Snapped: Women Who Murder - Candy Montgomery

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Investigators work to uncover the truth behind a local church scandal in order to pin down a most unlikely suspect after a young Texas teacher is found axed to death on Friday the 13th.Season 30 Episode 15Originally aired: January 16, 2022Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Celebrity beef, you never know if you're just gonna end up on TMZ or trending on Twitter or in court. I'm Matt Bellasife and I'm Sydney Battle and we're the hosts of Wonder E's new podcast, Dis and Tell. Each episode explores a different iconic celebrity feud from the buildup, why it happened, and the repercussions. What does our obsession with these feuds say about us? We're starting off with a pretty messy love triangle between Selena Gomez and Justin and Haley Bieber, a seemingly innocent TikTok of Selena talking about her laminated eyebrows. It's snowballed into a full-blown alleged feud. But it doesn't seem like fans are letting up anytime soon.

Despite both Selena and the Bieber's making public statements denying any bad blood. How much of this esteemed jealousy and lovers quarreling, and how much of it is a carefully crafted narrative designed to sell albums? Follow Dis and Tell wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wonder-ya. Wonder-y's new podcast Dis and Tell wades into the glorious mess of celebrity beef. Each episode explores a different iconic celebrity feud, and asks, what does our obsession with these feuds say about us?

Follow Dis and Tell, wherever you get your podcast. You can listen to Ad Free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app. A grizzly crime straight out of a horror movie rocks a Dallas suburb. It made national headlines, you know, the Ashmer. I think that the boogie man, phenomena, was in people's minds. I can't understand why anybody would act somebody 40 times on Friday the 13th. You couldn't find a more startling contrast. This little suburban home, this bloody scene.

If I started getting telephone calls, you know your daughters are next. As the investigation begins, a dark betrayal comes to light. They were couple friends and their kids socialized together. He named one of her good friends as the person he had the affair with. It results in the most horrific confrontation that you can imagine. When the killer is revealed, this quiet community will be left wondering if justice will ever be served. She was everybody's best friend.

She was the least likely suspect in the world. The whole courtroom just roared, because they could not believe that that was the verdict. It really is. Just kind of appalling that something like this could happen here. It's a story about the dark side of the suburbs. from the hustle and bustle of Dallas City life. This little town with an old church and an old courthouse and an old police department, it was self-consciously quaint. Wiley's a small community, very slow moving,

slow-paced community. It was a very friendly community. You know, it's really tight and yet. But on the night of June 13, 1980, a friendly community, you know, it's really tight and it. But on the night of June 13, 1980, the charm of Wiley is shattered when resident Richard Parker receives a panic phone call around 11 p.m. from his neighbor, Alan Gore. Alan Gore was in Minnesota on a business trip saying, I can't get my wife to answer the phone. Something must be wrong.

He started getting really concerned after several hours not building a reticle. Richard agrees to check in on Allen's 30-year-old wife, Betty Gore, and recruits neighbors to go with him. They went around front and they assumed that the front door would be locked. And one of them just, I chance, tried the door, and it opened. It wasn't locked.

The men cautiously enter the home calling out for Betty. But the only response is a chilling crime. The gors had two children. There was a baby. There was about a year old that was in her crib. She was crying and wet. I mean, she'd obviously been in the crib all day. Now they were truly scared.

Of course, they got the baby out of there immediately. Gave it to one of the wives of the men. The goers had another child. There was about five years old who was actually spending the night at a friend. They knew from Allen. She had been there. They've looked in every other space in the house

and they can see blood on the doornotes. So they've decided to go look in the utility room. There's light coming beneath the door, so it's lit up, so they think, well, I was looking. And one of them tentatively does. And he sees Betty lying on the floor, completely covered in blood. Immediately says to the two other guys,

oh, my God, she's blown her head off. His instinct is that she had committed suicide. There was no enormous amount of blood. I mean, the blood literally was a half inch to an inch deep around Betty Bond. Born in 1950, Betty Pomeroy grew up in small town, Kansas, the older sister to two brothers. She was very popular. Born in 1950, Betty Pomeroy grew up in small town, Kansas, the older sister to two brothers.

