Betty Gore and Candy Montgomery met at church and soon became best friends — but when Gore confronted Montgomery about having an affair with her husband in 1980, Montgomery struck her with an axe 41 times.
FacebookAllan and Betty Gore with their daughters, Alisa and Bethany.
Allan and Betty Gore were your typical all-American couple. They lived in a small, suburban community outside of Dallas and went to church every Sunday. Betty was an elementary school teacher; Allan worked for an electronics conglomerate and major defense contractor. From the outside, they seemed to be living the picturesque American Dream.
Behind closed doors, however, the Gores were miserable. Their sex life had dwindled down to almost nothing, and Betty loathed how often Allan had to travel for work — she couldn’t bear to be left alone. When Betty decided it was time to have their second child in 1978, the pregnancy was meticulously planned, and the sex was clinical and dispassionate.
Then, Betty’s best friend, Candy Montgomery, approached Allan Gore one day after a church event and asked him, “Would you be interested in having an affair?”
Candy Montgomery was Betty Gore’s opposite in almost every way. She was vivacious, perky, and easygoing. She was friends with everyone, active in church activities, and a loving mother in her own right. But like Allan, Candy Montgomery was bored with her sex life, and at 28 she felt that she was too young to deny herself exciting sexual experiences.
It’s perhaps not surprising that this affair got messy — but no one could have expected that it would end in a violent slaughter. On June 13, 1980, Betty Gore was sliced with an axe 41 times. And though Candy Montgomery admitted to the killing, she was found not guilty of murder and walked free. But how?
Inside Allan And Betty Gore’s Unhappy Marriage
It had been something of a surprise when Allan Gore and Betty Pomeroy got married. She was a conventional, pretty, innocent girl from Norwich, Kansas; he was a small, plain, shy man with a receding hairline. Friends and family could understand why he fell for her, but they didn’t quite understand why she had fallen for him.
Sometimes, love just can’t be explained. The couple married in January 1970 and started a life together in the Dallas suburbs. Allan took a job with Rockwell International, and the Gores soon welcomed their first daughter, Alisa. Betty started teaching in 1976, but her uncontrollable students made the work a chore, and Allan’s frequent traveling left her feeling lonely.
Per a detailed 1984 account from Texas Monthly, it was in the autumn of 1978 that Betty suggested to Allan it was time for them to have a second child. This time, however, she wanted to plan the pregnancy down to the exact week so she could give birth in the summer, when she wouldn’t have to take time off of work.
Twitter/Palmahawk MediaBetty Gore with her dog.
But despite generally enjoying sex, the Gores hadn’t been having much of it. Betty was constantly unhappy for one reason or another, and she often complained about minor illnesses and situations. Allan, meanwhile, had grown a bit resentful of his wife. The bland, clinical sex they were now having night after night did little to help.
Then, there was Candy Montgomery, Betty’s best friend. The Gores had met Candy and her husband at church, where Allan was an active member who took joy in organizing events, singing in the choir, and participating in sports. In the time they had known each other, Candy and Allan had become friendly — and a bit flirtatious.
One night after choir practice, Candy approached Allan and told him that she had to talk to him about something.
“I’ve been thinking about you a lot and it’s really bothering me and I don’t know whether I want you to do anything about it or not,” she said. “I’m very attracted to you and I’m tired of thinking about it and so I wanted to tell you.”
Their affair hadn’t officially started yet — it hadn’t even been proposed — but Allan couldn’t get Candy out of his mind. He couldn’t shake the idea that sex with Candy Montgomery would certainly be more exciting than the sex he was having with his wife. The conversation with Candy planted a seed in Allan’s mind that would eventually bloom into something deadly.
Candy Montgomery And Allan Gore Begin An Illicit Affair
It was shortly after Betty Gore became pregnant with her second child that Candy Montgomery approached Allan about having an affair. He was hesitant at first, but on Candy’s 29th birthday, he called her.
YouTubeCandy Montgomery later went on to work as a mental health counselor.
“Hi, this is Allan. I have to go to McKinney tomorrow to get some tires checked on the new truck I bought up there,” he said. “I wondered if you’d like to have lunch, you know, to talk a little more about what we talked about before.”
They talked. Nothing happened. The weeks went on. Candy grew frustrated, and then she finally played her last card: She invited Allan over and wrote out a two-column list of “WHYS” and “WHY-NOTS.”
A few days later, she got another call from Allan: “I’ve decided I want to go ahead with it.”
They established the rules of their affair and picked a date for it to start: Dec. 12, 1978.
