. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Kind of there.
00:37:01
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. So they enter through the front door, walk down the hallway and they push past what they think is a curtain hanging in the hallway.
00:37:14
Speaker
The first officer to walk through recalls feeling something damp and dripping down his arm. He looks down at his hand and sees blood.
00:37:27
Speaker
They find the light switch and turn the lights on and were horrified because what they thought was a curtain in the hallway was the pelt of Pricey.
00:37:42
Speaker
hanging from a meat hook in the hallway. Completely skinned, his skin was hanging from the doorway.
00:37:56
Speaker
They proceed through the house. In the living room, they find what remained of the skinless corpse on the floor. What the fuck?
00:38:08
Speaker
There was blood sprayed and splashed across the entire room. John's head was missing, but there was a trail of blood leading from the corpse through the house and into the kitchen to a pot ah on the stove.
00:38:31
Speaker
One of the officers recalls the, quote, sweet smell of stew, end quote, throughout the house.
00:38:42
Speaker
The table was set in a fancy style with side dishes already made up, vegetables, gravy, potatoes. There were name cards laid out with the name of John's kids at the place settings.
00:38:59
Speaker
On the kitchen counter, There were four plates laid out with large stakes and a fifth stake. What? Found in the dog bowl. Oh my God.
00:39:11
Speaker
I don't even. From down the hall, they noticed the bedroom door was closed and they could hear sounds coming from the bedroom. Run. The police opened the door to find Catherine sound asleep and snoring.
00:39:33
Speaker
The bloodstains throughout the house told the story well. After the couple had sex the night before, Catherine grabbed her trusty special special butcher's knives that she kept above her bed and stabbed John 37 times.
00:39:54
Speaker
Evidence supports that he woke up during the attack, managed to fight her off enough to get out of the bed and run down the hallway. He attempted to run towards the door where blood evidence showed that his blood smears and spatters were getting closer and closer and closer to the floor as he fell.
00:40:19
Speaker
He lost blood and slowly sank. She dragged his body through the house to the living room where she skinned him, still alive and slowly dying.
00:40:31
Speaker
She cut chunks of his flesh off to cook as steaks and decapitated him. She then calmly set the table for dinner and intended to feed John's flesh to his own children and their dog.
00:40:50
Speaker
Luckily, the kids didn't show up that night. Catherine took some sleeping pills, had a great sleep before the police showed up the next day. When she woke up from her drug assisted sleep.
00:41:05
Speaker
I'm glad she slept well. We wish we could sleep at all, right? She claimed she had no recollection of anything that happened to John or the night before.
00:41:17
Speaker
Police and prosecutors immediately called her on her shit and charged her with this murder.
The Aftermath and Reflection on Domestic Abuse
00:41:24
Speaker
Throughout the trial, she eventually changes her plea to guilty, but she still maintains her innocence and denies any responsibility for what happened. She received a sentence of life imprisonment, and for the first time in the history of Australia, a woman was deemed never to be released.
00:41:46
Speaker
What year was this? two thousand 2000. Damn. Damn. yeah Right. That was fucked up. You're welcome.
00:41:59
Speaker
Oh, Australia. Everything poisonous and venomous and Catherine Knight. Also lots of lovely people. That's what I've heard. And you know what?
00:42:11
Speaker
Get me drunk. I'll buy the plane tickets. But don't tell me until it's time to go. Good job on that story. yeah That was gruesome. Gory. Everything you love. Everything I love. Everything that makes me like I'm at the end of the story and I'm thinking I've got to breathe.
00:42:30
Speaker
Breathe in Breathe out. listen Whoa. That was dark shit. And it's true. Yeah. yeah So obviously I got my information from all that's interesting. And I also listen to Red Handed.
00:42:43
Speaker
Love that podcast. as Oh my God. They're amazing. But.
00:42:50
Speaker
I just, the thing is, that it's such a small town that these poor police officers that went to the house, like they knew John Price. So there they are walking through his corpse skin, right? Oh my God.
00:43:03
Speaker
and And like, i reading the the the quotes from those police officers was...
00:43:14
Speaker
mortifying I mean, talking about how one guy couldn't eat meat for years afterwards. And I mean, she she took her dream job to the next level.
00:43:30
Speaker
But, you know, i do have to say, and this is this is my soapbox, um whether it's a man being abused or a woman being abused or whatever it is, we are...
00:43:45
Speaker
desensitized to men being abused in relationships. And i think that this poor guy was stuck in a toxic cycle that is common to most abusive relationships, whether it's physical. But it was overlooked because he's a guy.
00:44:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, and it it is overlooked with women as well. i'm not saying that it's not, um but listen, you know, if they had just listened and they had supported him and maybe he would have had the guts to actually get out.
00:44:18
Speaker
And when he kicked her out, when there was training order was there, like maybe he would have actually moved on from that if he had the support of his friends, but they didn't support him and then they weren't there for him. And so next thing you know, two days after she tries to stab him in the chest, like he's dead, dead.
00:44:43
Speaker
Like a lot dead. So dead. The deadest. Skinned. Oh. And decapitated. Place card, name cards on the table. She made steaks out of his flesh. Nothing, nothing. maybe That's going to feed to the dog. It's me trying to formulate words.
00:44:59
Speaker
I'm just saying, I think that's the thing that bothers me to most is that the poor dog would have eaten his owner and like never known. i mean, i don't know if it would have tasted good, but like still.
00:45:11
Speaker
oh Oh, as we sip on our Ollipop,
00:45:24
Speaker
We have the same brain. Danger, danger, danger. danger Did we start singing that damn song at the same time? and then we locked eyes. And then we locked eyes and we were like, oh, we're there. We're doing this. um We hope you liked our Vortex of Fuckery today.
00:45:42
Speaker
We really do. You know, this is fun for us to do. we and The fact that people listen to us and they tell us and they... You know, they continue listen. And that they are entertained by it. And that they like the stories that we tell.
00:45:57
Speaker
It's just, it's fun to do this and we're going to keep doing this because it's just fun. and we We need a little fun. Honestly, we sit here and look at each other for an hour at a time. It's like a therapy session a little bit.
00:46:09
Speaker
it is No matter what mood we're in as soon as we turn the record on, as soon as we start recording and we dance a little bit, we listen to our song beforehand, the vibe changes and we're here with you.
00:46:23
Speaker
And it's kind of special. We really like it. And we hope you like it too. um So that's the show. We did a good one today. We did. That was a fucking good show today. Cheers, queers. We did a good show today.
00:46:36
Speaker
um And to our dearest, loveliest Alan, our overqualified, underpaid master publisher, content creator extraordinaire. Ashley, the ultimate and epically unmatched hype queen editor.
00:46:50
Speaker
And to Kelsey, our incomparable swag and merch creator. Yay! Together, our first and forever fans. Thanks, guys. Bye.