No one but Candy Montgomery knows exactly what happened that Friday, June 13, 1980. She went to Betty Gore’s house, whom everyone thought of as her friend, to get Alisa Gore’s bathing suit. The girl was having a sleepover at her house. Obviously, the two women fell out and only Candy got out alive. Betty was found disfigured in the laundry room of her residence, after taking no less than 41 axes.

The story of this disturbing and surprising crime has won books, series, and films, with its most recent version being Love & Death, from HBO, released less than a year after Candy, from Starplus. Why two versions of such a surreal story? We are finding out now.

Candy was the perfect housewife, considered beautiful for the time, but frustrated with her sex life and lacking in emotion. Allan was dealing with Betty’s deep depression and was just as frustrated. The affair’s decision was rational and came from Candy, something that is already important to point out, which was always used against her. Her practicality in life was also used against her. At the time of the murder, the lovers were separated because Allan wanted to settle with his wife and they had just had another baby. Candy seemed to be handling the end of the case as calmly as she handled everything else. So how did you get 41 ax blows to Betty?

Here’s what sets Love & Death apart from all previous crime versions. Because Candy is disturbingly logical and guilty, the narrative generally highlights her coldness and the fact that she only confessed to the crime when pressured by the police, even then, claiming it was self-defense and arguing her innocence. By bringing sweet Elizabeth Olsen into a controversial and potentially unlikable role, the HBO series was already signaling a difference. Okay, Jessica Biel also has these qualities, but in Candy, she doesn’t ask for affection from the public and reinforces the revolt of how she managed to get rid of Justice with something that seemed premeditated.

HBO released the first three episodes of Love & Death together and now gives us the rest of the story weekly. The biggest audacity is to give Candy’s version as the guiding line of the script. The cast does not physically resemble the real ones, but the words and testimonies are faithful, ipsis litteris, to what she told in court and in the hypnosis sessions.

According to Candy, it was Betty who brought the ax and attacked her, as if in a trance, claiming that she would not let her “keep Allan”. After wounding Candy in the foot, the rage “overpowered both” and in the physical struggle, Betty lost her balance and with it also the control of the weapon. Candy landed the first blow, in the back of the head. Paralyzed with blood, she tried to flee, but Betty got to her feet with the ax in her hands again, ignoring pleas that she let Candy escape. “I can’t,” she apparently replied. A new battle between them began, with Betty already weak from the lost blood, but relentless in her decision to kill her, said Candy. With pure hatred and fear, Candy managed to get the ax back, and this time she used it frantically. She only stopped when she lost power. Of the 41 cuts given to Betty, forty were made while she was still alive.

Even having been the ‘victim’ of an attack and defending herself, the fact that Candy took a shower while still in the house, left there, and went on with her life as if nothing had happened makes her intentions extremely suspicious. She managed to be found innocent and apparently, the HBO series seems to want to reinforce this version. Bold!

Everyone’s performances are spectacular, but it will be now, in the prison and trial part, that we will see how Elizabeth Olsen will make her turn. Jessica Biel clearly portrayed Candy with suspicion, it’s odd someone brought up the killer as a victim. What exactly makes us want to see more!