PASSION: An Affair, an Axe, and a Not Guilty Verdict

Hi everyone, before today's episode, we want to tell you about What the Fact. It's a new show from Conor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Conor's infectious energy will make you realize history is the most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow What the Fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact On. This is Crime House. It's time for our next rendition of Red Flag or Green Flag. And this episode has so many moments to choose from. How will we figure it out? So many. This is something that reminds me of the movie Pleasantville. This case takes place in a very, like, step-ford, Pleasantville world, a space where everything looks perfect, but absolutely nothing is. Okay, so the following scenarios are real life things that took place in the case we're going to share with you today, so you can play along and let us know if you were in a relationship and your partner did these following things, would it be a Red Flag or a Green Flag? Red Flag or Green Flag? They believe being needed is the same thing as being loved. Red Flag? Yeah, that's a sad flag. But a red flag, because not the same. Okay. Red Flag, Green Flag, they believe keeping the piece is more important than saying how they really feel. Look at me. I really do feel like both of these are targeted at me. I was a little motivated to rewrite them, so it didn't feel absolutely right, but everyone works on things. They work on these things, breaking out of my unhealthy learned behaviors from childhood. Oh, man. But okay, yeah, Red Flag or Green Flag? Oh, red flag. I know. It's a sad flag again. It's a sad flag. Yeah. But I'll also admit, red flag, it's one that I carry and I need to get better at. Yeah. Well, these scenarios, they seem benign and similarly our story today starts in a place that looks very calm, very familiar, very safe, a quiet Texas suburb where kids ride bikes in the streets and doors are left unlocked. It's the kind of neighborhood where everyone knows everyone, but no one really knows what's going on behind closed doors. This is the story of Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore, two women who were doing everything they were supposed to, keeping up with suburbia, good mothers, devoted wives, active in the church, doing their best to hold it all together in a world that really didn't leave room for many cracks. And it's also about what happens when that pressure builds. When secrets stay buried for a little too long, some things snows. Welcome to Crimes of Passion, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. Wear your hosts, Sabrina Deanna Roja and Corinne Vien. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the True Crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society. This season, we're stepping into the world of romance. Where love turns to obsession, where logic slips away, and raw emotion pushes people past the point of return. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, write, interview us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the Crime House Plus community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. Today, we're heading to a quiet Texas suburb to look at the case of Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore, a story of two women trying to hold everything together. Their families, their reputations, and their place in the community. But when something unthinkable happens, that sense of security shatters. And in a neighborhood built on trust, the lies, the secrets, and the truth are bound to come out. As always, we like to provide a content warning at the top of every episode. This episode contains descriptions of extreme violence, mutilation of a body, death, and a murder. If you're a fan of true crime like we are, you might have already heard of and be familiar with the name Candy Montgomery. But this story isn't just about one woman. It's about two. Two women living side by side in the same community, trying to do everything the right way. Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore had a lot more in common than anyone realized. And for a long time, their lives followed that same quiet path in suburbia. That is until something happened that forced everyone to look more closely. Not just at what went wrong, but at what had been quietly building beneath the surface. I know you said that this reminds you of the steppered wives a little bit. Yes. It reminds me of desperate housewives. Same, and I kept thinking about that, but I was like, it's so sad. I hate that we have to compare it to these movies and these shows, but it really does have that light. It feels fake. So opera, E. Yeah, you're like how is this happening? Right. These huge reveals so many twists, seemingly perfect people. I think it also talks about how or makes you think about the pressures of society. Maybe we should all just lay back a little bit, but stop trying to hold ourselves up to these standards that are maybe impossible to meet. I agree. Let's delete social media, get a couple chickens, go live in the woods, dream, and I'll be witches. Well, it always comes back to that. In 1980, Candy Montgomery seemed to have the kind of life that people admired. She had husband, two children, and a role in the community. Everything was as it was supposed to be. And just a few streets away lived Betty Gore. She too lived a very similar life, raising her children, showing up for church, trying to maintain order, as was expected. To the outside roles, these two women fit seamlessly into the same picture, copy and paste. That's what this neighborhood felt like, almost like Pleasantville. But that picture soon shattered. And police were called to the Gore home on June 13, 1980. What they found was something no one in that neighborhood could have imagined. Murder in the suburbs. The violence was so extreme and left investigators and neighbors desperate for answers. And at the center of it all, an axe. It's late on Friday night, June 13, 1980 in Wiley, Texas. And Jerry is at home winding down for the night. He has been looking forward to sinking into his recliner and cracking open the book he just picked up from the public library. He walks over to the chair and enjoys the feeling of the summer air that dances through the open windows and cools the house. But just as he's about to sit down, the phone rings. Jerry sighs as he looks at the phone, then to the clock. The 11 p.m., that's strange, who would be calling this late? Only one way to find out. Jerry picks up the phone to learn it's his neighbor, Alan Gore. He listens as Alan tells him that he's out of town for work. And he's been calling home all evening, but no one is answering. Alan is calling to ask Jerry to go check in to make sure everything and everyone is okay because Alan is worried. Jerry hesitates before agreeing to go check on Alan's wife. Jerry hangs up and then immediately dials two other neighbors, Lester and Richard. As Alan's concerned, if something is wrong, Jerry doesn't want to walk into something dangerous by himself. Jerry glances at his book with an apology, but a promise to be back soon and heads outside where he convenes with Lester and Richard. Together, the three men cross the alley toward the Gore House. The street is dark, except for the usual porch lights and dimly lit windows. They knock on the front door, but as expected, no one answers. Next, they try the windows. Then the door to the utility room. Then the garage. Nothing budgets. Richard goes around to the front, planning to break in through the front door. But as he turns the knob, the door swings open. It was unlocked the whole time. It shall run through all three of the men as they step inside the house. A few lights are on, but the house is otherwise dead silent. The men call out Betty's name. Nothing. So they spread out, looking in different rooms, trying to find some sign of her. And that's when Jerry hears it, a baby crying. The men race upstairs to find Bethany Gore, a baby crying in her crib, her hair tingled mess, and her diaper soil. She must have been left like this for hours, maybe all day. Alisa, the eldest gourd daughter, is nowhere to be found, and there's still no sign of Betty. The men try all the bedrooms, the bathrooms, everywhere. The only place they haven't looked is the utility closet. Lester opens the door, and peers inside. At first, she doesn't see her, because what he sees is horrific. The walls, the shelves, all of it covered in blood. There was so much blood, it literally looked like the walls had been painted red, yeah. And so amidst the blood, while not spotted immediately, there was a body. And it was Betty Gore's body. The site was nauseating, it was terrifying, unimaginable. