Gypsy Rose Blanchard: The Chilling Reality Behind the Illusion

In this episode of the Compendium, I tell Adam all about the chilling and complex story of Gypsy Rose Blanchard. It’s a tale rooted in the deceptions of Munchausen's by Proxy that leads to the ultimate murder of Dee Dee Blanchard. We are shedding light on the harrowing effects of disability fraud and the hidden truths that often lie beneath the surface which reminds us that looks can be deceiving.

We give you the Compendium, but if you want more, then check out these great resources:

1. "Mommy Dead and Dearest" - HBO Documentary
2. "The Act" - HBO Miniseries
3. "Gypsy's Revenge" - Investigation Discovery Special
4. “Mother Knows Best” - Dr. Phil (Part 1)

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Credits:

• Hosts: Kyle Risi & Adam Cox
• Intro and Outro Music: Alice in dark Wonderland by Aleksey Chistilin
• All the Latest Things Intro: Clowns by Giulio Fazio

Chapters

• 0:00 Sneak peak
• 0:56 Welcome the The Compendium
• 4:49 All the latest things
• 13:10 Topic of the week
• 1:12:33 Outro

Transcript

TRANSCRIPT [EPISODE 46] Gypsy Rose Blanchard: The Chilling Reality Behind the Illusion 

Adam Cox: But then equally, what would the mum have done had this still been going on? Because Gypsy was supposed to have this life expectancy of a teenager, right? So would she eventually have done something? 

Kyle Risi: Oh my god, that's such a great point! Because like, she can't keep the facade going on for that long. Would Dee Dee have murdered her daughter?

Kyle Risi: Is this all self defense? 

Adam Cox: Just to make those symptoms worse. Yeah. And done something even more terrible. 

Kyle Risi: What a brilliant point. I don't know. It's such a complex case, isn't it? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, I am conflicted. 

Kyle Risi: Welcome to the

Kyle Risi: Compendium, an assembly of the The frank reality that not every Disney princess gets a Prince Charming. Sometimes, she gets someone who really enjoys masturbating in a McDonald's for eight hours on a Tuesday. 

Adam Cox: Um, what? Okay. Jeez, you gave me a bit of a hint of what we're going to be talking about today.

Adam Cox: But that definitely doesn't relate. 

Kyle Risi: For those of you tuning in for the very first time, we are a weekly variety podcast where I tell Adam Cox all about a topic I think you'll find both fascinating and intriguing. From the dark corners of true crime to mind blowing historical events, we give you just enough information to stand your ground at any social gathering.

Kyle Risi: I'm your host this week, Kyle Risi. And I'm your co host, Adam Cox. So Adam, Samuel, William. 

Adam Cox: Cox. Don't full name me. What have I done? I'm really perplexed about how your clue links to this because who's doing that in McDonald's? It's 

Kyle Risi: an American true crime drama. So of course, there's gonna be some crazy shit going on, right?

Kyle Risi: And middle America, like Midwest. Where's Missouri? 

Adam Cox: Probably should have looked at a map before this. 

Kyle Risi: Yeah, we should have. I did look at a map. I'm just not familiar with the 

Adam Cox: names. It's like doing that game from Friends where you have to name all the states in 

Kyle Risi: America. Oh, yeah, I love that game. It's so 

Adam Cox: hard.

Adam Cox: It is. Yeah, I think I can do about 30. I think that's pretty good. No, I 

Kyle Risi: think you're selling yourself shortly. I think you can do more than that. I reckon you can get to what, at least 40 and then it's the last 10 that's really difficult. It's always Delaware that you forget, right? 

Adam Cox: No, there's other ones than that.

Adam Cox: What's that really strange one? Like Libanese? Li li bowsky? Li 

Kyle Risi: bowsky? What? No. You mean 

Adam Cox: Mississippi? No, I don't know Mississippi. Li li 

Kyle Risi: bowsky? No, that's not it. There isn't a state Anything like 

Adam Cox: that. This is why 

Kyle Risi: I can't do that game. No, it's a really good game, actually. You always think, oh, you'll learn once you crack all the 50, and then the next time you play it, like, a year later, you're like, oh, damn.

Kyle Risi: I've forgotten. Yeah. Always forget to learn. So, the other day, you asked me if I knew anything about a woman called Gypsy Rose Blanchard. 

Adam Cox: Because she's been in the news a lot 

Kyle Risi: recently. I think she like, she had popped up onto your news feed and she had just been released from prison after serving a 10 year sentence for murdering her mother.

Kyle Risi: And at the time, I don't really know too much about it. I just knew like, the basics. But after falling down this rabbit hole, I can tell you Adam, it's a doozy. So this story of course, as many of our listeners will know, is about a mother and a completely dependent young daughter called Gypsy Rose who appeared to be inseparable best friends.

Kyle Risi: Yet for some reason, and to everyone's surprise, Gypsy ends up being involved in her mother's death. Not an accident, but a meticulously planned, poorly executed, brutal murder of her mother, Didi Blanchett. Oh god. What's particularly intriguing about the story is the massive outpouring of sympathy that Gypsy gets in the aftermath once all the details come to light, because it turns out that Gypsy's reality was starkly different to what was being presented to those around them.

Kyle Risi: In fact, Gypsy's life was marred with heartbreaking abuse, manipulation, all at the hands of a mother, which ultimately drove Gypsy to her murder. So in today's episode of The Compendium, I'm going to be telling you the story. Of Didi Blanchard's murder and her daughter Gypsy Rose. And let me warn you, this is an episode that is one hell of a rollercoaster filled with WTFs.

Adam Cox: It feels strange to say I'm excited because obviously someone's died here and it's awful, but it's such a crazy story. So I want to know the motivations of this poor woman, why she killed 

Kyle Risi: her mother. So everything I told you, did you know anything? In addition to what I've just said, or is that kind of just the crux of what you knew about the story?

Adam Cox: Just the crux. I know there's something to do with an illness that the mother made her believe, but I don't know any more than 

Kyle Risi: that. Okay, this is a doozy, but before we begin, should we get on with All the ladies things? Yes.

Kyle Risi: So this is the segment of our show where we catch up on all the week's happenings and share a quick tidbit of breaking news all from the past week. So Adam, what have you got for us today? 

Adam Cox: So my latest thing that I've learned about this week is about a golden doodle in Pennsylvania. 

Kyle Risi: What's a golden doodle?

Adam Cox: Like a dog? A dog, yeah. Sorry. I guess between, a cross between a golden labrador retriever to a 

Kyle Risi: labrador I'm with you. A poodle doodle. Yeah, 

Adam Cox: it's a dog. That's all you need to know. And this dog has put a whole new meaning to my dog ate my homework. Okay. So, this dog's owners caught it eating 4, 000 that was laid out in their kitchen, and they literally were like, didn't know what to do because it was torn up, there was pieces everywhere.

Adam Cox: And the first thing I thought of, why do you have 4, 000 just lying around in your kitchen? That's quite a lot of money that they've taken out in cash. So what happened? What did they do? So the dog was, obviously started to be sick, and so what they're doing is trying to retrieve the money as the dog was being 

Kyle Risi: sick.

Kyle Risi: Oh, it's eating it as well? Yes, it's eating it. And 

Adam Cox: money's dirty, man. Yeah, and so what they had to do is they had to wait for the money to pass through its system and then piece the money back together. And apparently, um, it didn't smell good, is what they said. No, I can imagine. So as soon as it was come out, it would come out in like little bits and they'd run it under the water and they said like And it was coming 

Kyle Risi: a whole, it didn't like shred it or mulch it up or anything?

Kyle Risi: Oh, it's 

Adam Cox: mulched, like here's a picture of it, I'm just gonna quickly 

Kyle Risi: show you. Yeah, I mean it's not that mulchy but it is in bits 

Adam Cox: it's in bits as in like each note is probably in three or four Maybe five pieces. Yeah, and 

Kyle Risi: It's a fun Sunday afternoon, isn't it? Like playing out with the kids. Let's do some jigsaw.

Kyle Risi: Mommy this jigsaw stinks. Yeah, wash your 

Adam Cox: hands Apparently they managed to piece together three and a half thousand of it Yeah, gone through its system. And so long as the serial number was intact, the bank actually was able to take that money. So can you believe that is so lucky? Because I would have thought that 4, 

Kyle Risi: 000 is gone.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, yeah. No, I do not. Actually, I did know that if you have money that gets ripped or destroyed. I think in the UK, like, as long as you have a percentage of it, then the bank will exchange it for 

Adam Cox: you. You've sometimes seen, like, the odd banknote which is taped up, right? This is 4, 000 worth, all taped up, back together.

Adam Cox: Do you imagine going back into that bank and going, I'd like to exchange this for money that's not torn up, please? Um, 

Kyle Risi: this, this money's Torn up, though, sir. Did you tear this money up, sir? I'd like to exchange this money, please! 

Adam Cox: Um, so yeah, this poor couple, but I think they managed to get most of it back.

