TW: Murder, Child Abuse. Please read with discretion.
The life story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard is one chilling tale. In 2016, she was sentenced to ten years in prison for her role in her mother’s murder and was released from the Missouri prison on December 28, 2023. She took to social media to celebrate her freedom by posting a mirror selfie on her Instagram. Gypsy initially made headlines when her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, was found stabbed to death in her Springfield, Missouri home in June 2015.
This started as a case of a young girl plotting to kill her mother but was later revealed that Dee Dee had been lying about her daughter’s medical conditions. According to Gypsy, her mother forced her to believe that she had leukaemia and muscular dystrophy among other ailments. Experts believe that Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy (now known as Factitious disorder imposed on another).
Under this particular illness, a caregiver falsifies the appearance of health problems in a person under their care, most typically their child. It is a psychological disorder in which the affected seek sympathy through the exaggerated or made-up illnesses of their children. Dee Dee had essentially kept her daughter prisoner, forcing her to use a wheelchair and feeding tube, when in reality Gypsy was perfectly healthy and not developmentally delayed as people were made to believe.
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Years of psychological and physical abuse, as well as being subjected to numerous unnecessary surgeries and medical tests, are what drove Gypsy to want to kill her mother. According to Karen Pojmann, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released early in the day from the Chillicothe Correctional Center. She was granted parole in September and officially released after serving 85% of her original sentence.
The Tabloids Come In
The case made headlines across America due to the circumstances surrounding the murder. It sparked global interest and was the subject of the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest, the 2019 Hulu miniseries The Act and an upcoming Lifetime docuseries, The Prison Confession of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Earlier this month, she announced that an eBook chronicling her experiences titled Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom will be published on January 9.
What Gypsy Was Put Through
“People were constantly telling Dee Dee what a wonderful mother she was, and Dee Dee was getting all of this attention,” said Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s trial attorney, Michael Stanfield. Stanfield said Gypsy’s mother was able to dupe doctors by telling them her daughter’s medical records had been lost in Hurricane Katrina. If they asked too many questions, she just found a new physician, shaving the girl’s head to back up her story.
Even Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s age was a lie. Her mother would give out a younger age to make it easier to perpetuate the fraud and got away with it because Gypsy was just 4ft 11in (150cm) tall. Law enforcement was initially so confused that the original court documents listed three different ages for her, with the youngest being 19. She was 23 when she was sent to prison.
Among the unnecessary procedures Gypsy underwent, one was the removal of her salivary glands. Her mother convinced doctors it was necessary by using topical anaesthetic to cause drooling. Through these ruses, the mother and daughter met country star Miranda Lambert. They received charitable donations, a trip to Disney World and even a home near Springfield from Habitat for Humanity.
Gypsy had very little schooling or contact with anyone but her mother, thus she was easily misled, especially when she was younger. “The doctors seem to confirm everything that you’re being told. The outside world is telling you that your mother is a wonderful, loving, caring person. What other idea can you have?” Stanfield said. But then the abuse became more physical. Gypsy testified that her mother used to beat her and chained her to a bed. Slowly, she also was beginning to understand that she wasn’t as sick as her mother said.
Gypsy’s Plan
Unable to take the torture any longer, Gypsy decided to put an end to all her misery by plotting to take her mother’s life. She used money stolen from Dee Dee to buy a bus ticket for her then-boyfriend whom she met online, Nicholas Godejohn, so he could help her carry out the murder. She gave him the knife and hid in a bathroom while Godejohn fatally stabbed Dee Dee. The two of them then travelled to his home in Wisconsin, where they were located days later and arrested.
Gypsy was incarcerated since then at a state women’s prison in Chillicothe.“I wanted to be free of her hold on me,” Gypsy testified at the 2018 trial of her former boyfriend. She went on to add, “I talked him into it.” When she took the stand at his trial, prosecutors already had cut her a deal because of the abuse she had endured. In exchange for pleading guilty in 2016 to second-degree murder, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison as opposed to facing a life term under a first-degree murder charge.
Nicholas was found guilty of first-degree murder in November 2018 and was sentenced to life in prison. “Nick was so in love with her and so obsessed with her that he would do anything,” Godejohn’s trial attorney, Dewayne Perry, argued in court, saying his client has autism and was manipulated. Prosecutors, however, argued that he was motivated by sex and a desire to be with Gypsy Rose Blanchard, whom he met on a Christian dating website.
While Gypsy could have also been charged with first-degree murder, Greene County, Missouri County Prosecutor Dan Patterson said that while the case “[is] a first-degree murder,” he did not think Gypsy should spend the rest of her life in jail due to her situation being “…one of the most extraordinary and unusual cases we have seen.”
“I can honestly say I’ve rarely had a client who looks exceedingly better after doing a fairly long prison sentence,” said Michael Stanfield. “And I say that because, to me, that’s kind of the evidence to the rest of the world as to just how bad what Gypsy was going through really was.” It wasn’t until her arrest that she realized how healthy she was. Eventually, she got married while behind bars to Ryan Scott Anderson, now 37, of Saint Charles, Louisiana.
Out Of Jail
Gypsy Rose Blanchard has been making her mark on social media since her release from prison, after spending eight years behind bars. Now 32 years old, Gypsy posted her “first selfie of freedom” on Friday. As of today, the post has racked up more than 6.3 million likes and 236,704 comments. She wishes to use her social media presence for good by creating awareness about Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
On Instagram, Gypsy Rose has been promoting her other social media accounts. She has a TikTok profile which currently has 1.5 million followers and an X account with 10.3k followers. On December 31, Gypsy announced that she had also joined Snapchat. She warned her followers on her Instagram about fake social media accounts using her likeness.
The Married Life
Ryan Anderson, a special education teacher, watched the HBO documentary and reached out to Gypsy via a letter in 2020. The two of them slowly fell in love despite the distance and Gypsy’s imprisonment. The couple got married in 2022 and patiently waited to live a normal life with each other post her release. Gypsy is both excited and a little scared of finally living a married life with her husband.
However, both are a bit apprehensive about how their life in the spotlight would affect their relationship. They decided to “talk to each other and check on each other and see how we’re doing, because it is going to be crazy for a minute.” Anderson said that he has planned to give her presents, make her gumbo, and take her out on a date as Gypsy has never been on a real date before.
We look forward to hearing Gypsy’s side of the story in her upcoming ebook featuring her interviews, journal entries and art that Penguin Random House is set to publish on January 9, 2024.