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to me. walking on that just absolutely horrific. So Lester was in shock. Understandably so. He slammed the door shut, acting on impulse in adrenaline. He knew we had to do something. First he had to tell all the other men Jerry and Richard. Then he had to call the police and the worst matter at hand was who was going to tell Alan. Yeah. As they waited for police, still stunned and at a loss for words at what had just happened. These men decided that they had to call Alan and tell him the news. It would not be easy, but it had to be done. Lester called Alan and broke the news to him. Even he didn't really know what he had seen, but he said it looked like Betty had been shocked. And Alan, as he's receiving this news from Lester, he's barely aware. Yeah, he's hearing them, but he doesn't understand what Lester's saying. What does he mean? They didn't even have a gun in their house. And then what did Lester mean that Betty was dead? He had seen her just that morning when he was pulling out of the driveway. She had come outside to see him off, carrying their infant daughter in her arms. So how could this be true? How could his wife Betty be dead? As Alan is processing the news, the police quickly arrived to the scene. And even the police here are shocked at the crime scene. They had not seen anything like it before. The room, which is only 12 square feet, containing a washer, dryer, and a freezer and some shelves. Everything in this room is coated in blood. It's so thick, it looked black. And in the middle of this terrifying scene was Betty Gore, lying face up on the ground, her face practically unrecognizable from so many wounds. This is a small town. This doesn't happen here. The police don't deal with things like this. They didn't know what to do. And before a thorough analysis and investigation at first glance, they truly did believe that Betty had committed suicide. Yeah. Well, and even Alan at first thought that that was true with that Betty must have died by suicide because she had been dealing with depression and postpartum. And so he thought that, yeah, that could make sense. And he was really horrified that he hadn't gotten her help. And like that was starting to really weigh on him that he hadn't done enough and that she had died because he didn't help. But once they really looked at the crime scene, it painted a very different story. And again, I want to emphasize before I share the details, this is a really, really graphic scene. So keep that in mind before I get into the details. Betty Gore's body had been brutalized. There was no gun and no gunshot wound. Instead, Betty's body was covered from head to toe with massive deep gashes. Half of her face had been slashed cleanly off. One of the cuts was so deep it practically severed one of her arms from her body. Next to Betty's head, police then discovered the murder weapon. The wooden handle of an axe peeked out from underneath the freezer. So this murder weapon is an axe. And they are like this most definitely was not suicide. Yeah. Betty Gore had been murdered in her own home while her baby lay in the crib upstairs. So terrifying. And this itself is it's horrific. So of course, the community is having a really hard time processing what happened. And like you said, it's a small town. The police had never seen anything like this. The police are having a hard time processing was happening. Wiley, Texas, it was not the kind of place that violence and murder happened. And certainly not to this degree. This was not a dangerous neighborhood. This was a very safe place. In 1980, this was very small. It was a small suburb that was growing. It was outside of Dallas. So people were starting to get away from the city and have a quiet family-oriented life over here in Wiley. At least until this bloody discovery. This was a town where family came first. Community came second. And it was a place where people believed that if you follow the rules, which is get married, have kids, show up, do that part of life, then you will find peace. You'll have stability. And with this context in mind, you can understand how a crime, especially something so violent, just completely shook the entire community of Wiley. Yeah. Okay. So now they know it's a murder investigation. Police immediately searched the house for clues. And they start making a list of suspects in their head. Naturally, there's a lot of pressure to solve this case for multiple reasons. One, to get justice for Betty Gore, but also to keep this community calm, because now they're panicking like are we in danger? So they work the crime scene very carefully. Like I said, they found the murder weapon, which is an axe, and they discover Betty Gore had been struck more than 40 times, which indicated overkill. Yep. A crime of passion. Someone close to her has to be right. You would think there are no signs of force entry insinuating that Betty either opened into the door for the killer or because this was common at the time, the door had been unlocked. A bloody footprint was found in the laundry slash utility area, and a bloody thumbprint was discovered on a freezer. And then least discovered something unexpected in a bath. It was clear because there was blood all over the tiles, all over the sink and the towels that someone had tried to clean themselves off after the murder. But it's 1980s. The forensic technology, it's not what it was today. So if you're like, oh my gosh, they got got. Unfortunately, no, it wasn't that easy. Yeah. They were, however, hopeful that by examining Betty's body, it would yield some more clues. So trace evidence underneath her nails, her hair, her skin. Yep. And sure enough, the coroner did discover some strands of hair in Betty's hands and also stuck to her feet. The coroner said that they weren't sure that the hair actually belonged to Betty that perhaps this was the hair of her killer. Either way, it should be tested. But in order to really test these samples, including the fingerprints that they found in the freezer, they needed suspects to compare them to because again, there's no like DNA matching happening right here, which brings us to the next part of the investigation. Finding whoever the hell could have committed this heinous crime. According to statistics, the average person walks past 36 murders in their lifetime. Unlike in Hollywood movies, they're not easy to spot. They seamlessly blend into our everyday lives, assuming rules, as friendly neighbors, helpful colleagues, or even the person lying beside you each night. I wanted to be out of jail. I couldn't wait till I got out. I was in there with someone who was clearly psychopathic. Using investigative research and primary audio, morbidology is an award-winning true crime podcast that shines a light on the darkest corners of humanity. Through our investigation, we have attained evidence, which we are not releasing at this time, which leads us to believe Jolene is not alive. Turn into morbidology each week across all podcast platforms. With most crimes like this, police always had a primary suspect right away, so a woman is murdered alone in her house with her kids. Who do you think this suspect would be? A husband, of course. The husband did it. That's what it's, it's usually the case. The stats don't lie. So the cops are immediately suspicious of Alan, Betty's husband. But Alan hadn't alibi. He was out of town at the time of the killing. Plus, when the cops looked at the footprints on the linoleum, they realized that these footprints did not seem big enough to be a man, and certainly not Alan. So they're starting to think, maybe a woman did this, but who and why? Okay, so let's talk about Alan Gore. So yes, he had an alibi. He was out of town for work and was concerned about his wife, and he's the one who called the neighbors to go check in on her. But that also could have been his whole plan to appear innocent. Like was this premeditated? Did he have this plan to be out of town for work? But he actually committed this heinous act or hired a hitman or something, you know, that happens. Yes, it's suspicious if your wife isn't answering the phone, but like, do you immediately jump to something was wrong? I do. My parents were once at a brewery for four hours with no service, so their locations didn't load on my phone and they weren't answering and I called a wellness check. Karen is looking out for you. Someone was a little more paranoid than that. But in this situation, it could be played either way, where yes, it reinforces