Murder By the Book: Candy and Betty

When the principals and press had been assembled in the old courtroom, Judge Ryan asked the jury foreman, Bob Snyder, to announce the verdict.

"Not guilty," he said firmly.

Reporters later wrote of "stunned silence" in the courtroom. Pat Montgomery rushed forward to his wife's side, and she slumped into his embrace.

When she finally made her way outside, she was greeted with taunts of "Murderer!" A Dallas newspaper announced the verdict with a smirking headline: "Woman Hacked 41 Times in Self-Defense, Jury Rules." "Only in Texas," read another. It seemed the 12 jurors were the only men and women in Texas who bought the repressed memory defense. Yet foreman Snyder revealed that it wasn't even close. The first vote was 9-3 for acquittal, and the second was unanimous.

After the verdict, Candy did nothing to endear herself to the public as she continued to portray herself as a victim. "It seems so pointless," she said through her attorney. "I didn't want him. I kept trying to tell her that...And she put me into that position (of being accused of murder). It's caused me to lose everything that is important to me. And it hurts."

Was it a just verdict? Judge Ryan didn't think so. He left the district court bench months after the case was tried, and he is said to ranted about the gullible jury and the gross miscarriage of justice in the Gore murder. Some cite the prosecution team's failure to effectively counter Don Crowder's unorthodox defense.

Betty Gore

One lingering questions concerns how and when Betty Gore learned of Allan's affair with Candy. Allan Gore said he never revealed the relationship to his wife, and she had never brought up the subject. In fact, in a letter to her parents in Kansas postmarked on the day of her death, Betty lauded her "close friend Candy Montgomery" for helping out with the care of Alisa Gore.

More than 25 years later, some still wonder if it was Candy, not Betty, who broached the affair, or precipitated the axe fight.