Morbid - Episode 572: Heavenly Creatures: The Parker-Hulme Murder

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

On the afternoon of June 22, 1954, Agnes Ritchie was preparing ice cream for two customers in her shop when two teenage girls, Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, burst through the front door, screaming for help and saying one of their mothers had been killed. Agnes and her husband followed the girls into the nearby wooded area, where they found the badly beaten and obviously dead body of Honorah Parker. The couple wasn’t able to get much out of either girl, only that the woman had slipped and hit her head, but their behavior was strange and something about the whole scene didn’t feel right.Just two days later, Parker and Hulme were charged with the murder of Pauline’s mother, Honorah Parker. According to the prosecution, the girls had developed an intense bond and had created romantic fantasy in the months leading up to the murder that bordered on obsessiveness. In 1954, the girls’ relationship became threatened when Hulme’s parents divorced and began talking of relocating. Fearing they would be separated and never see one another again, Parker and Hulme killed Honorah, believing that her death would put an end to any plans to relocate.The story of Honorah’s murder and the trial that followed quickly spread across New Zealand and Australia and eventually made its way around the globe. Among other things, the case challenged existing beliefs about young women and their capacity for violence, but just as important were the sensational and salacious mentions of insanity and homosexuality that were often more implied than explicitly stated.Thank you to David White, of the Bring Me the Axe Podcast, for research :)ReferencesBrisbane Telegraph. 1954. "Conspired to Kill." Brisbane Telegraph, August 23: 1.—. 1954. "Teenagers remanded, police blame girl's passion for horses." Brisbane Telegraph, June 24: 1.Chun, Louise. 1995. "Slaughter by the innocents: The case of the schoolgirl killers shocked New Zealand." The Guardian, January 30.Graham, Peter. 2011. So Brilliantly Clever: Parker, Hulme and the Murder that Shocked the World. Wellington, NZ: Awa Press.Neustatter, Angela. 2003. "‘I was guilty. I did my time’: Anne Perry, the novelist whose past caught up with her." The Guardian, November 20.Newcastle Sun. 1954. "Girls shrugged at charge of murder." Newcastle Sun, July 16: 1.The Age. 1954. "Girls smile at N.Z. sentence." The Age , August 30: 1.—. 1954. "Defence says N.Z. girls insane as mother killed." The Age, August 25: 9.—. 1954. "Description of quarrel." The Age, July 17: 3.—. 1954. "Doctor says both girls certifiable." The Age, August 27: 5.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Download Coho on Google or App Store today or at www.coho.ca for more details. Get a $75 e-gift card for NBAstore.ca when you sign up with the promo code morbid75. That's code morbid75. Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Alaina. And this is Morbid. It sure is. It's Morbid. It's Memorial Day Monday Morbid. Yaaas. Happy Memorial Day a, more bad. Yassssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss You had a good beach day. Yeah. Or however you chose to do your day. To celebrate your day.

Yeah. Okay. We're doing a little half day. We're doing a half day. Doing a little half day. I want to get some wings after this. Let's fucking go. Let's fucking go.

Except everything is closed. So I have to find a place that makes wings. Just got to find some wings. Maybe I'll make my own wings. There you go. Probably not. I don't want to. No, definitely not.

Ew. Yeah. Maybe I'll make my own wangs. There you go. I don't want to. No, definitely not. Ew. Yeah, I think I'm trying to think of any business we have to attend to. You got some book shit. I know you do. The only business I really have is there's a giveaway contest. Give it away, give it away, give it away now. Exactly. Where you can win a personalized video from me.

Alaina. Personal. Hello, enter your name here. And in the video, I'll discuss with you some behind the scenes shit about the butcher game. Oh, that's cool. We can chit chat a little bit. I can tell you about my day. I can tell you all kinds of stuff. That's cool. I didn't know it was that. Yeah, that's fun. Well, sneaky peeky and all this. I would like to do that.

Well, the way. With like an author that I listen to or that I listen to that I read. I love that. Yeah. Well, the way you can do that is by taking, you got to preorder the butcher game. I did. That's the rub, everybody. That's the catch.

You got to preorder the butcher game. So if you put in your preorder or if you have pre-ordered, you can submit your receipt, a picture of your receipt for your pre-order at the link in my bio. I put it in my link tree on Instagram. I think it says like the butcher game video contest. I like it. You'll find it.

Oh, it's a contest. Yeah, it's a contest. Is it a sweepstakes? Because we're going to pick a few people, a sweepstakes, a giveaway, a contest, a competition. We'll pick a few and you'll get a personalized video. So like the only way to win is to preorder. Preorder, preorder, preorder.

And you can go to the butcher game.com and it'll lead you to all the links to all the different booksellers and all the different outlets that you can get your book and you can choose which one you would like to support. That's on you, man. I support you. Choose your book and you can choose which one you would like to support. That's on you, man. I support you. Book adventure. Yeah. And once you preorder, you can submit that receipt and you are entered to win. And I hope you do it because I want to chat with you.

Party. This is cool. I want to give you a little video. I like this idea a lot. It's fun. Where'd you get this idea? You should do that. Just kidding. Where'd you get this idea?

You're like my mind. Tell me about it. Tell me everything. No, I like that. That's fun. Yeah, it'll be fun. So submit those pre-orders, my friends. Yeah, do it. Yeah.

That's fun and exciting. Yippee. I don't have anything fun and exciting. I just have a morbid case. And it's an interesting one. It's very, very, uh, fully ado. Oh, yes. I've heard, I saw the name of this one and I know this

case like very briefly. Yeah. But I don't know a lot of the details. So I had never heard of this case. I've heard, I had heard of the movie. We're talking about the heavenly creatures case today. It's the Parker Hume murder. Yeah, I definitely, I know the, like literally the overview of this, but I know none of the details. Yeah, I was just looking for, you know, we're in a place of like old timey. It's I don't know. It's it's an interesting look into the path. It is. Yeah. Because there's other factors that always come into it that are just not here today. Yeah, exactly. And it's just like, wow, people have always been fucked up.

Yeah. But yeah, I hadn't heard of this particular case. I had heard of the movie Heavenly Creatures. I've never seen it. Yeah. But like, I knew it was a movie, but I didn't know of this particular case. I had heard of the movie, Heavenly Creatures. I've never seen it. Yeah. But like I knew it was a movie, but I didn't know any of the details. And if you're going into this, like I was, wow. Prepare. You're in for a wild ride.

So let's get into it. Let's go. Juliet Marion Hume was born October 28th, 1938 in Greenwich, London to Henry and Hilda Hume. Henry and Hilda. H-H-H, Henry and Hilda Hume. Henry was a physicist and Hilda was a homemaker. They both welcomed the birth of their daughter, but motherhood didn't really come naturally to Hilda. She believed, and this is a quote, babies had to learn their place and not be pandered to and fussed over.

their place and not be pandered to and fussed over. A wild statement. I don't even know where to begin with that statement. Imagine looking at a small baby and being like, learn your fucking place. Learn your fucking place, baby. I don't even know my name. And not be pandered to and fussed over. They are literally brand new humans. Like that's that rely on you for literally everything. That's actually all of it. You do have to pander to them and fuss over them.

That's the whole point. Yeah, I was just having a baby. I'm confused by people a lot I'm seeing. It was a very different time though. This was like a time of like children are to be seen and not heard kind of thing. Like it's not the gentle parenting that we know and practice today. Definitely not. But as the daughter...

Look at how well we're all doing. I know, millennials are doing a much better job, I think. Generations later, we're still dealing with all this shit that started way back when. Tell me about it. But as the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Hilda was usually rigid in her beliefs around the world, but she maintained a poised and polished exterior that kind of appeared to be somewhat conflicting with the realities of motherhood. Like, we all know moms were running out here like crazy people or running around like crazy people. Like, we're a mess. But she was like, very

polished, very poised, like never had a hair out of place, anything like that. I'm always amazed at moms that can do that. But it was also because... I'm like impressed. I'm not saying like, oh my God. Yeah, I mean, some moms like really can do that. Yeah, that's what I mean. And also attend to their children.

Exactly. But she was more like a... More focusing on her. Yes, exactly. That's not good. So years later, friends of the couple would recall Hilda as aloof and not very warm to children. To make matters worse, the year that Juliet was born, there was talk of war breaking out across

Europe because Hitler and the Germans ramped up their rhetoric at that point in time. And less than a year later, World War Two had broken out. And as the British government readied themselves for the inevitable attacks, it put the entire country in a state of constant anxiety and vigilance that obviously would last for years. So from a very early age, Juliette showed herself to be a very imaginative child. She seemed to have a lot of difficulty transitioning back and forth between fantasy play and reality. Years later interesting. Years later, yeah. Years later, Hilda would describe Juliette as a very demanding and sensitive daughter who resisted discipline and resented correction.

So is she just a kid? Yeah, it sounds like it. And it sounds like- Perhaps. I mean, there are kids that are tougher than others. It's just the way that life works. And it sounds like she might have just been a little bit of a tougher kid. Yeah. And it's also expected. Kids are sensitive. Yeah. Are demanding. Super demanding. Kids don't really love discipline.

Nope. They don't really like, I don't know, that just seems like. And what you think, when you think of like what discipline was back then, I think most kids would resist discipline because a lot of times discipline was physical. I was going to say exactly like discipline back then, especially like you said, was scary and fear based and no child was welcoming that discipline. It's human nature to resist a physical punishment. Yeah, when you're being when it's fear based, of course you're going to resist it physical punishment. Yeah, when you're being when it's fear based, of course, you're going to resist it. Yeah, but these behavioral problems worsened when her brother Jonathan was born in 1944,

or at least in the eyes of people at the time. By then, used to being the focus of her parents attention, Juliet resented her new sibling, which that's not good. And obviously that became a problem for Hilda and Henry. So between the war and her mother's poor health due in part to a difficult pregnancy, Juliet was often separated from her parents for short periods, which caused her to develop a rich inner fantasy life where she could retreat whenever she was feeling anxious or uneasy. It sounded like it was a coping mechanism. That like breaks my

heart. It's sad. It really is. While Juliet struggled to develop a healthy relationship with her mother, her relationship with her father was equally tenuous. As a mid-century British man, Henry Hume was kind of like stereotypical to a degree. He was reserved, buttoned up, and exceedingly proper. I just picture this man pinkies up at all times. Oh yeah. yeah. But as a physicist, his skills were essential in the fight against the threat of the German invasion. And by the early 1940s, he was promoted to the position of deputy director of naval operational research. Wow.

