Latest / Legally Brunette / Gypsy Rose-Blanchard: Victim or Perpetrator?
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hi, guys. Welcome to an episode of Legally Brunette. I'll
- 0:04Speaker 1: be your host today, Emily Simpson and.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Shane. All right.
- 0:08Speaker 1: Today, because this has come up in the news recently,
- 0:11Speaker 1: we are going to do an episode on Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Have you heard of Gypsy Rose before?
- 0:17Speaker 2: Yes.
- 0:17Speaker 1: I'm sure everybody... She's infamous. I would say infamous.
- 0:20Speaker 2: In fact, I've heard so much about her, I thought
- 0:22Speaker 2: we did a podcast.
- 0:23Speaker 1: Yeah, Shane was like, oh, is this an update? I
- 0:26Speaker 1: was like, no, we've never talked about Gypsy Rose before.
- 0:29Speaker 2: We've talked about her a lot, just not in front
- 0:31Speaker 2: of these microphones. Right. All right.
- 0:33Speaker 1: So in the city of Springfield, Missouri, Dee Dee Blanchard
- 0:37Speaker 1: was known as a devoted single mother. Her daughter, Gypsy Rose,
- 0:41Speaker 1: had spent most of her life in a wheelchair, battling
- 0:43Speaker 1: a long list of serious illnesses. Neighbors admired them, charities
- 0:47Speaker 1: rallied around them, and Habitat for Humanity even built them
- 0:51Speaker 1: a home.
- 0:51Speaker 2: Oh, wow.
- 0:52Speaker 1: To the outside world, they were a story of resilience,
- 0:55Speaker 1: a mother sacrificing everything for her fragile, sick child. Have
- 1:00Speaker 1: you seen photos of their house?
- 1:02Speaker 2: No.
- 1:03Speaker 1: It was built by Habitat for Humanity. It's in Missouri.
- 1:06Speaker 1: They were actually living in Louisiana for most of her
- 1:09Speaker 1: life when she was young, and then after Hurricane Katrina-
- 1:12Speaker 1: They moved. I don't know if they moved because of
- 1:14Speaker 1: the hurricane. There was also familial issues and things like
- 1:17Speaker 1: that as well, but they ended up moving to Missouri
- 1:18Speaker 1: and then Habitat for Humanity, who somehow knows about their story,
- 1:22Speaker 1: ends up building them a home. It was like this
- 1:24Speaker 1: cute little pink house with a wheelchair ramp. So they
- 1:28Speaker 1: modified it. They built it, you know, specifically for her needs.
- 1:32Speaker 2: Okay. Which is what being in a wheelchair and things
- 1:35Speaker 2: like that, right? A lower reaching height.
- 1:37Speaker 1: Then in June of 2015, an unsettling message appeared on
- 1:41Speaker 1: Dee Dee's Facebook page. I was telling you that Dee Dee,
- 1:44Speaker 1: the mother.
- 1:45Speaker 2: Yes. Mother Rose.
- 1:48Speaker 1: Her name is not Mother Rose.
- 1:49Speaker 2: What's Dee Dee stand for?
- 1:52Speaker 1: Her name is Dee Dee. That is a name. Her
- 1:54Speaker 1: first name is like. D-E-E.
- 1:56Speaker 2: Like D-E-E.
- 1:57Speaker 1: D-E-E.
- 1:59Speaker 2: So it's Dee Dee.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Yes.
- 2:02Speaker 2: Not Dee Dee.
- 2:03Speaker 1: It's Dee Dee.
- 2:05Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. Like.
- 2:06Speaker 1: Her real name's like Claudinia or something, and she goes
- 2:09Speaker 1: by Dee Dee.
- 2:10Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Okay? Do you get that now? Do you understand?
- 2:12Speaker 2: Yes. Mother Rose.
- 2:13Speaker 1: No, it is. She's the mother. You're killing me. All
- 2:18Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you is that they have a
- 2:19Speaker 1: joint Facebook page.
- 2:20Speaker 2: That's it. What's it called?
- 2:22Speaker 1: It's something like Dee Dee Gyps Rose something. Anyway, they
- 2:25Speaker 1: have a joint Facebook page where the mother posts a
- 2:28Speaker 1: lot about Gypsy Rose and her ailments and illnesses and
- 2:32Speaker 1: all the things that they're going through. So I think
- 2:35Speaker 1: it's important that you know that they have a joint
- 2:37Speaker 1: Facebook page. Because an unsettling message appeared on it. This
- 2:42Speaker 1: is what started the whole thing in June of 2015.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Worried friends called the police after they saw the unsettling
- 2:48Speaker 1: message and what officers found inside the little house set
- 2:52Speaker 1: off a frantic search for a vulnerable young woman who
- 2:55Speaker 1: seemed to have vanished. As investigators pierced things together, every
- 2:59Speaker 1: assumption about the Blanchards began to unravel. Who was Gypsy
- 3:03Speaker 1: Rose really? Was she as ill as they claimed? And
- 3:06Speaker 1: what had gone on behind the closed doors of a
- 3:08Speaker 1: home that seemed so full of love? All right. On
- 3:11Speaker 1: May 3rd of 1967, Claudinia, that's her name. That's the
- 3:15Speaker 1: mother's name, Claudinia.
- 3:16Speaker 2: Also known as Didi.
- 3:17Speaker 1: But she goes by Didi. Claudinia Didi Petrie is born
- 3:21Speaker 1: in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. Relatives later described a history of
- 3:25Speaker 1: troubling behavior, including check fraud in the 80s. Some family
- 3:28Speaker 1: members also suspected that she neglected or starved her own mother, Emma,
- 3:33Speaker 1: before Emma died in 1997. These suspicions were never proven.
- 3:40Speaker 1: Around 1990, Didi, then in her 20s, begins a relationship
- 3:44Speaker 1: with Rod Blanchard, who is 17 at the time. I
- 3:46Speaker 1: think Either he lied about his age or she lied
- 3:49Speaker 1: about her age. Somebody lied about their age because it
- 3:50Speaker 1: was a big age difference. It's 17 and 23. But
- 3:53Speaker 1: they end up dating. They met at a bar at
- 3:55Speaker 1: a bowling alley.
- 3:57Speaker 2: Well, then I'm going to guess that she was lying
- 3:59Speaker 2: about her age. Probably. Because she got into a bar
- 4:01Speaker 2: or she was at a bar. No, she's 23.
- 4:03Speaker 1: He's 17.
- 4:03Speaker 2: Oh, is he the other way around? Yes.
- 4:05Speaker 1: He's younger. And then they start dating. She becomes pregnant.
- 4:10Speaker 1: And they get married. The way I understand it is
- 4:14Speaker 1: that he wanted to do the right thing. I don't
- 4:15Speaker 1: think he was in love with her at all or
- 4:17Speaker 1: he just wanted to– he thought– The.
- 4:19Speaker 2: Right thing would be not to sleep with her. Well, okay.
- 4:22Speaker 1: But we're past that.
- 4:23Speaker 2: He did sleep with her. No, but I'm just like
- 4:24Speaker 2: he wanted to be a good guy. So then you
- 4:26Speaker 2: sleep with people you don't like and then you marry them?
- 4:29Speaker 1: Well, he married her because she was pregnant. Well, I
- 4:32Speaker 1: feel like that's a story old as time when people
- 4:34Speaker 1: get married because somebody got pregnant and then you're like, oh,
- 4:36Speaker 1: you're supposed to do the right thing now. You're supposed
- 4:38Speaker 1: to get married. I know.
- 4:39Speaker 2: And I was just taking it a step further as
- 4:40Speaker 2: to what the right thing was.
- 4:42Speaker 1: Not to sleep with her in the first place.
- 4:43Speaker 2: All right.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Rod leaves the marriage quickly after. So they're not married
- 4:48Speaker 1: very long. And then he's like, I'm not in love
- 4:49Speaker 1: with this woman. He's out.
- 4:51Speaker 2: It's all screw the right thing. Yeah.
- 4:52Speaker 1: He later said he realized he had married for the
- 4:54Speaker 1: wrong reasons and he stays in contact and pays child
- 4:57Speaker 1: support for years. I actually like the dad. I've seen
- 5:01Speaker 1: several documentaries and several interviews with him. And I find him,
- 5:04Speaker 1: and maybe I'm wrong, but I find him to be
- 5:06Speaker 1: like a really decent guy.
- 5:08Speaker 2: So then what happened?
- 5:09Speaker 1: I believe he tried to have a relationship with her.
- 5:11Speaker 1: From the interviews that I've seen with him, he always
- 5:15Speaker 1: wanted to have a relationship with her. But Dee Dee
- 5:18Speaker 1: was very controlling. And I think she only allowed him
- 5:20Speaker 1: to see her kind of on her own terms. She
- 5:23Speaker 1: also moved a lot with Gypsy. So they started out
- 5:26Speaker 1: being pretty close in proximity, and I believe he saw Gypsy.
- 5:29Speaker 1: Then they ended up moving like two hours away. He
- 5:31Speaker 1: saw her less. Then they ended up moving like four
- 5:33Speaker 1: hours away. And then they ended up moving to Missouri,
- 5:36Speaker 1: and he was in Louisiana.
