The Act is a Hulu tv-series which retells the tale of “The Murder of Dee Dee Blanchard“. Late night on June 14, 2015, a woman named Dee Dee Blanchard was found stabbed to death inside her was planned by Gypsy Rose and Nicholas Godejohn. The world is obsessed with the story.
The true story of Dee Dee Blanchard’s murder:
Who was Dee Dee Blanchard?
To understand the story of Dee Dee Blanchard’s murder, you’ve to first understand who was Dee Dee aka Claudine Pitres. In her early life (childhood), Dee Dee was very stubborn. According to her family in Louisiana, Dee Dee would steal in order to retaliate if things didn’t go her way.
She was pregnant with a daughter by the age of 17. Rod Blanchard and Dee Dee married but later they divorced after Rod realized he married her for the Wrong Reasons. This left Dee Dee with the custody of her daughter Gypsy Rose. She took her newborn to live with her family.
Dee Dee’s mental illness:
Dee Dee suffered from a mental illness called Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder where a person makes up or exaggerates medical symptoms of a child in their care in order to gain attention and sympathy. Due to this, when Gypsy was just three months old, Dee Dee started diagnosing Gypsy with a variety of illnesses. Sleep Apnea, epilepsy, cancer, muscular dystrophy, and ear and eye problems among some of them.
Gypsy Rose childhood:
Gypsy Rose was a perfectly healthy child. However, due to her mother’s mental illness, even she started thinking that she was unhealthy. This continued for some time until Gypsy started maturing.
After Hurricane Katrina, Gypsy and her mother moved to Missouri. Her childhood was a major case of child abuse. She was mentally and physically tortured by her mother Dee Dee. By the year 2010, she was already an adult but nobody believed it including herself. She also tried to escape from her mother and went to the hospital. There she showed the authorities her real birth certificate which showed that she was, in fact, an adult.
But her mother came to collect her with a birth certificate she claimed was real which gave a more recent birth date. The certificate showed by Gypsy, as she said, was an incorrect version issued after Katrina.
Gypsy had tried to escape more than once and Dee Dee had threatened her saying that “No one would believe you”. Dee Dee also destroyed Gypsy’s laptop and mobile after she found out about her ventures through the internet.
Nicholas Godejohn and Gypsy Rose:
Gypsy used to sit at home almost all the time. She found a guy called Nicholas Godejohn, a 24-year-old from Wisconsin, on the internet. She confided in him everything about her mother. Nicholas himself had minor police charges on him already. Nicholas became Gypsy’s love interest.
The Murder:
Gypsy Rose and Nicholas Godejohn planned the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard. She was stabbed to death by Nicholas and found in her apartment. Nicholas Golejohn posted a message on Dee Dee’s Facebook page, some 10 days later, that read “That Bitch is dead!” The neighbours got suspicious as after 17 minutes later by a longer comment suggested that whoever left it had violently killed Dee Dee and raped Gypsy.
Gypsy and Nicholas had been caught and pleaded guilty. Although nobody was sad about Dee Dee’s death after they found out how horrific Gypsy’s childhood had been. The sympathy shifted towards Gypsy.
Gypsy was charged with second-degree murder resulting in 10 years of prison. While Nicholas was charged with first-degree murder resulting in a life sentence of Prison. Gypsy was so malnourished that she gained 14 pounds after joining the prison whereas people mostly lose weight there.
âThis time is good for me,â she said. âIâve been raised to do what my mother taught me to do. And those things arenât very good. She taught me to lie, and I donât wanna lie. I want to be a good, honest person.â Gypsy isn’t regretful about her actions. She feels freer in prison than she did with her mother.
The Act has been successful in depicting the Murder story. Joey King, the kissing booth lead actress, played the role of Gypsy Rose.