Love & Death: The True Story Behind The Murder Of Betty Gore

In 1980, an ax murder rattled a small, sleepy town in Texas. The victim was struck 41 times and alarmingly, it occurred on Friday the 13th. However, this wasn't the over-baked plot to a campy horror film or novel but the true story behind two suburban housewives amidst a love triangle. On June 13, 1980, bubbly church-goer Candy Montgomery killed best friend and school teacher Betty Gore. The story was sensational and captured the attention of Wylie, Texas, partially because it began with the soapy love affair between Montgomery and Gore's husband. The two began a liaison that lasted nearly a year. Just as they thought they had gotten away with it, their transgressions caught up to them and eventually resulted in a murder trial.

The real-life horror is now being adapted by two different streaming services. Jessica Biel will star as Montgomery in Hulu's "Candy" while Elizabeth Olson will play the same part for HBO Max's "Love and Death," per TV Insider. Here is the true story behind the macabre murder of Betty Gore.

Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore approached their affair in such a perfectly planned way that it made their unconventional relationship even more so. They had only known each other for nine months when they met at their church volleyball court, and Montgomery loved the way he smelled. She ignored his physical shortcomings and decided to pursue a covert affair with him, and she patiently waited for him to acquiesce. Gore, surprised and flattered by the attention he rarely received, agreed.

Before they actually had begun an affair, Montgomery set up a pros and cons list. Afterwards, they set up rules to abide by, which included: avoid becoming too emotionally invested, meet only on weekdays at Como Motel, all expenses would be divided equally, Montgomery would be responsible for lunch, and if it became too risky, the affair would have to end. Their affair lasted nearly a year and ended soon after Gore's second child was born, according to Texas Monthly.

Candy Montgomery, born Candy Wheeler, was an army brat as a child. Her family was constantly moving, which probably affected Montgomery's later boredom in her stable marriage to Pat Montgomery. She was confident and upfront and was responsible for initiating the affair with Allan Gore. Her marriage had grown stale, and she sought something exciting.

She was considered the most attractive woman at their Methodist church. Like Allan Gore, she loved kids and was alway involved in the community, per Texas Monthly. And when news of Montgomery's grisly murder spread throughout town, a friend of hers told the Dallas Times Herald that Montgomery didn't have it in her to commit such a crime (via the Dallas Morning News). She was so well-liked that after she had been released on bail, she and her family received numerous messages of support from their friends and the church. Montgomery took the time to respond to Hallmark cards from people she hadn't seen in years, per Texas Monthly. 

After Candy Montgomery killed Betty Gore, she went about her day as usual. She even cleaned herself at Gore's house before she left, leaving the Gores' 1-year-old baby alone crying in her crib, according to the Dallas Morning News. She went home to change her clothes and bandage a cut she received on her foot during her fight with Gore. She then picked up her kids — along with the Gores' daughter Alisa — from church. She told a friend that she had seen Gore earlier in the day and spent so much time chatting, that it left her no time for other errands. Later that afternoon, Montgomery took her kids and Alisa to the movies and watched "The Empire Strikes Back." That night, Alisa slept over, according to Texas Monthly.

Montgomery even lied on the phone with Gore's husband, Allan Gore. Allan was concerned since Betty was not answering her phone all day. Montgomery told him she saw Betty that morning to pick up Alisa's bathing suit and said Betty seemed impatient for Montgomery to leave. She falsely said that Betty was doing okay and was busy sewing. When it was already nighttime, Montgomery found out from others that Betty might've died. She only slept for three hours. The news broke around town the next morning, when Alisa was still over at the Montgomerys' house, according to Texas Monthly.

Since Candy Montgomery admitted she was the last to see Betty Gore alive and because Allan Gore disclosed their affair to investigators, Montgomery became the top suspect and was soon charged with murder. Her affair with Betty's husband was considered a motive, and she was arrested on June 27, 1980, per The Independent. But Montgomery denied those charges and was perhaps reticent on the events of that fateful day, because her lawyer enlisted the help of a psychiatrist and a clinical hypnotist to probe into her version of the incident. The session must have been intense because a witness who was sitting in the waiting room recalled hearing several shrieks from the doctor's office, according to Texas Monthly.

Dr. Fred Fason conducted three strenuous hypnosis sessions, from which they pieced together a narrative about what happened at Gore's home. According to Texas Monthly, her non-hypnosis account sometimes clashed with her hypnosis account, after which her lawyer, Don Crowder, worked to straighten out the facts. What amounted from her hypnosis was a confession, which led to her self-defense plea.

Candy Montgomery's self-defense and childhood trauma explanation was sufficient for the jury — she was found not guilty. The deliberation took less than four hours. Montgomery was reported as having "no emotion" when her verdict was read, according to The Independent. The judge, Tom Ryan, asked those in the packed courtroom to remain calm and abstain from any outward reactions.

Montgomery had struck a woman 41 times and had gotten off scot free; the surrounding community was shocked. After all, people had gone to jail for far less, and so this felt like a case where justice wasn't being served, according to the Dallas Morning News. Plus, immediately after the news of Betty Gore's death, they'd all been terrified, thinking this was the work of a mass murderer. Montgomery had to be escorted by security since she had received a death threat, and it was then that she finally broke down into tears. As she rushed to her attorney's car to escape the mob, she was surrounded by chants of "Murderer!" (per United Press International). 

That said, some citizens weren't surprised by the verdict since they felt the prosecution did a less-than-stellar job. Juror Alice Doherty said the amount of blows Montgomery inflicted on Gore didn't sidetrack them from what they thought was most important in her case: self defense, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Allan Gore remarried shortly after the trial, but that eventually ended in divorce. He also lost custody of his two daughters, who were raised by Betty Gore's parents, according to Collin County's Local Profile. Several years after the trial, Candy Montgomery's attorney Don Crowder said that the faces of Gore's family still haunted him. He was afraid that they didn't comprehend his job in defending their daughter's killer. He also had mixed feelings about the legacy of that case on his career, saying, "That case was maybe the zenith of an extraordinarily successful career, or the demise of what could have been" (via the Dallas Observer). Crowder committed suicide in 1998, seemingly motivated by other perceived failures in his life and career.

The killing also effected the small town of Wylie, Texas. Not much happened usually in Wylie, so when a schoolteacher was murdered with an ax, fear overtook the town, and stores began to close down early. It continued even after Montgomery's arrest. Fire marshal Steve Deffibaugh, who had been at the crime scene, said he still thinks about the killing every June 13, according to the Dallas Morning News.

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