1954 Parker-Hulme murder in Christchurch

Armed with a brick in a stocking, 16-year-old Pauline Parker and her best friend Juliet Hulme, 15, became two of New Zealand’s most notorious murderesses when they killed Pauline’s mother, Honora, in Victoria Park, Christchurch.

Entangled in a classic folie à deux, the teenagers shared a fantasy world of princes, damsels, heroes and villains. Dreams of Hollywood stardom were threatened when their parents decided that the girls’ friendship had become obsessive and co-dependent. Plans were afoot for Juliet’s family to leave New Zealand.

Their week-long trial was fraught with sensation. Testimony arguing the pair’s insanity was rejected. The pair were found guilty, sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, and ordered never to contact each other again.

In a decade when − if the Mazengarb Report is to be believed − teenagers terrorised the nation, this case drew extraordinary attention both here and overseas. It remains one of New Zealand’s most infamous murders and lives on in popular culture, having inspired both a play, Michaelanne Forster’s Daughters of heaven, and Peter Jackson’s Academy Award-nominated film Heavenly creatures.

The two young women were released after serving about five years in prison. Juliet Hulme later changed her name to Anne Perry and became a successful writer. Both she and Parker now live in the United Kingdom.

Image: Parker and Hulme (Chch City Libraries).