The place Sweet Montgomery Is Now & if She’s in Jail For The Dying Of Her Finest Buddy

There have been two items of dramatic TV primarily based on the occasions of June 13, 1980, inside a yr of one another—Hulu’s 2022 collection Sweet starring Jessica Biel, and HBO’s 2023 restricted collection Love & Dying starring Elizabeth Olsen. When you can’t get sufficient of this story, you is perhaps questioning the place Sweet Montgomery is now and if she’s in jail for the alleged homicide of her shut buddy, Betty Gore.

Biel defined to E! Information in 2022 how she will be able to relate to Sweet, regardless of her character’s alleged crimes. “As we began to get into it and began to essentially perceive who these characters are, simply the pathology of what it was wish to be a girl again then within the ’80s, I believe I used to be actually in a position to empathize with these girls,” she stated. “I may see myself scuffling with among the similar points that they’re scuffling with.” She continued, “The stress of being a girl and making an attempt to do all of it with a smile in your face, household pressures and work pressures and all the pieces. I really feel that.”

In the meantime, Olsen advised ET a yr later that there was no use in evaluating her portrayal with Biel’s and that the HBO collection gives a special perspective on Sweet’s life. “There’s no must have competitors. Tales which are attention-grabbing should be advised and each manner you’re going to inform it, it’s gonna be completely different. It’s unattainable for it to be the identical,” she stated, even revealing that Love & Dying had been in manufacturing for 2 months earlier than Sweet was introduced and Biel reached out to Olsen personally. “I believe it was extra simply type of like, ‘Oh, nice. That is good that we’re each acknowledging this factor as a result of we had been filming concurrently,” Olsen defined. “That was an enormous shock to all of us that there was one other present being made once we had been already filming. However there’s nothing you are able to do about it.”

So the place is Sweet Montgomery now and did she go to jail for the homicide of Betty Gore? Learn on for what we all know concerning the true story behind Sweet and Love & Dying and if Sweet Montgomery continues to be alive.

What occurred to Sweet Montgomery?

What occurred to Sweet Montgomery? Sweet—who was born Candice Wheeler—was accused of murdering her shut buddy, Betty Gore, in Wylie, Texas, on June 13, 1980, after having an extramarital affair with Betty’s husband, Allan Gore. Sweet—who lived by the Gores along with her husband, Pat Montgomery, and their two youngsters—met Betty, a center college trainer, at a service on the United Methodist Church of Lucas in Collin County, Texas, and have become shut mates.

In keeping with Texas Month-to-month, Sweet confessed to the homicide in a hypnosis session with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Fason. She claimed at her trial that she visited Betty to select up a swimsuit for Betty’s daughter, Alisa, who was staying with Sweet and her husband for the evening. Whereas at Betty’s dwelling, Betty confronted Sweet concerning the affair with Allan, which Sweet confessed to however advised Betty that it occurred a “very long time in the past.” Sweet claimed on the trial that Betty left the room and got here again with an ax, which she used to threaten Sweet with to by no means see Allan once more, which Sweet agreed to. As she picked up Alisa’s swimsuit, Sweet apologized to Betty, which, she claimed, triggered Betty to turn out to be indignant at her and shove her right into a utility room. Sweet claimed that she and Betty had a protracted wrestle that triggered cuts on her toe and head. She additionally claimed that Betty advised her that she wished “to kill” her. Sweet additionally alleged that she managed to take the ax away from Betty, and used the blade on Betty in self-defense earlier than her buddy may assault her once more. In terror that she killed Betty, Sweet tried to go away the room, however earlier than she may achieve this, she claimed that Betty stopped her by slamming her physique towards the door.

A wrestle ensued between Betty and Sweet, as Betty refused to let Sweet go away. Through the struggle, Betty advised Sweet to “shush,” which set Sweet off and triggered her to hit her with the ax to the “level of utter exhaustion.” Throughout her hypnosis session, Sweet additionally claimed that she suffered from childhood trauma that was triggered when she was advised to “shush.” On the day of Betty’s demise, Allan was out of city. When he couldn’t attain his spouse by phone, he requested the neighbors to verify on her. After they pressured their manner into the house, they found Betty’s lifeless physique, as Betty and Allan’s 1-year-old child daughter, Bethany, who had been sleeping in her crib in one other room on the time of the incident, was crying and awake. Just a few ft away from Betty was a three-foot-long ax, which authorities claimed that Sweet used to slash Betty 41 instances, together with 28 instances on her head and face.

