Criminology - Betty Gore

Episode Date: May 14, 2023

In 1980, wife and mother Betty Gore was murdered in Texas. It was an especially brutal murder caused by many blows from an axe. Initially, police believed that it must have been a man who murdered Betty because of the vicious nature of the crime. But, the evidence started to point to a woman. The sensational nature of the case has led to numerous television series over the years. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murder of Betty Gore. Suspicion in Betty's death soon fell on her friend Candy Montgomery. It came out that Candy had visited Betty that day and that Candy had an affair with Betty's husband, Allan. The prosecution thought they had a pretty airtight case against Candy Montgomery. Candy admitted to killing Betty but said she did so in self-defense. It would be up to the jury to decide Candy's fate. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, it's Wayfair here, where delivery and setup are as easy as a few taps on your phone. You're relaxing in an old hammock, scrolling Wayfair's app, when you spot it, a brand new patio set. Next thing you know, Wayfair delivers it right to your patio and sets it up. Oh, you need a new grill, too? All right, Wayfair's got you covered. With Wayfair's room of choice delivery and fast experts set up on qualifying orders, life gets a little easier. Visit Wayfair.com or the Wayfair app. in many forms. Some things work out, but you have to put in the work. For over 20 years, Commonwealth Charter Academy has put in the work to perfect virtual learning and in-person experiences

for K-12 learners. Plus, CCA provides all the resources, materials, and support each student needs to thrive, cost-free. To us, it's all in a day's work. CCA, how schools should work. Visit cCAeducate. Dot me. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 257 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford.

Mr. Morford. What's going on with you, buddy? A little bit of new stuff. I was in a TV show this week that came out on Tooby. It was a Golden State Killer show, which was pretty awesome. and always happy to talk about that case. So I'm pretty stoked about that. What's new with you?

I'm all about graduations. My youngest is graduating from high school. My oldest just graduated from college. So we got a lot going on, not only attending the graduations, but planning parties. And so it's a pretty busy time for the next few weekends. My kids get out of school, I think, in two weeks, two Fridays from today, if I'm mistaken. So I think we get out a little. earlier than you guys do up in Ohio.

Well, I will say this. You know, I remember back to being a kid, that last day of school and that first day of summer break, man, that was like, that was awesome. I just remember that time as being like, the world is mine. I'm out of school. I can do what I want. Yeah, I know the last couple weeks for me was always countdown mode. I didn't get too much done.

It was all about getting ready for summer. I'm sure things haven't changed very much. Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. Colby Smith jumped out at our highest level, and we had John Ellis. So some great new support. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Thank you so much, Colby and John.

And to everyone else that supports the show to anyone that would like to support criminology, you can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right. We're ready to jump into this week's episode. You know, a lot of the cases that we discuss are obviously fascinating, but some of them make for really good television. It seems as if the case sometimes is one of that hits home with a lot of people and draws them into the story, so much so that TV creators feel that they can make successful projects based on these cases. And in this week's episode, we're talking about the 1980 death of Betty Gore in Texas and her case inspired Hulu's Candy, starring Jessica Beale, and HBO's love and death starring Elizabeth Olson, which is running a lot.

right now. So just a little warning. If you're watching either of those shows right now, there will be spoilers in this episode. And by the end, you might not only be surprised by what happened in this case, but by its outcome. Betty Pomeroy was born in Kansas in 1950, the oldest of three kids. She was the only girl. Her brother, Ronald Pomeroy, told Oxygen. She was very popular. According to Ronald, She was involved in all kinds of school events, music, plays, and student council. Betty met Alan Gore at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. Alan was a teaching assistant in a class that Betty took there. Before long, they started dating and fell in love.

In 1970, the two were married. Eventually they ended up in Wiley, Texas, northeast of Dallas. Betty taught fifth grade at R.C. Dodd Middle School. According to Ronald Pomeroy, in his oxygen interview, being a teacher was Betty's dream. He told Oxygen she wanted to be an elementary school teacher, really from the word go. Together, Betty and Allen had two children, both daughters, Alyssa and Bethany. By 1980, Alyssa was in kindergarten, and Bethany, born in 1979, was still an infant. Life for the Gores in Wiley, Texas was perfect, or so it seemed.

Betty kept busy with teaching, and Alan worked for an electronics company. They were both socially active and regularly attended church. The couple had a lot of friends in Wiley, a community located about 30 minutes northeast of Dallas. Today, Wiley has a population of around 60,000 people. But back in the late 1970s, Wiley had about 3,000 residents. So to say that most people there really knew each other back then wouldn't be an over-exaggeration. On Friday, June 13th, 1980, Allen headed to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport for a business trip. he and other coworkers from the company he worked for were going to meet in Minnesota to secure a job for one of their largest clients, 3M.

Betty didn't like it when Alan traveled and she was alone with the kids, but it was something that he had to do in order to advance his career. This time, Betty was even more anxious because she thought she may be pregnant again. Her period was late that month since Bethany's birth. Betty had been ill frequently. She was bedridden off and for things no one could explain and was especially prone to depression. When Allen was out of town and it was just her alone with the kids, she experienced panic attacks. It's believed that Betty may have suffered from postpartum depression, which was not well recognized at the time. In fact, postpartum onset was not recognized as a factor in major depression until the mid-19.