It was like a big deal. Damn. Throughout the early 40s, he would play an increasingly significant role as a consultant to the scientists on the Manhattan Project. Whoa. Working with many of those who actually on the Manhattan project. Whoa. Working with many of those who actually developed the atomic bomb. Damn. Yeah.

An interesting part of history right there that like he was directly connected to and a big part of. But given the importance of the role and the urgency of his work, he was often distracted and didn't have a lot of time for his kids. That's really sad. Oh, and if you think of dads today, like dads today are not what dads used to be. Like, obviously, there's an exception to every rule. Of course, yeah. You're not across the board.

In the 40s, like, dads weren't... Hands on. ...millennial dads, you know what I mean? No. Millennial dads are a different kind of dads. It was a mom's job, so you really have to, like, think about the social differences. Oh, dads. It was a mom's job. So you really have to like think about the social differences. Oh, absolutely. It's a totally different situation across the board.

Moms, dads, everything. The whole nine. Parents in general. Yeah. Yeah. So when the war ended in 1945, Henry accepted a job as a scientific advisor to the Air Ministry. The job was really prestigious, but when the war ended in 1945, he didn't really want to raise a family in the same place. So he looked for other options,

and luckily, he came across an advertisement seeking applications for academic positions at the Canterbury University College in New Zealand. So he jumped at this at this chance. And his resume being what it was, he was a very promising candidate for the position. And in January of 1948, he was offered a job with the university, which he gladly accepted. Look at him. So big moves here.

Let's go, New Zealand, here we come. New Zealand. Now for Juliet, the news that the family would be relocating to New Zealand was really neither here nor there. Yeah, she's just like, whatever. Well, she's been shuffled around a lot. Yeah. At 10 years old, she'd already gone through tons of upheaval.

She had been sent away before to stay with relatives. She had spent a lot of time in the hospital. So she'd kind of grown accustomed to being away from her parents. So it kind of seems like she was most likely unsurprised when she was again sent away first. She was sent to live with family friends in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, months in advance of her parents' arrival.

Jesus. Which it's like... Okay. I don't... I'm not entirely sure why. Like, it's like, why can't you all just move at once? Yeah, I'm not understanding this family dynamic, but you know what, like...

Yeah. I don't know if it was a school thing, like, maybe. Maybe. But if Juliette was unmoved by the disruption, her parents seemed equally unaffected by the separation. Cool. Although it was never explicitly stated, author Peter Graham wrote,

it seems that Hilda and Henry Hume were happy to forgo, for as long as they could, the company of their daughter, whose, quote, defects in temperament and personality made her difficult and troublesome to handle. She's ten. It was like a vacation for them, too, to be rid of her. There's really no better way to say it.

I don't get this, but. She had a tough upbringing. Yeah. 100%. There's no way around that. And again, I don't know who Juliet is in this story, so I'm not even coming from a place of knowing who she is. Yeah, she becomes someone that you don't necessarily want to root for.

Yeah, but the child, listening to this without knowing who Juliette ends up being, is me saying like, that's a bummer for her. Yeah, it is. Like, that's just the reality of the situation. But once all the arrangements were made and hurdles were cleared, the family settled in Christchurch, the second largest city in New Zealand, where 10-year-old Juliet started at the prestigious St. Margaret's College Junior School in November of 1948. I feel like in other parts of the world, their schools have way cooler names than we do in the US. Yeah, they're more intense, it feels.

They all sound like colleges. Yeah. Or like universities. I'm going to university. I'm going to uni. I like that so much better. I know. But despite its good reputation, former students of the school

remembered it as a deeply serious and miserable place. Oh. Classrooms would darken for no reason. No one ever wanted to be alone in a locker room, they said. And pupils felt like extras in some kind of horror movie. Way to fucking say, this place had a good reputation, in some kind of horror movie. Wait a fucking second. This place had a good reputation, but former students are like,

oh no, it's literally the set of a horror movie. Like, what the fuck? It had a good reputation, I think, because of like test scores and that kind of thing. Like it had a good reputation on paper. Classrooms would darken for no reason. Is this the Omen? No one wanted to be alone in the locker room.

This shit was haunted. Like this is the exorcist. Legit. What? So needless to say, Juliet was happy to leave St. Margaret's behind when she finished eighth grade. So she was there from the time she was 10 until she was in eighth grade. And it was at that point that she transferred to the Christchurch Girls High School.

And it was there that she would meet one Pauline Parker. Born May 26, 1938, Pauline Parker was what her father later described as an average normal child until age five, when she developed osteomyelitis. It's an inflammation of the bone marrow. And she got it in one of her legs. It's like a ridiculously painful condition. And in a time before antibiotics, it was typically fatal, especially in children. As it was, Pauline's condition was still very serious

and she spent almost nine months in a hospital. She underwent numerous surgeries and endured two long years of dressing and caring for what was essentially an open wound on her leg. Oh, God. Yeah. In addition to the psychological stress of that experience, the physical pain was intense.

Oh, yeah. And for years after, she endured episodes of leg pain that actually required codeine and aspirin. Damn. Which like codeine is crazy. That's a lot. required codeine and aspirin, which like codeine is crazy. The surgeries also left her with a limp and precluded any participation in sports or strenuous play. So there was no way she was going to be able to really do any kind of sport ever. According to her older

sister, Wendy, Pauline developed more sedentary hobbies, including model making. And at one point, and this is a quote, went through a period of religious mania. So a lot of turmoil. A lot of turmoil happening around here. And just trauma really. Like that's traumatic to go through at a young age. And then to be put on medication like that at a young age. Like we don't really know what that does to people's brains. But unlike Juliet, Pauline's family was solidly middle class. Her father, Bert, worked as a fisherman. And before she had children, her mother, Nora, was an office assistant.

For years, the children assumed that their parents were happily married, but it would be later revealed that they were in fact actually not married at all because Bert had never divorced his first wife, Louisa. So they kind of were like, they functioned as a married couple, but they couldn't be married on paper. Nicole Zalzman At least they were happy. Lauren Henry Yeah, it sounds like they were pretty happy. Burt did his best to provide for his family, but a long period of economic depression had done a lot of damage to New Zealand's middle class. And Burt was one of many who struggled

to make any kind of headway leveling up at all. Yeah, that sucks. It was a cycle. Rosemary Davidson, whose family lived next door, recalled the Parkers being a shabby and shambolic house with an air of poverty. Oh. Which like- That's like heartbreaking. You're snooty. An air of poverty.

Yeah, that's snooty. You're snooty tooty. You're snooty, an air of poverty. Yeah, that's snooty. You're snooty tooty. You're snooty tooty Judy. Rosemary. Rosemary. Okay. But it sounds like they were happy enough. Yeah.

They didn't have money for luxuries. They didn't have like much to do extra. But it sounds like the Parkers, at least like the parents had a small group of friends. They were relatively social. They were well liked amongst their neighbors. Except Rosemary. Except Rosemary. Except Rosemary thought they'd smelled like poverty. But Pauline struggled to make friends. Same old Rosemary Davidson here.

Rosemary's got a lot to say. She really does. She did recall though being afraid of Pauline when they were children. She said Pauline had a filthy temper. A filthy temper? A filthy temper. Yeah. And would yell and scream if she didn't get her own way. Okay. Sounds like facts. Wow. But at home, things were different. Pauline had a close relationship

with her parents. She got along well with her siblings. Her father recalled if she ever did anything wrong, she would always say she was sorry. She knew she was wrong and that she'd try to do better. I mean, that's all you can ask. That's literally all you can ask. Bert Parker's memory of Pauline's childhood is obviously colored by a father's love for his daughter and maybe the passage of time. Because he remembers Pauline as a happy, well-mannered girl, but others had a decidedly different impression of her. According to Peter Graham, when Pauline entered the girls' high school in the winter of 1952, she was, quote, angry and rebellious, felt different from the other girls, resisted discipline and spoke sarcastically

to the teachers. I do wonder though, and I'm not saying anybody's lying here, anybody's being disingenuous. I do always wonder in every case, when somebody talks about somebody, what they were like after finding out something horrible that they did. If it suddenly is like a confirmation bias kind of thing where you're like, well, she acted like that. You know what I mean? Like if it seems like it's more prevalent than it actually is.

And again, I'm not saying that's the case here. It's something I always think of in these cases. And this is just happens to be one of those moments where I'm like, huh, you wonder. Yeah, you do. And I think a lot of times too, like even now when things come out, people just want to be part of the story. So they'll tell you what you want to hear

and get it written. Not saying it about this one. It just happened to make me think of it. It sounds like Pauline was pretty well adjusted at home, but it does sound like there's like multiple accounts. She was wily outside of school. She was wily in school. Or outside of home, I it does sound like there's like multiple accounts. She was wily outside of school. She was wily in school. Or outside of home, I mean.

Yeah, yeah. But this would all change, I guess, when she met Juliet Hume a short time after she started at the school. Like Pauline, Juliet was something of an outcast at school. She had an IQ of 170. Whoa. So she was exceedingly intelligent. She was confident and she seemed to have little interest in forming relationships with the other girls at school.

She felt like their interests were trivial and juvenile. She was kind of above it. So instead, she spent a lot of her time fantasizing and coming up with ideas for stories that she hoped to write someday. That's nice. Yeah, she told herself and the other girls who were pretty much as interested in her

as she was in them, that they weren't worth her time. Wow. Yeah. It's entirely likely that Juliette would have ignored Pauline just like the other girls, but they happened to meet because they were the only students exempted from gym class. Pauline because of her leg and Juliette because of some of her pulmonary conditions. Oh yeah, because she had pneumonia and... Yeah, bronchitis.

Yeah. Like multiple times. So it's the only two not participating. They naturally got to talking, found that they had a lot in common and became fast friends. Juliette maybe recognized something of herself in Pauline. She was a loner. She seemed willfully and sometimes even happily defiant of authority. And Pauline probably admired Juliet's intelligence, beauty and obvious creativity.

