feet 5532.fee.0043 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

It was evident to Detective Muscio that Katherine Knight had murdered John Price, skinned and decapitated him and cooked his head and served it and portions of his buttocks (the pieces of meat in the backyard also proved to be from the victim's buttocks) on plates for herself and his two children for dinner when, or if, they returned to the house at some time.

John Price
John Price

Given that Price's son and daughter (the Beck and Little John mentioned in the note) were away from the house when the murder occurred, it seemed hardly likely that they would be returning for a meal at a pre-arranged time.

Detective Muscio also said; "I remember walking down the hallway and at about shoulder height there were all these blood splatter marks on the walls. To me, it's indicative of each attack... He's absolutely fighting for his life. The bloke's just had a bonk (sexual intercourse) in the bed when he wakes up, then stab, stab, stab. He's getting up, there is arterial spurting on the robe and the bed, and on the doorway there's a bloodied handprint or swipe on the western side of the door near the dressing table, and blood around the light switch. It looks like he's tried to turn the light switch on. And then all down the hallway they're (bloody handprints) everywhere. And he's almost made it, he's opened the front door, the screen door is shut, there is blood staining, trajectory again, flicking out across the front door, he's almost made it... but he wouldn't have survived. He would have been absolutely horrified, terrified — probably terrified more than horrified — trying to get out and all the time being stabbed."

An autopsy revealed that the victim was dead when he was skinned. A razor sharp knife had been inserted just under his collarbone and sliced horizontally across the top of the body, from shoulder to shoulder, right under the clavicles. It was a straight, clean cut, anatomically precise. Then the knife was turned and cut down the chest and over the stomach to the pubic hair line and made into a T with another straight line.

Tracing the knife tip around his pubic area and careful not to cut his penis or genitals, the killer cut down the front of John Price's thighs, over the knees and to his feet. The killer then moved up the body, held his arms up and cut down the back of each one and across the top of the victim's head. The killer then peeled the victim's skin off, including his head, his hair, his face and all the way down the length of the body to the feet exposing the victim's intestines.

The entire skin was in one piece including hair, face, ears, nose, mouth, genitals and complete stab holes and dripping in blood. Hanging from the S-hook in the doorway, the feet were dragging on the ground.

The killer then removed the victim's head clean at the C3-C4 junction, right at the top of the shoulders using a very sharp knife The cut was precise and clean. The killer would have been covered in warm, sticky blood. According to forensic pathologist Dr. Timothy Lyons, who performed the autopsy, the whole procedure would have taken about 40 minutes.

occupied 44.occ.002 Louis J. Sheehan, Esquire

Rommel advances from El Agheila again

Following the successful Operation Crusader, in late 1941, the Eighth Army had driven the Axis forces out of Cyrenaica and forced Rommel to withdraw to strong defensive positions he had prepared at El Agheila. However, their 500+ mile advance had over-stretched their lines of supply and during January 1942 they had thinned out their front line troops to work on building lines of communications and supply dumps to enable a further thrust west to be made against Tripolitania. Meanwhile, Rommel had received reinforcements in men and tanks, and on 21 January sent out three strong armoured columns to make a tactical reconnaissance. Finding only the thinnest of screens in front of him he rapidly changed his reconnaissance into an offensive. He recaptured Benghazi on 28 January, and Timimi on 3 February and pressed on towards the fortified port of Tobruk on the Mediterranean coast.
[edit] Eighth Army digs in on the Gazala line

Between Gazala and Timimi (just west of Tobruk) the Eighth Army was able to concentrate its forces sufficiently to turn and fight. By 4 February Rommel's advance had been halted and the front line had been stabilised running from Gazala on the coast (30 miles west of Tobruk) to the town of Bir Hakeim, 50 miles to the south.

The "Gazala Line" was a series of occupied "boxes" each of brigade strength set out across the desert with minefields and wire watched by regular patrols between the boxes. The Free French were to the south at the Bir Hakeim box. The line was not equally staffed with a greater number of troops covering the coast leaving the south less protected.
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