At the time, it seems that Betty's issues were not taken seriously. And some people thought that she was just getting herself worked up. But Allen thought that Betty would feel better about his absence on this trip because they had a vacation plan. They were going to take a second honeymoon in Switzerland just a week later. He thought she'd be focused on that. But when it came time for Alan to leave, Betty broke down, crying as he left for the airport early that morning. At around noon, someone tried to deliver a package to the gore home,

but no one answered the door. Later that day, at around 4 p.m., Alan arrived in St. Paul and called home to reassure Betty, who was home with Bethany. He wanted to make sure she was okay. Their oldest daughter, Alyssa, was over at her friend Jenny's house, being cared for by Jenny's parents, Pat and Candy Montgomery, who were good friends of Betty and Allen. But when Alan called, Betty didn't answer. He called Betty multiple times that afternoon. but she didn't answer any of his calls. Finally, he called the operator, hoping to be connected that way, but had no luck. And for our younger listeners, back in the day, you could call the operator and ask them to

try and connect calls for you, or even asked the operator to try and break into a phone call if you called someone and got a busy signal. This was the time before cell phones, apps to see where someone was, before social media, and even before pagers. Alan really had only a landline to call Betty on, and she didn't answer it. So he was starting to get worried. And more if you and I remember, you know, those times and it seems so antiquated. And it really is.

If you think about what we have today, you can get in touch with someone pretty much anytime you want to. Or like you said, you know, go on to an app. I have one where I can track where each member of my family is at any point in time. It's awesome. It even tells me how fast my kids are driving. but to think that you would call an operator and either have them try to connect you, you know, on a call or break in if the line was busy.

It just seems like such a long time ago. And really it is if you think about it. Yeah, you were definitely limited back then. It was hard to get a hold of somebody sometimes. If you call their house and they didn't answer, their phone was busy, you just had to wait and keep trying.

But, you know, in one way, I think we've lost something. You know, we've gained a lot with all of this technology. But what we've lost is the ability to kind of not be reachable. Yeah, you cannot answer your cell phone or you cannot respond to a text. But pretty much people know what you're doing because we have our cell phones with us all the time. And it's just so easy to get a hold of people.

Then I feel like a lot of us have. become kind of so wrapped up in the phone, the social media, the apps, the things like that that I do think we've lost a little bit in that area. Yeah. And one thing we've lost is actual conversations because back then you called somebody and talked on the phone with them now. So many people don't even bother talking. They just text back and forth. Yeah. So, you know, we have a phone plan, but the phone part of it outside of my wife and I rarely gets used. I mean, my daughters, I can count on my hands, the number of times. I've actually heard them have real phone conversations with their friends. It just doesn't happen that way anymore. Alan called multiple people who he thought

may have seen or talked to Betty that day, friends, neighbors, but no one had seen or heard from Betty. Richard Parker and neighbor went and knocked on the door, but there was no answer. He didn't see anything wrong. According to Texas Monthly, he got back on the phone with the worried Allen and said, no answer, Alan, she must be out. After waiting even longer and calling again with no answer, Alan called Candy Montgomery to see if Candy had seen Betty that day. Candy hadn't seen Betty since around 10 a.m. When she said she popped over from Bible school to ask if Alyssa could go to the movies with the Montgomery's that night to see the Empire strikes back. And she had offered to take Alyssa to swim practice. She also needed

Alyssa's bathing suit. So she headed over to see Betty alone that morning and pick up the bathing suit. Candy told out that Betty was fine that morning and didn't mention any plans to go out. Candy also mentioned that Betty had given her peppermints to give to Alyssa if she put her head underwater. Alyssa got anxious when swimming, but the Candies calmed her down. Candy told Alan that Betty said it was okay to take Alyssa to the movies. According to Candy, Betty was perfectly fine. When she left their home that morning, Candy even offered to drive over to Allen's house to check on Betty, but Alan said he would just call the neighbors back. At around 10 p.m., which was past Betty's routine bedtime, Alan called Richard Parker again. Alan was really worried by this point. He asked Richard

to check and see if Betty's car was in the garage or whether she had gone out. Richard Parker stood in his yard and looked over towards the Gore home and could see into the garage from his yard. He told Alan, there's only one car there, and the garage is open and the lights are on. This was unlike Betty to leave the garage open. Next, Alan called and checked with the Wiley Police Department and the hospital in Plano, Texas. But neither had any record of any interactions with Betty. Alan called Candy Montgomery again and explained the situation. He said she never leaves that garage door open.

And he asked Candy, has she called there or anything? Alan's thought was, if there's going to be a change of plans on Betty's part, surely she would have told the woman watching her daughter. But once again, Candy said there had been no word from Betty. So more of kind of going back to the conversation we had about today's technology, being able to get a hold of someone, you know, if you go back to this point in time and think about the limitations of reaching someone, you know, I think you can really get a sense of Alan's worry because he knew his wife. He knew his wife's routine. An hour goes by. Okay. Not that big a deal.

But as the day progresses, and then you get into nighttime past when Betty would normally be in bed, and you still can't get a hold of your wife. And we talk about that worry and then kind of panic setting in, you can almost feel it, the helplessness that he must have felt being so far away and not being able to get a hold of Betty. And I think he has probably double word because his young daughter. daughter was also unaccounted for during that time. Alan called Richard Parker back and asked him to go check the outside of the house again. This time, keeping his eye out for any kind of note that Betty may have left, Richard walked

over to the Gore's driveway. Instead of checking from his yard, he was surprised. He had not seen Betty's car, a Volkswagen rabbit when he'd looked before, but this time he saw her car there. The light inside the utility room, off the garage was on, but the door itself was locked. Finally, Richard Parker's mood switched from annoyed and inconvenience to worry. According to Texas Monthly, Richard said, something's wrong, Alan. I don't know what, but something's wrong.