And while the other girls seemed interested in ordinary culture, Pauline had also developed an interest in poetry, literature and the other more adult interests that Juliet had developed. So they kind of, it kind of sounds, at least at this point, like obviously later on more things happen, but at this point, it almost sounds like they're like

two old souls that don't really relate to people their age. No, it does sound like that actually. But they find that in each other. Yeah. And most importantly, they also bonded over their history of childhood illness. Like not a lot of people know what that's like. Yeah, and especially at the time, going through it is, I mean, childhood illness is always

something, you know, horrifying and traumatic. And it's like back then, it was a totally different story because there wasn't even the comforts that we have now. Yeah. So like, she was going through, I think it was Pauline was going through what was going on with her leg before they even had antibiotics for it. Yeah. You know, so that's a different story. Wow. And like Juliet, Pauline's history of physical trauma and isolation at such an early age was something like we were just saying,

the other kids just didn't understand. So in Juliet, she finally found somebody who understood the serious effects that such an intense experience can have on a person. Years later, Hilda Hume would recall Juliet returning home from school one afternoon and enthusiastically announcing, Mommy, I've met someone at last with a will as strong as my own. I actually love that.

Yeah, in the beginning it's cool. You're like, I know I'm like, this is nice. Glad you found each other. Like, now. Oh, no, you won't be soon. Uh oh. I think it is so important to arm your house with a security system and my personal choice for that security system is SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe is advanced home security system that puts

you first. I just know that I feel so much better walking into my house after a long day of being away knowing that that baby has been armed, I've been checking in on the cameras, I know what's going on 24-7, I also feel so much better going on vacation knowing that I can check in and see what's going on at my house at any time. I've told you guys the story of why we got Simply Safe in the first place, it was like literally in the middle of a blizzard, a super crazy windy night, it was so creepy, and 3 a.m. our doorbell rings, and I'm like, who the heck is that? And I didn't know because I didn't have SimpliSafe yet.

That was the exact reason we got it, and I would literally never go back to not having SimpliSafe. I'm always checking my cameras. The other thing that's really cool is, I mean, I'm always like really on top of arming the the system but if for some reason I get all the way up to bed and I've forgotten I can do it from my phone because everything is right on the app. I love SimpliSafe and you will too. By partnering with SimpliSafe I've finally gotten real peace of mind and I want you to have that

too. Get an exclusive 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect monitoring. Just visit SimpliSafe.com slash morbid. That's SimpliSafe.com slash morbid. There's no safe like SimpliSafe. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, new ways of thinking. Find the genres that you love and discover new ones along the way. Explore bestsellers, new releases, plus thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and originals

that members can listen to all they want, with more added all the time. Audible makes it easy to be inspired and entertained as part of your daily routine without needing to set aside extra time. There's more to imagine when you listen. I've actually been listening to The Name of the Wind. I think I told you, it's by Patrick Rothfuss. It is read by Nick Podell and it is, I just got to like the most heartbreaking part of the story. Nick's narration is beautiful and I have chills even just thinking about it. You guys really need to listen to this title. As an Audible member also, you can choose one title a month to keep

from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases. New members can try Audible Free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500 500. That's audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500 500 to try audible free for 30 days audible.com slash morbid. The narrative of Pauline and Juliet's relationship tends to portray their friendship as one of equals, but there was probably some part of Juliet that knew she had the upper hand, if you will. She obviously enjoyed having somebody she could share her world with and pass the time with, but at the same time, she also wasn't desperate for social connection. She was the one who was happy to be on her own. Didn't really need anybody. Pauline, on the other hand, was frustrated and she was lonely. And she saw in Juliet everything she wanted in a friend. So simply put, Pauline needed and wanted Juliet more than Juliet wanted or needed her. And that

fact was definitely not lost on Juliet and neither was the power that such a position gave her over Pauline. And this is a kid who never had control or power over anything. She was just shuffled around, sent away, moved from home to home, you know, told, told that her defiance and her demanding quote unquote nature was a negative, were negative traits. A negative quality, yep. Which is not good. Yeah.

It's like you got to try to spin those qualities into something positive with a kid. You can't tell them they're bad qualities because that's what they're going to live. They're going to, they're going to validate that on their own. And it's like, this is her finally seeing a way where she can take control of a situation and have it. And boy did she. Oh boy. And again, I don't know the details. I know a very brief overview. Boy did the both of them. They both, they fed off of each other. Like I said, it's a

very Folly adieu kind of thing. Yeah, seems that way. Yeah. Before long, Juliet and Pauline were completely immersed in each other's worlds. They spent almost all of their time together, coming up with elaborate stories and fantasies. They rode horses, they dressed up to perform plays, where Juliet was almost always the star. And it seemed fine.

It just seemed like they formed this bond and they became best friends who did everything together. I think we've all had a relationship, or most of us have, where you meet this best friend and you start devoting all your time to them. Yeah, absolutely. But it got to a point where it got to be too much. As the months went on, they seemed to be completely wrapped up in each other.

And as the nights became warmer, Pauline would sneak out of her house at night and ride her bike to Juliette's house, where they would steal wine and food from the kitchen and sneak off to have moonlight picnics or head to the beach, which still very, like, very relatable to a sense, like, oh, like, I'm going to sneak out and hang out with my best friend. Yeah. Like everybody's been there. Everybody's been there. But as one year passed into the next, the girls seemed to shut out the world around them,

preferring instead to live in a fantasy of their own making, just barely attending their few real-world responsibilities, like schoolwork. Everything was falling by the wayside. There needs to be a balance. Yes. It's okay to be, you know, you're creative, you're, you know, you like fantasy, you like, you know, that kind of stuff. That's fine. They're just, there always needs to be a balance. Yeah, it can't sweep you away. One thing can't take over everything.

Yeah, and that's what happened here. And the older they got, the more their fantasies came to include adult concepts that they maybe weren't ready to fully process and yeah, dive into. Yeah. Their dramas and stories were still those of an adolescent, but as Louise Chun wrote, their characters regularly slaughtered and raped their way across the girl's imagination and increasingly blood soaked adventures.

I wasn't ready for what you just said. Yeah, I don't think many people would be. What? Like you, what? That escalated very quickly. They started... Because they would write these stories back and forth. And they... Damn. Got very dark in nature very quickly, as you can see.

Evidently. Yeah. And a lot of them had very highly sexual themes, but like, like I just said, like featuring rape, that kind of thing. Like it got, it got dark. And if it was just coming up with stories, that's one thing. But I think at the age that they were at, it was concerning and would be like if I was- And with the way they were pulled away from reality and the way they were, you know, it was, it sounds like it's becoming an us against the world kind of a relationship. And whenever it's a you and me baby against the world, that's, that's fucked. And it's going to crash and burn in some way. And it's not going to be good. That always reminds

me of Rob Zombie. We're in a crash and burn. That's literally what happens. And that is what happens. Oh boy. But Juliette and Pauline's stories weren't the only place that they explored romantic or sexual themes. Like a lot of girls their age, they both loved cinema and they had a particular fondness for popular male stars at the time like Mario Lanza, James Mason and Orson Welles after they were both arrested.

So we see where this is going. Yeah, suck it in, well. Yeah, and throughout what would become their trial, the press and particularly the tabloids made a lot of their sexuality, eventually going as far to imply that they were having a lesbian relationship, which if they were, whatever.

I was just gonna say, why would that have anything to do with it? No one really knows, but the time. Oh, of whatever. I was just going to say, why would that have anything to do with it? No one really knows. But the time. Oh, of course. It was horrible. Chen points out, their experimentation was probably no more than what many teenage girls get up to. They sometimes slept in the same bed.

They hugged each other when they were excited. One night they practiced making love the way their idols would. So, definitely teetered over, because like... I was going to... That last one, I'm like, I... Okay. Yeah. Okay. I don't know any other teenage girls' experiences except the ones that I had with my friends

and we did not practice making love. I can tell you that we also did not. Yeah. Like we hugged each other when we got excited. We would... Absolutely slept in the same bed. Like for sure. Very platonically, but we did not practice making love.

No. I don't know if that's somebody else's experience. But you know what? That's, you know, it's none of my business. Yeah, whatever. But years later, when asked for a comment on Juliette and Pauline's supposed sexual relationship, one classmate acknowledged the intimacy and told a reporter, It was considered normal for girls to have crushes on each other.

It was part of life at a single sex school. That makes sense. Which it does make sense. You take the opposite sex out of the equation, you're in the middle of puberty, you're developing these feelings like you're going to direct them at someone, you know? Yeah. And I always think like, you know, especially like, like girls, I feel like are so much more like, can appreciate the beauty of another woman, you know, you know what I mean? I feel like are so much more like can appreciate the beauty of another woman. You know what I mean?

I feel like that's just such a more fluid situation. So you put them in an all-girls school, of course that's going to happen. It's bound to happen. I agree. But while they might not have been in a romantic or sexual relationship by their third year in school, Juliet and Pauline were certainly enmeshed in one another's lives to the exclusion of almost everything and everyone around them. See, that's where the problem comes. It's the us against the world, baby. And that's exactly what it is. Pauline wrote in her diary, which her diary

becomes a big subject of this case, we have decided how sad it is for other people that they cannot appreciate our genius. That's pretty hilarious. Elena and I have that conversation. I was just kidding. That's pretty hilarious. But in that kind of shit is just like that if nothing else had happened, that would just be like funny to look back on and be like, look at us just being like, fuck everyone. Like no context whatsoever. You'd be like, oh, wow, what a hot shit.

You'd be like, that's hilarious. Like, and that's for you with be like, oh, wow, what a hot shit. You'd be like, that's hilarious. Like, good for you with your confidence, but like... Yeah. And I feel like that goes back to what you were saying about like when people are interviewed later on, and they have that kind of bias of something happening. It changes how you look at things. It's context. All of it is context.

Absolutely. Because now you read that and you're like, oh, fuck, that's not good. That's leading to something bad, but without the context, like I don't have all the details. I know something bad happens though, so I can at least go off of that and say, like, oh, that's not good. But if you don't know what the hell happens later and you're just thinking this is a tale of two, which you're not on morbid to do that, but you're just

thinking this is a tale of two women who like, you know, go conquer the world together, you're like, well, look at you, you like you badass little confident bitches just sitting there being like, nobody appreciates our genius. How sad for them. Exactly. Interesting. But then we keep walking. We keep on going.

We keep on spiraling down the well. We sure do. So while they saw their own relationship in increasingly romantic and grandiose terms, the girls stories were becoming more like negative and violent, especially when it came to their imagined relations with others. Ah. Peter Graham wrote, as early as March of 1953, Pauline was writing about highway robberies and often more than one violent death a day.

