Crime Weekly - S3 Ep171: Crime Weekly News: Gypsy Rose Released From Prison!

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Gypsy Rose Blanchard was convicted of planning her mother's murder alongside Nicholas Godejohn in 2015, but what made the story so shocking was that Gypsy was a victim of Munchausen by proxy, and the abuse from her mother culminated in the murder plot that shocked the nation. Though Godejohn is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the physical act of killing Gypsy's mother, Gypsy herself was released from prison on December 28, 2023, and is now taking social media by storm. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod 

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're back. It's a new year. We're here. Well, we're technically back after the new year, although you've been getting episodes pretty consistently. We've been covering the Dan Markell series. But this is our first time back in the studio after the new year. Happy New Year, Stephanie, even though we talk all the time. Happy New Year and Happy New Year to everyone. People will be like, you didn't say Happy New Year to Stephanie. What's wrong with you derek yeah and and the new year is off to a

hot start i mean stuff in the media you got aliens in miami you got a bunch of stuff already going down for the new year i think they're actually nephilim um not aliens that's what i'm hearing what was that nephilim they're like the children of angels and humans i believe but apparently some portal ripped open during an earthquake on january 1st and then the nephilim came up from from the bowels of hell i'm not sure it's just tiktok on my 2024 bingo card i'm calling this year my big take my big hot take for this year mark it down today's date i don't know when you guys are going to see this i forgot the date you're going to see this but january 8th for us right now 2024 is the year that the united states is going to announce that they have evidence that there is life outside of

earth you think yep i think we should do a crime weekly news about the miami mall alien incident honestly i mean it now would have been the time to do it it's gonna be like three weeks from now I think we should do a Crime Weekly News about the Miami Mall alien incident, honestly. I mean, now would have been the time to do it. It's going to be like three weeks from now because we're doing a couple episodes of Crime Weekly News we already have lined up. And listen, aliens at the mall is not the only thing that's been all over the Internet lately. We've also been hearing about this individual you may have heard of before, Gypsy Rose Blanchard. Now, I got to be honest. I had never heard about Gypsy Rose before, but obviously I'm seeing, you know, I'm on social media and now I'm seeing it

on Twitter or X. I'm seeing it on Instagram. I'm seeing it on TikTok. I'm seeing it everywhere. So for those of you like me who are living under a rock, we're going to cover it tonight here on Crime Weekly News. So just a little bit of the overview. In 2015, 23-year-old Gypsy Rose Blanchard arranged to have her mother, Dee Dee, killed by Gypsy's internet boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn. She was convicted of first-degree murder in November of 2018, and she was released from prison on December 28th, 2023, and she's literally everywhere now in fact i just saw a viral clip that was just really hard to watch where and you actually i think i posted as well yeah where she's explaining what she did and joy how do you say joy's last name they are literally joy that's why she's there

and she you're like oh well you know it was deserved and it's like dude she's talking about a murder yeah like i don't she wasn't saying i don't think she understood what she didn't she didn't gypsy was which is so weird because it's like what else could she have been talking about you know what i mean like so for those who don't know the clip from the view is gypsy rose she's talking about you know she's out now and she wants to use her platform for good and to spread awareness and things which we're going to touch on and then she said like i want people to know they have options like i chose the wrong way and then joy cuts in and she's like don't say that don't say and gypsy's like no no i did i'm taking accountability and joy's like ah and she's like wait oh about that

you mean like the murder yeah that was probably the wrong thing and i'm like what else could she have been talking about that you're like trying to make this girl feel better about what she did? Because honestly, if you think about it, she was I think that Gypsy Rose was initially sentenced to life in prison. And then because of the fact that she she was a victim as well, she got, you know, less time. And she didn't really do a lot of time in prison for taking somebody's life, for being a part of a plan to take someone's life. Yeah. So I think she did it, what, 85% of her sentence? Yeah. She got off all right. Okay. So she's got a new life now. She's married and, you know, things are going to go much better for her. But the way that people are, like, idolizing her, though, online is kind of taking me by

surprise a bit because they're calling her, like, mother and queen and all of this. And it's just a little odd to see this level of adoration, which I get it. We all felt bad for her. But at the same time, like, she killed her mother. And this is something that she's not proud of. You know, you can tell in her new interviews. She's not proud of it. She wishes that things had gone differently.