Both cars are there and the lights are on, but nobody answers the door. At that point, Alan asked Richard to get inside of the house any way he could, and checked to see if Betty or Bethany were inside. Richard Parker, who was a realtor, went to look for his realtor keys. These were sets of keys used by realtors that often fit many doors like a skeleton key. He was thinking that one of them might fit the Gore home, and he could get inside to check on Betty and Bethany. While Richard looked for his keys, Alan called another neighbor, Jerry McMahon,

and explained the situation. Jerry's wife didn't want him to go to the Gore home alone, so he called a third neighbor, Lester Gaylor. Together, Richard Parker, Jerry McMahon, and Lester Gaylor went to the Gore home, prepared to break in if they needed to through a door or window. But it soon became clear that they didn't need to. The front door had been left unlocked and opened when they turned the knob. The three men cautiously entered the Gore home, and it was clear that something was wrong.

Bethany was crying softly in her crib. The men stumbled through the dark house fumbling the fine light switches to turn on. They made it to Bethany's room and checked on her. It was clear that her diaper hadn't been changed in quite some time. Richard Parker picked her up and ran back to his house with her in his arms. He called the police and started taking care of baby Bethany. She was hungry, tired, and dirty. Over at the Gore home, Jerry McMahon and Lester Gaylor continued searching for Betty.

A basket of laundry was sitting in the living room. It looked as though she had intended to fold some laundry but never finished. Going further into the home, they saw something red. smeared on the freezer in the utility room next to the garage. Inside the utility room, they found Betty Gore lying on the floor. There was a large pool of blood underneath her body. The men assumed from looking at the wound on Betty's face that she had been shot. The men were shocked, unsure of their next move until the phone rang. It was Alan Gore calling for news. He had sent the neighbors to check on Betty, and no one, including her.

Betty had called him back. He'd sat there next to the phone in his hotel room, waiting until he couldn't wait any longer. Richard Parker, who had arrived back at the Gore home, after making sure Bethany was okay, answered the phone. According to Crime Library.org, Richard Parker told Alan, the baby is fine, but Betty's dead. She's been shot. It looks like a suicide. According to Texas Monthly, a perplexed and shocked Alan said, how? we don't have a gun. And I said it appeared as though Betty had been shot. And to the men, I think they believed that she had been shot with a shotgun.

I mean, her face was described as being unrecognizable. And, you know, we have talked about a lot of different types of shootings and things in the many cases that we've covered. But if you think about a shotgun blast to the face, at close range and the type of damage that that would do. If you're someone who finds a body and the face is so badly damaged, I can see where, you know, these men who may have been hunters, I don't know, but they lived in Texas,

I can see how they may have thought at first that Betty, you know, ended her life by shooting herself in the face. with a shotgun. It's a grisly thing to think about. But we'll get into the details more as we go. And it had to be a terrible feeling for Alan Gore to get this news because he was stuck in another state, helpless to do anything. Alan was devastated. He knew Betty didn't like being home alone. He also knew that their marriage and family life was not as perfect as it looked to most people that knew them. He and Betty had both had affairs, and Betty was unhappy with how often he was gone for work. She had insecurities and anxieties, and still he left her alone.

He felt responsible. Like if he had been home, he could have prevented all of this. He thought that the depression had gotten the better of Betty, and she had taken her own life. But unbeknownst to Alan, Betty hadn't taken her own life. Police arrived on the scene and started surveying it. They quickly recognized that Betty hadn't taken her own life and had been murdered, and the weapon used wasn't a gun. It was an axe, and Betty had been struck and hacked with it,

repeatedly. A three-foot-long axe was found hidden behind the freezer. It turned out to be the weapon that killed Betty. The axe belonged to the goers, and it had been taken from a pegboard full of tools in the garage. Wiley, police chief, Royce Abbott, later said that it appeared Betty had been killed in a fit of rage. Supposedly, and this could be absolutely a rumor, one officer noticed a newspaper in the kitchen. It was open to a specific page, and on the page was a review of The Shining, the movie where Jack Nicholson attacks his wife with an axe. The Shining angle seemed to be something police considered, thinking that some maniac may be on

the loose inspired by the movie, but that wasn't the only possible movie tie-in. Some sources also say that Betty's murder, which happened on Friday the 13th. occurred the same weekend that the original Friday the 13th movie opened in theaters. But that movie opened over a full month before Betty was killed. Whether or not Betty's murder was connected to a movie was unknown, but what was clear was that a killer was on the loose. And residents of the town were terrified as word quickly got out. And here again, more if I think this is something that you can visualize, you can get to a real sense of. You mentioned it earlier. You know, this was a town at the time of about 3,000 residents.

This type of news is going to spread very quickly in a town that size. And it's going to be not only shocking, but terrifying. You know, on the one hand, you're heartbroken for Betty Gore and what happened to her. But on the other hand, probably pretty quickly. The concern goes to, well, am I safe? Is my family safe? What do we need to do to make sure that we're not the next victim? This was a town that wasn't used to any kind of violent crimes, especially one as gruesome and shocking as someone being killed with an act. So you can imagine people in this town being terrified.

Closer examination in the Gore home revealed no sign of forced entry. A trail of bloody footprints, apparently from a pair of sandals, led from the utility room to the bathroom. The bath mat was stained with Betty's blood. It appeared that whoever killed Betty had showered before trying to clean up the scene. Betty's homicide was the first of its kind and wily in almost 40 years. Homicide was something police sir were just not used to dealing with, especially one that's brutal. Chief Abbott called in Dr. Irving Stone from the Dallas County Institute of Forensic Sciences to perform the autopsy. Dr. Stone counted 41 separate wounds from the axe.

