Pauline Yvonne Parker | |
|---|---|
| Born | Pauline Yvonne Parker (1938-05-26)26 May 1938 (age 86) Christchurch,Canterbury Region, New Zealand |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Criminal charge | Murder |
| Penalty | 5 years |
Anne Perry | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Perry (née Hulme) in 2012 | |
| Born | Juliet Marion Hulme (1938-10-28)28 October 1938 |
| Died | 10 April 2023(2023-04-10) (aged 84) |
| Criminal status | Released |
| Criminal charge | Murder |
| Penalty | 5 years |
TheParker–Hulme murder case was the murder of Honorah Mary Rieper (also known as Honorah Mary Parker) inChristchurch, New Zealand, on 22 June 1954. The perpetrators were Rieper's teenage daughter Pauline Parker and her friendJuliet Hulme. Parker was 16 at the time, while Hulme was 15.
The murder received wider public attention following the release ofPeter Jackson's 1994 filmHeavenly Creatures.
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Pauline Yvonne Parker (also known as Pauline Rieper) was born on 26 May 1938. She met Juliet Hulme when they were both in their early teens. Parker came from aworking-class background. Her parents were part-time house staff and gardeners, employed by theUniversity of Canterbury. Her father, Herbert Rieper, and her mother, Honorah Mary Parker, were living together but were not actually married; this was not public knowledge and was only revealed at the trial.[citation needed]
Juliet Hulme was born inLondon in 1938 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1948 with her parents. She was the daughter ofHenry Hulme, aphysicist who became therector ofUniversity of Canterbury.[1] The university provided their accommodation and the family lived at Ilam Homestead. Both Hulme and Parker attendedChristchurch Girls' High School.[1] The girls had both suffered illnesses as children, Parker withosteomyelitis and Hulme withtuberculosis, which formed the basis of an initial connection.[2]
As their friendship developed, Parker and Hulme formed an elaboratefantasy life together. They wrote plays, books, and stories centred in this world. The girls had an intense friendship which caused concern in Parker's parents that they were engaged in a sexual relationship;homosexuality at the time was considered amental illness. The Hulmes also had concerns, but both families continued to allow the girls to see one another, and Parker was accepted at the Hulme home inIlam for overnights and vacations.[3] Hulme became withdrawn and ill when Parker would leave her home without her.
During their relationship, the girls invented their own personalreligion, with their own ideas on morality. They rejectedChristianity and worshipped their ownsaints, envisioning aparallel dimension called The Fourth World, essentially their version ofHeaven. The Fourth World was a place that they felt they were already able to enter occasionally, during moments of spiritual enlightenment. By Parker's account, they had achieved this spiritual enlightenment because of their friendship.[citation needed]
Parker was not invited to go to Ilam over the summer holidays in 1953 as she had been in previous years. In 1954, Hulme's parentsseparated. Problems with faculty and the board forced Hulme’s father to resign from his position as rector of the university, and her mother was involved in anextramarital affair. Hulme's family planned to return to England, but it was decided that Hulme herself would be sent to live with relatives inSouth Africa—ostensibly for her health.
Both girls were heartbroken over their upcoming separation and decided that Parker should go to South Africa as well. They thought the Hulmes would agree to this plan. Parker was certain her mother would not allow her to go with Hulme. The girls formed a plan to murder Parker's mother in order to remove their perceived obstacle in them remaining together. Their long term plan was to go to South Africa and then head toHollywood orNew York City, where they believed they would publish their writing and work in film.
On the afternoon of 22 June 1954, Parker and Hulme had afternoon tea with Parker's mother, Honorah Rieper, in a tea kiosk inVictoria Park, Christchurch. Following their meal they walked through a wooded area of the park approximately 130 metres (430 ft) down the path, where Hulme and Parker bludgeoned Rieper to death with half of a brick enclosed in an old stocking.[4] After committing the murder, the two girls ran back to the tea kiosk. They were met by Agnes and Kenneth Ritchie, owners of the tea shop, whom they told that Rieper had fallen and hit her head.
Rieper's body was discovered in Victoria Park[4] by Ritchie. Majorlacerations were found about her head, neck, and face, with minor injuries to her fingers. Police soon discovered the murder weapon in the nearby woods. The girls' story of Rieper's accidental death quickly fell apart.
Prior to the trial, Parker had been known as Pauline Rieper. Her mother had been living with her father, Herbert Rieper, but the police investigations revealed that they were not, in fact, married. Thus, during the trial, both Honorah and Pauline were referred to with the surname "Parker".[5]
The trial was a sensational affair, with speculation about the girls' possiblelesbianism andinsanity. Parker and Hulme were convicted on 28 August 1954; and, as they were too young to be considered for thedeath penalty, each spent five years in prison. Hulme served her sentence atMount Eden prison in Auckland.[6] Some sources say they were released on condition that they never contact each other again,[7] butSam Barnett, then Secretary for Justice, told journalists there was no such condition.[8] Hulme's release was unconditional, and she immediately rejoined her father in Italy, while Parker was placed on six months'parole in New Zealand, after which she left the country.
Less than four months later, the murder was taken as strong evidence of moral decline by the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents in what became known as theMazengarb Report, named afterOssie Mazengarb, who chaired the committee.[9]
Following her release from prison, Parker was given a new identity as Hilary Nathan,[10] and spent some time in New Zealand under close surveillance before being allowed to leave for England. From at least 1992, she was living in the small village ofHoo, nearStrood,Kent, and running a children'sriding school.[11] As an adult, she became a devoutRoman Catholic. While she has never spoken to the press, she expressed strong remorse, in a 1996 statement released through her sister, for having killed her mother. Her sister further stated that "[Pauline] committed the most terrible crime and has spent 40 years repaying it by keeping away from people and doing her own little thing ... After it happened, she was very sorry about it. It took her about five years to realize what she had done."[11]
After her release from prison, Hulme spent time in England and the United States, later settling in Scotland and becoming a successful historical detective novelist under her new name,Anne Perry. She had been a member ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since about 1968.[12] Until 1994, it was not well-known that Perry was Hulme. In March 2006, Hulme/Perry stated that, while her relationship with Parker was obsessive, they were not lesbians.[10]
Hulme/Perry died on 10 April 2023, at the age of 84.[13][14]
the news that two girls, each aged about 16 years had been arrested in Christchurch on a charge of murdering the mother of one of them. It soon became widely believed (and this fact was established at their subsequent trial) that the girls were homosexual.