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Who Is Candy Montgomery?
Candy Montgomery, who is portrayed by Jessica Biel in Hulu's series "Candy," was accused of killing her friend Betty Gore with an ax in 1980 after having an affair with her husband, Allen Gore.
Hulu’s new crime drama “Candy” revisits the shocking story of Candy Montgomery, who was accused of killing her friend Betty Gore with an ax in 1980.
“Candy” — a five-night event — premiers Monday on the streaming service and stars Jessica Biel as Montgomery and Melanie Lynskey as Gore. The show portrays the shocking events that occurred nearly 42 years ago in the Dallas, Texas area when both women were 30 years old.
Montgomery and her family lived in a house in Fairview and seemingly lived a normal suburban life, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Her husband, Pat Montgomery, was a Texas Instruments engineer, and they had two children together.
She made friends with Gore while both were singing in the same church choir. Gore, a school teacher, also had two children and, as the dramatized series depicts, the two women organized play dates for their children.
“Candy was a really outgoing, likable person. She was very involved in her community, her church, she was in the choir, she taught Sunday school,” Robert Udashen, a defense attorney, told Oxygen's “Snapped,” which ran an episode on the case.
Their clean, cookie-cutter lives began to wear on Montgomery, who became increasingly bored. She began fantasizing about cheating on her husband for months, Esquire reports. She began an affair with her friend Betty's husband, Allan Gore, who was also an engineer; Betty was pregnant at the time.
After Betty and Allan's daughter was born in 1979, he ended the relationship with Montgomery.
Still, the two couples remained friendly and so did their children.
That all came to a head on June 13, 1980 — a Friday — when Candy stopped by the Gore household to pick up a swimsuit for their oldest daughter, who was staying at the Montgomery home at the time, according to the Fort Worth-Star Telegram. Betty was found dead in the home later that day. She had suffered a whopping 41 ax wounds.
Candy had claimed that Betty came after her with an ax after she confessed to the affair with Allen.
Later that year, Candy was acquitted on the basis of self defense. She left Texas three months later and never looked back, the Dallas Morning News reports.
The murder was dramatized in the 1990 CBS television movie, “A Killing in a Small Town.” There is another series in production about the case: HBO Max’s “Love and Death,” which stars Elizabeth Olsen as Candy Montgomery and Lily Rabe as Betty Gore.