The killer had focused on Betty's head and face, with 28 of the wounds being to that area of her body. According to Oxygen.com, Dr. Stone stated that it was a vicious set of blows to the body, the face, the arms, the head, the torso, even into the legs. So I want to go back to, you know, these men finding Betty and believing initially that she had been shot in the face. Most likely with a shotgun, that's how bad and brutal the scene was.

And then you find out that, no, there was no gun involved at all. All of that damage came from 41 blows from an axe. Yeah, there had to be a horrific crime scene when you consider the amount of wounds that she received, and I think investigators had their hands full trying to figure out exactly how things unfolded. Hey, criminology fans, Morph and I would like to tell you about a true crime podcast called The Trail Went Cold, hosted by our friend Robin Warder. The Trail Went Cold is a weekly true crime podcast, which covers a wide variety of baffling

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went cold. Investigators quickly decided that whoever killed Betty had known her, explaining the lack of forced entry. They also decided that her killer had a reason to be angry with her. This was a spontaneous attack, not a planned and calculated murder in their mind since the killer hadn't brought their own weapon with them to the home. They also thought that the killer must be a large, strong male solely due to the amount of times. The person had been able to swing an axe with such force. However, the shoe

prints found in blood indicated that a smaller offender, perhaps even a woman, was to blame. But the best thing police had to compare to any suspects was a print. There was a thumbprint on the freezer door. Despite the killer having tried to wipe away evidence on the freezer, the coffee pot was still on, unattended, and the coffee had burned. Investors believe this meant that Betty had been killed in the morning. So already, more if we have some, what I would call conflicting information, you know, thinking about someone raining down 41 blows with an axe. I could see how in the minds of investigators, you know,

they would go immediately to a large male, strong guy who's able to not only, physically deliver that mini blows, but put the force behind them that would have inflicted the type of damage that Betty received, but then you have the shoe prints. Now, could it have been a large man with small feet? Maybe I think they were pretty quickly on the track that this could possibly be a woman. Yeah, I think at the very least, the amount of wounds and the frenzy that was involved makes it seem like a crime of passion, because if it was just someone trying to kill Betty, they could have accomplished that with less swings of the acts. So it seems like it was definitely some kind of frenzy. Chief Abbott interviewed Alan Gore. Of course, he had a good

alibi. He left this home for his trip before Candy Montgomery had stopped by and talked to Betty, so police knew she was alive when Alan left for his trip. It was time to look at other people close to Betty. Chief Abbott asked Alan if he ever had an affair, to which he replied, never. But Alan lied. Understandably, he didn't want the skeletons to come out of his closet if they weren't relevant to the investigation. Alan had only had one affair during the time he was married, and he knew in his mind that the woman he had been unfaithful with wouldn't have hurt Betty,

and that woman was Candy Montgomery, Betty's close friend. That was one of the reasons Betty and Allen had ended their affair because they felt guilty and didn't want to hurt Betty. But it was thought that Betty had been feeling that Alan was distant and may have suspected he was having an affair. Not long before she was killed, Betty and Allen renewed their vows. But Betty couldn't get the feeling out of her mind that Alan had been having a relationship with another woman. Early the next morning, the day after Alan Gore was questioned by Chief Abbott, the chief received a call from Allen, admitting that he lied the day before and that he had one affair with Candy Montgomery, the same Candy who had been watching Alyssa and the same Candy who had been the last one known to see Betty a lot.

According to Crime Library.org, the affair between Allen and Candy started in 1978 when Candy had approached Allen after choir practice at church and asked him point blank, would you be interested in having an affair with me? Alan was taken aback by Candy's offer and not knowing what to say. He said, well, thank you for your interest. Let me think about it and get back to you. He did get back to her. And they discussed a list of pros and cons to having an affair.

Cons like both of them having families, both of them attending United Methodist Church and Lucas, Texas together, their daughters being best friends and Candy and Betty being friends. In the end, though, Alan and Candy decided to move forward with the affair and they decided on a date for their trist to begin. December 12th, 1978. And this was something that really struck me. You know, I'm just thinking about how this interaction went down.

Candy comes out and just asks Alan point blank, do you want to? do you want to have an affair? And then it's as if they set out to make a plan. So first, we've got to make a pros and cons list to decide whether we're going to move forward with this. They did that and, you know, ultimately decided that, yeah, we're going to do it. But, you know, just think about sitting down and going through the pros and cons and weighing it and and all of that, it just seems so strange. Yeah, it seems very transactional, very, almost like you're putting a shop in less together to go to Home Depot and pick stuff up.

Now, I've never had an affair, but in my mind, I picture maybe a couple having an affair sort of start spur the moment with no planning, just on the spot, it happens. And here you have this big plan between them where they're laying out details and pros and cons. and I don't know how typical that is, but it seems pretty unusual. No, I would back you up on that. To me, that seems very atypical, at least from, you know, movies and television and all that we see. You would think that most affairs start in kind of the heat of the moment. Two people get kind of wrapped up into each other in a moment and they don't think about their,

their spouses or one spouse or whoever it is, and they do something that they shouldn't do. That's not what we're talking about here. Yeah, they did something that they shouldn't have done, but they took their time and really weighed it out. But ultimately came to the decision that, yes, this is something we should move forward with. Candy and Allen split the cost of a hotel room near Allen's office, paying $14.50 and $50 each for a room at the Continental Inn. On the a Central Expressway in Richardson, Texas. Candy brought homemade lunch and wine. They continued to meet regularly, almost weekly, to have sex and talk over Candy's homemade lunches. The pair switched to the Como Motel to save $3 each during their visits. Reportedly, both Alan and Candy

were racked with guilt over the affair, and neither wanted their spouse to find out. Eventually, they stopped seeing each other. Soon after the end of their affair, Alan and Betty Gore rekindled their relationship, attending two sessions of marriage encounter, a weekend retreat connected to the church for couples that teaches him to be more present and honest and communicate more openly. News of the affair was enlightening to investigators. In Candy Montgomery, they now had a person who may have had a motive for killing Betty Gore. The footprint found it to crime scene now made more sense.