She was very popular. She was involved in all kinds of school events, music, plays, student council. She wanted to be an elementary teacher really from the word go. While pursuing her dream in college, Betty met an ambitious grad student named Alan Gore. Alan was a graduate teaching assistant and Betty was one of his students.

As soon as she wasn't a student of his any longer, they got together and they were fairly quickly fell in love. She saw a very intelligence smart guy that had a good education, you know, and was capable of doing bigger things. I'd say, ah, next thing, you know, he'll be asking, you know, Mary, and she said, yeah, he did. She was very excited. She was very happy.

I did. She was very excited. She was very happy. On January 25, 1970, Betty and Alan tied the knot in her hometown. She was beautiful in her wedding dress. That's certainly true. Everybody knew her into the whole town was excited. Following the wedding, Alan took a job

at a prestigious computer company. He was a big shot in the electronics field and was off to Dallas to live a very successful life and have children and everything that she wanted. She was a success story from a small town in Kansas. In the late 70s, after the birth of their daughter Alicia, the gores left the big city and settled in the suburb of Wiley, where Betty quickly got a job in the local school system. They didn't have to worry about money. I mean, I think he made good enough money, and of course, her being a schoolteacher,

I'm sure helped out considerably too. As they settled into their new home, the gores found community at a local church. They started going to this church, along with everybody else who were their peers, just because, you know, they'd always gone to church, growing up, and it was a social center for them.

It was there that Betty befriended a beautiful young housewife named Candy Montgomery. 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. She was on committees in the church. She grew up moving around all over the place, and with a dad who was in the army, he had to learn to be very social and sociable. She was rebellious, and she always

had an eye for the boys. She was always trying to live a more exciting life. When Candy met her future husband, Pat Montgomery, she took a step back from the excitement and became a new version of herself. She had made a decision after she met Pat that she was gonna go the more traditional route. I wanna be a housewife and a mom, and you know, that's it.

And when she met Betty and Allen, she had it all, the Church of Family and Friendship. They were couple friends and their kids socialized together. Their daughters would spend the night at each other's houses, and they would, you know, go swimming together or go to the movies together. They were close because their children were close. But Candy and Betty's friendship was put to the test when Betty welcomed her second child in 1979. Betty was prone to depression.

She was particularly prone to postpartum depression. As Betty struggled with her mental health, her relationships began to suffer, especially her marriage. They weren't real connected, and the marriage wasn't really good. There was a program called Marriage Encounter that was sanctioned by the Methodist Church. They went to this marriage encounter weekend, and they were genuinely transformed by it.

They fell in love all over again. They were doing better, and in fact, they were planning a European vacation. She was looking forward to that. But with a trip less than a week away, Looking forward to that. But with a trip less than a week away, the potential for a fresh start has come to an end as Betty lies dead in the laundry room. There was a body lying on the floor with a great deal of blood.

There were blood spatters and the blood smeared all over the room. Betty's neighbors quickly call the Collin County Sheriff's Office. When detectives arrive, they are troubled to find that it appears to be something straight out of the horror movie. When the police looked at the scene a little more closely, the axe was in the room where Betty's body was found, and it was clear Betty had not been shot

if she had been killed with the axe. You could see multiple wounds to the body from an axe. You can actually see where the blade entered on both her hands and arms as well as on her head. It was a vicious set of blows to the body, the face, the arms, the head, the torso, even into the legs. This was Macop. It had the feeling of a horror movie.

This outlandish, big, exaggerated melodramatic violence in a place where people rarely raise their voices to one another. Coming up, a small clue holds big potential. Someone had been in there and left behind some smear blood. And detective speak to their first suspect. She had it brutally murdered. He should have been a fast-paced case.

You know, I would think, you know, what's going on? You know, I would think, you know, what's going on? MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC On June 13, 1980, investigators in the small town of Wiley, Texas have just come upon a scene unlike anything they've ever encountered.

MUSIC You couldn't find a more startling contrast than this victim and the context, this little suburban home, and this bloody scene, it was unthinkable that something like that could happen in that place. It was Friday, June 13th. The first Friday, the 13th movie had just come out. And I think that the Boogie Man phenomena

was in people's minds. MUSIC 30-year-old mother and teacher Betty Gore lies dead in her suburban home, the apparent victim of a real life horror story. This was overkill of the first order, and it was represented not only by the number of blows in the body, but to the blood spatters and the blood smears all over the roof. Investigators quickly get to work.

