The Saga of Gypsy Rose

A poll confirmed that we should do the Gypsy Rose story, and KT has the details on a wild rollercoaster of a ride, involving the case of newly released prisoner Gypsy Rose

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is a downbeat on ninety sevento one the Freak. If you did
not know it, we started toshow at six am. You get on
that Wee podcast over you see asegment after the show, and you could
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to the Heart Radio app and we'llcheck that out here in a little bit.

(00:24):
There's some more maps ticket giveaways alittle bit later in the week.
So a little a little tip.It's not hardcore breaking news. It's just
a little something pumped up. Soyou know how we're about to enter the
winter's cold that spring wheel race,okay, and we're on our own grid.

(00:45):
So there's a plan, according tothe Dallas Wanting News, a plan
to link orcott the grid to thesoutheastern US states. It is a private
company that's been hired to create theSouthern Spirit Transmission, which would be a
four hundred line from the Texas Louisianaborder through Louisiana and Mississippi that would essentially

(01:11):
not make Texas just be the Texasgrid. So this is gonna slow our
secession. I know, right,I'm pissed. What is this liberal agenda?
Mike, he really wants to secedefrom the union. I do from
the best vocal member of media.Yeah, we got touchdown Teddy on the

(01:34):
case. What do we need toworry about? Power for boy? He
you know what, he took itin the shorts. Remember he had a
He was at the Longhorns game theother night and he got as he does
every time. Yeah, he getsblamed for he goes to a game and
his team loses. Someone posts apicture of him wearing their gears. Yeah
to Astros a lot. I don'tknow if it was on this I think

(01:56):
it was our station. Sometime theyhad his record of games that he's attended
and he had to respond to withlike I remember the Astros victory and this
he listed a bunch of wins hewas at. Yeah, just got to
get the record straight. Yeah,more wins than losses. So yeah,
touchdown ted Touchdown Teddy, touchdown Teddy. I wonder if he was at the

(02:20):
Sugar Bowl on Monday night. Hewas, That's why was he really?
Yes, that's why this all cameabout. So I have done a bit
of a This is not a researchproject at all. This is something that
I saw that was happening over theholidays kept seeing this name and I was
like, I don't know what thisis. I don't know what this is.
And then granted, I look myit sounds weird to say the word

(02:46):
my fiance and I'm the financier.The fiance Roxy is thirty. So but
she's you know, she stays onthe tick and does you know she's more
hip to things than I am?And she hips me to things and I'm

(03:07):
just like, hell yes. Andthen I like to imagine when she's listening
to an eighteen minute version of Numberforty one, that she's like, he
hips me to things. I liketo imagine that it's not true. I
like to imagine that joke. Fornine we're broadcasting Kevin Dave Matthews thing he
just did. So this whole GypsyRose thing is going nuts now. Before

(03:31):
if you're at the wistling you don'tknow what that is, don't don't worry.
We'll get there. And I'm like, okay. She's like, you've
never heard of it, and I'mlike, no, you've never heard of
her. I'm like, no,I haven't. As you show these things,
all these night clubs are holding gettingGypsy for tipsy or getting tipsy for
gypsy parties, look for toys orjust for fun getting throwed for gypsy rows?

(03:53):
Like all these theme night how manyother ones clubs are happening? There
are many more? Any do youlike two more? Do six more?
Here's Kevin with six more? Okay, he's trying hard. He's like Rose,

(04:15):
No, he had two? Youhad two? He actually had one
because the second one didn't even work. Tipsy for gypsy is good? What's
the second one? You did?It was getting throwed for Gypsy Rose?
See that doesn't So he had oneand one bar probably did it. Okay,
you don't worry about it. Itwas multiple bars. It was a
big story. And the people arelike, it's a bit of an internet

(04:38):
meme that Gypsy Rose is free.So what do you guys know about Gypsy
Rose? Blanchard or Blanchard? Doyou want us to play dumb and act
like we don't know or do youwant me to tell you. I'll play
dumb because I think you know something, but I would need you to yell
I five here got you? Okay? I watched the Hulu show I know.

