A torrid affair, an ax-wielding killer, and a shocking plea— Candy Montgomery avoided
prison time for killing her friend, but there's more to the story than a simple acquittal.
Decades before the infamously brutal murder that made headlines across the nation, Candace
Wheeler was a typical "Army brat."
Her father, a radar technician, had been stationed at a number of different military bases.
She moved frequently as she was growing up, and by the early 1970s, she was working as
a secretary and met her future husband, an electrical engineer for Texas Instruments
named Pat Montgomery.
For the first few years of their marriage, there were little to no signs of the issues
that would arise later.
The newlyweds had two children in quick succession; first, the couple had a daughter, Jenny, in
1973, followed by their son, Ian, in 1974.
It was not until the family left a more urban environment and bought a home in the small
town of Fairview, Texas, in 1977 that the monotony of domestic life caused cracks to
form in Candy's relationship with Pat.
Those who moved to the Texas countryside in the 1970s did so because they were trying
to stay away from the ever-expanding city of Dallas 20 miles away, which they viewed
as busy, crowded, and crime-riddled, according to Texas Monthly.
One of the main gathering places in the area was a small church, the Methodist Church of
Lucas.
It was there that Betty Gore and Candy Montgomery first met.
The two were heavily involved in the church and became inextricably linked in the years
to come.
Montgomery confided in close friends that she wanted to have an affair.
She was married, but she felt as though her life had grown stale.
Eventually, Montgomery engaged in an extramarital affair with Gore's husband, Allan, to shake
up what she saw as her boring life.
In 1978, a brief moment on a volleyball court during a friendly summer match at church was
the beginning of it all.
Candy Montgomery and Allan Gore were two of the players, and when both went after the
ball at the same time, they accidentally ran into each other.
While no one was hurt in the collision, it did have a profound impact on Montgomery – reportedly,
the mere smell of the other man stirred something inside of her.
She had been contemplating the idea of having an affair, and decided that Gore would be
the man she'd have it with.
Montgomery's desire increased as the weeks passed and the two talked more often, casually
flirting.
After another volleyball game, she took the initiative to ask point blank if he would
be interested in having an affair.
She went on to add that she had been thinking about it a lot.
"And, well, I'd like to have an affair."
Because of his marriage to Betty Gore, Allan was hesitant at first.
But then on Montgomery's 29th birthday, she received a surprise when Allan called to talk
more about the proposition.
After a few more discussions that failed to move the needle, Montgomery eventually told
him,
"It's up to you, Allan.
I know I can do it.
I know I can act in an adult fashion and not take unnecessary risks.
I've made up my mind, so just tell me if you want to do it."
A few days later, he told her he was ready, and the fateful affair began.
As some of the passion in the affair between Candy and Allan began to fade, the two decided
to take a break.
Because Betty was pregnant, Candy and Allan agreed it was not the right time to carry
on with their relationship.
Up to that point, Montgomery's secret adultery with Betty's husband had not affected their
friendship, so she saw nothing wrong with planning a surprise baby shower for her friend.
The celebration was a great success for all of those who attended, not least of which
for Betty, who was said to enjoy the thoughtful gifts and delicious cake.
On the other hand, the time spent away from each other during the rest of Betty's pregnancy
turned out to be disastrous for Montgomery and Allan's fiery affair.
Even though the two did continue their infidelity, it was not long after that they were forced
to stop.
Betty, it turned out, had grown suspicious that something was going on.
According to The Dallas Morning News, the night before Betty Gore's death, her daughter
slept over at Candy Montgomery's house.
The next day, Montgomery stopped by Gore's house.
Gore allegedly asked her about the affair, which, up to that point, Montgomery thought
she was unaware of.
Exactly what happened next would be argued at length in court – but what's inarguable
is that it ended with Betty Gore lying in a pool of her own blood, her body mutilated
by a 3-foot long, wood-handled ax found at the scene of the crime.
According to Texas Monthly, it was argued that Montgomery cleaned herself up as best
she could, then went to the small country church to pick up her kids and Gore's daughter.
Allan Gore — who was out of town at the time of the murder — tried to call his wife
from an airport payphone but received no answer.