- 5:37Speaker 2: Was it like your dad's asking too many questions? We
- 5:39Speaker 2: got to move further away? Maybe.
- 5:41Speaker 1: I mean, that could have been it. My takeaway from
- 5:44Speaker 1: listening to him talk and watching his interviews– he just,
- 5:47Speaker 1: he thought Dee Dee was an amazing mom and he
- 5:50Speaker 1: let her just take the lead.
- 5:51Speaker 2: Okay.
- 5:52Speaker 1: I also believe that when he was working, he also did,
- 5:54Speaker 1: I think he went to Alaska to work on like
- 5:56Speaker 1: oil rigs and things like that.
- 5:57Speaker 2: Okay, so he thought Dee Dee, he saw it as
- 6:00Speaker 2: the mother was taking care of the daughter.
- 6:01Speaker 1: Right.
- 6:02Speaker 2: Okay.
- 6:02Speaker 1: And he also said that he was afraid to rock
- 6:04Speaker 1: the boat too much with her because he was afraid
- 6:06Speaker 1: she would just disappear with, the daughter.
- 6:09Speaker 2: So I think.
- 6:10Speaker 1: He felt like she was a good mom, but she
- 6:12Speaker 1: was also very controlling of everything. And so he didn't
- 6:14Speaker 1: want to push too hard.
- 6:16Speaker 2: Is the way you think now about her.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Well, I mean, all right. Then in July 27th, 1991,
- 6:23Speaker 1: gypsy Rose Blanchard is born in Lake Charles, Louisiana. By
- 6:26Speaker 1: all accounts, she is a healthy baby at around, um,
- 6:30Speaker 1: about three months old. DD becomes convinced that gypsy has
- 6:33Speaker 1: sleep apnea and takes her to doctors. Tests find nothing wrong.
- 6:38Speaker 1: This is usually cited as the first sign of the
- 6:41Speaker 1: Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Yeah.
- 6:44Speaker 2: Well, looking back, it's the first sign. At the time,
- 6:47Speaker 2: they didn't see it that way, right? How old was
- 6:49Speaker 2: the daughter the first time she brings her in for
- 6:51Speaker 2: sleep apnea?
- 6:52Speaker 1: Around three months old.
- 6:53Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
- 6:55Speaker 1: She also had a legitimate eye issue because if you
- 6:57Speaker 1: see pictures of Gypsy Rose, she has a lazy eye,
- 7:00Speaker 1: but she's had surgery to fix it. But when she
- 7:04Speaker 1: was very young. Her eyes were very, it was noticeable
- 7:08Speaker 1: that she had. So I was thinking, because she did
- 7:10Speaker 1: have surgery when she was very young to fix the
- 7:13Speaker 1: eye issues. And I thought, is that what started the Munchausen?
- 7:16Speaker 1: Like maybe when.
- 7:17Speaker 2: She took her- Or if that was just a freebie.
- 7:20Speaker 1: Like she took her legitimately to get a surgery and then,
- 7:23Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe she got a bunch of attention
- 7:26Speaker 1: from it or people were rallying around or they were
- 7:28Speaker 1: bringing her gifts or they were You know, what it
- 7:31Speaker 1: is that like incites a mother to all of a sudden.
- 7:34Speaker 2: Well, what I was saying, well, if it started back
- 7:36Speaker 2: with her own mother, then the fact that Gypsy needed
- 7:40Speaker 2: some medical attention for reals was probably just she got lucky.
- 7:44Speaker 2: She's like, oh, great. She really does need help. And
- 7:46Speaker 2: then she took her. Yeah. And then, you know, exaggerates
- 7:48Speaker 2: everything else.
- 7:50Speaker 1: So Munchausen syndrome by proxy is a mental illness and
- 7:53Speaker 1: a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child,
- 7:56Speaker 1: most often the mother, either makes up fake symptoms or
- 8:00Speaker 1: causes real symptoms themselves to make it look like the
- 8:03Speaker 1: child is sick. You know, I had never heard of
- 8:05Speaker 1: it or knew much about Munchausen by proxy. The first
- 8:09Speaker 1: time I remember ever seeing any kind of– anything that had– Oh.
- 8:12Speaker 2: Let me guess. What? Sixth Sense. Yes. I knew it. Yes.
- 8:16Speaker 1: And I tell you, the first time I saw The
- 8:18Speaker 1: Sixth Sense, I didn't even understand it because this was,
- 8:20Speaker 1: I don't know, when did it come out.
- 8:21Speaker 2: In the 90s? Because you're probably thinking, why would a
- 8:22Speaker 2: mother want to poison the child, like inflict illness on
- 8:26Speaker 2: the child?
- 8:27Speaker 1: And in the movie, she inflicted illness until the daughter died.
- 8:30Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
- 8:31Speaker 1: I mean, because it was her ghost that came back
- 8:33Speaker 1: and was, you know.
- 8:35Speaker 2: Right.
- 8:35Speaker 1: I mean, she died.
- 8:37Speaker 2: Right, because... Well, okay, the movie is it's a funeral.
- 8:40Speaker 2: This scene is a funeral for this daughter, this young girl. Right.
- 8:46Speaker 2: And then this kid that has this sixth sense is
- 8:51Speaker 2: directed to kind of go there because her spirit tells
- 8:54Speaker 2: him to go there. And he goes and he finds
- 8:56Speaker 2: the cassette tape or the videotape that she made. Was
- 9:01Speaker 2: secretly planted in a room showing what the mom was,
- 9:03Speaker 2: how the mom was poisoning her. Right. And then he
- 9:05Speaker 2: gets it and he gives it to the dad, I think,
- 9:07Speaker 2: and the dad plays it. And then he's watching in
- 9:11Speaker 2: front of everyone at this, it's not the funeral, it's
- 9:14Speaker 2: the service after in the home, right? The gathering. And
- 9:16Speaker 2: they're all watching this video of this mom putting like
- 9:19Speaker 2: lead poisoning or whatever it was in their soup.
- 9:22Speaker 1: Yeah, but I was just saying when I saw that
- 9:25Speaker 1: the first time in the 90s, I didn't know what
- 9:28Speaker 1: Munchausen by proxy was. And I just remember not even
- 9:31Speaker 1: understanding really. I remember questioning like, what is she doing?
- 9:35Speaker 1: It made no sense to me. Now, as an adult,
- 9:39Speaker 1: and now we've talked about Munchausen by proxy at other times,
- 9:44Speaker 1: it's interesting that it really is a disorder that's mostly
- 9:48Speaker 1: mothers doing it to their children.
- 9:51Speaker 2: Mm-hmm.
- 9:51Speaker 1: I learned from the documentary that a lot of mothers
- 9:54Speaker 1: that do this, that they start out doing it, they're
- 9:57Speaker 1: all kind of start out by asking for a feeding plan.
- 10:00Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting.
- 10:01Speaker 2: Oh, what? A feeding tube?
- 10:02Speaker 1: Yes. That that's one of the things that they, that
- 10:04Speaker 1: mothers that do this, they usually all kind of do
- 10:07Speaker 1: the same thing.
- 10:08Speaker 2: Is that because it's a visual like thing to gain sympathy?
- 10:11Speaker 1: No, it's because I learned this. It's because they can
- 10:15Speaker 1: control how much food a child gets, and they can
- 10:19Speaker 1: control medication going in and out. So they can control
- 10:23Speaker 1: whether they want to make the kid sick or not
- 10:25Speaker 1: or feed them or not. It's a way to control
- 10:29Speaker 1: their symptoms.
- 10:30Speaker 2: So only they can kind of funnel whatever the child takes. Right. Wow,
- 10:36Speaker 2: do they all go on Reddit and learn this or something?
- 10:38Speaker 2: Is there like a group with like first step and
- 10:42Speaker 2: if you want to inflict pain on your kid?
- 10:44Speaker 1: It's interesting though, isn't it, that they said in the
- 10:46Speaker 1: documentary that it starts out usually.
- 10:48Speaker 2: With a- You mentioned the sleep apnea and I asked
- 10:51Speaker 2: how old. You said three months. If you had a
- 10:53Speaker 2: kid that wasn't sleeping at three months, would we think
- 10:55Speaker 2: sleep apnea or would we think- Colic. Yeah, colicky or
- 10:58Speaker 2: difficulty getting to sleep, try different things. I wouldn't be like,
- 11:02Speaker 2: there's a disorder here.
- 11:11Speaker 1: All right, so in Gypsy's early childhood, Dee Dee claims
- 11:14Speaker 1: that Gypsy has a chromosomal disorder and a growing list
- 11:18Speaker 1: of other conditions. They move between relatives' homes in Louisiana,
- 11:21Speaker 1: including her father's home near Sladell. About age seven to eight,
- 11:28Speaker 1: Gypsy has a minor motorbike accident with her grandfather and
- 11:31Speaker 1: scrapes her knee. Dee Dee insists that the injury needs
- 11:34Speaker 1: repeated surgeries and puts Gypsy in a wheelchair. Gypsy could
- 11:38Speaker 1: walk normally but would use the wheelchair in public for
- 11:41Speaker 1: approximately 15 years.