Adam Cox: But still, don't leave 4, 000 lying on your counter. I think they were supposed to pay some gardeners, but that made me think, if you're paying gardeners cash in hand, they're probably some dodgy gardeners. Why? What do you mean? Well, anyone you're paying cash in hand, you kind of think, well, you're not putting it through the 

Kyle Risi: books and tax.

Kyle Risi: Well, no, they're probably not. But then also at the same time, like he's a gardener, he's probably living by hand's mouth. Right? So it's probably a kindness that you can do is just pay someone cash in hand. Possibly. I pay you cash in hand. What? No, be my boyfriend. 

Adam Cox: Um, but they literally laundered money maybe for the gardeners.

Adam Cox: Think of it like that. Okay. 

Kyle Risi: Well, it's a bit dark for like a middle class suburban family, right? With a doodle poodle. Yeah. 

Adam Cox: Yeah. That's my, uh, that's my latest thing. Very 

Kyle Risi: good. So actually, my, all the latest things for this week is the topic of Friends. I like Friends. I love the TV show Friends. So if you guys regularly listen to the show, then you'll know that we always like to throw a Friends reference in here or there because like we literally watch Friends pretty much every day.

Kyle Risi: Like it's a big part of our lives. We've been watching, 2000s. So for those UK listeners who might remember like in the mid 2000s. There would be like a double bill on E4, do you remember that? And then you would watch two episodes of Friends, and then there was E4 plus one, which you then switch over to an hour later, and then you could watch it all again.

Kyle Risi: And that was pretty much our childhood, right? Especially like when we're in high school, towards going to, entering into university, it was just friends all the time. And actually, did they then also show it on Channel 4 as well? So you can also watch it on Channel 4 at some point as well during the 

Adam Cox: day.

Adam Cox: Possibly. It used to be on like double bills. Has things been on Channel 4, E4, Channel 5? Yeah, it 

Kyle Risi: was mental. I think it was even on eight times a day, because it was also in the morning they would do stuff as well, which is mental. But of course, since then, obviously Netflix and other streaming platforms have become a thing and we now have just unbridled access to watching it.

Kyle Risi: So this got me thinking, I wonder how many episodes of Friends we've actually watched since we got our Netflix subscription. So I went into our account settings and I exported all our viewing behavior. So guess how many episodes of Friends we've watched since 2017 on Netflix. This is just Netflix. 

Adam Cox: I don't know, maybe like a thousand.

Adam Cox: A thousand episodes. 

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Get this 3,634 episodes. And by the way, that does not include all those years of binge watching on E four. Jeez. That's like double 

Adam Cox: that probably then 

Kyle Risi: it's mental. Yeah. That's crazy. I was shocked by that. I thought it would be around about a thousand that we watched, but to find out that it's 3,600.

Kyle Risi: That just blows my mind. 

Adam Cox: It's like 10 seasons of 20 episodes each, roughly, isn't it? Yes. That's it. That's 200 episodes. Something like that, yeah. 

Kyle Risi: So I worked out what our most watched episode is, and surprisingly it was the season 9's The One in Barbados, where we watched that 37 times. And I don't like, I don't see that as a standout episode, but I'm surprised that was it.

Kyle Risi: Also our least watched episode is the one of the five steaks and the eggplants, which I believe is the one where Monica gets some kickback off steaks from some kind of supplier. They go out for dinner, et cetera, and she ends up getting fired. But yeah, that's our least watched one. But I don't think it's intentional.

Kyle Risi: I just think it's by happenstance, right? Because we don't really discriminate between. Which episodes we watch, we just put it on and it plays. So yeah, I just thought that was really amazing. Also, in terms of binge sessions, the longest streak is 29 episodes in one go. What were you doing when I'm not here?

Kyle Risi: Well, I mean, according to the dates and stuff and when we've been watching, it's typically in the evening when we're having dinner or it is roughly around about the holidays, like Christmas or Easter, when we've got some time off, we would just have that on in the background. But yeah, I just. 

Adam Cox: Need a 

Kyle Risi: life.

Kyle Risi: It's just not so, like, after all these years, we're still willing to watch it. It must just have such a crazy effect on people. I don't know what it is. I think it must be some kind of emotional connection that we 

Adam Cox: have with the characters. I also think it's a comfort thing, right? Because the world is a bit of an odd place.

Adam Cox: It's been a strange few years. And I think just having that. There is a safety blanket. 

Kyle Risi: And I think definitely that emotional connection plays a massive part because I will constantly flip flop between really liking Ross and then I'll move to liking Rachel or Monica. But however, probably the biggest consistent thing that I've got is that, you know, you know, it's like Phoebe is just the worst.

Kyle Risi: And once you realize that, you can't unsee it. So for example, she mugged Ross. She'll easily cut people out of their life. No problem. Willy nilly. That's what she did with Amanda Buffum Montese, who was played by Jennifer Coolidge. Oh, when she's teaching, Joey has to play guitar. She won't even let him touch a guitar.

Kyle Risi: She always flip flops on her principles, right? Like wearing fur. Or eating meat, like when she was, fair enough, she was pregnant, but still, so that's the principle. Yeah. I mean, 

Adam Cox: she stabbed a cop. Don't forget that. 

Kyle Risi: That was my last thing on here. Don't forget she stabbed a cop. I, 

Adam Cox: I dunno, I think earlier on she's more kooky and like free spirited and I think you can enjoy her more, but in the later series, I think there's a slight mean streak with what she does.

Adam Cox: Yeah. You're like, are you joking 

Kyle Risi: or not? Yeah. And she's also delusional. She generally thinks she's a great person, but like the things that she does, man, she's questionable. She's by far the worst character. I wouldn't want to be her friend. But yeah, it's just crazy like The impact that Friends has had over these years and like as a result of not watching it 4, 000 times I don't think I've ever watched anything more than like three times.

Kyle Risi: I feel like 

Adam Cox: we have to find something new to 

Kyle Risi: watch Yeah, we always say this but then we do and we always come back to it. It's just that comfort thing, right? Yeah, but yeah, I just want to bring that to your attention that these are the people that you're tuning into every week We are complete friends Obsessed.

Kyle Risi: And I think we have problems, so That is all the latest things!

Kyle Risi: It's always really tough to decide where to start an episode. Do I start with some backstory? Or do I start at the murder and then fill in the gaps from there? But when deciding on how to start this episode, it was really easy because the backstory and the events leading up to the death of Dee Dee is way more interesting than the murder itself.

Kyle Risi: So with that said In 2015, the body of Deedee Blanchard is found brutally murdered in her bed in Springfield, Missouri. She had been stabbed 17 times in the back while she had slept, and her body had been laying in her bed undisturbed for several days. The reason the police were alerted was because Deedee had a very young daughter called Gypsy Rose, whose Facebook page had been supposedly hacked by her mother's killer, where they posted two very strange and very disturbing posts to her Facebook page.

Kyle Risi: The first one said, the bitch is dead, and the second Said, I fucking slashed that fat pig, raped her sweet, innocent daughter, her screams were so fucking loud. LOL. What? 

Adam Cox: I know! That is awful! So hang on, this message was on the daughter's page? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. As if she had posted it herself. So 

Kyle Risi: obviously they didn't think it was her because obviously both these posts were incredibly worrying to the family and friends for obvious reasons.

Kyle Risi: But also because Didi's 14 year old daughter, Gypsy, was significantly disabled. People were concerned whether or not Gypsy was okay because Gypsy was paralyzed from the waist down due to muscular dystrophy. She was completely dependent on a wheelchair. Gypsy was also severely epileptic. She had asthma as well as sleep apnea.

Kyle Risi: And Gypsy also had the intellect of a seven year old child as a result of brain damage from birth. 

Adam Cox: That is a lot. She's got 

Kyle Risi: a lot going on. Yeah. So on top of all of this, Gypsy had also been diagnosed with leukemia, and she was taking dozens of different medications to help her treat her cancer. And Gypsy was also fed through a tube that fed directly into her stomach.

Kyle Risi: And if that wasn't enough, Gypsy also had severe hearing and vision impairments. And it was expected that Gypsy was not likely to live past being a teenager. So when these statuses appeared on Gypsy's Facebook page, people were of course extremely concerned. But when police finally arrived to conduct a welfare check, they discovered Dee Dee's body in her bed and Gypsy was nowhere to be found.

Kyle Risi: Leading police to believe that she'd been taken by the people or the person that had murdered her mother. 

Adam Cox: Well, yeah, that seems like a logical explanation given her, you know, illnesses. 

Kyle Risi: That's it. And they also knew that they need to act fast because Gypsy's wheelchair and all of her medications were still in the house and they feared that she may be at risk if they didn't find her soon.

Kyle Risi: What are you thinking? 

Adam Cox: This is pretty traumatic. I did not expect it to start off quite like this. But. 

Kyle Risi: Okay. Amazingly, the very next day police find Gypsy over 500 miles away in Wisconsin, where she had travelled with her boyfriend Nicholas. When they found her, she was wearing a blonde Disney princess wig, and to their complete surprise, Gypsy wasn't sick at all.