Concerned, he called a neighbor and asked him to check on her.
Two neighbors entered the Gore home, where they discovered Betty Gore's mangled body.
"I lived with it day and night when it first happened."
One aspect of Betty Gore's killing that has always stood out more than the rest was the
absolutely horrific condition her body was left in after the brutal deed was carried
out.
When talking on an episode of Snapped, forensics expert Dr. Irv Stone described the gruesome
details.
"It was a vicious set of blows to the body, the face, the arms, the head, the torso -"
The crime scene was such a grisly, nightmarish sight that law enforcement initially believed
the killer's dark imagination played a key part in the murder.
A Collin County sheriff's deputy told People,
"It looked like a scene from a horror film.
It was a Friday the 13th.
Our thought was that we had a copycat of the movie The Shining."
The chilling movie was released in May 1980 - the month before Gore's murder.
"Wendy, I'm home."
It quickly became clear that the last person to have seen Betty alive was Candy Montgomery.
According to Texas Monthly, when interviewed by police, Montgomery provided a story that
was difficult for investigators to punch holes in, and they weren't even sure if she was
physically capable of carrying out such a vicious attack.
It wasn't until Allan Gore revealed the affair to them that prosecutors discovered a possible
motive, and Montgomery was charged with murder.
Montgomery hired a lawyer who was a fellow member of her church congregation.
His name was Don Crowder, and he had never handled a murder trial in his career, typically
working as a personal injury attorney.
He and Montgomery flew to Houston, where they met with a psychiatrist, and she underwent
hypnosis in an attempt to dredge up memories of what happened on the day of the murder
that might be beneficial to their defense.
"Candy, what did you do?"
While Don Crowder has gotten the most attention as one of Candy Montgomery's lawyers during
her infamous trial, it was her other lawyer, Robert Udashen who came up with the strategy
that led to her acquittal.
Udashen worked closely with fellow defense team member Elaine Carpenter to prove that
Montgomery was not guilty of murder, but not because of insanity.
Over the course of the conversations the attorney had with the defendant, he was the first to
really believe and pursue Montgomery's shocking explanation: that she had killed Betty in
self-defense.
Udashen explained the process that brought them to that conclusion in an interview with
the Advocate and said,
"I brought in two psychiatrists.
I did want the psychiatrists to look into any kind of mental issue.
That was to me just part of documenting what happened.
I wanted the doctors to see if they could explain the overkill, because that was always
going to be a big problem here.
We could see the self-defense and how it got started based on what Candy said."
The murder of Betty Gore was shocking, and the surprises only continued with the introduction
of the self-defense argument.
Given the details of the crime - including the part about 41 ax wounds - an attempt at
a self-defense argument seemed unimaginable and perhaps even foolish.
"I was just shocked.
I was just completely in shock."
According to The Dallas Morning News, a psychiatrist who had hypnotized Montgomery testified that
she went through a dissociative episode while struggling with Betty Gore over the ax.
In his opinion, Montgomery had reacted in a moment of great distress and was unaware
of how many times she had struck Gore.
He also suggested that childhood trauma may have played a role in her actions.
In another shocking twist, the jury ended up being convinced by the defense's argument.
Montgomery was acquitted on all charges.
One juror told The Dallas Morning News that the jury was not hung up on the alleged number
of times Gore was wounded, saying,
"We determined it never had a bearing on the verdict at all - whether it was one gunshot
or 1,000 whacks."
In the aftermath of the trial, the Montgomery family left Texas.
They moved to Georgia, and Candy and her husband eventually got divorced.
Reporting suggests that Candy Montgomery - believed to be going by her maiden name, Candace Wheeler
- lives in Georgia, where she works in the mental health field helping both teens and
adults.
The story of Betty Gore's murder sounds like it was made for Hollywood, and Hollywood seems
to feel that way as well.
In 1990, the first adaptation of the story, a TV movie called A Killing in a Small Town,
aired on CBS.
Hulu's Candy, a five-episode limited series starring Jessica Biel in the title role, began
streaming in May 2022, and HBO Max's Love and Death, starring Elizabeth Olsen, is set
to premiere in April 2023.