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Harry Charles MOORE
Classification: Murderer
Characteristics: Revenge
Number of victims: 2
Date of murders: June 1992
Date of birth: May 5, 1941
Victims profile: Barbara Cunningham, 53, and
Thomas Lauri, 60 (his half-sister and her former husband)
Method of murder: Shooting (9 mm handgun)
Location: Marion County, Oregon, USA
Status: Executed by lethal injection in Oregon on May 16, 1997
Harry Charles Moore was
executed in Oregon on May 16. Moore had been married to two of his
nieces and was convicted of killing his half-sister and her former
husband. He threatened to sue anyone who tried to stop his execution.
Moore said he had killed his relatives because he thought they would
move to Las Vegas with his estranged wife and infant daughter, and
expose them to a life of prostitution and drugs.
Harry Charles Moore
Marion County - Oregon
Born: 5/5/1941
Sentenced to death: 7/20/1993
Moore shot Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham to death in 1992. He
shot Lauri, his father-in-law, four times in the face with a 9 mm
handgun in front of the main Salem post office. Moore then drove to
Cunningham's house, shot her in the stomach and then fired three
more rounds point-blank into her head. She was his half-sister in
addition to being his mother-in-law. Moore claimed that his in-laws
had interfered in his marriage to his niece and had persuaded her to
leave him.
Interesting fact: As he lay dying, he whispered: "I want the last
word I say to be Jennifer, J-e-n-n-i-f-e-r." Jennifer is the name of
Moore's daughter by his niece Cindy Moore.
Status: Executed in 1997.
Harry Charles Moore (May 5,
1941 - May 16, 1997) was the second individual executed in the state
of Oregon since 1978 for the murders of Thomas Lauri and Barbara
Cunningham.
The
Crime
Harry
Charles Moore had been married to two of his nieces. Moore shot
Thomas Lauri four times in the face with a 9mm handgun in front of a
Salem post office. Moore then drove to Cunningham's house and shot
her in the stomach. He then fired three more rounds into her head.
Cunningham was Moore's half-sister and Lauri was her former husband.
Moore said he had killed his relatives because he thought they would
move to Las Vegas with his estranged wife and infant daughter, and
expose them to a life of prostitution and drugs.
Sentencing and Execution
Harry
Charles Moore was sentenced to death on July 20, 1993. Moore later
threatened to sue anyone who tried to stop his execution. He also
appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court to drop the automatic appeal of
his sentence.
As Moore
lay dying, he whispered: "I want the last word I say to be Jennifer,
J-e-n-n-i-f-e-r." Jennifer is the name of Moore's daughter by his
niece Cindy Moore.
Moore was executed by lethal injection on May 16,
1997.
Oregon Executes a Killer
The New
York Times
May 17,
1997
A man
whose family history included marriages to two nieces was executed
by injection early today for killing his half-sister and her ex-husband.
The
prisoner, Harry Charles Moore, 56, had threatened to sue anyone who
tried to stop his execution, even petitioning the Oregon Supreme
Court to drop the automatic appeal of his sentence.
Mr. Moore
was convicted in 1993 and sentenced to die for killing the parents
of his third wife in 1992.
He fatally shot Thomas Lauri, 60, at a post office
here, and then went to the home of Mr. Lauri's former wife, Barbara
Cunningham, 53, and shot her to death. Ms. Cunningham was Mr.
Moore's half-sister.
Harry Moore -
Oregon -
April 3, 1997
Oregon
doulbe murderer Harry Moore will be able to fulfill his death wish
at 12:01 a.m. May 16. Marion County Circuit Judge Richard Barber has
signed Moore's death warrant, setting the date for him to become the
2nd person executed in Oregon since voters there reinstated the
death penalty in 1984.
Last
September's execution of triple murderer Douglas Wright was the 1st
execution in Oregon since 1962.
Moore has
vowed not to file any legal challenges to stop his execution by
lethal injection, and told the judge that he is ready to be executed,
adding that "for one, it'll get me out of the hell hole I'm in now."
He said he will be happy to get away from the other men on death row,
adding that "those are the foulest, most evil sickos I've ever been
around."
Moore was
found in June 1993 of aggravated murder for the June 1992 deaths of
his wife's parents, Thomas Lauri. 60, and Barbara Jean Cunningham,
49. Moore gunned down Lauri outside Salem's main post office and
shot Cunningham minutes later at her home.
Cunningham
was Moore's half-sister, so his wife, Cindy, was his own niece.
Morre's mother, a former minister, had performed the couple's
wedding, but before the murder trial, the judge said he did not
consider the marriage legal.
Moore has
always held that he killed 2 "predators" who were a danger to his
infant daughter. He said he feared that they would take his wife and
daughter to Las Vegas, where the daughter might fall into a life of
prostitution and drugs.
Since his
conviction, Moore has steadfastly resisted any efforts to delay his
execution, including the legally required automatic appeal to the
Oregon Supreme Court.
He had
asked that his execution be carried out at 10 am, May 10, his 56th
birthday, and asked for a woman executioner and full media access,
including television cameras. Michael Mills, his defense attorney,
said that Moore "feels that could have a deterrent effect in Oregon."
Deputy
District Attorney Don Abar said the May 16 date was the only one
available to all other principals in the execution. The governor,
attorney general, prosecutors and defense lawyers all have to be
available, he said.
David
Groom, a lawyer in the state public defender's office, said he would
be standing by with the appropriate legal papers should Moore change
his mind about an appeal. The judge advised Moore that the option
remains open until the last second.
Moore
emphatically told the judge that he did not want anyone interfering
with the execution. Judge Barber agreed with a psychologist who
examined Moore and concluded that the inmate was legally sane "for
the purposes of being executed." Opponents say Moore is mentally
incompetent.
