Crime Weekly - S3 Ep241: Dee Dee Blanchard: The Story You Haven’t Heard (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 13, 2024

A small, quiet town in Missouri. A devoted mother caring for her chronically ill daughter. A story of love, sacrifice, and survival. Or so it seemed. But behind closed doors, beneath the layers of sympathy and kindness, there was a dark secret waiting to be uncovered. For nearly two decades Dee Dee Blanchard told the world that her daughter, Gypsy Rose, was dying. Leukemia, muscular dystrophy, seizures, vision and hearing issues, the list of illnesses and medical concerns was endless. Gypsy, a seemingly happy little girl with a huge smile, was bound to a wheelchair, fed through a tube, and showered with the attention and support of everyone around her, but no one really knew the horrifying truth. It seemed that Gypsy was perfectly healthy. She could walk. She didn't need a wheelchair to get around, and it appeared that she was being kept a prisoner in her own body, in her own home, by her own mother. The story goes that years of abuse, manipulation, and lies built up until they all came crashing down in the most unthinkable way: Murder. On the night of June 14, 2015, Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her home, and the prime suspect? Dee-Dee's innocent, smiling, happy, and allegedly disabled daughter, along with the man that Gypsy had been having a very adult relationship with. But nothing about this case is as it appears to be. This is the story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard. 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 ADS: 1. DailyHarvest.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 50% off your first box of $100 or more! 2. LiquidIV.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 20% off ANYTHING you order! 3. SimpliSafe.com/CrimeWeekly - Get 50% off a new SimpliSafe system and a FREE indoor camera when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring! 4. SundaysForDogs.com/CrimeWeekly - Use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 40% off your first order! 5. EatIQBAR.com - Text WEEKLY to 64000 for 20% off ALL IQBAR products and FREE shipping!

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A devoted mother caring for her chronically ill daughter. A story of love, sacrifice, and survival. Or so it seemed. But behind closed doors, beneath the layers of sympathy and kindness, there was a dark secret waiting to be uncovered. For nearly two decades, Dede Blanchard told the world that her daughter, Gypsy Rose, was dying. Leukemia, muscular dystrophy, seizures, vision, and hearing issues, the list of illnesses and medical concerns was endless. Gypsy, a seemingly happy little girl with a huge smile, was bound to a wheelchair, fed through a tube, and showered with the attention

and support of everyone around her. But no one really knew the horrifying truth. It seemed that Gypsy was perfectly healthy. She could walk. She didn't need a wheelchair to get around, and it appeared that she was being kept a prisoner in her own body, in her own home, by her own mother. The story goes that years of abuse, manipulation, and lies built up until they all came crashing down in the most unthinkable way, murder. On the night of June 14, 2015, Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death in her home, and the prime suspect? Dee Dee's innocent, smiling, and happy and allegedly disabled daughter, along with a man that Gypsy had been having a very adult relationship with. But nothing about this case is as it appears to be.

This is the story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard. Okay. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie Harlow. And I'm Derek Levasseur. Okay. Wow. So we're diving into D.D. Blanchard, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, and... This is by popular demand everyone we did the crime weekly news episode we planned on doing a one and done and then as i was just saying on this week's episode of cwn we started seeing all these comments and i didn't know i didn't know either you and i made a comment where i said it to you i said are we are we working off the assumption that this is a munchausen by proxy and you said yeah it wasn't even the assumption that's what everybody says.

Right. And then we got a lot of comments who were like, you guys don't know. You haven't looked at the latest updates. Some of them were rude comments, by the way, like do your research. And it's like, what else is new? What else is new? This new information and the way that these things are sort of like tumbling down around Gypsy right now, it's not super well known.

It's not in the mainstream media at all. And trust me, I know, because I've checked. You got to dig deep and you got to go to a few different places to even find any sort of mention about this. But when you do, you start to see, yeah, there could be another side to this story that has not been presented, that we do not know about, and that needs to be talked about, which is what, what we're going to do today. We're going to,

and that we're really going to start from the beginning. Some of you already have, you know, feelings about DD Blanchard. That's okay. All I ask is that you step back and start from the beginning with us. And we judge her based on what we uncover throughout the series. And then at the end, we'll come to a conclusion

and you will as well. And whatever opinion you have is yours to have. And at least it will be fully informed as far as what your opinion is. You'll be able to back it up with whatever substance you've taken from the series. Yeah, and I will also say, because I was thinking about this last night

when I was in the shower, every time I'm finished with a new Crime Weekly script and it's like the night before we film, I'm thinking about the script. I'm like thinking, did I miss anything? Is there anything I wanted to add? And I'm thinking about the way that this is going to be structured, this series, because it's a deep dive. So there's going to be multiple episodes on the same case. How am I going to structure this in a way where people aren't kind of getting upset? And what I want to do is tell you all, this is very complicated. This is very nuanced.

It is not your, it's not going to be your typical linear, I'm telling you everything that happened in that moment kind of thing, because for so long there was a set narrative and so much of the reporting out there follows that set narrative. But what I want you to do is keep an open mind. Don't get impatient. Okay. So if I don't say something and you're like, oh, that should be there. Don't do it. Don't say anything. Just give it, give it time and wait, because I'm going to have to structure this in a different way than other Crime Weekly episodes have been structured based on the fact that, like I said, for the longest, we all were under one impression. And to be fair, that may still be the truth. That's what we're here to figure out.

But give it time and let the series run before you're in the comments like, oh, you missed this. Oh, you forgot this. I'm going to get it all in there. I hope. I'm going to try. But it's going to have to be structured in a slightly different way. And if you just bear with us and write it out, you will see. And then we can all talk about it at the end and figure out.

Because listen, I'm going to tell you, forever, I supported Gypsy Rose. Who wouldn't, right? The way that it was all posed, and there's been multiple documentaries, multiple docu-series. The way it was posed and just her in general is this very innocent, naive girl. You have a certain picture of who she is and you feel angry about what happened to her as a child. But things aren't always as straightforward. Things aren't always as black and white. And that's, I think, what we're going to sort of explore with this series. A big question that we had from some people in the comments when we started mentioning we were going to do this. Do you foresee a series where you're going

to start from the beginning and you're going to take us up to the trial and then maybe a little sprinkle in some stuff that's happened recently, because some people were concerned it was going to be more about the stuff that we, a lot of people know about. And I felt like I didn't want to answer that. You're the script writer, but do you see this being more about the crime and then the trial and then a little bit of the new stuff? What are you seeing here as far as your like creative direction? You're just going to have to trust me. I just got to trust you. You just got to take my hand and walk this path with me. Okay. All right. Hey, Jesus, take the wheel. I'm going

along for the ride. You are going along. Everyone else going along. You're just going to have to put, put yourself in my capable hands. I will take care of you. And, um, I promise that all will be revealed in time. And I know this is a shocker to everyone, but I don't know much about this case. It's basically me on every single, it's me on every single, I shocker to everyone, but I don't know much about this case. It's basically me on every single, it's me on every single, I mean, I don't, I don't follow these. If I'm not working it, I'm not following it. It feels like a lot of us honestly don't, but. I know the highlights. I know the highlights and I know what I thought. I thought that she was a victim of Munchausen by proxy. I thought that she worked with her

boyfriend, but more so it was the boyfriend who had some issues where she mentioned some things. He carried out the murder. I even got something wrong in CWN where I said she was found guilty. A lot of you were quick to correct me. That wasn't me just misspeaking. I thought she was found guilty. No, she took a plea deal. She took a deal.

So this is why it's important to cover it. We're going to do it. I'm looking forward to getting into it. Well, I'm going to give a quick recap of what happened after Dee Dee Blanchard was found murdered. And then I want to talk about why this case has suddenly become far more muddled and confusing than it has ever been before. 48-year-old Dee Dee Blanchard's body was found in her Springfield, Missouri home after concerned neighbors contacted the police. They had become alarmed by a series of disturbing posts on a Facebook account that Dee Dee and her daughter, Gypsy Rose, by a series of disturbing posts on a Facebook account that

Dee Dee and her daughter, Gypsy Rose, shared. One of these posts read, quote, that bitch is dead, end quote. So when police arrived at the grisly scene, they found Dee Dee lying face down in a pool of blood. She'd been stabbed multiple times. We did talk on Crime Weekly News about the crime scene pictures sort of resurfacing and people being shocked, you know. Wasn't the first time they'd been out there, but it was the first time they started getting into the mainstream. Yes. People being shocked, you know, people who had supported Gypsy being shocked.

I don't know why you would be shocked. It's a murder. I don't, what did you think? It was pretty, you know, the flowers were just falling around her, but yes, they were shocked because it was very bad. Initially, law enforcement was very concerned for the well-being of Dee Dee's daughter, Gypsy Rose, who was believed to be gravely ill and wheelchair bound. Now, Gypsy's wheelchair was found at the home, but she was nowhere to be seen, and there police found Gypsy Rose with her online Rose and Nicholas Godejohn were questioned, the true nature of their relationship emerged, along with the alleged years of abuse inflicted

on Gypsy at the hands of her mother, and this included, allegedly, unnecessary medical treatments, surgeries, and medications. Gypsy Rose told the police that she and Godejohn had conspired to kill her mother, and she claimed she believed it was the only way to escape Dee Dee's oppressive control and constant abuse. Basically, and Gypsy has said this, she was like, it was her or me. That's how Gypsy felt about that. Remember it. Now, both Gypsy Rose and Nicholas Go To John were arrested for Dee Dee Blanchard's murder, with Gypsy facing charges of second-degree murder, while Go To John, who had been the one to physically carry out the killing, he was charged with first-degree murder.

