Anne Perry, who as a teenager assisted in the murder of her friend’s mother, has perished at the age of 84. At age 15, the author was sentenced to five years in prison for murdering Honorah Mary Parker.
Her agent verified Perry passed away in a Los Angeles hospital. After sustaining a heart attack in December, she had been declining for several months.
Kate Winslet starred in Peter Jackson’s 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, which was inspired by the author.
At the time she murdered her best friend’s mother, Perry was known as Juliet Hulme; she subsequently adopted the pen name Anne Perry for her writing career.
The assassination took place in 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand, and was planned by Perry and her friend, the victim’s daughter Pauline Parker.
Later, the details were uncovered in journals discovered by police.
Honorah Mary Parker perished after receiving approximately twenty brick blows. When the case proceeded to trial, the court heard that the two girls plotted the murder to avoid being separated when Perry’s parents planned to send her abroad at age 16.
The girls wanted Parker to accompany Perry to South Africa to reside with relatives, and they believed Parker’s mother would oppose their plan.
As both sisters were under 18 when they murdered Parker’s mother, they were too young for the death penalty and were instead sentenced to prison.
Perry was born in Blackheath, London, in October 1938. At the age of eight, he relocated to the Bahamas before relocating to New Zealand.
She stated on her website that she was fostered as a child due to illness and as a consequence missed a great deal of school.
After her release from prison, Perry returned to the United Kingdom and briefly worked as a flight attendant.
She subsequently converted to Mormonism and settled in the small Scottish village of Portmahomack.
The Cater Street Hangman, her first novel, was published in 1979. She moved on to write a string of novels spanning multiple series, which sold a total of 25 million copies worldwide.
Social injustice consciousness
Thomas Pitt, a Victorian police inspector-turned-detective, is the protagonist of one novel series. Another featured William Monk, a private investigator.
The latest installment in the Pitt series was released last month.
In his 1994 Oscar-nominated film Heavenly Creatures, New Zealand’s Peter Jackson dramatized the homicide committed by Perry and Parker.
The Ki Agency released the following statement:
“Anne was a loyal and loving friend, and her writing was motivated by her fierce commitment to bringing attention to social injustice.
“Many readers were moved by her compassion for people trapped in impossible situations or overwhelmed by life’s challenges.”
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