the alibi, or it could be like, he's trying to play a part. Also, the murder weapon is an axe. Axes are heavy. We know that it's not easy to swing it over and over. So the police are like, if someone swung the axe over 40 times, we think maybe it's someone stronger, larger, someone who can overpower Betty, and also stats don't lie. So they keep going back to this husband guilty. Right. So now they have kind of conflicting evidence where it's like, okay, the footprints don't appear to be Alan's or big enough to be most men. So they're like, they have in the back of their mind, so a female could be the suspect, but they're going to keep Alan as the primary suspect, especially given the force of the axe. So they don't clear him, they're working on finding a motive for Alan to murder his wife. What have made Alan so full of rage that he could have done this? But at the same time, they're also working other angles too, which I find responsible of them because sometimes that doesn't happen and that's how you get people wrongfully convicted where they're like the real murderer gets a panel vision on one person. Okay. So the police are like, if it's not Alan, who else had access to Betty or who else had the motive to kill her? Was the stranger a break in? And nothing was stolen, so they didn't think It was a robbery. There was also So I guess a newspaper article on the kitchen counter about a new movie that had just been released in the theaters, The Shining, and it talks a lot about, in this article, about the blood and the elevator scene. So there was a moment where there was like, "Is this some deranged killer who saw the shining and wanted to create their own version of it, given how the brown scene looked?" They don't really know. And so at this point, the autopsy report comes in and they really double down on the fact that this was incredibly personal. The corner determined that Betty Gore had been struck 41 times by the acts. Some of them were surprisingly shallow, just like a glancing blow. Others like the ones in Betty's head were much deeper on the corner, even so like it was so deep that you would think it would have killed her, but it actually happened. And this is really sad. The corner determined that Betty had been alive and felt the majority of, if not all of these blows. So so horrible. So it told of a fight, a struggle between two people, and by the angle of the wounds, the corner could tell that many of the cuts on Betty's head had been made head-on, meaning that the killer was standing above Betty. So terrifying for her. Yeah. But again, it seems super personal, right? This is overkill, that's typically a personal thing when overkill is seen that the person who's killed is known by the perpetrator, the murderer. Yeah, yeah. It crimes a passion. But the list of plausible suspects is pretty thin, so please start to feel a lot of pressure because the case is in danger of becoming a cold case. They decide to dig into Betty's social worlds and talk to people who are closest to her. This is why it's like reminding me of desperate housewives of it because it's like, then you start meddling in the neighborhood and the community and like big little lies a little bit. Oh, totally. Yes. Yeah. So they take statements from literally anyone and everyone. If they can't find the killer immediately, hopefully they can at least like piece together, timeline and understand what happened to Betty that day leading up to her murder. So as they do so, an unsuspecting witness comes forward with a very important detail that leads police to the last person to see Betty go alive. And that witness is a five year old girl. So according to this star witness, whose name is Tina, shout out to Tina. She saw someone stop at the Gore House earlier that day, someone she knew, someone most people in the community knew, Candy Montgomery. And Candy Montgomery is a well respected woman in the community. Everyone knew her. She was friends with Betty and with this information, they learned that Candy had stopped by Betty's home and might possibly be the last person to ever see Betty alive. So obviously, they're like, we need to go talk to Candy and find out if there was anything weird about her interaction with Betty. Did she see someone? Did Betty say anything? Right. Can Candy help provide pertinent information to help solve this murder? Right. Like is she going to help them find the killer? Exactly. So they call her down to the station and Candy comes willingly. She's clearly grief-stricken. She's like shocked at the loss of her good friend because she knew Betty. They met at church and she was clearly over that day. On the afternoon of Friday, June 13, 1980, Candy stopped by Betty's house to pick up Alisa's bathing suit. Alisa was Betty's oldest daughter and Candy was going to watch her later that day. She was going to take her own children and Alisa to their swim lesson, but Alisa didn't have her bathing suit so she knew to go back to the house and pick it up. So she stopped by the house to go grab the bathing suit and Candy and Betty talked for a little bit, but like no more than 15 minutes. There was nothing unusual to Candy about this exchange. And then Candy grabbed the swimsuit from the utility room, said goodbye to Betty and left. And when Candy left, Betty was certainly still alive. As a precaution in doing their due diligence, the cops asked Candy if she can bring in the shoes that she was wearing when she had gone to see Betty and Candy agreed. She is like doing everything the police ask. And as Candy leaves, the police do feel discouraged because they were hoping that Candy would have some more information and they feel like they're kind of in the same place they were before. So they circle back to Alan Gore because he really seems like the only person with a connection to Betty and really emotive even though they don't know what that is. They're like, maybe he knows more than he's letting on. So they bring him in for questioning and again, the conversation goes nowhere. Maybe the killer was just some psycho who drifted through towns and is like out of town now already in moving on and they'll never find him. But then the next morning, Alan Gore calls the police station. Yeah. He says there is something he didn't mention at the time he didn't think it was relevant. But now it's like ding, ding, ding, maybe this is a clip. And once you hear it, you're going to be like, this is the most fucking relevant detail on planet Earth. Like, why didn't he say this, but he saved it until now. So he is clearly nervous as he speaks. And he confesses to investigators that he had been having an affair. And he might be thinking the police probably thought, well, yeah, no, this is pertinent information. It's also motive for Alan to have killed his wife. Right. But then he says one more thing. Alan Gore was having a affair with none other than the last person to see his wife alive. Candy Montgomery. And I know we just dropped a massive cliffhanger there. I promise we'll get back to that plot twist soon. But to first understand how this story reached such a violent breaking point, we do want to step back from the crime itself and look at the world that Betty Gore and Candy Montgomery were living in. Because like we've said on the surface, everything looked stable. This was suburbia in Texas, quiet streets, familiar routines, everyone living up to status quo. But beneath that step for an exterior, there was something deeper, the pressure to maintain it all to look happy to be perfect and to do it all with a smile on your face. And this was especially true for women in the late 1970s, especially in Wiley, Texas. There were all these expectations that society was putting on them to raise kids, to be a good wife, keep a clean home and to never complain. And these standards were reinforced by everything in life. So Betty Gore and Candy Montgomery, they're both born into society at a time when the expectations are just. They're insane for women. They still are today, but back then they were like even more, even more. Yeah. And also there in Texas. Yeah. Yeah. But let's start with Betty Gore. She was born Betty Eileen Pomeroy on January 9th, 1950 in Harper County, Kansas. She was the eldest of three. She was the only daughter. So she felt very inclined to like take that role as the third parent and basically help raise her younger brothers, which she really loved doing. And in this sort of like caretaker role, it kind of fed into her dream. And she started thinking about being a school teacher because she loved spending time with kids and she wanted to get back to the community. So when she moves to Texas for