Now, despite her obvious and admitted involvement in the crime, the pattern of Gypsy's life continued as she drew in an enormous amount of support and public sympathy because of the extreme abuse she had suffered for the majority of her young life. Can I stop it real quick right there? That's the first thing that's a little surprising to me, that you have two people admitting to conspiring together to commit a murder. And so in most cases, regardless of who's the one actually shooting the gun or using the knife, both are charged with the same crime because of the

conspiracy to it. So the fact that she was charged with second degree and he was charged with first, there must have been something down the road as prosecutors were putting this case together where they started to believe that maybe Gypsy was more of an afterthought as opposed to the primary driver. Otherwise they would have charged her with the same crime. It doesn't make sense to charge her with second degree and him with first degree. It's the comparison I always give you with the robbery, right? You have the driver who's there. If they can prove that the driver had an idea of what was going on, or even if he didn't have an idea, if the passenger gets out, shoots the clerk at

the gas station, gets back in, and they take off, the driver is usually charged with first degree murder as well, not a lesser charge. Okay. What are in the case with Dan Markell, for instance? What was Charlie Adelson charged with? What are they going after Donna Adelson for, right? They're going after them for second degree murder. Yeah. No, aren't they going with them for first degree murder? I believe so. Yeah. They're going after them for first degree murder. Charlie Adelson was charged and they just hired the guys. I believe so. Especially considering it's her mother. She's the one that orchestrated it, right? She had to let him in and tell him where to go and all of that. Like, without Gypsy, this would not have been possible. Without Gypsy, this never would have happened because Nicholas Godejohn and Dee Dee Blanchard would have never run into each other.

These are important things to consider, especially considering the fact that no matter how Gypsy looked, talked, or behaved, when she was arrested for the murder of her mother, she was a grown-ass adult person. I do want to say one thing as far as my responses as well. I know when we talk about this case, there's a lot of sensitivity surrounding a victim of Munchausen by proxy and what they've gone through. Completely understand that. Just so you have context, I'm operating from a place of not knowing that stuff. I'm going

along with this case as Stephanie's telling it, not knowing the complexity behind it yet. So he's saying, if you hear something that you don't like, you should blame me. I'm not trying to be insensitive. You should blame me because he's just, he's just along for the ride. No, that's not, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, roll with us on this one. It'll come into the final opinion, your final perspective on it. But as of right now, just looking at the facts as they unravel, this is what we're at. We don't know the why yet. She's saying to the police officers, I was a victim of this, this, and this. This is why we did it. But that hasn't been quote unquote investigated at this point in this narrative, which is what I'm operating under. I just want to qualify that. We are going to down the line, look at a little of the footage of Gypsy Rose's interrogation with the police. And what I find to be, and listen, this girl has really never sat right with me. I'm going to be honest with you, but

as an empathetic human being, you're like, well, of course, there's something off about her, like what she endured, what she went through. But when she was first arrested and the police sit her down and they're like, your mother's dead. She's like, what? What do you mean? Like she acts completely shocked. And the guy's like, the police officer's like, listen, don't get yourself deep with starting to lie to me and all this. Like enough. And she's like, I've been lying to you this whole time.

But she tries to act surprised. And she's like, I've been lying to you this whole time. But she tries to act surprised and she's, she's a good actress. You can literally not tell the difference between when she's lying and telling the truth. And she has admitted herself multiple times in multiple interviews and multiple documentaries. I'm a very good liar. My mother raised me to lie and manipulate. That's fair. That's fair. In fact, I think it was the Gypsy Rose Prison Confessions docu series, which I have watched on Hulu, but I don't know the network it was on originally. She says she's going before the parole board, right? And she's like, listen, I'm really nervous about this because in my history, in my experience, I would be in front of somebody and I would just tell them whatever they wanted to hear to get whatever I wanted. And so now I am going to go in front of the parole board and I don't want to do that. You know, I think I can learn to be honest,

she's saying. She's saying this like within days of the parole board hearing her case. So is she self-aware or is that like a huge level of self-awareness or is this a level of not really having a ton of self-awareness that you're saying this out loud? And it seems to be something that's just acceptable to you. Yeah, no. Well, that's where we are. That's why we're doing this. Well, either way, second degree murder, first degree murder, first degree murder. I didn't want to skate over that because that to me, there might be an explanation for it, but that's the first thing that stands out to me. So in 2016, Gypsy accepted a plea deal. She was sentenced to 10

years in prison because apparently the court and the public recognized that she was the victim of long-term abuse, but her sentence was still seen as relatively lenient given the circumstances. 10 years. And she's not going to serve all of that, by the way, but 10 years, that is very lenient considering, right? So her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, I hate calling him her boyfriend because I honestly think he was a pawn in a patsy from day one, but Nicholas Godejohn, who is on the spectrum, he is a person with autism. He has a history of mental illness. He is very easily influenced. He did not receive the same consideration. And in 2018, he was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility

of parole. So you have two people here who both allegedly have some things in their past that make them more susceptible to being influenced or maybe to make the wrong decision. And yet Nicholas Godejohn gets the book thrown at him. He got hammered. Yeah, he did. He got hammered. Are you going to get into the more specifics about the details of this plea deal? Because I don't understand why she was. Yes. Not today, but not today, but we're going to have to. Yeah. Cause there's, that's interesting. There must've been something in there where in exchange for that deal, she implicated Nicholas go to John had to be where she was. Basically, she went from being not only an offender, but to the key witness to get to get Nicholas what he ended up with. We'll talk about that. We will. We'll get there.

All right. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. I've got good news and bad news. Here's the bad news. Most protein bars are packed with sugar and unpronounceable ingredients. The good news? There's a better option. I'm Will and I created IQ Bar Plant Protein Bars to empower doers like you with clean, delicious, low-sugar brain and body fuel. IQ Bars are packed with 12 grams of protein,

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Refuel smarter, hydrate harder, caffeinate larger with IQ Bar. Go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20 to get 20% off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20. So for the longest time, the narrative was the same. Gypsy Rose was an unwilling victim of medical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother. Dee Dee Blanchard was a woman who desperately wanted attention and intentionally made her daughter sick in order to get it. Although most people were disturbed by the actions Gypsy had chosen to take in order to escape, many of them felt that they at least could understand it. And maybe they could sort of

rationalize that she at least felt she had no choice. Like, obviously, if you are able to let your boyfriend into the house while your mother doesn't realize you're doing that, you had every opportunity to grab a suitcase and walk out of the house and not come back, right? But that is not what Gypsy chose to do, similar to the Menendez brothers. And according to the Menendez brothers, they were- It is so funny you mentioned that. It's literally what was running through my mind. Yeah. According to the Menendez brothers, they said they were afraid their father was going to track them down. He was going to find them. Right. The thing is, in Dee Dee Blanchard's case, this woman was very ill at the time of her death.

Diabetes. She was just very, very sick. So sick she was unable to even fight back when she was being attacked and murdered. So really there wasn't, I don't know, maybe Gypsy thought that her mother was going to find her just because her mother had been such a huge, powerful, and sort of all encompassing oppressive figure in her life. That's going to be something we're going to have to talk about. Yeah. A hundred percent. Exactly. That's going to be a big factor in this for a lot of people. I agree, man. This is very complicated. It's not easy. Like I'm going to, I can tell you what my gut tells me. I can tell you where I feel uneasy

and things like that, but I cannot tell you the truth. Nobody can tell you the truth about what happened and about why it happened and about what Gypsy was feeling when it happened, except for Gypsy. And by her own admission, she's got, she, she and the truth have a very tenuous relationship. Yeah. We may never know the exact truth. I think it's very likely we will never know the exact truth. Only people who know is probably at this point, Gypsy. It's Gypsy. That's it.

So we got that basic narrative down. But in recent years, a new narrative has been building and emerging. That Gypsy Rose was not a victim, but a willing participant in her mother's game to convince everyone that she was terminally ill so that they could get all they could from the community around them, from people who would donate money, from organizations like the Make-A-Wish Foundation, who sent Dee Dee and Gypsy to Disney World in 2001. Celebrities, right? You've got Gypsy Rose going to a Miranda Lambert concert and then meeting Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton after, and then Miranda Lambert's giving her money.

Everyone was giving them money. They were getting houses built for them. They were going all over the place because they posed a very sympathetic duo, right? You've got a sick little girl, terminally ill, right? She's going to die. She's not living past really her late teenage years is what Dee Dee was saying. Not only that, but she's got to be in a wheelchair and she's got a feeding tube and she's got to go through all these horrible medical procedures. And of course, good-hearted people around Gypsy and Dee Dee wanted to do all they could to make Gypsy's life as nice as possible while she was there. You know, she she had this childhood that was like stolen from her by all these illnesses. And at least they could do was let her go and dress up like a princess and go to Disney World.

You know, the least they could do is just make sure she had these experiences that a child would have before she died. Yeah. And I mean, I know a lot of you are going to be saying at this point, and I, and I agree with you, by the way, that a lot of these behaviors have to be taught by someone. And as children, who are you looking to for guidance? You're looking to your parents. So I'm not sitting here and I don't, and Stephanie's not sitting here saying that, you know, gypsy is an equal offender in this situation because a lot of what she was doing was being taught by her mother. So if that's all, you know, and that's your, that's your role model that you're looking to for guidance. Yeah. You're going to, you're going to, you're going to imitate them in a lot of ways. And I see it all the time as a police officer,

where during my career, my early twenties, I was arresting someone, let's say, you know, Joe B, but then 10 years later, I had their son who's very young doing the same things. And there's no doubt that in many instances, that young person learned those behaviors from their dad. So it's unfortunate. It's, it's, it's sad as well, but, um, it's,'s it's there's no doubt that even if if gypsy rose was a willing participant in all of this it's probably due to the fact that what she was doing she didn't understand the significance and how bad it was at the time because the person she she trusted to guide her was telling her this was okay and so i i fully believe that's that's the case and what's going on here.

I can roll with you on that. I'm not saying anything right now, right? Even me, like having done a good amount of research at this point, knowing we were doing this case, I still hesitate. And like I said, I know what my gut says and I know what like my instincts are screaming at me, but I still feel hesitant to, I guess, say, oh, Gypsy, you're lying about everything.

The only problem is the only person who could refute what Gypsy is saying is no longer alive because of Gypsy. That's right. And by the way, Dee Dee didn't teach her to murder people, far as we know. No, she did not. That's next level. That's an evolution. And we're going to get there. But as far as the scams, we'll call them, doing these things, there's no doubt in my mind that Dee Dee was telling her, this is what we need to do in order

to get you this free and cool stuff. Doesn't that sound like a great idea? And obviously, a young kid, they're going to be like, sure, mom, that sounds awesome. Let's do it. Not realizing the significance of what they're doing. So I'm not putting that at the feet of Gypsy at all. That was on her mom to teach her the right ways and to do the right thing. And clearly she wasn't. Yeah. And I mean, either way you cut this, it's tragic. Yeah. I guess when we look at it and we're saying, okay, was Gypsy taught improperly? Was she taught to lie and manipulate? Yes. Is that her

fault? No. Agreed. What if all of these medical procedures she got, what if they were necessary? What if it wasn't medical fraud? What if her mother wasn't subjecting her to unnecessary medical testing and medical procedures? And these were actually things that Gypsy needed, which is why possibly not one single doctor involved in this has been charged or really even gotten into any trouble. Nobody's lost their license. Nobody's been charged.

