Undoubtedly if you have any social media app you’ve probably heard the name Gypsy Rose thrown around whether that’s through her own Instagram, the thousands of TikTok edits, or the popular Hulu show ‘The Act’. It’s clear that Gypsy has grown in mass popularity in just a couple of weeks, yet some may be unclear about her story.
Born to Dee Dee Blanchard on July 27, 1991, Gypsy was subjected to Munchausen syndrome by proxy by her mother, which is a mental illness and a form of abuse where a caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like their child is sick for sympathy.
This abuse started early on in Gypsy’s childhood, Dee Dee made her daughter say she was younger by claiming Gypsy was born in 1995 and forced her to fake multiple disabilities. Among many other “illnesses” Dee Dee confined her daughter to a wheelchair, even though she could walk, shaved her head to give the appearance of going through chemotherapy, and even went to the lengths of giving Gypsy medications that would induce symptoms. Because of these so-called “illnesses,” Gypsy had multiple surgeries and other useless procedures that she didn’t require including the removal of her salivary glands and the use of a feeding tube. Her mother convinced doctors this was necessary by using topical anesthetics to cause drooling, and claiming that Gypsy’s medical records were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.
After finding out that she wasn’t as young as her mother made her seem by finding her insurance card, Gypsy began to question her so-called illnesses. She set out a plan of escape with her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn. The two first met on a Christian dating site for singles, and they communicated through this dating site for two years before meeting in person. The couple had their first in-person date in 2015 at the movies where they saw Cinderella. Although their second date wouldn’t be as romantic, the couple decided to make a murderous escape. Godejohn believed that killing Dee-Dee was necessary to ensure that he and Gypsy
could spend the rest of their lives together. Gypsy said in a docu-series “Mommy Dead and Dearest” that on the night of the murder, she and Dee-Dee gave each other manicures and Gypsy put her mother to bed, promising to be “a good girl”. After Dee-Dee fell asleep Godejohn entered their home and stabbed Dee-Dee a total of 17 times while Gypsy hid in the bathroom. The couple then reportedly fled the scene by cab to a nearby Days Inn just right outside of Springfield, Missouri.
Neighbors became suspicious after they noticed a post on Claudine’s Facebook page stating, “That (expletive) is dead.”. The police were informed about this and after a brief search of the house her body was found. On June 14, 2015, just 6 days after the murder the two were found at Godejohn’s home in Wisconsin. The couple was arrested and Gypsy was convicted of second-degree murder and was given a ten-year sentence while Godejohn was convicted of first-degree and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. While in prison Gypsy broke up with Godejohn and began exchanging letters and phone calls with a man named Ryan Anderson, after a couple of years of communication they decided to get married on July 21, 2022, while Gypsy was still in prison. Gypsy was released from prison on December 28th, 2023 after serving 85 percent of her sentence. After her release, Gypsy began to gain mass attention through her shocking story and loud social media presence, she gained a whopping 12 million followers across her Instagram and TikTok in just a matter of weeks. Gypsy has gone on to do many things with her newfound freedom whether that’s providing more details of her story or just some unnecessary details of her marriage.
Gypsy’s tale has been found to spike up a lot of opinions regarding her fame, marriage, and history. The question may arise: who is the bad guy in this situation? Was murder truly her only way out? Did her mother do this all out of cruelty, or was she just a mentally sick woman? With all these rising questions I decided to gather the opinions of one of our very own BSHS students, senior Chayce Richardson who has an interest in true crime and has kept up to date with the case.
Chayse believes that both Gypsy and her boyfriend played the bad guy. “He was the one that killed her mom,” Richardson states, “but she still organized it, she was heavily involved.”.
Gypsy had a major role in the murder, but was that her only way out? Chayse Richardson disagrees. He says “I think that if you’re being abused in any way revenge is something that comes to mind and I think that’s what influenced her, I do think there were several ways out for her, but she just chose murder.”
Finally, I asked Chayce about his opinion on Gypsy’s newfound fame, “I don’t think she deserves to be famous on social media,” he stated, “She’s finding loopholes through it by talking about her experiences, but ultimately she is profiting off a crime she committed.”
What do you think about Gypsy’s sudden rise to fame? If you were in her situation what would you have done?