college to follow her dream of being a teacher, one of her classes is where she would be Alan Gore. Alan was a teaching assistant for Betty's freshman year calculus course, which I'm so sorry that if you're trying to become a teacher, you have to take calculus. That seems so unfair. Is it when you do that calculus when you're going to use it? It's my favorite kind of math. I love calculus. Red flag. This is just the Sabrina Red flag up the son. You learn I have a lot of them. So the two, they shook up friendship pretty quickly. Alan's a few years older than her. Again, he's a teaching assistant in her class and he was really smart. He was really well read. He was very passionate about his interests, like very attractive things to most people and to Betty. So these were things that they hadn't common. And Betty was very determined to be a teacher. This is something that she was deeply, deeply passionate about. And Alan did not. He wanted to be a software engineer. So while they had a lot of similarities, like their end career goals were different. Alan only a few years older than Betty. And so their friendship started to turn a little bit romantic because Betty started to have develop feelings for Alan, but as a teaching assistant, he was not allowed to date a student. I also think he himself was like, I don't feel like it's ethical, but I appreciate especially after last week's episode. I don't know if there should have taken a note from Alan. So they remained friends until the end of the semester when Betty was no longer his student. And immediately he's like, you want to go on a date and call me in my room. Within a year, Alan proposed to Betty and they married in January of 1970. One thing I wanted to add. So in researching for this episode, when you do look into both Betty and Candy, there's so much text about them and their view of men. And there's a lot of descriptions of Betty being a romantic and just wanting to marry. And I'm like, but she also, and I think this is something that's so special about her, she had dreams and she pursued them. Yes, she wanted that life that society was expecting of a woman. But that can still be just because it's expected of everyone. Doesn't mean it's right for everyone, but doesn't mean it's wrong for everyone either. You can want the white picket fence, the spouse, the children, the career. You can have it all. Yes. The chickens. The chickens. The chickens. The witchcraft. Okay, but the fairy tale that she was building in her mind and in her story, it started to fray because they got married after a year of knowing each other. It was not very easy, really, it's not for her. Well, not for Alan either. Not for either of them. Yeah. They really struggled as a couple moving around a lot because Alan also was having a hard time getting a job. So they weren't really settling anywhere. They kept moving a lot. It was hard to make friends. Alan had to take trips for work. And some of those were multi week long trips, so he would leave Betty home alone. And so that felt very. lonely for her. Especially if they're moving around a ton and she can't make friends, yeah. So she felt very isolated and alone, alonely. In 1973, Betty and Alan found out that they were expecting their first child, which on paper, they were both very excited about, right? Like, this is so amazing. She's always wanted kids. She's always loved kids. It's literally her career skill to run, being with kids, but the pregnancy was not what she had anticipated. The morning sickness was brutal. Her depression was so much worse, her mental health declined, and even though it was a very taboo subject at the time, she did confide in her husband, and she did seek out help from medical professionals. It's so sad. I feel like even in today, postpartum is something that people talk a lot about more, and I didn't know this because I've never been pregnant, but I learned about it on secret lives of Mormon wives, because Jen, the one woman on the show got pregnant, and she had really bad, I think it's called prepartum, where it's in the beginning phases of your pregnancy, you have such severe depression. Yeah. It's crazy what the hormonal changes can do. Your brain and your body trick you. It's so so sad, so upsetting. Her gynecologist prescribed her antidepressants to help her, but once Betty gave birth, things went completely in the wrong direction again. Betty and Allen, they welcomed a healthy baby girl into the world in 1974, and they named her Alisa. Everyone in Betty's life told her that she should be happy, right? She just gave birth, she's a healthy kid, but that was not the case. She had depression, it was only getting worse. She had really bad postpartum. I can speak to that. I had really moderate to severe postpartum depression and anxiety, so I relate to when people are like, aren't you so happy? I'm like, I was not. I like thought. I like you need to say you are. Yeah. I was like, my child doesn't even like me. I think I ruined my life. It was bad. Your brain is a scary place sometimes in postpartum. So now we're much more well versed in postpartum in some of those earlier signs than what it could look like, but at the time, less so. So it was amazing that she did reach out and get support and get help, but still not as much as she could have been given. Yeah. And it was extremely isolating as we can all imagine. Yeah. She'd gained weight, felt very self-conscious about that. So she saw another doctor that prescribed her more drugs, and she just basically was like having this medicine cabinet while her struggle was still very, very real, and she wasn't getting much relief. I also think even if we understand postpartum, it doesn't make it easier. It's not like, oh, great. Now we know what it is, snap of the fingers. We can get rid of it. Right. It's still a very hard thing to go through. It's like, this is such a horrible comparison, but like, imagine getting viciously attacked by grizzly bear. And then someone's like, you see a grizzly bear again, and that person's like, that grizzly bear is not going to hurt you. Like, why are you scared of the grizzly bear? It's like everything in your body is telling you that the grizzly bear is dangerous, but like, it's so hard to rewire yourself to be like, oh, no, that new grizzly bear is actually behind a thing in the zoo, and that thing can't hurt me. And it's like impossible. I had a therapist once make this comparison, and it really, I mean, I always knew this, but I think this way of phrasing it was very helpful. That win an athlete or someone tears their ACL. They can't, the next day, just get up and go run and play like the game again. They have to get surgery, they have to recover, they have to go through physical therapy. It's the same for other people with mental health. It's like, you have an injury, and you have to go through the healing process. I, yeah, I certainly feel for Betty. Yeah. Fortunately, Betty did get some relief when Alan got a serious job offer in Dallas that would hopefully be the last big move. So they could eventually put down roots. She could bake friends, assimilate to the community, and that is sort of what happened, right? Like so the family packed up the things. They moved to the suburb of Wiley, Texas right outside of Dallas. It was about a 40-minute commute for Alan to get to his job, and it was here that Betty was able to reconnect with herself again. So she got a good footing. She got a job as a fifth grade teacher. She and Alan joined the local United Methodist church. They were introduced to practically everyone in town because everyone went to that church, and so very quickly they had community. And it's here in 1977 at the church in Wiley, Texas, the Betty and Alan Gore met another couple, Pat and Candy Montgomery, which brings me to Candy Montgomery herself. So now that we have a little bit more on Betty and her background, I thought we should talk about Candy, her upbringing, and paint the picture of who she was. So Candy Montgomery was born Candace Lynn Wheeler on November 15, 1949 in Lucas, Texas, which is not far from Wiley. According to Candy herself, she grew up in a very strict, emotionally rigid household. So her father served in the army and liked to run his house in a very similar manner, a very structured, rural-focused manner. Obedience and being good were rewarded. So she spoke of a childhood with very little emotional support or care, which led to her to compartmentalize a lot. So on the outside she was this like organized social like very put together person, someone who very rarely showed emotion and was grounded. She was described as strong and was rewarded for not