That always was weird to me because you never really heard from the doctors all that much. And you were like, how? Like, you get it. You know, a mother with Munchausen's by proxy brings their child in, you know, and she says they need this, this and that. But as the doctor, you'd be running tests and you wouldn't be technically prescribing medication or ordering operations and surgeries for conditions that this child did not have.

And that never made sense to me. Yeah. I mean, look at Maya Kowalski with that case where the mom was saying this, this, and this, but when it got to the hospital, the hospital said, no, no, no. So that's the thing. Like if Gypsy wasn't being tortured medically, and these were just genuinely things that she needed to have done. And she was in on, on it with her mom where it's like, okay, yeah, we're going to do this. We're going to do that. We're going to go to Disney World because you're sick. And that's all she knew was to lie and manipulate and get things that she wanted and get her way. But then she kills her mother, right? So there's that whole escalation. You go from being kind of like maybe a mini con artist because that's what you're taught and that's all you know. Why did you kill your mother if you weren't being tortured medically and these were just possibly things that you actually really needed, right? That's the question there. So it's because of Gypsy's alleged conditions or real conditions,

right? We're going to talk about that. Dee Dee and her daughter received various forms of financial support, donations, and free services, including collecting disability benefits and social security checks on behalf of Gypsy. And that is the question we're going to be focusing on throughout the series. Was Gypsy Rose a victim of Munchausen by proxy, or was she a co-conspirator in a financial scheme in a plot to live off the kindness of others? And I do want to state that Beatrice Yorkey, she's an expert on Munchausen by proxy, she herself said, quote, as far as we know, Gypsy Blanchard is the only documented case of a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy who has killed their perpetrator to get out, end quote. Now, Yorkey tells us in this docuseries, and I think it was the Gypsy

Confession one, she's like, well, that should tell you how horrible it was, how horrible what was happening to Gypsy, how extreme it was for her to think that that was the only thing she could do. That should tell you, because this is the only case where a victim of Munchausen by proxy kills their offender. Is that what it tells us? Or does it maybe tell us that Munchausen by proxy wasn't actually happening? Like, is she the exception and not the rule, or are we just looking at the wrong thing? Is there something else going on here? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. So I'm going to say something that I often say on my own channel. In order to understand what happened at the end, we've got to go back to the beginning. Got to go back.

Claudine Petra was born on May 3rd, 1967, and she was the youngest of the six children born to Claude Petra and Emma Gisclair in Chacabay, Louisiana. Now, Chacabay is in La Forque Parish. It's a small town located in southern Louisiana, close to the Gulf of Mexico, and it's known for its Cajun culture, and it's surrounded by wetlands, bayous, and marshes. Now, it seemed from the start that Claude Inay, or Didi as we know her, was given special treatment that her other and older siblings had never received. So Didi seemed to have just a different way of handling her parents or a different way that she was handled by her parents. She was the youngest. She was the baby. She sort of got treated like a princess. She was allowed to participate in beauty pageants. None of the other kids did that. She was the only child allowed to sleep in bed with her parents,

and she was basically given whatever she wanted, from elaborate birthday parties to having her college paid for, getting a car handed to her. Apparently, and according to Dee Dee's mother, Emma, the baby of the family received this special treatment because she'd been sick from birth. She'd been born with a heart murmur, which often had Emma, who was Dee Dee's mother, keeping her home from school, bringing her to doctors, basically treating her as if she was made out of glass and she would break. Now, there is absolutely no evidence that Dee Dee Blanchard had a heart murmur at birth or that she was sick as a child. Just keep that in mind. Now, according to Fancy Maselli, who is the founder of the Good Wives Network and a content creator that spent time with Dee Dee's family and friends, Dee Dee lived on Easy Street during her childhood. And Fancy Maselli in a blog post says, quote, Emma ran a tight ship and every Saturday was cleaning day. The girls even washed

the walls each week. Claudia and Dorla, these are Dee Dee's sisters, say that they had to remove all their mom's knickknacks and clean the shelves. And if they didn't put them back exactly right, their mama would grab a bag of flour, come out and fling it all over the room and require them to start again. But not Dee Dee. She often lounged on the couch watching TV while her sisters had to do the housework. Dee Dee caused quite a bit of turmoil in the house growing up and it seemed her sisters always had to pay the price. Often having to go out and pick their own switches and then their mom would make them kneel for hours and rub salt into the switch stripes. But oddly enough, they described their childhood as good and happy and speak kindly about their mother and father, Claude, who was a shipboat captain and often not home. Claude Petrie was said to have a wandering eye during his marriage.

And we're going to talk about that a little bit more later on. But Claude would talk about how his wife, Emma, was trouble. He said he lost track of how many times she had to go to court for shoplifting, and it was alleged that she would steal other people's clothing from the laundromats, as well as steal thousands of dollars from her father-in-law, Claude's father. So Fancy Maselli goes on to say, quote, The stories about Dee Dee are not good. In fact, the entire time I sat and listened to tale after tale about Dee Dee, none of them were nice.

Not one from anyone, end quote. And that is interesting. We're going to get a little deeper into that because like I said, Fancy Maselli has spoken to Dee Dee's family members, nephews, siblings. She's spoken to her friends, her childhood friends. Fancy's really kind of been boots on the ground in Louisiana with this case. And she has a definitely a good understanding or a better understanding, at least than we do, of the dynamic because she was there. She was part of it for a little while. So we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar.

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brain nutrients like magnesium and lion's mane, and zero weird stuff. And right now, you can get 20% off all IQ Bar products, plus free shipping. Try our delicious IQ Bar sampler pack with seven plant protein bars, four hydration mixes, and four enhanced coffee sticks. Clean ingredients, amazing taste, and you'll love how you feel. Refuel smarter, hydrate harder, caffeinate larger with IQ Bar. Go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20 to get 20% off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20. About Didi, Fancy spoke to two women. Their names were Suzette and Titiana, and they were two of Didi's closest friends.

The three women had met in junior high, and from there, they became inseparable. They referred to themselves as the Three Musketeers. But even Suzette and Titiana didn't have many nice things to say about Didi. They described her as a mean girl who was obsessed with celebrities, to the point where she created delusions and fantasies about being connected to them in some way. In high school, Dee Dee told her friends that she had started a male correspondence with Jackie Blades, the lead singer of Night Ranger. End quote. and taking pictures with them because Dee Dee was so focused on being more than just an audience member, more than a fan. She needed to be up close and personal with these people. And her friend Suzette said, quote, like before we got into the concert, she would find out where they would come out at to go to their tour buses. So we knew which doors to go to, to wait for them to come out. So

we'd hurry up to run out and be first in line. We would hurry up and go meet them at the door. And we went for that concert. We waited, we waited, we waited, and we waited. And then when they did come out, she told me to make sure you got a good picture. Make sure it's a good one. She said, you better get me a good picture. Like, okay, I'll try the best I can. And when they came out, she grabbed him and she was like, hey, Jackie. And he's like, hey, how you doing? And they posed for a picture. And then he went on his merry way onto the bus, end quote. Now, Dee Dee would actually take that picture and frame it and hang it on the wall next to her bed. But Suzette remembered like one day she was in Dee Dee's room and Dee Dee was like, oh,

yeah, that's my boyfriend, Jackie Blades. We took that picture together. And she had this whole elaborate story of when it happened. And Suzette was like, oh, I took that picture. Yeah, I took that picture for you. Yeah. I was there. That's not what happened. I guess like DeeDee was like, Oh, that was the most magical night. After we took this picture, we spent the whole night together. And Suzette's like, Yo girl, I was with you. I took the picture and then we went home. So what are you talking about? What's your thought on that as someone who was young at some point, not anymore.

I mean, keep in mind there. You missed my joke there. I got it. I just. Is that like, is that like crazy red flag? Like, oh my God. What do you consider young? Oh, that's a great question.

I got to be careful how I answer this one. What kind of, what kind of age do you think this behavior would be acceptable at? And at what point? Yeah. So she wasn't a teenager. Yeah. You just, as soon as you asked me her age, you're right. would be acceptable at and at what point yeah so she wasn't a teenager yeah you just as soon as you asked me her age you're right yeah okay yeah and and like okay you're a compulsive liar you're you lie so much that you forget what lies you're telling who to the point where you forgot you asked this girl to take a picture this picture that you're telling

a story about so you lie a lot that's That's pretty obvious. That's fine. Nobody's saying that anybody involved in this is an angel. I really want to get that out there really clearly. Multiple people can be wrong here. None of these people are completely innocent or without fault, in my opinion. No, you're right. And I think what's important about this is understanding how we got to where we are. And I think context matters and it gives you a better understanding of the foundation behind the players, the characters involved. Everyone hears these names. Everyone's heard Dede Blanchard before, but do you know who she is? Do you know her upbringing? Do you know how she got to this point where, and this goes for any case,

how does a person get to the point where they are in in allegedly in some cases? Maybe this one maybe not this one Doing things to their child to make them sick in order to garner some type of sympathy or financial gain How do we get there? It doesn't happen overnight. Yeah, that's not coming. It's not coming from a mentally healthy place for sure Yeah, right. So that's that's understanding that you know, maybe these things that you're describing here were the onset, were the start of something big, were the start of something where this type of person would later go on, if she's willing to like this, you're going to have probable, you're most likely going to have multiple offenders, people who are guilty to a different degree. Nobody's an angel. Nobody's innocent.