Kyle Risi: In fact, she could walk. She wasn't 14 years old. In fact, she was almost 25. What? And Nicholas and Gypsy had killed Dee Dee and run away so they could be together. 

Adam Cox: Hang on, I was just about to ask how old she is. She's 25. She's 

Kyle Risi: 25 years old! She's not 14! Like, the whole world believes. What? I know, it's crazy.

Kyle Risi: Hang on, 

Adam Cox: so she had nothing wrong with her at all? No. Nothing? Nothing. But then she, but she was disabled from the Okay, 

Kyle Risi: you're gonna have to carry on. It's a doozy. So it will later come out over the next few months that DeeDee actually had something called Mauchausen's by proxy, a psychological condition where the caregiver, typically a parent, will exaggerate, fabricate, or induce health problems in the person under their care.

Kyle Risi: And essentially, DeeDee had been abusing Gypsy by forcing her to pretend to be sick for her entire life in order to gain sympathy. and attention from the people around them. And man, did Deedee go to some extreme lengths. So 

Adam Cox: did Gypsy know that she was being lied to at this point 

Kyle Risi: at all? It's so murky because she did, she pieced a few things together, she was getting a bit older, certain things didn't add up, but her whole life she lived sheltered under the control of her mother.

Kyle Risi: And when you don't have an education, and you don't know any better, and this person that you trust is telling you all these things, and you are physically taking all these medications, what are you to believe? That's just your reality, you know? You're just in it. 

Adam Cox: Wow, so, oh my god, I can't, yeah, I can't believe this.

Kyle Risi: So a lot of what I'm going to be telling you today comes from a documentary titled Mummy, Dead and Dearest, which is an incredible documentary on the story, which of course we'll leave links to in the show notes. And they interviewed Gypsy's dad Rob Blanchett at length, and he is the reason why we know so much about Gypsy's early life.

Kyle Risi: And he says that he and Dee Dee had married. After she had fallen pregnant, and at the time, Dee Dee was 24 years old, and he was just 17 years old. So at the time, he says that he had married her for all the wrong reasons, so soon after Gypsy was born, Rod decides that Dee Dee is just way too intense for him, and like, he just calls it quits on the relationship.

Kyle Risi: So they split up, and Dee Dee moves in with her father and her stepmother. But even though of course they've split up, Rod is determined to be like a good dad. So he's regularly visiting Gypsy. He consistently pays his child support, which is a whopping 1, 200 every single month. And pretty soon after Gypsy is born, Dee Dee is adamant that something is wrong.

Kyle Risi: with Gypsy and is convinced that she has something called sleep apnea, which is basically like where people just stop breathing in the night. So Dee Dee takes Gypsy to the emergency room, but doctors keep telling her like, listen, love, like Gypsy's fine, like calm down, but she doesn't accept it at all. So she just shops around to different doctors until eventually one of them diagnoses her with the sleep apnea that she was convinced that Gypsy had.

Adam Cox: So I guess if you've got an illness and you're not buying what the doctor says you would 

Kyle Risi: do that. Yeah, I guess that's exactly what you would do. We do that with my mum. When she goes to the doctor they say, oh, she's absolutely fine. My mum's telling us that she's not well, so we go to another doctor for a second opinion.

Kyle Risi: So I guess it's just like that. So actually we can't really fault her for that because ordinary people will do that as well, right? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, she must have thought. Maybe innocently at the beginning something was wrong, but clearly it gets out of hand. 

Kyle Risi: I think that's a fair assessment. Okay. So basically the doctors give her this sleep apnea machine for her to use at night.

Kyle Risi: And of course, Gypsy doesn't have sleep apnea. So using this machine at night actually makes it more difficult for poor Gypsy to even breathe. And remember, she's like a baby at this point. Right, okay. So in the documentary, Rod says that he was pretty much in the dark about everything that was going on with Gypsy's health.

Kyle Risi: All he knew was that he had this older wife that was telling him that their baby was sick and being 18, he just goes along with it all. And he's like, why would I even doubt her? Why would someone even lie about these things? Yeah. You want the best for your child. You want the best health and everything.

Kyle Risi: It's not 

Adam Cox: the first thing you think of, right? 

Kyle Risi: No, absolutely not. So, at some point around four or five years old, Gypsy falls off of her grandfather's stationary motorcycle and she grazes her knee. But soon after this, Dee Dee starts to claim that the injury is way worse than just a graze and that Gypsy had sustained some mild degree of paralysis as a result of her falling off of the motorcycle, which then eventually evolves into muscular dystrophy.

Kyle Risi: And now she's completely reliant on a wheelchair. I mean, 

Adam Cox: kids are pretty resilient. They fall over all the 

Kyle Risi: time. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But put yourself in her grandfather's shoes. Like it was his motorcycle that she was sitting on, but how awful must you feel to then find out because she fell off your motorcycle she's then developed.

Kyle Risi: And obviously it's not something that causes it. It's a precursor to it, but eventually. She is unable to walk and stuff. You, there must be a certain degree of guilt there, right? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, cause he, Dee Dee's now put that through her father, right? Yeah. What made him feel like that? Cause he must feel 

Kyle Risi: guilt. Yeah.

Kyle Risi: Initially like she's forced to be in a walker and then a wheelchair. 

Adam Cox: What even triggered her to think this was a good idea? 

Kyle Risi: I said, well, psychological disorder. That's from Mulch Houses by proxy. So when Rod would come and visit, he'd be like playing with Gypsy. And then all of a sudden, she would just jump up and start running around.

Kyle Risi: And he's like, look, she's fine. But Dee Dee would be like, no, no. Sometimes her muscles like gather a little bit of strength over time, but they'll eventually fatigue themselves out. And then Dee Dee would just put Gypsy back into the chair or hand her walker. But also Dee Dee tells Rob that Gypsy has some kind of chromosome disorder.

Kyle Risi: That causes all sorts of different problems. Hence the muscular dystrophy and all the other things that come with that as well. And also he tells her that she's unlikely to live past being a teenager. And Robert's like really bummed because he doesn't know much about kids. All he knows is that he just really loves Gypsy.

Kyle Risi: So that must be awful for him to hear that. But Rod isn't the only one asking questions, because soon after this, Gypsy is confined to a wheelchair full time, and a relative that's visiting one day sees Gypsy pushing her cousins along in her wheelchair, and when Dee Dee sees this, she just screams at Gypsy, and upon realising that she's been caught, Gypsy just immediately falls to the ground and then like, is like, dragging herself.

Kyle Risi: Really? To her wheelchair like, like the kid from The Ring, you know, when she comes out the telly, like, what did I 

Adam Cox: tell you? You shouldn't be walking. Yeah. 

Kyle Risi: Even at this young age, Gypsy is very aware of what her mother expects her or how her mother expects her to behave. That's interesting. Isn't it crazy?

Kyle Risi: Yeah. So family members, they start asking questions, and so Dee Dee decides she's going to take off and her and Gypsy move to New Orleans, and they just get by on kind of the child support that Rod is paying and the disability allowances that she's getting. She also starts getting a lot of public assistance and various donations from various charities and things like that.

Kyle Risi: But also at this time, She enrolls Gypsy to be homeschooled. Now, essentially she is under Dee Dee's watch and control 24 hours a day. So she's kind of quite primed to just manipulate her and kind of affect that behavior and things like that. So when they move to New Orleans, Dee Dee is constantly taking Gypsy to Yeah.

Kyle Risi: And she has a constant schedule of hospital appointments. She's getting a bunch of surgeries and procedures. And a lot of people have asked at the time, after all this came out, how she managed to convince doctors that Gypsy was ill. I was just going to 

ask 

Adam Cox: this because doctors have clearly consented in giving all this kind of medication or support or whatever.

Adam Cox: How have they done that? 

Kyle Risi: Well, we kind of alluded to it earlier on. The answer to that question is that just literally shop around for doctors. If A doctor wouldn't corroborate what Dee Dee was telling them. She would just find one that would. But also, Dee Dee could talk the talk, man. She had a knack for regurgitating medical terms that she would hear from one doctor and then spit them out to the next doctor and she just came across really well versed and knowledgeable and gave the sense like there was a larger history at play with Gypsy's health because she knew so much about the condition, right?

Adam Cox: Have any of these doctors been questioned 

Kyle Risi: since? Oh yes, yeah, we're going to come on to that. Yeah, so Dee Dee starts claiming that Gypsy is having these seizures and eventually she is diagnosed with epilepsy and she's prescribed anti epileptic medication to assist. But the thing about anti epileptic medication is that they cause a whole host of oral health issues.

Kyle Risi: All of Gypsy's teeth just start falling out. I guess 

Adam Cox: from this point, then she does have this physical disability or appearance where people go, Oh, she isn't well. So all this medication they're giving her is actually causing further 

Kyle Risi: problems. Yeah. And it's also acting to reinforce the fact that she's ill.

Kyle Risi: And that she's got credibility because she's got no teeth. And also, Oh, look, she's prescribed to this. Why would a doctor give her this if she wasn't like, if she didn't need it, the second you get one doctor just to prescribe something or backup diagnosis, it can just snowball from there. Right. 