showing emotion. Damn. That is tough. That's so tough. Yeah, I can see why she would maybe like in finding someone who makes her feel safe to show emotion. Right. Unravel a bit. Or also unraveled just from having to stay strong, like for so long. Yeah. But yeah, so this all led Candy to be the type of person who operated and lived off of a checklist, especially when it came to her love life. Getting married was expected. And by the time she was in her 20s, Candy added a new line to her checklist, get a husband. And that she found very quickly in a man named Pat Montgomery. But unlike Betty, who I think really truly did fall deeply in love with Alan, like there's a very like love-focused relationship, Candy didn't exactly fall in love. She was like, yeah, Pat has a good job. He checks the boxes. He checks all the boxes. It's not really about love. It's about checking the boxes. He'll do. So in 1970, Pat and Candy tied the knot and Candy crossed another thing off of her list. Get married. Kids came quickly after that. They had a boy and then a girl, both born in the early 1970s, checked. And in 1977, Pat got a software engineering job in Dallas. So the family moved and settled into a country house in Wiley. Candy became a homemaker and similar to Betty, she is desperate to find a community and to feel like she mattered. So it's no wonder that these two couples who both moved to Wiley in 1977, Betty and Alan and Candy and Pat would become friendly. They both joined the same church. And they have so much in common. You would think that they would become besties. And Alan and Pat were both software engineers, so they did start to spend some more time with one another. But the same could not be said about Candy and Betty. No, they had very different upbringings. And just like who they were as adults was vastly different. But he was very emotional. Candy had her checklist, she was very structured, very anal-retentive. Hi, Betty. Hi, Betty. Candy was very social. She was extremely social. Everyone knew who she was. It was very effortless for her to make friends. But Betty struggled a bit more in that department. Which I relate to, like I have such severe social anxiety. Yeah. I think I want to make friends, but it's also. But then I go to social events and I sit there and I'm like, well, they already are friends, so I'll just sit in the corner and know. Right. And then it's awkward. And then it's like you say something. And then maybe what you say in that situation, no one else is ever going to think about. And it was entirely normal. But I go home and I think about it for hours. Wait. So I just started going to the New Orange Theory in my neighborhood. And I was like, this is going to be the perfect way to make friends. I get on a treadmill. And this girl walks onto the one next to me. She's like, about my age. And I said, good morning, doesn't answer. And I'm like, maybe the music's too loud. She didn't hear me. And then in my head, oh my god. Did you say it a second time? So then in my head, I'm like, maybe I didn't say it out loud. Maybe I said it in my head. So I say it again. And she still doesn't say anything and hear anything. So I was like, I give up. Not making friends here, ever. Sorry, Boston can be tough. I genuinely think she didn't hear me. She probably didn't. But I was not just saying it a second time. That you're talking to someone else. Yeah. I can see that myself. It's hard. It is. It's hard. So after a few years of living in Wiley, Betty gained the reputation of being very sensitive. And it led other women at church to be a bit careful around her because no one wanted to upset her or say anything that she might take offense to. And unfortunately, I had this kind of led to like some gossip about Betty. People started saying that she was extremely strict with her daughter, Alisa, and how Betty's own students didn't like her. But Betty and Candy were both members of the same church. And so basically they were like baked in friends or at least had to pretend to be. They were acquaintances. And so on the surface, it looks like they had enough and common to be friends that they should have or could have been best friends, especially given the relationship friendship of the husbands. But emotionally, they were dealing with the same pressures just from very different angles. Yeah. So by the time both couples were settling into life in Wiley, both Betty and Candy were dealing with the taboo feelings. Kind of like as we're setting up this whole, like the standards of society, they're dealing with it. Betty's depressed and she starts to feel like she's drowning. She's desperate to feel supported, to feel understood and to belong. And candy on the other hand is realizing that being a housewife in suburban Texas isn't all that it's cracked up to be. She's feeling her days at church, she's keeping busy, she's taught Sunday school, she's staying in the choir, but then she goes home and she's like, I just feel like I'm going through the motion. Like nothing exciting me. Her kids would spend the day at daycare, her husband was away at work. When he came home, the relationship wasn't exactly thrilling. Things in the bedroom weren't anything to write home about and she just feels really bored. By the time she met Betty and Alan Gore in 1977, candy was desperate to shake up her life. To find something new, make her feel a little bit alive. What shakes up a life more than having an affair. So as she approached it in a very candy manner, no emotions, just logistics. Sex without any feelings, clear boundaries, if anyone started to get attached, the affair was over. Which is so interesting because it's like anti-most fairs. Right. Well, most are all romance and affection and feeling like the thrill of love or lust. Yeah. Yeah. So she basically was just like looking for someone to fill this job of having an affair with her. I'm sorry, inappropriate. But yeah. And you can probably guess who it was. Alan Gore, which brings us back to the plot twist that we dropped on you where Alan Gore confesses to the police that he and Candy and Montgomery have been having an affair and all the details come out. The relationship between Candy and Alan Gore started innocently enough. They both joined the church volleyball team. They would chat between games. And for all intents and purposes, they were friends. Kind of like how Alan and his wife had first started their friendship. But in the fall of 1978, something changed because Candy, while in ever having a thought of Alan in a sexual way, suddenly she thought this should be the man for me to use to check off my boss. I think there was like a quote and it's from Candy, I think, from herself where Alan like hit the volleyball in a certain way and then all of a sudden like she saw his muscles and the way she describes it is like, oh, is Alan hot? And then she made a decision. Yeah. So it started getting a little flirty and it wasn't until Candy took an extremely direct approach that things actually crossed a line. So Candy marches up to Alan and is like, hey, do you want to have an affair with me? That's how I imagine it was. And Alan was conflicted. Yes, they had been flirting. So I think he probably in his mind had some feelings, but he loved Betty and he didn't want to hurt Betty. But he also couldn't deny that his marriage to Betty had entered a bit of a dry spell and Betty had been moody and hard to deal with. They were actively trying to have another kid, but the sex had become clinical. And so Alan agreed to have an affair with Candy, which to me, like that whole conversation and agreement is just as clinical. Yeah, it's so weird. Yeah, I can't even imagine what. I mean, I can't even imagine, but that would be like a different person. Suddenly, I'm somewhere in the Midwest. So the pair explicitly set some ground rules. There was no feelings just sex. They're going to keep up appearances, prioritize their family. Nothing could go wrong. I was their family. I said, never does your family. I don't know. Yeah. But it was when scheduling their trists, they were like, well, if someone so has a soccer game, I can't I can't make it to our boy. Yeah. So that's basically how it worked for nine months until Candy had a baby. No, I'm just kidding. From the outside, everything stayed the same. Candy remained polite friends with Betty, who she saw every week of church. And then Betty knows nothing. Pat knows nothing. Yes. Yes. Yeah. This is the secret affair, a secret clinical affair. Betty did eventually get pregnant because her and Alan had been trying and they were expecting another baby girl in 1979. And guess who volunteered to throw the baby shower? This