There are certain cases where that may be the case, but in many instances, there are multiple people involved who hold some weight to what has transpired. And I think that's a great point to make in a case like this. Yeah. And it's like, I think that we as humans want to simplify things and find the good guy and the bad guy in the story. So we know who to support. It's not that simple. But at the end of the day, I mean, Gypsy really got a lot of support and has continued to get a lot of support as we know. I never got that because you're still responsible for your

mother's death, you know know so you are not innocent there was a million different ways that you could have gone about this or gotten out of it or gotten help like you said we've seen it with the menendez brothers we've seen it with the menendez brothers where they're in prison still there and that's the point right they're still they didn't get a sweet plea deal why the difference being they pulled the trigger, but we have to ask ourselves, does it really matter? If the situation were different where the Menendez brothers hired someone. Is that the only difference though? I think that's the big difference when you think about the visual of that, them walking into that room. And I don't want to make this about them, but them walking into the room in the way that

their parents were killed at their own hands, I think it has a more significant impact on the jury. And that's why you can go after something like that. But I think when you cloud the water and you dirty it up a little bit, you can create a separation between Gypsy and Nicholas Godejohn, where you can look at Nicholas Godejohn as a monster and Gypsy as this innocent party who just wanted to escape whatever she was going through. And even in those moments, still couldn't kill her mother herself. So I think I'm not saying that's the angle I believe it's going to go, but it's easier to paint that picture when she's not the one pulling the trigger or using the knife. But it is a great comparison with the Menendez

brothers. And I think it's not the first time we'll probably mention them as we go throughout this case. So I'm just going to put something down. You pick it up or not. Okay. Just something I was thinking because there's other differences. There's similarities between Gypsy and Eric and Lyle. I think without a doubt, we can definitely say that Eric and Lyle were abused and molested in their childhood. There's photographic evidence of this.

There's, you know, we admit that. They suffered from childhood trauma, as did allegedly Gypsy. The only difference is when you look at Eric and Lyle, you see in front of you two tall, broad-shouldered, strapping young men who look like adults. And they sound like adults. So inside, it doesn't matter if there's scared, traumatized children hiding in their brains still. They look like grown men. They look and sound like adults. When you look at Gypsy, she looks like a little girl. She talks and sounds like a little girl. And I think that there is a disparity there. And I think that that has something to do with their outcomes. I don't disagree with you. I think perception matters, especially in these trials. And maybe

the prosecutors looked at Gypsy and said, if we put her on the stand, jury's not going to convict her. So maybe that's part of it. Maybe they wanted the deal just as much as she did. Well, so, right. But I think, weigh in in the comments and let me know if you think that that's part of it. Maybe they wanted the deal just as much as she did. Well, so, right. But I think, weigh in in the comments and let me know if you think that that's the case. And, you know, obviously, there are disparities in how men and women are treated. And we do see that in the criminal justice system sometimes where, and that's why, you know, you could say the prisons are filled with men because more men commit violent crimes. Absolutely true. The statistics show that that's true. But then when we have women who do commit violent crimes, they often get lighter sentences. Why is that?

Chew on that one. All right. So Dee Dee and Jackie Blades from Knight Rider, they're a thing. But according to Dee Dee's friends, on the multiple occasions that they'd run into Jackie outside of concerts and things, it appeared that Jackie didn't even know who Dee Dee was. He was a married man. He appeared to be posing for a picture with a fan, not posing for a picture with a secret lover or girlfriend. And Suzette and Titiana, they were raised in a very sheltered environment. And by the time they were 14 or 15, they were still very innocent and naive young teens. But they claimed that Dee Dee introduced them to the concepts of manipulation and lying, similar to how Gypsy claims that Dee Dee did this. Dee Dee was known to get her own way,

no matter what it took, even if it meant mountains of lies and doing horrible things to people who considered her a friend, even horrible things to her family. So one time, Dee Dee and her friends went to New Orleans to see Night Rider, and the Three Musketeers had another friend named Heidi with them. Now, Dee Dee was able to find out what hotel the band was staying at. She booked a room at the same hotel. Dee Dee, Tatiana, Suzette, and Heidi all wanted to go out that night, but Heidi had to check in with her grandmother first, and the grandmother basically was like, you know, have fun at the concert, but I don't want you going out after, just stay at the hotel. And, you know, Heidi was like, I'm going to stay at the hotel. My grandma thinks it would be safer. And it felt as if Dee Dee was almost betrayed by

this, that she felt Heidi was being disloyal by obeying her grandmother instead of following Dee Dee, like everyone else in the group did. So Dee Dee started trying to get rid of Heidi. And at first she did this by trying to turn the rest of the girls against Heidi, trying to turn Heidi against the rest of the girls. She was telling Suzette and Titiana like, oh, Heidi just doesn't want us to have fun. She's trying to like ruin our night because she knows we're not going to leave her here alone. And, you know, isn't she awful? Now, Deedee also came up with a very cruel prank that they would play on Heidi because Heidi had a crush on one of Titiana's brother's friends. And the girls convinced Heidi that this boy was going to pick her up for a date. And then the girls hid in the bushes near Heidi's house so they could watch her stand outside waiting for this date to pick her up, knowing he was never coming.

And Heidi's parents actually caught the three musketeers giggling in the bushes. They put two and two together and Heidi never forgave any of them for it. So this is just some examples of how Dee Dee Blanchard's going to get what she wants and stay kind of like the alpha dog, the main person, the main character, no matter what. So back in the 1980s, La Fork Parish fell victim to the satanic panic that was sweeping the nation. And Louisiana being in the Bible Belt, being a very heavily Christian area, they were not going to be exempt from that. So there's a new story that talked about, oh, they thought that there was animal and human sacrifices being made, that there was groups of cultists or occultists performing rituals and animals were

turning up dead all over. And the police were basically like, hey, chill out, everyone. You know, it doesn't appear that this is really what's happening. Like there's definitely not any cult murders going on. Maybe there's a few dead animals turning up, but everybody just relax, right? Nothing to worry about. Don't not send your kids to school. Just everybody calm down. And the news story also talked about a forum on cults and satanic workshop that was being held at the Golden Meadow Middle School. And apparently, Dee Dee and her mother Emma sort of arranged for this sort of symposium about cults and satanic activity to happen. And according to Tatiana and Suzette, Didi really leaned into this. And she started telling them, you know, all this crazy stuff.

She was like, oh, animals are going missing from my neighborhood. Like every day more animals are going missing. And then she told them that she had, you know, been seeing people dressed in white gowns walking around in a circle performing rituals, and the cops and the mayor were all in on this satanic cult. And that's why they were telling everybody to calm down and relax, nothing to see here. She basically got everybody whipped into a frenzy. And the story actually goes is that Dee Dee herself seemed to be very interested in the darker side of things. She had books about cults and witchcraft, and reportedly, she would even cast her own spells and perform her own rituals. Now, we're going to talk more

about this as the series goes on, but many people have made these claims, including Gypsy Rose herself. For example, when the Three Musketeers were already grown women, they were in their 20s, Dee Dee convinced them to perform a blood ritual by cutting their fingers and then putting their blood together so they would be blood sisters, which I guess, once again, you know, if you were to ask me like, oh, would you have done something like this when you were young? Yeah, I would have. You know, like 13, 14, at a sleepover, you're kind of silly. It's fun. In your 20s? Yeah, that's pushing it.

That's pushing it. I agree. I think age matters here because there are things that, like you said, younger-minded people may do. We're all stupid when we were young. When you start getting into your 20s, you're still not completely there, but I don't think most people were participating in these type of activities. Unless you're part of a frat or a sorority house, then maybe. I don't know. I wasn't. Or you're Dee Dee Blanchard's friend. So. Yeah. Bobby Petrie, which is Dee Dee's nephew, her favorite nephew, apparently, he would also tell a story. And the story went something like this. So apparently one of his aunts, not Dee Dee, but a different aunt, had been pregnant and she lost the baby. And so Dee Dee came over with a bowl and she told everyone

in this bowl is the miscarried fetus. And then Bobby said that Dee Dee was holding like a sack of oranges over the bowl and she was holding it like the sack of oranges was a baby. And then she was talking to the oranges like they were a baby. And then all of a sudden she reportedly held the bag of oranges up and squeezed them so their juices ran into the bowl as she chanted and walked in circles. I'm not sure what the, um, the purpose of it was. Yeah. It's where we, where are we going with it? You know, we're going with it and they could be innocent where it's just something she's following, but I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I gotta to know more about it. So now we're kind of moving on. Dee Dee goes to college. She gets her degree. She becomes a nurse's aide. And, you know, she's still living in Louisiana in LeFork Parish, and she's doing

her thing. But then one Friday night at a bowling alley, Dee Dee met 17-year-old Rod Blanchard, and Rod was there at the bowling alley to see a band. Now, remembering this night, Rod Blanchard said, quote, she stood out from the crowd. I was as wild as a weed, you know. She's a little older than me, but I got a phone number and started dating, end quote. So when Rod says Dee Dee was a little older than him, he means that, like I said, he was 17 and still in high school, and Dee Dee was 24. So they started dating. Three months later, Dee Dee told Rod, surprise, you're going to be a father.

I'm pregnant. And obviously, given the time and the place, Rod was like, well, I better make an honest woman out of you and marry you. And Rod Blanchard and Dee Dee were married on December 27, 1990. And then seven months later, little Gypsy Rose was born. But even before she was born, Rod woke up on the morning of his 18th birthday, and he says he basically had a revelation. Like, how did I get here? How is this my life? What the hell's going on? This isn't what I wanted. I don't even really like this person that I am all of a sudden married to. About Dee Dee, Rod Blanchard said, quote, she was the perfect Southern wife, a really nice girl,

very polite, very generous, but I just never developed that special place in my heart for her. We were married only three months. I promised her I would always do everything I could to take care of her and the child, to do what I can for them financially and mentally, but I just couldn't. I couldn't stay, end quote. Now, it gets a little complicated because when Rod met Didi, he also had a close friend named Christy, and he'd known Christy for years. He'd actually had a little crush on her during high school, and Christy said that when she first met Didi, Didi seemed really nice and didn't seem bothered that her boyfriend had such a close female friend. But then things turned. Christy said, quote,

next thing I was getting a call from Rod saying he was to be a father, that Dee Dee was pregnant and they were getting married only after a short time of them dating. I was not happy with that situation because I knew he didn't really love her. I refused to go to the wedding due to that fact that it was for all the wrong reasons, end quote. So if Christy felt then that Rod didn't love Dee Dee, this was certainly confirmed for her on the night of Rod and Dee Dee's wedding because the wedding party, along with friends and family of the bride and groom, all gathered at a local bar after the ceremony. And although Christy had not attended the wedding, she and her friends ended up being at the same bar as well. I'm sure not by accident, let's be honest. No. It's also a small community, probably like one or two bars you can go to.