I could see that there was a struggle. There was the utility room. And the kitchen were all, it was a very confined space. You could see that it wasn't just, you know, river of blood, that there were spots and splashes. You had evidence that someone had tried to clean the floor and clean some of the other surfaces in the utility room. Unsuccessfully, as though they had started cleaning it, saw that it was impossible, there was too much blood,

and then left. In doing so, the killer left behind a potential clue. On the freezer, I found a thumbprint that was in place. That type of device, usually you can't lift a print off of it, but they were able to take a photograph of it. Investigators soon discover another striking clue in the laundry room, a bloody footprint. You know, how the intentional, the bottom of a flip-flop

has got those three little holes. You know, how the intentional, the bottom of a flip-flop out it's got those three little holes. So we knew that someone was wearing a shower shoe. As detectives continue to scour the house, they find another telling clue left behind in the killer's desperate attempt to clean up. Down the hallway, inside the bathroom, I saw some blood on the hull, from the shower wall.

And then around the drain, I saw blood and also hair, lots of hair. It was abundantly clear that someone had been in there and left behind some smeared blood and it looked like the person had showered. some smeared blood and it looked like the person had showered. As they wrap up their survey of the house, investigators notice a final chilling detail.

They had found the Dallas Morning News. I think it was opened to movies for that weekend. And it was home to the page where there was a big ad for the shining, which involves an axe murder. And there was some blood dripped there. There was an axe there, there was a lot of blood, there were bloody footprints in the house, and then there was a lot of speculation about what happened. I mean was this a stranger that did it? Was it a vendetta killing? Did she know someone?

After processing the horrific scene, investigators head next door to speak with Richard Parker, the neighbor who called 911. We want to know what the neighbors' ones are reported to need. As Richard speaks to detectives, his phone rings. One of the cops answered the phone, and this is Alan Gore, what's going on there.

You know, because he didn't realize the police were already there or the police were there at all. Police officer told him, well, I'm sorry to tell you that we found your wife. She's deceased. Alan agrees to come home immediately. And before hanging up, provides a rundown of his whereabouts. Alan left it in the morning of June the 13th to go to work,

and then caught a flight to St. Paul, Minnesota later that afternoon. Alan says he travels frequently for work, but he and Betty always kept in close contact while he was on the road. She knew that he was arriving in Minneapolis at a certain time and they would normally talk on the phone as soon as he arrived in the distance city on his business trip. Alan called Betty before he got on the phone as soon as he arrived in the distance city on his business trip. Alan called Betty before he got on the plane to go to Minnesota and she didn't answer. So he took his flight, went to Minnesota, and then tried calling her again when he got there.

And she stood in answer. Alan continued to try to call Betty, couldn't get her, and then he called the neighbor. And so for her not to answer the phone for hours, was so far off of their pattern that he knew something had to be wrong. Investigators note that while Allen is being cooperative, his tone is oddly even keeled. My gosh, if my wife had been murdered, I think I'd be boo-hooing, I mean, it wasn't that case.

It wasn't like that. He should have been a basket case, I would think. Here he's got the mother of his two children who have been brutally murdered. What's going on? Everybody reacts to tragedy in a different way. And so I'm not really faulting him for that. I mean, he didn't seem emotional.

Alan was really pretty cold in my estimation. It seemed very strange to the police that Alan goes out of town. He's the first to report that something's wrong. And meanwhile, his wife is dead in the house. And so the initial assumption was, well, he must have killed her right before he left town. So you start looking at those aspects.

Now he becomes more of a suspect. Coming up, investigators follow a new lead. One of Betty's brothers answered the phone and someone said, I killed her. And authorities sit down with a key witness. This little girl went over and probably interrupted or was there a good time to homicide. She was apparently the last person to see Betty alive. [♪ Music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in background, music playing in is a decade-long saga with an unlikely cast of collaborators, all pushing towards one goal to bring the abortion pill to America.

