Parker–Hulme murder case: Difference between revisions

| image_name =Paris - Salon du livre 2012 - Anne Perry - 011 (cropped).jpg

| image_caption = Perry (née Hulme) in 2012

The '''Parker–Hulme murder case''' was the murder of Honorah Rieper in [[Christchurch]], New Zealand, on 22 June 1954. The perpetrators were Rieper's teenage daughter Pauline Parker and her friend [[Anne Perry|Juliet Hulme]]. Parker was 16 at the time, while Hulme was 15.

[[File:Honorah Mary Parker (14377739776).jpg|thumb|[[Deposition (law)|Deposition]] made by Herbert Rieper with regard to the estate of Honorah Mary Parker. As they were not married, her estate passed to her children.]]
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 a [[working class|working-class]] background. Her parents were part-time house staff and gardeners, employed by the University of Canterbury.{{clarify|reason=Which university?|date=December 2022}} 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|reason=no reference given|date=December 2022}}

Juliet Hulme was born in [[London]] in 1938 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1948 with her parents. She was the daughter of [[Henry Rainsford Hulme|Henry Hulme]], a [[physicist]] who became the [[Rector (academia)|rector]] of [[University of Canterbury]].<ref name="NZ History">{{cite web|title=Pauline Parker|url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/people/pauline-parker|publisher=[[Ministry for Culture and Heritage]]|access-date=20 May 2011|date=22 June 2010}}</ref> The university provided their accommodation and the family lived at Ilam Homestead. Both Hulme and Parker attended [[Christchurch Girls' High School]].<ref name="NZ History" /> The girls had both suffered illnesses as children – Parker [[osteomyelitis]] and Hulme [[tuberculosis]]<ref>{{cite book |last= Department of Justice |title= Crime in New Zealand: A Survey of New Zealand Criminal Behaviour |orig-year= 1968 |year= 1974 |publisher= A R Shearer Government Printer |location= Wellington |pages= 44, 45 }}</ref> – which formed the basis of an initial connection. According to Parker's accounts, she and Hulme both romanticized the idea of being sick.

As their friendship developed, Parker and Hulme formed an elaborate [[fantasy (psychology)|fantasy 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 a [[mental 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 in [[Ilam, New Zealand|Ilam]] for overnights and vacations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://www.ucc.org.nz/history/ |access-date=2022-05-16 |website=The University of Canterbury Club}}</ref> Hulme became withdrawn and ill when Parker would leave her home without her.

During their relationship, the girls invented their own personal [[religion]], with their own ideas on morality. They rejected [[Christianity]] and worshipped their own [[saint]]s, envisioning a [[Parallel universe (fiction)|parallel dimension]] called The Fourth World, essentially their version of [[Heaven]]. 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.{{cncitation needed|date=December 2023}}

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 parents [[marital separation|separated]]. 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 an [[extramarital affair]]. Hulme's family planned to return to England, but it was decided that Hulme herself would be sent to live with relatives in [[Union of South Africa|South Africa]]—ostensibly for her health.

On the afternoon of 22 June 1954, Parker and Hulme had afternoon tea with Parker's mother, Honorah Rieper, in a tea kiosk in [[Victoria Park, Christchurch|Victoria Park]], Christchurch. Following their meal they walked through a wooded area of the park approximately {{convert|130|m}} down the path, where Hulme and Parker bludgeoned Rieper to death with half of a brick enclosed in an old stocking.<ref name=crimelib /> 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.

