Last week on Love and Murder:
So last week we were talking about Candy, Don, Allan, and Betty. Candy married Don who was a wealthy engineer. She basically married him for his money. Betty married Allan, who was a plain, dowdy looking math teacher – HER college math teacher. Candy was bored with the sex life of her marriage and Allan was bored with his as well. One day, they literally bumped into each other and sparks flew. Not too long after that, they began an affair. All throughout the affair, the Montgomerys and Gores remained really good friends. The affair ended after Betty gave birth and both Candy and Allan began feeling guilty. Betty requested that her husband accompany her on a couples counseling retreat, which he did, and which made their marriage stronger. On the way back from the retreat, they stopped at the Montgomery house – where Candy had been watching one of their daughters, and spoke with Candy and Don about the retreat. A week after this, Candy and Allan ended their affair. On Friday June 30, 1980 while Allan was away on a business trip, he couldn’t reach his wife. After having his neighbors get into the house, they found Betty’s dead body laying in a pool of blood in their utility room.
And now the conclusion:
When Allan was told this, he first registered shock, and then when the news settled over him, he became sad. He needed a shoulder to cry on; someone he could depend on to help him through this. Who do you think he called? He called Candy who, at the time, was babysitting his other daughter Alisa.
When police arrived and during their initial investigation, they realized a couple of things. #1 Betty had been attacked with a sharp object, #2 they found a bloody footprint at the scene and #3 they also realized the perp had taken a shower and left bloody fingerprints throughout the house. What did the scene look like? The room she was in was only 12’x6’ and had a washer, dryer, a freezer, a cabinet, and some storage stuff in it. Betty was lying right in the middle of the room with thick blood all over the place. She was face up and the right side of Betty’s face appeared to be gone, her left eye was open. The police found an ax that was half under the freezer. During the autopsy, it was revealed that Betty had been hacked at 41 times with the ax – 28 of those times were to her head, which would explain the right side of her face.
The news of this spread like wildfire through the small town. Everyone was afraid, thinking that some crazed serial killer had come into town. They never even considered that it could be one of them. Candy, of course, ended up hearing about the footprint and she did the only rational thing an allegedly innocent person would do. What do you think she did? She ran and started hacking away at the soles of her favorite sandals with a pair of garden shears.
While the initial investigation was going on – which was 13 day by the way – the entire town was freaked out, like I said! I mean, how would you feel if you know a nice teacher, with two kids, who no one hated was brutally attacked in her house, the killer didn’t leave right away – no! They took a shower in the house with the dead body!
As you can imagine, Candy quickly became the main suspect in Betty’s death – namely after Allan reported that he’d spoken with her that day and it seems like she was the last one to see her alive. The only problem is that Candy’s story about the her events of the day gave the police no reason to believe she was the killer – that is, until Allan admitted that he had ended an affair with Candy 7 months earlier. You know what this gave her? Motive. Candy was then arrested and charged with murder. She, of course, denied the charges. Soon after she was arrested, she was released on bail.
Also, I’d like to note that even though there was “evidence” that pointed to Candy’s potential involvement in the case, she received a lot of support from the church. So much so that right after the arrest, Candy and Pat hired a lawyer from their church named Don Crowder to represent them. Now Candy’s defense was that she didn’t remember anything that happened that night so her lawyer thought it would be best to hire a psychiatrist to help. They hired Dr. Fred Fason, who was both a psychiatrist and clinical hypnotist to help Candy. After a few sessions with her where they’d put her under hypnosis, Dr. Fason determined that Candy was suffering from a deep-rooted childhood trauma that had triggered immense rage within her as an adult. Now first question – do you believe in hypnosis? And what do you think about his diagnosis?
So, under three sessions of hypnosis, Dr. Fason said that Candy remembered the day of the murder. During, what was called very wrenching sessions, Candy would tell Don how the murder happened, and “whenever her conscious story conflicted with her unconscious story, Crowder confronted her with the lie and forced her to admit the facts she would rather have forgotten. From those sessions, the best possible reconstruction of the killing of Betty Gore emerged.”
