True Crime All The Time - Gypsy Rose Blancharde

Episode Date: April 30, 2018

Gypsy Rose Blancharde was a girl who had been told by her mother Dee Dee all her life that she was sick. Her mother even put her in a wheelchair from a very young age. There was one problem with all of this, Gypsy wasn't sick and she could walk just fine. This charade continued for many years, but as Gypsy became an adult she wanted out. And she conspired with her boyfriend to kill her mother.Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the details of this bizarre but fascinating true crime tale. Dee Dee Blanchard, they would add the 'e" to their last name sometime later, displayed all the signs of Munchausen by proxy. But this is a case that will have yourself asking, "how could a mother do that to their child". At the same time you may be conflicted about the outcome of this case and wonder who the real victims is.You can help support the show by going to patreon.com/truecrimeallthetimeVisit the show's website at truecrimeallthetime.com for contact and merchandise information.Please visit our sponsor at eharmony.com and use the promo code tcatt to get started on your journey of finding a real meaningful relationship.Credits:Writing/Research - Maggie DobschuetzSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

everyone and welcome to episode 76 of the true crime all the time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me as always is my partner in true crime. Mike Gibson, Gibby, what is going on? What's happening, man? Feeling good. You're feeling good? Yeah, I'm feeling good. I like that. I know. I like it when you're in good spirits. I'm always good health. I'm always good everything. You are usually in good spirits. Very rarely do I ever see you down, upset. You're pretty even keeled. I am. Ghibi good.

Good Gibby. Ghibi good. Ghibi good. All right, Gives, we got some Patreon shoutouts to give. Awesome. So we had Brian Gimboris. Gimboris. Mm-hmm.

Yep. Bob Mio Martino. Oh, thanks, Bob. Bob's a big supporter of a lot of podcasts that we do. He gets around. Tina Mayer. Yeah, thank you, Tina. Jan Bornhouser, who's been with us for a while.

She jumped up to our highest level. it out. We had Gail Tedro. Yeah, thanks, Gail. Colette Antaveros. Anteveros, thank you. Jen Cahoon. It sounds like a good barbecue restaurant, Cahoon. You can go down to Cahoons and get slab of ribs? Yeah. We got some really cool names tonight. We had debauchery. So, kind of naughty. A little, little play on words there. Yeah. Debutchery. Is right. But, she goes by Deb Autry. You got it. It's actually pretty, it's really clever if you think about it.

I thought so. Is that you? Did you make up a name? No. Are you on social media as Deb Autry? No. No. I'm not that clever. Are you sending messages to yourself and then replying as Mike gives?

I'm like, give you, I'm your biggest fan. And then you're showing your family. Look, I got somebody loves me. That's right. We had Justin Passanese. Thanks, Justin. Christina Crites. All right, cool.

I hope. Christina messaged me and said... Say it this way? No, no. Brian Gimboris messaged me and said, I know there's no way you're going to get this right. So here's how you say it. Christina messaged me to say she was interested to see whether or not I got it.

Okay. And I think a lot of people are. So Christina, you'll have to let us know how we did. Yeah, let them know. Don't let Gibby know. He's saying, Ferdie says all the words. So if we go back into the vault, Gibbs,

this week we selected Lisa Goldman. Oh yeah. Longtime supporter. Thanks, Lisa. So we appreciate that. Get a special shout out for being in the vault. Being in the vault. I also had somebody reach out to me,

Gibbs from England. Okay. That said that they were a sound engineer. Really? and could do some, you know, clean up some of our audio on clips and stuff. Oh, that'd be great. But that was horrible. I don't even know what that one.

I don't either. It just sounded like you had a cracker in your mouth or something, huh? But he also said that he might have a new vault. Really? Sound effect for us. That would be cool. So we'll see how that goes. Yeah.

But big thanks to Lisa and, you know, big thanks to all the new Patreon supporters, all the people that continue to support us month after month, allowing us to continue to put out these podcasts. Yeah, thank you so much. And then on PayPal, we had one person, we had Elizabeth McKissin. McKissin? Yep. Yeah, well, when you're McKissin, it's all it matters.

That's all it matters. That's right. So we had some big news this week. I would say it's huge. In the world of true crime? Yeah. A suspect arrested in the East. area rapist, original nightstocker, Golden State Killer Case, whatever you want to call.

It's got a lot of names. So we really weren't planning to do an episode on this case right away. Right. You know, Morph and I are kind of going very in depth on this case on criminology. It's kind of part of why this is so surreal that this is happening right now. Yeah. I mean, we are literally in the middle of this, what was scheduled to be a 12th. 12-part 12-episode series, and to have this happen after 40-some years, it's unbelievable.

It is. It really is. But because of that, there's so much interest in the case. You and I, we wanted to talk about it. We kind of figured it was going to dominate probably a big part of the Unsolved episode. So we just decided we're going to do the episode on the East Area Rapists. Yeah, exactly. And talk about the arrest. Now, it's going to be a little higher level.

obviously than what criminology is. That's a very deep dive. Right. Yeah. Yeah, we're not going to go that deep on ours, but. But it's out right now on Unsolved. It sure is. Check it out.

All right, Gibbs, you ready to get into this week's case? I am. I want to make sure everybody comes to CrimeCon. Oh, okay. I forgot CrimeCon. Man, it is like we're making plans to go. Yeah, I mean, by the time you hear this, we have one week and we will be there. That's true.

And then when you hear the next episode, we'll be. be on our way back. That's right. Like literally that night. So come see us while we're there. Because I'm pretty sure Mike will have his boots and cowboy hat on. And I just bought Gibby a present, which I've never done. No, ever. I bought him an embroidered true crime all the time trucker hat. Yeah. That I want him to wear it crime con. I'll be looking snazzy. It's a trucker hat. Chucker Hat. And what kind of, what do they use to put the words on Gibbs? It's embroiled.

It's embroiled. Yeah. It's sharp. It's the way I like my peanuts. Embroiled. Every now and then I got to throw, give you a little something, something. But if you are going to go to CrimeCon, there's still time. Make sure you use our promo code, T-Cat.

That's right. Get a little something off your standard badge. Yeah. And then meet up with us Friday, night. Yeah, or Saturday morning have some breakfast with us. Either one. Whatever you want to do. But for sure, Friday night, 8.30, the plan is that we're going to meet, I think there's a restaurant in the hotel called the Jack Daniels. I think so. And we're going to meet outside of that and then figure out what we're going to do. Well, we're not going to be there to eat.

Well, we might go in and eat. Drink or whatever we're doing. The problem was we didn't know the exact number. Yeah. And anything over a certain number. They can't accommodate. Yeah, they couldn't do it. So whoever shows up or draw straws, you get to go in with us. The rest of you, you got to stay outside. I just figure we'll wing it, but we'll, I mean, even if we just find some place to hang out and talk. Yeah.

When we go to the bar, we'll do something. It work out. Always works out. It always works out. And a big shout out to Maggie for the writing and the research, much appreciated. All right. So for this episode, we're talking about. Gypsy Rose Blanchard.

