'Love & Death' Episode 6: Did Candy Montgomery use an anti-anxiety drug in real life during trial?
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Making a project on real-life events or crimes is always tricky because you need to keep it authentic to what actually happened. Of course, filmmakers and directors take the liberty to mix real-life situations with fiction and it’s necessary as well to make things even more interesting. HBO’s miniseries ‘Love & Death’ is based on the brutal murder case of Betty Gore and the prime suspect in that case was Candy Montgomery. According to the reports, Candy killed her friend Betty after she tried attacking her. In self-defense, she (Candy) had to use the axe that was brought to kill her and didn’t shy away from using the weapon to defend herself.
But why did the incident take place? In 1978, Candy (Elizabeth Olsen) and Betty’s husband Allan Gore started an extramarital affair in which they used to meet at different venues and have sex. However, Allan got out of the affair after the birth of their second child and decided to give time to his family. Candy was annoyed by that, but decided to live with it. However, Betty got to know about the affair and confronted Candy about it. She admitted that she had an affair with Allan, but it was over and she doesn’t want anything to do with Allan now. Betty was trying to forgive her, but when Candy tried showing pity on Betty, she lost her mind and began swinging the axe at her. In the end, Candy, while trying to defend herself, got hold of the axe and killed Betty by hitting her 41 times.
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When the police took her into custody, she claimed that she didn’t do it, but she opened up to her lawyer and admitted killing her best friend. As soon as the trial began, things became really problematic for Candy and she started to feel anxious about things. To calm herself, the HBO series shows that Candy took a medication called Serax. Her lawyer could feel that she took something when she suddenly started talking about how the prosecutor looked nice.
Things got worse when the judge suddenly called Don Crowder to call his witness and his only witness in the case was Candy Montgomery. She was out and didn’t even know what was happening. But did she take the medication in real as well? Let’s a look.
Did Candy Montgomery take Serax during Betty Gore's murder trial?
For the uninitiated, Serax (Oxazepam) is an anti-anxiety medication usually prescribed for short periods of time to help ease symptoms of anxiety. The medication has a calming effect and can be used for sleep.
The HBO series shows that Candy took the medicine to calm her nerves, but there are no reports that real-life Candy Montgomery took the medication during the trial. She did testify during the trial, but the makers added this plotline to provide more meatiness to an already intense situation.
It would be interesting to see if someone comes forward in confirming that she did take that medication during the trial. Until then, that particular part remains a work of “fiction.”