--- title: The True Story Behind HBO Max's Love & Death description: The Candy Montgomery story gets another adaptation with Love and Death. Here’s everything you need to know about the true story behind the series. canonical: https://time.com/6275168/love-and-death-true-story/ author: Moises Mendez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-04-28T18:46:10.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:53:19.044Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: The True Story Behind HBO Max's Love & Death og:description: The Candy Montgomery story gets another adaptation with Love and Death. Here’s everything you need to know about the true story behind the series og:url: https://time.com/6275168/love-and-death-true-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b0a4bdf14dbcb74/698a3c50096a9497616adb16/elizabeth-olsen.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: elizabeth-olsen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The True Story Behind HBO Max's Love & Death twitter:description: The Candy Montgomery story gets another adaptation with Love and Death. Here’s everything you need to know about the true story behind the series twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b0a4bdf14dbcb74/698a3c50096a9497616adb16/elizabeth-olsen.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The True Story Behind HBO Max’s _Love & Death_ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account.  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Apr 28, 2023 6:46 PM UTC  Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max's "Love & Death" Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max's "Love & Death"Jake Giles Netter/HBO Max  by [Moises Mendez](https://time.com/author/moises-mendez-ii/)  ## Moises Mendez Apr 28, 2023 6:46 PM UTC **_Warning: This post contains spoilers for_** **Love & Death** In Elizabeth Olsen’s first television series since the 2021 Disney+ hit _WandaVision_, the formidable actor plays the notorious Candy Montgomery—a real woman who killed the wife of the man she was having an affair with in 1980\. The HBO Max limited series _Love & Death_, which is based on Jim Atkinson and Joe Bob Briggs’ 1984 book _Evidence of Love: A True Story of Passion and Death in the Suburbs_, follows Olsen as Montgomery, a God-fearing housewife beloved by her small Methodist community in Collin County, Tex. before the turn of events that would upend many lives. The first three episodes of the gripping limited series are now out on HBO Max. Here’s everything you need to know about the true story behind _Love & Death_ and how close the show hews to reality. ## **What happens in** **_Love & Death_** **?**  Elizabeth Olsen (middle) and Lily Rabe (right) in HBO Max's "Love & Death" Jake Giles Netter/HBO Max When we first meet Candy, she has an infectiously sweet personality that makes her, by all appearances, a great mother to her kids and wife to her husband, Pat Montgomery (Patrick Fugit). Candy and her husband seem to have some marital woes, and it’s clear that she feels less desired by her husband than she wishes to be. So she sets out to have an affair with Allan Gore (Jesse Plemons), a longtime friend who is also in her group of church friends and is married to Betty Gore (Lily Rabe). The pair’s love affair heats up quickly, and their rendezvous become more frequent, so they decide to stop seeing each other. But Betty catches on and confronts Candy about the affair. Betty’s rage takes over, and she tries to kill Candy with an axe, but Candy fights back and kills Betty. At first, Candy tries to circumnavigate the judicial process, lying and not turning herself in immediately, but the police eventually catch up with her, and Candy is put on trial for the murder of Betty Gore. The trial became a national sensation because of the ethical murkiness of the killing, with questions involving childhood traumas and self-defense. In the show, Candy’s trial attracts hordes of reporters, photographers, and spectators—to the point that the judge requests the trial be moved to a bigger courthouse. In the end, in the series as in real life, Candy is found not guilty. Still, given that her name had been tainted by the trial, she decides to move her family out of their hometown to Georgia. ## **Does** **_Love & Death_** **stay true to the original story of Candy Montgomery?