Yeah, but she picked that one. So at some point during the night, Rod, still dressed in his tux, he pulled Christy outside to talk to her, right? And he's like, I care about you. He tries to kiss her. And apparently Christy was like, no, dude, you made your choice, man. You made your bed. You picked your wife. Now you go in there and you live with it. And at that time, Rod was like, but I don't love Dee Dee. And Christy was like, I don't care if you love her or not. You just married her, you dumbass. And I'm not taking part in whatever this weird thing is that you're expecting from me. So some people believe that Dee Dee Blanchard intentionally got pregnant in order to trap Rod to make sure he couldn't leave

her because she too sensed, you know, he's not into me. He's not as into me as I am into him. And he's going to leave me eventually if I don't, you know, find some reason to make him stay. Now, allegedly, Rod's mother, who worked at the local library, met Dee Dee long before she knew that Dee Dee was her son's girlfriend, because Rod seemed to kind of hide Dee Dee a little bit. But Dee Dee came into the library one day looking to check out some books about pregnancy. And Rod's mother struck up a conversation while she was checking her out, you know, like, oh, are you pregnant? Like, when do you do? And Dee Dee was like, no, no, no. I'm looking into these books for a friend. But then months later, Rod announces his girlfriend's pregnant and introduces his mother to his future wife, the future mother of his child. And then the mom knew then in her gut that Dee Dee had purposely gotten pregnant, knowing that Rod would do the right thing and propose because Dee Dee was looking up these pregnancy books and checking them out long before she was pregnant. So interesting. Now, the ending of her short-lived marriage, it seemed to take a real

toll on Dee Dee. Rod said that when he told her he couldn't do this, Dee Dee took their framed marriage license off the wall and just shattered it on the ground. And Gypsy Rose said, quote, I know that the most devastating failure to her, meaning her mother, Didi, was losing my father. My mother blamed me for them getting a divorce because I wasn't the son that he wanted. I'm like thinking in my mind, how are you blaming me for something that happened before I was born? End quote. Good point. Good point, Gypsy. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. This podcast is sponsored by IQ Bar. I've got good news and bad news.

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Clean ingredients, amazing taste, and you'll love how you feel. Refuel smarter, hydrate harder, caffeinate larger with IQ Bar. Go to eatiqbar.com and enter code BAR20 to get 20% off all IQ Bar products, plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code bar20 to get 20% off all IQ Bar products plus free shipping. Again, go to eatiqbar.com and enter code bar20. We're back. And that whole section is interesting. Obviously, at this point, Dee Dee Blanchard is 24, 25 years old, right? And we now have Gypsy Rose in the picture. And you're starting to see a little bit behind the curtain, maybe about DD. We don't know for certain whether or not she had Gypsy to keep, to keep Rod. We don't know that. So it's speculative at best. Kind of fast to get pregnant though, right? Like it is

fast, but listen, I know it happens. It happens. It happens. My mom, love you to death, mom. My mom had me when she was 18. My brother, when she was 19. And then my sister a couple of years later, and my dad was not in the picture after that. And I can tell you, me and my mom, she's my best friend. It wasn't always planned. And I love my mom. She's a saint. And in my mind, she still has never had sex, but she popped out some kids pretty early there. And being 40 now, I look back at it, I'm like, mom, damn. Quick succession, man. Shit can happen. Shit can happen. And my mom's a saint. So it's one of those things where, I say this because my mom doesn't listen to these episodes.

Why? Why? Mama willvasseur, man. Well, that's more funded now. But so it's one of those things where you can take it with a grain of salt. Maybe, maybe not. But I think what you said at the end there before the break is more important. Where if there is some type of world where as this thing is ending, instead of taking, I wouldn't even say the blame on herself. But if you have a situation

where Dee Dee is not looking at it for what it is, where maybe Rod and herself are not compatible, maybe it's just not meant to be. And they kind of were pushed together because of this unexpected pregnancy. They got married too fast without learning who each other really were as people. And that might've been the reason why it didn't work out. But if she's leaving the situation saying, this is because of you. And when I say you, I mean, Gypsy, looking at her saying, if you were a boy, he would have wanted to stay. This is your fault. Allegedly. Allegedly. If that was her mindset, it does kind of set up a foundation for where this story goes according to Gypsy Rose. Maybe this is how she justifies what transpires with Gypsy over the next few years. So it's an

interesting question brought up by Gypsy. How can you blame me for something that I wasn't even born for when this all started going to shit? But I do think it was an interesting question to pose. How is this my fault? And regardless of whether DD has a justified reason for it, spoiler alert, she doesn't, in her mind, if it's justified, it may also justify her actions and behaviors down the road. That's why I bring it up. Yeah, absolutely. And it might show some resentment, which when you ask the question, like, how could you do this to your child? Yeah. Well, there you go.

That's how. Right. If you resent them, if you think you lost the love of your life because of them. You want to punish them. You're like, man, I got pregnant with you to keep him. And I ended up losing him because of you. Like, what are the odds? You know?

Yeah. Well, Gypsy Rose Blanchard, she was born on July 27th, 1991 in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. And reportedly, she was a cute and completely healthy baby. And Rod said that as soon as he saw her, he knew she was his because Gypsy looked just like him. But at just three months old, Gypsy was diagnosed with sleep apnea after her mother brought her to the doctor because she would stop breathing at night. And it also appears that Gypsy was born with something called strabismus in her right eye, also known as hypertropia or crossed eyes. Strabismus is a misalignment of the eyes, which causes one eye to deviate inward towards the nose or outward while the other remains focused. Now, according to Dr. Robert Steele, and we're going to talk

about him more, okay? And that's what I'm saying. It's very hard to chronologically organize this, but Dr. Robert Steele would not become Gypsy's pediatrician until she was 15 years old. And we're talking about right now, she's about three months old. But later, he would say that this condition, the strabismus, can sometimes cause blindness. And Dr. Steele believes that it may have been this diagnosis, this early diagnosis, that could have been Dee Dee Blanchard's trigger for her Munchausen by proxy. Dr. Steele said, quote, when you look at Munchausen by proxy, you often see that there was an encounter to address a real need with the child. But in doing so, Dee Dee gained attention from having a child that could go blind. This could have been the start of Dee Dee's

Munchausen by proxy, end quote. And this raises an interesting question as well, right? Because let's say that Didi wasn't making Gypsy sick. Let's say that Gypsy legitimately was sick and had many of these medical conditions that her mother claimed she did. Technically, Didi could still get off on the attention and sympathy she received from having a sick child without having to make her sick because she was already sick. Right? You know what I mean?

Yeah. No, I think what the doctor said there, it's a situation. Let's just look at it for what it is. She unexpectedly had her husband leave her. She's alone. She's a single mother. And she's feeling maybe a little hopeless. And then her daughter's diagnosed with this illness and everyone's catering to her. How

can we help you? What can we do? You're a single mother. You can't do this alone. Yeah, exactly. Maybe not just the medical staff, but also people in her life, friends, family, whatever, because there's a level of sympathy for her. And so she's seeing that and she's enjoying it. She likes having people gravitate toward her regardless of the reasoning behind it. And yeah, I could see how you could make an argument that that feeling of being catered to was something that she yearned for more of and she realized how she could get it. We don't even have to say being catered to because that sounds kind of like selfish. I mean, just in general, just the feeling of being supported by other people and having people care about you.

That can be very intoxicating to someone who maybe has abandonment issues or maybe hasn't felt that anybody's genuinely liked them before. Right. or maybe hasn't felt that anybody's genuinely liked them before, right? Because maybe- I would still classify that as selfish though, because if you're seeing it, if people are coming to you to try to help you because of an ailment your child has, and you're looking at it for how it's benefiting you, that is selfish, my friend. Well, some people say there is no altruistic action because even when you do something just to help someone else, you're still doing it to make yourself feel good. Well, you still do feel good. Therefore, there is a benefit to you.

I think it's less. I think it's more complicated than that. I think that Didi was a difficult person to deal with, and she could probably tell that even her own friends were like, this bitch is crazy at times. You know what I mean? And she couldn't help who she was and she couldn't help that she was so extra and that she was a compulsive liar. And, you know, maybe she was raised that way too. Some people believe that Dee Dee's mother, Emma, had menopause by proxy as well and said that Dee Dee was sick and had a heart murmur and had to be treated differently than the other kids. And so maybe this kind of just like trickle down affected, but I don't know. It's sad, you know, when you have to manipulate people to get them to stay with you. And I think if you do that enough throughout your life, you start to feel like that's the only way. Yeah. You don't know any other way. You don't know how to genuinely connect to people. That is how you connect with people. Yeah, absolutely. The same way you may look at, oh, you know, I've always gone to family dinner with my family on Sundays. Some other people may look at it like, hey, us lying about ailments and exaggerating tragedy in order to garner attention.

That's our family tradition. That's kind of what? That's our family tradition. Yeah, that's what we do. We go to family get togethers and we brag about, we try to see who has the worst ailment. We one up each other. I've got gout. Well, I've got cancer. I lost a leg. Yeah, exactly. I had gout once. How cute.

I remember that. I remember those days. I remember those days, those innocent days, but like exactly. And I know people like this and I'm sure you do too. Yeah, no, there's definitely the one uppers of the groups. The one uppers where it's like in a position where it's like, I don't know why you would want to be the best in class here. You know, it's a very negative situation. Now there are definitely stories where you're like, oh, you know, I was in a shark tank one time and the shark came close to me. I was diving with sharks and like, yeah, I got bit by one. No. Or if you're like, I had a bad childhood.

My mom was never home. Well, my mom beat me. Well, my mom also beat me and she starved me. Well, my mom locked me in a closet. And it's like, why are we competing for who had a worse childhood? Terrible. It's not good. Terrible because it's somewhat true.