It was small, and as we mentioned, police felt it was played it was played it was possibly left by a woman or maybe even a child. Candy Montgomery was just five foot two and she had a petite frame. A five-year-old neighbor had visited the home on the morning of the 13th looking for Alyssa Gore. No one came to the door. So she left at around 11 a.m. This neighbor spotted Candy leaving the Gore home well after the time. Candy told police she had left the gores. And like we mentioned, in a small town, news travels fast. On June 19th, less than a week after the murder, a headline gave word of suspicion into Candy. It read, female friend of husband sought in axe killing of Wiley Housewife. So, you know,

so much for police keeping it under wraps that Candy was a suspect in her friend Betty's murder. On June 20th, one week after Betty's death, Candy was called into the police station for another interview. This time, a much more formal interview, and her fingerprints were taken. She had spoken to the police a few times before in the previous week, but this time was much more serious. Chief Abbott suspected that she was responsible, and that she hadn't been truthful with investigators. She had hidden her affair with Alan, just like he had at first. Finally, during this interview, she admitted to having an affair. But she also claimed she had no idea who would have killed Betty, and insisted that she had been alive when she had been alive when she had

she left the Gore home on the morning of June 13th. Hours after the interview, investigators found a match to the fingerprint on the freezer in the Gore's utility room. A perfect match. It was Candy Montgomery's thumbprint. On June 26, 1980, Candy Montgomery was arrested. She was looked over for evidence of a struggle on her body. Candy and her husband Pat decided to hire attorney, Dan Crowder,

who attended the same church, and Dan Crowder would later tell the Fort Worth Star Telegram. Without her consent, she was strip searched, stating they took off her clothes and took photographs of her. The next day, Candy posted a $100,000 bail and was able to leave the jail. She attended church services just two days after posting bond. People couldn't believe it. There were whispers. There were gasps during the church service.

on July 8th, there was another headline about Candy in the Dallas Times Herald asking Candy Montgomery, is she a killer? In that article, one friend claimed Candy doesn't have a dark side. Attorney Robert Udashin later told Oxygen.com, 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. And it's always interesting to me what people say about individuals who are accused of a crime. You know, a lot of times, even with some of the most heinous serial killers that we've covered, neighbors come out and say, you know, I just can't believe it.

That person was such a good guy. So helpful. You know, we cut my grass or take out my garbage or whatever it is. Here you have someone saying, well, you know, she was very likable. She went to church. She was in the choir at church. She even taught Sunday school. And I get all that. But, you know, at the end of the day, the question I have is, okay, what does that mean in regards to a person being a killer? Does it mean they couldn't kill or just that you would be shocked if you found out that they were a killer because the picture in your mind that you have of them is so far removed from that. I think so many people have a image in their mind of a brooding, scary killer, maybe someone with a long history of breaking the law,

violent tendencies, that kind of thing. And in many cases, it turns out that the person is a normal person, productive member of society, that's your neighbor and goes to church with you. So it must have been shocking when this happened for all these people that knew Candy. Yeah, no doubt. I think it's always going to be shocking because what this person is being accused of doing doesn't line up with, you know, the thoughts, the things that you have in your mind when you think about them. Attorney Dan Crowder had his work cut out for him defending Candy Montgomery.

They had footprints at the scene indicating a woman may be the killer. and most damning they had candy's print but crowder told the fort worth star telegram if it were her thumbprint there could be any number of explanations for it explaining that his client had been in the gore home quite a bit despite the thumbprint having been left in blood Crowder argued that the print could have already been on the freezer door, only to end up smeared with blood. Another reason this was going to be an uphill battle for Dan Crowder was because he had never tried a criminal case before. He was a personal injury attorney. That would change in October 1980 when Candy went to trial. And Crowder asked fellow attorney Robert Udashen to help him with the case. Judge Tom Ryan ordered that the older closed courthouse be reopened for the Candy Montgomery trial,

due to its higher capacity. 250 people could sit in the gallery and watch the trial. This was the largest courtroom in all of Collin County. And trial Crowder laid out his case. Candice Montgomery killed Betty Gore. She did so with an axe, but she did so in self-defense. The homicide was justified. He told jurors, a jury of nine women and three men had been chosen.

30-year-old Candy was the first witness. to take the stand in her own defense. She told the part of her story that had always been true. On the morning of June 13th, she had visited the Gore home to pick up Alyssa's bathing suit. She had spoken to Betty, who was fine when she arrived. They spoke as they always did. But this time, after a bit of small talk, Betty confronted Candy, saying, Candy, are you having an affair with Alan?

Candy acted surprised. and in a way she really was. She had no idea that Betty could have known about the affair. According to her, she told Betty, no, of course not. But Betty pressed her, saying, but you did, didn't you? Candy said she came clean and admitted to Betty that she and Alan had once had an affair, but she told her that it had already ended and that it had been over for quite some time, seven months, actually.

Still waiting for Alyssa's bathing suit, Candy apologized to Betty for the affair with Alan. According to Candy, Betty excused herself and stepped into the garage. And then seconds later, Betty stepped back into the utility room and came into the kitchen, holding an axe. According to Candy, Betty yelled suddenly, you can't have him and rushed at Candy with the axe. Struggling over the axe, Candy tried to reassure that the affair was over and that she didn't need to do this. Candy yelled, I don't want him.

