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The Affair That Ended in an Axe Murder

The Friday 13th killing of Betty Gore would not have been out of place in a horror movie.

Verity Partington
10 min readAug 24, 2021
Candy Montgomery (left) and Betty Gore (Image: Podchaser)

As the 1970s came to a close and a fresh new decade emerged ahead, there can scarcely have been a better place to live and raise a family than Wylie, Texas.

A country town of just 3,700 people in Collin County, it was populated by young, churchgoing families who were apparently living the American Dream. Many of the men had good jobs and their wives — as was typical at the time — largely stayed home to raise children and maintain that picture of domesticity.

It was to this rural idyll that two families moved — but rather than finding the life they hoped for there, they would instead find themselves forever linked by a friendship that turned to betrayal and eventually murder.

Small town living leads to temptation

Betty and Allan Gore had been married in 1970 and initially settled in Dallas, Texas. However, they moved to Wylie in 1976 when she took a job teaching at the town’s elementary school, with Allan working for an electronics company named Rockwell nearby.

Betty was pretty and popular with a winning smile, but by the time the pair had one child and another on the way, their…

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Verity Partington
Verity Partington

Written by Verity Partington

A writer and author of crime thrillers living in the UK. Partial to books, stationery, papercrafts and walking. You can find her books on Amazon here: https://a

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