Candy Montgomery: A Guide to the Accused Axe Murderer and True-Crime Sensation
and -- are chronicling the lives in the small Texas town of Wylie and the events leading up to her death at the hands of accused axe murderer Candy Montgomery.Not since the 1990 TV movie,, has Montgomery's story been explored this in-depth onscreen, with Jessica Biel portraying her in the five-part, which is now streaming on Hulu, while Elizabeth Olsen takes over the role in, which unfolds over seven episodes on HBO Max.While the two projects have naturally drawn comparisons, there's more to each series, with Olsen explaining to ET that «stories that are interesting deserve to be told and every way you're going to tell it.»And just like the crime — and everything surrounding Betty's death, including the other real-life characters and scandals involved — Candy's story is far more complicated than one woman taking an axe to another. Married to Pat Montgomery and a mother of two children, Candy was a seemingly typical, 30-year-old housewife living in Collin County, Texas, who became close friends with Betty, a fellow housewife and mother who was also a middle school teacher. According to , it was the regularly attended service at the First United Methodist Church of Lucas «that first brought Candy Montgomery and Betty Gore together, and it was the church that led them to their times of closeness and, eventually, to their mutual hatred and Betty’s brutal death.»The church is also where Candy, who had grown bored with Pat, decided to have an affair with Betty’s husband, Allan Gore. More specifically, the moment that pushed her over the edge «happened on the church volleyball court, on a late-summer day in 1978,» when the two collided during a play. After that, Candy set her sights on Allan.