Adam Cox: That's a fair point.

Adam Cox: Yeah. 

Kyle Risi: By the way. Not everyone accepts this nonsense. In the documentary, Mommy Dead and Dearest, there is one doctor, Dr. Bernardo Flasterstein. So, he is a pediatric neurologist, and he's looking over Gypsy, and he's struggling to find anything wrong with her. And he does, like, an MRI scan, he does a series of checks, and he conducts, like, a really painful muscle biopsy, where they literally will take a chunk of the muscle from your leg to see how bad the muscular dystrophy is.

Kyle Risi: And by the way, this is a horrific procedure to inflict on a child because it's painful. Gypsy's literally left with a scar that she still even has to this day from that procedure. And her mother's putting her through that. You think as a 

Adam Cox: mother. Or any parent, your child is like brand new, you want to protect them, you don't want them to have scars, you don't even want them to have like ear piercings when they're young or anything like that.

Adam Cox: Exactly, exactly. So to do something as awful as this, yeah, what does she 

Kyle Risi: think? Awful. He says that he is sceptical that she even has any of these issues, in particular with the muscular dystrophy. So if she did have it, there'd be a lot more muscle wastage than he is currently seeing, especially considering like the number of years that Gypsy has been confined to a wheelchair.

Kyle Risi: So Dr. Banana writes in his reports and in it he criticizes Deedee for not being able to provide like clear full timeline of Gypsy's health that doesn't contradict itself. And he even states in the report that he suspects the possibility of Mauchausen syndrome by proxy. And he does tell some colleagues about this and they just tell him like you need to treat Didi and Gypsy with golden gloves because at this moment in time they were a little bit famous on the scene like with all the charities that they were involved in and because of how sick she was and like Didi was kind of considered like this hero for like taking on the challenge being Gypsy's full time carer, considering her circumstances.

Kyle Risi: So they were well known to doctors and they just said like, just leave it. I 

Adam Cox: guess because they're not powerful, but they've got this image that to try and persuade other people of what's going on, that would be a tall order and you could be putting your neck on the line, your reputation and everything if you did 

Kyle Risi: call them out.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. And also all these other doctors that are convincing Dr. Bernardo to not say anything. They're next on the lines as well, right? Because they could get in trouble for anything they've mis probably diagnosed or whatever it might be. Yeah, yeah. So nothing ever comes from this. And later on, Dee Dee requests, cause she's savvy, right?

Kyle Risi: She has access to all the medical records. She sees the notes, and she just never takes him back to that same doctor again. So now he's off the radar. So as well as obviously being able to talk the talk, shop around for doctors, she's savvy. She knows what the doctors are writing. She has access to those public records and she just uses that to maneuver herself to kind of get what she needs.

Adam Cox: The next step and yeah, 

Kyle Risi: master plan. So for years, Dee Dee continues doing the rounds across a bunch of different doctors, eventually leading to all these unnecessary diagnoses. And as a result of her seizures and excessive drooling, Dee Dee persuades doctors to agree to remove gypsy salivary glands. So she's got constant dry mouth.

Kyle Risi: Isn't that horrible? Why would you do that to your daughter? 

Adam Cox: Initially, I came into this thinking the poor mother, she was stabbed 17 times. I know maybe there was rhyme and reason for this or motivation, but now the things that you're saying, yeah, I've switched the other way. Poor 

Kyle Risi: Gypsy. Also Gypsy is fitted with a feeding tube on.

Kyle Risi: account of her size and her stature and Dee Dee has convinced doctors that she wasn't absorbing the necessary nutrients that she needed when in fact she was actually keeping Gypsy thin and frail on purpose to go along with this illusion that Gypsy was sick and On top of that, she's having all these unnecessary procedures done as well, which ultimately is keeping Gypsy in a constant state of dependency on her mother.

Kyle Risi: And it's just so messed up. So is Dee 

Adam Cox: Dee a full time carer, essentially, because Gypsy hasn't gone to school or anything 

Kyle Risi: like that? Dee Dee did used to work as a nurse's aide, so she has the experience in this area. But ultimately, she is her full time carer, and she's under her Watch 24 hours 

Adam Cox: a day. And I'm guessing she's getting like donations from charities or other support and benefits.

Adam Cox: So she doesn't need to work. No, she doesn't. So she's using this to live off. Yeah. And this is treating it as her 

Kyle Risi: job. Essentially. Yeah. It's their, it's their livelihood. That's sick. So here's the kicker. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina happens and Dee Dee and Gypsy are left completely homeless after everything that they owned is destroyed.

Kyle Risi: And because Gypsy is so sick, they qualify for something called Habitat for Humanity, which means this charity would pay to relocate them from Louisiana to Missouri and build them a completely brand new house, completely kitted out with everything that they need, like a wheelchair ramp, accessible amenities, a hot tub for Gypsy's muscular dystrophy, which I guess like Dee Dee will be chilling out in.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, once 

Adam Cox: Gypsy's in bed, she'll use the hot tub. 

Kyle Risi: And they also receive a ton of charitable donations, as you just mentioned. Like, they go on free trips to Disney World, they get free concert tickets to plays and gigs, they're invited to attend all these different charity events and balls, and so the pair of them become like little spokespeople for these charities.

Kyle Risi: Like, they're like mini celebrities on this kind of disability health kind of like circuit. 

Adam Cox: Yeah, I bet that just fuels DeeDee even more trying to keep up this charade. 

Kyle Risi: For sure, she does want to sacrifice her kind of her livelihood, right? Essentially. Yeah, all these extra 

Adam Cox: benefits she's 

Kyle Risi: getting. Also, post hurricane Katrina meant that DeeDee now had the perfect excuse for why she had no records.

Kyle Risi: Specifically, this meant that Gypsy now gets a brand new birth certificate that completely changes everything. like her age by like five years. I was 

Adam Cox: going to ask about this. How have her, you know, grandparents or the father not queried the fact that she was 

Kyle Risi: 14? They stopped seeing them altogether, right?

Kyle Risi: So Didi has fallen out with her parents, so she doesn't really have a close relationship with them anymore. She's run away from Rob, so he doesn't have any access. He calls on the phone, but he doesn't really see her. And also, it's crazy, as she's getting older, which we'll find out later on, Dee Dee convinces Rod not to talk to Gypsy about her age.

Kyle Risi: She's like, she thinks she's a toddler. So don't tell her that she's older than she is because I want to protect her. You're going to ruin the illusion for Gypsy and her childhood. I can't believe this. 

Adam Cox: And she gets a whole new certificate. Then she can prove like actually she's five years younger. She is actually 14 or whatever it 

Kyle Risi: is.

Kyle Risi: That's it. Yeah. Also, now that everything was destroyed, Dee Dee could also stop. All of Gypsy's medical records from scratch, which means start reading off all the conditions that she had, including a bunch of new ones. And considering the circumstances, nobody questions it. Like here is the mother with a severely sick daughter, a full time carer.

Kyle Risi: They've gone through this horrible tragedy in Hurricane Katrina, which is all over the news. The biggest story at the time, they've lost everything. We need to help them. And on top of that, they probably got to deal with hundreds and hundreds of other cases as well. So they're just getting them through the system.

Adam Cox: True. Because if you see someone in a wheelchair and they're disabled, you don't go prove it. 

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Get up and walk. Exactly. No, exactly. You don't do that, do you? It's a very good point. So, after all, she looks sick, she behaves sick, others said she was sick, why on earth would anyone lie? 

Adam Cox: Yeah, and I bet Dee Dee probably even starts believing her own lies.

Adam Cox: If she's saying it so often and creating this whole story, this illusion, I bet there's a good part of her that doesn't know this is the truth. 

Kyle Risi: 100 percent. Remember, she's not just saying these things, she's living it. She's literally giving her daughter all of these medications. She's living a life where she's living with a disabled child where they've got this completely kitted out house.

Kyle Risi: They've got all these different things. She's pushing around in a wheelchair. She's having to administer all these medications every day. So of course that is the reality for her. It's crazy. Do you want to see a picture of Gypsy at this point? 

Adam Cox: Yes. I've seen her since she's come out of prison. 

Kyle Risi: Right. So this is Gypsy when she was like, I'm going to get some of the ages wrong because we don't really know how old she is, but apparently this is when she's 14.

Kyle Risi: Oh my, bless her. She's 

Adam Cox: tiny. Yeah, she's small. She hasn't got her teeth like she's poorly in terms of just her complexion and everything else and how she's dressed. I'm guessing she's got no hair, so she's got a hat on her head. She looks 

Kyle Risi: like a little munchkin from Wizard of Oz. Looks like an old lady.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, she could easily be like a really young toddler or a really old lady. 

Adam Cox: And I'm guessing that's probably because of the no teeth, that's what's giving 

Kyle Risi: that illusion. Anyway. So here Gypsy is around about 14 years old, but DeeDee is telling everyone she's like nine. And now her birth certificate obviously confirms this as well because she's got a brand new birth certificate.

