The education of Eunice Parchman was interrupted when she was young,
so much that she failed to learn how to read and write. To make matters
worse her parents rather than get this problem corrected, encouraged her
to skip school and hide the fact. And so she grew up a cold but
hard-working woman with no loves, who used blackmail to get things for
herself. Because she couldn’t read, she was threatened by anything that
might require her to read. To avoid taking on the responsibility of
living alone after her parents died, because she’d have to read bills
and other documents, she took up sheltered employment in the home of the
Coverdales, an upper-middle-class British family, as a servant. There
she tried to conceal her disability by all means.
In
an effort to befriend her, Melinda Coverdale, a young college girl,
discovered her problem. But rather than agree to be taught, Eunice
blackmailed Melinda, which led to her (Eunice) being sacked. A day
before her departure, egged on by her fanatically religious and quite
mad friend Joan, Eunice and Joan shot and killed the entire family of
four while they were watching TV. Joan is nearly killed in an auto
accident on her way home from the murders and ended up a hospital
vegetable. Eunice tried to cover up their roles in the murders, but
because she couldn’t read, she ignored evidence which eventually led to
her conviction.
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