Sure. And I mean, this is a case Gibbs that it's got a lot of layers to it. And it is fascinated a lot of people because of those layers. So I mean, there's murder involved. Always in our podcast. There's murder. Yeah, there's murder. But there's also, you know, Munchausen by proxy syndrome.

There's just, there's a lot of stuff going on. And it's, it's why I think, you know, over the years it's grabbed a lot of people's attention. So we'll start with a little background, like we always do. Right. Gypsy Rose Blanchard. She was born to D.D. Blanchard sometime in 1991. Now, that's not usually how we start out. Right. We usually have, we're pretty sure about dates and things when it comes to the day that people are born. The issue in this case is they don't know her exact birthday because her mom, D.D., kept changing it throughout the years and she would lie to her daughter about when she was born. So essentially, Gibbs, this girl never really knew how old she was.

Yeah. I mean, I think her mom liked to keep her at a younger age. Younger than, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She definitely wasn't making her older. That's for sure. Her mom was 24 years old. at the time that the Gypsy Rose was born. But the father was a 17-year-old by the name of Rod Blanchard. And they named their daughter Gypsy because D.D. like that name. And then Rose came from the 17-year-old Rod, who was a big-time Guns and Roses fan. Okay. So that's how you got Gypsy Rose.

Gotcha. I bet you liked you a little Guns and Roses back in the day. in you. Yeah, well not, man. November rains. You didn't like that Arizona roses? No, I did. I did. What appetite for destruction? Is that the box? Whatever the double was. That's your favorite? Yeah, that's the one that I really liked. But Dedy and Rod got married, most likely because she was pregnant, but this marriage is not going to work out. You know, Rod would later come out and say that they didn't get married for the right reasons. You know, I'm sure that people do get married for that reason.

Gibbs and sometimes it works out. But it can, you know, that has to be tough. If you're not in love and you just, you know, had a child, let's say accidentally, what do you mean? Accidentally. I don't know if it's, I mean, you know. It's an accident maybe. Well, you know, okay.

What 17 year old says, hey. No, no. I'm trying to do this on purpose. Yeah, that's true. I'm not saying they accidentally had intercourse. Yeah. I'm saying that they didn't plan to have a baby. No, you're exactly right.

You're laughing at me like I'm crazy or something. Yeah. You were thinking about something. No. And then you decided not to go down that roast. Stay back, hold back. Yeah. Yeah.

I could see the wheels were turning and then the manual break went on. Yeah. And everything just shut down. That's what happens, man. It's like the Ferris wheel. They had to hit the emergency style. She's a steam coming out of the back of my head. I did.

Yeah. up, Rod leaves. Dede didn't want him to leave. She tried to get him back. But ultimately, they couldn't make it work. So D.D. ends up taking Gypsy and she goes to live with her family. So I want to talk a little bit about D.D.

Blanchard. Because she is obviously a huge part of this story. Oh, very much so. She was born Claudine Pit Tray in Louisiana, 1967. You think I got that right, Gibbs? A peachy tray? I didn't say petri tray. I said homemade, homemade lab made.

You're thinking petri dish. I know. Louisiana is always rough for us. It is. Because we have butchered a lot of names in Louisiana. Yeah, that's when we need to reach out to Jacqueline. The problem is we always realize it too late. Never beforehand, right?

You're right. Where we would have time to say, hey, how do you say this? So Didi's in Louisiana. She moves in with her family. but she starts committing a lot of petty thefts. And it was said that this was something that she did when she didn't get her way or things weren't going the way that she thought they should be going. At some point, she got a job working as a nurse's aide.

And then her mother dies. Dede's mother died. And there was speculation that I think ran throughout the family that it was possible that Didy had something to do with it. Yeah. That she had not been treating her mother well, was maybe not feeding her and caused her death. So we get back to Gypsy. You know, Gypsy is born with no health issues.

And this is important because we mentioned, you know, Munchausen by proxy syndrome is going to be a central theme to this case. A lot of people in the family are going to come out and say that. she was fine. You know, she was healthy. Now, she might have been a little bit premature. Sure. And small. But other than that, she was healthy.

The family gave her the nickname Jip. That's what they called her. And while her dad was still in the picture, right? So this is before they had split up. Gypsy is just a baby. About three months old. D.D. thinks something's wrong with her. That she has something like sleep

apnea. So she starts taking her to the hospital and they told Didi that there was nothing wrong with Gypsy. But she just kept going back and back to the hospital repeatedly. And she was telling the folks at the hospital that Gypsy had all these symptoms. Right. So she's making all these trips to the hospital. Gypsy's staying overnight having test after test run on her. Jipsy. Gypsy's hooked up to all these sleep monitors. They're trying to figure out what's wrong with her. But again, there isn't anything wrong with her. D-D told the hospital staff that Gypsy needed a breathing machine and she ended up getting one.

So just kind of laying this out. We're talking about a three-month-old baby. This is just going to be the start of what's going to become something much worse, right? much more serious as the years go by. Because D.D. is going to say that Gypsy has a range of health issues throughout the years. I mean, at one point, Gibbs, she's convinced that Gypsy has cancer and she ends up shaving her head. And I'm not even sure that's the worst part of it because she then confines her daughter gypsy to a wheelchair.

We're talking like five years old. Yeah. It's terrible, man. Makes Gypsy pretend that she's paralyzed from the waist down. Absolutely terrible, man. And sit in this wheelchair. Yeah. So this is a kid that, you know, outside of normal things is healthy, could have been outside

playing with other kids her age. Yep. But is made by her mother to be wheeled around. in a wheelchair. So can't go outside and play, can't run around and do the things that the kids are supposed to do. How can a mother do this? It blows me away. Oh, I'm just, yeah, same here, man. I'm so shocked by what, by what, by what she did and does. So there is a lot of speculation about what gypsy knew and what she didn't. Now, she's only five years old. So I would think Gibbs that she's believing the things that her mom is telling her. Absolutely. About the health issues,

but she knows she's not paralyzed. She knows she can walk. Yeah. But she's five years old. So her mom is telling her to do this and she does it. At the age of seven, she got into a motorcycle accident riding on the back of a motorcycle with her grandfather. And it must not have been a serious accident. She wasn't hurt, save for a contusion to her knee. Yeah. Nothing major in the world of motorcycle accidents. That's what you hope to have, right? A knee contusion. But of course, D.D.D. is convinced that something serious happened to her and to the point where she's telling doctors that Gypsy need surgery. She's got some cahoos on her. Is that the female version of Cajonis? Co-huh. Yeah. I'm just checking. I've never actually heard Cahoonies.

That's it. Cahoonies. And she tells doctors she doesn't need just one surgery. This is, this is multiple surgeries. And it's after this point that Gypsy was never without her wheelchair. This is from the age of about five, seven years old. So she goes full out. Full out. Full out. She never walks around people. But there are people that know she can walk. And people. and people that are going to come out later and say that they had seen her walk. They knew she could walk. Right. But Gypsy goes along with what her mom wants her to do and she pretends that she can't walk to keep her mom happy. And the extent of the lies told by D.D. Blanchard, they're almost mind-boggling.

