Bio

Harry Charles Moore was born on May 5, 1941. He lived in Salem, Oregon, and was 51 years old at the time of the murders in June 1992. He was also known by the name Jerry Lee Moore in court records. Moore’s family relationships were central to the case. He was married to Cynthia Moore, who was also his half-niece. Cynthia’s parents were Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham. Cunningham was also Moore’s half-sister, which made the family relationship unusually complicated. Moore and Cynthia had an infant daughter together, who was about seven months old when the murders occurred.

In the months before the killings, Moore’s relationship with Cynthia and her parents became strained. Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham questioned the validity of Moore’s marriage to Cynthia, and Cynthia began considering leaving him. Moore suspected that she planned to leave with their daughter. During Memorial Day weekend in 1992, Moore threatened Cynthia with a gun and said he would kill her or anyone else who tried to take their daughter away from him. Cynthia later contacted police, and Moore was arrested.

After he was released from jail, Moore removed personal belongings from the home he had shared with Cynthia, their daughter, and Thomas Lauri. Among the items he took was the handgun later used in the murders. He then moved into his mother’s home. Barbara Cunningham moved into the house where Cynthia, the child, and Thomas Lauri were staying.

Murder Story

On June 5, 1992, Harry Charles Moore drove to the main post office in Salem, Oregon. He knew that Thomas Lauri had gone there to check his mailbox. Moore waited for Lauri to come out of the building and watched him get into his truck in the parking lot. Moore then walked up to the truck and shot Lauri to death. Court records confirm that Lauri was Moore’s father-in-law and the former husband of Barbara Cunningham.

After killing Lauri, Moore drove to the home where his estranged wife, infant daughter, and in-laws were staying. He entered the home and shot Barbara Cunningham. Reports state that Cunningham was shot first in the abdomen and then shot multiple times in the head at close range. Cunningham was Moore’s mother-in-law through his marriage to Cynthia and was also his half-sister.

Moore later said that he killed Lauri and Cunningham because he believed they planned to move to Las Vegas with his estranged wife and infant daughter. He claimed he feared they would expose his daughter to drugs and prostitution. The courts treated the killings as intentional murders connected to Moore’s conflict with his wife’s family.

Moore was convicted of multiple counts, including aggravated murder and murder, as well as additional felony convictions. After the penalty phase, the jury answered the required death-penalty questions in favor of a death sentence, and the court imposed the death penalty. The Oregon Supreme Court reviewed the case automatically and affirmed both the convictions and the death sentence in December 1996.

After sentencing, Moore resisted efforts to delay or stop his execution. Reports stated that he threatened to sue anyone who tried to intervene and asked the Oregon Supreme Court to drop the automatic appeal of his sentence. He was executed by lethal injection in Oregon on May 16, 1997. He was 56 years old.