Betty Gore Murder Scene: Affair, Trial, and Verdict

The Betty Gore murder was the June 13, 1980, killing of a 30-year-old schoolteacher in Wylie, Texas, who was struck 41 times with a three-foot, wood-handled ax in the utility room of her home at 410 Dogwood Drive. Her killer was her friend and fellow churchgoer Candy Montgomery, who had been having an affair with Betty’s husband, Allan. A Collin County jury acquitted Montgomery of murder in October 1980 after accepting her claim of self-defense, a verdict that has remained one of the most contested in Texas criminal history.

Who Betty Gore Was

Betty Gore, born Betty Pomeroy in Norwich, Kansas, met Allan Gore in college and married him in January 1970. The couple settled in the suburbs east of Dallas, where Allan worked for a Richardson electronics company and Betty began teaching at an elementary school in Wylie in 1976. By several accounts she found the work difficult and struggled with loneliness while Allan traveled for his job.¹

The Gores had two daughters, Alisa and Bethany, and belonged to the same Methodist church in Wylie as Candy and Pat Montgomery. The two families moved in the same social circle in a stretch of exurban communities in eastern Collin County where residents had settled to escape the pace of city life.²

The Affair That Supplied the Motive

Candy Montgomery approached Allan Gore about an affair after becoming friendly with him at church events, including a volleyball game. Allan hesitated at first but agreed after Candy presented him with a written list of reasons for and against the relationship.³ The affair began on December 12, 1978. The two met roughly every other week at the Como Motel, paused briefly during the summer of 1979 around the time Betty gave birth to Bethany, and then resumed. Candy ended it later that year, around the same time the Gores sought marriage counseling.⁴ By the time of the killing, the affair had been over for about seven months.

What Happened on June 13, 1980

Allan Gore was on a business trip to Minnesota that Friday. Candy Montgomery had agreed to take the Gores’ older daughter, Alisa, to a swimming lesson the next day, and Alisa had spent the previous night at the Montgomery home for a sleepover to watch The Empire Strikes Back. That morning, Candy attended Vacation Bible School, ran errands, and stopped by the Gore house to pick up a swimsuit for Alisa.⁵

According to Candy’s later testimony, the visit began with small talk before Betty asked whether Candy had been having an affair with Allan. Candy admitted the relationship had happened “a long time ago.” Betty then retrieved a three-foot ax from the utility room. When Candy tried to leave, Betty initially put the weapon down, but then pushed Candy into the utility room, saying, “You can’t have him. I’ve got to kill you.”⁵

A struggle over the ax followed. Candy said Betty swung the weapon and cut her toe when the blade struck the floor. Candy said she wrestled the ax away and struck Betty repeatedly. Forensics expert Vincent DiMaio testified at trial that 40 of the 41 blows landed while Betty’s heart was still beating.⁵ An autopsy determined that 28 of the blows were to the head and face, with additional injuries to the arms, torso, and legs.⁶

The Scene Investigators Found

The utility room where Betty died was a small space off the garage that housed a washer, dryer, freezer, and a child’s training toilet.¹⁷⁶ The Gores’ infant daughter, Bethany, was found crying in her crib in a bedroom.

Investigators from the Collin County Sheriff’s Department recovered a bloody thumbprint on the freezer and a bloody shoe print on the laundry room floor. Blood on the bathroom wall and drain suggested the killer had tried to shower at the scene before giving up. A pot of burnt coffee on the counter placed the killing that morning.⁶ Retired Collin County deputy Steve Deffibaugh, the lead investigator, later described the scene as looking “like a scene from a horror film.” Because the discovery fell on Friday the 13th, investigators initially suspected a copycat inspired by the movie The Shining.⁸

How Candy Montgomery Was Caught

After leaving the Gore home, Montgomery went home, showered, and washed her hair. She cleaned cuts on her toe and forehead, bandaged them, placed her bloodied burgundy blouse in the kitchen sink with detergent, washed her blood-soaked jeans in the machine, and dried the blouse in the dryer. She swapped her rubber sandals for blue tennis shoes so she could keep pressure on the bandaged toe.⁷

When word spread that investigators had recovered a bloody footprint, Montgomery took garden shears to the rubber sandals, destroying the sole pattern, and threw the scraps in an outside garbage can.⁷ Police questioned her multiple times and she gave an alibi. The investigation shifted when Allan Gore admitted to detectives that he and Candy had carried on a months-long affair, giving investigators the motive they had been missing.⁴ The prints from the scene supported an arrest warrant. Candy Montgomery surrendered on June 26, 1980, thirteen days after the killing. During a strip search at booking, jailers noted bruises on her body and a cut on her toe.⁶

The Trial and the Self-Defense Verdict

The trial began in October 1980 and lasted eight days. Montgomery was represented by Don Crowder, Elaine Carpenter, and Robert Udashen. Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell led the prosecution.⁹¹⁰

The defense pleaded self-defense, arguing Betty had attacked Candy with the ax after confronting her about the affair. The problem was obvious: 41 blows are hard to square with self-defense. Crowder put it plainly: “Self-defense doesn’t account for forty whacks. We need Fason.”⁹