There are other ways to do it, to fix these things. And it's just weird to see people kind of like prop her up now in such a way and like almost like they're worshiping her. Because she's somebody to feel bad for and she's somebody to learn from. But I don't know if she's somebody to put on a pedestal. That's all I'll say. Well, we, well,

I guess we can get into it right now. You're going to go over the story, but I agree with everything you're saying. And, and, and what I've seen, which I get nervous about as just a member of society is someone who clearly to,

by her own admission, made a huge mistake, right? She was involved in a murder, pretty self-explanatory. And although what happened to her was terrible, and we're going to go over that tonight, doesn't justify killing another person. And so to see her out there now and being able to monetize this new fame, I'm sure she's making a lot of money. She's doing these TV appearances. She's coming out with a book. I believe she's coming out with a series with the daughter of happy face killer, Melissa Moore, who I've worked

with before in a couple of different shows. But overall, she's making a lot of money. And what scares me is 99% of the population will take this and say, listen, it's a rarity, but it happened for her. It won't happen for everyone. But for that 1% out there that looks at this and says, man, you know, look, it pays to be a bad person to make bad decisions. Cause look at how much money she's making now. You just don't want to have copycats. You don't want to have people who are like, cause there's some sick individuals out there who say, you know, my life isn't going well. Maybe I just got to make some headlines. Yeah. I'll do a couple of years in prison, but if it's a cool story, I might be able to write a book after or get a TV deal. You even see it with Rex Huerman right now, with Asa Elorish, I hope I'm saying her last name

right, Eldorich. She's got a deal with Peacock right now where she's, I don't know what that deal's worth, but I'm sure it's a lot of money. I believe there was a battle over who was going to get that deal. There was multiple networks involved and there was kind of a, what do you call that? I'm drawing a blank right now when you have someone fighting to buy something. A bidding war? A bidding war. Thank you. Oh my God, I'm an idiot. But yeah, a bidding war. And so again, I think for most people we see it for what it is. It's a rare thing. For some reason, people are gravitating towards her and she's going to be, she's making a lot of money

off of it. But I hope most people understand that this is not the norm. This is not going to happen. Yeah. And I mean, I don't have any problem with her financially benefiting as long as the message that she is putting out there is, yeah, as long as it's like, is conveying out there is yeah as long as it's like don't do what i did yeah and and that seems to be what's happening but we we still have people who will be like don't do what you did but wink wink yeah you did work if i did want to do it yeah there's people that that just don't they they can't be exposed to anything because they'll get ideas. Yeah, exactly. They'll take it literally.

Yeah, we always have to worry about those people. But let me give you a quick overview. Dee Dee Blanchard, who was Gypsy's mother, she started telling people that her daughter, Gypsy Rose, who was born in 1991, had think like motorcycle accident when Gypsy was young and she like scraped her leg and she was brought to the hospital and the doctors gave her a wheelchair. And then from there, something just snapped because I believe that Dee Dee probably liked the attention that she was getting, the sympathy she was getting from the doctors. This is probably one of the worst cases of Munchausen by proxy that we've ever encountered. And I won't say the worst that ever existed because we don't have the benefit of having docu-series and trials and things to look back on and get the details of every single case. But this is terrible, what Dee Dee did to her daughter.