The trial started in October 1980. There was a jury of nine women and three men. Candy came to court in a white knit sweater, her hair cut in a short and wispy style around her head, and large-framed glasses. The plan was to have everyone see her as an innocent suburban mother. Want to know the defense strategy – pleading not guilty by way of self-defense.
When the trial started, Candy claimed that, on the morning of her death, Betty had confronted her about her affair with Allan. According to Candy, here’s the story:
Candy had gone over to Betty’s house to pick up a bathing suit for her daughter. She planned to take all the kids swimming that day. She said that she and Betty were just making small talk when just all of a sudden, Betty’s gaze turned, what she called “unfocused.” Betty then asked Candy, out of the blue, if she had been sleeping with Allan.
Candy said yes but that the affair was over. Candy said Betty got up from the table and walked away. When Betty came back to the room, she had the ax in her hands. Betty put the ax on the table and told Candy she never wanted to see her again, but yea sure you can take my daughter to the pool and then you better bring her back home the next day. Candy said ok.
When Candy was leaving, Betty gave her some peppermints to give to her daughter, Alisa to help her in learning to swim. This was a trick they had – they would give her peppermints whenever Alisa would duck her head under the water. Candy took the candy and turned to leave. Then turned back at the last minute and apologized. That’s when, according to Candy, Betty just switched and rage became her emotion. She pushed Candy into the utility room and came at her with the ax while yelling at her to leave her husband alone. Candy and Betty struggled. Candy said Better was between her and the door. In the struggle, Candy ended up getting a gash on the toe of her left foot. Candy said that she gained the upper hand after this and got the ax right as Betty lost her balance. Now all of this made Candy super angry and, filled with rage, she brought the blade of the ax down on the back of Betty’s head. Even though that was a crazy hit, it was not fatal – Betty was still alive and ready to fight for her life. They struggled some more, each wanting control of the ax. Candy then grabbed the handle and used her rage to kill Betty.
I just want to note that the medical examiners said that Better was alive and possibly conscious for 40 of those ax hacks.
Now, all we have is Candy’s version of events.
During the trial, her lawyer asked Candy, while on the stand, ““When you went over there, did you mean to kill her with that ax?”
“No.” Candy said
“But you did kill her with the ax, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“This ax right here—“
“Don’t make me look at it.”
Don put the ax in front of Candy – the exact murder weapon, while she was on the stand. She started crying and begging him not to make her look at it, but he pushed it towards her.
“You killed her with this ax right here, didn’t you?”
He asked again, “You killed her with this ax right here, didn’t you?”
“Yes!”
At this, Candy started wailing.
One of the women in the juror box wiped away her tears.
Wow – good job. Do you know what they just did? Made the jury see this house wife in any light other than a killer.
Dr. Fason explained that this moment, the moment Betty cut her toe with the ax, had been a trigger for Candy. He explained, in his expert opinion, that when she hacked away at Betty 41 times with the ax, it wasn’t Candy who was in control anymore. It was a subconscious inner rage that had been buried since she was a child that came out.
For the court, Don walked Candy through the rest of her day and had her admit all the cover-ups and lies that she did while the investigation was ongoing. She admitted to all of this and said she had to do it so no one would suspect her.
The testimony ended on a Friday and the following Wednesday, the lawyers brought out closing statements. The jury went to talk about the verdict. Guess how long it took them to come to a conclusion? Less than 4 hours. Guess what the verdict was.
Not Guilty.
They said that she was acting in self-defense.
So no jail for Candy.
Betty is dead
Candy and Pat moved to Georgia and, after a while, got a divorce. Candy changed her name back to Candace Wheeler and currently works as a mental health therapist for teens and adults.
She should be about 61 years old right now.
Some people wonder why this case is so famous – and people think it’s because #1 it was a woman #2 it was a brutal murder by a woman #3 it was a brutal murder by a woman and done with an ax. People don’t normally use axes to kill.
And that was the case of Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore.
