Victorian Tearoom

They arrive at about 2:35 pm and had afternoon tea at a small kiosk in the park and then, strolled down a steep and overgrown path. Along the way, Juliet dropped a small pink stone, and when, on the way back, Honora stooped to pick it up, Pauline reached into her pocketbook, grabbed the brick wrapped in the stocking and began beating her.

chapter continues

advertisement

In their fantasy, the murder would have been clean and quick and would have appeared to have been an accident, as if Honora Parker had stumbled and struck her head on a rock.

But fantasies have a way of failing.

The truth was, the murder of a Honora Parker was a brutal and bloody affair. As Perry would later describe the events, Pauline's first tentative blows injured but did not kill the woman. As Juliet would later describe the scene to investigators; "We went to a spot well down one of the paths and Mrs. Parker decided to come back. On the way back I was walking in front. I was expecting Mrs. Parker to be attacked. I heard noises behind me. It was loud conversation in anger. I saw Mrs. Parker in a sort of squatting position. They were quarreling. I went back. I saw Pauline hit Mrs. Parker with the brick in the stocking. I took the stocking and hit her too."

It was, Juliet would later say, a moment of pure terror. "I was terrified. I thought one of them had to die. I wanted to help Pauline. It was terrible. Mrs. Parker moved convulsively. We both held her. She was still when we left her. The brick had come out of the stocking with the force of the blows. I cannot remember Mrs. Parker saying anything distinctly. I was too frightened to listen."

The murder scene

All she remembered was knowing, somewhere deep inside that once the first blow had been struck, there was no turning back. "After the first blow was struck I knew it would be necessary to kill her. I was...hysterical."

In the end, it took 45 blows, delivered by both of the girls, to finally kill Honora Parker.

And then it was over.

email print