Who Was Candy Montgomery, the Real-Life Ax Killer Behind ‘Love and Death’?
HBO Max‘s Love and Death is now climbing the Top 10 on Netflix, and the American public will once again be transfixed by the murderous saga of Candy Montgomery and her friend Betty Gore, the former of whom killed the latter with an ax in 1980 but was still acquitted of murder.
Hulu’s Candy already told this true-crime story in May 2022, with Jessica Biel playing the killer and Melanie Lynskey portraying the victim. HBO Max delivered a different dramatization of the same killing one year later, with Elizabeth Olsen and Lily Rabe in the lead roles of the limited series.
So, what was the story that inspired dueling TV shows from major streamers?
What did Candy Montgomery do?
As The Dallas Morning News reports, Candace “Candy” Montgomery was 30 years old at the time of the killing, living in Fairview, Texas, as the wife of Texas Instruments engineer Pat Montgomery and the mother of their two kids. She attended the same church as Betty Gore, a 30-year-old middle school teacher. Candy had also embarked on — and been spurned by — an affair with Betty’s husband, Allan Gore.
Did Candy Montgomery kill her friend in a jealous rage or was it self-defense after discovering an affair? https://t.co/CgvxmiYO1h pic.twitter.com/tmUqmoerej
— Martinis & Murder Podcast (@Martinis_Murder) January 23, 2017
Betty’s older daughter, Alisa, had slept over at the Montgomery house the night before the killing, and Candy had offered to drive Alisa to her swim lesson the next day. But when Candy stopped at the Gore house in nearby Wylie to pick up a swimsuit for Alisa on June 13, 1980 — a Friday the 13th — Betty reportedly confronted her about sleeping with Allan.
During that confrontation, someone took up an ax: Candy’s lawyers would later claim that it was Betty who retrieved the ax from her garage and charged Candy with it, but it was Betty who got the upper hand as the two women fought.
And hours later, when neighbors checked in on Betty — hailed by Allan, who was away on business and couldn’t reach his wife by phone — they found her dead in her utility room. She had 41 ax wounds, with experts testifying later that many of those blows were dealt after she was already unconscious.
Why wasn’t Candy Montgomery convicted?
During the trial that October, Candy’s lawyer argued that she had acted out of self-defense, with a psychiatrist testifying that he had hypnotized Candy and determined that she had a “dissociative reaction” that day, such that she wasn’t aware how many times she brought the ax down on Betty.
Candy also took the stand during the trial. “I hit her. I hit her. I hit her,” she reportedly admitted, as the News recounted in another article. “I stood back and looked at myself, and I was covered in blood. I felt so guilty, so dirty. I felt so ashamed.”
At the end of the eight-day trial, the 12-person jury acquitted Candy of murder, buying into the self-defense claim. One juror told the News that their decision didn’t hinge on the number of ax strikes, saying, “We determined it never had a bearing on the verdict at all—whether it was one gunshot or 1,000 whacks.”
What happened to Candy Montgomery?
As for Candy, she moved out of state following the trial and is now in her 70s. She suffers from PTSD, according to a person who identified themselves as a relative when the News called and added, “the phone calls don’t help.”
Melanie Lynskey and Jessica Biel in ‘Candy’
Hulu and HBO Max gave new life to the grisly tale that Dallas-area locals might prefer to leave in the past.
“If you listened to talk radio and all that at the time, there was: ‘Oh, she got away with murder!’ It was all this outrage,” journalist Jim Atkinson, co-author of Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, told the newspaper. “But within that tightly-knit community or series of communities out there, they were just as happy to have it be shoved back under the rug.”
Similar to how the two shows offer different takes on the same story, Candy creator Robin Veith grappled with differing perspectives on the killing.
“We spoke to [people on] both sides of the story and 40 years later, they are entrenched in their beliefs,” the Mad Men alum told Vanity Fair. “I’ve learned, working on true crime, that you listen to everybody and take careful notes, but also remember that memory is a tricky thing.”
