The murder of Betty Gore (30, pictured left) was shocking from beginning to end. First, because of the gruesome way she was killed. Second, because of the identity of her killer. And lastly, because of the resolution of the case.
It happened on a Friday 13th, in June 1980, in a little town in Texas called Wylie. The date would only increase the sensationalism around the case: barely a month before, the original Friday 13th movie had hit the theaters. And when found, Betty seemed like a victim of the masked slasher: she had been hacked with an axe over 40 times, her face pretty much gone.
That day, Betty’s husband Allan Gore had travelled to another town for work. By the evening, when he was unable to get a hold of Betty, he asked the neighbors to check on her. They found her dead in the extremely bloody laundry room, and at first they thought she’d shot herself. Later, police found the axe lying in the same room. Betty’s younger daughter, who was just a baby, was alive but had been alone for hours in her crib. Her oldest daughter, only 5, was staying at the house of one of Betty’s friends from church, Candy Montgomery, who would later drive the girl to the crime scene.
After the killer had finished with Betty, they had taken a shower in the guest bathroom, leaving blood smears and hair behind. The violent attack led police to believe someone very strong was behind it, someone who knew Betty well.
Turns out they were only right about the latter. Betty’s killer was a petite woman, a supposedly devoted wife and church lady: Candy Montgomery (pictured right). During the investigation, Allan Gore confessed he and Candy had been involved in a lengthy affair that had ended shortly before Betty’s murder.
At her trial, Candy confessed to killing Betty but she claimed it was self defense. Her story was that Betty had confronted her about the affair with Allan and had threatened her with the axe. She said they had struggled for the weapon and Candy had been hit on the head. When she screamed, Betty had told her “shhh”, which had apparently triggered some long buried childhood memory of her mother doing the same to her when she had been hurt and she had snapped, grabbing the ax and hacking her friend over 40 times.
The prosecution argued back that, even if the self defense theory was true, it had been certainly overkill. If she was just trying to save herself, why not run? And after the murder, instead of calling police, Candy had gone about with her life as if nothing had happened, even keeping Betty’s daughter overnight at her house.
To everyone’s shock, especially Betty’s family, Candy was found not guilty and set free. She moved out of Wylie and changed her name, and has always refused to discuss the case again.
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