Kathy Page and James Fulton: The True Story Behind "Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri"
- Davina Kaur
- Jul 19, 2020
- 7 min read
TW: Racist language and discussions of sexual assault.
“Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri” was released in 2017, and racked up seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. It had already won numerous Golden Gloves, BAFTA and SAG honors.
“Three Billboards” is about a mother determined to humiliate and incite a reaction from an admittedly subdued small-town police force into solving the months-old rape and murder of her teenage daughter. Frances McDormand plays the woman - her name is Mildred Hayes - and the billboards are the site of her campaign.
In consecutive order the billboards say “Raped while dying,” “And still no arrests.” “How come, Chief Willoughby?”
This film, based on a powerful true story about family fighting for justice, evokes a lot of mixed feelings from me. It is supposed to be one of those films that talks about something as profound as human nature and injustice. This is a revenge film that is also a dead-child tragedy, a law enforcement comedy that leaves room for physical comedy. It conflates the issues in a problematic and unattractive way.
However, I am biased here as I researched the true, unsolved mystery before watching it.
Since 1991, the Fulton Family have been putting up billboards demanding the cops make an arrest in the cold case murder of Kathy Page in Vidor, Texas.
Kathy Page was a married mum of two and was found dead in a car wreck in 1991. As investigators looked closely, they found evidence to suggest that her death was no accident. She has no obvious wounds or injuries on her body. Her car was barely damaged. The soft drinks on the front seat hadn’t even been spilled. Her feet were pushed back to the seat rather than stretched towards the pedals. Finally, even though she wasn’t wearing a seat belt, she remained in a reclined position in her seat.
The scene was just 100 yards from Kathy’s home so the investigators went to her home where her husband, Steve, answered the door. When the investigators revealed that Kathy was dead, he was understandably upset, however his behaviour was apparently odd. At first he would cry, but then he would stop and act as if nothing was wrong.
Since that morning, he has been the prime suspect in Kathy’s death despite claiming his innocence. Kathy and Steve had been married for thirteen years and had two daughters; Erin and Monica. At the time of her demise, Steve had claimed that she felt that she no longer wanted to be married to him. They were planning to separate, but he wanted to work things out.
Her sister, Sherry, however, says differently. She said that their marriage was beyond repair and that Kathy was moving on with her life. She claims that they had remained friendly during the divorce proceedings. Kathy had asked Steve to babysit Erin and Monica while she went out with her friend, Charlotte.
She left around 11:15pm. By 4:15am, she was dead.
When she was found, she wasn't wearing makeup or jewellery. The autopsy determined that she had been stabbed, she had a broken nose and a black eye, there were bloodstains on her underwear and skin but not on her outer clothing. Authorities believe that she was killed in another location, she was then cleaned up, dressed and placed in her car.
The autopsy report also showed that Kathy had engaged in sexual intercourse shortly before her death. She had not gone to meet Charlotte that night, instead she had spent the night with a boyfriend in a motel in Beaumont, her boyfriend acknowledged that they had sex that night.
The autopsy report also noted that whoever Kathy had sex with that night had had a vasectomy. Her boyfriend has not had one meaning she had engaged in sexual intercourse with someone else that night. Steve was confirmed to have had a vasectomy. When questioned, he admitted that they had sex that night, but it was before she went out.
Sherry does not believe it occurred that way. Sherry believed that Kathy would not have had sex with Steve before going out to do so with another man. She also learnt from Steve’s sister-in-law that Steve had called two different numbers on the night of Kathy’s death. The motel where Kathy was staying, and Charlotte.
Sherry and her father, James Fulton, believe that Steve became furious after finding the phone numbers and realising that Kathy had lied about her whereabouts. They believe when she came home; he demanded to have sex with her, when she refused he attacked, raped and strangled her. After realising he killed her, he staged the accident.
Kathy’s family believed that the police and the district attorney have been covering for Steve and that they have been letting him get away with murder. They noted that when crime scene photos of Kathy were taken, there was no film in the camera.
It reportedly took police three years to convince the district attorney to issue a search warrant for the Page home. Also, it is common knowledge that Steve’s parents are close friends with the chief of police.
