Parker–Hulme murder case

Pauline Yvonne Parker
Born	Pauline Yvonne Parker (1938-05-26) 26 May 1938 Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand
Criminal status	Released
Criminal charge	Murder
Penalty	5 years

Anne Perry
Perry (née Hulme) in 2012
Born	Juliet Marion Hulme (1938-10-28)28 October 1938 Blackheath, London
Died	10 April 2023(2023-04-10) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California
Criminal status	Released
Criminal charge	Murder
Penalty	5 years

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 Juliet Hulme. Parker was 16 at the time, while Hulme was 15.

The murder received wider public attention following the release of Peter Jackson's 1994 film Heavenly Creatures.

Background

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 background. Her parents were part-time house staff and gardeners, employed by the University 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).

Juliet Hulme was born in London in 1938 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1948 with her parents. She was the daughter of Henry Hulme, a physicist who became the rector of University of Canterbury. The university provided their accommodation and the family lived at Ilam Homestead. Both Hulme and Parker attended Christchurch Girls' High School. The girls had both suffered illnesses as children – Parker osteomyelitis and Hulme tuberculosis – which formed the basis of an initial connection.

As their friendship developed, Parker and Hulme formed an elaborate 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 for overnights and vacations. Hulme became withdrawn and ill when Parker would leave her home without her.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 saints, envisioning a 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.

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 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 South 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 to Hollywood or New York City, where they believed they would publish their writing and work in film.

Murder

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. 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. 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 by Ritchie. Major lacerations 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.

Trial and conviction

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".

The trial was a sensational affair, with speculation about the girls' possible lesbianism and insanity. Parker and Hulme were convicted on 28 August 1954; and, as they were too young to be considered for the death penalty, each spent five years in prison. Juliet Hulme served her sentence at Mount Eden prison in Auckland. Some sources say they were released on condition that they never contact each other again, but Sam Barnett, then Secretary for Justice, told journalists there was no such condition. 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 Ossie Mazengarb, who chaired the committee.

Release

Following her release from prison, Parker was given a new identity as Hilary Nathan, 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 of Hoo, near Strood, Kent, and running a children's riding school. As an adult, she became a devout Roman Catholic. While she has never spoken to the press, in a 1996 statement released through her sister she expressed strong remorse 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 realise what she had done."

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 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since about 1968. 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.

Hulme/Perry died on 10 April 2023, at the age of 84.

Media portrayals

Film

• Mais ne nous délivrez pas du mal (1971)
• Heavenly Creatures (1994)
• Reflections of the Past (2011)

Books

• The Evil Friendship by M. E. Kerr (1958)
• Harriet Said... (1972)
• "So Brilliantly Clever," (2011)
  • The 2013 edition was retitled as "Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century".
• All The Birds, Singing (2013)
• These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever (2020)

Theatre

• The Christchurch Murder by Angela Carter aired on BBC Radio 4 in September 2018.
• Mary Orr and Reginald Denham's 1967 play Minor Murder,
• Michelanne Forster's 1992 New Zealand play Daughters of Heaven
• Folie à Deux (2010)

See also

• Matricide
• Parricide
• Slender Man stabbing

Further reading

• J.H.H. Gaute and Robin Odell, The New Murderers' Who's Who, 1996, Harrap Books, London
• Famous Criminal Cases, Volume Two, 1955, London
• Hallmark of Horror, 1973, London
• Obsession, 1958, London
• More Criminal Files, 1957, London
• Patrick Wilson, Children who kill, 1973, London
• Glamuzina, Julie and Alison J. Laurie, 1991 Parker and Hulme, a lesbian view. Auckland, New Women's Press. Re-published 1995, Ithaca, Firebrand Books. With an introduction by B. Ruby Rich.
• Peter Graham, Anne Perry and the murder of the century, 2011

External links

• Information on the Parker-Hulme case – from the public library of Christchurch, New Zealand
• Lesbian perspective on the Parker-Hulme case – audio and transcript from PrideNZ.com
• Daily Record article from September 2012
• heavenly-creatures.com – has an extensive section on the Parker-Hulme case.