Dr. Fred Fason, a Houston psychiatrist who specialized in clinical hypnosis, testified that hypnotic “age regression” sessions with Montgomery had surfaced a childhood memory of being four years old, bloodied on a hospital gurney, while her mother shushed her. According to Fason, when Betty said “shh” during the confrontation, it triggered a “dissociative reaction” in which Montgomery was not fully aware of her actions.⁹ A second psychiatrist, Dr. Maurice Green, testified similarly, describing her recollection as dreamlike: “She saw things in slow motion… almost as if she were a spectator.” The testimony prompted Judge Tom Ryan to order an independent competency evaluation by Dr. Thomas Thornton. Ryan then ruled Montgomery competent to continue.¹¹ The defense also presented a polygraph indicating Montgomery was truthful. The prosecution did not object to Fason’s hypnosis-based testimony under the Frye standard, which would have required the defense to show forensic hypnosis was generally accepted as reliable in the scientific community.

O’Connell argued Montgomery had multiple opportunities to flee the Gore home rather than continue swinging the ax, and called the violence “beyond the pale.”¹⁰¹² The defense countered that the prosecution had put on no evidence that directly rebutted the self-defense account. Under Texas law, once a defendant raises self-defense, the burden falls on the prosecution to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.

On October 29, 1980, a jury of nine women and three men acquitted Candy Montgomery of murder after deliberating for roughly three hours.¹⁰

Reaction to the Verdict

Spectators shouted “Murderer! Murderer!” at Montgomery as she left the courthouse.¹² Courtroom observer Doris Howard said the jury acquitted because the prosecution “did a poor job of presenting its case.” Betty’s father, Bob Pomeroy, told reporters, “I wouldn’t say I was happy with the verdict. We don’t know what happened and we never will know what happened.”¹⁰ Wylie remained divided. The Montgomery family had received an outpouring of support from their church during the trial, with cards arriving daily.⁷ Many residents, though, could not reconcile 41 ax blows with a finding of self-defense, and decades later some in the town told reporters they “can’t forget” the case.

The hypnosis testimony has drawn particular scrutiny in the years since. Modern researchers classify forensic hypnosis as “junk science,” noting that it does not improve memory and carries significant risks of creating false memories through confabulation. A 1987 paper by Professor Michael Nash concluded there is no evidence that hypnosis allows subjects to accurately relive childhood events. Texas terminated its state forensic hypnosis program in 2021 after investigative reporting exposed its unreliability.⁹

What Happened to the People Involved

Betty’s parents, Bob and Bertha Pomeroy, received custody of Alisa and Bethany and adopted them, raising the girls in Norwich, Kansas. Bob later said, “They were pretty good girls to raise.” Bob died in 2003 and Bertha in 2010. In a 2000 interview with the Dallas Morning News, Bethany, then 20, said, “I just wish I knew what really happened. Because nobody knows but her… What angers me is thinking about what could have been.” Alisa said of Montgomery, “I don’t know if I could forgive her. I know you’re supposed to, but… My family has a lot of anger and a lot of hatred toward her.” Both sisters were estranged from Allan for years and have since reconnected with him.¹³

Allan Gore remarried after the trial, later divorced, left Wylie, and eventually settled in Sarasota, Florida, where he is retired and has been in a domestic partnership since 2016.² Lead defense attorney Don Crowder faced death threats and social ostracism, ran unsuccessfully for governor of Texas in 1986, and died by suicide on November 10, 1998, at age 56.¹⁴

Montgomery left Texas three months after the trial, moving to Georgia with her husband Pat. The couple later divorced and she returned to school to become a counselor. She now goes by her maiden name, Candace Wheeler, and is believed to still live in Georgia, where she reportedly works as a mental health counselor. She has consistently declined interview requests about the case.¹²⁴

The case was first documented in detail by journalists Jim Atkinson and John Bloom in a two-part Texas Monthly series in January 1984, which became the basis for their book Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs.¹⁵¹⁶¹⁷

1
Texas Monthly. Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part I: Candy Montgomery’s Affair
2
Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore Case
3
All That’s Interesting. Betty Gore
4
People. Where Is Candy Montgomery Now
5
Today. Love and Death True Story: Candy Montgomery
6
Oxygen. What Happened to Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore
7
Texas Monthly. Love and Death in Silicon Prairie, Part II: The Killing of Betty Gore
8
Oxygen. New Interviews in the Candy Montgomery-Betty Gore Case
9
Texas Monthly. Candy Montgomery Hypnosis Junk Science
10
UPI. Texas Woman Declared Innocent in Hacking Death of Friend
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UPI. A State Judge Today Followed a Psychiatrist’s Recommendation
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Biography. Where Is Candy Montgomery Now
13
People. Where Are Allan and Betty Gore’s Kids Now
14
Screen Rant. What Happened to Candy Montgomery’s Lawyer Don Crowder
15
D Magazine. Book About 1980 Wylie Axe Murder Is Re-Released Digitally
16
People. Is Love and Death Based on a True Story
17
The Hollywood Reporter. Love and Death: Two Candy Montgomery Shows