Wylie was just a tiny Texas town back in 1980 when neighbors found Betty Gore broken and bleeding from multiple ax wounds on the laundry room floor. On this Friday the 13 morning, Gore's husband, Allan, was away on business and couldn’t reach his wife by phone. He asked his neighbors to check on her. She could have been angry with him or busy tending to their newborn. Instead, they found a scene from a camp slasher flick and the crying newborn unattended in her crib.
Candy Montgomery was friends with Gore. They often babysat each other's kids and went to church together. But Montgomery was also sleeping with Gore's husband and would stand trial for Gore's murder. She pleaded not guilty by way of self-defense and claimed that Betty found out about the affair, confronted her when she came by and picked up an ax in a fit of rage. Montgomery got control of the ax during the struggle and hit Betty over the head. She didn't stop there and continued to strike Betty with the ax — 41 times.
A jury believed her.
For years, people have speculated about what really happened that day. Now, HBO Max plans to bring the speculation to life 40 years later with the new limited series "Love and Death." Elizabeth Olsen, who recently starred as Marvel's Scarlet Witch in Disney+'s WandaVision, will be playing Montgomery.
“We cannot imagine a more perfect artist to play the leading role of Candy than Elizabeth Olsen,” Kevin Beggs, chairman of Lionsgate Television Group, told Deadline in a May 3 article. “Her talent, charisma and energy can bewitch audiences like no other.”
The true crime limited series is based on a series of articles that appeared in Texas Monthly a few years after Gore's murder and the book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Love and Death in the Suburbs. David Kelley and Nicole Kidman, both from the Big Little Lies and The Undoing, are working with Lionsgate Television to bring the series to life.
This is a second attempt at telling Gore's story in recent years. In July 2020, Universal Content Productions announced the limited series “Candy,” which stars Elisabeth Moss as Montgomery. Hulu then picked up the project in December.
It’s unclear when “Love and Death” or “Candy” will be released. Neither HBO Max or Hulu has announced a release date yet.
