'Heavenly creature' turned crime writer Anne Perry dies

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Juliet Hulme, once the centre of one of New Zealand’s most notorious murders, became bestselling crime writer Anne Perry. She died, aged 84, in Los Angeles (File photo).

Bestselling crime writer Anne Perry, formerly known as Juliet Hulme – who as a teenager was convicted of helping murder her friend’s mother in Christchurch’s Port Hills – has died in the United States aged 84.

It is understood she had been in hospital for about eight weeks before her death.

Perry was 15 when she and 16-year-old Pauline Parker murdered Pauline’s mother, Honorah Mary Parker (Rieper), in an attempt to prevent the duo’s separation.

The 45-year-old died after being hit about 20 times with a brick while the three were walking in Victoria Park in June 1954.

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Geoff Sloan/CHRISTCHURCH STAR

Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme on their way from preliminary hearings in Christchurch in 1954 (File photo).

At the trial, Pauline’s diaries were produced as evidence the attack was premeditated, outlining the girls' intention to kill Parker.

"We discussed our plans for moidering mother and made them a little clearer. Peculiarly enough I have no qualms of conscience (or is it peculiar we are so mad?)", [sic] wrote Parker, who acknowledged Hulme was "worried but does not disagree violently".

The teenagers were convicted after the jury rejected their not guilty pleas on the grounds of insanity.

Too young for the death sentence, the girls spent five years in jail.

Perry’s biographer Joanne Drayton said several elements combined to heighten salacious interest in the case.

“The matricide, the betrayal of a daughter by a mother, the lesbianism – homophobia was rife and undoubtedly in the mix, it was looked at with horror and a degree of repugnance. There was a sense of ‘curing’ these two.”

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Bestselling crime writer Anne Perry, formerly known as Juliet Hulme, has died aged 84.

Regardless of whether it was a lesbian relationship or not, the pair bore the brunt of homophobic “vitriol and loathing.”

In the trial and its global coverage, there was a palpable “baying for blood” that demanded the girls “be made public examples to correct any other girl who might stray.”

“It sort of stigmatised female friendships in New Zealand for a long time afterwards.”

After being released from prison, Hulme changed her name to Anne and took her stepfathers' surname.

She returned to England before living in the United States for a period, where she joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1968.

Perry later returned to the UK, living in a secluded village in Scotland, and published her first novel in 1979.

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Hulme, one of two Christchurch girls found guilty of murder in 1954. She went on to become a highly successful crime novelist under the name Anne Perry (File photo).

She would go on to become a bestselling author, moving back to the US to work on film adaptations of some of her more than 100 titles, which were translated into a dozen languages and sold tens of millions of copies.

Her latest novel, The Fourth Enemy, was released on Tuesday.

The crime which captivated New Zealand was dramatised by Peter Jackson in the 1994 Academy Award nominated film Heavenly Creatures, with Kate Winslet playing the part of Juliet and Kiwi actress Melanie Lynskey as Pauline Parker.

Perry was said to be devastated when she was outed as Hulme after the link was revealed by New Zealand journalist Lin Ferguson on the eve of the film’s release.

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Biographer Joanne Drayton, left, with Anne Perry, formerly known as Juliet Hulme, during the writing of ‘The Search for Anne Perry’.

But Drayton said Hulme found support in the small Scottish fishing village where she lived when her past was revealed, with residents ultimately deciding she had been 15 when the crime was committed, had served her time and lived a decent life.

The attitude was, "Who were they to judge her", Drayton said.

Drayton describes Perry as “bristlingly intelligent, occasionally gregarious but introverted”.

Writing was both an escape and a prison for the famously prolific writer, Drayton said.

“She lives in those worlds, but it is a solitary kind of confinement.”

She never returned to New Zealand, and never again had any contact with Pauline Parker, who changed her name to Hilary Nathan, became devoutly Catholic and moved to Scotland.

She is survived by her brother, Jonathan Hulme, her sister-in-law, and a niece and nephew.