You just can't even wrap your head around it. She took Gypsy to the Special Olympics. almost on a yearly basis. Really? Yeah. Man, that's some nerve. And in 2001 when Gypsy was eight, well, Didi said she was eight.

We really don't know how old she was, but most likely she was two or three years older than that. Gypsy was made the honorary queen of a parade that was held for kids during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. And you know that this was something that was masterminded by Didi, just like everything else.

far has been masterminded by her to get attention. But you have to think about what gypsy's going through. You know, what is her world? And at this point in life, it's, it's her mom, right? Her mom is her world. Sure. Her everything. Her everything. Her dad is out of the picture by this time. She's essentially cut off from the rest of the world. She had stopped going to school early, early on, you know, kindergarten first, second grade, somewhere in there, Dede decides to homeschool her because she's too sick, Gibbs, to go to school. Yeah. So she has to be homeschooled.

Of course. And when you think about Munchausen by proxy syndrome, this is really what it's all about. You know, making up or exaggerating the illness of someone. but the whole thing is about getting attention for the person that's doing that, right? So in this case, that's D-D-D. But because of this homeschooling, we don't really know how much education Gypsy received. And the one thing that was said was that she did know how to read. She had basically taught herself to read using Harry Potter books.

Okay, well, that's cool. I mean, we can relate to that. Yeah. You know? I know you're a big Harry Potter fan. Yeah, absolutely. I wish you wouldn't wear the, uh, the Gryffndorf t-shirt all the time to the studio, but Don't be a hater, man.

Let me take my wand out. Yeah, I definitely do not want that. I mean, I'm a Slytherin, which is why you and I battle all the time. Yeah. D.D. and Gypsy end up moving in with Dede's dad and stepmother. And there's going to be a later claim that Dedy, while living there, tried to poison her. her stepmom's food. So this is not a nice person, right? We're painting that picture, hopefully. Exactly. She starts writing bad checks. She gets arrested a few times for stuff like that.

Kind of reminds me of that movie where, you know, I see dead people. Is that the name of the movie? No, it's called Sixth Sense. Oh, okay. Well, that movie. So when the little boy, you know, takes the train all the way to that funeral, that little girl, crawls underneath the bed, gets that box, brings it out to the dad. The dad takes the videotape out and plays it, and it's the mom poisoning her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So you can remember all of those details.

I can. And cannot remember two words, three words that are the name of the movie. Nope. The sixth sense. Or I see dead people. Yeah. Actually, that would have been a cool name, too. Yeah.

Either way it works. Now, our family didn't feel like Dede was treating Gypsy very well. she was getting in trouble. They tried to talk to her about this, and it didn't go over well. D.D. basically took Gypsy and left and went to Slidell, Louisiana. So they move into a new place, but of course, Gibbs, they're getting public assistance. Oh, yeah.

And why are they getting that public assistance? Why are they getting government benefits? It's because Gypsy is so sick. And, you know, D.D. can't work because she has to take care of Gypsy. Yeah. Now, a mother in a real situation like that, single parent, I would feel very sorry for that person.

Yeah. And I would say they should get benefits. But this is the kind of stuff that ruins it, in my opinion, for everyone. Okay. Right? The people that scam the system. And that's basically what D.D. is doing. Yeah.

Absolutely. not the only thing she's doing well right she's doing some some much worse things than that but it's part of the reason why she's doing it right she's getting things for free from the government and that torques me off yeah always does you know at the same time she's getting child support from rod but during this whole time gypsy is in and out of the hospital she's seeing specialists she's at the two lane medical center she's at the children's hospital of new Orleans they knew her by on a first name basis that's how often that she was in these medical facilities and it's dd taking gypsy trying to find cures and and treatments

for all of these illnesses that she says gypsy has that she doesn't even have yeah all she's doing is making her probably more sick i mean making a healthy kid sick, besides what she was already doing. Oh, yeah, by, you know, going to the hospital that often. Yeah, everything like that. And you know that that has to, I mean, I think you bring up a good point. You know emotionally that had to play havoc on Gypsy. Being told that she had all these, I mean, what does it do to somebody to find out that

they have an illness? You know, it causes panic. It causes worry. Sure, a lot of undue stress. And you're told. every week or every month that now you have a new illness, that can't be good for a kid. And on top of all the illnesses,

D-D starts saying that Gypsy is having hearing and vision problems. Then she starts to say that she has muscular dystrophy. But she's going to professionals, right? These are professionals that she's going to see. She's just laying everything out there, isn't she? Yeah, she is. But they're doing the tests. They can tell that she doesn't have muscular dystrophy.

dystrophy. So she doesn't, Gypsy's not getting treated for a lot of these illnesses, obviously. Because they don't have anything that treats. No. The mom's saying you got this, you got this, you got, she didn't come out so you got lupus, you got, you know, chronic fatigue syndrome, CFS, you know. I mean, it's just, it's just, she's just laying stuff out there just to lay it out there. Now, you, and you bring up a really good point because, so the muscular dystrophy they, they tested for. She didn't have it. Right. So she's not treated. But how many things, like even when you go to the doctor. Yeah. You don't know what's wrong with you.

No. The doctor doesn't know either. No. And so they might say, okay, we'll try this. Yeah, just do this and see how you react and then we'll make adjustments. So because of that, Gypsy does get treated for a lot of these fake, made up illnesses. Yeah. And the problem with that is if you don't really have it, you can cause havoc on your system, and you're going to do some other type of damage to your body because you didn't need, you know, the side effects that those pills or that treatment can cause is not worth it if you don't have the actual symptoms. I would agree with that. So some of them are very rough, even if you have whatever illness.

Yeah. I mean, you have to take it, but they're rough on your system. Some illnesses just can't be cured. you're just taking medicine to help you cope. So, I don't know. I mean, she gets, to your point, Gibbs, she gets prescribed anti-seizure medications. D.D. starts saying that she's having seizures every couple months. And she does have a number of surgeries.

Because you know that there are some illnesses where they may have to do exploratory surgery. And they get in there and they find out nothing's wrong. Exactly. But the point is, right? The bottom line is D.D. is taking Gypsy to the emergency room at the drop of a hat, and there's nothing wrong with her. No. But her mom gets her fix. Right. And her mom is basking in all of this attention. Sure. I mean, that's part of the syndrome that she's got. Right. So we're around 2005 timeframe. And we're in Louisiana. And along comes Hurricane Katrina. And I can still

remember it gives. I can remember sitting on my couch. I was glued to the television. Oh, yeah. Watching the coverage of Hurricane Katrina, I could not believe the devastation. And Dede and Gypsy were affected by Hurricane Katrina. And Dedy ends up taking Gypsy to a shelter that is specifically for people with special needs. And she used Hurricane Katrina as the cover story for why Gypsy didn't have a birth certificate, didn't have, you know, her medical records. All of that was lost in the flooding, right? How convenient is that? Man, took one tragedy and used it to her benefit.