is wild. Candy. Yeah. It really is desperate. Like it feels I wish it was just an episode of Desperate Housewives, but it's a real life. Yes. All the while, Alan and Candy continued to have their affair in private, staying true to the rules that they had set in the beginning. So no feelings just sex. But is there no feelings if you're suddenly infiltrating and being like, let me throw the baby shower? That feels like there's some feelings. Well, I think that's the point inevitably feelings start developing between the two of them. The more time they spent together, the more connected they felt because that's what happens. And the more distant they started to become from their respective spouses. For weeks at a time because they were both realizing feelings that were developing, they would debate whether or not they should stop it. But they would come up with excuses to continue the affair because they had developed feelings. They didn't want it to end anymore. And naturally those feelings grew even further. And by the summer of 1979, others started to notice too. Yeah, but not Pat Montgomery. He seemed to be completely oblivious. But Betty Gore, she started to actually get a sense that something was going on with Alan. Something was wrong with her marriage. The second daughter of Bethany, who was born in July, she had hoped it would help her and Alan get closer. But she was very afraid. Because her first pregnancy was super brutal. We talked about her postpartum experience a little bit. And she was very terrified that her depression would come back the same or worse than it did the first time. Yeah. And now Alan, her support, the first pregnancy, he's starting to become more and more distant, more distant than ever. So now she's getting increasingly nervous. And then after their daughter Bethany was born, they were hardly having sex. In the rare times that they were intimate, it seemed like he wasn't really in the room with her. That felt clinical. Eventually, Betty just couldn't take it anymore. And she broke down. And she was like, Alan, I know that you don't love me any. So sad. I know I really do feel bad for Betty. And Alan's like, what do you mean? Of course I love you. But deep down, he knew that that wasn't entirely true. Because he had developed very strong feelings for candy. And he also knew in that moment that he needed to end his affair with candy. Clearly, prioritizing the family was not working. Yeah. When candy heard Alan's decision, she was totally heartbroken. She told Alan that she had fallen for him. She was in love with him despite all of their rules and precautions. And Alan was like, well, yes, this is exactly why we have to end the affair. And that was that. Candy and Alan ended their relationship. And they attempted to go back to their lives as usual. Glad that neither their processes found out the truth about their affair or so they thought because the truth is Betty Gore couldn't shake the belief that something had changed in Alan's behavior over the past year. And so she starts putting all the pieces together and develops a hunch. All those late nights after volleyball, the shared jokes between her husband and another woman, the obvious closeness she is now. It is coming clear in her mind that her husband was sleeping with Candy Montgomery. And now Betty was determined to prove it. Oh please, not that music. That music gives me nightmares from my childhood. Could we get something a little bit lighter, some lighter music here? Are you a fan of true crime TV shows? And what about unsolved mysteries, the show that jump started all of our love of true crime? I'm Ellen Marsh. And I'm Joey Taranto. And we host I think not a true crime comedy podcast covering some of the wildest stories from your favorite true crime campaign TV shows. All the way to unsolved mysteries. Baby, you will laugh, you will cry, you'll think about true crime in a whole new way. And you'll also ask yourself, who gave these people mics? New episodes of I think not are released every Wednesday with bonus episodes out every Thursday on Patreon. And every Monday you can listen to our true crime rundown where we go over the top true crime headlines of the week. So come and join us wherever you listen to your podcast. Candy checks her calendar. It's June 13, 1980. She has a few errands to run and then her children have requested to have a sleep over with Alisa. Betty goers oldest daughter again. See Alisa spent the night last night and her kids want to do it again. Candy agreed, but she also knows that Alisa has a swim list in this afternoon. So Candy figures she'll save Betty a trip and take Alisa to the pool herself. Then take her back to the Montgomery's house. Candy just needs to grab Alisa's swimsuit and she'll be on her way. It'll be a quick stop at the gore house just a few minutes. That's all. So she knocks on the door and within seconds, Betty answers the door and invites Candy inside. For a while, she and Betty sit in the living room talking about nothing, their kids, their plans for the week. Eventually, Candy mentions Alisa swimsuit again, making an excuse that she has to get going. But then Betty goes silent, staring at the floor. Candy has a busy day. She doesn't want to sit here all day. Then Betty breaks the silence and asks in an unsettling calm voice. Have you been having an affair with Alan? Candy is stunned by how blunt the question sounds. She blurt out, "No, of course not." But she's too quick to respond and Betty notices and says, "But you did. Candy can tell Betty knows the truth." And so she confesses. But she's quick to reassure Betty that it's over now. It's been over for a long time. Suddenly, Betty stands up. Her eyes are distant as if in a trance. She turns toward Candy, but doesn't look at her. And she tells Candy to wait there. Confused Candy watched his buddy leave the room, and as stunned when a few seconds later, Betty returns, yielding an axe. Still, not making eye contact, Betty speaks in an almost monotone voice. She tells Candy to never see Alan again. Candy promises and insists it's all over now, and now, feeling very uncomfortable with this exchange, Candy offers to bring Elisa back to the house. Forget about the swim lessons, forget about the sleepover. But Betty doesn't seem to hear her. She's still in some kind of trance, an absent mindedly sets the axe down and tells Candy to go get the bathing suit from the utility room dryer. She'll go grab a towel from the back. Candy does as she's told. She wants out of this house as quickly as possible. She finds the swimsuit and starts to stuff it in her purse, and she gets the feeling that she's no longer alone in the utility room. She spins around to see Betty lingering in the doorway. Candy can see the pain in her friend's face and knows that she caused it. And for that, she is remorseful. She reaches out to touch Betty's arm and says, "I'm so sorry." But that was a mistake, because that touch seems to snap Betty out of her trance like state and into a fury she's never seen before. Betty pushes Candy's arm away, then forcibly pushes Candy as hard as she can. Candy stumbles backward as Betty runs from the room and returns with the axe. That quiet moment of misery has been replaced with rage, and Betty brandishes the weapon with both hands and screams, "You can't have him. You can't have him. I have to kill you." Betty raises the axe all the way above her head and Candy screams, diving out of the way the blade narrowly avoiding her. Swinging the axe sends Betty off balance, and Candy takes her chance. She lunges forward and grabs the weapon. The two fight for it, lurching back and forth neither of them wanting to let go. Something in Candy snaps. She is no longer acting with rationale or logic. She is in fight or flight, and fight takes over. She scratches and bites at Betty's fingers, and finally with all of her strength, Candy grabs hold of the axe handle and pushes Betty hard. For the briefest moment, Betty's grip loosens as she slips on the linoleum tiles and slams against the freezer. And now Candy has possession of the axe. And before Betty has a chance to move or run or defend herself, Candy swings the axe behind her head with two hands, brings it down as hard as she can on Betty's school. This is how Candy and her defense team portrayed the events on June 13, 1980, but did it really happen like that? Or did it happen like the prosecution said? Like this. Betty rubs at her temples as her daughter fights her yet again. She has been refusing her bottle, refusing her naps. It feels like weeks since Betty has gotten a good night's sleep, and with everything that's been going on with her