- 11:44Speaker 2: Man, that's crazy that you can walk but you're using
- 11:47Speaker 2: a wheelchair for 15 years.
- 11:48Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know what? And it doesn't make sense
- 11:51Speaker 1: because I'm like, if this child knows that she can
- 11:52Speaker 1: walk but she continues to use the wheelchair, but really
- 11:55Speaker 1: when you're that young and you just live with your mom,
- 11:58Speaker 1: that's it.
- 11:58Speaker 2: It also becomes normal. Maybe the mom told her, like, no,
- 12:00Speaker 2: it's better if you don't walk. Right. Like you need
- 12:03Speaker 2: to sit down.
- 12:04Speaker 1: And the mother's the only access really she has to,
- 12:08Speaker 1: you know, she doesn't really have many other people around her.
- 12:11Speaker 1: She doesn't go to school. She keeps her from school.
- 12:14Speaker 1: I assume she tries to homeschool her or something, or
- 12:17Speaker 1: she says she can't go to school because she has
- 12:19Speaker 1: so many ailments or illnesses or whatever. So basically Dee
- 12:22Speaker 1: Dee's the only one in her life controlling every aspect
- 12:24Speaker 1: of her life. And when you're a young child like that,
- 12:26Speaker 1: like we were talking about earlier, if I just told
- 12:28Speaker 1: Keller from day one that he can't walk and he
- 12:30Speaker 1: needs to use a wheelchair and I mean, he would
- 12:33Speaker 1: believe us and he would do that. And if I
- 12:36Speaker 1: told him he was sick and he needed a feeding tube,
- 12:38Speaker 1: he would, you know, kids aren't going to.
- 12:40Speaker 2: And the other way too, if you told them they're
- 12:42Speaker 2: wonderful and loving and like a child of God and
- 12:46Speaker 2: all these great things, they would grow up thinking that too.
- 12:50Speaker 2: I'm just saying it goes both ways. Just as you're
- 12:53Speaker 2: supposed to instill in them the confidence and this and that,
- 12:56Speaker 2: she was doing the opposite.
- 12:58Speaker 1: So Dee Dee takes Gypsy out of school after about
- 13:00Speaker 1: second grade, citing her illnesses, which include she claimed that
- 13:05Speaker 1: she had learning disabilities from brain damage. So Gypsy is homeschooled,
- 13:09Speaker 1: and she largely taught herself to read using things like
- 13:11Speaker 1: Harry Potter books. She claims that Gypsy had leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy,
- 13:20Speaker 1: vision and hearing impairment, asthma, and severe allergies to sugar.
- 13:24Speaker 1: Dee Dee also claims Gypsy is cognitively impaired at the
- 13:28Speaker 1: level of a young child. I know she would say
- 13:30Speaker 1: things to people like she only has the mental capacity of,
- 13:33Speaker 1: you know, like a seven or eight year old or something,
- 13:35Speaker 1: even as she got older.
- 13:36Speaker 2: Because I stopped taking her to school after the third grade.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Well, also, I think it's because if you tell everyone
- 13:40Speaker 1: that cognitively she's, you know... the age of like seven
- 13:45Speaker 1: or eight or something, then people don't ask a lot
- 13:47Speaker 1: of questions. They don't inquire. And if she says something
- 13:51Speaker 1: that doesn't make sense, like I can walk, they're like, oh, well,
- 13:55Speaker 1: she doesn't know what.
- 13:55Speaker 2: She's talking about. Let's not remember. She has cognitive difficulties.
- 13:59Speaker 1: So Gypsy had a feeding tube placed in her in
- 14:02Speaker 1: the early 2000s. Gypsy could eat normally and secretly did
- 14:05Speaker 1: eat normally. Also, my question is, and I guess this
- 14:08Speaker 1: is just because the medical industry just is what the
- 14:11Speaker 1: medical industry is. Like in the documentary, they talk about
- 14:13Speaker 1: how really the medical industry is a business. So if
- 14:16Speaker 1: you have a mother that's pushing and saying she has
- 14:19Speaker 1: an eating disorder, she doesn't eat at home, I'm having
- 14:21Speaker 1: trouble with her, she's malnourished, she needs a feeding tube.
- 14:24Speaker 1: I mean, I guess a doctor says, okay, you must
- 14:28Speaker 1: know because you're the mother.
- 14:29Speaker 2: Right.
- 14:30Speaker 1: And so there's not a lot of pushback. Right.
- 14:32Speaker 2: And if there was pushback, she'd probably just go to
- 14:33Speaker 2: another doctor anyway. Right.
- 14:34Speaker 1: She would doctor shop. So- She also had Botox injections
- 14:39Speaker 1: to treat supposed excessive drooling and later the removal of
- 14:43Speaker 1: those glands altogether. She had ear tube surgeries because her
- 14:47Speaker 1: mom claimed that she had hearing problems. She did have
- 14:50Speaker 1: eye muscle surgeries. She did have trouble with the eyes.
- 14:53Speaker 1: That's the only thing that ever seemed legitimate to me.
- 14:56Speaker 1: She had tooth extractions because her teeth rotted and her
- 14:59Speaker 1: teeth were rotten, likely because of the cocktail of medication
- 15:02Speaker 1: that she was given and side effects, poor care. Many
- 15:05Speaker 1: of her teeth were pulled and she had heavy medication,
- 15:08Speaker 1: including anti-seizure drugs and painkillers that caused real side effects.
- 15:13Speaker 1: Dee Dee also would shave Gypsy's head, saying it would
- 15:17Speaker 1: fall out anyway from cancer treatment. So Gypsy always looked
- 15:21Speaker 1: like a cancer patient. You know, also she was saying,
- 15:24Speaker 1: and I thought this was sad, she didn't really have
- 15:26Speaker 1: any normal clothes. She said she really only had princess
- 15:29Speaker 1: dresses and she would wear wigs a lot. But she
- 15:33Speaker 1: didn't have normal play clothes like a kid. I think
- 15:36Speaker 1: her mom just kept her in this perpetual state of like.
- 15:39Speaker 2: To keep her looking like.
- 15:40Speaker 1: To keep her looking young and childlike. And so she
- 15:44Speaker 1: just always had princess dresses and wigs on, you know?
- 15:47Speaker 1: And I think that makes people just not question anything
- 15:50Speaker 1: if she just continually looks.
- 15:53Speaker 2: young and incapable of growing.
- 15:58Speaker 1: I do know that the mother also, when Gypsy started
- 16:00Speaker 1: to get older, her mother started changing her birth date
- 16:05Speaker 1: because she didn't want her to be older. She wanted
- 16:07Speaker 1: to keep her young. So when she was like, 12,
- 16:11Speaker 1: she was saying she was nine. And then when she
- 16:13Speaker 1: was 15, she was saying that she was 12. And
- 16:15Speaker 1: I think she was even confused about how old that
- 16:18Speaker 1: she actually.
- 16:18Speaker 2: She kind of forgot how old she was. Well, she probably...
- 16:20Speaker 2: Or she forgot her lies, right? She couldn't keep up
- 16:21Speaker 2: with her lies. Well, yeah.
- 16:22Speaker 1: I mean, you're told that you have leukemia. You're told
- 16:24Speaker 1: that you have cancer. You're head shaved. You're using a wheelchair.
- 16:27Speaker 1: And she's told consistently that she's younger than she really is.
- 16:31Speaker 1: The family also received lots of donations, free trips, and
- 16:35Speaker 1: help from charities that These included Make-A-Wish. She received a
- 16:39Speaker 1: Disney World trip.
- 16:40Speaker 2: You know, that took them, although I guess it would
- 16:42Speaker 2: be good for Gypsy because at least she had some
- 16:45Speaker 2: moment of entertainment and joy. But that took a Make-A-Wish
- 16:50Speaker 2: from a kid that really was struggling and a family
- 16:53Speaker 2: that really was caring for their child.
- 16:55Speaker 1: They also met celebrities, including country singer Miranda Lambert backstage.
- 17:00Speaker 2: I bet you Miranda Lambert is for the mom. I
- 17:03Speaker 2: bet that was really more for the mom.
- 17:04Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure.
- 17:05Speaker 2: I doubt Gypsy was... Actually, everything was for the mom.
- 17:07Speaker 2: What are we thinking? Yeah.
- 17:08Speaker 1: Gypsy later described being hit, being restrained to her bed,
- 17:12Speaker 1: and being threatened if she contradicted her mother in front
- 17:14Speaker 1: of doctors or others. Dee Dee kept her isolated from
- 17:17Speaker 1: her father's side of the family. You know, her father remarried,
- 17:21Speaker 1: and she had a... I think when she got older,
- 17:24Speaker 1: she ended up having a pretty close relationship with her stepmother.
- 17:27Speaker 2: But I do.
- 17:31Speaker 1: i just i feel badly because the dad every time
- 17:34Speaker 1: he's in an interview i really just get the con
- 17:36Speaker 1: i just feel like he's just a good guy he
- 17:38Speaker 1: just didn't know what to do and he was just
- 17:40Speaker 1: afraid to push too hard and he just thought she
- 17:42Speaker 1: was a good mom and he just believed everything that
- 17:44Speaker 1: she said and he said that he had sent around
- 17:47Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars and to the mother and and medical
- 17:51Speaker 1: bill like repayment like to help her with medical.
