Candy Montgomery was the last person anyone in Wylie, Texas, expected to see holding a long-handled axe. She was a pillar of the community. A church-goer. A mother. But in 1980, she struck her friend Betty Gore 41 times. It’s a number that’s hard to wrap your head around. When the HBO Love and Death miniseries dropped, it didn't just retell a true crime story; it forced us to look at the suffocating nature of 1970s suburbia and what happens when a "perfect" life starts to rot from the inside out.
Elizabeth Olsen plays Candy with this sort of frantic, wide-eyed normalcy that makes the violence even more jarring. Honestly, the most disturbing part of the whole thing isn't the blood. It's the shower. After the struggle in the utility room, Candy just... washed up. She went about her day. She went to Vacation Bible School.
The Affair That Started It All
Everything traces back to a volleyball game. That's where Candy and Allan Gore collided. It wasn't some grand, cinematic romance. It was a deal. They literally sat down and discussed the logistics of having an affair like they were planning a potluck dinner. They looked at motels. They set rules. They even brought their own sandwiches to save money.
This mundane approach to infidelity is exactly what HBO Love and Death captures so well. It wasn't about passion, really. It was about boredom. Candy felt invisible in her marriage to Pat Montgomery. Allan felt disconnected from Betty, who was struggling with postpartum depression and deep-seated anxieties. They were two lonely people looking for a hobby, and that hobby happened to be each other.
The show leans heavily on the book Evidence of Love by John Bloom and Jim Atkinson. If you haven't read it, you should. It details how the affair actually ended before the murder happened. They had stopped seeing each other. They were trying to fix their respective marriages. But on June 13, 1980, Candy went over to the Gore house to pick up a swimsuit for Betty’s daughter, Alisa. That’s when the world ended for the Gores.
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Did Love and Death Get the Trial Right?
People always argue about the trial. It’s one of the most controversial verdicts in Texas history. Candy’s lawyer, Don Crowder, was a local guy who had never tried a murder case. He was aggressive. He was loud. He basically went to war with the judge.
The defense's secret weapon was Dr. Fred Fason, a psychiatrist who hypnotized Candy. He claimed she had a "dissociative reaction" triggered by Betty telling her to "shhh." According to this theory, the "shhh" brought back a traumatic childhood memory of Candy's mother, causing her to snap.
The Self-Defense Argument
- The First Blow: Candy claimed Betty brought out the axe first.
- The Struggle: They fought in a tiny, cramped utility room.
- The Overkill: 41 swings. The prosecution argued this proved intent. The defense argued it proved a fugue state.
The jury actually bought it. They acquitted her. People in the town were livid. They still are, honestly. You can't kill someone 41 times and call it "reasonable" self-defense in the eyes of many, yet legally, the burden of proof for the prosecution was to show she didn't act in fear for her life. They couldn't do it.
Why We Keep Remaking This Story
You might remember Candy on Hulu, starring Jessica Biel. It came out just a year before the HBO Love and Death version. Why are we obsessed? Maybe it's the contrast. The bright, yellow-hued aesthetics of the 70s against the dark, metallic reality of an axe.
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Director Lesli Linka Glatter and writer David E. Kelley (who did Big Little Lies) focused on the psychological interiority. They didn't want a caricature of a killer. They wanted to show the woman who made the casseroles. This version feels more "human," which is actually scarier. It suggests that under the right (or wrong) circumstances, the person sitting next to you in a church pew might be capable of the unthinkable.
Betty Gore is often lost in these retellings. Lily Rabe plays her as someone who was deeply hurting. She wasn't just a "jealous wife." She was a woman who knew something was wrong but couldn't fix it. The tragedy isn't just the death; it's the isolation both women felt in their suburban prisons.
The Physicality of the Scene
The production design in the HBO series is meticulous. They recreated the Gore house with haunting accuracy. The linoleum. The cramped quarters. When you see Olsen and Rabe in that small space, you realize there was no room to run.
The 41 hits weren't all fatal. Many were to the legs and torso. It was a messy, prolonged, and agonizing event. Seeing it play out on screen, even with the "cinematic" polish, is uncomfortable. It should be. The show avoids making it look "cool" or "edgy." It looks exhausting and horrific.
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What Happened to the Real People?
After the trial, Candy Montgomery didn't stay in Texas. She couldn't. She moved to Georgia.
Interestingly, she reportedly became a mental health counselor. There’s a strange irony in that. Pat Montgomery stayed with her through the trial but they eventually divorced. Allan Gore remarried quickly—actually during the period following the murder—but that marriage didn't last either.
The kids are the ones who suffered the most. Alisa and Ian Gore were left without a mother and with a father who was entangled in the very mess that led to her death. They were eventually raised by Betty’s parents.
Taking Action: How to Explore the Case Further
If you've finished the series and you're looking for the "real" story, don't just stick to the TV shows. Screenwriters always take liberties with timing and dialogue to make things snappier.
- Read "Evidence of Love": This is the definitive account. It’s based on extensive interviews with Candy and the legal teams. It offers way more context on the "hypnosis" sessions than the show could fit.
- Listen to Texas Monthly’s Coverage: Since the writers of the original book were Texas Monthly journalists, the magazine's archives are a goldmine of 1980s reporting.
- Compare the Versions: Watch the 1990 TV movie A Killing in a Small Town. It’s a different era of television, but Barbara Hershey’s performance is legendary and won her an Emmy.
HBO Love and Death works because it refuses to give us a simple villain. It gives us a complicated, bored, and ultimately violent woman. It forces us to sit with the discomfort of an acquittal that feels like a mistake, even if it was legally "correct." The case remains a stain on the memory of Wylie, Texas, a reminder that the picket fence is often just a mask.
Next Steps for True Crime Enthusiasts:
To get the most accurate picture, cross-reference the court transcripts regarding the "41 strokes" with the forensic testimony presented by the medical examiner. Understanding the "stripping" of the axe blade during the struggle explains why the defense argued it wasn't a calculated execution, but a chaotic, panicked fight for survival.