Betty hit her in the head with the axe and struck her foot, too, causing the wounds investigators found on Candy after her rest. Candy claims that as they fought, Betty had the audacity to shush her, and it was this shushing and not being attacked, not being injured, that sent her into a fury. She managed to knock Betty down, overpower her, and didn't stop striking her with the axe for 41 full swings. Suddenly it was over. Candy was standing out of breath over Betty who was dead on the floor.

And Candy may have been in shock. According to the Dallas news, Candy stripped and then took a shower to wash the blood off herself, saying, I felt so guilty, so dirty. I felt so ashamed. Then she wiped down the exterior of the freezer, grabbed Alyssa's bathing suit, and rushed home to change her clothes. She washed her burgundy blouse and found a similar pair of jeans to cover the wound on her foot. She changed into a pair of sneakers. When her skirt was dry, she went back to Lucas United Methodist to teach vacation Bible school.

According to Texas Monthly, already late, she memorized her spiel on the way there. When she encountered a friend in the church parking lot after arriving back, Candy said, I went down to Bettys and we just got to talking. And then I looked at my watch and thought I had time to go to Target and get Father's Day card. and get Father's Day cards, and I drove all the way to Plano. But then when I got there, I realized my watch had stopped and I was late, so I didn't even go in. We're taking Alyssa with us tonight to see the Empire Strikes Back.

That reminds me, I'd better go check on the kids. And obviously, more, if we're going to talk a lot about what things point to Candy's guilt, you know, what things might point away from her guilt, there's no doubt that this is the case that divides people and we'll get into that. But, you know, what I want to talk about is this vicious attack, no matter how it went down, because we'll get into that later, the 41 blows. And what this attack must have been like, she decides to clean up. She changes, but then, you know, really, she just goes back to the rest of her day. And I think that's what a lot of people find so very strange in this whole thing. Yeah, there's no question that she tried to paint a

picture that her day was pretty normal and nothing uneventful happened while at Betty's house or afterwards. And we know, obviously, that that wasn't true information, that this was a lie that she told. Well, and a lot of people have questioned, you know, how does someone hit somebody killing them with an axe 41 times and then go back to church and teach vacation Bible school to children. How does someone do that? And what does it mean? Right? That's that's the type of things that we need to get into. Is she doing all this because it's part of some pre-conceived master plan that she had to try and get away with this? Or did she panic after the fact and say, oh, whatever? I done, they're going to think I murdered her, and then she's just trying to cover up that part of it.

I have to be as normal as possible. And I think this is one big thing that the jury's going to have to wrestle with. Later, back at home, the phone rang incessantly with news of what Candy already knew, that Betty had been found dead. When Candy was told that it appeared Betty had been shot, she was careful not to correct the caller and say that she had actually been hacked with an axe. Candy cut up the sandals she had been wearing with a pair of garden shears as she spoke on the phone, maybe still in shock. Dr. Fred Fasen testified in Candy's defense. Fasin had examined Candy prior to her trial, using hypnosis to access her memories. He claimed that sometime in the 1950s, when Candy was about four years old, she had accidentally cut herself with a broken glass

so badly she required stitches. At the hospital, Little Candy was basically hysterical and couldn't be consoled. And her mother really didn't try to console her. Instead, she was embarrassed by the attention Candy's racket was causing, and her mom shushed her. Fasen theorized that during the attack, after Betty wounded and shushed her, Candy experienced a dissociative reaction. She was aware of doing the act, but didn't comprehend what she was doing. The prosecution disagreed with Dr. Fasin. the prosecutor said, you're not going to swing an axe, 28 times or 41 or however many times it was in this case, and not know what you're doing. Psychiatrist Clay Griffith, who did not examine Candy herself, only the records in testimony,

agreed with the prosecution, saying that Candy's behavior was very goal-oriented and manner, not someone wondering around, not knowing what to do. polygraph examiner Don McElroy also testified in Candy's defense. In his opinion, Candy was being truthful when she stated that she killed Betty in self-defense. During his closing arguments, Crowder told the jury that the prosecution had presented not one word of evidence that has refuted the testimony of self-defense. The trial ended after eight days and the jury deliberated for just two hours. jury foreman, Bob Schneider, announced the verdict to the courtroom. Not guilty. The courtroom was silent, as Pat Montgomery ran to hug his wife. According to UPI.com, as they exited the courthouse, the shock public shouted at candy, murderer, murder, murder. One spectator yelled, how can they let a confess murderer go free? Another one jeered. Now she'll be able to sleep with some other woman's husband. Spectator Doris Howard felt that the prosecution hadn't proven their case. juror Alice Doherty Raleigh told the Dallas news that the type of attack and the number of injuries

never had any bearing on the verdict at all, saying that whether it was one gunshot or 1,000 wax, it didn't matter. And to be honest with you, I was kind of shocked by that statement. Because normally, that does matter. You know, if you think about someone shooting a person and claiming self-defense, normally there would be, a difference in one or two shots versus, you know, unloading an entire magazine, reloading, and then unloading that one. And I think you could make somewhat of a comparison here with the 41 ax blows. Yeah, and I can see that line of thinking where someone has to stop and reload.

I think, obviously, it's a little bit different with an axe. There's no stopping and reloading. It's just how many times you swing the axe, but I could definitely see that. Alan Gore remarried months after Candy's acquittal to neighbor Elaine Cliff. Eventually, they moved to California, somewhere near San Jose and then divorced. In 1988, the girls, Bethany and Alyssa, were adopted by Betty's parents with Allen's blessing. In 2000, Bethany, who was there at home when her mother was killed, but was much too young. to remember anything told the Dallas Morning News. I just wish I knew what really happened because nobody knows but her.