and Alan, Betty desperately wants to sit with her thoughts, alone, quiet, a quiet afternoon. She rocks her baby daughter in her arms, silently begging God to let her sleep. As if in response, a miracle happens, her daughter starts to drift to sleep. Betty is careful to lay her in the crib and tiptoe out of the room, as quiet as can be. She makes her way downstairs, and finally she can sit and quiet. Her eldest daughter, Alisa, is at the Montgomery's. What a weird thought. Her daughter staying the night at the house of a woman who's having an affair with her husband, Candy. Betty hasn't figured out what to do with this information. She's still processing the heartbreak and is terrified that the emotions will win as they have many times before. She doesn't want to go back to that place. Depression is dark, a dark void full of the most spiteful half-truths that you only tell yourself. And as she mulls the sober, there's a knock on the door. And when she answers, she's surprised to see none other than Candy Montgomery herself. She isn't sure what to say, but Candy speaks first. She wants to pick up Alisa's bathing suit for the swim lessons. What happens next isn't exactly clear, but at some point in the conversation, it begins to shift. And the next thing Betty knows is she's confronting Candy about the affair with her husband, Alan. She's gutted. She's emotional, teary-eyed. She's always had a hard time confronting people and speaking up for herself. Dr. itself just makes her very emotional. And saying all of this out loud and combination with her exhaustion, it just makes it too real. Despite her discomfort, she continues and pleads with Candy, bearing her heart. She begs Candy to stop seeing Alan. But Candy snaps. Candy wants Alan for herself. Or perhaps she's scared that Betty is going to tell her secret to the public. And as someone who cares about outward perception, Candy will not allow that. Betty's startled by her reaction and stands from her seat, moving backwards towards the kitchen as she apologizes. Insisting she did not intend to upset Candy. All Betty wants is to fix things in her marriage. She loves Alan. But something shifted within Candy. Any sense of calm or reason seems to have disappeared now. And Candy is trailing Betty. They keep moving backwards, Betty's by the utility room. She didn't know how it happened, but all of a sudden Candy is getting physical with her. And then Candy looks around the room and Betty watches as her eyes land on an axe. Betty can't do anything to stop her. Candy grabs the axe, pushes Betty to the ground, and once the violence begins, it does not stop. Again and again, Candy Montgomery brings the axe down onto Betty Corp. 41 separate wounds. This is not panic. This is not self-defense. This is overkill. And these are the two very different arguments that were presented in court. There's Candy's versions of events, which I shared, claiming self-defense that Betty had a tractor. She got the axe out of Betty's hand. And then the prosecution's version that you painted grin, that leaned heavily on the fact that Candy did not stop, that this murder was overkill and undoubtedly violent. And then the jury had to decide what they believed. Did Betty Corp attack Candy or did Candy Montgomery attack Betty? It does seem like the murder was not premeditated, considering that the murder weapon was actually found in the Corhome. So it does seem like this was a crime of passion. The prosecution harped on the fact that if this was self-defense, like Candy claimed it to be, then why did Candy drop the axe? Why and how? Because she continued to straight over and over and over again, so many times. Right. Because if it's self-defense, like you find a way to incapacitate the person. Yeah, you wound them and run. And run. If it's truly that scared for your own life. She has her car running outside. But everything the prosecution presented and challenged Candy had an answer for. She claimed that after the initial blow from the axe, Betty crumpled to the floor and she thought she had killed her and she was about to leave when all of a sudden Betty picks up her body after being hit with an axe and slams the door shut, trapping her and Candy inside this utility room. And for the next few terrifying minutes, the two women clawed and pushed each other both desperately trying to grab for the axe. But Betty's enormous wound was pouring blood down her face, onto her clothes and onto the floor and making everything slick. Every time, according to Candy that she tried to leave, Betty stopped her. Candy pleaded with Betty to stop to let her go, but Betty refused. In a voice that sounded a million miles away, she said, "I can't. I can't let you go." Over and over, according to Candy, she streaked that she didn't want Alan, that she didn't need to be with him. It was over. And Betty was losing an immense amount of blood and was growing weaker. But still, she managed to wrestle and fight the axe away from Candy. But now, this is the major issue. One, I definitely think there was a fight. The way that the room is described, the blood being everywhere, this is a two women fighting over a weapon and blood pouring out. And it's not like Candy was caught at a point where they could examine her like fingernails or fighting wounds, because this was after the fact. And the truth is, we only have one side of the story. Betty is dead and can't speak for herself. So Candy gets to create this narrative with her defense team. And according to Candy, something happened that triggered a past memory, and then all of a sudden she just snapped. So she claimed that she and Betty continued to fight over the axe as Candy continued to beg and plead. And then Betty placed a bloodied finger over her own lips and said, "Shh." And this sound is basically what jolted something deep in Candy's psyche, something that had been long repressed and suddenly her mind went black. All of the sudden, Candy didn't want to plead or beg a reason with Betty, she just wanted to destroy. So the argument is that this burst of white hot rage fueled by something foreign even to Candy, she then yanked the axe out of Betty's arms and swung it over and over fueled by rage. The details she provided herself are truly horrific and gruesome, but the end results are the same. Candy did not stop swinging the axe until her body physically couldn't do it anymore and by then Betty had been struck 41 times and was dead. She had been completely undeniably destroyed. Again, all of it, according to Candy, then the axe fell to the floor and suddenly she became aware, came back into her body into the reality of what happened, look at the crime scene and she panicked and knew she had to get out of there, but she was covered in blood. So she rushed out of the utility room, leaving behind that one footprint of her little flip flop and leapt into the shower with all of her clothes still on. She tried to clean herself up, leaving the mess that the police then found in the bathroom and Candy knew that Alan had left town that morning and might not come home for a few days, so she was like, okay, good, give me a few days to figure out what to do. Also keep in mind the baby. How cold-hearted is she? She knows. Yes, she knows that they have another child. She knows that she has Alisa, the babies in the crib. Alan has gone for a few days and she's just going to abandon this infant. Yeah, I have her, but she's panicking. She's running on a adrenaline. She's basically like, "I need to act like everything is normal." And she keeps telling her, "I need to be normal." She grabs all her belongings and Candy walked out of the Gore family home, got in her car and drove away. And that is when five-year-old star witness Tina saw Candy. After Candy left, Tina went to the Gore's front door and rang the doorbell, but then nobody answered. And Tina, even though she's only five, she thinks that this is a little weird, but eventually she goes back home to play. Candy had no clue any of this happened. She hardly noticed anything for the next few hours. She was just in her days. So Candy's just like, mind is blank, feels like she's suspended in air, what the hell just happened. But still, she tries to spend her day as normal as it possibly could be. So she goes home, changes her clothes, throws out the bloody blouse in jeans that she had been wearing, into the wash. And then she takes Elisa to her swimming lesson. The woman that she just murdered, she takes her daughter to swim lessons. 