Review: Mommy Dead and Dearest

Dee Dee Blanchard controlled daughter Gypsy Rose  

On the flight to Hong Kong I watched several documentaries, one of which was Mommy Dead and Dearest made in 2017. It is about how a mother was murdered by her daughter Gypsy Rose and her boyfriend, but also why this horrific crime was committed.

Gypsy Rose curled up the fetal position in the bathroom as she heard her mother Dee Dee scream as she was being stabbed by Nicholas Godejohn on June 14, 2015.

Tired of 23 years of abuse, Gypsy Rose asked her boyfriend to get rid of her mother. From when Gypsy Rose was a baby, her mother made up a long list of illnesses her daughter had, from leukemia to epilepsy, muscular dystrophy, to vision and hearing impairments and seizures. 

Gypsy Rose in prison outfit speaking in the doc

Most doctors didn't pick up the abuse, and that Dee Dee had Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy -- where she faked Gypsy Rose's illnesses and forced her daughter to take the medicines which actually induced the illnesses. Gypsy Rose even had surgery to have a feeding tube inserted in her stomach for food and drugs; she never knew what her mother was feeding her. The feeding tube was replaced every six months -- without an anesthetic.

Her mother forced her child to do this to get attention, and receive get lots of freebies from people who truly thought Gypsy Rose was living her last days. She constantly shaved Gypsy Rose's head, forced her to sit in a wheelchair and made her look much younger than her actual age.

A psychologist in the documentary points out how Dee Dee is constantly holding Gypsy Rose's hands as if to send a message to her that she had control over her daughter and she could not escape.

At first Gypsy Rose thought her upbringing was a bit different, that her mother was over protective, but later realised her mother was forcing her to act sick and helpless.

So when she announced on social media that her mother was dead and how she died, her followers thought her account was hacked at first -- how could she want that "bitch" to be dead?

Gypsy Rose was released earlier this month

Eventually it was revealed through investigations the two decades' of abuse Gypsy Rose had suffered which caused her to want to have her mother killed, but she didn't think too clearly about what would happen either, nor did she have much experience with relationships with members of the opposite sex.

The film shows police interrogation videos, interviews with Gypsy Rose in her prison clothes, the psychologist, friends, Dee Dee's father, grandfather, nephew and her ex-husband. They all paint nasty pictures of Dee Dee, who had a history of lying and stealing from her own family. 

He is also at fault for not trying to keep in contact with Gypsy Rose because she didn't have to kill her mother -- she could have found her father and gone to live with him and his partner.

But that was never an option Gypsy Rose ever thought of, and she tearfully accepts her fate. The interviewer asks if she prefers prison over being abused by her mother and she says jail is much better.

The film was made in 2017 and noted that Gypsy Rose would be out of jail by 2024 and yes -- she got out for good behaviour in March after eight and a half years in prison. She even got married while in prison and will be making the media rounds promoting her memoir, Released.

It's such a tragic story on many levels, and hopefully Gypsy Rose will finally have healthy relationships with people and get on with the rest of her life, now 32 years old.