And I do think that's a very interesting statement because it does often come down when you have this type of killing to one person's work, the killer, because their victim is dead. They can't tell their side of the story. So what you're left with are the words from Candy Montgomery and the evidence. And then jurors have to, you know, put all of that together and decide whether or not the prosecution has proved their case. And obviously, in this one, they didn't think they did.

They didn't believe that they met their burden. According to Crim Library.org, when reporters tried to speak to Candy Montgomery before the 20th anniversary of Betty's death, Candy was firm, saying, I'm telling you in big bold letters, I'm not interested. According to the Dallas Morning News, by 2010, Candy was living in Georgia and had been certified as a family counselor.

She and her husband Pat were now using the last name Wheeler, which was Candy's maiden name. Pat has always stuck by his wife. In fact, prior to learning that Candy had killed Betty, he had found out about the affair between Candy and Alice. and had forgiven his wife, and he was looking forward to moving on from it. In 2003, Candy founded Restoration Ministries, which specializes in treating complex trauma. So we talked about it at the top of the show.

The homicide of Betty Gore has been told in many different forms of media. At this point, it's often referred to as the murder of Betty Gore, but can it really even be called a murder? officially, Candy was found not guilty of murder and can never be retried in the eyes of a jury. She acted in self-defense. Last year, the Hulu mini series called Candy aired and currently Love and Death is airing on HBO Max. Attorney Robert Udash, the only living member of Candy's legal team from 1980, consulted on the series just months ago in February 2020. You dash and clarified that he still thinks Candy did act in self-defense.

He was quoted in Preston Hollow Advocate magazine as saying, even though there was a lot of hostility to that decision, yeah, I think, I think we got it right. At the end of the day, we only have Candy's version of what happened that day, and there's still unanswered questions. According to some people, not everything adds up. It was never explained how Betty figured out about Candy and Allen's affair if she did. According to Alan, he had never come clean to Betty about it. Perhaps she just had a gut feeling or caught Alan and Candy staring at each other,

or maybe heard something said between them. According to Crime Library.org, there was also a letter that Betty sent to her parents back home in Candace on June 12th, the day before she died, which referred to her close friend Candy Montgomery. It would seem that if Betty referred to Candy as her good friend, that she had no suspicions about her just the day before she died, either something changed that morning or Betty didn't bring it up at all.

Perhaps Betty had tried to confide in her good friend Candy about her suspicions that Alan was having an affair, completely unaware that Candy was the one he had been seeing. We'll never truly know what the conversation was between Betty and Candy before the axe was first picked up and swung. According to Candy, Betty attacked her without warning and she did have physical injuries.

But some people wonder, if the final moments of Betty's life unfolded the way that Candy said they did. Some people still wonder if Betty, believing she was pregnant, confided in Candy about it, and that deep down, Candy wasn't over Allen. And it set off something violent in her, some kind of rage. It's the thought of Allen getting Betty pregnant. Now, we didn't mention it earlier when we talked about the autopsy, but it was determined that Betty was not pregnant.

This June will mark the 43rd anniversary of Betty's shocking death. And despite the passage of time, as evidenced by multiple TV productions about the case, it's clear that this case continues to fascinate and intrigue people to this day. And one of the reasons that I believe it does is because there are still so many unanswered questions. I said it earlier, but I do think this is a case that divides people. actually you and I are a little bit divided. It's something that we talked about in the preparation during the writing and the research of this case leading up to the actual recording.

We're a little bit split on it. Yeah, a lot of times we agree, we come to the same conclusions, but in this case, we're sort of the opposite spectrum. There's no question that Betty's death was a homicide. we talked off the air about homicide versus murder. There are two different things. The definition of homicide is the killing of one person by another, whereas the definition of murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human by another. So I think it's clear, at the very least,

Betty's death is a homicide, and there's no question that she died at the hands of Candy Montgomery. Even Candy admits that. But I think where we really differ is what happened, and how things went down. I think that it's possible that Candy was telling the truth, and she went there, as she said, to pick up a bathing suit for Betty's daughter. And something happened will never really know what,

but a conversation, something was said, and it led to violence. And I think a lot of people, maybe I'm in the minority there, but I think a lot of people think that she had some kind of grand plan in going there. Well, I don't know that I believe she had a grand plan of murder when she went over there, but I'm not 100% sure that it went down the way that she said it did. In my mind, I could see a conversation, maybe even an accusation on the part of Betty. Are you having an affair with my husband? Or I know that you had an affair.

with my husband and I could see candy realizing that if that came out, it could possibly be devastating to her. You know, with the church, with the community. We talked about how, you know, everybody kind of loved her. They thought she was a great person. Well, if it comes out that you had an affair with your friend's husband, how does that change the opinion of those in your circle, those in your church. You could make the argument that in that moment, she realized, I can't let this come out and she took action. Whether she grabbed the axe first or whether Betty had the axe and she got it away

from her, that part, you know, is up for debate. I think some of the things that I really struggle with, the 41 axe blitz. Okay. it doesn't scream self-defense to me. I go back to my earlier analogy, which it's not apples and apples. It might be apples and oranges, but if you shoot someone 15 times

and then you reload and you shoot them another 15 times, is that self-defense. And then you have the rest of Candy's Day. And you have to figure out what in your mind you make of it. You know, she goes on about her day. There were some reports that she even, you know, went out to lunch with friends. She definitely went back to the church. She taught, you know, vacation Bible study to children.