She went on: “How you feel about this story says a lot about you in that moment, what’s going on in your life and in your mind. That’s the fascinating — and scary — prospect of it.”
Did Candy and Pat Montgomery stay together?
Candy and her husband, Pat, moved to Georgia with their children after her acquittal. However, they eventually divorced. Little is known about what happened to Pat in the time since.
Love and Death, Streaming Now, Netflix
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G
I only know what I've seen in the Hulu series and am now reading up on why she was never retried? Even if Betty did get the axe first Candy ( I won't even factor in the 40 blows) it wasn't a gun she could have fled to a neighbors. She methodically cleaned up and took a shower and went about her day and never told anyone. Also wasn't Betty with child at the time? which makes it capital murder? In the very least she should have gotten negligent manslaughter!
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R
When someone attacks you with an axe, as Betty did Candy, and you manage to get the axe away from them, there is no magic moment when it becomes not self-defense. You're terrified, your adrenaline is pumping, you're not thinking as clearly as you are when you're commenting online about it forty two years later, and all you are thinking is "I will not let this maniac kill me!" Once Betty came at Candy with that axe, the onus was NOT on Candy to determine precisely at which moment Batty Betty was incapacitated. She had every right to defend herself to the utmost of her ability.
As for "methodically cleaned up......and never told anyone", so what? She panicked, worried that nobody would believe her, (and many don't), worried that she'd encounter much prejudice because she'd had the affair with Batty Betty's husband (and judging by the many online comments I've seen which insist that Candy was the aggressor, she was right), and decided to try to cover it up. Many people in her shoes would have done the same. That doesn't make it not self-defense. And actually. there was nothing "methodical" about it. Candy made a short, very incomplete effort at cleaning up, and left her fingerprint there, evidence of her panic, and evidence that her act was completely unpremeditated.
Betty thought she might be pregnant, but the autopsy proved that she was not. Candy was not retried because the Fifth Amendment protects against double jeopardy.
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G
Well the defense attorney made fun of the idiocy and gullibility of the jury. He didn't believe Candy and knew her version was pure crap. Plenty of evidence to support she intended to kill her and in a rage, hence the 41 whacks. Shame on the guillible people of the jury. It was Texes so... The supposed PTSD was from the shock of getting away with murder.
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G
Once a person is acquitted, they can't be retried. That would be 'double jeopardy' and against the law.
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P
Where are the jurors from that case now? Would have been interesting to get their take on this case years later.
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R
Nothing has changed, no new evidence has come to light which disproves that this was self-defense, so it's doubtful that the jury feels any differently than they did when they correctly handed down the "Not Guilty" verdict.
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C
There was no proof that Betty attacked Candy. Candy showed up at Betty's house earlier than expected. She was caught off guard.
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B
No doubt about it You were on that jury. I don't see anyone else defending candy on here but you.
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B
I never could find why they didn't retry Candy with another jury. Did they not have confidence in their own ability? Either they had a pitiful prosecutor or a very convincing defense. Either way from watching the show I could never have bought the story of Candy's self-defense no matter how I looked at it. She got away with murder and in my opinion they were 12 idiots sitting on the jury.
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R
The defense attorney did no such thing, did believe Candy, and where is this "plenty of evidence to support she intended to kill her"? Produce it, please. But I'm not holding my breath because I know that it does not exist.
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B
Why are you so convinced that Candy was the innocent party? She came to Betty's house. Betty's daughter was at her house spending the night. If there was a problem with candy do you believe she would let her daughter have spent the night with her? She knew the husband was gone so it looks like a perfect opportunity for her to eliminate her competition. I don't know of many mothers that would start a fight with their newborn in the other room knowing they could endanger their own life. It makes no sense that Betty would be the aggressor and attack candy. You must be related to candy or were on the jury.
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R
First off, please spell the state name correct. It is not Texes, it is TEXAS. SMH. I can tell you are not from around these parts.
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