Adam Cox: Actually, can I just say something? Yeah. I just, we commented on Gypsy there, we didn't comment on DeeDee. And something that just struck me was the fact that she is a large lady. Yeah. Therefore she probably enjoys the finer things in life and indulges. 

Kyle Risi: Adam. Well, she might have thyroid 

Adam Cox: problems. Maybe if she tells herself that.

Adam Cox: I'm thinking is she is making her daughter suffer whilst, okay, maybe there is medical conditions for her size. But for me, that suggests that she's 

Kyle Risi: overeating. Anyway, here Gypsy's 14. GD's telling people she's nine. If you just look at these images of Gypsy, she's incredibly thin. She's incredibly standard for a 14 year old.

Kyle Risi: So. She literally passes for this age. So it's very calculated that she's changed her age to that because Didi is gone, she can pass for a nine year old. So around this time Didi is also telling everyone that Gypsy has cancer, like leukemia to be precise. So she starts shaving Gypsy's hair because she says like it's gonna fall out anyway.

Kyle Risi: So let's just keep it neat and tidy. And that'll stop 

Adam Cox: all the questions if we just get rid of it 

Kyle Risi: now. Yeah, exactly. Also to maintain the illusion, Gypsy is dressed like a toddler all the time. She wears Minnie Mouse kind of little clothes, Disney princess costumes and wigs. And on top of all of this, Dee Dee is completely in control of Gypsy's education, which is minimal at best.

Kyle Risi: And she's only ever allowed. To watch like disney movies and play with my little toys and and dolls and keep that mentality keep that mentality yeah so dv is also claiming that gypsy has the mental capacity of a toddler even though gypsy is actually really smart and say if 

Adam Cox: you tell someone stupid just try to keep her stupid right.

Kyle Risi: Oh yeah, for sure, because it's in her best interest, right? But due to her lack of education and her confinement in this toddler butthole, people, and also Gypsy, believes it. Like, when Gypsy turns 18, her dad calls her up to wish her happy birthday. Dee Dee tells Rod, don't tell her she's 18. She's got a mental capacity of a toddler.

Kyle Risi: She thinks she's 12 or something. So yeah, don't let on that. She's 18, but it's all just kind of part of this lie that she's trying to breed or kind of perpetuate. Yeah. 

Adam Cox: And was, was he ever allowed to visit that? I know they're in a different 

Kyle Risi: state now, but I don't get the sense that they did visit too much after hurricane Katrina.

Kyle Risi: And then they obviously relocated to Missouri, but they would speak on the phone. Occasionally, but he was just completely in the dark about everything. And also like DeeDee hated it, man. She just wanted him away from her. But also because it was in her best interest to paint this picture that Rod was abusive or wasn't a very nice person.

Kyle Risi: She's a single parent. Exactly. Yeah. When questions did rise around some of the details of Gypsy's medical records, like maybe some dates and names and certain things. Didi's response to that, which they completely bought, was that my ex husband is extremely abusive and we're petrified of him. So it's in my best interest to change some of the details, especially around dates and times, so that he can't find us.

Kyle Risi: Wow. Yeah. So she had an answer for everything, man. And also on the kind of topic of how Gypsy would behave like this toddler, you can see firsthand. How Gypsy embodies her age through her childlike persona because there's some footage available online Remember, both she and Didi were beneficiaries of the Habitat for Humanity So these charities would invite them to come and attend and they'd be invited up to speak on stage talk about their experience, sing a little song, etc.

Kyle Risi: And there's this video of Gypsy on stage singing a little song. Do you want to see it? Sure.

Kyle Risi: Sit down to us, from somewhere over They come to you, and me, in our darkest hour. I'm, I'm in 

Adam Cox: shock. Why? Tell me. She, she's 18, or around that age at this point. Oh, 

Kyle Risi: I don't know how old she is there. She could be maybe 16, but she looks older. She's got 

Adam Cox: a shaven, or very close sort of shave head. in terms of the hair on her head and like a bow on her head.

Adam Cox: She's in, she's dressed very dowdy. Yeah. This clothes, like even if you're ill, you can still dress in sort of modern clothes, but she's made to look more frail, I think, as an old woman. And those glasses. Cause this is like mid 2005 or whatever, from this point onwards. That's a very early 90s Deirdre Rasheed from Coronation Street type of 

Kyle Risi: glasses.

Kyle Risi: I know, come on Deedee, you're not giving her much of a chance, she's already at a disadvantage with all these different illnesses, don't put her in those stupid glasses! Yeah! It's horrendous. Yeah. So there's also this other iconic video footage of Gypsy thanking the Habitat for Humanity charity for building them a house.

Kyle Risi: And she speaks exactly like you just heard. Like she will say, my mommy used to always show me this little house in a snow globe. And she said, one day this will come true. And now look, you've built us that house. And it just goes to show, if you dream enough, and if you hope enough, dreams really do come true.

Kyle Risi: Like, she speaks like a Disney princess. I don't 

Adam Cox: know how I feel about that.

Adam Cox: That was, um, 

Kyle Risi: surreal. Yeah. But that's how she speaks, right? And the thing that I find really hard to believe is the way that she talks. Maybe hindsight is 20 20, but looking back on how she talks in these videos, I just can't help but feel that's an older person trying to talk like a young person, right?

Kyle Risi: And even in that video, Her facial features are like much older than a nine year old even though she's being portrayed as a nine year old and also her vocabulary Mm hmm. That's not the vocabulary of a nine year old, 

Adam Cox: but then I think okay, like you say in hindsight We look at that go like how how could you not know something was up here?

Adam Cox: Yeah. Yeah Yeah, if I had just seen that video, I probably would not questioned it because I'm like Why would I question someone else's illnesses? Because I don't know the detail 

Kyle Risi: or what it actually does. No, you're, you're right. Hindsight is 20 20, but you're perfectly right. Why would you question it?

Kyle Risi: Because we don't expect someone to lie like that. Yeah, why would you 

Adam Cox: Deceive us. Yeah, why would you try and make someone have a life like that? and avoid them of a normal life. 

Kyle Risi: So here's another photo of her, and I'm not sure how old she is here, but she's definitely older than 10. This would give you a sense of just how small and frail DeeDee has kept Gypsy, because here in the picture, Gypsy is bathing.

Kyle Risi: in the kitchen sink. So she's like, around about 14, possibly even 16 here. 

Adam Cox: Bathing in the sink? How is she? 

Kyle Risi: How is that even possible? I know, it's crazy isn't it? I don't know if it's a camera lens trick, but that is Gypsy having a bath in the damn sink. I 

Adam Cox: don't know how tall she is, but that feels staged.

Adam Cox: Like why, you have a house, you would have Batha in the actual bath, you wouldn't put her in the kitchen sink. It might be staged. Poor girl. 

Kyle Risi: So during this period Dee Dee is frequently receiving handouts through the various online applications that she's sending into various organizations like the Make A Wish Foundation and they get complimentary Disney cruises, they get free trips, they get a new disability card, they get free groceries, even like like monetary donations get sent to them as well.

Kyle Risi: Their story is just a regular feature in the local community as well and as a result Gypsy becomes Essentially a lucrative venture for Didi and that all hinges on Gypsy maintaining this image of being this young, adorable and severely ill child. So you can see the motivation there, right? Something that might have started out as Munchausen's by proxy syndrome, now has turned into something very lucrative and also a lifeline for them, like it's how they get their income.

Kyle Risi: And you can't really go back from this. You gotta run away, right? And Gypsy, as she gets older, she begins to question her situation, which is the last thing that DeeDee needs. And so DeeDee is forced to become increasingly more abusive to keep Gypsy in line. Like whenever they're out in public or doing news interviews or whatever, Dee Dee would always be holding Gypsy's hand, which paints this image that they're like super close and inseparable.

Kyle Risi: But in reality, it's so that if Gypsy ever says anything or acts in the wrong way, her mom would just kind of like squeeze her hand really tight and then Gypsy would know immediately just to stop talking. Right. And because the charade of Gypsy being perpetually young, sick and cute is now critical to their survival, it's their livelihood.

Kyle Risi: So Gypsy And she starts staying up at night, which is only possible because Dee Dee takes a bunch of Valium before she goes to bed. Gypsy starts walking around, which is something that she's never allowed to do, even when she's at home. To her complete surprise, she learns that she's actually able to eat and she starts sneaking food from the kitchen.

Kyle Risi: But also she discovers that she isn't actually allergic to chocolate or sugar which is to her a massive betrayal. Like her whole life she has been told that she's allergic to sugar. There was this incident a few years prior where Gypsy is at a birthday party and while Dee Dee is kind of just like talking to another mum, Gypsy takes a bite of a cupcake and Dee Dee Just screams in a panic and she runs over to him, jams his EpiPen into her leg, which is really traumatic for like Gypsy, right?

Kyle Risi: As a young kid. So ever since then, she's just been petrified to eat anything with sugar in it because she believes that she's deathly allergic to it. I wonder 

Adam Cox: what her th Thought process was, because obviously up to this point, she knew that she could walk, she just wasn't really allowed to in public.