I mean, that's a lot. Yeah. That's a lot. As somebody who writes about murder for a living, that's a lot. And that's the thing, like that's your literal job. That's my job. And that's my job too. But we don't write about more than one in a day. No.

And it's true stories that we're writing, which- Well, I'm talking about, I make them up. Oh, like the author. For my other job. So like I actually make it up for my other job. Like I have to do the fantasizing and the creative writing. Right. Portion of it. And even that's a lot. Well, and also your brain is fully developed. So it's not having the impact on you necessarily that it would have on a teenage girl. And it's having healthy relationships and healthy

bonds with other people. Yes. And healthy outlets. And the ability to walk away from that for a couple days if it becomes too much. To separate that world, that fantasy world from reality. Yes. And that's where the issue is coming in here. It seems like that's all she could think about.

Yeah. And that's where it becomes unhealthy. And they were living in these fantasies, like at points they would literally meditate into these worlds that they created. Wow. Yeah. That's interesting. Which is if the world that they were coming up with was less violent. Yeah, just lovely and something that could calm them or make them feel at peace somehow.

Yeah. Then that's lovely. But it wasn't really that. Yeah, it seems like this was, seems like there's just a lot of darkness around them, a lot of like, they're not having any positive relationships or any, because even their relationship doesn't seem positive. It seems very entrenched in a power dynamic that isn't exactly balanced and isn't healthy. And it's like if they had these like, you know, I don't know, it just seems like there's a lot of knives held in the air that I just feel are just going to all come crashing down. Yeah. So for the first couple years of their relationship, like we were just saying, there was that power

dynamic. Juliet always had the upper hand, knowing that Pauline was more dependent on her than she was on Pauline. But over the course of 1953, as Juliet's life became more and more tumultuous, the imbalance of power started to even out a little bit. In addition to a serious hospitalization for what turned out to be tuberculosis. Wow, she's really struggling with pulmonary stuff. She is, yeah. Juliette's relationship at the time also with her parents got even more strained. So she turned to Pauline and their rich fantasy life as her only source of social or emotional support. Damn. And when

you're hospitalized, like they would write letters to each other while she was in the hospital, but that was it. All she had was her parents. And their relationship was not warm and comforting. Exactly. Yeah. So the more Juliet pushed her parents away, the closer she drew Pauline, unaware that while she had been in the hospital, Pauline had started dating a local boy named Nicholas. Of course, with Juliet and Pauline being so close, it was only a matter of time before Juliette found out about Nicholas, which she did in the fall of 1953. It's unclear what transpired exactly between them when Juliette found out of what she viewed as her competition, but in late October Pauline told Nicholas she was quote, no longer very much in love with him. And it was quote, better if they discontinued seeing one another. As

Graham put it, it was as if she felt her affair with Nicholas had been an act of disloyalty to Juliet. And by getting rid of him, she had returned their relationship to its rightful place as her primary concern. We've now ventured into completely and utterly unhealthy, yeah, not okay. We were teetering before, now we're fully in that realm. We're entrenched in unhealthy shit right here. Yeah, and Pauline's relationship with Nicholas was the first real test of loyalty

that the girl's relationship had faced, and given how quickly and easily she dumped the boy that she had so recently claimed to love, it's clear that neither Juliette nor Pauline was willing to tolerate any threat to their relationship. And I say threat because that's how they viewed it. Like, quote-unquote threat. Quote-unquote, exactly.

So while most people really paid little attention, like at school, to Pauline and Juliette's relationship, the people who were familiar with them, like a little more close to their circle, or their two-person circle, couldn't help but notice that they had an unusual and to some unhealthy attachment to one another. In late 1952, a lot of their classmates

had started to notice the intensity of their bond, but most considered it normal because of the dynamics of going to an all-girls school. Classmate Jan Sutherland recalled, "'You are allowed to have a special friend as long as it was kept within bounds.'" Or I think bounds, excuse me. There's a lot happening that I don't understand here. There's a lot. There's a lot of dynamics and systems in place here that I have never been a part of,

all girls school and in the 50s. You know what I mean? That I'm like, wow. It's interesting. I didn't know about any of this. I feel like it would make a really good, obviously Heavenly Creatures as a movie. It would be a great movie.

I feel like the concept of just all the dynamics at an all girls school, I mean, I'm sure it's been done a million times. But you know what I mean? Yeah, no, it's been done a million times. But like, you know what I mean? Yeah. No, it's an interesting and probably kind of heartbreaking at times, I'm sure. Yeah. Because we don't know any of the ins and outs of this.

The logistics. Yeah. But while other girls thought little of Juliet and Pauline's relationship, the school's head mistress, Miss Stewart, had concerns that their friendship might be headed in an unnatural direction. Oh, I see what you're saying. Fishy's headmistress over there. She was like, I think they might be lesbians and we don't tolerate that here. Quote unquote.

Exactly. Eventually, she ended up calling a meeting with Juliet's mother Hilda to discuss her belief that Juliet and Pauline's friendship quote, might be going beyond normal healthy friendship. Which that, saying that, yeah, like I can understand that one, like their bond is unhealthy. And I don't know, she might've meant a natural direction. And maybe she did, yeah.

As like, this is simply not healthy. Yeah, regardless of what, whether they are in a relationship that is romantic or platonic or somewhere in the middle, doesn't really matter. No matter where it sits on the spectrum here It's unhealthy because of the way they are Like reacting to the world around them and the direction in which it's headed It's only gonna get worse like so let's nip this in the bud. Yeah, that means she might have been thought

Yeah, there were a lot of people at the time who also were like and I think they were lesbians and that wasn't okay Yeah, so nobody who's to say, you know, but not one to overparent her children. Juliet's mother made it clear to Miss Stewart in no uncertain times that she was neither interested in nor prepared to interfere with her daughter's friendships, particularly since she at that time saw nothing wrong with Juliet and Pauline's relationship. Okay, I bet you didn't. Hindsight. Yeah. So Juliet's mom might not have seen anything wrong

with the unusually intense bond between the girls, but Juliet's father was another matter entirely. Remember, he's a physicist. He's a smart fucking man. In December of 1953, Dr. Hume consulted with his colleague, Dr. Francis Bennett, a psychiatrist, whom he asked to evaluate Pauline. Wait, Juliet's dad asked to, is it, is evaluate, having his friend evaluate Pauline.

Yes. His daughter's friend. Yep. Okay. Yep. Was there consent here? Like what the fuck? It sounds like there was consent. Want to call up her parents real quick.

I think her parents were like, yeah, sure. But it's strange, I know. When I was looking at that, I was like, wait, did I have this wrong? No. No, it's really Pauline. Wow. Yeah.

When asked about this several years later, Hilda Hume said, I had noticed Mrs. Parker was concerned about that friendship. She sought medical advice largely at my suggestion and my husband's. So they talked about it and it seemed like that Pauline's mom had more concerns than Juliet's parents. So I don't know if they assumed that maybe Pauline was the one who was too immersed in this. Yeah, that they were having... Okay. They were like, we're not really seeing any issue with Julie yet, so maybe Pauline is the problem.

Wow. Yeah, and her own mom was like, yeah, I think this relationship is a little much like, I'm going to have to evaluate it. I think what should have happened is these parents should have got together. I mean, like, what are our concerns here? Yeah. And then maybe talk to both the girls. Yeah. But I'm not here, I'm not in the 50s. And then maybe talk to both the girls. Yeah.

But I'm not here. I'm not in the 50s. That's how I would have done it, I think. But according to Dr. Benedict, it was Dr. Hume who was, quote, worried over what he regarded as an unhealthy association and wanted me to see Pauline from a psychiatric point of view. Oh, so it was Dr. Hume? Yeah.

Who was the one that was like, go take a peek at Pauline. You're not her father. That's according to his friend. But then according to Hilda, she's like, well, Mrs. Parker also thought it was a problem. So all of us came together and said Pauline was the problem. I mean, I'm more inclined to believe the doctor here. His name is on this, but who knows. So during Benedict's evaluation, Pauline was overall pretty uncooperative and resistant to his questions. But she did say she was mostly unhappy. And when he suggested she should widen her circle of friends, she insisted she didn't

really care much for other girls and thought they were quote unquote silly. And it's like, okay, but sometimes silly is fun. Yeah. You know, you need a little fun in your life. Live in the silly. Everything doesn't need to be serious. Yeah. But she said besides, she had Juliet, she didn't need anybody else. Uh-oh.

That's a pretty, ding, ding, ding. There it is. Despite her providing very limited information and just giving like pretty sparse responses, Benedict concluded that Pauline was quote unquote strange. I mean, okay. My diagnosis is you're fucking strange. Same. And here it is.

He told Nora Parker, Pauline's mother, that there was a quote homosexual attachment between her daughter and Juliet Hume. Oh. Which of course at the time would have been, put everybody into such a fucking tizzy. And I like how it was like the psychiatric evaluation that was like in my other diagnosis is, it's like, okay.

Homosexual. It's like, okay, I don't understand, but. I don't think that's our biggest problem here. I think it's the actual, too intense bond that's happening right now. Yes, exactly. The shutting out of reality, that's the problem. Focus on that.

Exactly. But the surprise evaluation did little to mend the increasingly fractured relationship between Pauline and her mother. Because at this point, even Pauline and her mom are having problems. And I think that's, I just said I'm inclined to believe the doctor, but it does sound like Nora Parker had her concerns. I'm sure she did. I mean, I don't know how any parent couldn't. And especially because, like I said, Paul don't know how any parent couldn't. And especially because, like I said, Pauline seemed to be more affected even at home at

this point. But despite Burt Parker's insistence that his daughter had been perfectly normal before she'd met Juliet, the fact was there had never been a really strong bond between Pauline and her mother. Huh? Yeah. That's the same with Juliet. The relationships between mothers and daughters in this story is very interesting.

Huh. I'm sure they bonded over that. They did. Big time. Most people recognize that Nora Parker meant well, but like Hilda Hume, motherhood did not come naturally to her. Interesting. She was a very stern woman who was quick to anger, and Pauline almost constantly irritated her mother without meaning to.

Oh. In fact, Pauline's fractured relationship with her mother, like we were just saying, was among the things that she and Juliet had bonded over. Yeah. When they first met. According to her, and this is really sad, according to Pauline, her mother, quote, didn't understand her and didn't love her. Oh, that's heartbreaking. Yeah. That's awful.

