'Captain America' Actress Mollie Fitzgerald Arrested For Murdering Mom
She plans to represent herself in court.
Johnson County Sheriff Office Unless your name is Thanos, being associated with the Marvel Comic Universe usually conjures images of heroes, not murderers. But Mollie Fitzgerald, who had a small role in Captain America, is under arrest for stabbing her mother to death.
Police responded to a call about a disturbance at a house outside Kansas City on December 20, 2019 and found 68-year-old Patricia Fitzgerald dead of stab wounds. At the time, police also found Mollie Fitzgerald there as well and took her to the hospital with minor injuries. It was only later that they determined for sure that she as the one who had stabbed her own mother to death. Now, Fitzgerald is under arrest and charged with her mother's murder.
Who is Mollie Fitzgerald? Read on for the details of the very strange story.
1. Who is Mollie Fitzgerald?
If you haven't heard of Mollie Fitzgerald, don't worry. She's not one of the big-name stars associated with the Marvel Universe. In fact, she only has about six acting credits, including Captain America. Her other films include Trouble Is My Business and a short film called The Girl of My Dreams. She also works behind the camera as a producer on such small films as About A Dog and The Lawful Truth.
2. Who did she play in Captain America?
Her role in the Chris Evans blockbuster is listed as "Stark Girl." To refresh your memory, that doesn't mean Tony Stark. Captain America took place during World War II so the Stark in the film was Howard Stark, Tony's father. He was part of the team that developed the technology to turn Steve Rogers from a skinny little guy to, well, Captain America. In one scene Howard Stark appears at an exhibition of his inventions and he is accompanied by a group of showgirls for maximum pizazz. Mollie Fitzgerald was one of the showgirls.
She was also an assistant to the director Joe Johnston. In an interview about the movie she said, "Although my part is small in this film, I did get to work closely with Dominic Cooper [who played Howard Stark] for a few minutes and that was wonderful. Joe Johnston is an unbelievable director, and I’ve learned a lot about directing from him. Being a part of this production has been one of the best experiences of my life.”
Fitzgerald played a Stark Girl in Captain America.
3. What happened between her and her mother?
Because Fitzgerald isn't a major Hollywood player, there isn't that much background information on her or her family. We don't know at this time if she always had a troubled relationship with her mother or not. All we can say for sure is that police in Olathe, Kansas responded to a call about an armed disturbance on December 20, 2019. According to one report, in the audio of the 911 call about the incident, the operator reported that Fitzgerald confessed the crime. “Matter with a knife. Perp is now saying she took the knife and killed her mother with it,” the operator dispatched.
When they got there, they found Fitzgerald and her mother in the home and Patricia Fitzgerald was dead. Right after the incident, police were asking the public for information so despite the 911 call, it might not have been immediately clear that Fitzgerald had been the one to kill her mother.
4. Fitzgerald was arrested on New Year's Eve.
More than a week after the death of her mother, Mollie Fitzgerald was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The police department hasn't released any information about their investigation at this time. She's being held on $500,000 cash bail.
5. She says she's a lawyer.
Fitzgerald had her first court appearance this week and she appeared via video conference, not in person. She told the judge that she has a law degree from the University of Houston and intends to represent herself. She also objected to her husband Corey Jackson being called as a witness.
6. She has an alleged history of paranoia and strange behavior.
Fitzgerald may have been suffering from some kind of mental illness in the years leading up to the murder. Her IMDB bio refers to a series of 2018 tweets where she "pleaded with the Chief of Staff of the US Army and the Chief of Naval Operations to remove nanotechnology and a voice-to-skull microwave transmitter she believed were implanted by the FBI, the NSA and Lockheed Martin during a trip to the dentist." We were unable to find her Twitter account to verify these tweets but they seem to fit with what friends had noticed about her. One source close to Fitzgerald says, “A couple of years ago is when I noticed the strange posts online about being electromagnetically abused, is what I think it was, and government spying. It was all very paranoid and bizarre so I felt something was definitely wrong.” The friend added, "I felt she was going off the rails and she was going to do something crazy. Never murder, though."
Fitzgerald is due back in court on January 9, 2020.
Rebekah Kuschmider has been writing about celebrities, pop culture, entertainment, and politics since 2010. She is the creator of the blog FeminXer and she is a cohost of the weekly podcast The More Perfect Union.