- 17:54Speaker 2: Bills with the fake medical with the fake medical.
- 17:56Speaker 1: Bills right Then in August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hits Louisiana.
- 18:01Speaker 1: Dee Dee and Gypsy are evacuated and present themselves as
- 18:04Speaker 1: storm victims. Dee Dee claims that Gypsy's medical records were
- 18:08Speaker 1: destroyed in the flooding and this made it much harder
- 18:10Speaker 1: for new doctors to check her history. That really worked
- 18:13Speaker 1: out well for her because then when she moves to
- 18:15Speaker 1: Missouri and she's seeing new doctors and she's telling them
- 18:17Speaker 1: all about the history of Gypsy and that she has
- 18:20Speaker 1: leukemia and that she can't walk and she has muscular
- 18:23Speaker 1: dystrophy and all these things and they asked to review
- 18:25Speaker 1: her medical records.
- 18:26Speaker 2: Now they just look over everything well she.
- 18:28Speaker 1: Says we there aren't any because we just came from
- 18:31Speaker 1: louisiana because they were a part of hurricane katrina right
- 18:35Speaker 1: she used that as an excuse to say it was
- 18:37Speaker 1: all destroyed which maybe it was i don't know if.
- 18:40Speaker 2: I go to a doctor and be like oh my
- 18:42Speaker 2: kid has you know x y and z any medication
- 18:45Speaker 2: oh i don't have any records you just have to
- 18:46Speaker 2: go off my word Yeah.
- 18:48Speaker 1: And I think that's crappy. I think they did. That's
- 18:50Speaker 1: why they explain in this, a lot of these documentaries
- 18:53Speaker 1: that I watched where they say the medical industry is
- 18:56Speaker 1: a business.
- 18:57Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. That's why I was saying, I thought maybe
- 18:59Speaker 2: they'd take it like, okay, let's do some tests. Let's
- 19:02Speaker 2: like start over. And then they would start to be suspicious,
- 19:05Speaker 2: but they didn't even do that. So it's even worse.
- 19:07Speaker 1: In 2008, Habitat for Humanity builds the pair wheelchair accessible
- 19:11Speaker 1: house with a ramp and a hot tub. This is
- 19:14Speaker 1: in Springfield, Missouri. They also receive local media coverage and
- 19:18Speaker 1: community support. In 2007, Springfield pediatric neurologist Dr. Bernardo Flasterstein
- 19:27Speaker 1: examines Gypsy. Muscle tests and records he obtained gave no
- 19:31Speaker 1: basis for a muscular dystrophy diagnosis.
- 19:34Speaker 2: No.
- 19:34Speaker 1: And he believed that she could stand and bear weight.
- 19:37Speaker 2: There we go.
- 19:37Speaker 1: He suspected Munchausen by proxy and confronted Dee Dee. Dee
- 19:41Speaker 1: Dee stopped taking Gypsy to him, and he did not
- 19:45Speaker 1: report it, partly because other doctors had accepted the diagnosis.
- 19:50Speaker 1: You know, they told Gypsy on the phone when she
- 19:52Speaker 1: was in prison that a doctor had said in front
- 19:54Speaker 1: of her during a medical exam that you can walk,
- 19:56Speaker 1: stand up, and the mom got really mad and said,
- 19:58Speaker 1: we're leaving. And Gypsy said she didn't remember that ever happening.
- 20:02Speaker 1: So I don't know if the doctor being interviewed was
- 20:04Speaker 1: like a CYA, like he was trying to cover himself
- 20:07Speaker 1: by saying I did I did notice that, you know,
- 20:11Speaker 1: she could probably walk. And I did say that she
- 20:13Speaker 1: should stand up. And then the mom got mad and
- 20:15Speaker 1: stormed out. I don't know if he was saying that
- 20:18Speaker 1: to kind of cover himself or if that really happened.
- 20:22Speaker 1: Gypsy claims that she doesn't remember that ever happening. Right.
- 20:24Speaker 1: And that she feels like if that did happen, she
- 20:27Speaker 1: would have remembered something.
- 20:28Speaker 2: Oh, she said that part too? Like, that's something I
- 20:30Speaker 2: would remember? Yeah.
- 20:31Speaker 1: So now we get to 2009. An anonymous caller asked
- 20:34Speaker 1: police to do a welfare check suggesting that Gypsy might
- 20:38Speaker 1: not be as sick as claimed. Dee Dee persuades the
- 20:41Speaker 1: officers that everything is fine and nothing comes of it.
- 20:45Speaker 1: You know, my takeaway of Dee Dee is that she's
- 20:47Speaker 1: been a con artist most of her life. And, you know,
- 20:50Speaker 1: we talked about earlier she got in trouble for check
- 20:53Speaker 1: fraud and things like that when she was early on
- 20:56Speaker 1: in her life. I just think that this woman was
- 20:58Speaker 1: a con artist from day one. And she was good
- 21:01Speaker 1: at it. And she was good at playing the part.
- 21:03Speaker 1: She was good at manipulating doctors.
- 21:05Speaker 2: That was her thing.
- 21:06Speaker 1: That was her thing.
- 21:06Speaker 2: That's just how she lived.
- 21:07Speaker 1: Right. That's how she excelled. She never had a job.
- 21:09Speaker 2: And she probably didn't have any other interests other than
- 21:12Speaker 2: kind of fueling this. Right.
- 21:12Speaker 1: And that's why she had to consistently keep Gypsy under
- 21:17Speaker 1: her control, young-looking, immature, not educated, so that she never
- 21:22Speaker 1: questioned anything. Right? She can't allow her to go out
- 21:25Speaker 1: there and talk to people and start questioning things. She
- 21:28Speaker 1: has to keep her... Yeah. young and ignorant through all
- 21:32Speaker 1: of this. In 2010, Gypsy, then 19, but presented as
- 21:38Speaker 1: much younger, tries to escape. She met a man online
- 21:41Speaker 1: at a sci-fi fantasy fan fest and went to a
- 21:44Speaker 1: local hotel with him. Dee Dee finds her, drags her home,
- 21:47Speaker 1: and claims to the man and others that Gypsy is
- 21:50Speaker 1: a minor, even though at that time she was 19.
- 21:52Speaker 1: So she would have been perfectly within her rights to
- 21:55Speaker 1: leave and go.
- 21:56Speaker 2: Yeah, but she may not have felt that she could
- 21:59Speaker 2: do so.
- 22:00Speaker 1: All right, then Gypsy goes online in secret. So Gypsy
- 22:04Speaker 1: creates a Facebook that her mom doesn't know about. So
- 22:08Speaker 1: you know, she and her mom have a joint Facebook
- 22:10Speaker 1: that her mom posts on. But Gypsy goes and makes
- 22:13Speaker 1: her own Facebook that her mom doesn't know about. So
- 22:16Speaker 1: now she has like a secret Facebook account. And she
- 22:18Speaker 1: uses the secret Facebook account to talk to a friend
- 22:21Speaker 1: of hers. It's like a neighbor. It's a girl. She's
- 22:24Speaker 1: a little bit older than Gypsy. I don't remember her name,
- 22:26Speaker 1: but they interview her. But Gypsy was always reaching out
- 22:28Speaker 1: to her saying, I think of you as like a
- 22:30Speaker 1: big sister. I've never kissed a guy before. How do
- 22:33Speaker 1: I kiss? She starts telling her things that like a
- 22:38Speaker 1: normal teenage girl of that mind would talk about. Boys
- 22:43Speaker 1: and kissing and dates and things like that. Between 2012
- 22:48Speaker 1: and 2015, Gypsy... meets Nicholas. This is in 2012. Gypsy
- 22:54Speaker 1: meets Nicholas Godejohn from Big Ben, Wisconsin. The ironic thing
- 22:59Speaker 1: is that they, to me, is that they met on
- 23:00Speaker 1: a Christian singles dating site. He is about two years
- 23:04Speaker 1: older than her. He has autism and a history of
- 23:07Speaker 1: mental health problems. In 2013, he was charged with indecent
- 23:14Speaker 1: exposure for viewing pornography in a McDonald's for nine hours
- 23:18Speaker 1: and Nine hours? And he was fondling himself. I don't know.
- 23:22Speaker 2: I can't walk in a McDonald's and walk out without
- 23:25Speaker 2: feeling like I smell like McDonald's. This guy was there
- 23:28Speaker 2: for nine hours?
- 23:29Speaker 1: Yeah, he was watching porn, though. And playing with himself.
- 23:33Speaker 1: The relationship is entirely online and secret. The two exchange
- 23:38Speaker 1: thousands of messages, often sexual and violent role play. Go
- 23:42Speaker 1: To John uses a dark alter ego called Victor. Gypsy
- 23:47Speaker 1: would later tell the court and documentaries that she pressed
- 23:50Speaker 1: him for years to kill her mother because she saw
- 23:53Speaker 1: no other way out. Go to John's defense argued that
- 23:57Speaker 1: Gypsy manipulated him and that he lacked the capacity to deliberate.
- 24:02Speaker 2: All right.
