Teen Murderer Turned Crime Novelist Dies: Anne Perry

The author died in a hospital in Los Angeles after experiencing a decline in health since December when she had a heart attack, per BBC.

Perry's gruesome crime was the inspiration for Peter Jackson's 1994 Oscar nominated film "Heavenly Creatures," starring Kate Winslet.

The murder, for which she served five years in prison at the age of 15, took place in New Zealand in 1954.

The crime was plotted by Perry and her friend Pauline Parker -- the daughter of victim Honorah Mary Parker.

Honorah Mary was found have been struck by a brick roughly 20 times. In the subsequent trial, the court learned the girls had plotted the murder in order to not be separated.

Perry's parents had a plan to send her abroad to South Africa and the girls feared Honorah Mary would stand in the way of her daughter Pauline going with Perry.

Since both teens were under the age of 18 they avoided the death penalty.

The details of the plot were discovered in journals uncovered by investigators.

Perry was born Juliet Hulme and only later adopted the pen name Anne Perry to launch her writing career -- at the time of Jackson's film it was not widely known that Perry was in fact Hulme, her identity was revealed some months after the release of "Heavenly Creatures."

The convicted murderer's first novel was published in 1979 and her books -- spanning multiple series -- sold collectively 25 million copies worldwide.