'Love and Death' revisits Candy Montgomery's shocking 1980 Texas murder case, revealing brutal details, a twisted affair, and the explosive trial that Netflix's version only hints at.
The HBO Max miniseries Love & Death, starring Elizabeth Olsen, has arrived on Netflix, and viewers are hooked by the gripping dramatization of the infamous Candy Montgomery case. While the seven-part miniseries has left viewers reeling at the chilling affair-turned-deadly, the real story behind the suburban Texas murder is even more unsettling and messier than what made it to the screen.
The series shows Candy’s unravelling, which ends in the horrific murder of her friend Betty Gore, after a deadly confrontation about an affair with Betty’s husband. However, the real story behind the case is much more than just an affair and a murder. Here’s what really happened, and the chilling details that never made it to the final cut.
The miniseries, created by David E. Kelley, premiered on HBO Max in 2023 and was released on Netflix on December 1, 2025. The series has mainly been adapted from John Bloom and Jim Atkinson’s 1984 book, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs, which was based on their original reporting.
The true-crime-based series follows ‘Candy’ (Elizabeth Olsen), a seemingly typical housewife living in Wylie, Texas, whose life spirals into full-blown chaos after she begins a secret affair with her friend Betty’s husband, Allan (Jesse Plemons). What began as an illicit affair eventually led to a deadly confrontation when Candy killed Betty Gore (Lily Rabe) with an axe, striking her 41 times.
In the late 1970s, Candy Montgomery seemed like the picture-perfect wife of a churchgoing family in suburban Texas. She lived in the Wylie neighbourhood with her husband, Pat Montgomery, and their two kids in their dream home. She was an active member of the church; the community knew her as warm, outgoing, and helpful.
While it all looked picture-perfect on the outside, Candy felt bored and overlooked on the inside. According to a Texas Monthly report, Candy felt stuck in a “very boring” marriage and longed for some excitement. That craving ultimately led her straight into the arms of Betty Gore’s husband, Allan Gore, whom she met at church volleyball.
On Allan’s part, he also felt neglected in his own marriage as his wife struggled with postpartum depression and mental health issues. If reports are to be believed, Candy and Allan’s romantic affair began on December 12, 1978, when Betty was pregnant with Allan’s second child. The affair continued for a long time with cunning precision: they often met during lunch breaks and even snuck out into cheap motels, all the while making sure to not get entangled in an emotional relationship. Naturally, those “rules” didn’t last.
After a months-long rendezvous, Allan decided to step away from the affair, determined to work on his marriage and fix things with his wife. However, by the time he and Candy parted ways, the seeds of suspicion had been sown.
Allan’s wife, Betty Gore, who also lived in the Wylie suburbs, was a devout church member and a best friend of Candy Montgomery. She was a mother and a teacher who had long struggled with anxiety and loneliness. After giving birth to her second daughter, she developed postpartum depression and often battled a fear of abandonment. Tensions grew between the couple as she became increasingly dependent on Allan and began to suspect his closeness with Candy.
Betty Gore was the silent friend who had begun to see the cracks beyond Allan and Candy’s friendly facade. It was all soon to unravel on a fateful summer day. On June 13, 1980, when Allan was away on a business trip, things took a turn he couldn’t have imagined in his wildest dreams. Back in their house, Betty was lying unresponsive in a pool of blood, while their infant daughter was left all alone, unharmed, in the crib.
When Betty didn’t answer Allan’s phone calls after repeated attempts, he asked a neighbour to check on her. But what awaited inside the home was so gruesome that even the police said it looked straight out of a horror movie. The neighbour discovered the couple’s infant daughter, Bethany, in her crib, and an “ocean” of blood near the utility room. The frantic neighbour called Allan, telling him his wife was dead, and that he thought she had been shot.
According to investigation reports, Betty’s body was found severely wounded, the result of an overkill rarely seen in domestic crimes. She was not shot, but struck with a wood-splitting axe, 41 times. And do you know what was even more alarming? Betty’s body showed signs that she remained conscious through a significant part of the brutal attack.
While Love & Death does show Betty’s death, it significantly tones down the sheer brutality of the murder. In reality, the carnage was so gruesome that investigators wondered if it was a “copycat attack” inspired by The Shining, the Stephen King horror adaptation which had hit theatres just three weeks earlier. What the police didn’t realise then was that Betty’s brutal end was brought on by someone she knew well: her best friend, Candy Montgomery.
Candy Montgomery became a key suspect in Betty Gore’s murder, as neighbours agreed she was the last known person who visited Betty’s house before her body was discovered. She had visited the house to pick up Allan and Betty’s older daughter, Alisa, for a Church event. When Allan failed to connect with Betty that day, he called Candy anxiously, but she assured him that everything was fine.
While the series stays close to the facts, several chilling elements didn’t make it to the screen. After killing Betty, Candy kept going about her day as if nothing had happened. She took a shower in the Gore house, cleaned herself up, changed into fresh clothes, and went to church to teach a children’s class, acting completely normal around friends.
Later that night, when Allan phoned to say Betty had died, Candy calmly agreed to keep their daughter overnight. Netflix also omits the chilling moment when Montgomery cut up her blood-stained rubber sandals using garden shears after hearing the investigators mention finding a bloody footprint at the crime scene.
During her defense, Candy was put under hypnosis with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Fason. Under hypnosis, she recalled a childhood trauma, remembering how her mother often shushed her and forced her to stay silent. On that fateful day, when Betty confronted Candy about her affair with Allan, she allegedly said “Shhh” during the fight, triggering a dissociative rage. This testimony became the backbone of Candy’s self-defense argument. In addition, she claimed that Betty had confronted her with an axe and swung it first. In return, Candy allegedly acted out of self-defense, attacking Betty multiple times because she “lost control”.
Despite the brutality of it all, Texas was left shocked when, on October 29, 1980, the court found Candy Montgomery “not guilty” of Betty Gore’s murder. The crowd outside the courthouse booed. Many believed the brutality alone should have disqualified self-defense. But Candy walked free and received support from her church and community, something that the HBO Max miniseries underplays.
Whether you’ve watched Love & Death or not, the true story hits harder than fiction. A bored housewife, a forbidden affair, and an explosive violence turned a quiet Texas suburb into a hotspot of one of the most shocking domestic crime cases in history.
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