She did. To cover up another tragedy that she was perpetrating on her own daughter. So now, who's to say she's lying? And it was a doctor at the rescue shelter that helped Gypsy and D.D. get to Missouri. And they actually were airlifted to Missouri. They rented a house in Aurora for a couple of years. And then in 2008, Habitat for Humanity came in Gibbs and built them a house.

Really? That was nice of them. It was. I got a clip I want to play about it. I remember my mom had gave me this little glass house and she said, one day this will be real. And now it finally is. It's so easy to live here and it's so peaceful. The two were interviewed after Habitat for Humanity built them a handicapped accessible home because of gypsy's disabilities.

They said she was confined to a wheelchair. We have an awesome bathtub. It's a jacuzzi tub. meant from my muscles, and we have a wonderful ramp. It just proves that happy endings are not just in fairy tales. They're real and true in real life also. So a couple things to take away from that clip. You get to hear both Gypsy and Dee-Dee,

and you listen to the way that Gypsy talks. Like she's a much, much younger person than what she really is there in that interview. And that voice was not an act. No, that's it. Because we're going to hear it again. That is the way she sounded. That's the way she talked.

But you can hear her in the interview. She's telling the reporter that, you know, how much she loves the house, dreams come true. But there's a bathtub for her muscles. Yeah. So obviously, you know, her mother by this point had her believing in a lot of different things and a lot of things that were wrong with her. But this is just another example Gibbs of D.D. Blanchard using her daughter to get something she wanted. She just got a brand new house. Yeah, she did.

Built for her in Gypsy. But she got it through a con. And this whole thing is a, it's a con. And there was a lot of stuff like that. They stayed at the Ronald McDonald house. Right. They were flown around in helicopters for medical reasons that most likely, turned out not to be true.

Sure. D.D. was able to get a make a wish for Gypsy, which ticks me off. Yeah. Because there are kids out there waiting for to be on that list. To be on that list that truly deserve it. And here's a person that has nothing wrong with them and they're taking that from somebody else. They even went to Disney World a number of times getting different charities and things to

pay for these trips. Getting front row right up the front line. Yeah, going to the front of the line when nothing's wrong with you. Again, I don't, you know, I love when, I love these stories, you know, you see on the news, it's a feel good story where, you know, somebody is truly sick. They get a make a wish. Or, you know, a charity or a group of individuals, a town steps up and, you know, pools together a bunch of money to send them off.

I love that stuff. But that's for people that are truly deserving. And I think that's why this story is pissing me off so bad. It's twofold, right? D.D. is getting a bunch of things that she doesn't deserve. And then she's using her daughter to get it. And she's ruining her daughter's childhood. I think those are the two things that are upsetting me the most.

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there's one app that's built to bring you real love. E-Harmony. Come see how E-Harmony can change your life. Go to eharmoni.com and get started. Enter our code T-Cat at checkout. That's T-C-A-T-T. And you can tell from some of these interviews, they're out there online. You know, Gypsy looks like, you know, this sweet, wholesome little girl.

She's small. She's only about five foot tall. Her teeth are rotted. You know, now, according to Didi, that's because she has so many different ailments. But most likely it's because Didi didn't take her to the dentist. Exactly.

Or do anything preventative. She wore huge glasses that covered, you know, like half her face. Yeah. What if she even needed them or she used them to? I don't know if she even needed them. And she has that very high-pitched, you know, almost childlike voice. If you saw her on an interview or something like that, I think you would truly believe that this girl was sick. I don't think people that saw her even questioned it.

Probably not. She looked sick. She was pale. She played the role. Yeah. Well, her mom had her play the role. Right. Yeah.

Dressed her for the role. As we mentioned, her mom was shaving her head. Yeah. To make people think that she had cancer. She wore wig. She wore hats. D.D. had her use an oxygen tank and sometimes fed her through a tube, a feeding tube.

It's crazy to do that. But again. It's sick, right? Yeah, but it's to get the type of attention that she wants. Right. So we just heard a reporter interview her in the house that was built for her by Habitat for Humanity. Dede is soaking all of that up.

She would have wanted everyone to interview her. Look at how sick my child is. Now, Didi would tell her friends that they were living in Missouri. Rod had abandoned his daughter. daughter. He was a drug addict. This is what D.D. said. But meanwhile, he's paying about $1,200 every month in child support and apparently talked to Gypsy on the phone. He hadn't abandoned her. D.D. ran off and took her to Missouri. He made plans to try to see Gypsy on several occasions, but he would later say that he could never get it to work out. Something would always come up on Dede's end so that he was unable to see

his daughter. Now, why would that happen, Gibbs? I mean, we of course know why she doesn't want him out there because he's going to uncover this abuse. Yeah, I don't think it would take him very long if he was, if he had the chance to spend much time with his daughter, he would probably figure it out. Yes. And Didi knew that. She wasn't going to take that chance. No, she didn't want to risk it. But this whole thing just frustrates me. You know, I just can't believe that somebody would abuse their own kid this way. But there was evidence, Gibbs, that Dedy was abusive in the way that we normally think of abuse as well.

And she used some of these tactics to control Gypsy to make sure that she was doing exactly what she wanted her to do. So apparently, she would hold Gypsy's hand whenever. other people were around and if gypsy said something incorrectly or you know maybe was going down the wrong path she would squeeze her hand very tightly like if if she wasn't acting as sick as what she was supposed to be acting or it was said that if she said something that made somebody else think that she was smarter because dd didn't want people thinking that you know number one She was even close to being well or very smart, intelligent, she wanted the maximum amount of sympathy.

I mean, it was her way to coach her daughter. That's what I looked at. It was her coaching. Yeah. Yeah. The corrections. She was making corrections on the fly. Exactly.

But it does get worse because Gypsy would later claim that her mother would hit her with both hands and coat hangers. when they were alone. Wouldn't do that in front of other people, obviously. But when they were alone, Gypsy would say that her mom was abusive in that physical kind of way. So just because they're in Missouri doesn't mean that they're not going to doctors. You know,

they're going just as much. At one point, D.D. tried to convince doctors that Gypsy was drooling, uncontrollably, in that she needed Botox in her saliva, a glands because she couldn't stop drooling. Yeah.

She also had doctors put tubes into gypsy's ears because she said that she was constantly having ear infections, which my daughter had that. I say a lot of people have that, you know, I think. You can say some people go too far with it because they're just tired of the constant ear infections and dealing with all that. Yeah. Because it's a, your kid gets an earache. It gets a pain.

Yeah. My daughter was getting them, ah, it seemed like once every two weeks. just got to be, you know, she was in pain all the time. The problem here is it's later going to be found out that neither of these procedures were necessary. Just more lies from Didi. Yeah, more attention. Sure. Sure. Here's another doctor that is going to give me the attention I need because they're, you know, fawning over my daughter. Woe is me. Look at my daughter. Yeah. Sickening. Now, up to this point, nobody had really caught on, right? D.D. had managed to, you know, pull all of this off.