**  Elizabeth Olsen in HBO Max's "Love & Death" Jake Giles Netter/HBO Max The series reminds viewers at the end of each episode that it is based on a true story, but that it is “a dramatization of actual events. Dialogue, scenes, and some events have been modified or created for dramatic purposes.” _Love & Death_ is the third adaptation made using this case as a subject, following the 1990 CBS movie _A Killing in a Small Town_ and the 2022 Hulu miniseries _Candy_ starring Jessica Biel. As [_Rolling Stone_’s](https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-reviews/love-and-death-hbo-review-elizabeth-olsen-candy-montgomery-axe-killer-jesse-plemons-lily-rabe-1234720656/) TV critic Allen Sepinwall wrote in his review of the show, “If you’ve seen _Candy,_ you not only already know all the details, but will be shocked by how many of the beats of the story are presented in identical fashion,” noting that what feels like a “half-dozen scenes in each installment were practically word-for-word.” _TIME_ critic Judy Berman writes [in her review](https://time.com/6274934/love-and-death-review/) that _Love & Death_ provides new dimensions for these characters that weren’t previously seen in the Hulu series, or other series about rich women in living in idyllic surburbia. “What sets _Love & Death_ apart from its predecessor, and so many other superficial, ripped-from-the-headlines murder shows _(Dahmer—Monster, The Thing About Pam, The Serpent),_ is \[creator David E. Kelley’s\] refusal to reduce real people to cartoon killers or weirdos or fools.” She continued to write that it’s a “welcome correction” from his series following _Big Little Lies_, like [_The Undoing_](https://time.com/5902435/undoing-review-hbo/) to [_Nine Perfect Strangers_](https://time.com/6089080/nine-perfect-strangers-review-hulu/), which have “suffered from similarly broad characterizations.” ## **Where is Candy Montgomery now?**  Olsen as Montgomery Courtesy of HBO/ At the end of the last episode, right before the credits roll, there are updates for each of the main characters. The last scene in the series shows Candy and Pat moving out of Collin County to Georgia. The updates say that the couple divorced shortly after they moved to Georgia and that she began working as a family therapist. At one point, the text says, she practiced with her daughter, Jenny, and they focused on teen and adult depression. According to [_People_](https://people.com/crime/when-candy-montgomery-killed-her-lovers-wife-with-an-axe-police-thought-it-was-a-copycat-of-the-shining/), she is still alive and resides in Georgia. **The TV we’re watching right now:** * [_Damon Lindelof’s sci-fi adventure Mrs. Davis_](https://time.com/6271958/mrs-davis-review/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&utm%5Fcampaign=tvrecs) * [_Amazon’s thrilling gender-flipped_ _Dead Ringers_](https://time.com/6271940/dead-ringers-review-amazon/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&utm%5Fcampaign=tvrecs) * [_A new era of Frog and Toad on AppleTV+_](https://time.com/6275294/frog-and-toad-apple-tv-adaptation/?utm%5Fsource=roundup&utm%5Fcampaign=tvrecs) ## **What happened to everyone else?**  Patrick Fugit (left), Elizabeth Olsen (middle), and Tom Pelphrey (right) in HBO Max's "Love & Death" Jake Giles Netter/HBO Max The series also states that Pat still lives in Georgia and continued to work in defense technologies. Allen remarried shortly after Betty’s death to the church organist, Elaine Williams. The two eventually got a divorce and Betty’s parents adopted her and Allen’s children. He got remarried again and now lives in Maine. After helping Candy avoid prison, the updates at the end of the series says that Don Crowder (Tom Pelphrey), Candy’s attorney, ran for governor of Texas in 1986\. He managed to secure 11% of the vote but ultimately lost the race to Mark White. A story published in the [_Dallas Observer_](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/fatal-perfection-6406471) reported that Crowder suffered from depression and his wife, Sheri, became concerned with his drinking and a DWI arrest. The series’ final update about Crowder states that in 1998, Crowder died by suicide due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ## **What drew the creators to this particular story?**  Elizabeth Olsen, Patrick Fugit, Lily Rabe, and Jesse Plemons Courtesy of HBO In an interview with [_D Magazine_](https://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entertainment/2023/04/why-the-creators-of-love-and-death-returned-to-candy-montgomerys-sordid-saga/), the show’s director, Lesli Linka Glatter, acknowledged that although people might already know the ending of the story, she was still interested in telling it. “This is about a Texas town and its characters,” she said. “I fell in love with all of them, but there’s also a deep hole inside of those characters. It was a mile wide and unfulfilled, so that intrigued me.” Glatter added, “The story was so juicy and the characters were complex and human. It’s not often you find a nostalgic, warm community series that ends with an axe murder.” **_If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental-health crisis or contemplating suicide, call or text 988\. In emergencies, call 911, or seek care from a local hospital or mental health provider._** ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6275168/love-and-death-true-story/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6275168/love-and-death-true-story/"},"headline":"The True Story Behind HBO Max’s Love & Death","datePublished":"2023-04-28T18:46:10.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:53:19.044Z","description":"The Candy Montgomery story gets another adaptation with Love and Death. 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