Essay About Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Her Mother
Gypsy Rose is known as a criminal convicted of masterminding her own mother’s murder Clauddine Blanchard or otherwise known as Dee Dee. Dee Dee suffered from munchenhausen by proxy which is a mental illness and a form of child abuse. The caretaker of a child, most often a mother, either makes up fake symptoms or causes real symptoms to make it look like the child is sick. No one really knows the cause of munchausen by proxy, but researchers are looking at roles of biological and physiological factors in its development. Some theories suggest a history of abuse, neglect, or loss of a parent at an early age could cause munchenhausen by proxy. Gypsy Rose suffered years of abuse at the hands of her mother , including claims of cancer, muscular dystrophy, brain damage, learning disabilities, vision impairment, etc. she was confined to a wheelchair for the majority of her life even though she was a perfectly healthy person, but her mother presented her as a severely disabeld sick child who needed to be looked after 24/7. The mother - daughter became celebrities and received much attention on social media after their house was swept away in Hurricane Katrina. After many failed escape attempts, she hatched a plan with her boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother. After killing her mother, they ran away, but were arrested soon after she is now in prison for second-degree murder The strange story of Gypsy started way back when she was just a baby; her mother convinced herself that the daughter suffered from severe life-threatening health issues. Her mother used her presumed medical conditions to gain access to public assistance funds. After losing their home to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the mother-daughter duo gained much press attention. They became media darlings when Gypsy won ‘Oley Foundation's ‘2007 Child of the Year’ award. ‘Habitat For Humanity’ built a special house with a ramp for them in 2008. They also received generous donations like free stays at Ronald McDonald Houses in Louisiana, free flights for doctor’s visits, free Disney World trips, backstage passes to concerts, etc.
The mother made her wear large glasses, shaved her head and confined her to a wheelchair when she was just a child. Because of her small stature, almost toothless smile, wearing wigs and carrying a feeding tube, she came across as a charming girl who suffered serious side effects of chemotherapy. The mother had subjected her to a series of unnecessary surgeries and also deceived everyone about her real age.
When she got older, she came to understand her mother’s wrongdoings and tried to escape, but her mother would often beat her up or chain her to the bed. Gypsy found her escape online, where she met her future boyfriend, 23-year-old Nick Godejohn. After she told Nick about her mother, they began to plot her murder. In June 2015, Nick stabbed the mother to death. They promptly fled to Nick’s house in Wisconsin.
After a long manhunt, they couple was tracked to Wisconsin and the world was shocked to learn that Gypsy could walk unassisted and was completely normal. Both were arrested and incarcerated. During interrogation, she informed the police of her true age, the years of abuse and stated that she was happy to be out of her miserable situation. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison on convictions of second-degree murder in July 2015 after she confessed to masterminding the murder.
Her fame reached new heights when HBO made a documentary on her in May 2017 ‘Mommy Dead and Dearest’. Further media attention continued in the form of interviews on the talk show ‘Dr. Phil’, an ID channel special, a Lifetime channel TV film, and a March 2019 Hulu miniseries titled ‘The Act’.