- 24:02Speaker 1: So then around the March of 2015 timeframe, go to
- 24:06Speaker 1: John travels to Springfield, Missouri. He and Gypsy go to
- 24:09Speaker 1: a movie theater and they see Cinderella. She sneaks away
- 24:13Speaker 1: from her mother to meet him and they have sex
- 24:15Speaker 1: in a bathroom. I don't know how she snuck away
- 24:18Speaker 1: from her mom, though.
- 24:19Speaker 2: Her mom must have been asleep. Was that a theater bathroom?
- 24:21Speaker 1: Yeah, a theater bathroom.
- 24:22Speaker 2: Was it a theater bathroom? Was it a McDonald's bathroom?
- 24:25Speaker 1: Wait, what?
- 24:27Speaker 2: I don't know. The nine hours in a McDonald's, I
- 24:29Speaker 2: can already smell it.
- 24:29Speaker 1: You can't.
- 24:30Speaker 2: I know, you can't. I'm sorry.
- 24:30Speaker 1: You can't get away from that.
- 24:31Speaker 2: No, I can't. I know. I walk into, and I
- 24:34Speaker 2: eat Subway, but I can't leave without smelling like Subway. Okay,
- 24:38Speaker 2: here is my- And then you go to Pete's Coffee,
- 24:39Speaker 2: and you come home, and you smell like Pete's. Yes.
- 24:42Speaker 2: I know, it just, those aromas.
- 24:44Speaker 1: Sorry. Okay, I- I feel like you should, instead of
- 24:48Speaker 1: the smell.
- 24:49Speaker 2: I don't understand. I know, I know, but that's what
- 24:51Speaker 2: comes to mind.
- 24:52Speaker 1: I don't understand the smell because he's sat there for
- 24:55Speaker 1: nine hours.
- 24:55Speaker 2: And watched porn. I know, I know.
- 24:57Speaker 1: You're not even on the porn thing. You're just on
- 24:59Speaker 1: the smell. June of 2015. So June 9th of 2015,
- 25:13Speaker 1: this is the murder. Go to John comes back to Springfield, Missouri.
- 25:18Speaker 1: And that night gypsy waited until her mother had fallen
- 25:22Speaker 1: asleep to invite go to John over. Gypsy had prepared gloves,
- 25:27Speaker 1: duct tape, and she had a knife for him. Go
- 25:31Speaker 1: to John stabs DD 17 times in the back while
- 25:34Speaker 1: she is sleeping. Gypsy hides in the bathroom with her
- 25:38Speaker 1: hands over her ears and Her hands are over her
- 25:40Speaker 1: ears because I don't know if I read it or what,
- 25:44Speaker 1: but they said that she screamed a lot when she
- 25:47Speaker 1: was being stabbed 17 times.
- 25:48Speaker 2: I think most people do.
- 25:51Speaker 1: The two then have sex in Gypsy's room.
- 25:53Speaker 2: Did he wash his hands?
- 25:56Speaker 1: I doubt it.
- 25:57Speaker 2: Did he keep the gloves on?
- 25:58Speaker 1: Probably.
- 25:58Speaker 2: What happened? That's weird. But it also shows their level
- 26:01Speaker 2: of kind of their mentality, right?
- 26:04Speaker 1: Well, he's autistic and has mental disorders.
- 26:07Speaker 2: He already has....
- 26:10Speaker 1: Been arrested for watching porn for nine hours in McDonald's.
- 26:13Speaker 1: So he clearly has.
- 26:14Speaker 2: Why did it take him nine hours to report it?
- 26:17Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, right?
- 26:18Speaker 2: Like, you know, one more hour and we're calling the police.
- 26:21Speaker 1: At hour eight, they're like, I don't know, give him
- 26:23Speaker 1: a little more time.
- 26:25Speaker 2: I don't know. Like, wasn't it loitering at the beginning?
- 26:30Speaker 2: And wasn't it like inappropriate in the beginning?
- 26:32Speaker 1: I don't know why it took nine hours before someone.
- 26:34Speaker 2: That's like multiple shifts. Like people were coming and going
- 26:36Speaker 2: and clocking in and out and they're refilling like Yeah.
- 26:39Speaker 2: Fixing the soft serve machine. Like there's all kinds of
- 26:41Speaker 2: things happening while this guy is. Yeah. They're for nine hours. Yeah.
- 26:47Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 26:47Speaker 2: Okay.
- 26:50Speaker 1: So they take about $ 4, 000 in cash that DeeDee kept
- 26:53Speaker 1: in the house and they stay briefly at a motel
- 26:56Speaker 1: in Springfield and then traveled by bus to go to
- 26:58Speaker 1: John's home in Wisconsin.
- 27:00Speaker 2: I wonder if that was like the most freedom she had.
- 27:03Speaker 2: Like she felt so free. Oh, I'm sure. Her mom
- 27:05Speaker 2: is out of the picture.
- 27:06Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 27:07Speaker 2: They have some cash and they're like, and they're on
- 27:11Speaker 2: the run, so to speak, meaning they're just out wherever
- 27:13Speaker 2: they wish.
- 27:14Speaker 1: This is interesting though. They didn't want to leave the
- 27:16Speaker 1: murder weapon behind and they also didn't want to travel
- 27:20Speaker 1: with the murder weapon. So they actually put the knife
- 27:23Speaker 1: in an envelope and they mail it to his house.
- 27:25Speaker 1: I found that so fascinating.
- 27:27Speaker 2: Like, ground? USPS or FedEx?
- 27:32Speaker 1: I'm not sure what carrier they used or if it
- 27:34Speaker 1: was like overnighted.
- 27:35Speaker 2: But they wanted to hold on to it or they
- 27:37Speaker 2: were trying to hide it?
- 27:38Speaker 1: They mailed it to his house though. And then when
- 27:40Speaker 1: the police searched his house, they found it. I don't know.
- 27:43Speaker 1: I didn't understand the thing.
- 27:44Speaker 2: Did he insure it?
- 27:45Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 27:46Speaker 2: They're like, what are the contents of the package, sir?
- 27:49Speaker 2: It's a murder weapon.
- 27:50Speaker 1: I just murdered someone, but I didn't want to leave
- 27:52Speaker 1: it at the scene. I don't understand why they didn't
- 27:54Speaker 1: just hide it or throw it in a dumpster somewhere.
- 27:59Speaker 1: But he mailed it to his house. June 14th of 2015.
- 28:06Speaker 1: So this is five days later after the murder. So
- 28:09Speaker 1: she's murdered in the bedroom. On June 14th, 2015, a
- 28:14Speaker 1: post appears on Dee Dee's Facebook account crudely announcing that
- 28:17Speaker 1: she was dead. That's where that post says the bitch
- 28:21Speaker 1: is dead. So they have the joint Facebook account.
- 28:25Speaker 2: It all comes clear to me now.
- 28:27Speaker 1: So they have the Facebook account where she's posting things
- 28:30Speaker 1: about the loving relationship between the mom and the daughter
- 28:32Speaker 1: and the medical things and all the photos of them.
- 28:34Speaker 2: Which is really all the mom.
- 28:36Speaker 1: Right.
- 28:36Speaker 2: Or in the mom's direction.
- 28:37Speaker 1: Can you imagine like you're used to looking at this
- 28:39Speaker 1: joint Facebook account and then all of a sudden it's
- 28:42Speaker 1: just a post that says the bitch is dead.
- 28:46Speaker 2: Which is then like, well, who posted that? Was it
- 28:49Speaker 2: the mom or the daughter at that time? People were
- 28:51Speaker 2: probably wondering. Because then they're like, if it's the daughter...
- 28:54Speaker 2: Because the daughter had a lot of ailments.
- 28:56Speaker 1: Well, let me read. So there's a post that says,
- 28:58Speaker 1: the bitch is dead. But then there's also a comment
- 29:01Speaker 1: left below. And it says, I effing slashed that fat
- 29:04Speaker 1: pig and raped her sweet, innocent daughter. Her scream was
- 29:08Speaker 1: so effing loud, LOL. So that was another comment that
- 29:12Speaker 1: was made by either Gypsy or the boyfriend on the account.
- 29:16Speaker 1: I don't know if it was Gypsy that did it.
- 29:17Speaker 2: Or if it was the boyfriend. I don't know either.
- 29:19Speaker 2: But if I were to guess, it would be him
- 29:21Speaker 2: because she– The scream was loud or something like that. Yeah.
- 29:25Speaker 2: Then you're telling me she plugged her ears because she
- 29:26Speaker 2: probably didn't want to hear anything. Not that she couldn't
- 29:28Speaker 2: hear it, but.
- 29:28Speaker 1: Well, she would have had to given him access to
- 29:31Speaker 1: that Facebook account because she's the one that could get
- 29:33Speaker 1: on it.
- 29:33Speaker 2: But I don't know if it's.
- 29:37Speaker 1: Friends and neighbors call the police because. obviously they're like, what?
- 29:41Speaker 1: I mean, there were people commenting like.
- 29:42Speaker 2: Well, they probably thought it was the mom that posted that. No,
- 29:45Speaker 2: they thought it was.
- 29:46Speaker 1: A lot of people thought it was hacked first.