(04:59):
It's about a kid who's convinced thekid that she was sick and they
lied for sympathy and money and thensomeone got killed. That's it. But
start this thing from dead square one, please. Well, she was released
from prison last Thursday, and that'swhy this is in the news. She
was serving a ten year sentence forbeing an accomplice to the murder of her
mother. Okay, she had servedeight years of that and then was released.

(05:24):
She's found guilty of helping kill herabusive mother. Now, this was
the subject of an HBO documentary intwenty seventeen and a Hulu series in twenty
nineteen, a dramatic series. Yeah. Yeah, like six or eight episodes
or something. Yeah, and that'swhat it was called The Act. The
I think the HBO doc is calledDead Mommy and Dearest I believe, And

(05:46):
they're about to have a lifetime series, which you know when I watch that
or anything. But they're about tohave that in the news, okay over
the last week because she got released. Yeah. In the Act was four
years ago, and the mom,DeeDee Blanchard, was played by Patti Arquette
Yah Patricia Arcatt who she's really reallygood in it. That's her best role
ever as playing the crazy mom,and a lot of things. She was

(06:10):
awesome in uh Escape from Dana Moraas well. So Gypsy Rose was the
victim of her mother's diagnosis basically well, it ended up being a diagnosis of
munchausend by proxy, which is whenyou fictitiously impose disorders on another person.
And usually this happens with children,and happened very often, but it haves

(06:31):
so basically the mom she married aguy super young. He's an Irish feller,
like eighteen or night eighteen or nineteen. He ended up running off before
you know, really like he helpedmake a Gypsy Rose as the father,
but he was not around. Heis involved in the documentary I watched,

(06:54):
so he wasn't involved in her life, but he did have communication with her.
Gypsy Rose was in a wheelchair,she had a feeding tube installed,
was led to believe that she wasparalyzed below the waist. She was not
paralyzed below the waist. But herwhole upbringing I mean includes her mom lying
to several different doctors. One she'sgot leukemia, one she said that she

(07:16):
is she's slow, basically basically saidthat she suffered from retardation. I mean,
there's all kinds of things and dD is the name of the mother.
D D. Blanchard was by Gypsy'sside almost all of her first twenty
years of life. So here's thefirst clip, and this is Gypsy in
prison, okay, and she's doingan interview for this documentary, and she's

(07:40):
talking about all of the things thather mother said that she had. Now
this is at this time, Gypsyis probably in her mid to late twenties.
What illnesses did your mom say thatyou have? Asthma, epilepsy,
hearing in teraired vision impaired, wasfeeding to paralyzed from the waist down slow

(08:05):
so retardation and among other things.I just can't remember them. So ever,
since she was a kid, that'sall she's known and the mom treated
and she had been just basically toldyou were you know, you're disabled because
the mom did not want her togrow up and leave. She didn't want

(08:28):
to be left alone, right,that's part of it, I think,
although we don't I don't know that, And maybe that's covered in that,
combined with massive amounts of psychosis aswell. Yeah, no, absolutely,
And that's the HBO documentary lays itout a few different ways. But I
never got to the point I meanthey they played the fraud angle up really

(08:48):
well. I mean they were gettingshe was getting taken on trips to children's
hospitals, like here's a hot tub, here's a new car. She might
have James like four times. Yeah, I got to meet Kevin James four
times. This is her make awish was James? What a great reference.

(09:13):
So her entire life, she's ledto believe she can't walk, and
dude, it's crazy. There's anodd one. There's you know, because
you're like, mommy, I'm standingYeah, no, no, no,
no, no no. And that'show it's portrayed in the in the the
dramatized series. Yeah, yeah,we'll sit down. You're paralyzed. Yeah,

(09:35):
And I mean she was bedridden foryou know, a lot, because
she went to many different doctors,flied to many different doctors, and then
you know, so she would everytime. It's not like she had some
normal life where she was able torun around all the time, feeding to
installed in her she was in pain. How does a doctor do that.
That's where it gets wild. Andthey say that her mother was a master