It's a story that has mostly been forgotten to history until now. Here in my hand is a prototype of that pill. Can we find a patient who wanted to do this? Our telephone was tapped. We were afraid that, you know, the lab would get blown up. Oh, we want to place it at the table. I don't want to place it at the table. Not their table.

I want to turn their table into firewood. I'm TJ Raphael, and on the new season of Cover Up, The Pill Plot, I'll take you on the wild ride to get the abortion pill into American hands. Whatever it took. Subscribe on Apple wild ride to get the abortion pill into American hands. Whatever it took. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts to binge all episodes of Cover Up the Pill Plot, or listen weekly wherever you get your podcasts. Texas have just honed in on their first suspect in the brutal murder of 30-year-old Betty Gore, her husband, Alan.

It's rare that a stranger killing will mutilate the face. But an acquaintance or someone close to the victim will frequently try to eviscerate the face to make the person disappear. And that made Alan Gourd the top suspect at the beginning. As investigators wait for Alan to get back to Wiley, news of the gruesome murder of this well-known mother and teacher

spreads quickly through the small town. The fact that it happened on Friday the 13th, everybody was breaking out over that. Everybody was afraid of everybody at that point. They thought there was like a psycho killer or something like that wandering around. It made national headlines, you know, and people concerned about here, you know, the axe murder.

To investigators, however, the violence strikes them as more intimate. I wasn't worried about this being an outside person, crazy person. This was going to be pretty personal. They counted out the number of axe chops, and there's 41 times the total. Axe barks that they actually counted in 28 in the head. There were a number of blows that were struck after she was down on the ground and already dead. There was so much overkill here.

How many of these wounds to the head would have killed her? Do you need to do any more? This was just rage. Looking at the evidence before them, investigators can only think of one person responsible. When we walked into the kitchen, there was burnt coffee. Suggested time frame was a number of hours early morning

out. Alan could have killed Betty before he went to work and then gone to work at his normal time and flown off to Minneapolis. They looked at him real hard, but there were footprints on the Lennelium in the utility room, and they could tell that it was a flip-flop and that it was too small to be a man's.

And so at that point, they were flimaxed. At that time, we were looking for someone in small and stature with a child or woman. On June 14, 1980, hoping to make sense of their conflicting leads, investigators head back to the Gore Home, where they find Allen, along with his two daughters and Betty's family from Kansas. He went until Allen got back home, he flew back to Dallas,

that he found out what really happened. Allen is pretty low-key, you know, he doesn't seem to show emotions too much about Betty. He just didn't have the emotion that somebody should have had. It was just another day, you know, just wasn't no big deal. It was just that kind of odd with everybody or the family. Instead of interviewing Alan at his home, investigators opt to give him space to prepare for Betty's funeral. But before they leave the Gore residents, one of Betty's brothers, Richard Pomeroy,

approaches them with a disturbing story. The day after my sister had been killed, we had people calling, claiming they had killed her. Someone called Betty Gore's home, and one of Betty's brothers answered the phone, and someone said, I killed her, and the brother hung up. We had one caller that claimed that they were the one that did it.

I was happy to pick up the phone when that happened. They started getting telephone calls to their house. Like, OK, you know, your daughter's her next. Investigators put a trace on the line hoping for another call. In the meantime, they canvass the neighborhood where they receive a tip from an unlikely source. There was a five-year-old girl who was playing in the street that morning.

Probably around 9 o'clock in the morning, this little girl went over knocked on the door to say a baby's daughter. Alicia was there and no one came to door, so she probably interrupted her as they were during the time of the homicide. According to the little girl, she did see one person she recognized that day,

the mother of one of her other friends from school. She saw a candyman gallery leave Betty's house, Friday morning at about 11 a.m. So we're thinking that she might be the last person to actually see Betty alive. We're thinking that she might be the last person to actually see Betty alive. Though the word of a five-year-old feels thin, detectives ask Candy Montgomery to come in for an interview

on June 15th. They were just interviewing her because she was apparently the last person to see Betty alive. The 30-year-old housewife explains she'd been at church until she ran a quick errand in the late morning. It was around 10, 30, 11 o'clock. She went to Betty's house to pick up a swimsuit for Betty's daughter because Betty's daughter is going to be spending the night with her

