Heavenly Creatures aka Parker-Hulme Murder
The Parker-Hulme Murder
The 1950s
The year was 1954, Little Things Means Alot by Kitty Kalen was number one on the Billboard Music Charts and Marilyn Monroe marrying and divorcing Joe DiMaggio was one of the main stories talked about in celebrity headlines. Meanwhile, in Christchurch, New Zealand two best friends Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme conspired together and murdered the woman who was keen on separating the girls from seeing each other.
Even now over 50 years later, the Parker-Hulme Murder case
is one of New Zealand’s most notorious murders for its grisly factor, and in
1994, it was made into a film directed by Peter Jackson called Heavenly
Creatures which cast Kate Winslet as Juliet Hulme and Melanie Lynskey as
Pauline Parker.
Bosom Buddies
Two girls Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker were what these days we would call “bosom buddies” as they had an obsessive friendship with one another. There have been rumors that the girls were in a lesbian relationship, however in an article published 5th March 2006 in the NZ Herald – Juliet Hulme who now is known as Anne Perry commented that this was false.
The girls met each other at Christchurch Girls High when they bonded over their childhood illnesses as both had respective medical conditions when they were children. Pauline Parker had suffered from osteomyelitis which is an infection of the bone and Juliet Hulme had suffered from tuberculosis. According to Pauline Parker’s accounts of their time together, the girls had romanticized the idea of being sick and created fantasy worlds together which included their own type of religion, and wrote books, plays, and stories together centered in their world.
As their friendship took an obsessive turn, religious
fanatic Honorah Parker decided that Juliet Hulme was a bad influence on her
daughter and threatened their friendship. The two girls weren’t in any mood to
be split up, so together they conspired to murder the one woman who stood in
their way – Pauline Parker’s mother.
The Murder
The girls acted their murder out on the afternoon of June 22nd, 1954, when they lured Honorah Parker to Victoria Park in Christchurch’s Port Hills, under the pretense of an afternoon walk. As they were walking, they turned down a secluded path till they were far away from the rest of the park. Here they committed their murder by bashing Honorah Parker in the head with a half-brick that was hidden in a stocking. The girls did not stop at 1 whack, nor 5 or even 10. It is said that Honorah Parker was bashed in the head more than 20 times with the half-brick.
After the girls committed the act, they headed back to the Tea Kiosk which they had eaten at only just before the murder with Honorah Parker. The girls were covered in blood and met by the owners of the tea kiosk – Agnes and Kenneth Ritchie. The girls told Agnes that Honorah Parker had fallen over and hit her head when they were questioned about the blood.
The girls had planned after the murder to run away together
to South Africa where Juliet Hulme had relatives and then from there head to
either Hollywood or New York where they would get an apartment together and
write/ publish their stories and turn them into film/plays.
Later the day, Honorah Parker’s body was located in Victoria Park and the girls’ story quickly fell apart as Honorah was found with major lacerations on her head, face, and neck with minor injuries to her fingers and NZ Police located nearby the murder weapon used.
The girls were arrested and convicted as their trial was
held on August 28th, 1954. As the girls were at the time 15 – Juliet
Hulme and 16- Pauline Parker, they were considered to be too young for New
Zealand’s death penalty. Fun Fact: New Zealand abolished the death
penalty for murder in 1961 and all crimes including treason in 1989.
The Trial
During the trial, the lawyers tried to plead the girls murdered Honorah Parker as an act of insanity, however, the jury rejected the idea of the plead and found the girls guilty of murder. The trial lasted six days before the jury came back with a guilty read. As the juror read their result, it is said that Pauline Parker looked impassively ahead whereas Juliet Hulme, was said to have a small smile on her lips as well as a touch of anxiety on her face.
The girls were sent to different prisons – Pauline Parker in Christchurch and Juliet Hulme in Auckland. Following their five years in prison, the girls were given the condition that they were never to contact each other again and to this day they still have not spoken to one another.
After the release from prison, Juliet Hulme moved to Italy with her father and then later England where she changed her name to Anne Perry. Anne being her middle name and Perry, being her mother’s maiden name. Pauline Parker also was given a new name and became Hilary Nathan and after spending a few years in New Zealand, she moved also to the UK.
Where Are They Now:
Anne Perry spent her life becoming one of the UK’s most popular and award-winning historical crime writers and in 1968 became a Mormon. It wasn’t till 1994, that it was revealed that the lady the world knew as Anne Perry was Juliet Hulme when Peter Jackson hired a journalist to track her down when he was busy making the film Heavenly Creatures. I always feel that this was an ironic career for Anne Perry as I guess the saying write what you know does ring true in this case. Even though Anne Perry is a writer, she has no interest in writing an autobiography or writing about the incident as she wishes it would just disappear as she doesn’t like to think about that time in her past.
Hilary Nathan moved to the small town of Hoo, near Stroud, Kent, and started a riding school in 1992. She has also led a reclusive life and has become deeply religious and leads a very solitary life. In 1996, Hilary became a Roman Catholic and dedicated her life to a role whereas she lives her life like she is a nun. While Hilary has never spoken to the press as she lives her life with no distractions e.g., TV, radio. Her sister Wendy has said that after serving her crime, she realized to the full extent what she had done and was deeply remorseful.
Find out More:
If you wish to find out more about this case, here are some books/films that you can read and a few websites that I used to write this article.
- What happened to the teen girls? - https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/news/real-life/pauline-parker-juliet-hulme-murder-case-christchurch-where-now-anne-perry-hilary-nathan-41688
-So Brilliantly Clever – Parker, Hulme and the Murder that Shocked the World by Peter Graham (Published 2011)
- The Search for Anne Perry by Joanne Drayton ( Published 2012)
- Film: Heavenly Creatures ( 1994) - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110005/
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