But there was a doctor that was treating Gypsy, didn't think that she had any of the symptoms or any, any of the things that D.D. said she did. He completed tests and he confirmed that there was nothing wrong with her. And this guy was a neurologist. And in some of these tests, Gibbs, he realized that there was no reason why Gypsy should not be walking. Yeah. He went as far as having her stand up from the wheelchair. She was able to support her own weight.

And then he confronted D.D. about it. But the guy didn't stop there. You know, he started calling some of Gypsy's old doctors and found out that they too had experienced. experienced similar things, right? They weren't able to substantiate the claims of her mother. He also found out that there were medical records from back in the day. They had not all been destroyed as D.D. had claimed during Hurricane Katrina. So this guy, he puts a note in the file that says this is a case of Munchausen by proxy. Probably no surprise, Dede never goes

back to see this doctor again. Yeah, of course not. It's against her plan. Yeah, it's against her plan. But what is a surprise is that this note that he's put in, it never goes anywhere. And maybe it's just because she never goes back to see that doctor again, but there's never any follow up. And just imagine how this case would have been different, right? One call to maybe child services to someone could have changed the whole outcome of this case. Now in 2009, there was an anonymous call made to authorities saying

Dede was lying about Gypsy and her health. So the police do go and check on them. And this is where Didi makes up an elaborate story that she has an abusive ex that she's on the run from. And that's why they're in Missouri. And she's had to lock. about all of this to keep both herself and her daughter safe from this guy that's out to get them. Okay.

And they believe it. They don't follow up. They don't really check up on the story. They just believe what D.D. says. They say, uh, okay. Yeah. Sounds good. Yeah.

Why would somebody make that up? Yeah. Now, I don't know how much you can really blame a police officer or police officers that go out. I mean, what are they going to do? Yeah. And you've got to take that. stuff serious. I mean, because it does happen. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, women that have to try to avoid abusive exes. Yeah, absolutely. What are they going to do? Call her a liar and say,

well, somebody said that you said. Yeah, I mean, I think it's one of those sensitive type of situations. And if you didn't have anything more concrete to back up that there could be, you know, a form of medical child abuse. It's hard to pursue. So in the next year, They had made friends in Missouri, right? They'd been there a little while. They had made some friends. People thought that Gypsy was a teenager, but she wasn't. She was an adult by this time. Nobody really knows how old she was, but she wasn't 13 years old. You know, she's 18, 19 years old or something like, you know, somewhere around that, that point. She's much older than what people think she is. Right. But she sounds much younger. Yeah, she does sound much younger. But as she gets older, as she becomes an adult, she starts wanting more,

right? How long is she want to play this role that her mom, you know, has her playing? Much easier to, you know, get a five-year-old, a seven-year-old, probably to do this. But 16, 17, 8, I mean, we have, you know, you've had a daughter that age. I have daughters that age. I can't get them to do half the stuff I want them to do. Yeah. I'm sure not going to get them. to sit in a wheelchair and pretend that they're extremely sick and not live their life. Right. Yeah. They just want to move on and start doing those teenage things.

And that's where Gypsy starts to get to. So she starts testing D-D, you know, to see what she can get away with. And that's nothing new. That's what kids do at that age. Yeah, they do that with any parent. But Gypsy went to a neighbor's house one night, not in her room. wheelchair. She was walking and she asked for a ride to go see a man that she had met online. Now, you can imagine what these people thought, right? They thought that this was a predator

that was taking advantage of a special needs child. Right. But this incident Gibbs forces Gypsy to show people her real birth certificate, which proved that she was at this point, like 19 years old. Because of this incident with, you know, the neighbors and other people in the community, I think they, um, they might have gotten violent with this guy. A little bit. That she met online. You know, number one, they think she's like 13, 14 years old. Yeah, they don't really understand how old she really is.

And they think this guy's taking advantage of, you know, uh, not number one, somebody that is underage, which is bad enough. But then number two, somebody that is, um, you know, has special. needs, they're not going to look too kindly on that. No. But the problem is she didn't, she wasn't either one. She wasn't underage. And, and she didn't have any special needs.

But no one knew that. No. So that's the problem. But her mom shows up, right? Because this is nightmare time for D.D. Her mom shows up saying that the birth certificate is not real, that her daughter is lying. And she embarrasses Gypsy making her seem like she's, an idiot and forcing her to go around to all these people and tell her that she's sorry for what

she's done. So this starts to become a problem for Didi, as you can imagine, right? Gypsy wants her independence. She wants to be more adult because she is an adult. Right. Now, one of the things that Gypsy had done for a long time is she attended these like Comic-Con. I don't know if it was Comic-Con, but it was conventions, like a science fiction convention. Yeah. Like crime con, but for science fiction stuff. Leaky con for Harry Potter people. Yeah, and she would dress up in different costumes.

Yeah. And she'd been going to this for a long time. You know, I mean, you do that one where they, you dress up as the fluffy animals. Oh, the furries? Yeah, yeah, you do that. Yeah, I don't do that. Oh, you quit doing it? Yeah, I quit that.

Okay. Isn't that where people have sexual relations with each other while they're dressed as now? Like why you act like you don't, you know exactly what it is. I know what it is. The fact that you are putting me in it. I'm not putting it. You were in it. But you stop.

There's people out there going to say. If we can, can, so in the studio, part of your basement. Just because I have four or five costumes. Yeah, most, exactly. That I have special things to hang them up. They're displayed in cases. Exactly. It doesn't mean anything, Gibbs.

Okay. All right. You're reading way too much into the costumes. I know. used to go. I got a bear. I got an otter. I think you said they used to go to Pittsburgh a lot with those.

People were going to believe what you say. I don't know. It's what it is. Embrace it. I don't embrace it because it's not real. They might talk to you about it down at CrimeCon. I'm sure somebody's going to bring it up. Yeah.

Tell me about the furry stuff. So she's at a convention, a science fiction convention, and she meets a man that, again, she had met online. Because how else is she going to meet people? Right? She's meeting different people online. Yeah, and for people that actually are sick or even the people that are pretending to be sick, today's world, so many people meet each other online anyway. Oh, yeah, you're saying just even if you're not sick.

Yeah, that's just, you know, something about being able to sit on your couch or lay in your bed and, you know, these folks can meet people before they have to actually... Why do they have to be in the bed? You know, like, just relaxing, relaxing. All right. You know. I mean, okay, on the couch, in a chair, standing up in the hallway. I don't know.

You went straight to the bed. Well, some people like to lay in bed at night and play on their phone, you know? Yeah, this is not going good at it. No, it's not. You're just revealing things about yourself after you try to tell everybody. No, no, no, no. I'm just saying in general, we're in that world now. We are in that world.

