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4.1 The Epilogue.
** What information is given in the printed
epilogue?
This is the text of the printed epilogue from "Heavenly Creatures:"
In the hours following Honora's murder, a police search of the Rieper house unearthed Pauline's diaries.
This resulted in her immediate arrest for the murder of her mother. Juliet was arrested and charged with murder the following day.
After Pauline's arrest it was discovered that Honora and Herbert Rieper had never married. Pauline was therefore charged under her mother's maiden name of Parker.
In August 1954, a plea of insanity was rejected by the jury in the Christchurch Supreme Court trial, and Pauline Yvonne Parker and Juliet Marion Hulme were found guilty of murder.
Too young for the death penalty, they were sent to separate prisons to be "Detained at Her Majesty's Pleasure."
Juliet was released in November, 1959 and immediately left New Zealand to join her mother overseas.
Pauline was released two weeks later but remained in New Zealand on parole until 1965.
It was a condition of their release that they never meet again.
** Is the information in the epilogue correct?
Yes, in every detail presented (except the legal phrase is detained during Her
Majesty's pleasure since it may also please Her Majesty to release you). There was some
confusion (possibly deliberate) about the 'conditional' nature of the girls' release,
according to statements made by New Zealand Prison authorities to the press at the time,
but Jackson's version is correct. The information in the epilogue does not tell the whole
story, however, and the real-life events are, perhaps, even more poignant and tragic. See
section 7.3