Kathy’s father, understandably frustrated by the lack of resolution, began putting up billboards along 1-10 in the Vidor area.
In 2012, he erected one accusing Steve Page of Kathy’s murder and claiming the Vidor Police Department had taken bribes instead of working to catch the killer.
“Steve Page Brutally Murdered his Wife in 1991,” the billboard stated. “Vidor P.D Does Not Want to Solve This Case I Believe They Took A Bribe. “The Attorney General Should Investigate.”
Other Billboards that Fulton has put up include “Vidor Police Botched Up The Case,” “Waiting For Confession,” and “This Could Happen To You!”
Steve Page has still not been indicted.
Fulton’s messages inspired Martin McDonagh to make “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”, as he had seen the billboards on a road trip through the South and Texas. It was hard to forget, as McDonagh put it, the anger and the imagery they evoked.
He states that "I really do hope that because of all this press attention, because of the film that something might shift in the case, that some kind of justice might finally be served." "In fact, that would be the most important thing to come out of this movie."
Which is a lovely sentiment, however not once in the film did they mention Kathy Page and James Fulton. There was no statement saying that true events inspired the film. There is no acknowledgement on Fulton’s story and his fight to indicate Kathy’s killer. If this is supposed to shift the case, surely McDonagh could have linked in a place for people who knew anything about the case that could help?
Surely, if they didn’t do that, they could at least have mentioned Fulton and Kathy in their speeches at the Oscars…
Two actors won Oscars for their roles in the film, one a racist cop and the other a grieving mother. But Fulton meanwhile has lived with sadness and anger that is very much real for over 27 years.
Sam Rockwell, the played the police officer, earned the award for best supporting actor and thanked “everyone who’s ever looked at a billboard.”
Frances McDormand, who played the mother, gave a rousing speech on the need for diversity in film.
“Look around ladies and gentlemen," she said, "because we all have stories to tell and projects we need financed."
Neither actor mentioned the man 1669 miles away whose life inspired the film, one of these stories they could have told.
Whilst this film may have brought the case back to life and put it in the spotlight, there was no implication of it in the film. People would have to do their own research. Aren’t films supposed to celebrate dis-empowered stories, isn't this film supposed to examine poignant themes such as injustice and the power of humanity?
That is one reason I disliked the film, its arrogance towards the Fulton and Page family. And its ignorance towards its problematic and racist themes, it does not fight vitriolic racism but instead ignores it and pushes it aside.
Rather than exploring the plight of Frances McDormand’s character, searching for her daughter's rapist and murderer, McDonagh made the film about a racist policeman’s white redemption.
Dixon, the police officer introduced as outspoken and lewd with a penchant for racial slurs and is known as someone who tortures black prisoners. Hayes says in one scene “Hows the (n-word) torturing business, Dixon”,
Combating racism by a white woman using the n-word? Illogical.
Dixon replies, “You can't say '(n-word) torturing' no more, you gotta say, 'Peoples-of-colour torturing'," in a back-and-forth that establishes Dixon's ignorant views.
They could have used Dixon in an albeit unsubtle nuanced way to this to display police brutality mirroring today’s issues with police officers killing black men. Dixon could have been rightfully punished. But this film focuses on his redemption.
Dixon is not redeemed for renouncing his racism, but for putting his racist opinions on pause to help a white woman find her daughter's killer. Here we see a bigot become the saviour.
It begs the question; why is this female orientated story still centred around the white male struggle?
Fulton in an interview with The Chronicle, said that his and Kathy's story is a ‘bigger story’ than “Three Billboards,” and he has not been in contact with the “Three Billboards” filmmakers and has not seen the film.
The Telegraph described “Three Billboards” as having a “heat that makes you shrink from the cinema screen.”
The only heat that it incites is anger. This supposedly socio-political example of cinema screams ignorance. Is this just offensive and insensitive storytelling?
I think it puts a spotlight on the Fulton and Page case, whilst not saying anything about it at all.
It is safe to end this article with a quote from Fulton who says that “This is my priority until my death, to try to get something done,” he told the paper. “It’s not over with yet. No. I’m fixing to do a lot more than what I’ve already done.”
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