In 1954, 15-year old Juliet Hulme was best buds with 16-year old Pauline Parker in Christchurch, New Zealand. Hulme's father was a physicist (who eventually was instrumental in developing the hydrogen bomb for Great Britain) and a rector of the University of Canterbury in Christchurch; Parker came from a working-class background. Hulme suffered from tuberculosis and could not go to school, while Parker had osteomyelitis. The girls initially bonded over the fact that both had been ill and soon developed a rich fantasy world which included James Mason and Orson Welles.
New Zealand today has been compared to the United States in the 1950s. New Zealand actually in the 1950s was not regarded a bastion for gay rights, and the practice of homosexuality was considered a serious crime and the condition of being homosexual a grave mental illness. The parents of the girls were very concerned that the relationship between the two could be sexual in nature and were determined to break the friends up. Hulme's parents separated, and Hulme was informed that her father was returning to Great Britain while Hulme would be sent to live with relatives in South Africa "for her health."
Parker tried to convince her mother to allow her to go to Africa with Hulme. Parker's mother flatly refused. Parker and Hulme thereafter plotted to kill Parker's mother and then move together to the United States to write and work on films.
On June 22, 1954, the two girls bludgeoned Parker's mother to death by hitting her twenty times with half of a brick in a stocking. Their alibi fell apart quickly, and both girls were convicted of murder and spent five years in prison--escaping the death penalty because of their age. Their story served as the inspiration for the 1994 movie Heavenly Creatures.
Parker, after serving her time, eventually moved to England, converted to Roman Catholicism, opened up a riding school and has expressed deep remorse about beating her mother to death.
As for Hulme? She became a flight attendant, moved to the United States, converted to Mormonism, and eventually moved to Scotland. She thereafter become a prolific and highly regarded writer of mystery novels and historical fiction. She also deeply regrets her crime (she was outed as a murderer as a result of the movie) and says that her five years in "supposedly the toughest [prison] in the southern hemisphere" was "the best thing that could have happened." You may have heard of her by the name she acquired after her release--Anne Perry.
You can find a list of her books, upcoming events, her thoughts in general, and her autobiography (although sans any reference to the murder) on her website.
Oh, and the lesbianism which provoked the parents to try to separate the girls in the first place? According to Hulme/Perry, it never happened. She says that she and Parker were obsessive, but not in that way.
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