From the time that Gypsy was seven, Dee Dee had convinced the doctors that she had muscular dystrophy, that she couldn't walk. So now Gypsy Rose is in a wheelchair from a very young age. She told everyone and the doctors that Gypsy had not only muscular dystrophy, but leukemia and a variety of other ailments from which the young girl would be treated for, sometimes very painfully. Gypsy's head was shaved by her mother because of the leukemia to convince people that she actually had it. Needless feeding tubes were inserted into this child. And in 2007, Gypsy Rose's salivary glands were actually removed. And according to Gypsy, the reason that she even went through this surgery was because her mother used Oragel on her gums to make Gypsy drool in front of the doctors. And they removed, they operated on her to remove her salivary glands. Dee Dee also never really told Gypsy what her real age was or anyone else. She kind of kept

her very young, even though Gypsy was like growing up. And she would not allow other people who knew the real information about how old Gypsy Rose was to tell her. So for instance, Gypsy's biological father, Rod, he claims that on his daughter's 18th birthday, Dee Dee called him and she was like, you cannot tell Gypsy that she's 18. And mainly this was because Dee Dee was telling Gypsy, like, you're not going to live past the age of 15, right? You will not be, you're going to die before then. So she couldn't let her know that she was 18 and she had passed that point. And she kind of kept her very childlike, wouldn't let her grow up. And obviously, once Gypsy did start growing up, 18, 19, 20, she starts, you know, wondering about her body. She knows she

can walk, right? She's like, why am I in a wheelchair? I can walk. But she just has to pretend she can't around other people. And she doesn't really understand. She was homeschooled. So she was kept away from other children, other influences. They were getting like free trips to Disney World, free stuff, make a wish, all this stuff. It was just a mess. And Dee Dee was really, really getting off on this attention. She needed it.

Now, Gypsy Rose would end up conspiring with her boyfriend, who she met online, Nicholas Godejohn, to end her mother's life because she felt her own life was being made so miserable and she didn't have a choice. In a People magazine interview, Gypsy said, quote, It's not like I didn't think of every other option besides murder. I even ran away from home and within four hours, she found me and brought me back, putting in place paperwork saying I was incompetent and she had power of attorney over me. I was trying really hard to figure out another way, end quote. And that's what I really wanted to say. Like, I think that in this moment, this girl really thought there was no other way out. Right. I agree.

The whole power, yeah, the whole power of attorney thing. Like we saw that with Britney Spears, it gives a person a lot of control over your life. And Dee Dee Blanchard had convinced everybody that Gypsy was the sick little girl and she could not be, you know, trusted to take care of herself, et cetera, et cetera. Gypsy tried things. Now, I'm still not saying what she did was right, but because she was kept so infantilized in her head, because she wasn't allowed to talk to other kids, she wasn't even allowed to watch anything besides like cartoons and childish stuff. She didn't know what her options were. Like she probably didn't know she could go to the police. She probably thought nobody would believe her. She was being told nobody would believe her. She was being physically abused,

emotionally abused, mentally abused. She was being abused in every way. So I'm not saying like, oh, Dee Dee Blanchard had it coming. But I think that she almost created in a way her own killer by making this girl feel completely powerless and making her feel that like no one's going to help you. So Gypsy had to figure out like how do I get out of this myself? While she was in prison, though, Gypsy got her GED. She picked up other life skills that are going to help her live independently. She got married in 2022 to a man named Ryan Anderson, who I believe was like a teacher. And he was writing to her in prison and they hit it off and then they got married. And now she would like to use her platform to spread the

right message upon her release from prison because she's aware that she has a lot of eyes on her right now. And I think that's very responsible of her. And Gypsy says she has come to the realization that her mother was unwell and she regrets the decision that she made to have her killed. And she said, quote, she was a sick woman. The choice I made to commit murder was never the right choice. So my mission now is to take what I've done and what she did and bring as much awareness as I can, end quote, which is great because I think there's really not a lot of awareness about Munchausen by proxy. Like the people involved are either the person doing it, aka Didi, or the person who's the victim of it,

aka Gypsy Rose in this case. And neither of those people are really talking because the person who's victimizing the other person doesn't want it to get out and honestly probably thinks that they're doing the right thing.