that they chatted for a few minutes. She got the swimsuit and left. And then she got back to church around noon for lunch. And then she got to swim, so she didn't laugh. Though Candy is forthcoming, at this stage, everyone is considered a possible person of interest. During the interview, we actually took her fingerprints. Because when we were there, we took fingerprints

of everyone that was in that house. Before she leaves, Candy lets them know they may find her prints in her friend's home. She talked about places where her fingerprints might be. She went to the utility room to get Alicia's bathing suit, and then she said she also went in the bathroom and combed her hair and washed her hands. She was very cooperative, you know, her friend had died, had been murdered, and she's just going to try to be as helpful as possible. After interviewing CANDY, detectives get word that one of Betty's brothers has just fielded

another disturbing phone call. I would answer the phone call and try to keep them on the phone as long as possible so they can trace it. And one of them they traced to a mental hospital. Investigators immediately raised to the hospital to speak to the caller. It turned out to be a mental patient making the call that really had nothing to do with the case.

The guy was, I guess, enjoying the fact that he could claim that he'd killed my sister and where it happened and all this. Well, another detail's added up, so we knew it wasn't true at all. Police were really scrambling around trying to find who did it. And they had no real leads for at least several days after this happened, and they were becoming concerned. We had the funeral down there in Wiley, and we were really just taking care of the girls as we could.

On June 16, just a few hours after Betty Gore is laid to rest, investigators finally sit down with her husband, Alan. According to Alan, his marriage was solid, although he admits that on the morning of the murder, they did get into an argument as he left for his business trip. She was afraid that she was pregnant again. Betty didn't do well with pregnancies, and she didn't think she could go through that.

Alan tells detectives he tried to touch base with Betty as soon as he could. So he calls, of course, you know, no cell phones then. So he had to call, and he, uh, calling her and she would never answer the phone. Since Alan's story hasn't changed, investigators allow him to leave while they follow up on his alibi. It was easy to confirm that he left that morning. He flew to Minette, to St. Paul. But the next morning, Alan Gore calls the chief to get something off his chest.

He thought about it that he probably should tell police more information. He was having a crisis of conscience, I guess, and he thought he needed to tell them that he had had an affair with this church member and friend of Betty's. The affair started about a year and a half, maybe before Betty was killed. The name of Alan's alleged mistress immediately sets off red flags. He named Candy Montgomery as the person he had the affair with. Coming up, details of a forbidden romance emerged.

They decide, OK, on this certain day, we're going to start the affair. You know, we're not going to get really romantically entangled. And detectives get a shocking admission of guilt. She said, I haven't done anything wrong. I did not murder her. Self-defense usually doesn't involve, you know, 40-hour blows. MUSIC MUSIC

MUSIC Just days after the brutal ax murder of teacher Betty Gore, her husband calls investigators to offer illicit details of his love affair with one of her closest friends. Alan Gore and Candy Montgomery had been having an affair. And so that created some suspicion, I think, both on Alan and Candy. Alan tells investigators things between Candy and him

heated up after a church volleyball game about a year and a half prior. She followed Alan to his car on the parking lot and said words to the effect of, well, I'm really attracted to you. And I think we should have an affair. He didn't quite know what to say. Alan says he and Candy decided to move forward

with one condition. We're not going to get involved, you know, beyond the physical. We're not going to get really romantically entangled. Finally, they decide, okay, on this certain day, we're going to start the affair and they go to a sleazy motel and have sex. They can start the affair and they go to a sleazy motel and have sex. But a few months in, Alan says his relationship with Betty started to change. Because of marriage encounter and what Betty and Alan were learning about one another, Alan decided I need to call this off.

It was beginning to be trouble for him. They mutually decided to end the affair, and so by the time Betty was killed, the affair had been over six or seven months. Alan tells investigators that he never told Betty about the affair, and he believes Candy had also moved on. But investigators aren't so quick to dismiss the revelation.

At that point, the investigators were suspicious of both Alan and Candy. I'm sure that that caused him to think even if Alan was in Minnesota, and maybe ask Candy to do it, they planned it. As detectives press Alan, he remains adamant he had nothing to do with his wife's death and his eager to prove it. He took a polygraph and passed with flying colors.