And a lot of times their arguments ended with physical punishment. Oh, that's heartbreaking. Yeah. That's awful. And a lot of times, their arguments ended with physical punishment. Oh, boy. Yeah. So Pauline's claims of abuse and pretty much neglect are a testament to how far she and her mother's relationship had already even deteriorated by the time she even reached high school.

So that was already a problem. There was already an issue there. And then her attachment to Juliet made things even worse. You gotta try to be good parents everybody. It's an important job. Of course it is. By 1954 though Pauline's relationship with her mother wasn't the only familial bond that was in danger of falling apart. In late 1953 while working at the Marriage Guidance Council, Juliet's mother Hilda met a Canadian immigrant named Bill Perry Bill had sought services from the council because his marriage was falling apart And while her initial intentions may have been to help him repair his marriage the relationship between Bill and Hilda soon became flirtatious

Shut up and in no time at all their relationship had escalated from a fling to something far more serious and in no time at all, their relationship had escalated from a fling to something far more serious. And in early 1954, Bill ended up leaving his wife and moving into an apartment literally adjacent to the Humes family house. You're... Okay, okay. Your child is going through something that's concerning to everybody. Well, nobody was as concerned with Julie. The headmistress was concerned and like some of the classmates were concerned. And Pauline's parents seemed concerned.

Pauline's parents seemed concerned about her, not necessarily Julie yet. But like as a whole, the relationship is a problem. Like there's a problem here. Yeah. And even she's retreated into herself. Even Henry, the father. Yeah, the father seems to be a little concerned here. Like moderately at least. And it's like, what's going on? Like why are we adding more to this? Well, the devil does not really want to fuss over children. That's true. Children should learn their fucking place as far as she's concerned. Babies should learn their place. Yeah, that's the baby should.

Babies, children, all the like. Like, why would you add more into this chaos? I, it sounds to me like she was a woman who was very concerned with her own needs. Yeah, it does seem that way. And not anyone else's. Because, I mean, she doesn't even give a fuck about her husband in this scenario. Yeah, apparently. So damn, it just seems I'm like, wow, what a choice.

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slash morbid. That's 15% off at masterclass.com slash morbid. Masterclass.com slash morbid. This next part will just solidify the statement I just made of she really seemed only concerned with her own shit. According to Hilda's own friend, Nancy Sutherland, Hilda had cheated on her husband many times before Bill, and he was just quote, one of Hilda's lovers. Oh, okay. Yeah. All right. So with her husband consumed by his work and rarely at home, Hilda seemed to be less vigilant than she should have been when it came to her affair with

Bill. And in no time at all, Juliette and Pauline had picked up on the relationship, probably because he fucking lived adjacent to their house. Oh, and that's gonna fuck you up. Yeah. But rather than seeing it as the inevitable end to her parents' marriage, Juliette instead saw it as a potential financial opportunity. Stop it.

By mid-1954, I'm just laughing because it's just like, what the fuck? This is so bizarre. I'm uncomfortable. This is uncomfortable and bizarre. Because it just keeps getting more chaotic. The layers. Yeah.

By mid-1954, the girls' fantasies had begun to center around running away together, something that would require money and a good amount of it. So they hatched a scheme where they would catch Bill and Hilda in their affair and blackmail them, thus gaining the funds needed to run away together. That's such a detachment from reality. From reality and such a detachment from your mother as a mother. You're just seeing her as like an opportunity to get to where you need to go.

She's fucking up, so let's... There's so much like... The bond between mother and daughter in both of these girls, like Pauline's bond with her mom and Juliette's bond with her mom are not the typical bond between mother and daughter. There's a lot of coldness here.

There's detachment in both sides, big time. Like between mother and daughter. There's a lot of coldness here. There's detachment in both sides. Big time. Like between mother and daughter and between daughter and mother. Yes. Like it's from both sides, like one has created the other and it's just... Well, and I think a lot of times and like obviously we're not going to get like too far into it, but like we said, punishment at this time was physical. That creates trust issues. Yeah, absolutely. That's just the fact of the matter. Yeah, that creates trust issues.

Yeah, absolutely. That's just the fact of the matter. Yeah, it just is biology. It just is. And so I think that can lead to the detachment of like, I don't trust you. You're going to hurt me. Yeah, because in the fifties, shit was wily. Like punishments were not normal punishments.

Like kids were literally getting hit with belts and stuff. Like getting the shit kicked out of them. Like it was like this was not, it was not like bounds of anything. Right. So yeah, and physical to, you know, that's just the way it is. So I think those bonds were just damaged at a really early age. And I mean, punishment aside, Juliette was sent to live with other family members all the time.

She was separated from her parents. In really early developmental years. So I don't really think Juliette ever formed a typical bond with her mom. And then Pauline, I think, is more the result of the the punishment style. Yeah. And I think, and they both say that they never really took to motherhood. Right. Like that wasn't something they were comfortable with. And it just wasn't, they weren't really nurturing, which is something a kid needs.

And it's sad, ultimately, because at the same time, back then, you didn't really get the option to choose whether or not you wanted to be a mother. Yeah, so it was just like, that's what you do. And it was the kid who really suffers for it. Right. It's just very sad overall. It's all very sad.

So Juliet and Pauline's plan to blackmail Juliet's mother and run away together was obviously somewhat childish in the whole like running away sense and thinking that they would be able to. And even though Juliet actually did catch the two of them in bed together, she never got a chance to blackmail her mom or Bill. Wow, that's all fucked up.

Yeah. In May of 1954, after their blackmail scheme and Hilda Hume's affair had been exposed, Hilda and Henry called both girls to the kitchen one afternoon for a discussion, because they were also always at each other's houses. Of course. Particularly Pauline was always at Juliet's house. It was then they learned that not only were Juliet's parents going to separate, but also that there had been some problems at the university and Henry had actually resigned from his position. So without employment and unlikely to stay married, there was no reason for the Humes to remain in New Zealand because remember they had only moved there because of a

job opportunity. Yeah. And they like nothing's really tethering them there. So they tentatively decided to return to England in the coming months. Oh, Juliet's family. The news was obviously upsetting for Juliet and Pauline, but it's unclear whether they truly understood what it meant for their friendship. By that point, they had been completely wrapped up in this grandiose fantasy world where they believed among other things that they were telepathic and had an unbreakable bond and received an assurance from Juliet's father that they would not be separated. In their minds, he had made a promise to them that he wouldn't separate them, but that never actually happened. Yeah, it was delusions. I was gonna say, there's a lot of delulu happening. Yeah, and none of it's going to come true, Lulu. No.

Pauline wrote in her diary in early May, Dr. Hume really is to be relied upon. So she had a legitimate trust in him. What exactly he promised them is unknown, but it seems pretty unlikely Dr. Hume would have made any kind of promise under the circumstances, especially when you think of the fact that he was the one that wanted Pauline evaluated. Yeah, that's the thing. Yeah, I don't know that happening. I don't know if it was like a thing where the conversation kind of got like he did and he was like, we'll do our best to keep you guys together. Like he said, something that could in their very delusional, very fantastical, very desperate world. Yes, look to them like

any suggestion of a promise, you know, like anything they could twist into one. And it could have been that, that he said something like very small that they twisted, or it could have been that in their minds, they were so detached from reality that they just believed he promised them something that he never promised. That he never did. Like didn't even say anything even close to a promise. Yeah, I could see that.

So, by early June, Henry Hume had formally resigned from his position, and it was announced that he had accepted a new position in England. So, the family had a move coming in their future. It turned out that he actually hadn't accepted a new position, but the second part was true. He was to return to England alongside his soon tobe ex-wife. However, they decided under the circumstances, it would be best if Juliet went to live with Henry's sister in South Africa. Oh. Like, okay. Okay.

Given her precarious health and the fact that his sister Ina ran a girls boarding school, sending Juliet there seemed a better alternative than returning to London for her. They didn't think it was like a good place for her to be. So the news was obviously a devastating blow to both girls, but they resolved to stay together and decided that Pauline would simply go to South Africa with Juliet. Oh, yeah. Obviously. I'll just obviously my family will let me move away and go to your aunt's place with you. Definitely. Definitely. But in their mind, the Humes had always welcomed Pauline into their home. They'd even taken her on vacations at this point. So it seemed entirely reasonable that they would allow her to accompany their daughter to her new temporary home. Yeah.

Of course, overnight stays and vacations were one thing, but this was something entirely different. And Pauline's mom was like, you're not moving to South Africa with your friend, Pauline. Like, yeah, you're in high school. No, what are you doing? What? No. The decision that Juliet would be leaving without Pauline came as a shock, but the girls remained committed to staying together and had already come up with a backup plan that would allow them to stay together forever. Pauline wrote in her diary in late June, our main idea for the day was to murder mother. This notion was not a new one, but this time it is a definite plan which we intend to carry out. We have worked it out

carefully and are both thrilled by the idea. Naturally, we feel a trifle nervous, but the pleasure of anticipation is great. I shall not write this plan down as I shall write it out when we carry it out." Wow. That escalated. That went from zero to a hundred. And I stopped in the middle of that sentence because you feel like it escalated so quickly, but there is years and years of just wild attachment styles going on between these two girls and some people trying to get in the mix there and try to, you know, figure this out and

rectify this. But wow, the damage had been done. That's unbelievable. And that's the thing, like you feel like it goes to zero to 100, but it hit every number along the way. No, it's true. It did. It's just, I think what's bothering me the most is the callousness with which this is

being said. Oh, the callousness is, and I think it comes from the, I mean, this is just me like theorizing, but I feel like it comes from the fact that they were just so detached from the regular world that she was like, yeah, we'll that they were just so detached from the regular world that She was like, yeah, we'll kill my mom and then we'll just go to that world. Yeah, it almost seemed like that was a real Tangible place for them to go to Yeah in her mind. I don't know if she thought like we can run away to that world. Yeah I think I think I could absolutely see you know their reality. It seems that way. That they can run to that fake reality.

It's like you can't. And I just, I was looking up the diary things and they spelled murder moiter. Moiter, yeah. I was like, was that on purpose? Why'd you do that? I think it's actually British. Is it? It's like a British thing, moiter.

Oh really? I didn't know that. Because I Googled it really quickly and I was like, does she mean something else? Yeah, what does that mean? It's murder. Because when I see that, I think like Moira. Moira, like how Spencer Henry said it. I know. So the next day, June 20th, Pauline spent the day with her family.