(10:01):
manipulator. It was her area ofexpertise. If she was on the floor
it would be a manipulation. Okay. Gypsy Rose is told she can't walk,
but has spent a lot of timeat doctor's offices, hospitals, surgeries.
One thing I'm not super clear aboutis that if she was walking home,
which may have been portraying in thatHulu series. Ever, No,

(10:22):
but there's footage of her as akid playing outside in the snow and she's
dragging herself on the ground. Butif you're watching it, you're like,
well, she's dragging herself on theground, but she's also moving your legs.
And there's a scene where her dadand her stepmom are going through old
doctor records with an investigator and they'reshowing them and they're showing all the lying
the mother had done. And there'sone specific record from a neurologist, and

(10:46):
this is Gypsy was fourteen at thetime, and you're gonna hear this neurologist
basically had put in his notes thatthe mother's a bad life, doesn't have
a good history, you know,basically saying, your mother's a liar.
And this is kind of one thingthat just got swept under the rug that
if they would have found, maybenone of this ever happens, but she

(11:07):
was fourteen at the time. Mymother is not a good historian, which
is interesting because he puts that inbold and underlines it. One of the
things was a big discrepancy was thatfor a person that has not walked for
ninety years, she should have technicallyalmost no muscles in her lower extremity.
But she didn't have muscles. Let'slooked quite normal if she was able to

(11:31):
support her body weight. I rememberher standing. So I had a big
doubt about the whole thing throw thebeginning. Analyzing all the facts, and
I'm talking to a previous pediatrician.There's a strong possibility of Munchausen by proxy,
with maybe some underlying unknown ideology toexplain her symptoms. So it's right
there on the doctor's nuts from theneurologists that they found when they're investigating,

(11:56):
you know, ten years later,if the dad was around, I said
on that HBO doc, the dadwho is not around a lot as a
you know, this his his uhnow why his new wife, which would
be Gypsy's stepmom. Boy, shetalks a lot in this thing, And
I'm like, maybe this isn't yourstory. St I'm like, y'all,

(12:18):
were around, so it's it's interestingnow they're trying to do the right thing
and find out and try to helpher now and they are involved in her
life now or but ideally will benow. But that was very strange.
Now the neurologist caught it. Butlater he said he reported it in his
notes that they have a system inplace about contacting social services only for when

(12:39):
the kids neglected. Right, soshe's being overtreated. He just put,
you know, in his notes whathe saw the mom's battle. Liar,
she I think she's been walking,But he said, look, I'm not
the way the system works. She'sbeing overtreated. She's not being neglected,
and they would have they would havelistened to me. I did my job.

(13:00):
Hopefully that's been redefined since then,because that is still a form of
neglect. Yeah, and I meanthis guy I think is just guilty of
maybe doing his job and not overdoinghis job. On to the next patient.
Yeah, I put in the notesit's up to you know. Now
it gets really complicated, all cutcorners, Mikey, we're humans's right.
It gets real complicated though, asGypsy gets a little older, and also,

(13:24):
you know, maybe a little bitof a you know, the internet
age. I mean there's a lotof things you can think. So she
is basically on the Internet at nightwhen her mom is asleep a lot.
And like Keaven, she's in theage range of eighteen to twenty two I'll
say loosely eighteen plus. As thisis happening now, she's not. She

(13:45):
doesn't have the brain capacity of aneighteen year old at that time because her
life was stunted. And this iswhen she first meets a boy online.
I met Nick through a Christian datingwebsite. Thought it was cute to check
him out. Femine wink an mewhen that gypsy had no template for romance.