- 29:48Speaker 2: Oh, yeah. Okay. But aside from it being hacked, if
- 29:52Speaker 2: this account is constantly giving loving updates on her health
- 29:56Speaker 2: conditions and their journey and the process of everything... And
- 30:00Speaker 2: then all of a sudden it says that she's dead.
- 30:01Speaker 2: They're going to be like, wait, this mom was loving
- 30:04Speaker 2: and kind and caring. And all of a sudden now
- 30:05Speaker 2: she doesn't care that she's dead. I would have thought
- 30:07Speaker 2: it was the mom.
- 30:08Speaker 1: You would have thought it was the mom talking about
- 30:09Speaker 1: the daughter.
- 30:10Speaker 2: Yeah, because the daughter was the one that was more
- 30:12Speaker 2: likely to have health issues.
- 30:14Speaker 1: All right. So that night, so this is June 14th.
- 30:16Speaker 1: This is when the Facebook post appears. That night, police
- 30:19Speaker 1: enter the house and they find Dee Dee's body in
- 30:21Speaker 1: her bedroom and find Gypsy's wheelchairs left behind. So she
- 30:25Speaker 1: has three wheelchairs. And all of them are still there.
- 30:27Speaker 2: Well, they were all probably donated to for free.
- 30:30Speaker 1: Oh, of course. At first, the public believes a disabled
- 30:33Speaker 1: young girl has been abducted. So that's what they think, right?
- 30:36Speaker 1: They think she was murdered and then the girl was kidnapped, right?
- 30:39Speaker 1: So it's like all APB, right? We have to find
- 30:42Speaker 1: this girl. She's been abducted by some crazy lunatic. On
- 30:47Speaker 1: June 15th of 2015, police traced the Facebook post to
- 30:50Speaker 1: an IP address in Wisconsin that Officers arrest Gypsy and
- 30:55Speaker 1: go to John at go to John's home and big bend.
- 30:59Speaker 1: The public soon learns that Gypsy can walk because they
- 31:02Speaker 1: show her when she walks into her first court date,
- 31:05Speaker 1: she walks in with her hands. You know, I mean
- 31:07Speaker 1: the people that know them, I've never seen her walk before.
- 31:09Speaker 2: Right. And then she.
- 31:11Speaker 1: Walks into court. So, I mean, people are just like, what?
- 31:14Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like it's a miracle.
- 31:17Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 31:18Speaker 1: She's 23 years old. She can walk. She's not the
- 31:22Speaker 1: teenager everyone believed. And everyone believes that she's younger, right?
- 31:26Speaker 2: They believed the age that they were told. Right.
- 31:28Speaker 1: Both are extradited to Greene County, Missouri and charged with
- 31:31Speaker 1: first-degree murder and armed criminal action. Gypsy is held in
- 31:35Speaker 1: Greene County Jail. Doctors and investigators confirm she has none
- 31:40Speaker 1: of the major illnesses that Dee Dee claimed. Prosecutors and
- 31:43Speaker 1: her lawyers consider her abuse history... Central to the case. Well, obviously.
- 31:49Speaker 1: I mean, that's like a defense attorney's, like, you know
- 31:54Speaker 1: what I mean? When you find out that.
- 31:56Speaker 2: Oh, yeah.
- 31:57Speaker 1: When you find out that you're representing someone who's involved
- 32:00Speaker 1: in a murder.
- 32:00Speaker 2: Like, I got a whole box full of evidence here. Right?
- 32:03Speaker 1: And then you're like, wait, this girl doesn't have cancer,
- 32:07Speaker 1: doesn't have muscular dystrophy.
- 32:09Speaker 2: She just tortured her whole life. She can walk.
- 32:11Speaker 1: Right. Right. And she's just basically been held captive by
- 32:15Speaker 1: this mom and told to wear princess dresses.
- 32:18Speaker 2: And not held captive like, I don't think the school
- 32:20Speaker 2: system's good. You need to stay home. Yeah. Which is
- 32:23Speaker 2: still an issue. But it's like constantly going to all
- 32:27Speaker 2: the doctors, taking everyone's money, shaving her head, making her
- 32:31Speaker 2: be in a wheelchair. Like that's different than just an
- 32:35Speaker 2: overprotective parent. Right.
- 32:37Speaker 1: July 5th of 2016, Gypsy pleads guilty to second degree
- 32:41Speaker 1: murder and was ordered to spend 10 years in prison.
- 32:44Speaker 1: So she didn't go to trial. She took a plea deal.
- 32:48Speaker 1: HBO airs the documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest. In November
- 32:53Speaker 1: of 2018, Go To John goes to trial. Gypsy testifies
- 32:57Speaker 1: against him saying she met him online and that they
- 33:00Speaker 1: communicated secretly for three years before he came to Springfield
- 33:04Speaker 1: at her request. The defense pushed go to John's mental
- 33:08Speaker 1: condition as a factor in the crime. But despite this,
- 33:11Speaker 1: the jury convicted him of first degree murder. He was
- 33:14Speaker 1: sentenced to life without parole plus 25 years for armed
- 33:18Speaker 1: criminal action. The prosecutor explained that the gap between the
- 33:23Speaker 1: two sentences this way, the two defendants had very different
- 33:26Speaker 1: roles and very different backgrounds with regard to this crime.
- 33:29Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 33:29Speaker 1: What do you think?
- 33:30Speaker 2: I got a question.
- 33:30Speaker 1: She got 10. She got 10 years because she took
- 33:32Speaker 1: a plea deal. He got life in prison.
- 33:35Speaker 2: Okay, I have a quick question. Yeah. She testified for
- 33:40Speaker 2: the defense or the prosecutor?
- 33:41Speaker 1: The prosecution. Why? She testified against him. That might have
- 33:45Speaker 1: been part of her plea deal.
- 33:46Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay. I was going to say why, but it's like, well,
- 33:48Speaker 2: he is the one who pulled the trigger. And yeah,
- 33:50Speaker 2: she is trying to- Well, he's the one that used
- 33:51Speaker 2: the knife. She's trying to defend herself.
- 33:53Speaker 1: The knife.
- 33:53Speaker 2: Sorry, knife. You don't pull the trigger.
- 33:54Speaker 1: I know what you're saying.
- 33:56Speaker 2: But yeah, you're right. It was a knife. 17 times.
- 33:58Speaker 1: You know, though- In the back. I saw- the initial
- 34:03Speaker 1: interview of him when they bring him in and they,
- 34:05Speaker 1: and the investigator interviews him, he's on the spectrum. He
- 34:11Speaker 1: has mental disorders. I mean, we talked about the McDonald's
- 34:14Speaker 1: things and we made fun of it, but clearly he's not.
- 34:17Speaker 2: Well, I made fun of the employees. Yeah.
- 34:19Speaker 1: But I mean, as soon as they asked him, Did
- 34:24Speaker 1: you do it? He said, yeah. I just want to
- 34:29Speaker 1: be honest. I did it. And I did it because
- 34:30Speaker 1: I love her. And she asked me to do it.
- 34:32Speaker 1: And we want to be together.
- 34:34Speaker 2: Well, you got to think of his point of view.
- 34:36Speaker 2: I don't know his level of mental ability. It sounds
- 34:40Speaker 2: like he genuinely thought he did the right thing. He
- 34:45Speaker 2: saved her. It's not like, oh, my mom's protective. She
- 34:48Speaker 2: won't let us date, which we've seen that a million times. Mm-hmm.
- 34:52Speaker 2: This is like, he sees her being tortured and abused.
- 34:58Speaker 2: And with his simple mind, he eliminated threat. I, I
- 35:02Speaker 2: just felt badly for him because it was evident to
- 35:06Speaker 2: me just in the small interview that I saw that
- 35:10Speaker 2: he wasn't, he wasn't a killer.
- 35:12Speaker 1: Well, He wasn't functioning at full capacity that he had
- 35:16Speaker 1: a legitimate mental disorder. I'm not saying that he should
- 35:22Speaker 1: not be punished. Obviously, someone that kills that easily by
- 35:25Speaker 1: someone saying.
- 35:26Speaker 2: Hey, somebody did something wrong to me.
- 35:28Speaker 1: But I didn't know if prison.
- 35:31Speaker 2: Would help him recover or be proper kind of restitution.
- 35:38Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know.
- 35:39Speaker 2: Okay, so he was sentenced to prison?
- 35:42Speaker 1: For life.
- 35:42Speaker 2: And he's serving?
- 35:43Speaker 1: Yes.
- 35:44Speaker 2: Okay. So with no parole.
- 35:46Speaker 1: No parole.
- 35:46Speaker 2: So he's in jail, in prison forever.
- 35:49Speaker 1: Forever.
- 35:50Speaker 2: Here's the thing. And he has a, he has a,
- 35:53Speaker 2: there's a concern with his mentality. Yes. And that's known.
- 35:56Speaker 2: That's not a, that's not just us kind of speculating.
- 35:59Speaker 2: That's like.
- 36:00Speaker 1: No, I think it's confirmed.
- 36:01Speaker 2: That's an issue.
- 36:01Speaker 1: That he's autistic. I don't know as to what degree
- 36:05Speaker 1: on the spectrum.