Yeah. But for somebody like Gypsy, you know, she's not hanging out at the mall meeting guys at the food court. She doesn't have that opportunity. So how else is she going to talk to people and meet people? Everything she's probably doing is online. And she meets this guy. Obviously, he's going to the convention. And she tries to leave with this guy.

And her mom finds out, finds her in a hotel room with this man. Okay. She has a fake birth certificate with her, shows it to the guy. Now, this guy's freaking out because he thinks he's with. an underage girl. Yeah. He's not. He thinks he's in trouble.

So D-D. takes Gypsy home and she smashes her computer to bits because she's so upset that she had met, you know, she's meeting these guys online. But at the same time, she threatens to do that to Gypsy's fingers as well. Oh. So she's saying, if you try to escape again, I'm going to hurt you. So she just went from mom to. Was she ever mom?

No, but, I mean. Well, technically she is her mother. Yeah, but she just went from being, you know, mom with issues to now a captor. And Didi would even lie to Gypsy telling her that she had papers proving she was incompetent. So the police weren't going to believe anything that Gypsy had to say if she went to them or if she went to anybody else and asked for help. This was Didi's plan. Then we move forward in time. she's 21 years old.

Okay. And she's waiting for her mom to go to bed. She's still using the computer. And she meets a man online named Nicholas GoTo John. He's from Wisconsin. And they met in a Christian singles group. Okay. Chat group.

Chat group. Now, GoTo John had some issues. He had a record of his own. He had indecent exposure. But he had real mental issues. Okay. Personality disorder, some other types of mental health issues. And they talked online for quite a long time.

Really? So they could be on for hours? No, I meant like in years. Oh, you mean this went on for years. Yeah. For a couple of years, they were having a relationship online. But never a physical. No, to my knowledge, they had never met in person.

That's some longevity there. because by the time she's 23, she's still carrying on this online relationship. Yeah. And she tells a neighbor about her boyfriend and that they want to get married. Now, imagine this neighbor thinking that this young girl is saying she has a boyfriend. She wants to get married. Again, she probably thinks she's 14, 15 years old. Yeah, exactly.

Because that's what D.D. has her playing. So again, I think the neighbor is thinking. you know, this is a sexual predator. This is somebody that's trying to take advantage of a young girl because Gypsy was, you know, telling this neighbor and showing her printouts of some of her chats that she was having with, with Nicholas Goadijohn. Oh. And they were racy.

Yeah. A little explicit. Yeah. Even some, I guess they were talking about, you know, BDSM. But this neighbor never does anything about it. So she thinks maybe that she's being taken advantage of by a sexual predator, but she doesn't alert anybody. She hears it, but doesn't. Yeah, she thought, you know, what, this is never going to happen.

Right. He's in another state. So the next year, it's 2015. Gypsy has a plan for Nicholas to meet her mother. The plan was that Nicholas Go to John would come to the movies, would meet Gypsy and her mom. Her mom doesn't know anything about this. So he does come, but he doesn't end up meeting D.D. Now, the pair end up having sex in the bathroom at the movie theater.

Really? In the bathroom. In the bathroom. Okay. But he never meets Gypsy's mother. Whatever happened to the back of the movie theater? I don't know. That's not something I ever did.

Oh. All right. So he doesn't meet Gypsy's mom. Oh, yeah. Why are you always telling on yourself, man? No, he doesn't meet Gypsy's mom, but they continue chatting on the internet, right? He goes back to Wisconsin. But they continue having this online relationship and they start coming up with a plan to kill

D.D.D. This is when it starts. And Nicholas Ghoda John comes back to Missouri in June of 2015. He waits until D.D. goes to bed that night. Gypsy lets him inside the house. She also has for him gloves, duct tape, and a knife. Because that's the plan. He's going to be the one to kill Didi. Gypsy's the one that wants it done,

but she's going to get Nicholas to do it for her. Now, where in the world, Gibbs, did she learn about coaxing other people into getting what she wanted? Well, you know what? Her mom did a good job of educating her up on it. Go to John tells Gypsy to hide in the bathroom. cover her ears so that she doesn't hear what's about ready to happen. Then he goes into Dede's room and he stabs her to death. The pair end up having sex in the house.

They take with them about $4,000 in cash and they go stay at a motel. They're trying to figure out what comes next. What are they going to do? I mean, I assume that they probably thought they got away with this murder. But again, we're talking about two individuals that, are probably really not that smart. Well, clearly some of the things that they do indicate that. Yeah, and I mean, probably the biggest one is go to John has this idea.

He's going to mail the knife that he used to kill Dedi back to his house in Wisconsin. So it's not on him. He puts it in the mail. Instead of just throwing a river. Sure. Whatever. He's so attached to this knife that he wants to make sure he gets to keep it. but I'll mail it back to Wisconsin instead of carrying it.

Right. That's, they, they won't find it on me. They end up taking a bus back to Wisconsin. And there are witnesses that see them get off the bus. And they remember Gypsy said she was wearing a blonde wig and she was walking just fine. But keeping in the vein of, you know, these are two individuals that are probably not that bright. Gypsy has Nicholas GoToJohn make some updates. to his Facebook page.

And what he says is the bitch is dead. And then he goes on to say that someone had killed Dedi and had raped Gypsy. Now, what Gypsy would later say is the reason that she had him do this is because she wanted

somebody to find her mom's body. I mean, there's better ways of getting it out there, better ways to alerting the police to find the body. Well, but think about it, Gibbs. They find D.D. dead in her her bed. Gypsy's not there.

Where do they think Gypsy is? Somebody took her? That could be the only other than the fact that she had something to do with it. I just don't know how she thought she was going to get away with this. That part I really haven't figured out. And I don't know that she thought it through. Yeah. And posting on Facebook of what you're doing is not the smartest thing, right?

It's a permanent record. It's going to be there no matter what you do. No, because people see it and friends and family, they start freaking out. Yeah. And authorities can kind of track off of that too. Sure. I mean, it's, you know, the brilliant people at Facebook, they know where you're sitting right now, right? They know where you're at. Look, you know, the location service on your phone, unless you've got it turned off, which most people don't. They know exactly where you're at. Well, and like I said, people start freaking out about this post. They go to the house to see what's wrong. no one answers the door, but the family van is there.

So they call 911. You know, police get inside the house. They find Dee Dee's body. But from there, then everybody is worried about gypsy, right? Was she raped? Was she taken? Was she kidnapped? How's this girl going to survive?

She doesn't have her oxygen tanks. She doesn't have her feeding tubes. Right? This is a girl that is very ill. that's what everybody's thinking. Yeah. But then in comes the neighbor. The neighbor that Gypsy had confided in

had shown the post, the racy chats and all that. She starts telling authorities what she knows. And just like you said, Gibbs, they're able to trace through Facebook where the status updates had come from. It led them to Wisconsin. And they pretty quickly took Nicholas and Gypsy into custody,

charged them with murder. Now, back in Missouri, everybody was happy that Gypsy was safe. Sure. But they were shocked when they found out the truth. Number one, that she had played a role

in killing her mother. Number two, that she wasn't even sick. She could walk and that her mother had been controlling her all these years and making her lie.