With Allen seemingly in the clear, investigators focus on Candies' alibi. During the interviews with her, she was teaching vacation Bible school to the Lucas Smith's Church. Detectives head to Candies Church to talk to those working directly with her the day of the murder, starting with Nancy Crandall. She did wonderful at the vacation Bible school.

Everything completely normal. Then she said, I probably run over to bedies and whilings. She said she was going to go over there and get a delicious swimsuit so she could take her to the swim classes. Nancy says Candy left around 9.45 in the morning and returned after 11, a little later than expected. She was a little more quiet,

a little bit more reserved, but other than that, completely normal. According to Nancy, there was one thing that was odd. Candy had changed clothes. She had on sleeves that came down to like her elbows, and it was kind of up, you know, high around her neck and everything, and I thought, man, that must be hot. I can't believe she's wearing something that hot.

That was suspect, you know, so you could actually change clothes and change shoes. Why? With Candy now at the center of the investigation, detectives summoned her to the Collin County Sheriff's Office on the morning of June 17th. Her position at that point was she didn't have anything to do with the killing. With nothing concrete to keep Candy and custody, detectives let her go, but do have one final request.

They had asked her about the polygraph, is there a kind of eliminator as a suspect, and then that's an eye shut down the polygraph. With candy unwilling to cooperate, investigators returned to the evidence. They knew they had a, like, a bloody thumbprint on the freezer in the laundry room. They hadn't impaired that print to anyone. Four days after Betty's murder, in the laundry room. They hadn't impaired that print, anyone. Four days after Betty's murder,

investigators pulled Candy's prints, still on file from her initial interview. The fingerprint specialist in the Dallas Sheriff's Office tried to lift that fingerprint. Unsuccessfully, however, he did have a really good photograph of it that he used and was able to identify it, the fingerprints from Candice Montgomery. Can't account for a how did a bloody thumbprint get on that freezer?

That you can't account for unless you were there and you committed the offense. Investigators also learned that Candy wears a size five shoe, a match to the size of the bloody flip-flop print found at the scene. All flashy arrows are pointing at her. As they wait for a warrant for candy's arrest, investigators formulate their own theory about what happened after candy arrived on the morning of Friday the 13th.

We can't know that because she's not with us, but she might have known he was having an affair. I think you can know that about a partner. You can sense that. This affair had gone on for about a year. Betty's out of sorts. Season terrible mood. She's depressed, upset, anxious,

Alan's gone, and here comes Candy to the house. She went over there to get the bathing suit, and I think what happened, they did get into an argument about the affair. Maybe it'd been in the back of Betty's mind, who knows, that there was an affair going on. And this is why I think it happened at the back door end from the garage.

There's lots of tools hanging up there. Candice gets that axe. There's the first tool implement that's hanging up there. She gets it, and she hits her. She knocked her, and she fell back in the utility room. There were 41 times where she was hit with the axe. And the crime of opportunity. I don't think it was a premeditated thing.

Realizing what she had done, detectives believe Candy quickly tried to cover her tracks. She actually went and cleaned up, and she actually went back and tried to clean up things. She swapped, and swapped on that freezer. Candy took a shower, went back to church, you know, didn't tell anyone. On June 27th, 14 days after Betty's gruesome murder,

detectives obtain an arrest warrant for Candy Month Gummary. There was media everywhere, there were spectators, there were cameras, there were four major TV stations in the area, all of them had their cameras there. She's arrested, and I'm the one who actually read her rights. Some female jailers do actually strip searcher taking all her clothes off the next mirror. They noticed all these bruises and also they cut on her toe.

News of Candie's arrest hits the town of Wiley almost as hard as the gruesome details of Betty's murder. I was just shocked. I was just completely in shock. I just, I could not believe that these two people that I like had one had killed the other one. It was just terribly shocking. I was shocked that it was this woman that had brought food to the house.

She was one of the church ladies that brought food over after my sister had been killed. As Candy continues to maintain her innocence, speculation runs wild about how the 30-year-old mother of two will plea. We're sitting there talking about the case, and they said, well, she's going to plea in sight. We've got her bloody thumbprint there. We got all this.