- 36:06Speaker 2: But they, they acknowledged his mental challenges. And then you
- 36:10Speaker 2: have Clancy. who everyone is bending over backwards, trying to
- 36:14Speaker 2: figure out how do we handle this sensitive matter where
- 36:18Speaker 2: three kids were murdered by their mother and everyone's protesting
- 36:23Speaker 2: and understanding of, I don't understand how you can be
- 36:27Speaker 2: understanding of someone killing their three kids because of the post,
- 36:30Speaker 2: but whatever. But then this guy, it's like, screw him. Yes.
- 36:34Speaker 1: Screw him.
- 36:35Speaker 2: Yes. I didn't see anyone crying for him.
- 36:37Speaker 1: Yeah, I know.
- 36:39Speaker 2: And now he's in there for life. Life. Yeah. And
- 36:43Speaker 2: that can't be, you know how it is. You have
- 36:45Speaker 2: someone with autistic tendencies or is on the spectrum. You
- 36:49Speaker 2: think they're going to get what they need in prison
- 36:51Speaker 2: to get through the days? No. That's right.
- 36:54Speaker 1: No. So she goes to prison 2016 to 2023.
- 36:56Speaker 2: She was paroled in December of 2023.
- 37:10Speaker 1: She earns her GED, gives media interviews, and receives therapy.
- 37:14Speaker 1: She has also said repeatedly that prison felt more free
- 37:17Speaker 1: to her than the life with her mother. You know,
- 37:19Speaker 1: I saw her give lots of interviews, and she does
- 37:21Speaker 1: say that when she was in prison, she said she
- 37:23Speaker 1: was actually happy because it's the most freedom she'd ever had.
- 37:26Speaker 1: She got to pick what she wanted to eat, and
- 37:28Speaker 1: she got to walk around, and she got to talk
- 37:30Speaker 1: to people, and she got to let her hair grow out,
- 37:32Speaker 1: and all these things. So she actually felt very free
- 37:35Speaker 1: in prison.
- 37:37Speaker 2: Well, she was more free in prison. Right.
- 37:39Speaker 1: Around 2019 to 2020, she is briefly engaged to Ken Urker,
- 37:43Speaker 1: who wrote to her in prison. Their engagement ended in 2020.
- 37:47Speaker 1: She then goes on to marry Ryan Scott Anderson, a
- 37:50Speaker 1: Louisiana teacher she met through letters. They have a ceremony
- 37:54Speaker 1: in the prison. In December of 2023, her parole is approved.
- 37:59Speaker 1: She was set to be freed after serving about 85%
- 38:02Speaker 1: of her sentence as required by state law and was
- 38:05Speaker 1: also given time served for the year she spent in
- 38:07Speaker 1: Greene County Jail prior to her guilty plea. 2019 to
- 38:13Speaker 1: present go to john after his conviction he appealed he
- 38:17Speaker 1: argued that the trial court had abused its discretion and
- 38:20Speaker 1: excluding testimony from a defense psychological expert about autism spectrum
- 38:26Speaker 1: disorder and its impact on go to john's ability to
- 38:29Speaker 1: deliberate at the time of the murder you know that's
- 38:32Speaker 1: sad to me that there was no evidence allowed in
- 38:34Speaker 1: about where he is on the spectrum and what his
- 38:37Speaker 1: mental capacity would have been based upon his disorder and
- 38:42Speaker 1: where he's at. Like, they didn't allow any expert.
- 38:45Speaker 2: It wasn't really brought in like we had speculated.
- 38:48Speaker 1: No, I didn't say it was.
- 38:49Speaker 2: Wow, I just assumed it. Yeah, again, I don't see
- 38:54Speaker 2: anyone out there protesting at that time because he had challenges.
- 38:59Speaker 2: I mean, no one's running around and, you know, praising
- 39:03Speaker 2: him and asking him to be released and understanding his
- 39:07Speaker 2: mental state.
- 39:08Speaker 1: In August of 2022, a hearing is held on his
- 39:11Speaker 1: post-conviction motion in which his lawyers argued his trial counsel
- 39:14Speaker 1: had been ineffective. The judge denied the motion. Around December 2023,
- 39:20Speaker 1: weeks before Gypsy's release, his public defender files another appeal
- 39:24Speaker 1: arguing his mental state did not meet the requirement for
- 39:26Speaker 1: first-degree murder and the jury should have only found him
- 39:30Speaker 1: guilty of second-degree murder. The filing also says he had
- 39:33Speaker 1: been offered a life in prison plea deal but went
- 39:36Speaker 1: to trial hoping for a sentence closer to Gypsy's 10 years.
- 39:41Speaker 1: He remains in prison serving life without parole. Um, again, I, I, yeah,
- 39:46Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting to me that the Clancy case
- 39:49Speaker 1: was all about her mental state. It wasn't about whether
- 39:52Speaker 1: she did it or not. It was about deciding whether
- 39:54Speaker 1: she acted with premeditation and that she had clear and
- 39:57Speaker 1: concise thinking to know what she was doing. So it
- 40:00Speaker 1: was all about mental state. Now you're talking about someone.
- 40:03Speaker 1: That's confirmed that's autistic and has a mental disorder. And
- 40:06Speaker 1: they don't want to hear about his mental state. They
- 40:07Speaker 1: don't want to hear anything about it. Not allowed to
- 40:09Speaker 1: talk about it. Can't let any evidence in. No psychologist
- 40:12Speaker 1: is allowed to testify.
- 40:12Speaker 2: And what do the jurors think? And I don't know.
- 40:14Speaker 2: But let's say jurors come out. Then they later learn. Like, what? Like,
- 40:19Speaker 2: that would have changed my opinion. I know.
- 40:22Speaker 1: So Gypsy is released on parole from the Missouri prison
- 40:26Speaker 1: after serving more than seven years for her role in
- 40:28Speaker 1: the murder. This is on December 28th of 2023. In
- 40:32Speaker 1: January of 2024, Lifetime airs the docu-series, The Prison Confessions
- 40:37Speaker 1: of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, and she releases a companion book.
- 40:40Speaker 1: Her social media following grows rapidly and she becomes a
- 40:44Speaker 1: celebrity in her own right. You know, I never really
- 40:46Speaker 1: knew how I felt about that. Again, it's like what
- 40:50Speaker 1: we talk about when you talk about, you know, you're
- 40:53Speaker 1: not allowed to profit from your crimes, but she's obviously profiting.
- 40:58Speaker 1: But then again, this isn't, it's kind of a gray
- 41:00Speaker 1: area when it comes to her because she was, she
- 41:03Speaker 1: took a plea deal. She did spend, you know, eight, seven,
- 41:05Speaker 1: eight years in prison. She was part of the murder,
- 41:08Speaker 1: even though she didn't actually stab her mother.
- 41:11Speaker 2: You're saying she checks all the bosques of being a criminal. Right.
- 41:14Speaker 2: And having committed a crime. Right. And here she is,
- 41:17Speaker 2: but she's benefiting indirectly. I mean, what if you commit
- 41:21Speaker 2: a crime, you go to jail, you come out, and
- 41:24Speaker 2: now all these women want you, right? Because you're at ex-con.
- 41:27Speaker 2: And is he profiting off of the crime?
- 41:30Speaker 1: I don't know. It's just something to think about. It's
- 41:32Speaker 1: a very gray area.
- 41:33Speaker 2: I think profiting off the crime is more like you
- 41:35Speaker 2: write a script of the crime itself and you sell it,
- 41:38Speaker 2: or you write a book on the crime itself and
- 41:40Speaker 2: you sell it.
- 41:41Speaker 1: Well, she's writing books about what she went through.
- 41:44Speaker 2: She's got to do something to move on.
- 41:47Speaker 1: So she separates from Ryan Anderson, that's her first husband,
- 41:50Speaker 1: and reconnects with Ken Urker. She had dated Urker before
- 41:53Speaker 1: marrying Anderson. And after the divorce, the two reconnected. He
- 41:58Speaker 1: actually wrote to her because he watched that docu-series that
- 42:02Speaker 1: came out, Mommy Dead and Dearest.
- 42:04Speaker 2: Dead and Dearest.
- 42:05Speaker 1: Mommy Dead and Dearest. So he watched that. Ken watched
- 42:07Speaker 1: that and then wrote her a letter and said that
- 42:10Speaker 1: he watched it and that he sympathized with her and
- 42:12Speaker 1: he felt badly for her. And then that's how they
- 42:14Speaker 1: ended up connecting.
- 42:15Speaker 2: Reconnecting.
- 42:17Speaker 1: She publishes the memoir, My Time to Stand, and her
- 42:20Speaker 1: divorce from Anderson becomes final. Then Lifetime launches the follow-up series,
- 42:25Speaker 1: Gypsy Rose, Life After Lockup, in July of 2024, and
- 42:30Speaker 1: she announces that she is pregnant. Then in December 28th
- 42:34Speaker 1: of 2024, Gypsy and Ken have a daughter together named Aurora,
- 42:38Speaker 1: and she is born exactly one year after Gypsy's release
- 42:42Speaker 1: from prison. Then in June 24th of 2025, Gypsy's parole
- 42:47Speaker 1: ends and an Instagram statement. She says she has taken
- 42:50Speaker 1: accountability and will take back my life. She calls go
- 42:54Speaker 1: to John deeply disturbed, but says he still knew right
- 42:56Speaker 1: from wrong and that his autism diagnosis does not excuse
- 43:00Speaker 1: what he did. She also acknowledges what she called unintentional
- 43:04Speaker 1: manipulation of him, which she attributes to trauma and fear
- 43:07Speaker 1: of abandonment rather than malice. I like that. I mean,
- 43:11Speaker 1: it is interesting how she has zero exceptions for him.