Quickly after the homicide, Betty turned herself in to native authorities and was placed on a $100,000 bond, in accordance with Fort Price Star-Telegram. After an eight-day trial—the place the protection argued that Sweet acted in self-defense and the prosecution argued that Betty was aware when a lot of the stabs occurred and that her demise was intentional (and that she additionally showered in Betty’s toilet after the homicide)—Sweet was acquitted of homicide fees in October 1980. Psychiatrists testified on the trial and claimed that Sweet had a “dissociative response” that led her to stab Betty repeatedly. The incident was additionally protected beneath Texas’ “Stand Your Floor” regulation which allows the usage of lethal power if essential to stop a violent crime, similar to Betty’s violent threats towards Sweet. In the end, Sweet was discovered not responsible by cause of self-defense. A jury acquitted her of the homicide fees on October 29, 1980. She served no jail time.

The place is Sweet Montgomery now?

The place is Sweet Montgomery now? In keeping with Texas Month-to-month, Sweet and her husband, Pat, left Texas quickly after the trial in 1980 and moved to Georgia. They divorced 4 years later. In keeping with Leisure Weekly, Sweet modified her identify again to Candace Wheeler (her maiden identify) and nonetheless lives in Georgia, the place she works as a psychological well being counselor along with her daughter, Jenny.

In an interview with Leisure Weekly in 2022, Biel revealed that she tried to contact a consultant for Sweet to see if “she was taken with having any dialog by any means.” “She was not ,” Biel stated. To play Sweet, Biel talked to Sweet’s lawyer, Robert Udashen, one in every of her two attorneys who defended her in her case, whom Biel known as a “large useful resource of data” for Sweet.

Jessica Biel in Sweet. Picture: Tina Rowden/Hulu

Biel defined why she was drawn to Sweet and Betty’s case for Sweet. “For 90 % of their lives, they lived these very regular, suburban lives, after which growth, this loopy factor occurs,” she stated. “She needed to be beloved and likable and good and sort and somebody which you could actually get behind, after which after this loopy factor occurs, I nonetheless need you to weirdly be behind her,” she says. Lynskey added of Betty, “I simply felt like I knew her, and elements of me had been elements of her.” She continued, “You’re dwelling on this feeling and it will probably typically really feel barely repetitive, however that’s what melancholy additionally looks like.”

For her half, Olsen regarded again to the ladies overlaying magazines within the late ’70s and early ’80s to see who Sweet would possibly look as much as, per an interview with Vainness Truthful. “We tried to grasp the kind of stress and perfectionism that would lead her to [the killing],” explains Olsen. “Sweet was at all times making an attempt to create one thing extra for herself.”

She continued: “It’s laborious not to consider Hillary Clinton at that second in time, particularly for a girl who had hopes and goals of being one thing greater than a spouse and a mom and a caretaker…. I additionally thought of Hillary when it got here to coiffure as a result of there’s this [mugshot of Candy with a perm]. However we all know individuals don’t essentially have perms for 2 years straight as a result of their hair would fall out. We needed to invent some [hair] historical past main up to date.”

Love & Dying is obtainable to stream on HBOMax. Sweet is obtainable to stream on Hulu.

Picture: Courtesy of Open Highway Media.

For extra about Sweet Montgomery, learn John Bloom and Jim Atkinson’s 2018 guide, Proof of Love: A True Story of Ardour and Dying within the Suburbs. The true-crime bestseller—which was the idea for Hulu’s Sweet collection—dives deeper in to the case of Betty Gore, a center college trainer from Wylie, Texas, who was murdered by her finest buddy, Sweet Montgomery, on June 13, 1980. “Sweet Montgomery and Betty Gore had loads in widespread: They sang collectively within the Methodist church choir, their daughters had been finest mates, and their husbands had good jobs working for know-how corporations within the north Dallas suburbs often known as Silicon Prairie. However beneath the placid floor of their seemingly good lives, each girls simmered with unstated frustrations and unanswered wishes,” the writer’s description reads. The guide consists of unique interviews with Gore and Montgomery’s households, in addition to a gripping account of Montgomery’s homicide trial. The guide is described as a nail-biting story that’s certain to “fascinate true crime aficionados,” in accordance with Kirkus Opinions.

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