Years later, her father Bert recalled, she seemed much brighter in the house than she had before. She was much nicer to us than she had been for a long time. Oh, that's awful. Two days later, Pauline and Juliet would brutally murder Nora, Pauline's mother. Holy shit. Yeah.

Later, after the arrest and the trials, many people would theorize that they had conspired to kill Nora Parker in the misguided belief that if she were out of the picture, Pauline would then be allowed to join Juliet in South Africa. It's pretty likely that this was the catalyst for the murder. But at the same time, Pauline had hated her mom for a long time

and had fantasized for a long time about killing her. Peter Graham wrote, Pauline would never forget the unhappiness of her childhood and seemed to blame most of that unhappiness on her mother. Oh, boy. So on the morning of June 22, 1954, Pauline woke up and wrote in her diary, the day of the happy event. And referred to her mood as, and this is a quote, the night before Christmas-ish. About murdering her own mom. That afternoon, Juliet

left her house to meet Pauline, grabbing a broken brick off the ground from the side of the house and putting it in her bag as she walked. At Pauline's house, they both sat down and enjoyed lunch with Nora. She prepared them a nice little lunch and they all ate together. After lunch, they went upstairs to Pauline's room where Juliet slipped the half brick into one of Pauline's old stockings and then they tied a knot around the ankle to keep the brick in place and then stuffed it into Pauline's bag. Oh my. After they'd eaten and readied their murder weapon, Juliet, Pauline, and Nora all set off for a walk through the woods. Nora just wanted to go on a walk with them.

Pauline took the lead as they walked with her mother in the middle and Juliet behind her. After some time, the vegetation started getting more dense and muddy and difficult to manage. They weren't going for a hike, so Nora suggested, like, let's turn around, let's head back. The girls tried to convince her to continue on, but she was like, no, I don't want to go any further. Let's go back to the house. So this time, it was Pauline who was in the rear as they turned around, walking behind her mother, fumbling with the buckle on her bag. At one point, Nora stopped along the trail and bent down to look at something on the ground, and that was when Pauline came up fast behind her and swung the brick as

hard as she could, striking her mom in the back of the head with it. Whoa. So Nora got knocked to the ground, and she covered her head in pain and confusion, and Pauline just swung the brick over and over again, until Juliet appeared and took the makeshift weapon from her, and then took her own turns hitting Nora. Eventually the brick broke free from the stocking and fell to the ground near Nora's almost lifeless body. And sensing that the woman was almost dead, Juliet kneeled beside her and grabbed her by the throat to hold her head in place, while Pauline took up the brick again and started bashing her mom in the head repeatedly, until she ran out of energy.

Oh my god. That is frenzied as fuck. I was going to say the frenzy. Holy shit. Although still not dead, it was clear to both girls that Nora wouldn't survive without immediate medical attention. So they tried to drag her into the brush, but they had underestimated the fact that she was going to be dead weight. Oh, yeah.

Obviously. And they were only able to drag her a few inches before she was too heavy. With Nora rasping and choking on blood in the bushes, they ran off in the direction of town to carry out the next phase of their scheme. JANET The fuck is the next phase? LORRAINE We'll get there. But later, when the autopsy was completed, the pathologist counted 45 external injuries, including 24 lacerations to the head and face that had penetrated to the bone and extensive fractures of Nora's face. Nearly all of the blunt force injuries to her head were serious.

And the pathologist wrote in his report, it would not take many of them, only a few to produce unconsciousness. So this was complete overkill. Yeah. When they reached town, Juliette and Pauline went into the nearest business, an ice cream parlor. They had to, were they like covered in blood, I imagine? You would think. Like you would think they would be. You would absolutely think. And that's where the owners, Agnes Richie and her husband contacted the police.

In the meantime, Agnes' husband and another man ran out to the spot where the girl said they'd left Nora, hoping that they might be able to help. When they reached the spot where the woman lay in the brush, Kenneth immediately felt that something wasn't right. Yeah, because what the fuck did they tell them? They said that Nora had slipped and fallen on the trail and hit her head on a rock. 45 times? 45 times. This woman appeared to have been viciously beaten.

Uh, yeah. And they had left the broken brick beside her body that was covered in her hair and blood. Holy shit. It was brutal. And I'm like, you guys really, like, you guys are creative writers. And you thought that people were gonna believe that she had fallen? 45 times?

I mean... Come on. The deluge. Damn. Now it was dark by the time investigators made their way down to the wooded area where Nora was still lying. And they had to work by flashlight. But even under those circumstances, it was very clear to everybody what had happened to Nora.

It was no accident. No. She hadn't just fallen and hit her head on a rock. She'd been brutally bludgeoned. Brutallygeoned, presumably with that bloody brick by her side. So she also had multiple defensive wounds that suggested she fought hard. And this is so gnarly. One of them was a broken finger on her left hand that was hanging on by a small piece of flesh. That of the detectives told a journalist the deceased had been attacked with an animal ferocity seldom seen in the most brutal of

murders. As several officers and pathologists worked to process the scene, detectives were dispatched to the Hume house, where the girls had been taken immediately following the report. Wow. Just the brutality of that is like that's some anger. That's a lot of anger. And for Juliet to have taken part in that and like that's not even... That's a lot of... That's two very angry, very fucked up girls. And it's like you're not going to separate us. No. Like you will not come in between this friendship.

Which, holy shit. That's on another level. As we know, teenagers make notoriously bad criminals though. Yeah, they sure do. And this was no different. In their fantasy, it's likely that Juliette and Pauline assumed they would just kill Nora, deny any knowledge of what happened,

and nobody would ask any follow-up questions. Whether it was Agnes Richie, their parents, or the police asking questions, both of them provided little information and just tried to stick to the explanation that Nora had fallen. Wow. But everybody was like, no, like there's no way we know you're not telling the truth. Yeah. So while Pauline and Juliette told a nearly identical story to interviewing detectives,

the story was thoroughly unbelievable. And when they were confronted with the more unbelievable elements, both girls started to seem shaken and they gave weak answers. For instance, when Detective Archie Tate asked Pauline why there was an old stocking at the scene, Pauline told him, I usually carry an old one in my bag. Wow, that's all you got? Why wouldn't you say, that's not mine? That's not mine.

I don't know. I mean, I'm glad that you gave a shitty answer and it worked out, but it's like... That's what you came up with? I carry an old stocking in my bag? Just one, not even a pair. Just one and it's old. One old stocking. It's old.

What? Yeah. Detectives were looking for any part of either girl's story that they could grab onto that might pull their whole lie apart, and eventually they got it from Juliet. Ah. According to both girls' earliest accounts, they had been walking together when Nora,

who was walking behind them, slipped and fell. But in her statement to the detectives, Juliet said she had been walking far ahead of the two, and when she turned around, she saw Nora lying on the ground and she was bleeding. When confronted with that inconsistency, Juliette claimed she thought Pauline and her mom had been arguing, and she didn't want her friend to get in any trouble, so she said they were together when Nora fell. Uh oh, she's turning. There we go.

She's turning. The change in the narrative obviously put suspicion for the murder squarely on Pauline, who detectives now believed was her mother's killer. Now when confronted with this new version of events, Pauline immediately knew that Juliette had changed her story and implicated her in the death. But rather than feeling outraged or betrayed, she didn't? Nope. Pauline was entirely willing to accept the blame,

believing that she was protecting her friend. Because remember... That shows you right now the power dynamic. That power dynamic. Right there. Juliette had it from the beginning and she kept that shit till the end. She sure did. I thought you were gonna say that she just broke.

No. Like that betrayal just destroyed her, but for her just to turn around and be like, yep. I think in her mind, she didn't even see it as a betrayal. She just saw it as, well, Juliette must have had to do that. This is just what we have to do. And I'll take the fall for it. Yeah, this is part of her plan.

So I'm just gonna go with it. Yep. Wow. Yep. So upstairs in Pauline's bedroom, detectives informed her that she was now being arrested for murder and advised her of her rights. Pauline declined to answer most of the questions being asked by the investigators, but when they asked

how many times she hit her mother, she replied, I don't know, a great many times I should imagine. Holy shit. Cold. That's cold. I don't know, a lot. Wow. No longer feeling the need to lie, she dropped the Innocent Grieving Daughter Act and stoically listened as detectives read the interview record back to her, essentially asking her to confirm that her confession was accurate. She listened to every detail. She agreed and signed the document saying as much, but before she did, she wanted to make one thing clear on the record. She said, I wish to state that Juliet did not know of my intentions and did not see me strike my mother. I took the chance to strike my mother when Juliet was away."

Holy shit. Completely. Damn. Taking the rap. Completely. Wow. Yeah. That's... different level. A different level.

Because I feel like we have covered cases before where there's been two people that have committed a murder together, like formed this really close bond over time. But they all even married couples. Most of them always married couples. Like nine out of 10 times. And these two teenage girls, one of them is like, she had nothing to do with it. And I'll never say she did.

Like look at Rose and Fred West. Yeah. Rose tried to be like, I had nothing. do with it and I'll never say she did. Like look at Rose and Fred West. Yeah, or Myra and Ian. Rose tried to be like, I had nothing, I don't know, I wasn't even there. And Fred was like, fuck that. She was there for everything. She was absolutely there. She was part of it. Not here.

They don't, wow. That's really unbelievable. That's incredible. On another level. In a bad way. Yeah. Nancy's love story could have been ripped right out of the pages of one of her own novels. She was a romance mystery writer who happens to be married to a chef. But this story didn't end with a happily ever after. When I stepped into

the kitchen I could see that Chef Brophy was on the ground and I heard somebody say call 911. As writers we'd written our share of murder mysteries so when suspicion turned to Dan's wife Nancy we weren't that surprised. The first person they look at would be the spouse. We understand that's usually the way they do it. But we began to wonder had Nancy gotten so wrapped up in her own novels... There are murders in all of the books. ...that she was playing them out in real life? Follow Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can binge all episodes of Happily Never After, Dan and Nancy early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It didn't take investigators long to realize that while they initially thought the murder to be the act of Pauline alone, Juliette not only knew about it, but also participated in the killing. Because Pauline had refused to give the act of Pauline alone, Juliette not only knew about it, but also participated in the killing. Because Pauline had refused to give any kind of coherent response to investigators' questions, the press started proposing their own theories as to why the girls had murdered Nora Parker. This is just silly. Brisbane Telegraph reported,

The detectives had been told that Pauline had been pestering her mother to buy her a pony. Pauline had become so obsessed with her desire to join the pony club. Police say she threatened her mother that she would kill her if she were not given a pony. That cannot be real. It is. Brisbane Telegraph, 1954. Brisbane Telegraph, you're not all right. You're not all right. Y'all. You're not all right.