For several months, the two of them met up in a room in the Como Motel every two weeks to have sex. Their lives continued on as normal, but they were both revitalized by their sexual escapades. Candy Montgomery was the only woman Allan Gore had ever been with other than his wife, but their relationship later evolved beyond sex.
They could confide in each other. They made each other laugh. Even in the early days of their affair, they once decided to forego sex during one of their meet-ups so that they could talk about Candy’s husband, Pat.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, feelings started to develop. In February 1979, just two months into their affair, Candy approached Allan with concerns that she was “getting in too deep.”
Twitter/Film UpdatesElizabeth Olsen portrayed Candy Montgomery in the HBO series Love & Death.
“I guess I’m caught in my own trap,” she said. But Allan convinced her to keep going with it, and the affair continued on for several more months. The magic, however, was fading. She was growing tired of having to get up early to make picnic lunches for her rendezvous with Allan, and the sex wasn’t particularly good, anyway.
On Allan’s end, he had started to worry more about Betty. By June, she was eight months along in her pregnancy. He knew she would need help, especially since things hadn’t gone smoothly with their first child’s birth. And what would happen if Betty went into labor while he happened to be at the Como with Candy? Would he be able to forgive himself?
He made the decision to put their affair on hold, and Candy agreed.
The Vicious Murder Of Betty Gore
When Bethany Gore was born in early July, Betty and Allan grew a bit closer. They were overjoyed about having a second daughter, but their newfound, renewed intimacy was short-lived. They fell back into their old, miserable routine.
Within a few weeks, Allan and Candy resumed their affair, but something was different. Candy complained more and seemed detached. Allan was feeling guilty about Betty being stuck at home all day to take care of the kids, according to Oxygen.
Twitter/Going West PodcastBetty, Allan, and Alisa Gore in the late 1970s.
Then, one night, after Allan had spent the afternoon with Candy, Betty wanted to make love. Her advance was more forward and aggressive than Allan had become used to, but he didn’t have the stamina. He told her he didn’t feel like it. Betty began to cry. She was convinced that he didn’t love her anymore.
A few days later, he called Candy to say he was thinking about ending the affair.
“I’m afraid of hurting Betty,” he said. “I think maybe the affair is affecting my marriage now, and if I want to get my life back in order, I have to stop running between two women.”
Shortly after, the Gores went on a weekend trip to participate in an event called Marriage Encounter. In essence, it was a crash course in marriage counseling, designed to get couples to speak more openly about their issues and concerns. For Allan and Betty Gore, it worked. They returned from the trip with a renewed sense of passion, and Allan once again talked to Candy about ending the affair.
But he couldn’t actually put a stop to it. He couldn’t say the words. So Candy did it for him.
“Allan, you seem to be leaving it up to me,” she said. “So I’ve decided, I won’t call. I won’t try to see you. I won’t bother you anymore.”
By the summer of 1980, the affair was put well behind them, and it seemed as if the Gores and the Montgomerys were going to move on from the situation unscathed.
That all changed on June 13, 1980, when Candy Montgomery stopped by the Gore house while Allan was out of town. She had gone to pick up Alisa’s swimsuit. Her own children wanted Alisa to see a movie with them, and to save Betty a trip, Candy offered to drop Alisa off at her swimming lesson.
They chatted calmly for some time, but as Candy was preparing to leave, Betty asked her, “Candy, are you having an affair with Allan?”
“No, of course not,” Candy said.
“But you did, didn’t you?”
Facebook/Truly Darkly CreepyCandy Montgomery argued in court that she killed Betty Gore in self-defense.
Betty then left the room, only to return with an axe in her hands. As Candy later described in court, she blacked out. A hypnotist helped her remember the events, and as she explained, Betty initially set the axe down. However, she flew into a rage when Candy pitifully apologized as they were parting.
Betty swung the axe. She was ready to kill Candy. Candy pleaded for her life, and in response, Betty shushed her. Candy said it reminded her of the way her abusive mother would shush her, per the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Something in her snapped, then, and she wrestled the axe from Betty and started swinging. Betty wouldn’t stay down, so Candy swung it again, and again, and again — 41 times.
In the end, though, the jury reached its decision: Candy Montgomery had been defending herself and was not guilty of murder.
After learning about the tragic fate of Betty Gore, read the story of Betty Broderick, the jilted divorceé who shot her ex-husband and his new wife in their bed. Then, read about the disappearance of Heather Elvis — and how her affair with a married man may have gotten her killed.
Austin Harvey
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