It's rumination. Yeah, it's not great. But, you know, after this sort of sleep apnea thing and the strabismus thing, from there, it kind of snowballed. And Dee Dee was suddenly telling everyone about new and rare medical conditions her daughter was allegedly being diagnosed with. Asthma, vision and hearing issues, seizures, muscular dystrophy, even cancer. And Gypsy's father, Rod, was getting all of this information secondhand because after the divorce, Dee Dee and Gypsy had moved back in with Dee Dee's parents, Claude and Emma. And although Rod tried to be as present in his daughter's life as he could be, he was also working on a ship, so he'd be gone for like months at a time. Now, he still

paid child support. He visited with Gypsy whenever he was in Louisiana. He sent gifts for Christmas and birthdays. But Dee Dee didn't make it easy for him. She didn't even really seem to want Rod to be alone with his daughter. And this whole situation didn't get better when six months after Gypsy was born, Rod remarried. And the person he had chosen for his new wife was his old friend and crush, Christy. Oh, that's tough. That's tough. That's going to definitely add salt to the wound. You just said something quick, and I didn't want to cut you mid-sentence.

When you say that Rod tried to be in Gypsy's life, and yet Dee Dee didn't really want it, I know we're still early in this, but could that be for different reasons? Could that be one because it was out of spite? Hey, listen, you broke my heart. I'm not going to let you see your daughter. Or like you had the chance to be a father and you chose someone else instead. So now you are only going to have a relationship with our daughter on my terms. Yeah. And that's the simple explanation. And that's a story as old as time. We've heard that a million different different ways but there's also a side here where if dd's out there stating that gypsy has all these medical complications is there is there a situation here where she doesn't want gypsy to be in the care of others who may dispute what she's saying

where rod could have gypsy for a few days and go i don't she's perfectly fine she's playing on the swing she's doing all this she's running up and down the street. Where's, what asthma are you talking about? You know? So I wonder if that's part of the equation here. I don't know. It's just a question I'm asking myself at this point. Could be both. Could be, it could also be both. Yes. I mean, some of the reason if, if DeeDee did have Munchausen by proxy, some of the reasons she could have developed that and used it was to make Rod feel guilty and to make herself look like this monumental, heroic single parent while Rod's out there starting a new family and a new life with someone else. And listen, I'm not going to sit here. And once again, no one in this story is an angel.

And that includes Rod. He could have tried harder. Fair. He could have tried harder. Your wife saying, oh, your ex-wife is saying, oh, she's got this, she's got that, she's got this. And Rod himself was even like, I mean, she seemed fine to me, but who was I to question, you know, Dee Dee? You're her father. That's who you are. But it is true. There's some truth to it that Rod was never in love with Dee Dee and maybe felt like this whole thing was a

mistake, including having Gypsy. And now he marries the person he really wanted to marry and they start having kids and that's his real family now. Yeah. I wonder how long after the separation, he got married to Christy. Six months after, after Gypsy was born. Yeah. That's yeah. So we know, I'm sorry, Rod. Got to call it out. You know, you you didn't you did something with Didi that maybe you regretted. Either way, whatever her intentions were, you participated. It takes two to make that happen. And not only that, but after you got divorced and you moved on with your life, did you try as hard as you could have or did you try just enough to kind of take away your own guilt of being an absent parent. My opinion, he was out the door already, which is why on the wedding night, he was already talking to Christy, already confessing his love to her, trying to kiss her. He had an exit strategy from the get-go, and I don't know why he would marry her, but. I wonder if he was thinking like, I'll just be married to Didi,

but I'll have like Christy on the side. And then Christy was like, nope. Now that ain't happening. Yeah. No, either way, I think you said it best. Nobody's innocent here.

I think Rod definitely, uh, made some mistakes and contributed to all of this in some sort of way. I'm not blaming him for anything that happened to DD in the end, but no, or gypsy. But what I'm saying is we also have to keep in mind. He was,

uh, 18 years old when, when he was born. So, but if you're old enough to... I agree. But also, we have to understand, like, you know, if we're going to say, like, oh, you know, Dee Dee lying about being, you know, having a boyfriend in a band and doing, you know, blood rituals, and she's young,

and maybe we can see how that might happen, we have to understand that, like, Rod didn't know which way it was up at that point. And he lived it. He was definitely immature for his age and compounding mistakes. But also under the pressure to do what's right. You know, like you even heard him say it. He's like, well, she was a good Southern wife. That tells me something. It tells me that this is the culture. Like you get someone pregnant, you get married. That's why I feel like shotgun wedding is a, is a Southern term, honestly, because it's like a very religious, it's in the Bible belt. You're not getting a woman pregnant out of wedlock. Absolutely not. You're marrying that woman. I don't care what you think about her and what you feel about her. And

as a young man being raised that way, he's going to think this is the only option. Yeah. His parents might've threw that at him too and said, Oh, guess what? Now you're going to go all the way with this. Yeah. His mom was like, I know she trapped you, but I don't care. I don't get it. You participated, right? It didn't happen through a handshake. Now you're going to marry her. But not only, listen, not only did Christy, Rod's new wife, and Rod and Dee Dee have history, but Christy also worked at the same hospital where Dee Dee worked as a nurse's aide, so they were like co-workers. And additionally, when things had crumbled between Dee Dee and Rod Blanchard, she'd gone home and she told her family that Rod was a piece of shit, basically. He was abusive, he didn't pay child support, he'd abandoned his wife and daughter to start a new life with a new family.

And some of that was true, like he did technically abandon his wife and daughter to start a new life with a new family. And some of that was true. Like he did technically abandon his wife and daughter to start a new life and a new family. That is fair. But there's no evidence that he was abusive. And there I mean, he wasn't he wasn't a drug addict. And I just I guess that, you know, he was paying child support. He was definitely paying child support still. And when Gypsy was older, Dee Dee would be like, your dad's a piece of shit. Like he never paid child support. And then Gypsy found out that Rod was, in fact, always paying child support, sending letters, sending gifts, sending money, things that her mother didn't tell her about, allegedly. Yeah, trying to paint a certain narrative. she claims that her mother filled her head with negativity and lies about her father, Rod, and about his wife, Christy Blanchard. Gypsy Rose said, quote, my mother told me all about the real Rod, like how this one time he came home drunk to me crying as an infant, and he supposedly lifted me by the neck and said, shut her up or I will, how he wished for a baby boy instead. She told me once that if I had come out a boy, my dad would have stayed. I heard all the time, of course, how my dad left my mother for another woman, her coworker, Christy, at the hospital. My mother had told me my father never sent money, he had started a new family that he was probably abusing, and he didn't come see me in the hospital when she supposedly called him relentlessly

to tell him I was in the hospital, end quote. Now, of course, Dee Dee couldn't cut Rod and Christy out altogether, and she still had to let them spend time with Gypsy, at least for a while, but she was a constant presence. Rod said, quote, all the visits, Dee Dee had to be there the whole time. Something never felt did everything together. Dee Dee and I talked about it on several occasions that if something ever happened to her, she would hope they would both go out at the same time because one couldn't live without the other. End quote. Well, that's a very unhealthy level of codependency if I ever heard one. is visiting with Gypsy and yet Dee Dee has to be present still you know kind of maintaining control of of the narrative as far as if someone questions in person like oh she seems like she's doing better she can dispute that she can come back and say something now that may be an angle I don't have anything here that says that Dee Dee's no longer with us but it does make you wonder based on the allegations against her down the road if that could have been part of her motive for wanting to be present or was it a situation with

this quote like you're saying where she was just so close to gypsy she that's all she had that's she didn't want rod to take that away from her so she wanted to be present to avoid potentially losing that connection with her daughter i don't Well, both things can be true. They can. They can. And also there are reports and allegations that Didi and Gypsy sort of had these nonverbal cues with each other. So when they were in the presence of other people, so for instance, Didi would bring Gypsy in for like an eye exam or a hearing exam. And typically they won't allow the parent to be present in the room with you while that's happening. But because of Gypsy's, all of these disabilities and medical issues she had, you know, Dee Dee explained to the doctors, you know, she's scared, she needs me. And she would sit next to her and hold her hand and squeeze it when she wanted her to like indicate that she'd heard a

sound so that she could test, so that Gypsy could test to be hearing impaired on these exams and things, even though she technically wasn't because Dee Dee was sort of running the show and giving her cues. Okay, that's a sound there, but you didn't hear it. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, all of those things, they can be just completely codependent and they need each other, but she also wants to maintain control of the narrative and control of Gypsy. That could be true. We're going to take our last break and we'll be right back. All right, so Dee Dee and Rod get divorced. Gypsy's born. Dee Dee and Gypsy go back

to live with Dee Dee's parents, Claude and Emma. And apparently Gypsy was sent to school briefly, like kind of a preschool kindergarten thing when she was very young, but she never even finished a full school year because Dee Dee decided to pull her daughter out of school. She said she was concerned that they weren't going to give Gypsy her medication correctly. And the choice was made for Gypsy to be homeschooled. But according to many members of Dee Dee's own family, there was really no schooling happening. Dee Dee basically just stopped sending Gypsy Rose to school,

and the young girl was allowed to do whatever she wanted during the day, and many of her days were spent hanging out and playing with her grandfather, Claude. Now, when Gypsy was about five years old, she and Claude got into an accident on his motorcycle. She was fine, but according to Gypsy, her mother made a big deal out of it and then used the accident as an excuse to come up with new ailments that her daughter suffered from. Quote, my mom turned it into a bigger event than it actually was. My knee and my legs got scraped. My leg was put in a brace. Then one day my mother walked into the room and she had a wheelchair with her and very bluntly told me to use the wheelchair. I didn't understand her

reasoning, but I trusted her. She was my best friend and I loved her and I never questioned as a child. End quote. Now Gypsy talks about how at first the wheelchair was kind of a fun thing, you know, she was like playing around in it for a week. She learned how to do wheelies and she was having a good time. But then after that week, when there was like no end in sight where she's like, when can I get out of this wheelchair? And Dee Dee's just like, you know, you need this wheelchair. And Gypsy's like, I do. I don't think I do.

