PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Blanchard suffered quietly as doctors and her mother convinced her she had a chronic illness. She said she saw no other way out of the abuse but to get rid of her mother and in an act of desperation, she convinced her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother in her sleep. In 2016, Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Godejohn received life in prison for murder. She said, “I think it’s very important for people to understand that I was brought to a breaking point. Me as I am, as an individual, I could never kill someone.”
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PASSAGE TWO OF THE DAY: "Because Munchausen is difficult to identify in people, Blanchard's case and life story is a rare one. There are no reliable statistics on how many people in the U.S. suffer from the disease. But the Cleveland Clinic reported that a rare 1 percent of people have Munchausen syndrome and two in 100,000 children are thought to be the victims of Munchausen by proxy. While many cases of the disease and the children affected by it are undetected, it is estimated that about 1,000 of 2.5 million child abuse cases reported to the government are related to. When these cases have been reported and investigated, the child should be treated for any real medical problems they have. But most importantly, they need to be protected and removed from any further abuse. So that means removed from the caregiver and given psychological treatment. After years of abuse, Blanchard said she now knows her mother was mentally ill. Most importantly, she is on a path of healing and forgiveness for her mother."
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STORY: "Gypsy Rose Blanchard on abuse as victim of Munchausen by proxy: "I was brought to a breaking point," by Staff Writer (Covering 'Culture') Nardos Haile, published by Salon.
SUB-HEADING: "Blanchard said if her mother was still alive she would "still be under this abusive medical abuse."
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is opening up about her abusive childhood since her recent release from prison, after serving a seven-year sentence for the murder of her mother, Clauddine Blanchard.
The recently paroled 32-year-old told CNN in a sit-down interview that she believes that the abuse she experienced by her mother would've continued if she was still alive.
“If my mother were still here, I would still be under this abusive medical abuse that I was going through,” she said. “I don’t think that there would have been an end in sight for me.”
Blanchard was a longtime victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Medline Plus defines the disease as a rare physiological disorder where a caretaker makes up or exaggerates illnesses to make it look like a person is sick so they can garner attention or sympathy from them.
For most of her childhood and a part of her adulthood, Gypsy Rose Blanchard believed she suffered from leukemia, muscular dystrophy and asthma because of her mother. Blanchard was kept in a wheelchair even though she could walk. She suffered through surgeries she didn't need, and it kept her isolated from the world, she said.
Blanchard suffered quietly as doctors and her mother convinced her she had a chronic illness. She said she saw no other way out of the abuse but to get rid of her mother and in an act of desperation, she convinced her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to kill her mother in her sleep. In 2016, Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Godejohn received life in prison for murder.
She said, “I think it’s very important for people to understand that I was brought to a breaking point. Me as I am, as an individual, I could never kill someone.”
Because Munchausen is difficult to identify in people, Blanchard's case and life story is a rare one. There are no reliable statistics on how many people in the U.S. suffer from the disease. But the Cleveland Clinic reported that a rare 1 percent of people have Munchausen syndrome and two in 100,000 children are thought to be the victims of Munchausen by prox
While many cases of the disease and the children affected by it are undetected, it is estimated that about 1,000 of 2.5 million child abuse cases reported to the government are related to Munchausen's, The Cleveland Clinic found.
When these cases have been reported and investigated, the child should be treated for any real medical problems they have. But most importantly, they need to be protected and removed from any further abuse. So that means removed from the caregiver and given psychological treatment.
After years of abuse, Blanchard said she now knows her mother was mentally ill. Most importantly, she is on a path of healing and forgiveness for her mother.
“It's a journey, but I'm starting to feel more forgiveness in understanding that it is something that maybe was out of her control,” Blanchard told People Magazine. “Maybe it was like an addict with an impulse, and that it was not consciously malicious. And I think that helps me with coping and accepting what happened.”
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Huge impact of the case in popular culture: ( From Wikipedia entry):
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Films
HBO produced the documentary film Mommy Dead and Dearest, directed by Erin Lee Carr, about the murder and its relationship to factitious disorder imposed on another. The film includes interrogation footage and exclusive interviews with Nick Godejohn and Gypsy-Rose; it premiered on May 15, 2017.[38][39]
Television
The CBS network talk show Dr. Phil, episode "Mother Knows Best: A Story of Munchausen by Proxy and Murder" featuring interviews with Gypsy-Rose, her father and stepmother, premiered on November 21, 2017.[40][41][42]
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) news and information series Good Morning America aired an exclusive in-prison interview with Gypsy-Rose on January 5, 2018, in a segment entitled "Mother of All Murders".[43]
The ABC network news magazine series 20/20 episode "The Story of Gypsy Blanchard" also aired on January 5, 2018. It consisted of Gypsy-Rose's first network interview from prison as well as an interview with Nick Godejohn.[44][45]
The Sony Entertainment Television channel series CID aired an episode titled "Death on Social Media" on 13 August 2017, based on the case, but the setting for the episode was changed to India; the characters Aria and Aanchal were based on Gypsy-Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard, respectively.[46]
The Investigation Discovery channel series James Patterson's Murder is Forever episode "Mother of All Murders", season 1, episode 2, premiered on January 29, 2018.[47][48]
Investigation Discovery also aired a two-hour special documentary titled Gypsy's Revenge. Gypsy-Rose was interviewed while incarcerated and during the interview, she describes her relationship with her mother. Her father, relatives, and friends are all interviewed, along with public officials and Godejohn.[49]
Love You to Death aired on Lifetime in January 2019, dramatizing the case as "inspired by true events". Marcia Gay Harden starred as the fictionalized version of Dee Dee, Emily Skeggs as the fictionalized version of Gypsy-Rose, Brennan Keel Cook starred as Nick's counterpart, and Tate Donovanstarred as Rod's counterpart. Skeggs had to wear a bald cap for most of the scenes where her character was hairless.[50] "[W]hen I think about it, every teenager wants to murder their parents at some point," Harden told TV Insider.[51]
In 2019 the streaming service Hulu announced the creation of the true crime series The Act. The eight-episode miniseries is based on Michelle Dean's 2016 BuzzFeed article.[52] Dean was an executive producer and writer for the first season. Joey King played Gypsy-Rose and received an Emmynomination for her performance; she shaved her head for the role.[53] Patricia Arquette played Dee Dee and won an Emmy for her performance.[54] The Act premiered on March 20, 2019.[55]
In the 2019 Netflix web television series The Politician, the characters Infinity Jackson, Ricardo, and Dusty Jackson are respectively based on Gypsy-Rose Blanchard, Nicholas Godejohn and Dee Dee Blanchard.[56]
Literature
The novel Grace Is Gone by Emily Elgar, published in January 2020, follows a fictionalized version of the case set in Cornwall.[57]
Stephanie Wrobel credited Michelle Dean's 2016 Buzzfeed article as one influence on her thriller Darling Rose Gold.[58]
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| PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog; |
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/47049136857587929
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices.
Lawyer Radha Natarajan;
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
