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Nicholas A Rose Biography & Facts

On June 14, 2015, sheriff's deputies in Greene County, Missouri, United States, found the body of Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard (née Pitre; born May 3, 1967, in Chackbay, Louisiana) in her Springfield house. She had been stabbed to death some days before. Her daughter Gypsy-Rose, well-known in the area due to her purported severe health problems, was missing, although her wheelchair and medications were in the house. Two days later, Gypsy-Rose Blanchard and her boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were apprehended in his native Big Bend, Wisconsin. Police said that both confessed to the murder. Gypsy-Rose had also taken thousands of dollars from her mother's safe so they could leave town. Gypsy-Rose could walk freely and appeared to have neither the physical nor the mental disabilities her mother had claimed. Her mother had forced her to pretend to the health problems for financial and social advantage. Shortly before trial in 2018, Gypsy-Rose pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to ten years. After a brief trial in November 2018, Godejohn, who had committed the attack on Blanchard, was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Gypsy-Rose was released from prison on parole December 28, 2023. She has become notorious for the issues in her case and is the subject of several films and television series. Dee Dee's background Early life She was born Clauddine Pitre in Chackbay, Louisiana, near the Gulf Coast in 1967. Nicknamed Dee Dee, she grew up with her family in nearby Golden Meadow. She was the youngest of five children of Claude Anthony Pitre Sr. and Emma Lois Gisclair. (Her siblings later recalled, as shown in the TV documentary, Gypsy’s Revenge (2018), that when they were growing up their mother would keep Dee Dee inside. She said the girl had a heart murmur and had to be sheltered.) Relatives say that Dee Dee used to steal from her family. They later speculated it was a form of retaliation when "things didn't go her way." Her mother Emma died in 1997. In later interviews, her family expressed suspicion that Dee Dee was neglecting Emma and might have killed her by denying her food. At some point early in her adult life, Dee Dee worked as a nurse's aide, along with Kristy Blanchard and Laura Pitre. When she was 24 she met Rod Blanchard, then age 17, in a bowling alley bar. They got married on December 27, 1990. Shortly before Gypsy's birth in July 1991, the couple separated. Rod said he realized that he "got married for the wrong reasons". They named their daughter Gypsy-Rose because Dee Dee liked the name Gypsy, and Rod was a fan of Guns N' Roses. When he refused to return, Dee Dee took her newborn and moved to live again with her family. Gypsy's childhood According to Rod Blanchard, by the time Gypsy was three months old, Dee Dee had become convinced that Gypsy had sleep apnea and had begun taking her to the hospital. But repeated overnight stays with a sleep monitor and other tests found no sign of the condition. Dee Dee had become convinced that her daughter had a wide range of health issues, which she attributed to an unspecified chromosomal disorder. At some point, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy had muscular dystrophy and made her use a walker. In her book, Gypsy claims that when she was five years old, her grandfather made her and Dee Dee take a bath with him. She writes that, when she was seven or eight, she was riding on her grandfather's motorcycle and they were involved in a minor accident where she suffered an abrasion on her knee. Dee Dee told the girl doctors had given her a wheelchair she would need to use. Gypsy often went with her parents to Special Olympics events. In 2001, Dee Dee claimed Gypsy was eight (she was actually ten). The apparently disabled girl was named the honorary queen of the Krewe of Mid-City, a child-oriented parade held during Mardi Gras in New Orleans. At the event, Gypsy described herself as an animal lover with four cats and said her grandfather was her "best friend". Dee Dee suffered a leg injury that Gypsy remembered resulted from a car accident, and required her being in a hospital for two months. At that time Dee Dee and Gypsy were living with her maternal grandfather Claude, and stayed there for 10 months. In her 2024 book, Gypsy accuses Claude of having abused both her and her mother when they lived with them. This was the year Dee Dee began to take her daughter to science fiction and fantasy conventions. Sometimes they would go in costume, which allowed Gypsy to blend into these unusual communities. Gypsy seemingly stopped going to school after second grade, possibly even as early as kindergarten. Her mother homeschooled her after that, supposedly because her illnesses were so severe. Commentators have suggested that, instead, the removal of Gypsy from school enabled her mother to isolate the girl while constraining her in her fantasy. Gypsy claims to have learned to read on her own by the Harry Potter books. Gypsy's grandfather had remarried, and Dee Dee moved in with her father Claude and stepmother Laura. Family members later said that when preparing food for her stepmother, Dee Dee poisoned it with Roundup weed killer, leading to Laura's chronic illness during this period. During that time, Dee Dee was arrested for several minor offenses, including writing bad checks. The Pitres say that when they began to confront Dee Dee about her treatment of Gypsy and expressed suspicion about her role in Laura's ill health, Dee Dee left with the girl. The family said that Laura appeared to recover her health. Move to New Orleans They settled in the New Orleans suburb of Slidell. They lived in public housing and Blanchard survived on child-support payments from her ex-husband Rod, and public assistance based on her daughter's purported medical conditions. Blanchard continued to take her daughter to various specialists, mostly at Tulane Medical Center and the Children's Hospital of New Orleans. She sometimes gained treatment for purported problems. After she told doctors that Gypsy had seizures every few months, they prescribed anti-seizure medication. The girl had to undergo surgery during this time and Dee Dee regularly took Gypsy to the emergency room for minor ailments. According to the Springfield News-Leader, Blanchard regularly consulted with Dr Robert Beckerman. He is said to have treated the girl for 10 years. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the area in August 2005, the pair left their ruined apartment for a shelter in Covington set up for people with special needs. They lived in the shelter for three months. Dee Dee told officials that Gypsy's medical records, and birth certificate, had been lost in the flood. A doctor in Covington who was from the Ozarks suggested the pair relocate to her native Missouri. The next month they were airlifted there as part of the resettlement of people left homeless by Katrina. Move to Missouri .... Discover the Nicholas A Rose popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Nicholas A Rose books.