(14:07):
His background equipped him with a badnarratives in different ways, so it
was like two bad narratives collided witheach other. Go to. John also
has a criminal past. In twentythirteen, he was arrested after investigators saying
he was watching pornography and fondling himselfin a McDonald's restaurant for nine hours,
police finding a large knife during theerection. My headphones just fell off because

(14:31):
I was about to say I butthen I was like nine hour Jesus,
I mean, dude, three squaremeals. I was like, you know,
following this documentary and I was like, okay, this is a terrible
story. And then we took her, which she starts beating boys take a

(14:52):
break in the middle to grab amcdeal tea recharge nine hours. It happened
within nine minutes. I'm going tobed. Christian dating website is still doing
it. I'm not going over there. I don't know. Just take take
go to the windows. Grimace satGrimace over there? Amen? What you

(15:16):
doing? You may have the wrongpitch your voice for Grimace though, as
we don't know. Don't add Grimaceto Danny's character lists in development and ambiguous
and one more time Go to Johnalso has a criminal past. In twenty
thirteen, he was arrested after investigatorssaying he was watching pornography and fondling himself

(15:39):
in a McDonald's restaurant for nine hours. Pile he's finding a large knife during
the arrest. Okay, what fundlehimself for nine hours? Nick? Go
to John? Is his name?Nine hours? You should know this.
Diagnosed with Asberger's and autism. Hisparents said that the doctor said he would
always be in the frame of mindkind of a fifteen or sixteen year old

(16:02):
okay, and he also claims alsoclaims they had multiple personalities. This is
all yeah, right there something inthe nine hours. I'm kind of,
yeah, another one. I gotto get this other person going and this
other person so maybe so he wason medication for multiple personalities. Buckle up
here. As we go forth withthe romance with him and Gypsy Rose,

(16:23):
at first, it was all lighthearted. You know, if you got married,
where would you like to have yourhoneymoon? You know, where would
you like to get married? Whereall the places you want to travel?
Different things like that, normal stuff. And as it progressed, things got
weird. I started talking about somethingcalled BBSM, and at first I didn't

(16:48):
know what it was, so Ilooked it up. Once I looked up,
I'm like, I don't want todo this. And then he kind
of just toopped me into it,like they don't fine, you know,
try this with me, and soI agree to it. Then his ex
had bessaged me and she told me, you know, he's a really bad

(17:12):
guy. He thinks he's a vampireand he's in all this dominant submissive stob
And I was thinking, it's justan ex. You know, she's just
bad mouthing him. She doesn't knowanything, she's jealous, blah blah blah.
She's right, I really don't knowwhat's wrong with him. But I

(17:33):
mean, it's not like I everhad a boyfriend before, and she was
just excited that someone would talk toher. You know, that's not her
mother, So sad you said sheis in her twenties when this audio is
being yes, okay, it doesn'tsound like it sounds like a ten year
old. Yeah, No, that'swhat's crapy about. It needs to be
repeated for sure. Now time goeson, she keeps getting more frustrated with
her brother. She can't get helpfrom anybody. In fact, there's one

(17:56):
an anonymous report was sent into theplace that her mother was abusing her.
The police go over, they seeGypsy in her bed. Mother's there,
you know, and Gypsy's bald becauseher mother's told her that she has cancer,
right, so she wore wigs andall the time. Things like that.
Her mother has paperwork that easily explainsall the things, because somehow she

(18:17):
fell through every single crack that thesystem had to off. Yeah, to
the uninformed eye, it looks likethis mother is taking great care of this
very sick child. So Gypsy givesup keeps talking to Nick go to John
online, they haven't met yet,and through text messages they came up with
a plan and she's finally had enoughand she's like, I'm ready, let's
kill her. So D D.Blanchard was killed in June twenty fifteen.

(18:38):
Gypsy was in her early twenties atthat time. Nicholas go to John showed
up at the house. Gypsy openedthe door for him while she was sleeping.
He walks in stabs her to deathin her sleep. Oh, obvious
case of premeditated murder. They triedto make it look like Gypsy's Facebook was
hacked, so they had posted thatbitch is dead, and then a few

(18:59):
minutes later there's an on the postthat says Ifing slashed that fat pig and
raped her sweet innocent daughter. Policeeasily tracked the IP to go to John's
house, which was six hundred milesaway. He had traveled that far to
go do this and to see her, and that's where they found. Two
days later, Nick and Gypsy atNick's house and it's say in a hotel