Adam Cox: And the thought, I wonder what she was thinking going, I can walk, but mum tells me I can't, or I shouldn't be. And then what actually motivates her to try chocolate, knowing the impact that or the fear that she, that what could happen. Yeah. And she just thinks, Oh, screw it. I'm just going to have a piece. So 

Kyle Risi: when she has a house to herself, she starts going on the internet and she starts learning about the world, which she then would ask her mom questions about.

Kyle Risi: But Dee Dee, like never forthcoming with answers. It's like when you're a kid and you ask your parents about something that you're too young to know about. So your parents just kind of like feed you some stupid story, which you accept, you know, that kind of situation. But she is now at an age where she's not falling for a mother's explanation.

Kyle Risi: And this really frustrates Dee Dee because she's having to work a lot harder to make sure that Gypsy behaves in a way that continues to prop up this facade that Dee Dee is trying to maintain. So when Gypsy starts acting out, being like too curious, not behaving as expected at events, Dee Dee punishes her by tying her to the bed.

Kyle Risi: And sometimes she would do this for days at a time. 

Adam Cox: Really? So when she gets back home, she gets tied to the bed? And that's it. 

Kyle Risi: So when Gypsy hits puberty She, of course, is more curious about the human body. Right? Right. And she's developing all these sexual feelings, hormones, all over the place. Like, you can dress a teenager up as a toddler for as long as you want, but when sexual feelings start to bubble up, you can't stop that shit.

Kyle Risi: And Gypsy starts going on these dating sites because of course she like, she wants a boyfriend, 

Adam Cox: right? Oh God, is this where McDonald's comes into it? 

Kyle Risi: It's coming up. Okay. And finally, when they are away at a conference, She connects with someone on a dating site and she decides to catch a taxi over to their house in the middle of the night wearing one of her Disney princess wigs.

Kyle Risi: Because remember she's completely bald, right? Her mum keeps her head shaved. And while she's out, Dee Dee wakes up, she looks at the laptop, she figures out exactly where she's gone, she drives over to the house, she drags her out. And shows the guy her fake birth certificate, which says she's like 12, and he's just completely freaked out because he's obviously believed that Gypsy was older.

Kyle Risi: Like Gypsy suspected she was older. She finds a document one day that places her date of birth like 1991. So she suspects, but she doesn't really know. So when they get back home, Dee Dee completely smashes her laptop with a hammer and tells her that if she does anything like that again, she's going to break.

Kyle Risi: And then she just ties her to Gypsy's bed for two weeks as punishment. Wow. 

Adam Cox: That is like keeping her a prisoner, isn't it? Essentially. Which I know she's probably done up until this point anyway. 

Kyle Risi: So in 2012, Gypsy is actually like 21 years old at this point, and everyone thinks she's like 16. So Gypsy starts using her mother's laptop at night, and she meets a guy on a Christian dating website called Nicolas Goudijon.

Kyle Risi: And Nicolas Goudijon is around maybe the same age as Gypsy. He's from Wisconsin. He has a history of mental illness. Specifically, he's got like dissociative identity disorder, and he's also like a little bit autistic. Intellectually, I think he's got like an IQ of like 82, which is really low. So he's not smart.

Kyle Risi: So initially, they're just chatting like good Christian folk do, and At first it's innocent stuff, but then it gets dark because Nicholas is really into BDSM. Oh. And these various sexual fantasies that often involve like rape and sexual violence. And on top of this, he has all these different personalities that Has manifested inside of him, including like a 500 year old vampire called Victor.

Kyle Risi: And at the beginning, when things are kind of still a little bit innocent, Gypsy just goes along with it. She starts also carving out these different personas for herself. Typically they're based on characters that she thinks will satisfy Nicholas. Right. Or like lean into different aspects of her personality or her sexuality, like Candy or Rose and things like that.

Kyle Risi: Okay. And they do this almost every night for three years. And during this time, by the way, 2013, Nicholas is actually arrested for sitting in a McDonald's for nine hours, just casually watching porn on his laptop and apparently masturbating. I mean, to get away with it for nine hours. For nine hours, that's crazy, man.

Kyle Risi: That's breakfast to dinner time sitting. So he's really into some real dark sexual stuff. He doesn't really have the intellect to understand what's appropriate, what's not. This is the type of person that we do need. Yeah, I don't know if this 

Adam Cox: is the person that Gypsy should be hanging around with to, in order to learn about herself and everything else, but maybe, I don't know.

Adam Cox: Is the person that opened up 

Kyle Risi: to her the most? Yeah, I guess so. And he's the one that understands probably the most. Yeah. But also what's interesting is he gets arrested for sitting in a McDonald's having a wank. 

Adam Cox: I don't think he's the only person somehow. No. 

Kyle Risi: Well, the thing is that they were dating. They were speaking at the time that this happened.

Kyle Risi: So I wonder what he told her. I wonder if Gypsy knew. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I got arrested today. Oh, what were you doing? I was having a wank at McDonald's, having some chickie nuggies and also having a rub out. Apparently, he says he was just scratching himself. That's his justification. For nine hours?

Kyle Risi: No. So eventually after a year of chatting, they really want to meet, like their loins are burning for each other and they want to meet in person. They know that Gypsy's mum would never let this happen, so they arrange to meet at the movies. She thinks that maybe if Dee Dee met Nicholas in a real life kind of situation, because remember, she's not supposed to be on the computer, then maybe, like, she will allow her to have him as a friend, essentially.

Kyle Risi: And maybe then things could then progress on to there, then they could become boyfriend and girlfriend, and then they can get married and they can live their whole Disney princess kind of fantasy. So, they make this plan where Nicholas is going to get a Greyhound bus from Wisconsin to Springfield, Missouri.

Kyle Risi: And the plan is to orchestrate an encounter with her and her mom at the movies, Dee Dee is going to find Nicholas really charming. and they're going to be friends and so on and so on. Right. So they have this weird plan. Everything is arranged and they arrive at the movies to watch the first screening of the live action Cinderella movie at like 10 a.

Kyle Risi: m in the morning. Okay. Gypsy is dressed like Cinderella in a wig. Dee Dee is pushing her in a wheelchair. They get to the movies and DeeDee wheels Gypsy into the screening room and it's completely empty apart from this weird 21 year old man who's watching the live action Cinderella movie on his own on a Tuesday, doesn't have any kids with him and Gypsy's like, Oh, let's go sit next to him.

Adam Cox: Hopefully he's not scratching himself. 

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Oh, Adam, it's going to get so much worse. So DeeDee, of course, is like. Ew. Gross. No. He's creepy. Let's sit over there. So straight away their plan goes awry. Oh no. They don't get to sit next to each other. So, halfway through the movie, Gypsy tells Deedee that she needs to go to the toilet, so she wheels herself out into the foyer, and then Nicholas follows behind.

Kyle Risi: And then Gypsy just wheels herself into the men's toilet, and she loses her virginity to him in a bathroom stall at the movies like a true Disney princess. Oh my god! 

Adam Cox: I did not expect you to say that, but that's what 

Kyle Risi: happened. That's what happens, and they'd never spoken a word. In real life to each other, 

Adam Cox: and then Didi's in the theater just going, where is Gypsy

Adam Cox: I mean, yeah. Wow. 

Kyle Risi: So, I mean, this was really difficult for me to verify. I'm not sure if Didi ever found out about this. Okay. There's some speculation that she did because she'd called her a whore and she had punished her for ages after this incident. But there's also some other sources that say she knew nothing about this.

Kyle Risi: So at the end of this, I like the 

Adam Cox: fact that they saw sin. Durella. Yeah. See what I did 

Kyle Risi: there? I do. It's not that great. Oh, sorry. Hang on. You need a better reaction. Ah, I see what you did there. Yeah. All right. All right. Sorry. This is my pity support for you there. So later on, Gypsy says that when she finally met him in person on that day, it wasn't the same as when they were online.

Kyle Risi: Actually, he was just really creepy, but she says that she had come this far, so she just did it. And afterwards, she just wheels her back into the screening room. Dee Dee apparently knows nothing, and Nicholas just goes home. Wow. It's crazy. It's a memorable first time. Yeah. In the men's toilet. Gross. So.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, it's got a stink of poop. Yeah. I guess I probably went for the cleanest stall, right, which is going to be the disabled stall. There's always the best one to go into. Yeah. The last thing you want is for you to kind of finish up and then open the stall door and there's like someone in a wheelchair waiting.

Kyle Risi: Has it ever happened to you? No, I've 

Adam Cox: never been in a wheelchair. You never go 

Kyle Risi: into the 

Adam Cox: disabled store. Oh, right. Okay. I thought, I thought, I thought you were asking, have you ever stumbled in on someone doing it? 