You know, when the weeks turned into months, it was not really a fun or new thing anymore. And Gypsy said, quote, I was fully aware that I could walk, but I always craved her attention and I was afraid of losing it. End quote. Gypsy also talks about the mental and emotional abuse that went along with the medical abuse, and she said these mind games caused her to become very dependent on her mother's attention and approval. Gypsy said, quote, If there were things I would do that she didn't like, she would favor the cat over me. She would love on the cat and then just look at me with a snarl, end quote. So now, from the age of about five years old, Gypsy Rose is relegated to a wheelchair, even though she was quite capable of walking. And this was a fact that everyone in Dee Dee's

family seemed to be aware of. Dee Dee's older brother, Evans, said, quote, Dee Dee was smart. She was a nurse's assistant, and she would look up the disease and kind of say, hey, maybe Gypsy does have that, but we would never see it. We would hear it through what Dee Dee was smart. She was a nurse's assistant, and she would look up the disease and kind of say, hey, maybe Gypsy does have that, but we would never see it. We would hear it through what Dee Dee was telling us, end quote. Evan also tells a story about a birthday party. So there was a bunch of kids outside jumping on a trampoline, and Gypsy's sadly sitting in her wheelchair, and she's like, hey, can I jump on the trampoline? And they were like, absolutely, yeah. Go on and jump on the trampoline. Dee Dee's not there, right? She's not home. So for a while, Gypsy bounced on that trampoline like a normal kid laughing and playing with her peers.

But then Dee Dee pulled up and Gypsy completely changed. Evans Petrie said, quote, she dropped like a wet rag. And it's like, what happened? Dee Dee came out and was pissed. She was screaming. Don't you know she's crippled? Yeah, this is, so here we go. talking about different stories where, where there's some validity right off the rip, where you have people saying from our crime weekly news episode, oh, there was no type of abuse going on. That's something that gypsy Rose made up, but there are other people who have said

publicly information like this, that clearly indicates she's not crippled. She was, she was jumping on a fricking trampoline and, and she only was doing this to garner attention from her mother. So she was only going in the wheelchair and like going along with it to, to, to maintain her mother's approval. Exactly. She has been coached and trained to do this. And she knew she was going to be in trouble. And so already we're in episode, you know, part one of this. There's definitely some truth to this. There's no doubt about it. Now, the motive behind it, we can sit there and debate that all day long. We could say Dee Dee's doing this because she's trying to get, you know,

garner that attention from whoever she's wishing to get it from. Or you could have a situation situation and I don't want anyone coming for me on this one, but a really overly protective parent to an unhealthy degree. She's so concerned that maybe gypsy is going to re injure herself by going on something like a, like a trampoline that now she's overly protective. That's the, the best case scenario. I'm not saying that's what it is, but that is also still a possibility. But this is our first insight into something that's not healthy, not appropriate, and definitely a red flag. 100%. And like you said, this could be just

Dee Dee's like, gypsy's all I have. At this point, it's still possible. Yeah. Everybody leaves me. Nobody stays around, but this is my child and she has to love me and I need to protect her at all costs. So I need to put her in a bubble. Right. And we've seen overprotective parents like this now to this extent, to this extent, maybe, I don't know. I haven't, I haven't, but. We're so early in this. If this is all you had, you can make an argument either way. I have a feeling it's going to get worse. So many members of DeeDee's own family, they started questioning her. You know, they're like, why is Gypsy in a wheelchair

when we know she's quite capable of walking? And this pressure caused DeeDee to begin pulling away and hiding more things. And then when DeeDee's mother, Emma, died on June 9th, 1997, at the age of 59, the pressure of everything got to Dee Dee, and apparently she took Gypsy and then took off. And at that time, when she kind of like ran away, there was an arrest warrant out for Dee Dee in La Forque Parish, and this was a warrant for writing bad checks. And her siblings found out that within a year of their mother dying, Dee Dee had maxed out two of Emma's credit cards. Evans Petrie said, quote, Dee Dee was devious and she knew how to get away with things. But if she done got caught, she usually had to run away, end quote. And that's exactly what Dee Dee did. And for a while, she and Gypsy bounced around a lot. They lived in different

subsidized housing and shelters. And this does seem to have been a pattern with Dee Dee Blanchard. She'd be spinning her stories about Gypsy being sick. And when she'd get called out on it or when people got too close to the truth, she would leave, start over somewhere else. What was worse is that Dee Dee wouldn't tell anyone where she and her daughter were when she did this. She wouldn't tell her family. She wouldn't tell Rod and Christy. She wanted to be in complete control of who knew where she was and when. Now, in 1999, when Gypsy was eight years old, Dee Dee called Rod and Christy, and at this point, Dee Dee and Gypsy had been in the wind for a while and nobody really knew where they were and everyone was worried. And so Dee Dee calls Rod and Christy Blanchard and she's like, just so you guys know, we're in New Orleans, but I have some terrible news. Little Gypsy Rose has leukemia. The doctors don't think she's going to live much longer. And Dee Dee would always do this thing where it was like, oh, she's not going to live past 14. Oh, she's not going to live past 18. Oh, she's not going to live past 21. And this is another reason why I question Rod Blanchard a

little bit, because this is what she's telling Gypsy's father, right? And she's like, oh, your daughter, our daughter is not going to live past this age. And then that age would come and go and then it would be different. Oh, well, now the doctors say she is this long. And it reminds me of those cults, those doomsday cults back in the day, you know, when they would like gather all their followers on a hilltop and they're like, the second coming is happening. The end of the world is today. We got to stand on this hilltop and wait for Jesus. Yeah. The rapture is coming. Yeah. And then nothing would happen. Right. And then the cult leader will be like, oh, well, my calculations must've been off. Let me go back to the drawing board. And then they'll come up with a new date.

And then the same thing happens. But these freaking people keep going to the damn hilltop with them. Like, Rod kept going to the damn hilltop with Didi and never once saying, am I getting all the information? Can I see some documentation from doctors? Can I speak to a doctor? And utilizing the rights he had as that child's father to say, I would like to be in the doctor's office and hear somebody say this with my own ears, because I'm starting to wonder about you, lady. Never did that seem to happen. And he says he feels guilty about it and he could have done more and this, this, and that, but- Sounds like he was more focused on his new family. To keep this facade up, Dee Dee would consistently shave Gypsy's head and then tell people that

Gypsy's hair had fallen out because of the cancer treatments, right? And everyone felt terrible for Gypsy, obviously. And they marveled at how Dee Dee was managing to continue carrying this burden, continue keeping a positive attitude while caring for her very ill daughter all by herself. Even Rod Blanchard said, you know, I always marveled at Didi and I would tell her like, I don't know how you're doing all this by yourself. I couldn't, you know, I have a lot of respect for you. You're a good mother. And of course she most likely liked hearing that, especially from Rod. I'm sure she did. And I just want to say, we just crossed over the point of giving DeeDee the benefit of the doubt where the trampoline incident, I could make a justification for it,

but shaving your daughter's head and then telling people that it was because of the cancer treatment that her hair was falling out, that is a form of child abuse in and of itself. So that's a problem. That's a major issue, and it's now crossed over from wanting to keep her safe, wanting to make sure she didn't hurt herself again, to deliberately deceiving people and abusing your child in the process of doing that. No doubt, by the way, that Dee Dee Blanchard definitely used her daughter for financial gain and for attention. And sympathy and all that good stuff. If these stories are true, if we're to take them at face value, and it seems like this would be a pretty easy story to corroborate through multiple witnesses,

this is child abuse, no doubt. Absolutely. Absolutely. So Dee Dee and Gypsy, they're kind of moving all over the place, and they keep moving further and further away every single time. And obviously, Rod Blanchard, he's working out of town a lot, and the further and further away that Dee Dee and Gypsy get, the less he's seeing Dee Dee. And he said, quote, I'd go to their house and visit a couple hours and hang out, but when Gypsy and I would start building a little closeness, a little bond and everything, it'd be three or four months before we could get back together and rebuild upon that, end quote. So while in New Orleans, Dee Dee and Gypsy were actually in a really bad car accident. Dee Dee was badly injured.

Apparently, her foot had almost been completely severed off. And Dee Dee had to go to the hospital. And while she recovered in the hospital, Gypsy went to live with her grandfather, Claude, who had remarried a year after his wife, Emma, passed away to a woman named Laura May. Ironically enough, Laura May also worked at the hospital with Dee Dee and with Christy Blanchard. This is definitely a small community. We talked about the bar earlier in this. This is like a place made of one big street that everyone goes to. Small town USA. And like I said earlier, apparently Claude was never really loyal to his wife, Emma, throughout their marriage. And he kind of was,

you know, a ladies man. And you get that from him a little bit. You can see how he can be quite charming in his interviews and things like that. But he gets married a year after. And apparently Dee Dee was really mad about this. She did not like it. And we're going to talk about that in a second. But at this point, they're in New Orleans. Dee Dee says Gypsy has leukemia. And because of the leukemia, and apparently because, you know, according to Dee Dee, she told the doctors that Gypsy was afraid of food and wasn't eating. Dee Dee suggested that Gypsy have an operation to have a feeding tube put in because she was losing weight. She wasn't at the right weight she needed to be. She wasn't

eating. And DeeDee felt that this was the best option. Now, of course, we do know, and any expert on monosalism by proxy or even child abuse will tell you, that feeding tubes are like a go-to way for parents to control their children because it gives them complete control. It gives them complete control of when they eat, how often they eat, what they're eating, and not only that, but medications and everything. You could technically starve your child four days at a time. Or you could make sure that they're being rewarded for going along with what you want by feeding them. So the feeding tube is a hallmark of Munchausen by proxy, allegedly, according to the experts. But according to Claude Petrie, who is Dee Dee's father and Gypsy's grandfather, while Gypsy was living with him and Dee Dee was

recovering in the hospital, Gypsy didn't need no feeding tube. He said she sat up at the dinner table with everyone else and ate what everyone else was eating, french fries, spaghetti, you have it, you name it. She was fine and she played and she was just, she was fine. She didn't seem like a sick little girl. But Gypsy also claims that this is when her grandfather, Claude, molested her when she was living with him in the year 2000 when she was nine years old. She said, quote, my grandpa would take me out of my wheelchair and bring me into a closet or the shack that was back behind their house where he would do woodworking and he would perform sexual acts on me. He would make me touch him. He would touch me. At nine, I don't think I

knew that it was wrong, but then my grandfather told me not to tell anyone. You don't want Pop Pop to go to jail, do you? I didn't want him to get in trouble, so I just stayed quiet, end quote. Now, in the docuseries, The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose, Claude Petrie's asked about this claim, and he denies it outright. He's absolutely not he says in fact it was gypsy who at around the age of four or five started trying to touch him inappropriately and he would have to tell her to stop um this is a slippery slope yeah i don't know what do you say i don't know what you say you have a situation where you have gypsy who's being taught by her mother to lie and you have a situation where you have a grown man who-

Is blaming a little girl. Of course, you're going to say he didn't do it. But I will say this. He does open the door by acknowledging that there was some type of inappropriate touching regardless. He's saying, hey, there was some stuff going on, but it was Gypsy Rose, the nine-year-old. No, she was four or five when it started. When it started, she was four or five.