The trial was a sensational affair, with speculation about the girls' possible [[Lesbian|lesbianismlesbian]]ism and [[insanity]]. Parker and Hulme were convicted on 28 August 1954; and, as they were too young to be considered for the [[Capital punishment in New Zealand|death penalty]], each spent five years in prison. Juliet Hulme served her sentence at [[Mount_Eden_PrisonsMount Eden Prisons|Mount Eden prison]] in Auckland.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carlson |first=Michael |date=2023-04-18 |title=Anne Perry obituary |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/apr/18/anne-perry-obituary |access-date=2023-05-05 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Some sources say they were released on condition that they never contact each other again,<ref>{{cite news|title='Heavenly Creatures' found guilty of murder|url=http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/heavenly-creatures-pauline-parker-and-juliet-hulme-are-found-guilty-of-murder|work=New Zealand History Online|publisher=NZ Ministry for Culture & Heritage|access-date=29 July 2012|date=15 July 2011}}</ref> but [[Samuel Thompson Barnett|Sam Barnett]], then Secretary for Justice, told journalists there was no such condition.<ref>{{cite book|title=So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme & The Murder that Shocked the World|first=Peter|last=Graham|isbn=978-1-877551-12-3|year=2011|publisher=Awa Press|page=261}}</ref> 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 the [[Mazengarb Report]], named after its chair, [[Ossie Mazengarb]], who chaired the committee.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mazengarb |first1=Ossie |author-link1=Ossie Mazengarb |title=Report of the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents |date=1954 |page=7 |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14760/14760-h/14760-h.htm#Page_7 |chapter=Preliminary Observations |quote=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. |via=Gutenberg}}</ref>

* In 1971, the [[French cinema|French]] film ''[[Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal]]'' (''Don't Deliver Us From Evil''1971) was released, inspired by the events.

* [[Peter Jackson]]'s film ''[[Heavenly Creatures]]'' (1994) led to Perry's identity being publicly released for the first time.

* [[Beryl Bainbridge]]'s first novel, ''[[Harriet Said...]]'', was inspired by newspaper reports of the case.(1972)<ref>[http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713091656/http://www.bu.edu/phpbin/archives-cc/app/details.php?id=7372&return=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bu.edu%2Fphpbin%2Farchives-cc%2Fapp%2Fbrowse.php%3Fletter%3DB |date=13 July 2011 }}</ref>

** Peter Graham's nonfiction book on the case explores the girls' lives, upbringing, and the social context of contemporary Christchurch. Originally published in 2011 under the name "So Brilliantly Clever," (a reference to a phrase used in Parker's diary to refer to herself and Hulme), <ref> {{Cite web |author=Paul O'Hare |title=Notorious Kiwi killers 60 years on.. living 90 miles apart in Scotland|url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/new-book-reveals-kiwi-killers-1311452 |access-date=2023-04-22 |language=en-US}}</ref> theThe 2013 edition gainedwas theretitled more sensational title ofas "Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century". While neither woman agreed to an interview, Graham did gain access to trial transcripts and Parker's diaries, and he interviewed people who knew them as teens. <ref> {{Cite web |author=Kirkus Reviews |title=Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century |author=Kirkus Reviews |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/peter-graham/anne-perry-and-the-murder-of-the-century/ |access-date=2023-04-22 |language=en-US}}</ref>

* [[Angela Carter]] wrote an unproduced screenplay called ''The Christchurch MurderMurde''r in which Parker was renamed Lena Ball and Hulme, Nerissaby Locke.<ref>[[TheAngela Curious RoomCarter]]</ref> Carter's screenplay was influenced by ''Heavenly Creatures'' and was later produced as a play for radio, airingaired on [[BBC Radio 4]] in September 2018.<ref>"Get Carter: The Christchurch Murder," adapted for radio by Robin Brooks and produced by Allegra. Premiered on BBC Radio 4 on 22/09/2018.</ref>

* Canadian Trevor Schmidt's 2010 play ''Folie à Deux'' were based on the Parker–Hulme murder.(2010)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/10092/1938/1/thesis_fulltext.pdf|title=Women Murder Women: Case Studies in Theatre and Film|first=Marian Lea|last=McCurdy|year=2007|access-date=3 May 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118020311/http://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/10092/1938/1/thesis_fulltext.pdf|archive-date=18 January 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

*Peter Graham, ''Anne Perry and the murder of the century'' , 2011

[[Category:Murder committed by female minors]]