And the person who's being victimized is brainwashed to think that they can't get help, that this is what their reality is. So I think that spreading awareness about it, there is a lot of value in Gypsy being out now and being able to tell her story from a perspective that I think is incredibly unique to hear. I don't disagree. And I hope that what you're saying holds true for the long term, because it is easy to start to believe what these people are saying

online and you start to think that you're above the law and being held accountable because right now she's saying all the right things and I genuinely hope that she believes that. And I have no reason not to believe her at this point. So if she's using her platform to not only benefit herself because she's playing catch up at this point, but also use it to spread a message like you're saying about Munchausen syndrome by proxy, where she's showing kids and other people out there that, listen, there are options out there for you. Here's what you can do. Don't go the route that I did, because although you know who I am now, I lost five years of my life. She'll never get that back. She killed her own mother. So that's also something to live with. And her mother. Maybe her mother, who knows?

Maybe like she's saying was unwell and could have been treated and maybe- She was unwell. Yeah. Yeah. And they could have done something where this situation could have went a different way. So as long as she stays on that path and continues to use this new found fame for good to educate and inform and empower children that may be found fame for good to educate and inform and empower children that may be in a similar situation to seek the help that they need

more power to her i'll be there to support her but i just hope like i said i just hope that with this weird world we live in on the internet that's not real um where you have people building her up and painting her as someone she isn't, right? Like a saint. She doesn't start to believe that. And I don't even think she wants to be seen like that at this point. That's great. Yeah.

Being in prison will humble the shit out of you, right? Yeah. But I also, I think going to prison was good for Gypsy in so many ways because, well, first of all, you're going in and you've had everything done for you your whole life because you think you're a child. You're told you're a child, but now you're kind of like on your own. But she also did meet a lot of women who she said became like mothers to her, who taught her how to do things that her own mother had never done, like use a tampon, you know, something like that. She had no idea how to do that. And these women sort of like mother hen to her and taught her these life skills that you need to be an adult woman.

And I think also she kind of for the first time was allowed to interact with people and, you know, be herself. And she found herself in prison. And, you know, she said it took like five years to get her GED because there are some mental things going on with her, most likely from the things that were given to her and the trauma and the things that were injected into her to make her sick. At such a young age, which is going to throw off all your your body hormones, your brain chemistry, everything. But, you know, she said it took me five years, but I did it and I was never good in school. So I was so very proud of myself. And just something little like that, like showing yourself that you can do something that you were told forever you would never be able to do. But you can do it. It's like breaking those that trauma bond that she had with her mother.

It's breaking those binds one by one. And I think that, you know, she's going to get married. She's going to have a family, she said. She said the only difficult conversation she's not looking forward to is explaining to her children what happened to their grandmother. That's going to be a tough one. Damn. Right. I would just not bring it up. Yeah, I think you did not to their grandmother. Wow, my grandmother. That's going to be a tough one. Damn, right? That's going to be a tough one.

I would just not bring it up. Yeah, I think you're right. You did not have a grandmother. I don't know what you're talking about. Grandma went on a vacation. Yeah, we don't know where she is. She ran away. She's probably part of the CIA or something. Let's bring this full circle before we wrap it up

and go back to Nicholas, go to John for a second because I do think there are some people, obviously Gypsy Rose is like the big person everyone's talking about right now, but Nicholas Go to John, there are some people saying, okay, well, Gypsy got out. Why didn't Nicholas get out? And I don't know the specifics of this case, but maybe you can shed some light onto it or elaborate a little bit. From my understanding, I did a quick little search on it before we hopped on here today, knowing we were going to cover it. My understanding is that there's some stuff that's really off with

Nicholas. Go to John. And also there's not really any remorse there. He's actually, from what I understand, he would do it again. That's what I saw. So there's some things going on there where there's a reason why they're keeping him behind bars. Part of getting out early is understanding what you did was wrong, knowing the significance it had, how it impacted someone else's life, and being rehabilitated. That's what prison is for. It doesn't sound like through their briefings, their interviews, their intake sessions

with Nicholas Godejohn, that he has remorse, that he has been rehabilitated, and he still is a danger to society. So that's why he hasn't gotten out yet, from my understanding. I mean, he also was the one who committed the murder. He was the one who physically committed the murder. She just let him in, right? He stabbed her.

