Diksha Sundriyal
HBO Max’s seven-episode long true-crime series, ‘Love and Death,’ ends with Candy Montgomery taking a stand and revealing all the chilling details of how she killed Betty Gore on the morning of June 13, 1980. The TV show relies on facts from the real-life case, leaning on several accounts of the story from different angles. However, it is also a dramatization of real-life events, which means it has to fill in the gaps with fictional plot lines.
Due to the extensive coverage of Betty Gore’s murder and Candy Montgomery’s trial, the show remains true to most of the story. However, a few details might make you wonder whether they happened in reality or if the show’s creators added them for dramatic effect. In her testimony, Elizabeth Olsen’s Candy confesses that after she killed Betty, she took a shower before leaving the house. Did it really happen? Let’s find out.
Candy Did Take a Shower in Betty Gore’s House
Yes, Candy Montgomery took a shower in Betty Gore’s house after killing her with an axe. In the HBO Max series, as Candy recounts the events of the day, she details every single line of the conversation and every move that led up to Betty’s death. She talks about how she unexpectedly showed up at Betty’s house to ask for her permission to let her daughter go to the movies with Candy’s family. What started as a normal conversation took a turn for the worse when Betty asked Candy about her affair with Allan.
Candy didn’t deny the affair, but she added that it was over long ago. When Betty showed up with an ax, Candy tried to leave, but then, Betty seemed to have calmed down and gave Candy her daughter’s swimsuit and towel. As Candy was leaving, she put a hand on Betty’s shoulder and said she was sorry. This triggered Betty, and she attacked Candy with the axe. After hitting Betty and trying to run away, Candy found she was cornered and needed to fight back if she wanted to live.
At one point, Betty shushed her, and this triggered Candy. She took the axe and started hitting Betty. She stopped after 41 blows, and there was blood everywhere by this time. Candy was covered in it too. Following the murder, Candy was in shock, and she thought about taking it one step at a time. She wanted to get the blood off her, so she stepped in the shower with her clothes on and rinsed off as much blood as possible.
What confirms that Candy showered in Betty Gore’s house is that blood and hair were found in the shower drain. It couldn’t have been her blood because Betty had died in the storage room. This indicated that the killer had tried to clean themselves. Later, Candy Montgomery confessed to taking a shower in the immediate aftermath of the murder in her testimony in court. Reportedly, she also tried to clean the crime scene, but after a while, she realized there was too much blood, so she abandoned the attempt.
When she reached her house, Candy stepped into the shower again, this time getting all of the blood out and changing out of her clothes. She kept telling herself that nothing had happened and that she had to act normal. So, after changing clothes at her house, she went about her day as usual. She met her friends at the church, had lunch with them, got the children, and went to the movies as planned. Candy behaved normally and never let it show that she knew Betty was dead long before the dead body was found, and the news of Betty Gore’s death spread around the town.
