Tyria Moore's Letter To Wuornos

Tyria Moore had fled to stay with her family in Pennsylvania, but soon after she was found and questioned by the police. They wanted her to write a letter to Wuornos with her contact information so police listen in on conversations between the two and get even more information about the crimes. She agreed to cooperate and even gave testimony against Wuornos. She claimed that Wuornos had mentioned to her before that she had killed a man. Moore told police she believed Wuornos had been killing people due to the accumulation of new items and cars, but did not want to question Wuornos any further fearing she would become an accomplice to the crime. “Moore later showed law officers where to find the gun. Grooves in the gun were similar to markings found on the fatal bullets, though an expert testified that the particular grooves were fairly common and could be found in other weapons” (Wuornos v. State, 1994). The gun evidence alone would not be sufficient enough to

Wuornos firmly believed that she had killed all of these men, especially Richard Mallory, out of self-defense. There was clearly a rage in her toward men, which could have something to do with her father being absent all of her life, her grandfather being an abusive alcoholic, and her getting raped and impregnated at the age of fourteen. “’There could well be a violent man in her past with whom she had such an experience, (and) under certain conditions years later she found a way to respond. In a way, Mallory had been the conduit for her rage,’ says psychologist Phyllis Chesler” (Bankston, 1996). She learned at a young age that she could earn money for having sex with men. Since she was kicked out of her house at only fifteen, she had to turn to hitchhiking and prostitution for survival. Already at this point in her life she had a very low IQ and undoubtedly had been very psychologically damaged due to her