Kyle Risi: No, I mean, I just sometimes nip into the disabled store cause it's got more space. It's always cleaner.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Anyway, this is not the end. Of their relationship, because after this, the chats get even more intense, even more sexual, and they start making plans to be together. But Gypsy points out that DeeDee will never let them be together ever. So in their little fantasy role plays that they act out at night, they discuss what they call Plan B, which is if DeeDee won't let them be together.

Kyle Risi: They're gonna kill her. And it gets really confusing for Gypsy because this entire relationship is just played out through these different fantasies using different personas and they all start merging into one and it's really difficult to keep up with what's serious and what's just role play especially around kind of the planning of Gypsy's mum.

Kyle Risi: Right. And most of the time she's just going along with stuff like she says she never expected. that he would actually do it. Right. So I get, I get it, but I don't know, 

Adam Cox: even to joke about that, although I guess she doesn't know that her mum 

Kyle Risi: She hates her mum at this point, right? She does, okay. She's now in, going through puberty.

Kyle Risi: She wants to be free. She wants to be a bit more independent. She's not been allowed to. So of course that resentment is going to build up. And at the same time, she probably doesn't know too much about these darker emotions and feelings of resentment to know how to properly deal with them. That's true, actually.

Kyle Risi: But If you go back through their messages, it's very clear. They're gypsy. was the one who indicated the plan. Oh. And these messages clearly showed that they were planning it. Right. So she sends Nicholas some money to buy a bus ticket and he is going to travel down to Wisconsin, to Missouri, and he's just going to wait at a hotel room while Gypsy and Dee Dee are at the doctor's.

Kyle Risi: And later, Nicholas gets a message from Gypsy that reads, The bitch is going down tonight. Right. That's crazy, right? She says in the text, Just gloves and a knife? And Nicholas says, Duct tape too. And Gypsy says, I'll pre cut the tape. So around 8 or 9pm, after Didi has gone to bed, Nicholas gets a message that she's going to leave the side door open for him and to be careful because it's very squeaky and only to open it as much as you need to to squeeze through.

Kyle Risi: So when he arrives she hands him the gloves and the knife and the arrangement is for Gypsy to lock herself in the bathroom and not to come out until he knocks on the door using a secret, uh, knock that they've come up with. Meanwhile, Nicholas goes into Dee Dee's room and he stabs her 17 times.

Kyle Risi: Apparently Gypsy can hear her mother struggling and like she's calling for her daughter, but she just says she covers her ears and she just lets it happen. And when Nicholas is done, he knocks on the door, as they agreed, and that lets her know that it's been done, that Dee Dee, Dee Dee's dead, man. That, 

Adam Cox: I mean, I'm not saying this is a, she's a good woman, but that is cruel.

Adam Cox: It's 

Kyle Risi: horrible, isn't it? That's, yeah. Gypsy does show remorse in some interviews that she does later on, like she wishes that she didn't do this, but she also didn't know any other way of escaping. And 

Adam Cox: how much did she know that she had been lied to at this point when she decided that she's going to kill her mum?

Adam Cox: I think she 

Kyle Risi: had a fair idea. Like she escaped. with Nicholas without any of her medications. Right. So she had an understanding that she didn't need this. She also definitely knew that she didn't need the feeding tube. And she begged her mother not to get another feeding tube. I think like the catheter bit that they plug into your stomach that has to get changed every so often.

Kyle Risi: She begged her mother, she's like, I don't need it. Please don't do this again. And her mother's like, just pipe down, like you're going to get it. So I think she had an understanding and she, and if she knew I need those medications. She wouldn't have left the house without them. Yeah. Okay. What's really disturbing is that when they were planning the murder, Nicholas says to Gypsy, if I'm going to do this, then he referring to the darker persona that actually committed the murder, he is going to want to rape her afterwards.

Kyle Risi: And Gypsy was like, no, I do not want that to happen. And Nicholas was like, if I can't rape her, then I'm going to rape you. What? And Gypsy agrees. So after the murder, the two of them take the 4, 000 that's hidden in the house, good job that poodle didn't get to it, and they take a taxi to a motel where they spend the next few nights just having sex and filming each other on their phones.

Kyle Risi: And they're giggling, they're eating burgers, and they're basically just having romantic nights together. And it's really disturbing to watch considering What they've just done just like hours before. That is 

Adam Cox: disgusting. 

Kyle Risi: What the hell? Yeah, the videos are creepy and she's like laughing. He's like, hee hee hee hee hee.

Kyle Risi: So the next day they get a bus to his house all the way in Wisconsin, which is around 500 miles away. And they stay at his parents house. And the bus driver says that when he picks Gypsy up, she was wearing a really old musty kind of share wig. And she looked like 12, but she sounded like she was five years old.

Kyle Risi: She had a really major attitude on her. And she was like, I'm a big girl now. Right. And a few days later, Gypsy is really caught up about the murder. She's worried that nobody is going to discover Dee Dee's body. So Gypsy and Nicholas post those two Facebook statuses, hoping that it will raise the alarm.

Kyle Risi: They posted that? It was them. Yeah, it was Nicholas, from Nicholas's IP address. Right. So it's not long before the police show up. They get a warrant to access a house. And of course, they discovered DD's body dead in her bed. Gypsy, of course, is nowhere to be found. And there is this rush to locate her as soon as possible, because as far as anyone knew, she was extremely vulnerable.

Kyle Risi: So from the neighbors that are gathered around the house, after the alarm had been raised and the police were there, one of them was a friend of Gypsy who told police that Gypsy was seeing Gypsy. a guy called Nicholas, which she just didn't believe at all at the time. So they quickly then investigate the IP address of some of the messages they've exchanged on her computer, and they locate them just a few days later.

Kyle Risi: And when the police take them into custody for questioning, and based on everything, that the neighbours had said about Gypsy and what they had learned. They are in complete shock that she's able to walk, that she's completely healthy. And when she's being interviewed, she pretends like she doesn't know that Dee Dee was dead.

Kyle Risi: Adam, she is the worst actress I've ever seen. She acts like a Disney princess would act when you find out like your mother has just died. Right. Okay. So she's like, wait, what? Say that again. It's like your, your mother, she's passed away and she's like, what? No, no, this can't be. Oh no. Say it again. Say it again.

Kyle Risi: And he's like, your mother's died. And we think you're involved and she's like, what? No, this can't be. It's just brilliant. 

Adam Cox: I guess if she's always been brought up as Disney, is that what she's got to go off and say? There's a lot of reference, right? This woman is 

Kyle Risi: twisted. The detective, they interview her and it's clear she was involved, but Gypsy just keeps denying it.

Kyle Risi: And when they ask her to hand over her phone, she's like, Oh, oh yeah, okay, here you go. And they tell her, we're going to check all your messages, right? And she's like, yeah, that's totally okay. Is it like, you know that we can read deleted messages, right? And Gypsy's like, what? And she's totally freaking out.

Kyle Risi: So meanwhile, Nicholas is in the other interview room and he's not smart. He's an idiot. Immediately. He just convinces everything. He's like, yeah, I want you guys to know that. Yep. I did stab Didi, but I only did it because Gypsy told me to and Gypsy needed me to kill her because she was really hurting her.

Kyle Risi: And I love Gypsy and I wanted to save her. Everything he was saying was plausible, but it's just really funny that you've got Gypsy the other room. He's denying everything, putting on this big broadcast. 

Adam Cox: Generally, how did they think that they could get away 

Kyle Risi: with this? I know they were dumb. Also, as for the murder weapon, because Gypsy thinks that bus stations work like airports with all the security, she doesn't want to take the knife with him on the bus, so she gets Nicholas to put it in an envelope and mail it to his house.

Kyle Risi: When the police arrest them, they find the envelope addressed to Nicholas at his house, and when they open it, there's a knife and the bloody glove in there. He's not smart. Oh God. Like, you stupid boy. So. He did say he had an IQ 82, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the police hold a press conference, because remember, Dee Dee and Gypsy, they're like beloved members of the community.

Kyle Risi: And there are a lot of people that are very concerned about where Gypsy is. And the police say, we, we found Gypsy and she's safe. Um, and everyone's like, thank goodness. Oh my God. But. The policeman says, not only have we found Gypsy, but we've also arrested her and her boyfriend for the murder of deedee.

Kyle Risi: And everyone's like, what? And then the police is like, uh, not only was Gypsy evolved, but she's completely healthy. She doesn't have muscular dystrophy. She isn't epi epileptic, she doesn't have cancer. She's not 19, she's actually 25. And people are like, what the fuck? I can, yeah. What would. 

Adam Cox: Imagine all these charities going, but we've been giving them like hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kyle Risi: We sent you to Disney, man. Yeah. 

Adam Cox: Yeah. The fallout of this must have been ridiculous. It was 

Kyle Risi: mental. People just cannot believe it. So at their first court hearing, the news cameras are all there, partly because of the press conference being so fricking nuts. And everyone is just interested in the story.

Kyle Risi: When Gypsy walks into the court hearing, it's the first time that anyone has seen her since before the murder. So to see her actually walk in, like people are outraged. I 

Adam Cox: bet. They're mad. They've been lied 

Kyle Risi: to. Yeah, they feel like they've been duped because everyone thought that she was this disabled 19 year old kid.

