Fans’ Jeering Plagued Moore, His Widow Says

Tonya Moore, widow of former Angel pitcher Donnie Moore, blames fans who continually jeered her husband for contributing to the frustration that eventually induced him to shoot her and kill himself, according to an article in the February issue of GQ.

Tonya Moore is also quoted as saying her husband beat her “to a pulp” when she was 19 and struck her again the night he gave up the two-out, two-strike home run to Dave Henderson, which allowed the Boston Red Sox to overcome a ninth-inning Angel lead in Game 5 of the 1986 American League playoffs, and eventually win the game and the league championship. Although he had 31 saves in 1985--still a club record--Donnie Moore was booed by fans after giving up Henderson’s home run and was never able to match his previous success. Later plagued by injuries, he was released by the Angels in 1988. He signed with the Kansas City Royals but was released by the Royals’ triple-A affiliate in Omaha in June 1989.

“I’ll never forgive the fans for what they did to my husband. Never ever,” Tonya Moore said in the magazine, which is due to reach newsstands today. “I hope they’re suffering now.”

Moore would not comment directly Monday night. But her attorney, Randall Johnson of Santa Ana, said Monday that she verified having expressed that sentiment and detected nothing blatantly inaccurate after being read portions of the article. However, he said she does not believe she said she hopes that fans are suffering now. Johnson also said she was not paid for the interview. Tonya Moore and her children still live in the house where the shootings took place.

“She doesn’t care if they suffer. She feels a little resentment over the fans booing but she doesn’t necessarily hope they suffer,” Johnson said. He added that although the article stated that Donnie Moore had beat her at age 19 and had done so again, “he did not beat her. He was domineering and, at times, he hit her but she said the word ‘beat’ was a little too severe.”

After recovering from bullet wounds to her neck and chest after the incident in the couple’s Anaheim Hills home on July 18, 1989, Moore spent two months in a mental hospital. She told the magazine that her two sons, who were 10 and 7 at the time of the shooting, still require therapy. The Moores had been discussing selling their house the night of the shootings and had quarreled. They had been experiencing difficulties in their marriage but were “trying to work it out, but it was like . . . I couldn’t stay at home. He was taking it out on me,” she said.

Moore added that she stayed with her husband rather than seek a separation or divorce because, “he needed me. . . . He was a very sweet guy. I loved Donnie very much and he loved me very, very much. He didn’t quite know how to show it, you know?

“I used to have a little guilt, but then I thought, Uh-uh. Even, even , EVEN if we were getting a divorce, people get divorces every day. Just because a woman asks a man for a divorce, that doesn’t give him the right to kill me. Men and women have misunderstandings every day. That does not give a man the right to pick up a gun. . . . Donnie was the kind of guy--if he couldn’t have me, no one was going to have me.”

Johnson also described as “balderdash . . . garbage,” some quotes from Moore’s former agent, David Pinter, calling Moore insane and claiming that Pinter had encouraged Moore to seek psychiatric help. Pinter, who is no longer an agent, could not be reached for comment Monday night.