Heavenly Creatures: The Trial and Aftermath of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme

The Murder and Trial of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme

• 🎯 On June 22, 1954, Pauline Parker and her friend Juliet Hulme bludgeoned Pauline's mother, Honora, to death with a brick in a stocking in Christchurch, New Zealand.
• 🔍 The girls claimed the death was an accident, but the 45 blows to the head indicated a violent murder, leading to their trial in August 1954.
• 🗣️ The trial was sensationalized, with speculation focusing on the girls' possible lesbianism and insanity, rather than the evidence of premeditation revealed in Pauline's diaries.
• 📝 Pauline's diaries detailed her evolving plan to kill her mother, initially writing about it in February 1954 and planning the act with Juliet by June.

Defense and Prosecution Arguments

• 🧠 The defense argued the girls suffered from 'folie à deux', a shared delusion, describing them as elated paranoics who created their own world.
• ⚖️ The prosecution countered that the girls were cold, callously committed, and premeditated murderers who were "incurably bad" rather than insane.
• 🎭 Expert testimony suggested insanity due to their contempt for the Bible, belief in a fourth-world paradise, paranoia, and delusions of grandeur, though the prosecution challenged this under cross-examination.
• 💬 Despite the defense's arguments, the girls' behavior during and after the trial—marked by giggling, whispering, and a lack of remorse—undermined their case and fueled public fascination.

Conviction and Sentencing

• ⛓️ Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme were convicted of murder on August 28, 1954, and given indefinite sentences as they were too young for the death penalty.
• ⏳ Each served 5 years in prison and were granted parole in December 1959, with some sources suggesting a condition of never contacting each other again, though this was officially denied.
• 💔 The parole board described their murder as the result of a "one in a million chance friendship that went terribly wrong," suggesting Honora would be alive if they had never met.

Life After Prison: Anne Perry and Hillary Nathan

• 📚 Juliet Hulme, renamed Anne Perry, moved to England and became a successful mystery author, publishing over 100 novels, often exploring themes of social injustice and redemption.
• 🎬 The 1994 film 'Heavenly Creatures', based on their story, brought their past into public view, impacting Anne Perry's career and sales positively despite her initial fears.
• 🏞️ Pauline Parker, renamed Hillary Nathan, also moved to England, converted to Catholicism, joined a convent briefly, and later ran a horseback riding school for children.
• 🤫 Hillary Nathan lived a reclusive life, deliberately keeping her past hidden for decades and declining to speak about the events of 1954.

The Nature of Their Relationship

• ❓ The nature of Pauline and Juliet's relationship, particularly rumors of lesbianism, was a significant point of speculation during the trial and in later media coverage.
• 🚫 Both women, as adults, publicly denied any overtly sexual component to their relationship, with Juliet (Anne Perry) stating she preferred men romantically.
• 🤝 Despite denials, their intense bond was undeniable, and the decision by both women to never reunite after their release marked a significant departure from their earlier desperate need to be together.
• 💔 The narrative of their relationship is complex, with the possibility of intimacy, violence, and instability intertwined, and their shared experience of the crime and its aftermath profoundly shaping their lives.