Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century

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by Peter Graham


  What had made him do it? Derek Round heard from a police source that a case in which Tate had given evidence was weighing heavily on his mind. He had come to believe that the man against whom he had given evidence had been wrongly convicted. It had all got too much for him. He was forty-nine years old.

  Henry Hulme’s time at Canterbury University College was just a blip in an otherwise successful career. As head of nuclear research in Britain and a first-rate theoretical physicist, Hulme would get much of the credit for the well-planned programme that saw Britain explode its first thermonuclear bomb in the Christmas Islands in 1957. It is rumoured he refused a knighthood.

  Not everyone was thrilled about the bomb. Aldermaston became the destination for an annual protest. Every self-respecting pacifist, beatnik and left-wing intellectual in London would march on the atomic weapons research facility bearing “Ban the Bomb” placards. Vivien Dixon once asked Hulme how he felt about this. “Couldn’t care less,” he replied.

  As it happened, much of his most important work was in the field of test-ban verification. Statistical and probability methods were used to determine the number of on-site inspections needed to distinguish underground bomb-testing from volcanic eruptions and other seismic activity. In 1960 he proposed that the three nuclear powers—Britain, America and the Soviet Union—set up a joint programme of seis­mological research and agree to suspend nuclear testing for several years. It was a fine idea, derailed when a United States U-2 spy plane was shot down over Soviet airspace, the pilot captured, and the United States forced to admit he had been on a surveillance mission.

  In his private life Hulme collected English watercolours, scouring auction houses and antique dealers to make acquisitions. He was also said to be clever with stocks and shares. Although his second wife Margery never got on with Juliet, and Henry had little affection for his stepchildren, the couple had a happy marriage.

  Henry Hulme died in Hampshire in January 1991. His obituary in The Telegraph described him as “a level-headed communicator and a good critic … greatly liked and respected by his colleagues at Alder­maston, for whom he was always ready with advice and encourage­ment”. He was “a kindly, charming man with a Rabelaisian sense of humour”.

  There was a building called Black Nest connected to Aldermaston. Hulme’s subordinates remembered with affection that he would call

  at Black Nest most evenings on his way home, “compose himself flat on his back and, eyes closed, … swap ideas and unprintable stories … always new and never repeated”. Such eccentricity would not have gone down well at Canterbury University College.

  After Bill Perry died in 1986, Hilda—living in the Midlands and long since known as Marion Perry—took a job as a voluntary tutor at a college of further education, helping teach English as a second language, and remedial English to slow learners and stroke victims. She did not retire from this fulfil­ling work until she was eighty, when she moved to Portmahomack to be near her daughter. She bought a fisherman’s cottage with glorious views over Dornoch Firth to the mountains of Sutherland and came to love the wild beauty of the place.

  By then she was suffering from arthritis and her eyesight was failing, but she still walked two or three miles a day and enjoyed pottering in her garden, feeding the seagulls that nested in her shed, and making new friends among the villagers. A visitor from New Zealand described her as “still charming and lively”. She missed her son Jonathan, who lived in Zimbabwe where he practised as a doctor, but he visited regularly and wrote to her often. It was a shock to her when he married a Chinese woman, but their two beautiful grand­children became a great joy. She died in 2004 at the age of ninety-one.

  Select Bibliography

  All Shook Up: The Flash Bodgie and the Rise of the New Zealand Teenager

  in the Fifties, Redmer Yska: Penguin Books, Auckland, 1993

  The Battle of the Atlantic, Andrew Williams: BBC Books, London, 2002

  Brief Encounters: Some Uncommon Lawyers, Glyn Strange: Clerestory Press, Christchurch, 1997

  A Concise Encyclopaedia of Māori Myth and Legend, Margaret Orbell: Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 1998

  Fendall’s Legacy: A History of Fendalton and North West Christchurch,

  Frieda Looser: Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 2002

  The Film Encyclopaedia: The Complete Guide to Film and the Film Industry (6th edition), Ephraim Katz, revised by Ronald D. Nolen: Collins Publishers, New York, 2008

  The Gardens of Canterbury: A History, Thelma Strongman:

  A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1994

  The Historic Story of the Coronation, Ceremony and Ritual,

  Laurence E. Tanner: Pitkins, London, 1952

  A History of the University of Canterbury, 1873–1973, W.J. Gardner, E.T. Beardsley, T.E. Carter: University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 1973