And this is after hitting her friend with an axe 41 times cleaning up. And, you know, it's just, it's hard to make sense of all of it. Now, I don't know that she went over to Betty's house with the intention of murdering. her. But I don't believe it went down exactly the way that she has said it did. So what I will say is this would have been a pretty tough case for a jury. I could see how it would have been. And at the end of the day, you know, it really comes down to the jury. Do they believe not even so much in Candy's guilt or innocence? But do they believe, you know, do they believe, you know, it really comes down to the jury? You know, do they believe? And, you know, not even so much in Candy's guilt or innocence. But do they believe that the prosecution has met their burden of proof?

Because a lot of times those two things can be different. As a juror, you could absolutely believe that someone is most likely guilty, but at the same time, not be able to say that the prosecution has proven it or met their burden. And I just think this is a case where you can see, see how a jury could find reasonable doubts because we're debating it. It's not so cut and dry. Yeah, and I think we definitely agree that this was clearly a homicide that Candy took Betty's life. That part's not up for debate. I think what really clouds the water is the amount of wax with that axe because it does seem like overkill and it does seem like a frenzy. And to me, it doesn't seem like Candy would purposely attack her with that many wax of an axe just to kill her.

To me, it screams frenzy, heat of the moment, and maybe it goes back to what the doctor that analyzed her said, that it was connected to some kind of trauma. And I don't know how, if Candy's telling the truth, I don't know how she would respond in that moment. Like if any one of us, you or I were defending ourselves and in a knockdown, drag out, battle over an axe, where would we stop, you know, during that heated moment or so when this is all going on? I think it's hard to say what we would do, how we would react, and would we just get up and run away after hitting someone once, or would we keep battling until we felt that. the person we were battling wasn't a threat anymore. I think what's clear, as far as we can tell from everything, both of these women had no history of violence in their past. They were all, they were both well respected, no criminal records, no hints that anything like this would happen. It really comes down to whether you believe Candy's version of events. Did she really defend herself?

and this was a frenzied defense, or was this a frenzied attack on her ex-lover's wife? Yeah. And I think that's why, first of all, this case fascinates people because of that kind of ambiguity that exists and also because I think people are divided. They're going to take a stand one way or the other. But like we said earlier, you only have. Candy's version of events. Now, you have the version of events proposed by the prosecution, but you don't have

Betty's side. You can't have it because she was killed. You know, one question that I would like to bring up is at what point could self-defense turn into murder? You know, just going back to this 41 wax. obviously it didn't take 41 wax with that axe to kill Betty Gore. And my thought is that that probably has changed over time and it probably varies, you know, state by state.

Do you have the right to defend yourself? Yeah, absolutely. But what does that mean? Does it mean once you've incapacitated someone and you're no longer in danger that you stop and you get away or that you can keep going until that person is dead. I think that's a real question. Yeah, and I think it's, it is valid question. And you, again, as I mentioned earlier, unless you're in that position,

it's easy to say, okay, I would hit them once and then run away, once you're incapacitated. But if you're in that frenzy and that fight for your life, who knows what might happen, especially if there is real history in Candy's past about her mom shushing her and Betty allegedly shushing her during this incident. Maybe it's somehow set off some kind of deep rage that was buried someplace down. I don't know. I'm not an expert on that. But I do go back to a couple of things that have to be looked at. and one is it pretty clear that Candy didn't go there with intent. She didn't bring a weapon, at least.

And the axe that was used was the Gore's axe. But I wonder, a couple of things that make me think that Betty could have attacked her, was Betty would have known where this axe was and could have walked into that garage and got the axe. But also, Candy did have injuries. So we know she was hit unless she hit herself. I mean, we could go down that road and say she hit herself to make it look like she was defending herself. But then again, she tried to hide these injuries. So, you know, I would make the assumption that she was hiding them because she really suffered those injuries,

not because she wanted people to think that she was injured trying to defend herself. So I would take another position, which is one that I think a lot of people do take. and that's that the injury was on her foot. If you're swinging an axe 41 times, how easy is it for that axe to come down and hit you in the foot? And then why would you want to hide that? Because you don't want people to connect you to the death. So again, you and I could go back and forth all day long.

And I think people do online. And it's what fascinates. so many people about this case. So if Candy didn't go there with murder in mind, didn't bring her own weapon, if this really was a heat of the moment thing, and she killed Betty while not defending herself, what would the appropriate charge have been?

Yeah, I think you probably take first degree out, right? If there was no intent, if she didn't go over there with the intention of murder, you're probably looking at second degree, manslaughter, I guess. I don't know, something like that. But at the end of the day, we can speculate. We can go back and forth. We can even argue, which is fun. To be honest with you, it's sad that Betty Gore lost her life. But I don't know that we'll ever know the absolute truth. There's no compelling reason for candy at this point so many years later to come

out and tell a different story if it really did happen in a different way than than she said back then. Although technically she could come out and do that and say, you know, here's what really happened. I killed her. I went over there and planned it and did it. And they couldn't charge her again. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. She could. She absolutely could. And she could profit from it, right? If she wanted to. So maybe that says something about her. I don't know, man. I am so up in the air. and like I think a lot of people are. And the other thing is, I think you have to be careful in watching these shows that we mentioned.

Because a lot of times these shows paint it in a certain way. And obviously, there is some, at least in the Hulu version, some things that were done for dramatic effect that actually didn't happen. So a lot of times people watch these shows and they get an impression, but it's because some of the facts are a little twisted for entertainment purposes. But at the end of the day, it's just a fascinating, tragic case that people are going to be talking about for years to come. But if you love the show and you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out, give us a rating, you can leave a review. Keep telling your friends, that word of mouth about the criminology podcast. really goes a long way.

If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to facebook.com slash criminology podcast. Or you can join our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast discussion in fans. So that is it for another episode of criminology. But Morp and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode.

So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.