Is ‘Love & Death’ based on a true story?
Netflix recently added a spine-tingling crime drama, Love & Death, which originally premiered on HBO Max in 2023, to its platform with the onset of December.
Since its touchdown on Netflix, the Elizabeth Olsen-starrer has caused quite a buzz, and not without reason.
Love & Death takes place in a quaint town in Texas in 1980, when a beloved wife begins an affair that goes horribly wrong, ending in a murder so brutal that it rocks the entire community. For those curious about whether the crime drama has any truth, well, it does.
The 2023 series is based on the true story involving Candy Montgomery, Betty Gore, and Betty’s husband Allan Gore. The limited series was originally adapted from John Bloom and Jim Atkinson’s 1984 book, Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs. Bloom and Atkinson’s original reporting, which forms the crux of the book, initially appeared as a multi-part feature in Texas Monthly titled, Love and Death in Silicon Prairie.
Love & Death follows the real-life case of Candy Montgomery, who was held responsible for the murder of her friend Betty Gore. It all began with Candy’s affair with Allan Gore, which started on December 12, 1978, when Betty was reportedly pregnant with Allan’s second child. The affair lasted shortly after Betty gave birth in July 1979.
In the miniseries, we see Candy Montgomery living a seemingly picture-perfect life in a small Texas town with her husband, Pat, and their children. As an upstanding member of the church community, she’s close friends with Betty Gore, “an uptight, God-fearing neighbour.” But regardless of how Candy’s life seems on the surface, it’s anything but idyllic.
Constantly ignored by her husband, Candy’s living a life that’s far from happening. But things begin to turn around for her when the affair with Allan begins. Allan, like Betty, feels trapped in his marriage as well. What’s worse is that Allan’s affair with Candy starts when Betty is pregnant. While they excuse the infidelity, justifying their behaviour by promising to keep their affair casual and “primarily sexual.”
Contrary to their promise, they forge an emotional bond which goes way beyond a physical relationship. And although the affair doesn’t materialise into something concrete to break off both their marriages, a crime does take place. It happened when Betty decided to confront Candy on June 13th, 1980, when her husband was away on a business trip.
After Allan’s failed attempts at contacting Betty, worried, he sent a neighbour to check up on her. According to Texas Monthly, the neighbour found their infant daughter alone in her crib, as “oceans of blood” led towards the utility room door where Betty’s body was finally discovered. The subsequent investigation uncovered that Betty was stabbed 41 times with an axe, and the perpetrator only paused “at the point of utter exhaustion.”