(19:21):
room. The night after the murder, on the way back to his house,
they'd say a hotel room. Andthat's where I made the joke,
the very sad joke where he's inbed again. This kid, they're in
their twenties. He's in bed,he's not wearing anything. He's got a
brownie on his chest and he's gota smile and he gives a piece over
the camera and she's like, ismy boyfriend now he's eating a brownie and

(19:47):
later he's gonna eat me? Wasthat actually that was said in the video?
Oh yeah, okay. Gypsy pledguilty to second degree That was the
night after the murder. Whenever thathappened in the night Gypsy played guilty of
the second degree murder was since theten years in prison, they had to

(20:11):
rework it to not be first agreemurder because they're like, look, she
was abused and she didn't actually doit. Yeah, she's got to do
sometime. So she was let out. Know, go to John convicted the
first degree murder or sentence to lifein prison and that's where he will be.
Uh. Gypsy got released last week, turns into an internet sensation,
took selfie of herself. It's goingline people magazines, you know, tweeting

(20:34):
about it, and people were throwingout she wants to meet Taylor Swift,
like that's all, And that's likehow this became a big thing, and
there a lot of people were havingparties to celebrate that she was released because
a lot of people thought it waswrong that she went to prison, but
she still killed her mother, yes, you know. So it's like,

(20:55):
I don't know, and she's becomein prison a lot more I think educated
over time because you had some reallyor maybe she's just done a lot of
interviews, but she's really like prettywell spoken answers in terms of like asked
questions like do you think you knowyour mom should be dead? And she's
like, no, absolutely, whathappened should not have happened. But I

(21:18):
do think her mom, my momshould have spent time behind bars, Okay,
And it's like yeah, I cansee that. Yeah, so it's
a tricky thing of should she beout. I don't know. I tend
to feel sorry for her when Iwatch all of this. Yeah, I'm
surprised she did as much time asshe did, if any at all.
It seems like, yeah, youdefinitely can put the but I mean,
god, his whole mental state wasprobably pretty messed up too. It's really

(21:42):
bad. And you know, theyget him in a couple scenes in this
HBO documentary, which is from twentyseventeen, and they're like, okay,
did you He basically has to tellthe investigators, look, I think necrophilia
is terrible. Why would you askthat, you know, like, because
they're like, we don't know howcrazy he is. Is he gone for

(22:02):
a long time? Ye in prison, life in prison, life in prison.
No McDonald's, no more Donalds forhim, but yeah, that's the
time you want. But yeah,he can break his record. You know,
his parents talk. They were like, he's kind, he's kind of
an outcast. Gypsy was and thisis what's not real clear to me.
She was sending pictures that the theBDSM stuff. They weren't They hadn't met,

(22:26):
you know, they tried to meetat a movie they went to,
like a Disney movie. Weirdly,Gypsy's mom took her to a movie.
It was like a Cinderella movie orsomething, and he showed up and Gypsy
knew it, but like he couldn'tsit, you know, where they were.
But Gypsy like went to the bathroomand they went and had sex for
the like upon meeting each other,they went, I'm assuming into the handicauch

(22:52):
stall. I'm assuming it's just anassumption, just because there's more room in
there and rails. It just makeswell. And she's in the wheelchair,
you know, if she could standup. But then, like her mom
found out that he had gone,so they had gotten in a big fight
over that that he was there now, So I don't know how much else

(23:15):
the mom knew about the romance.There's a lot of questions you could ask,
how was she getting wigs and lingerieAmazon to her house because she was
doing that and taking pictures and sendingthem to him six hundred miles away.
Incredible. It's the craziest stuff ever. It's so wild. She's married too.

(23:37):
Didn't she get married while she wasin I got married in prison.
She's living with him now, thenew husband. Really Yeah, so there's
another guy who's like Gypsy Rose girlsin prison. I love her And that's
just like a fan of the story. Oh wait, you don't look like
that actress. Can't be real?Okay? Is that fifty four percent of

(24:00):
you voted on that you wanted tohear today? So thank you? Kevin's
all right, all right, you'vebeen a dozen. You've been partying along
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