Y'all, let's not, let's not minimize this to a pony. Get right with yourself, Brisbane Telegraph, because that's not minimize this to a pony. Get right with yourself. Because that's not okay. Silly goose behavior. That is such silly goose behavior. Now it's unclear whether investigators actually believed that Nora had been killed for refusing to buy her daughter a pony, but whatever the case, they soon found Pauline's diary, which brought the case into a completely different focus. Despite

being written actually mostly in coded language that's been described as a, quote, jolly school girl tone mixed with Hollywood crime lingo. That's terrifying. Isn't it? The entries in the diary made the motive clear. And over the course of several years, the girls had developed an intensely strong bond that when threatened by Juliet's potential move to South Africa, they were willing to defend with violence. When the girls appeared in court for their arraignment, because they had a trial together. Oh, wow. Yeah.

They appeared in court for their arraignment. Reporters were struck by their bizarre behavior and just indifference to the charges. One reporter wrote, the girls looked embarrassed at first. They chattered and made finger signs to each other. They're literally like communicating with one another. Holy shit. When photographs of Nora's body were shown in the courtroom, the girls allegedly smiled and grinned at one another.

Holy shit. Seemingly oblivious to the seriousness of this situation that they had created. Wow. However, when Juliette testified in the pre-trial hearing, she slipped back into that sympathetic teenager act, telling the court she'd only been trying to help a friend. She said,

They were quarreling. I saw Pauline hit Mrs. Parker with the brick and a stocking. I took the stocking and hit her too. I was terrified. I thought one of them had to die. I wanted to help Pauline. Wow. While the girls seemed to be trying to frame the murder as a situation that got

out of control, those diary entries told a completely different story of a murderous plan Malissa Forthot, baby. Set into motion in order to prevent being separated. So they were jointly charged with murder. On August 23rd, 1954, Juliet and Pauline's trial began at the Christ Church Supreme Court before Justice Adams and an all-male jury, at which time both girls pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder. In his opening statements, the prosecutor A.W. Brown told the jury that the Crown would present evidence, quote, which will make it terribly clear that the two young girls conspired to kill the mother and carried it into effect. According to Brown, they developed a quote, intense devotion to each other. And their main purpose in life was to share each

other's secrets and plans so much that anyone who came between them must be removed. Yeah, I mean, that's it. It's literally black and white. It's literally written in the diary. It literally is in black and white. I have it right here, shall we continue? I can just read it from her own mouth. Legit. As the prosecution presented the evidence to the jury and read long passages from Pauline's diary, the girls yawned and, and this is a quote,

yawned and exchanged smiles, and they appeared to be thoroughly enjoying themselves. Something's wrong. Yeah. Something is wrong. Something is wrong. Because even if they are callous enough to commit that act and cold enough and disturbed enough to commit that act, seeing how they're acting afterwards when they know that that was wrong and they know they're going to be punished for it.

Like they're not going to get out of this. They have to know that. They don't seem to care. For them to have no care of that, there's something else wrong. There's a switch off. A switch needs to be rewired because the fact that they're just laughing through this, I'm like, oh, you don't know? You are going to get in trouble for this.

Yeah. And I think I don't necessarily think that mattered to them because, because also they had the, the belief that they were telepathic and that they could retreat to this world together. It's like, but it's also like, you know, you're, you're going to be separated if you get in trouble too. I don't, I don't think they're going to stick in the same cell. Nicole Sarris I wonder if they knew that. Nicole Sarris I feel like they have to. Nicole Sarris Or if they thought that they would somehow

end up in the same prison. Nicole Sarris You know what? You might be right. Absolutely. Nicole Sarris They're just the mad mix. Nicole Sarris And they're in such a fantasy world that maybe they were like, we're going to be in the same cell. It's going to be wonderful. We'll live together forever in jail. Nicole Sarris Yeah, because we committed this crime together. Nicole Sarris Yeah, we're like Bonnie and Clyde, you know, like, let's go.

Yeah. Yeah. It was either that or I think they thought that they could still communicate and go into that world together. But then they would have thought they could do that whether she was in South Africa or not. But I wonder if they thought like the distance would make it harder being South Africa, New Zealand, you know, I don't know. I think you were right the first time. I think that either they must have thought that they were going to be in the same prison. Yeah. Or they just didn't realize it. Yeah. Damn. It's weird. But describing them both as precocious and dirty minded girls, brown red passage

after passage that detailed their sexual fantasies and experimentation, as well as the growing resentment and eventually hatred that Pauline had for her mother. The sexual implications of the relationship were emphasized by Henry Hume, who testified that he had become concerned about the intensity and the relationship and had tried to quote, break it up in the months leading to the murder. But because the girls had confessed to the murder, the defense didn't need to argue their innocence, only why they had committed the murder. But because the girls had confessed to the murder, the defense didn't need to argue their innocence, only why they had committed the crime. In his opening statement, defense attorney T.A. Griesen told the jury, the sanity of

the girls was an all-important and vital question. Which like, yeah, fair enough. Fair enough, T.A. Griesen. According to him, the evidence clearly showed that the girls were, quote, mentally ill and their interest in sexual and homosexual matters would show that they were not ordinary but ill. They were suffering from a paranoia of exalted type and folly ado communicated insanity. I love that we're throwing in like the gay in there as like fucked up. So remember that everybody, like that's probably why.

And it's like, nope, I think, nope. I think you're onto something with the folly-a-doo of it all. I think the folly-a-doo is absolutely it. And I think it was these two girls were disturbed well before they met each other. Exactly. And they met each other and the folly-a-doo was ripe for the pickin' because they were disturbed.

I don't think their sexual identity had anything to do with it. Well, and you can also see that the prosecutor is saying these are dirty minded little girls because they're looking at their diary where they are talking about sexual fantasies and stuff and it's like, no, no, no, no. They're just girls. They're allowed to have sexual fantasies. stuff. And it's like, no, no, no, no. They're just, they're just girls. They're allowed to have sexual fantasies and they're allowed to put them in their diary. That's where they should put them actually.

And you don't really have to focus on the dirty mindedness of it all because again, it's not dirty. It's the 50s. So even a quote unquote regular sexual fantasy from a girl would be dirty. dirty. Right. And that means something's wrong with them. And it's like, stop focusing on the sexual aspect of this so much. And look at the fact that they are now convicted murderers almost. Well, I'm going to like they're charged with murder. Because also a human being because of the

bond that they formed that is so beyond anything that you can even comprehend. Conceive. And this crime is not a sexually motivated crime. There's nothing sexual in nature at the scene whatsoever. So there's just no need to focus on the things that they wrote in their diary that were sexual in nature. If they had killed Nicholas, the boyfriend.

Did you think that's where it was going? I thought for a second, if they had killed Nicholas, the boyfriend. Did you think that's where it was going? I thought for a second, if they had killed Nicholas, then take a peek at what's happening here because that could be a sexual motivated crime. Definitely. It could definitely be something around there. At least take a peek at what's happening. But this has nothing to do with sexual anything. And even the manner in which Nora Parker was murdered was not sexual.

Exactly. None of it makes any sense. And it's like, so to focus so heavily on that, it seems very fifties to me. And I think they knew. Very fifties girls shouldn't have any kind of sexual fantasies, regardless of whether they are gay, straight, whatever, what have you. I think they're literally like, they are dirty because they think about sex. They think about sex.

Yeah. Even though they're teen girls. Exactly. But you're not allowed to. It's very 50s like you said. Oh my God, yeah, it really is. But the defense argued that while, oh, and by the way, anybody that doesn't know what follyadoo means, we've been saying it like a ton, it's the madness of two. Yeah.

I meant to say that earlier. It's when two people can form such a bond that their madness kind of intertwines. Yeah, we covered the Papin sisters. Yes, Papin sisters. Yes, that was a case that we covered that. And I think we like heavily focused on the madness of two Follyadu aspect. You are correct.

So yeah, just in case anybody was like, what the fuck are you guys saying? Why are you speaking French all the sudden? Now the defense argued that while the diary entries did confirm that the murder had been enthusiastically planned, they claimed it also demonstrated the girl's shared delusional state and evidence of psychosis, which… Yeah, I can see that. I do agree with that.

Testifying in her daughter's defense, Hilda Hume told the jury, quote, so much I read in the 1954 diary was incorrect. Things were described in the diary in a very distorted and untruthful way. And then you think about that promise that was made. Quote, unquote, made. Or wasn't made. Or wasn't. Like, you have to wonder how much of the diary was just their own delusion. And I think probably 98% of it was.

I think there was a lot going on with these girls that was not being paid attention to as heavily as it could have been. And I think a lot of it had to do with where society was at the time. Absolutely. Now in support of their argument, the defense called several psychiatrists to testify,

all of whom evaluated Paulina and Juliette following the murder. According to Dr. Reginald Medicot, which like, what a fucking name. Reginald Medicot. That's a name and a half. A doctor. Yeah.

He had to be a doctor. Yeah. He evaluated both girls just days after the murder and said both girls are sensitive, selfish, imaginative, and show inability to tolerate criticism. Pauline has ruled her temper by bursts of temper. Eek. So he's like, she gets angry and angry and angrier. The comment about Pauline ruling the friendship was critical to the defense's argument that Juliet had essentially been manipulated

into helping murder Nora, which is so interesting to see that flipped on its head the way it was. But I think Juliet actually was much better at flicking that switch on of like, I was just, I needed to help my friend and I didn't realize what I was doing. Yeah, it seems that way. Whereas Pauline, I don't think that she can turn that switch on and off. I think she just gets fucking pissed when criticized.

She's ruled by her emotions. And I think Juliette, Juliette is like intensely intelligent. Yeah. Her IQ alone, like you can tell in just the way she acts. And so it's like, I think her mind, the way it works, she's able to compartmentalize things in a different way that normal people can't understand.