  The Longest Night, 10–11 May 1941: Voices from the London Blitz,

  Gavin Mortimer: Phoenix, London, 2005

  The Manhattan Project: The Birth of the Atomic Bomb in the Words of its Creators, Eyewitnesses, and Historians, Cynthia C. Kelly, ed.: Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers, New York, 2007

  My Father’s Shadow: Portrait of Justice Peter Mahon, Sam Mahon:

  Longacre Press, Dunedin, 2008

  Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2004–8

  Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View, Julie Glamuzina and Alison J. Laurie:

  New Women’s Press, Auckland, 1991

  Parker & Hulme: A Lesbian View, with introduction by B. Ruby Rich,

  Julie Glamuzina and Alison J. Laurie: Firebrand Books, Ithaca,

  New York, 1995

  The Port Hills of Christchurch, Gordon Ogilvie: A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1970

  The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope: Penguin Books, London, 2007

  Rudi Gopas: A Biography, Chris Ronayne: David Ling Publishing, Auckland, 2002

  Test for Greatness: Britain’s Struggle for the Atom Bomb, Brian Cathcart:

  John Murray Publishers, London, 1994

  Tikao Talks: Ka Taoka O Te Ao Kohatu, Treasures of the Ancient World of the Māori, Herries Beattie: Penguin Books, Auckland, 1990

  Te Wai Pounamu, The Greenstone Island: A History of the Southern Māori during the European Colonisation of New Zealand, Harry C. Evison: Aoraki Press, Wellington, 1993

  Tolkien’s Gown and Other Stories of Great Authors and Rare Books,

  Rick Gekoski: Constable and Robinson, London, 2005

  Young Voices: British Children Remember the Second World War, Lyn Smith: Penguin Books, London, 2008

  Works on abnormal psychology

  Abnormal Psychology (13th edition), James N. Butcher, Susan Mineka,

  Jill M. Hooley: Pearson Education, Boston, 2007

  Becoming Attached, Robert Karen: Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.

  Character Styles, Stephen M. Johnson: Norton, New York, 1994

  Essential Psychopathy and its Treatment (2nd edition), Jerrold S. Maxmen, Nicholas G. Ward: Norton, New York, 1995

  Madness Explained, Psychosis and Human Nature, Richard P. Bentall: Penguin Books, London, 2004

  The Restoration of the Self, H. Kohut: International Universities Press,

  New York, 1997

  Selected magazine, newspaper and journal articles

  “Murder Without Remorse”, Neil Clarkson: The Press: Weekend,

  October 5, 1991

  “When Murder Catches Up With You”, Sarah Gristwood:

  The Daily Telegraph, August 5, 1994

  “Solved: The mystery of Juliet Hulme”: The Press, August 6, 1994

  “Past Imperfect”, Sebastian Faulks: The Guardian, August 25, 1994

  “Hulme describes plot to kill friend’s mother”: The Press, September 20, 1994

  “Anne Perry, forced to relive her own murder story”, Deirdre Donahue:

  USA Today, September 23, 1994

  “The Most Disturbing Story of All”, Sarah Grist
wood: You, January 15, 1995

  “Slaughter by the innocents”, Louise Chunn; “A happy ending?”,

  Sarah Gristwood: The Guardian, January 30, 1995

  “Whatever happened to Pauline Parker?”, Chris Cooke: New Zealand’s Woman’s Weekly, January 13, 1997

  “Parker–Hulme Probe: Anne Finally Talks about Pauline”: Woman’s Day, January 20, 1997

  “Heavenly creature”, Angela Neustatter: The Guardian, November 12, 2003. Reprinted in New Zealand Listener, January 24, 2004

  “Doctors ‘drugged’ Hulme”, Sean Scanlon: The Press, March 6, 2006

  “Willing to pay the fare”: The Press; March 11, 2006

  “I’m the Heavenly Creatures murderer”, Amanda Cable: Daily Mail, September 28, 2006

  “Delving into a closed book”, James Croot: The Press, April 16, 2010

  “Matricide: A Critique of the Literature”, Kathleen M. Heide and

  Autumn Frei: Trauma, Violence & Abuse, January 2010

  Archives

  Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (James McNeish papers)