You know, all of this is going to come out. It's what caused this, you know, kind of the big sensation that it did. Right. Things are not always as they appear. Investigators say the awful Facebook post that tipped off friends that something was wrong were actually authored by Gypsy herself. She told investigators she knew her boyfriend, Nicholas Gojohn, was going to kill her mother, and she did nothing to stop it. Gojohn told detectives that Gypsy gave him the knife and asked him to kill her mom.

Court documents say they cleaned up some of the blood, then took a case. cab away from the house. We know that they were here in Springfield for at least probably one to two days after the murder had taken place. The other shock to those who thought they knew Gypsy is that she doesn't need a wheelchair. I've never seen her out of her wheelchair. It's like that's not that's unheard of. Up there there was no wheelchair taken. She's carrying her own luggage. And I think a lot of people were very sympathetic towards Gypsy. She had suffered for a very long time. You know, all these different forms of abuse, physical, mental. I mean, she did suffer. I don't think there's any doubt about that. No, I agree with you. I mean, I think her mom, her mom's actions

drove her to do some of this. Yeah. I think that's what a lot of people thought. And, you know, I'm sure it was a a factor in her not getting convicted of first degree murder, so she doesn't get the death penalty. They give her a plea bargain and they sentence her to 10 years. This is in July of 2015. Yeah. This case is not that old. No, not at all.

And asked him to stop her mother to death so that they could be together. As the charges against her are detailed, you can hear her sobs. Stoles money from her deceased. mother safe and fled this state of Missouri. And when she does speak in Waukesha County Court, she sounds like a child. 21003, West volunteer way. But Gypsy Blanchard is an adult. Although authorities aren't sure exactly how old she is,

it's likely somewhere between 19 and 23. So a couple things to take away from that one, Gibbs. I mean, the authorities aren't even sure how old she is. And that voice. I mean, if you, when you hear that, what do you think? 12. Oh yeah. Maybe not even 10, 11, 12. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, there's there's people that have that type of voice that, uh, learn to that, you know? No, I get that. I just wonder how much of it came from the years that she spent the way she did. You know, would, would that have been her normal voice if she

had not been conditioned maybe to talk like that. And it just, it became her, her, I don't know. I really don't know. Now, Nicholas go to John, on the other hand, he's going to face much more severe charges. Now, he's the one that actually killed D.D. Right. And it was said that his IQ was 82. So there was talk about diminished capacity. And apparently he was also on the autism spectrum. But his trial hasn't come up yet. He's set to go to trial in November of 2018. That's just going to be here before we know it. Yeah, it's not far.

It's not long. But, I mean, this is, you know, we don't do a lot of cases where not every single thing is known. But I don't think it's too hard to figure out what's going to happen. Maybe the degree or the severity of the punishment is in doubt. Yeah. But I don't think there's much doubt that, you know, something is going to happen to him. Oh, absolutely.

As a result of this murder. Now, you and I talked about this before, you know, we started, before we were, you know, even recording, you said that you had seen an HBO documentary. Yeah. I haven't seen it yet. Yeah. I think it came out last year. So it's called Mommy Dead and Dearest.

I did look it up, but I haven't seen it. I haven't watched it. I don't know. What did you think? You know, when I say I saw it, I saw it. I saw some of it. I didn't see all of it. So, but it was very, uh, personalized.

I'll have to check it out. But I think what, you know, in kind of wrapping up Gibbs, what came out of this was, what I read was that, you know, I don't think Dede's family was all that sorry for her, you know, that she ended up dead. I think a lot of people, including her family, felt that, you know, what she had done to Gypsy for so many years was so. horrible that I hate to say that she got what she deserved. But I think a lot of people felt like that to the point where I guess nobody wanted to pay for her funeral. Really? And it was said that

her stepmom and dad ended up flushing her ashes down the toilet. Okay. You can't get much more than you know, I don't really give a rat's ass about you than well flushing your ashes down the toilet. Going down where everything else went down. So right now gypsy's at the Missouri Chilli Cawthie Correctional Center. And eventually, you know, after the plea, after all that is done, she does talk about what happened to her. And she even said that, you know, her mom would have probably been a great mom to somebody that was actually sick.

I think this is something that Gypsy said. But obviously, Gypsy wasn't sick. Yeah. So many people's lives are ruined by this, you know? Yeah. And she has accepted her part in the crime. I think she knows what she did was wrong. She knows she has to live with that.

But she has said that she feels more free in prison than she ever did with her mom. That's really sad. Isn't it? It really is. Have you ever heard of anybody say I feel more free in prison? Wow. Prison is not a freeing place for most. I mean, what she did was wrong, clearly.

I do feel somewhat sad for her. Yeah. because her whole life was molded by what her mom did. It's such an early age. And I think she learned from her mom. Sure. Not good things like most of us do. But anything that you learn from your parents, if you don't know otherwise, you think that's the norm.

And it's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that the kid thinks there's nothing wrong with that. No, I get it. I get it. I mean, that's the only person she knew. and her mom was very manipulative, did a lot of things to get what she wanted.

Gypsy grew up seeing that, seeing that you could get what you want by manipulating others. But like you said, I do have a part of me that feels really bad for her. On the other hand, she did orchestrate somebody's death. So, you know, there's a little, I'm conflicted there. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean. But if you separate, if you can separate the two,

and I think you can feel sympathy for her. Now, she's going to get out. She may not even do the whole 10 years. I doubt she will. But where does she go from there when she gets out? I mean, she really has not had what you and I would call a life, a real life. How's she going to live? You know, there's always going to be that somebody that will help her pick up pieces.

Yeah. There will be. There's going to have to be. There be somebody. I mean, you know, hopefully she gets, therapy in prison. Now, we talked about Munchausen by proxy. Other than the one doctor making the note in the file, I don't think D.D.

was ever officially diagnosed with that. And obviously, now you can because she's dead. But I don't think there's any doubt that that's what this was here. It seems like a classic case. But I do believe that this is the first case of a child that has gone through these circumstances, killing the parent. Yeah. I mean, there's been a lot of children that have killed their parents.

Oh, absolutely. I'm saying this specific type of munchausen by proxy. Yeah, the reasoning's behind. But that's it. That is the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. D.D. Blanchard. All right, Gibbs, we've got some voicemails. You want to do some of those?

Yeah, let's do that. Hi, Mike and Gibby. My name is Rick Sressasimo. I'm calling from San Diego, California. I'm an avid listener to both the true crime all the time and the Unsolved, as well as criminology podcasts. I was wondering if you had ever, or if you have put on your list, the McDonald's murders that happened back in the 80s here in San Diego County.