- 43:16Speaker 1: Like he was acting with a clear mind. Who cares
- 43:18Speaker 1: that he had autism? Like he knew exactly what he
- 43:21Speaker 1: was doing. I didn't know what I was doing because
- 43:24Speaker 1: I had been manipulated by my mother for so many years.
- 43:28Speaker 1: I mean, there's probably truth to both. I mean, both
- 43:30Speaker 1: of these people just seem not mentally sound. You have
- 43:35Speaker 1: two people that are struggling that come together.
- 43:38Speaker 2: I struggle as it is just with, like relationships, right?
- 43:43Speaker 2: Like managing problems.
- 43:44Speaker 1: You struggle.
- 43:45Speaker 2: Well, I think, I don't think you struggle. I struggle.
- 43:51Speaker 2: So no, but really, I mean, people in general struggle
- 43:53Speaker 2: in relationships in terms of like navigating issues and ups
- 43:56Speaker 2: and downs. I can't imagine she has an ability to
- 44:00Speaker 2: do that even remotely close to a typical adult. And
- 44:04Speaker 2: I don't blame her for that. Right.
- 44:07Speaker 1: So we get to October 1st of 2026. Gypsy's fiance,
- 44:10Speaker 1: Ken Urker, is found dead. This is why Gypsy Rose
- 44:13Speaker 1: is back on the news. And that's why we wanted
- 44:15Speaker 1: to do this episode on her because she's been, this
- 44:18Speaker 1: situation has been all over the news feeds.
- 44:20Speaker 2: And the manner of death was?
- 44:22Speaker 1: The Lafourche Sheriff's Office confirmed that officers responded to a
- 44:26Speaker 1: Louisiana residence on Thursday, October 1st, after a call around
- 44:30Speaker 1: 6.15 p.m. came in. According to TMZ, Urker was discovered
- 44:35Speaker 1: by a family member named after he did not respond
- 44:38Speaker 1: when Blanchard texted him happy birthday. He was 34 and
- 44:42Speaker 1: he died on his birthday. At that time, Gypsy and
- 44:46Speaker 1: Ken were spending time apart when his death occurred, but
- 44:49Speaker 1: they were never actually broken up. They allegedly had plans
- 44:52Speaker 1: to move into a new home together. No official cause
- 44:56Speaker 1: of death has been released. Gypsy told people that she
- 44:59Speaker 1: believes Urker died of an overdose, but said she does
- 45:03Speaker 1: not know what substance he took or whether it was intentional.
- 45:06Speaker 2: Or does she have any proof or believe that that's it?
- 45:08Speaker 2: I mean, she just speculated. Yeah.
- 45:12Speaker 1: His sister Autumn confirmed his death in a TikTok live
- 45:15Speaker 1: on October 1st and said his last words to her were,
- 45:17Speaker 1: I love you. Gypsy called Urker an amazing father and
- 45:20Speaker 1: said she was devastated and in disbelief and said he
- 45:23Speaker 1: would remain her soulmate. I read in an article that
- 45:27Speaker 1: I think it was a family member. Someone said that
- 45:29Speaker 1: when they found him that there was some type of
- 45:32Speaker 1: drug substance found in the bathroom and that he was
- 45:35Speaker 1: bleeding kind of out of his arm and that it looked,
- 45:38Speaker 1: it looked like some type of overdose syringes or, I
- 45:42Speaker 1: don't know, maybe that was part of it too, but
- 45:44Speaker 1: there hasn't been an official toxicology report or a medical
- 45:47Speaker 1: examiner that's released his cause of death. So at this
- 45:50Speaker 1: point it's all speculation. Um, gypsy has been invited to
- 45:55Speaker 1: Ken's funeral in Texas and, that his family is putting together.
- 45:59Speaker 1: She would also like to hold a service of her
- 46:01Speaker 1: own for those that cannot travel to Texas. You know,
- 46:04Speaker 1: the whole situation is just sad. It's like every time
- 46:07Speaker 1: she seems to move forward, it's just another step backwards
- 46:10Speaker 1: in her life. But you know what I will say?
- 46:12Speaker 1: And I, I was watching these documentaries and I was
- 46:15Speaker 1: listening to her interviews and her, the prison interviews and
- 46:18Speaker 1: then the life after lockup. And then I watched some
- 46:20Speaker 1: other documentary for, for someone who's spent the majority of
- 46:24Speaker 1: their life just being locked manipulated and controlled by their
- 46:28Speaker 1: mother and not allowed to go to school and not
- 46:31Speaker 1: allowed to grow up and not allowed to experience real
- 46:34Speaker 1: world situations or date or have friends. She speaks very well.
- 46:40Speaker 1: She sounds highly intelligent. She speaks well. She has a very,
- 46:46Speaker 1: I would say, highly educated vocabulary. She explains herself well.
- 46:53Speaker 1: It was interesting to me, I guess, maybe the juxtaposition
- 46:57Speaker 1: between how she was treated.
- 46:58Speaker 2: Her lack of schooling and how she was treated. You're right.
- 47:01Speaker 1: Right. And then to go to prison. But she got
- 47:04Speaker 1: her GED in prison, which I think is great.
- 47:06Speaker 2: I was a part of it.
- 47:06Speaker 1: But just the way, I have to say, I was very,
- 47:09Speaker 1: very impressed by the way that she held herself and
- 47:12Speaker 1: the way that she spoke. She was very interesting, very intelligent,
- 47:16Speaker 1: very articulate. And I just found that really interesting that
- 47:21Speaker 1: she hadn't, I don't know. I guess from all of
- 47:24Speaker 1: that abuse, it hadn't really affected.
- 47:27Speaker 2: Her mind so much. If it did have an effect
- 47:30Speaker 2: on her, she got back on track when she went
- 47:32Speaker 2: and pursued her GED and things like that. Hopefully that
- 47:35Speaker 2: level of education and that knowledge she has will help
- 47:37Speaker 2: her kind of live a more normal life and maybe
- 47:40Speaker 2: even contribute. Yeah.
- 47:41Speaker 1: Anyway, I thought that was interesting. I just found her
- 47:44Speaker 1: mannerisms and her way of speaking to be really compelling.
- 47:46Speaker 1: She sounded very, very intelligent. So I thought that was interesting.
- 47:50Speaker 1: You know, I just wanted to say one more thing.
- 47:51Speaker 1: When I was watching the doc, I don't remember which
- 47:54Speaker 1: documentary it was, but they interviewed a lot of her
- 47:57Speaker 1: relatives in Louisiana. So it was Dee Dee's relatives they
- 48:00Speaker 1: were interviewing. They were interviewing her dad. And then Dee
- 48:02Speaker 1: Dee had several brothers and they were interviewing the brothers.
- 48:05Speaker 1: So those would all be Gypsy's uncles. They were talking
- 48:08Speaker 1: about how at one point Dee Dee had a stepmom.
- 48:13Speaker 1: So her dad remarried. Her mom died. Her dad remarried.
- 48:16Speaker 1: And then all the brothers in the family were speculating
- 48:20Speaker 1: that Dee Dee had allegedly possibly tried to kill the
- 48:24Speaker 1: stepmother with Roundup. They were saying that they saw her
- 48:27Speaker 1: put Roundup in her food.
- 48:29Speaker 2: Wow.
- 48:31Speaker 1: And I thought, this is insane. Like this family is
- 48:34Speaker 1: just like she was putting Roundup in the stepmom's food.
- 48:38Speaker 2: You know what Roundup is?
- 48:41Speaker 1: Well, it kills weeds. I know that.
- 48:43Speaker 2: Yeah. But it comes in a little squirt bottle. Yeah.
- 48:46Speaker 2: Is that a gallon? Yeah. Jug. And then it's got
- 48:48Speaker 2: the little windy cord and a little wand. Yeah. Is
- 48:51Speaker 2: that how she was squirting it? I guess.
- 48:53Speaker 1: I don't know.
- 48:53Speaker 2: She's like. That stands out. Yeah. She would have been
- 48:57Speaker 2: better off just having it in a little bottle and
- 48:59Speaker 2: pouring it in.
- 48:59Speaker 1: She needed arsenic. It's a little more discreet.
- 49:02Speaker 2: Oh, you like. That's your. That's your poison of choice. Arsenic.
- 49:06Speaker 1: I was watching East of Eden. So it made me
- 49:08Speaker 1: think of that. But anyway.
- 49:10Speaker 2: All right. All right.
- 49:11Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for listening to Legally Brunette.
- 49:13Speaker 1: We appreciate it. As always, if you have any cases
- 49:15Speaker 1: you would like to recommend, please find me on Instagram
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- 49:22Speaker 1: always welcome. Also, please be sure to tell your friends
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- 49:30Speaker 1: much for listening.