  Canterbury Museum

  Christchurch City Libraries

  Macmillan Brown Library, University of Canterbury (Nancy Sutherland papers and James Logie papers)

  National Archive, Christchurch

  Newspaper and periodical records

  The Press, Christchurch

  N.Z. Truth, Wellington

  Star-Sun, Christchurch

  The Express, London

  Daily Mail, London

  New Zealand Law Journal, Wellington

  Internet resources

  “Pauline Parker Found”: http://www.adamabrams.com/hc/faq2/library/7.9.5.html

  “The Norasearch Diary”, Andrew Conway: http://reocities.com/

  Hollywood/Studio/2194/faq2/norasearch/index.html

  New Zealand Archives, http://archway.archives.govt.nz

  Christchurch City Libraries, http://www.christchurchcitylibraries.com/

  Heritage/Digitised/ParkerHulme/

  Acknowledgements

  There is a list of those to whom I owe gratitude and thanks. The playwright Michelanne Forster is a good starting point. When doing research for her play Daughters of Heaven, Michelanne interviewed numerous people, including Brian McClelland and several academics and their wives who had known Henry and Hilda Hulme. Another of her interviewees was Mrs Grinlaubs, the Hulmes’ Latvian housekeeper. It was extremely generous of her to send me all her notes and papers with authority to make whatever use I wished of them.

  I also owe a good deal to my friend Christopher McVeigh QC, who made an application to the High Court on my behalf seeking access to the official manuscript of the trial of Pauline Parker and Juliet Hulme, and a subsequent application to view and copy a typescript of Pauline’s 1954 diary. This was by no means a formality and I much appreciate Chris’s kind and capable handling of these matters and other help he has given.

  I must also thank Oliver Sutherland and his sisters Diony Young, Julia Sutherland and Jan Oliver. They kindly gave me permission to use their mother Nancy Sutherland’s papers, deposited in the Macmillan Brown Library at Canterbury University, and also supplied useful information about the Hulme family and their mother’s friendship with Hilda. The correspondence which forms a large part of these papers gave me several anecdotes and insights without which the book would have been much the poorer.

  Sam Mahon, too, was generous in allowing me access to his father Peter Mahon’s personal papers relating to the case. This file contained some valuable information, for example Herbert Rieper’s statement to the police about his first marriage, his non-existent accountancy practice in Feilding, and his wife’s allegedly dying of cancer. There were other interesting items in the Crown’s proofs of evidence that had not come out at trial: witnesses do not always say everything counsel leading them hope and expect they will.

  I wish to also record my thanks to Donalda and Alan Beattie, who could not have been more kind and hospitable on my visit to the Scottish Highlands. Many others gave help and supplied useful information. In no particular order I would like to thank Wallace Colville, Chris Cooke, Joan Livingstone, Barbara Cox, Jock Phillips, Derek Round, Peter Penlington, James Walshe, Vivien Dixon, Gerald Lascelles, Peter Champion, Fred Shaw, Jeff Field, Barry Tait, Bill Sheate, Tim Beaglehole, Helen Beaglehole, Simon Acland, Anna Burbery, Marina Hughes, Mike Norris, Gerald Hensley, Juliet Hensley, Alexander Roman, Jenny Carlyon, Phil Brinded, Nicholas Gresson, Simon Rowley, Pip Hall, Jimmy Wallace, Prue Lowry, Laura Cairns, Matt McClelland, Robin Laing, Rosemary Heaphy, Colin Bennett, John Ritchie, Caroline Maze and Rachel McAlpine. I have omitted the names of a few informants whom I know or feel would not wish to be mentioned. Thanks to them as well.

  I also give praise and thanks to the charming and capable Emily Hewitt, who served as my personal assistant. I commend her to any writer—if such a person exists—as inept as myself at word processing. I am grateful to Mary Varnham, publisher at Awa Press, whose editorial skill and a lot of hard work pulled this book together. Thanks, too, to Sarah Bennett of Awa Press for her industrious and effective photo research, and to N.Z. Truth and the Christchurch Star-Sun for their assistance.

  And finally I thank Annabel Graham for her extraordinary patience and support over what has been a long haul.

  P.G.

  Dunsandel

  September 2011

 

 

 


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