Ann Elizabeth Moore was the perfect candidate for membership in Peoples Temple in the summer of 1972: as an 18-year-old who had just graduated from high school, she was young, intelligent, independent, unattached, and enthusiastic. She also had two other things going for her, at least as far as the Temple leadership was concerned. Her older sister was Carolyn Moore Layton, who had joined six years earlier and became Jim Jones’ intimate partner in all sense of the word. Her father was John V Moore, a minister who himself had risen to a position of leadership within the United Methodist Church in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The examples of Annie’s writing below show her eagerness to join the church, the welcome she felt there, and the loyalty she demonstrated during her remaining years with the Temple in the United States.
Other primary sources on this site reveal how all these characteristics had evolved during the Jonestown community’s last few weeks. They include a letter to Jim Jones from Fall 1978, a memo to Jones – with an invitation for her sister Carolyn and for Maria Katsaris to read as well – about what she perceived as an effort to poison the Temple leader, and her note to the world written on Jonestown’s last day, November 18, 1978.
It should be noted that Ann and Carolyn were the sisters of Rebecca Moore and the sisters-in-law of Fielding M. McGehee III, the manager and researcher of this website, respectively. Rebecca Moore is also the author of the third article below.
Ann Moore letter to Tim Stoen (undated, summer 1972), California Historical Society, MS 3800
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Ann Moore affidavit attesting to miracle of Jim Jones (August 1977), California Historical Society, MS 3800
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“Letters from Annie Moore,” by Rebecca Moore