It's not really a serial killer. It's more of a mass murder. I believe it was somewhere around 84 or 85, probably one of the more well-known cases out of here in San Diego. So I just wanted to call and that just. you guys know about that one if you haven't already added to your list and uh as everybody else says keep your own time ticking great show guys thanks bye all right appreciate that great voicemail listens to all the podcast love it yeah i do remember the macdonald's murders really yeah i remember

that i mean i was pretty young i would have been maybe what 11 12 something like that's young but i remember it and i think i know we'll cover it we'll also i want to cover the taco bell murders. Really? Mm-hmm. Because that's a very interesting case as well. It's not a mass murder, but... Yeah. Never heard of it, though. So I'm curious to see

everything about it. Well, you will enjoy researching it. If that's... Does it mean I go to Taco Bell to research it? No. You don't have to. Well, okay. Hey, guys, this is Randy Dre. I am calling from Minnesota again.

Say, I was listening to you guys' podcast again today and I just want to say you guys are awesome and um just about done listening to all of them um I started a couple months ago and you guys are you guys do a really good job and you guys have a lot of respect for uh the uh the victims and I just want to see appreciate it um also being from Minnesota I'm sure you guys have heard of the Jacob Waterling case there's a lot of really great great podcasts out there about the case. However, there's none that I can find of that really give a big, broad background on Danny Heinrich, the person who finally admitted to killing Jacob. He's not exactly

a serial killer. However, he did obviously kill Jacob and had multiple other background of sexual assault against boys. So I just thought maybe that'd be a good one for you guys. But, hey, I'm going to head back to my wonderful paint booth I hide in all day for 12, 14 hours. And I just want to say, you guys are doing a good job and keep up for great work and keep your own time ticking. The old paint booth, man. You can listen to a lot of episodes of T-Cat in 12, 14 hours in a paint booth. Right out of high school, man, I worked in a paint booth painting. I don't know what they were, a little thing.

You probably weren't that good at it if you didn't know what you were painting. I tell you what, it was these little parts for jets for the Air Force and it was critical that you wore your mask, man. Oh, I'm sure. Otherwise, you probably pass out. Yeah, or you felt really good. Gibbs, you see Gibbs over. He's taking his mask off every five minutes. Yeah.

But that Jacob Weatherling case, like he said, there have been a lot of podcasts about it. It's been a case that's been really well covered. And it's probably why, you know, we haven't done it. But the Danny Heinrich angle, you know, that is very interesting because most of the podcast were centered around what happened to Jacob. And then all of a sudden, they figured out what happened to Jacob. And so that would be part of the story, but it wouldn't be, you know, it's not an unsolved mystery anymore. So to focus on not only Jacob, but the man that killed him, that would be an episode for sure. Hi.

My name's Brittany, and I'm from Belper in Ohio. So, oh, H, because you guys are from Ohio, too. Team Giddy, of course. However, I was calling to let Fergie know that they do still sell his marathon bars online. They are by Cadbury now, and they're called Curly Whirley bars. I saw this out because I'm one of your younger listeners and I had no idea what a marathon bar was. So, of course, I had to look it up,

but now I know that they still sell them, so you can still have your candy bar. Thank you guys for doing what you're doing. I love you guys. I'm obsessed. Every time a new episode comes out, I'm listening right away. So you save and keep your own time ticking.

Bye. Hi, this is Brittany again. I called back because I forgot the most important thing I wanted to tell you guys. since we're all from the heartland, I would really love to hear you guys just do an episode about Cleveland, because as we all know, Cleveland is like serial killer capital USA. I know you guys already did the Cleveland Strangler, but there are so many other crazy people to come from there.

So I would just love to hear an episode all about that. Thank you guys. Keep your own time taken. Bye. All right. So there's a lot to dissect there, Gibbs. First thing first. First thing first.

You and I ate marathon or curly whirly bars today. We did. I got my rapper sitting right here. I can see it from here. Yeah. We had a listener that is in the UK. Actually order us curly whirly bars through Amazon. It took like a week and a half to get here because I guess they came from the UK.

But they were awesome. Just like I remembered a marathon bar to be. But I guess you can buy them around here. I just know, I've never seen them. Yeah, I haven't either. It was good, though. It was very good. Tasty.

Took me off my healthy eating habit, though, but that's okay. And so that listener was Kim Clause, and so I have to give a big shout out to her. For sending those to us, thank you. She sent them to the studio, and we enjoyed them. Yes, we did. But what a great voicemail from Brittany, you know, not just because she's Team Ghibie, but, you know. Well, and she says, of course, like, that's the only way you could go. Well, of course.

I took offense to that. Not the fact she's Team Ghibi. It was the fact that she added, of course. I think it's perfect. But she's from Bell Fountain, very close to us. Yeah, and I used to, when I was UPS driver, I used to deliver up in Bell Fountain. Balsick, bow, bow, that's right. Is that where we going?

No. No. Different type of story? Different type of story, yeah, yeah. But anyway, I used to go Bell Fountain quite a bit. East Liberty, Bell Fountain, West Liberty, all that, Degraf, Quincy. Yeah, you don't have to give a geography lesson. 99.6% of the people on the show have no idea what they're talking about.

What the heck is he talking about? Just wear your seatbelt. Don't slide out of your UPS truck ever again. Exactly. Hey, Mike and Gibby. It's Carly from Austin. I'm a senior here at the University of Texas. Hookum and about to graduate this May.

So I wanted to call you guys and let you know how much I appreciate having T-Cat in my ears. You both kept me company through many, many late nights while studying for my biomedical engineering degree here. and you've especially helped me cope with some depression with your upbeat and funny banter. It really just feels like being with friends when I hear the two of you guys get going. I'm team Mike and team Gibby because there's no way Gibby would be such a charmer without his hype man Mike making them look good, you know? Anyway, I have a case suggestion for you guys but took place about an hour from where I went to high school.

You should cover the clear like murders. A truly F-depth story about a troubled high school girl named Christine with a difficult to pronounce last name that I'm not going to try and say right now. She killed four teenagers, two of whom were her best friends. This one really baffles me, and I'd love to hear your input. Also, if Gibby ever wants to teach an acting class on accents, sign me up. Anyway, can't put into words how many smiles you guys have given me, really. So I'll just say, keep up good work and keep your own time ticking.

Hook them, y'all. Hook them horns. Hook them. That might be one of the smartest callers we've ever had. Yeah, especially bringing up the first. She's bringing up the fact that I should give an acting class on voice. I don't think that's the way she said it. You don't think so?

How would you give an acting class on voice? You know, uh... You might give voice lessons. She talked about accents. Yeah, exactly. Well, what made her so smart was that she recognized my role in setting you up to be Gibby. It's always about you and it.

It always comes back to me. Yeah, you always make it about you. How is it about me when everybody talks about you on the voicemail? Did you just make it about you? I get one person. Last week you made it all about you. That recognizes me. Team Fergie.

Look at this one. Another team Fergie. They just don't hear it. You cut that, edit that part out. I purposefully cut the people that say Team Fergie out, just so it can appear that everyone is Team Gibby. Exactly. I like it.

I am your hype man. You're a mastermind. All right, Gibbs. that is it for another episode of true crime all the time. So for Mike and Gabby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.