Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, the woman who orchestrated the gruesome murder of her mother in 2015 by manipulating a vulnerable disabled man, was released from prison in December after serving 8 years of a 10-year sentence. Since her mother’s murder, Gypsy has skyrocketed into stardom, becoming the subject of the hit Hulu miniseries “The Act,” participating in various documentaries, landing a book deal, amassing 9.5 million TikTok followers, and making numerous television appearances.
For the first 23 years of her life, Gypsy was abused by her mother, Clauddine Blanchard, who went by the nickname Dee Dee. Dee Dee suffered from a mental disorder known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a caregiver makes a dependent feel and appear ill, even though they are not.
Thanks to Dee Dee, a perfectly healthy Gypsy was heavily medicated, subjected to numerous unnecessary surgeries, and was forced to use a feeding tube and wheelchair. Dee Dee also claimed Gypsy had everything from lung disease and muscular dystrophy to asthma and leukemia. To liberate herself by murdering her mother, Gypsy enlisted the help of Nicholas Godejohn, a vulnerable disabled man.
In 2011, after 19-year-old Gypsy made a failed attempt to escape her mother, Dee Dee reportedly smashed Gypsy’s phone and laptop and handcuffed Gypsy to her bed for two weeks. Gypsy was essentially Dee Dee’s prisoner, and she eventually devised a plan to end her suffering for good.
Enter Nicholas Godejohn, the man who murdered Dee Dee by stabbing her 17 times in the back while she was sleeping and who is currently serving a life sentence in prison.
In 2012, Gypsy created a secret online dating profile, where she met and began a remote romantic relationship with Godejohn. Godejohn has autism, an IQ of 82, and, according to psychologist Kent Franks, who evaluated Godejohn in 2016, is more like a child than an adult.
Godejohn and Gypsy had plans to marry and have children, and Gypsy insisted that the only way this would be possible was if Godejohn killed Dee Dee. In 2018, Godejohn told ABC News, “I did it not only to release Gypsy, but I also felt it was the only way to be with her … I saved someone’s life in the process of what I [did].” The pair planned Dee Dee’s murder for over a year.
In an interview after the killing, Godejohn blamed his “evil side” for the gruesome act. He described an angel and a devil sitting on his shoulders when he walked into the Blanchard’s home to kill Dee Dee, and the devil won out. Godejohn, a clearly disturbed individual, also had morbid, violent sexual preferences.
After the killing, the pair had sex in the Blanchard house, which Gypsy claims was not entirely consensual. Later, when they arrived at a motel room, Godejohn described feeling remorse for killing Dee Dee. “I felt horrible about it,” he said, recalling his emotions in the motel room. “[Gypsy] kept on telling me, ‘Stop crying, stop crying. There’s no reason, reason to cry. It was my idea, it wasn’t yours.’”
Indeed, while Godejohn committed the murder, Gypsy paid for his bus ticket to her hometown and the knife he used to kill her mother. In court, Gypsy even admitted that she “talked Godejohn into” murdering her mother.
Before the killing, Godejohn was a highly isolated individual who lived with his parents, even though he was in his mid-20s. “What was life like for me before I met Gypsy? I actually was basically alone,” he said in a prison interview.
According to his father, “It was hard for [Godejohn] to make friends,” adding that “He was always by himself, pretty much grew up by himself. He had friends, not many. One or two but mainly family, we’re his friends.”
Godejohn didn’t seem to understand the gravity of his actions or the consequences that would await him. In a prison interview, he described what he envisioned his life with Gypsy would be like after the murder. “I was gonna get a job and start looking for an apartment. After a little ways down the road, I’d probably end up marrying her and end up having children with her,” he said. “That’s something I’ve never had with someone else. To this day, she’s the only one I’ve ever had that with.”
To Godejohn, Gypsy was the first woman, and perhaps the first human outside his immediate family, who he believed truly loved him. In prison, Godejohn described his relationship with Gypsy as “the best days” of his life. “I enjoyed every second of it,” he said. “From the very beginning, I just knew we were soulmates.”
Eventually, however, Gypsy claimed Godejohn was “controlling” and broke up with him. In July 2022, while still in prison, Gypsy married a different man she met through a pen-pal program.
From what the public can tell, Gypsy has fully moved on from Godejohn. Commenting on one of her new husband’s recent Instagram posts, Gypsy wrote, “Don’t listen to the haters … besides they jealous because you are rocking my world every night…yeah I said it, the D is fire.”
Today, everyone seems to agree Gypsy is a hero who deserves our attention and admiration. “I think you’re very brave for being here,” Sunny Hostin told Gypsy during an interview on “The View” this week. “Thank you for telling your story. I think it will help a lot of people.” Exactly how Gypsy is “brave” or how her story will “help a lot of people” is unclear.
When asked on “The View” how she “reconcile[s]” with the fact that Godejohn “will spend the rest of his life in jail,” Gypsy responded in classic Millennial fashion. “I have to focus on myself right now,” she said.
“I can’t look in the past and worry about him or anything else going on,” Gypsy continued. “I have to prioritize myself in this moment. I just got released from prison after eight and a half years, and then I didn’t have a life before that. So I have a lot to process and go through right now.”
Gypsy appears to have been a master manipulator — something her mother modeled for her throughout her upbringing. Gypsy orchestrated her mother’s murder and used a disabled man and his deep desire for human connection to carry out the plot. Had Godejohn never met Gypsy, he wouldn’t be serving a life sentence in prison, and all Gypsy can say about his fate is “I have to focus on myself right now.”
The murder of Dee Dee and the abuse Gypsy endured at her hands is sick and twisted, but so is our culture and the way it is celebritizing Gypsy. Gypsy’s story should repulse a healthy society, but people seem thrilled by it. And in our throw-away culture, it’s no surprise that the ladies of “The View” were unmoved by the selfish way Gypsy discarded Godejohn.
It’s distressing this horrifying saga has created a superstar out of Gypsy and not compelled people to reflect on Godejohn and the social alienation contributing to his compromised state. A healthy society would explore the factors — social, mental, and now digital — that create young American men who are weak, vulnerable, and lost because our culture demoralizes and devalues men.
Instead, our society is perfectly content with Gypsy procuring fame and presumably wealth while Godejohn spends the rest of his life in prison. American popular culture treats Gypsy’s celebrity as the logical next step. Meanwhile, her disposable, mentally challenged accomplice rots in prison.
Everything about Gypsy-Rose’s celebrity status is an indictment of our culture. We elevate and exonerate the worst people while routinely taking the wrong lessons away from tragic events. Gypsy-Rose is no hero. She and Godejohn are both victims and killers in their own right, and we are a confused, amoral culture that obsesses over and commercializes evil.
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
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