Parker and Hulme

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

FAMOUS CASES

So that they could remain together, a teenager girl and her best friend killed her mother - Juliet Hulme and Pauline Parker were very close. When possible they would bathe together, sleep in the same bed, and discuss sex at length.

 

Pauline’s mother, Honora Mary Parker, forty-five, grew anxious about their relationship and at one point voiced her concerns to Juliet’s father. When Juliet’s father decided to move from New Zealand to South Africa and take Juliet with him, the two girls decided they were “…sticking to one thing. We sink or swim together.” Pauline decided she would move to South Africa with her best friend, but when her mother would not allow it, the two girls plotted to kill her.

 

On June 22, 1954, while the girls and Mrs. Parker walked along a path in a park, Pauline and her mother began to argue. Pauline swung a brick stuffed inside a stocking at her mother, hitting her repeatedly, and then Juliet took the brick and continued to hit her. Their clothes were stained with blood. After pulverizing Mrs. Parker, the two girls ran to a tea house, hysterical, and gasped, “Please help us. Mummy’s been hurt. She’s hurt, covered with blood.” They claimed Mary had slipped on a board, fell, and bumped her head on a brick while her head “kept bumping and banging.”

 

The pathologist’s examination revealed forty-five distinct injuries which proved that the girls were lying. Arrested, Pauline confessed and took the blame for the murder stating that Juliet had been walking ahead and witnessed nothing. When Pauline was caught trying to burn a note saying she was “taking the blame for everything,” Juliet confessed to the murder as well.

 

At their trial they pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, a plea impossible to maintain when Pauling claimed,“I knew it was wrong to murder and I knew at the time I was murdering somebody. You would have to be an absolute moron to not know know murder was against the law. “The jury found the girls Guilty of murder and sentenced them to prison until the queen chose to release them. Parker and Hulme were released four years later, in 1958.