'Cause that was the plan. She has to still do it. Yep, follow the schedule. And then she takes all of the kids to the movie, the Empire Strikes Back. And to the kids' delight, she even agreed to let Elisa sleep over at their house for another night. Candy tried to not think about the girl's infant daughter, Bethany, who was still at home alone. So she was just trying to not allow herself to think really anything. She was like, I just need to be normal, normal, normal. And she didn't really have a plan. No plan beyond being normal. She just hopes that nobody would find Betty right away. But Candy was wrong about that. 'Cause as we know, Alan called the neighbors that evening to check on Betty, who then did discover the gruesome crime scene. And in a matter of days, all eyes were on Candy Montgomery because Alan confessed to the affair. And after that, the police were like, not only was Candy Montgomery the last person to see Betty alive, she was likely her killer as well. When Candy had initially come in to talk to the police about being the last person to see Betty alive, they had gotten her fingerprints. So now they run those against the ones they found at the crime scene and it is exact match. On June 26, 1980, 10 days after killing Betty Gore, Candy surrendered to arrest for murder in the first degree. In October of 1980, four months after the murder, the trial began. And as we started to kind of hate that picture, it was something of a spectacle. Candy and her defense team built this very elaborate story, which they claimed to be true, but ultimately it was for the jury to decide. The prosecution painted Candy as this wolf and sheep's clothing, a housewife who slept with her friends, has been on the side. And when that friend finally confronted Candy about the truth, Candy killed her for it. So just the brutality of this murder and the severity of the crime scene, like we were saying in the beginning, it was so incredibly bloody. They didn't even notice. But he was on the floor at first. And it looked like the room had been painted with blood. It was just so grotesque and it all pointed to one single truth. The Candy Montgomery was guilty of first degree murder. But then the defense argued that yes, Candy Montgomery did in fact kill Betty Gore with an axe. There was no reason to deny that, but Candy was not guilty of the crime because of a self-defense. And this is like the whole defense's case that in the millisecond that one millisecond were Betty Sh. Candy, it's psychologically transported Candy into a different memory of deep trauma and it caused her to snap. Candy's defense attorney knew that this moment was a lot more than what it seemed. So he had Candy undergo hypnotherapy to try to understand what exactly had triggered Candy so severely. And under this hypnosis, Candy was asked if she had ever felt mad before. And it turns out she had. Who hasn't? Not perfect. According to Candy, she had been shushed like that once before when she was four years old. She had lost her race to another child and she kind of in being very upset about that loss. Through a bit of a tantrum so bad that she actually broke a jar and accidentally caught herself with the glass. And her mother had taken her to the hospital and Candy was still just so furious in this moment. And in response, her mother shushed her. An act that four-year-old Candy took as denial of her feelings. So when Betty had shushed her during their fight, it triggered this sort of trauma response and Candy is an adult and center into this violent rampage. So this is the version of events that Candy told the jury when she was called to the witness stand. And also they really did go deeper. Like I mean, obviously we're just doing a synopsis of the trial, but they go really deep into Candy's upbringing and how she was never really allowed to feel emotions. They even recall a memory where she almost drowned in the bath and she starts crying because that's terrifying and her parents basically tell her she's being dramatic and shush her and tell her to stop being dramatic. So they really paint this picture of like you could understand why someone would snap and be triggered. And I don't not believe in hypnotherapy, but I do think that it's interesting that the defense is kind of leaning on a recovered memory that happened after the murder. Well, I think that speaks a lot to trials in general. It is a lot of showmanship. It's who can tell the story in the most emotional, bullet heartstrings way to sway a jury. Right. But in the end, like they're basically saying that it wasn't premeditated. This wasn't a planned murder at all from Candy's side, but the killing was basically just like a product of childhood trauma that she didn't realize she had until it was too late. And you can think what you want. To me, it does feel like a very elaborate story, but I do also understand how someone could snap, but I do feel like it was a very elaborate story. I mean, you can tell the tale as a reason, but like you still killed someone and you can't just use unrecovered childhood trauma as an excuse for any time you do something wrong or hurt someone or murder someone, but it didn't matter what we think didn't matter the prosecution thought it all came down to the jury. And on October 29 after three hours of deliberation, the jury came back with their verdict, not guilty. Candy Montgomery was acquitted of first degree murder. It's like it's just I just don't get it. But I also understand because your role as a jury member is to decide without reasonable doubt, right? So if the defense did a good enough job to plant doubt. But she's saying she did it. But the defense is like itself defense and she snapped. I think the defense did a really good job. And like as a jury member, I could see being in the same position. It's hard because I feel like maybe not first degree because if it was self-defense. Right. But then like the overkill. And I know. I don't forget that she consciously abandoned a child. I feel like she should have been charged with that. That's the one thing that is like never talked about. Yeah. And I do feel like is a much bigger situation. But yeah, Candy, not guilty. Like that, that's to me. Like that's the no. No, just give me a time machine. So yeah, obviously not a very happy ending to the story because Betty Gore is dead. Candy Montgomery is a free woman. Alan Gore actually did get remarried just months after the murder trial, which was not a great look in the eyes of Betty's family or us. No, no. But not to Candy. Yeah. Candy and Pat Montgomery moved from Texas to Georgia to avoid the prying eyes and eventually a bay to got divorced. And as far as we know, Candy is living a pretty normal life now. She went back to school. She got her degree in counseling. Yeah. So like many stories that we've covered here, the case of Candy Montgomery isn't exactly black and white. And that gray area is exactly what the defense team used to sway the jury. But regardless of how you feel about Candy, something surely did snap in her in that utility room, because even if it's self defense, which I think it was, it went way past that. It came overkill. Whether it was a trigger memory, white hot rage, or something else entirely, it was a shock to her. So I think we can conclude with that she was guilty of killing someone eventually. But her reasons for it, we can't say for certain. I also could imagine a situation where Betty did bring an axe into the room. I could also see a world where Candy didn't want to give a ballon and didn't want the world to know about the relationship. And she grabbed the axe. But yeah, I don't know Candy had a reason for being there, which was to pick up the swimsuit like that was already decided. So I do feel that she didn't arrive to the house with the intent to kill. Yes. Whatever happened after the fact that I think the part that I can't get past is her knowing that a baby was in the house with the mother murdered down below and the father out of town. And then hoping that the murder scene wouldn't be found for a few days, meaning that the baby will starve and die. No. I do agree with you. At least for that she should have been found guilty for endangering a child. Yes. That kind of takes away from me any feelings of like, oh, well, even if it was self-defense, I don't feel bad for her anymore. So living in Pleasantville is not all it's knocked up to be. Not so pleasant as it is. No. This is a very sad case and lots of losses here. But we would love to hear what you think. Thank you so much for listening, we're your host Sabrina Deanna Roca and Corinne Vienn. Join us next Tuesday for another peek inside another episode of Crimes of Passion. And if there are any cases you'd like us to cover, let us know in the comments. 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