Daughters of Heaven

The true story behind the play -- the tragic murder of Honora Parker Reiper, at the hands of her teenage daughter, Pauline, and Pauline's best friend and lover, Juliet Hulme, in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1954:On June 22, 1954, the body of Honora Rieper (Parker) was found in Victoria Park in Christchurch. She had been killed by multiple blows to the head with a brick. On June 23, two teenage girls were arrested, Pauline Parker (Parker's daughter, also known as Pauline Rieper) and Juliet Hulme. Pauline was a girl from a working class background; Juliet Hulme was the daughter of Dr. Henry Hulme, a distinguished physicist who was the rector of University of Canterbury in Christchurch.As a young child, Pauline suffered from osteomyelitis. Juliet suffered from tuberculosis and was sent to the Bahamas as a child to recuperate. The girls initially bonded over their ailments. As their friendship progressed, they formed an elaborate fantasy life together. They would often sneak out and spend the night acting out stories involving the fictional characters they had created. Their parents found this disturbing and worried their relationship was sexual. Homosexuality at the time was seen as a serious mental illness and was also a criminal offense, so both sets of parents attempted to compel the girls to remain separate.In 1954, Juliet's parents separated and her father resigned from his position as rector of Canterbury College and was moving to England. It was then decided that Juliet would be sent to South Africa, for the good of her health, with an added incentive being that the girls would be separated. Pauline told her mother that she wished to accompany Juliet, but Pauline's mother made it clear to her that she would not be allowed. The girls then formed a plan to murder Pauline's mother and leave the country for the United States, where they dreamed they would publish their writing and work in film.The trial was a sensational affair, with speculation about their possible lesbianism and insanity. The girls were convicted on August 30, 1954, and each of them spent five years in prison. They were released with the condition that they never contact each other again. To this day, they have not contacted each other.The murder was touched upon as strong evidence of moral decline less than four months later by the Special Committee on Moral Delinquency in Children and Adolescents in what became known as the Mazengarb Report, named after its chair, Oswald Mazengarb.After her release from prison, Juliet Hulme traveled to the United States and went on to have a successful career as a historical detective novelist under her new name, Anne Perry. She now lives in Scotland. Pauline moved to England, changed her name to Hillary Nathan, and became a Roman Catholic.THE FOLLOWING IS AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNE PERRY (formerly known as Juliet Hulme). After serving her sentence for the murder of Honora Parker Reiper, Juliet Hulme, who had been forbidden by the court to have any contact with Pauline Parker, changed her name to Anne Perry and is now a very popular mystery writer in Scotland.