How are they going to plea? When her trial begins in October 1980, Candie's lead attorney presents his opening argument, revealing her much anticipated defense. He said something along the lines that we have quite a story to tell. Candie Montgomery did kill Betty Gore, and she did so in self-defense.

We were all shocked. She was talking to self-defense. We couldn't imagine anybody that would believe that when she was hit that many times, it was self-defense. Self-defense usually doesn't involve 40-hour blows. Self-defense is one blow and you run. Coming up, Candy tells her story for the first time.

She said Betty Gore comes back inside with an axe and starts confronting Candy about having an affair with her husband out. Betty told her, like, that's what supposedly set her off, and that's where she snapped right there. On day one of Candy Montgomery's murder trial, her attorney drops a bombshell that sends waves of shock through the courtroom.

Candy Montgomery did kill Betty Gore, and she did so in self-defense. And she did so with this act. But I firmly believe this was self-defense. She played, you know, not guilty about recent self-defense. She played, you know, not guilty about recent self-defense. To bolster their claim, the defense calls a 30-year-old candy-mott gummerie to the stand. She seemed like a genuinely concerned, nice person.

You know, I mean, she definitely had her game face on, I guess, because you wouldn't have thought that Kandy could have done this. She was a pillar of the community. She was everybody's best friend. She believed that as long as she held it together, no one would ever know, because she was the least likely suspect in the world. Candy explains when she went to Betty's house on June 13th,

her past affair with Alan was the last thing on her mind. In her mind, you know, the affair was over. Candy, when she went over there, she didn't know the Betty even knew there was an affair. She said Betty Gore goes out into the garage in her home and comes back inside with an axe. And starts confronting Candy about having an affair with her husband out.

She said Betty brought the axe forward. It bounced on the linoleum, and it sliced into one of Candie's toes and drew blood. Terrified, Candie claims she tried to leave the laundry room, but Betty blocked her. She gets the axe away from Betty and hits Betty and knocks Betty down. And Candie thought, OK, Betty's down, and she tries to go out the door and leave. And Betty pops back up and grabs the ax again. Candy's doing everything she can to leave the house, and she couldn't.

And so then they struggle over the ax then and Candy gets the ax and ends up killing Betty. Prosecutors quickly counter alleging that the excessive nature of Betty's murder goes far beyond self-defense. Reperson is a struck 41 times for the next, you know, and probably died in the first couple blows in the head. And it's overkill. We're self-defense. Candie's attorneys next call a psychiatrist to the stand. There was so much overkill here that I thought we really needed to explain what happened. I thought I needed a sender to a psychiatrist or a psychologist to just get

her evaluated as part of his evaluation process. He hypnotized Candy, and he was really just like watching a movie of what happened, and that convinced me without any shadow of a doubt that she was telling the truth. According to the psychiatrist, the events in the laundry room had triggered a memory in Candy. She was hit by a sharp fist from herself whenever she was a child. And it hurt her, and she's bleeding real bad. And her mother shook her and told her, shh, like that.

And that's what supposedly set her off because she said, Betty actually did that work. And that's where she snapped right there. That just set candy off. Candy's just hitting and hitting and hitting. She went into this dissociative reaction. After four and a half hours, the jury returns with a verdict. The whole courtroom literally line shoulder to shoulder

with Bayla separating us from all the crowd in the courtroom. The judge gets the verdict from the form and the jury and he reads it and it's a not guilty verdict. The whole courtroom just roared because they could not believe that that was the verdict. They were stunned. I mean, the people were just outraged. They just couldn't believe it. The jury was a jury of her peers. These were people from these little communities.

She knew many of them. Even decades later, questions around what really happened in the Gore home that fateful morning continue to linger. There's this dissatisfaction with their lives. And in this case, it results in the most horrific confrontation between two nonviolent women that you can imagine. It's a story about the dark side of the suburbs.

I feel like a sister got to be remembered as the warm, bubbly, highly motivated elementary teacher that she was. Shortly after the trial, Alan Gore moved out of state and remarried. Candy continues to live outside of Texas and has had no further run-ins with law enforcement. you