Okay, because you said that, you said her a couple minutes ago was around nine in the wheelchair. So she says that when she was living with him and Dee Dee's in the hospital in New Orleans and she was nine, that's when he started sexually abusing her. Now, he says, no, I did not. And in fact, since she was the age of four or five, he would try to touch me inappropriately. And I'd have to tell her, no, don't do that. I would be interested to hear from other family members if he ever disclosed this, this situation to people saying. The other family members say no, that, that they don't believe that it happened. They don't believe she was molested or she doesn't, they don't believe that Gypsy Rose inappropriately touched him at four or five. They don't believe she was molested or they don't

believe that Gypsy Rose inappropriately touched him at four or five? They don't believe she was molested. Okay. So my point being, I would wonder if there's other individuals who can confirm that at four or five, Gypsy was touching him inappropriately and he had to correct her multiple times. Is there any validity to this? So it's a good question to ask, but at this point, who do you believe? There's really nothing to go off here where you can say one way or the other. If we had previous history from Claude that showed he had done things like this before. Well, apparently he did. Dee Dee Blanchard said he, well, according to Gypsy, Dee Dee told her that her father, Claude, Dee Dee's father, had used to take baths with her and molested her. Yeah. It's hard. You want to believe the victim. And at this point, I'm not just saying it even to say the right thing. I tend to believe there's

probably some truth to this. And my only tipping point is because Claude is putting out information that, oh yeah, she did try to touch me inappropriately. So he's not outright denying it. He's saying that if anything was touched, it was Gypsy's fault. And that to me is just, that's what tips the scale for me slightly is the fact that there's a slight admission of something going on, but I could be completely wrong. But is it not true that if a child has been at a, from a young age, sexually abused or mistreated in that way, or like they would do things like that? Well, who, who, but who would have been sexually abusing her before Claude?

Well, apparently, I don't know about before Claude, right? That's my point. Where did she learn that from if it wasn't from Claude? Well, apparently, according to Gypsy, things got a little weird with her mother later when Gypsy started to get older. Dee Dee would always tell everyone that Gypsy was much younger than she actually and legally was. Okay. And so when Gypsy started growing like pubic hair, she remembers her mother bringing her in the bathtub and like shaving her and calling it her like getting clean time and things like that. And we're going to go more in depth into that later. Okay.

Right. We have to, but okay. So is this something that Dee Dee planted in Gypsy's head about Claude? Is this something that genuinely happened? During the docu-series, when they confronted Claude, then they went back to Gypsy and they were like, well, your grandfather says it never happens. And Gypsy's response was, are you serious? But to me, I'm like, are you serious?

You thought he was going to admit it in the cameras? Like, you're shocked. You're like, he's like, he really denied. Of course he denied it, whether it's true or not. He's going to deny it when there's a camera in his face, especially. Well, that's why I think the fact that he even admitted there was some type of, that's, that's interesting.

Or is he just trying to blame? Like, it's, it's really difficult, man. And you don't want to falsely accuse a man of doing something so horrendous if there's no truth to it. Of course not. But you also don't want to take a victim who this may have happened to and discredit their recollection. So this is a real

hard, slippery slope. Like we are living in a gray area right now. No way to win in this one. So yeah, that's what Gypsy claimed. And Gypsy claimed that at first she did not tell her mother, but a year afterwards she started to reveal little things to Dee Dee in an effort to let her mother know what had happened. But then Dee Dee became very upset, started crying and blaming herself. So Gypsy just went quiet and stopped talking about it, which does actually add up. So after Dee Dee was released from the hospital, she joined Gypsy at the Petrie home in La Fork Parish, but things were tense because Dee Dee hated her stepmother, Laura Mae. And according to Dee Dee's siblings and father, Dee Dee felt that it was like a betrayal

to her dead mother where Claude was attempting to replace Emma. And there was maybe some rumors that Claude and Laura Mae had been kind of getting close before Emma died. Okay. But regardless, listen, Dee Dee hated Laura Mae from the word go. And so Claude claims one day he and little Gypsy, they're at the house and Gypsy pointed to a bottle of Roundup, you know, weed killer in the corner. And she was like, oh, that's the special medicine that my mother puts into grandma Laura's food. And at that time, Dee Dee was living with them and had been preparing everyone's meals and everyone knew how much she hated Laura, so it wasn't like a super far leap. Even Gypsy has admitted this, that it would have been on brand for her mother. She was like, well, my mother did hate that woman, like with a burning passion. And she was used to kind of like getting people out

of the way in her own way, so I wouldn't put it past her. And Claude would later say that not long after this, his second wife, Laura Mae, died a slow and painful death. And he believes still to this day that it was because of the poison she'd been fed by his daughter. But I want you to understand that there is no evidence or they believe that Dee Dee, who was caring for her own mother, Emma, when she was sick and dying, had basically starved Emma and neglected her and furthered her death. And once again, there's no proof of that. Emma, it appears, died from a heart attack, but Dee Dee was her caregiver during that time. So once again, super gray areas, slippery slopes. Is it possible that Dee Dee starved her mother and just tried to have control over her and this contributed to her

death? Because she died at 59, Emma. That is a very young age to die. You also have to ask why a child would point out that's the stuff that mom puts in Laura May's. If that's what, if that's what happened. I just would say, what's the motive for Gypsy? I don't believe anybody, man. I don't believe Claude. I don't believe Gypsy. I don't believe no one, honestly. You can't, you just got to kind of piece things together and see what makes the most sense, I guess. But, um, before Laura May died, apparently she and Dee Dee had a big falling out, big argument. Laura Mae was like, I need you to leave. I can't trust you in my house.

And Dee Dee was like, fine, we're leaving. And I'm not telling any of you where we're going. And this is what you get. So she takes off with Gypsy. And this time, Dee Dee did call Rod and Christy Blanchard. And she told them that she was in Slidell, Louisiana, which is just 90 minutes away from where her father and stepmother lived. But she said, regardless of how close or not close she was, she still did not want them to know where

she and Gypsy were as a form of punishment, right? So in Slidell, Dee Dee and Gypsy lived in public housing. They were guests at the Children's Wish Endowment's Christmas Feast in December of 2003, and in a newspaper article at that time, Gypsy's quoted as saying that they had already granted her so many wishes, at which time she referenced going to Walt Disney World and swimming in the face of everything she was facing, in the face of everything she was dealing with. And they saw a devoted mother who sacrificed everything for her child, even her own life and her own happiness. And of course, these people, they wanted to help. They wanted to take a burden off of Dee Dee and off of Gypsy.

And as a result, Dee Dee and Gypsy, they got to go on a lot of trips. They got to meet a lot of people. They received a lot of money and gifts in the name of charity and community. But then in 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit and the Blanchard girls would be forced to start over in a new place in a new state and with a completely new group of good-hearted people who wanted to help them. That's where we're going to pick up next time. That's where we'll pick up. Okay. My quick takeaways looks to me like there's clearly a case of child abuse going on here at minimum, the motive behind it. I think you can start to make a case that there was some self-serving purposes behind it as far as DD was concerned.

And that maybe we're starting to look at a situation here where this is only going to get worse as far as the abuse that's going on in order to garner financial gain or just physical attention from outsiders. And I will also say this, not to excuse any of it, but it just seems like at the root of all this, just a really, excuse my language, fucked up situation for everyone involved. And when you think about Gypsy Rose and what we're talking about and how we ended up here, that's always the question I ask myself. It's not hard to see that she was surrounded by people who are not good moral character, not of good moral fiber, and did not set the right examples for Gypsy at a very young age. And she was doomed from the start. Now, does that justify, like we

talked about with the Gainesville Ripper, does it justify any actions that take place after that? No, there's a lot of people who go through some shitty things and they don't end up resorting to things like murder, but we can still acknowledge it and point out that it's a factor in this. And I still think it's important because when we're looking at other cases and the why as to why people do what they do, you will usually find that there's some trauma from an early age that resulted in this behavior later in adulthood. So I think there's a lot that could go into it. If you're looking at it from an investigator's perspective, I would say you have something here where I would want to know if there were any outside parties, friends, family members, people who were part of these programs.

What about doctors, dude? I keep going back to the doctors, right? Yeah. Anybody, anybody who could confirm that her head was shaved. Her head was shaved. We see it in the pictures. Okay. And then when asked why her head was shaved, what did Dee Dee say to them? Well, that's the thing. Did any of these doctors ever see this little girl come in and be like, hey, why is Gypsy's head shaved? What was the excuse that Dee Dee gave them? Because they would have known that Gypsy didn't have leukemia. These doctors are real sketchy in this case too. I'm just going to say that. All right. They're a little sketchy, a little sketchy.

We're off to a hot start. We have a lot more to cover, right? I mean. I feel like more confused than I started. No, I think we're starting to get a foundation and it's not good. It's the optics are terrible. And it's actually very disheartening to think that any child would have to go through something like this because no child deserves it. And it's sad. It's sad, but we're off to the races. We're into part one. You're along with us for the ride and we're just scratching the races. We're into part one. You're along with us for the ride, and we're just scratching the surface at this point. And I think you make a great point to end it on. These are what you're reporting what was alleged. Now, when it comes to the actual

medical records and other testimony, maybe a lot of what we're hearing tonight will turn out not to be true. Is there a world where most of what you discussed is not what transpired? Could D.D. be just being painted as the bad guy here and not actually be the bad guy? I don't know. Once again, is there a bad guy or are there just a lot of bad guys? We'll find out. Any final words from you before we wrap this one up? Nope. That's it. We appreciate you being here. As always, weigh in down in the comments with what you think about this episode. Where's your head at at this point?

If you're listening on audio, leave a review. Let us know what you think. Let us know what you think about the episode, how we're covering it, and also your comments on this week's episode. As always, we will be back next week. We appreciate you being here. Everyone stay safe out there.

We'll see you soon. Bye.