Pauline Parker, who murdered her mother alongside her friend Juliet Hulme in a Christchurch park in 1954, in a case that later inspired Peter Jackson’s film Heavenly Creatures, has died in Scotland aged 88.
Scottish newspaper The Orcadian reported Parker, living under the assumed name Hilary Nathan, died this month in Orkney.
In June 1954, Parker and her friend Juliet Hulme killed Parker’s mother, Honorah Mary Parker, on a walkway in Victoria Park, Christchurch.
They hit the 46-year-old about 20 times with a brick in a stocking.
Parker was 16 and Hulme was 15. Because of their ages, they could not face the death penalty after their conviction. They were released in 1959 and given new identities.
Peter Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures retold the case and starred Melanie Lynskey as Parker and Kate Winslet as Hulme.
Hulme went on to write crime fiction as Anne Perry and sold millions of books. She died in 2023.
SHARE ME