Kyle Risi: So this is also the first time that Rod sees his daughter walk. for the first time and he is completely unprepared for this. Like he had no idea. Yeah. And he really loves his daughter, right? Like he cares for her. He doesn't live in the same state. He does his best by her. He's paying the child support.

Kyle Risi: All this bullshit. So it's horrible. During the court hearing, they read out a bunch of the messages which are very sexual. And pretty violent and very adult and of course Gypsy looks mortified because these were very private messages and they're a huge taint on her character because everyone thinks she's this Disney princess because for years she's had this whole Disney persona thing going on.

Kyle Risi: Some of the messages were along the lines of, I can't wait until you've done it because then we can shag her all night knowing that she's dead. Isn't that awful? This 

Adam Cox: word is so twisted, I can't believe she's getting this much notoriety in the public eye right now. I know, 

Kyle Risi: I know. So everyone who thought like she was a sweet girl What the F is going on, man?

Kyle Risi: What is happening? But it doesn't take long for the narrative to flip because people find out exactly what Dee Dee had been doing to Gypsy all these years and they start to feel sorry for her. And her dad is just in bits because he had no clue. He genuinely believed that Gypsy was seriously sick. So Rod and his wife, they hire a lawyer and they start to take care of her as best they can.

Kyle Risi: And eventually a trial is scheduled with Nicholas due to be trialed separately. But while Gypsy's in prison, she starts thriving, man, because they take out her feeding tube. She starts eating proper food. Her hair grows for the first time. They get her teeth fixed and she doesn't have to wear those crazy thick dated kind of eyeglasses anymore.

Adam Cox: I guess she gets her independence in prison, which is the weirdest 

Kyle Risi: thing. Exactly. And she has stopped taking all these medications. And by all accounts. She starts looking like a regular 24 year old woman. Later she says that she felt more free in prison than she ever did living with her mother. 

Adam Cox: Wow.

Adam Cox: That's crazy to almost think prison was actually a good experience. 

Kyle Risi: So in 2015, about a year after all of this happens, Gypsy takes a plea deal and given her background and everything that she's been through, she's given a 10 year prison sentence with the eligibility for parole in 2024, which sees her being released just a few weeks ago.

Kyle Risi: As for Nicholas, his lawyers, they try to lean into this kind of low mental capacity and mental health issues aspect of things. And his trial is just delayed over and over. And eventually he goes to trial in 2018, but he's found completely guilty of DD's murder and he is sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

Kyle Risi: So he's gonna essentially die in prison. So. What are you thinking? Do you believe that Gypsy was a victim or do you think that she is more culpable than she's leading everyone to believe based on some of the messages that we've read? 

Adam Cox: Do you know what? After everything you've said, I really don't know how I feel about this now because I was going into this going, oh, this is a really juicy story and I can't help Obviously what Gypsy's been through is just awful, and I understand the motivation why she might have done what she'd done to get, to escape.

Adam Cox: But also, because of, I think, the sexual nature with her boyfriend, and then there's I don't know, there's just a, something there which doesn't sit right with me. Yeah. And then with the mother, I'm like, there's a horrendous murder, but she did do something awful to her child. Yeah. I don't think it's right.

Adam Cox: She should have gone to prison. But then equally, what would the mom done had this still been going on? Because Gypsy was supposed to have this life expectancy of a teenager, right? So would she eventually have done something? 

Kyle Risi: Oh my God, that's such a great point. Because like, she can't keep the facade going on.

Kyle Risi: For that long, would Dee Dee have murdered her daughter? Is this all self defense? 

Adam Cox: Just to make those symptoms worse. Yeah. And done something even 

Kyle Risi: more terrible. What a brilliant point, I don't know. It's such a complex case, isn't it? Yeah, I am conflicted. So I wonder what's in store for Gypsy now? Now that she's been released, I wonder if she's due to land a bunch of media deals.

Kyle Risi: I keep seeing her popping up on social media, like just doing ordinary things, like outliving the life and stuff. She looks happy. By the way, she did get married in 2022. In prison? Yeah, while she was in prison. His name is like Ryan Anderson and I think like he's a special needs teacher. So they started talking via email and soon after they obviously fell in love, they got a marriage license and they ended up getting married in 2022.

Kyle Risi: Obviously she broke up with Nicholas straight away after all this happened, but she looks incredible. Like she's really healthy. She's gained some healthy weight and she looks like she's thriving. But if you want to know more about the story, then there's a great. HBO miniseries called The Act with Patricia Arquette.

Kyle Risi: She plays Dee Dee and Joey King takes on the role of Gypsy. And it's just incredible, man. And they have both since got a bunch of award nominations. So it's really awesome. In fact, that's what we're going to be watching tonight. I was going to say 

Adam Cox: like, how is this not a movie already? 

Kyle Risi: It's a brilliant eight part TV series.

Kyle Risi: Excellent. And the trailers look incredible. So before we end, I just want to mention that the thing to remember that many people overlook here Is that Didi died, man. It's really tragic what happened to her, especially the events following her murder, because it turns out that Didi was widely disliked.

Kyle Risi: Her father, her siblings, they wanted nothing to do with her. When Didi's mother became ill, Didi was the one who was entrusted with their care. However, her mother's health rapidly declined, and there was a suspicion that Didi was starving her, possibly to kind of seize her money. Like, Didi had a history of stealing, man.

Kyle Risi: Like, from relatives. She alienated herself massively to the extent where none of her family wanted anything to do with her. And additionally, when Didi and Gypsy moved in with Didi's father and the stepmother after she split up from Rod, Her stepmother's health started mysteriously worsening. And again, it was suspected that Dee Dee might be poisoning her food with a weed killer.

Kyle Risi: And so after a major argument, Dee Dee and Gypsy leave, and remarkably, her stepmother's kind of health recovers. Gets 

Adam Cox: better. So that makes me think that she probably would have done something to Gypsy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, she is a twisted woman. I don't think she should have died, but she should have gone to prison to rot.

Kyle Risi: That's it. I agree with that. So her family, they hated her. And after Dee Dee's murder, nobody came forward to claim her body or to pay for a funeral. Wow. So she was just cremated by the state. And they sent Dee Dee's ashes to her parents who deliberated on what to do with him. And in the end they decided to just flush him down the toilet.

Kyle Risi: And that was the end of Dee Dee Blanchett. Wow. 

Adam Cox: That is, that was a roller coaster. I can't believe the story. You just couldn't have made that up I don't feel. What was the documentary 

Kyle Risi: that you mentioned earlier? Uh, so that was Mummy, Dead and Dearest, which brilliant documentary on what happened. And also, if you are a fan of Dr.

Kyle Risi: Phil, then there's a really brilliant, hard to watch interview with Gypsy while she's still serving time in prison. And it's unnerving because Dr. Phil doesn't show her any compassion at all, and he plays like a bunch of footage. He just stares into her eyes while she just breaks down while she's watching it.

Kyle Risi: Dr. Phil's sadistic, man. But he asked some really compelling questions like, how did you not know this was happening? Like, why did you choose to do this? Was there another way that you could have gotten out of this? Could you not have called your dad? All due respect to Gypsy, she answers as frankly and as honestly as she can, exactly the way that she sees it.

Kyle Risi: I feel like it was a super honest interview, so it's definitely worth watching because even though like you will question some of the things that she says, I don't believe for a second that she was lying or like she was trying to mislead us. That's my opinion. Loads of other people completely disagree with that, but yeah.

Kyle Risi: And then, of course, I mentioned the miniseries based on the story called The Act with Patricia Arquette and Joey King. So, yeah, definitely worth watching. I just don't know how I 

Adam Cox: feel about her. It's weird because I feel sympathy, but how much remorse If she's now in the public light again. I just don't know if 

Kyle Risi: I trust her.

Kyle Risi: Yeah, it is. It's a strange one, isn't it? Yeah. Like, I'm really intrigued to follow her on social media. She has a great innocent look, like I feel sorry for her story, but yeah, like it's. Mental. After you know of how everything went down, and the planning, it's a bit 

Adam Cox: It feels like if she had acted out in rage, or something she found out and she did it on her own, and it wasn't calculated with another man, I think I could sympathise with her a lot more because she just got to a breaking point, but because of there was this, I don't know, plotting, it just feels Pre 

Kyle Risi: meditation.

Kyle Risi: Yeah. Yeah. That's it, and that is the story. of Gypsy Rose and the murder of Didi Blanchett. Should we run the outro? Let's do it. And so we come to the end of another episode of the Compendium, an assembly of fascinating and intriguing things. If you found today's episode both fascinating and intriguing, then subscribe and leave us a review.

Kyle Risi: Don't just stop there, schedule your episodes to download automatically as soon as they become available. We're on Instagram at the Compendium Podcast, so stop by and say hi, or visit us at our home on the web at thecompendiumpodcast. com. We release every Tuesday. And until then, remember, sometimes the most twisted tales are hidden behind the most innocent smiles.

Kyle Risi: See you next time. See ya.