And that sometimes worked in her favor. Yeah, absolutely. Now also testifying for the defense was Dr. Francis Bennett, that same doctor who had evaluated Pauline the previous year at Dr. Hume's request. He told the jury Juliette. Francis Bennett, that same doctor who had evaluated Pauline the previous year at Dr. Hume's request. He told the jury Juliet and Pauline, quote, had a wild infatuation for each other and spent as much time together as possible discussing their gods and books, bathing and bedding together and photographing each other, which

was all true. They also had come up with like their own religion and followed the tenets of that, I guess. Wow. Okay, this was deep. Not only did they have a world, they had like a social structure within that world. I was just going to say they had a social structure. You're right. While Medicot's testimony focused mostly on their shared psychosis, Bennett's conclusion was of a more lurid nature. He told the jury, I agree with Dr. Medicot that they were suffering from paranoia. If separated, they have to revert back to their unhappy conflict with others.

Only in their homosexual aspect, they think they are secure. So again, My God, like what the fuck? I'm like, I don't think it's- Just doesn't have anything to do with it in my opinion. It doesn't at all. It really doesn't. And it's not them being like lesbians or homosexuals or what have you. It's the bond that they have with one another.

Whatever that bond is, it doesn't matter. And I don't even think it is like a love or like a... No, I think it's something, I think it is, I don't think it's anything that we can, I don't think it's anything we can label. I think it's a twisted bond that doesn't fall within any of the categories of a normal relationship. Yeah, it goes beyond comprehension. Yeah, I don't think this is like a love. It's not romantic. I don't think it's a friendship. I don't think it's either one of those things. It's something entirely different

that doesn't end well. It's that folly ado. That's just what you can label it as. Nothing really beyond that that we have a scope of. And it's just, it's strange to me, I mean, it's not strange considering the time, how much they fucking obsessed over that. Like the prosecution and the defense. It's so strange. But again, the time. But both doctors agreed that the girls were suffering a shared mental illness and both

declared them quote unquote certifiable, which was a term at the time. Now the murder of Nora Parker shocked all of New Zealand, mostly because of the brutality of the crime and the fact that the act had been committed by her own daughter and her friend. Yeah. To wrap your head around that is wild. Their behavior, like we were just saying, it defied all social norms,

not just in the violence aspect of it, but in the intimacy and the fantasy that led up to it. People just couldn't- Wrap their brains around it. And I think people found themselves very interested in the story because of that aspect. Yeah, because like what happened here. Which like I feel that same way.

That's what drew me to the story. But in response, the press and public sought to distance themselves from the crime by defining Juliette and Pauline as singularly evil. Throughout the trial, reporters repeatedly emphasized their strangeness, citing everything from their childhood illness to their foreign born status

as an explanation for the horrible act. And if that was how the press and public had framed the case for themselves, it's fair to assume that some of the jurors had a similar opinion of the girls. Yeah, I'm sure. So on August 28th, 1954, the jury retired for deliberation

and the next day returned to deliver a guilty verdict. Damn. They rejected the defense's argument of mental illness, which is very interesting to me. I'm shocked by that. It's an all-male jury. I'm shocked by that. It's an all male jury. Yeah, you're right.

And they got to say it. And it's 1954. Yeah, that's the only thing that makes sense. The understanding of mental illness is just not there. I think they were like, throw them in jail. Regarding their sentence, Justice Adams said, as you were both under the age of 18, the sentence of the court is detention during Her Majesty's pleasure, and handed down.

I know, what a weird way to word that. What the fuck? Is that how they say it? I'm sorry, I'm like, what? During Her Majesty's pleasure? The fuck does that mean? Let's Google it. Google that shit. Like, what the fuck? I'm sorry, that just struck me. I've never heard it. Google that shit. Like, what the fuck? I'm sorry. That just struck me.

I've never heard it said like that. A phrase colloquially used to describe the period of detention imposed upon a defendant found not guilty by reason of insanity. But in this case, that's not what happened. Someone who was put in prison at his or her majesty's pleasure is kept there until it is officially decided that it is safe to release them. And that's because they're under 18. Yes.

So yeah. During her majesty's pleasure. What a way to say it. What the fuck? Yeah, I'm glad you also thought that was weird. Sorry, that was me. Because I was like, I'll see if I can dance over it. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks it's weird.

You cannot. You cannot. I'm going to stop you in your tracks with that one. Well, I'm about to stop you in your tracks with that one. Well, I'm about to stop you in your tracks because this judge handed down a sentence of five years in prison for the both of them. Five years? Five years. They brutally beat a woman. With a brick.

With a brick. Yeah. And then dragged her in the bushes and then just said she fell and clearly were like disturbed in many other ways and planned this for a long time. Yep. According to the reports, both girls smiled at one another when the verdict was read. See, what the fuck? But spectators in the courtroom were outraged. After the verdict was read, many among the crowd loudly protested, and nearly 125 people had to be removed from the courtroom. So both girls served their five-year sentence at separate adult prisons. Juliette at Mount Eden Prison and Pauline at Christchurch Prison. And after their release, they just faded back into society.

They changed their names to protect their privacy. Years later, when asked about her time at Mount Eden as the only prisoner under the age of 18, Juliette said, it was cold, there were rats, canvas sheets, and calico underwear. I had to wash out my sanitary towels by hand, and they put me on physical labor until I passed out. So it was bleak. Yeah. That's wow. However, while it might have been a difficult experience, she nonetheless calls it quote, the best thing that could have happened. Whoa. So I think I didn't see that coming.

It sounds like she may have been rehabilitated. Rehabilitated. Yeah, it does sound that way. I mean, both of them kind of retreated into society and never offended again. You want that to happen. Yeah. During her time in prison, Juliette found religion and became a member of the Mormon faith, which ultimately led her to express remorse and openly take responsibility for the murder. She said, that's how I survived my time while others cracked up. I seem to be the only one saying I'm guilty and I'm where I should be.

Wow. So she accepted it. I seem to be the only one saying I'm guilty and I'm where I should be." Wow. So she accepted it. Okay. I mean, still fucking terrifying. Damn. In the years following their release from prison, Pauline and Juliette sought to establish new lives for themselves under those new identities. Juliette left New Zealand immediately for the UK, where she established herself as Anne Perry and went on to build a successful career as a novelist.

Anne Perry? Yeah. Bill Perry was the guy that her mother was having an affair with. What the f... There's a psychology there. Don't you dare tell me that's not on... I didn't even catch that. Good call.

Good call. Good call. Was the one that she was trying to catch her mom with so that they could get the money to run away together. Good fucking call. I didn't even think of that. Well, she was a very successful novelist. Holy shit.

She wrote more than a hundred popular thrillers. What the fuck? Isn't that insane? I mean, she had plenty of fucking practice. Holy shit. They created that whole world that was a thriller that- Wow. I mean, their lives were a thriller.

Yeah. Pauline, meanwhile, changed her name to Hillary Nathan and attempted to become a nun. Wow. But that didn't work. I don't know why. And she went on to study at Auckland University before becoming a librarian in Auckland and then moving to UK when she was no longer on parole. Wow.

Living in anonymity allowed both women to live normal lives until the mid-1990s, when a new movie titled Heavenly Creatures, which, by the way, is a term pulled directly from Pauline's diary... I was wondering where that came from. That's... She calls herself and Juliet heavenly creatures. It is a great name for a movie. Oh, it is.

Heavenly creatures. I mean, that's a great name. I want to see it now. Yeah. But they had a life of anonymity until that movie was announced. Directed by then little known Peter Jackson. Just little Peter Jackson. You know, unnamed then.

The announcement generated a lot of buzz and reporters started digging in order to find out who these women were and what had inspired the film. Anne Perry, my god, said in a 2003 interview, it seemed so unfair. Everything I had worked to achieve as a decent member of society was threatened. And once again, my life was being interpreted by someone else. It happened in court when I was a minor. I wasn't allowed to speak and I heard all these lies being told. And now there was a film, but nobody bothered to talk to me. I knew nothing about it until the day before release. All I could think of was that my life would fall apart and that it might kill my mother.

Whoa. Which luckily it didn't. The two women, like we just said, were eventually outed by the press. But by then so much time had passed that beyond general curiosity, few people were interested in villainizing or demonizing either of them. Yeah. I mean, if they seem to have made productive members of society out of themselves, I guess there's really no point.

Yeah, leave it alone. You know? You know? Anne Perry, otherwise known as Juliet Hume, died from a heart attack on April 10th, 2023 at her home in Los Angeles. And as of today, Hillary Nathan, who was previously Pauline Parker, is believed to be alive and somewhere in the UK. Wow. What a wild story though. That. Wow. And the fact that they both seem to have been rehabilitated after five years in prison as

minors. That's the thing. Like that's really wild. And that makes you question what would have happened had somebody stepped in sooner. I know that's like where... Been able to step in sooner. Obviously people tried to. And people were more like taking note of these things and trying to think of ways to, you

know, that, yeah, it is, it's one of those things because it's not like they went around killing people or losing their shit on people or assaulting people later. You know, like the, the penchant for violence, outward violence was, didn't seem to be something that was innate. No, it just seemed to be something that- Until their relationship was threatened. And I think, I think that was the biggest part of it because at that point, that dynamic in their relationship was at its highest point.

You know, yeah. And you know what? If they had been separated at one point, like if they had been separated, I think it would have gone a different way. I think so too. Because look at when they were, they had a forced separation in prison. Yeah. And they thrived.

Exactly. So it's like, I think they were keeping each other in this shithole place. Yeah. Where neither of them could grow because they were just this festering wound together. And if you break them apart, they're able to thrive on their own. It's really too bad that there wasn't some way to do the move. Like I feel like it sounds traumatic to figure out the move without telling one of them. But maybe that would have resulted in...

Yeah, you wish it had happened earlier. Yeah. Just happened earlier in that relationship. Having to die the way that she... Having to die one and having to die the way that she did. Wow. What a story. It is. Yeah.

That's...wow. Something to sit on. Yeah, that really is. Yeah. A lot to take in there. Interesting case for sure. Yeah. So, with that being said, we hope you keep listening.

We hope you... Keep...it...weird. But not so weird that you form an unbreakable bond with somebody and then murder somebody over it because you guys should really just go get coffee by yourselves away from each other. Yeah, enjoy yourself. Yeah. Solitude. Find peace in oneself. I'm sorry. If you like morbid, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus

in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey. She was a romance mystery writer. They glommed on the fact that she writes stories like this. There are murders in all of the books. From Wondery, the makers of Ghost Story and Feta, this is a story about a murder that rocked my little community.

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