Yeah, she let him in. She arranged it. You know, and I'm not saying the one is better than the other. Yeah, she was involved with the planning, for sure. You are the one who did it. And his lawyers have argued, like, listen, he has low IQ. He's on the spectrum, the autism disorder spectrum. He also has things that are diminishing his mental capacity to understand the difference between right and wrong, which I'm sure. But if you do not understand that what you did was wrong, they're not going to open the doors and let you out. Yeah. But it's that understanding that what you did was wrong,

which is the driving force to prevent you from doing it again in the future. So that is, I think, why they're not, you know, just being like, yeah, Nick, have a good life. He committed a murder and, you know, they're trying to get him out. His lawyers are trying to get him out and they might be successful in one of these appeals. Who knows? Especially with his co-conspirator to get him out his lawyers are trying to get him out and they might be successful in one of these appeals who knows especially especially to get out 100 so we'll see we'll see what happens we will see what happens okay final thing and i'll bring this up on the main episode too because we obviously get more eyes and ears on that

but for the people watching on youtube right now let's address the elephant in the room derek's got a new background is that the elephant in the room. Derek's got a new background. Is that the elephant in the room? Right. I mean, we went this whole episode and I'm sure people are just going crazy right now. Yeah. They're like, what's happening? What's happening? I can't focus right now. I can't concentrate. It's so beautiful. So real quickly, this is an homage to the original Crime Weekly background. Well, it's not even the original. I had one. then I put the wood in halfway through the, you know, our first season, or maybe it was even in

our second season. And then I've spiced it up a little bit with some dimension on left and right. And it's still not done. Shout out to my assistant, Ashley. She was a huge help in this. We spent a lot of our time off building this. So let me hear your thoughts in the comments below, what you think. I'm planning on putting like a Crime Weekly sign back here as well. I just got to kind of plan it all out and it's not completely done yet.

But listen, I know you guys are really jumping out of your seats when you saw that. So I just wanted to address, I know it was a big thing. So at first I said it looked like a bank vault kind of, but it also like, cause now we're zoomed in a little bit more. It gives me like great Gatsby, like 1920s kind of vibes too. Like it's very cool.

Like art deco. It'd be like a cool bar, wouldn't it? Yeah, it would. It would be a cool bar. We should make a bar in there. And I didn't wear like with the wood, I didn't wear like the flannel shirt today with that. That wasn't like, I didn't even think of it. I've never, literally never seen you wear a flannel before.

Well, this is new. I just got this. Well, there you go. It's like a Christmas gift. It's very cute. And it's cold out, so it's snowing here. It's like a lumberjack. Yeah.

It's snowing here, too. What do you guys think of Derek and flannel? Is it a thing? I like it. Am I Mr. Ballin? Not really, but you're not. You need the backwards hat first. Okay, try that.

You know what? Imagine if I wore the backwards hat today. That would have got clipped hard. Yeah. That would have got clipped, and people would have been like, what does this guy think he is, Mr. Ball? Thank God I didn't wear the hat. Oh, my God, that would have been terrible. I would have had to go wash my hair out and just said, fuck it, wear it like that.

Anyways, any final words from you before we wrap it up? No, let's see what happens with Gypsy. Let's see what her message is. Let's see what happens with her old boo, Nicholas Godejohn. And I'm, I'm just hoping the best for everybody. I'm hoping everybody gets what they deserve and remains where they need to remain until they are ready to not be there anymore. Agreed. A hundred percent guys. We appreciate you being here. If you're listening, please leave a review. If you're

watching on YouTube, like comment, subscribe. I know I say that every week, but we have a lot of people watching these videos and we'll only get like maybe 10% of that in likes. So take 10 seconds. It doesn't cost you anything. Leave a like. It helps boost the video. More people will see it, which grows our channel when more people get exposed to what we're doing over here. So we would really appreciate it.

Everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you later this week with part three of the Dan Markell series. Bye.