Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison today and has already made big plans to celebrate her freedom.
The 32-year-old has spent the last eight years in prison for orchestrating the 2015 murder of her medically abusive mother Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
While the killer, Gypsy Rose's online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, will serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, she has now been released from prison, TMZ reports, after being granted parole in September.
She previously revealed that meeting Taylor Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs game was at the top of her to-do list after she got out of prison.
She told TMZ that she and her husband Ryan bought tickets to a game three days after she was released from prison in hopes that she would run into Swift.
Blanchard also told the outlet that she plans to purchase tickets to Swift's tour stop in New Orleans in October 2024 if she doesn't meet the star.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released Thursday after serving eight years of a 10-year sentence for orchestrating the murder of her medically abusive mother
The offender was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, with prison officials trying to keep the moment as low-profile as possible by keeping the media away and not revealing when she will leave
Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard (right) convinced her daughter Gypsy Rose (left) and others that she suffered from various illnesses, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy. The abuse continued for years until Gypsy ordered Rose to escape her mother's murder.
She told TMZ that she refers to Swift as the “kick-ass girl” who taught her the importance of girl power, adding that she uses the commissary money her father sends her to support every album the star releases to buy.
The internet appears to have supported her dreams, and an online petition calling for Swift to meet Blanchard has been posted online.
The petition, filed Dec. 22, states, “Gypsy Rose Blanchard's story is one of resilience and strength.” After enduring years of abuse and hardship, she has become a symbol of survival for an entire generation.
“Her journey has touched the hearts of many, including mine, and I believe that meeting her idol, Taylor Swift, would bring great joy not only to her but to countless others who have followed her story.”
She is also set to release a book that will recount her difficult upbringing and detail the physical and emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother.
A press release issued by Penguin Random House states: “Gypsy has had her story told time and time again by others in the media, from news reports and podcasts to television series.”
“Now that she has been granted early parole and is preparing to start a new life, she is free to speak directly to her supporters and the world.”
The book is scheduled to be published on January 9th.
Despite the international attention Blanchard has enjoyed for several years, Missouri prison officials decided no one was allowed on the premises when she was released from Chillicothe Correctional Center.
This decision meant there were no cameras to capture the moment she enjoyed freedom for the first time, nor fans to welcome her.
Although she has given interviews behind bars, she reportedly will not make a statement or speak to the media upon her release.
The stricter release rules reportedly came at Gypsy Rose's request, with the offender reportedly already having a plan in place for where she would live.
Fears for the safety of prison staff have also led officials to close the car park for her release, as many fans are expected to try to catch a glimpse of Gypsy Rose after becoming obsessed with her bizarre story.
The teenager is believed to have suffered one of the most high-profile cases of Munchausen syndrome, where her mother insisted she was suffering from various made-up illnesses, leading to her undergoing painful surgeries and taking medication with unwanted side effects.
Gypsy Rose ordered Godejohn, an autistic man she met online three years earlier, to murder her mother to escape her control – which began when Gypsy was only three months old and her mother told doctors the child had Difficulty breathing.
She was diagnosed with sleep apnea and placed on a ventilator. This was the first of many instances in which Dee Dee falsified her daughter's complaints.
Because of her mother's relentless focus on Gypsy's nonexistent illnesses, she was forced to use a wheelchair from a young age, and Dee Dee told her family that the child suffered from a chromosomal disorder that limited his ability to move.
Dee Dee once tricked doctors into removing Gypsy Rose's salivary glands and was accused of a series of depraved lies, including that she shaved her head to make it appear she had leukemia
Dee Dee is believed to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy as she led people to believe her daughter was terminally ill in order to enjoy praise and perks such as charity-funded tickets to concerts and Disney World as a loving mother
Gypsy Rose (left) was given a 10-year prison sentence for plotting to kill her mother, while her online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn (right) was given a life sentence
In the years that followed, leukemia and muscular dystrophy were among the illnesses Dee Dee told people her daughter suffered from, and she insisted that everyone who spoke to her remembered that she had the “mind of a seven-year-old.” had.
She shaved Gypsy Rose's head to mimic the effects of leukemia, forced her to use a wheelchair 24 hours a day, slept with a ventilator, and even ordered the removal of her salivary glands.
Dee Dee was also accused of giving her daughter certain medications to mimic the symptoms, such as using a topical anesthetic to numb her gums and cause her to drool.
Dee Dee was believed to have benefited from control over her daughter, and she had previously been excluded from her family due to suspicions that she had killed her mother by withholding food.
At his trial, Godejohn's lawyers described the killer as “a low-functioning person with autism” who was “so in love with (Gypsy Rose) and so obsessed with her that he would do anything… and Gypsy knew it.”
While many of Gypsy Rose's illnesses were entirely fictional, her frequent hospital visits required Gypsy Rose to take a number of medications that severely affected her health. In one case, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and prescribed Tegretol, which caused her teeth to fall out.
This also resulted in Dee Dee having a feeding tube attached to her wheelchair, even though Gypsy Rose was able to eat and drink normally.
After years of abuse, Gypsy Rose plotted with Godejohn to get rid of her mother, and the two believed that they could only be together if she was dead.
Shortly after their first meeting in 2015, the couple began plotting Dee Dee's murder, fueled by Gypsy Rose's confessions about the abuse she had suffered throughout her life.
She later told a Discovery ID documentary that the moment the plan came together came when the couple was “chatting one evening and he said he would do anything to protect me and I asked him, 'Anything ?” and he said, “Yes.”
“From anyone?” [I asked]he said “Yes.” “Even my mother?” [I asked]'He said yes.' And that's where the development of such a plan began [into] a murder plot.'
According to Fox4, she sent Godejohn money to help him travel from Wisconsin to her home in Missouri and stole a knife from Walmart for him to use in the attack.
The twisted tale was told in the Hulu series The Act, starring Dee Dee, portrayed by Patricia Arquette (left) and Gypsy Rose, played by Joey King (right).
The question of Gypsy Rose's complicity in her mother's murder remains open. It is alleged she funded her murderous boyfriend's trip and provided him with the knife used in the 2015 murder
Godejohn then arrived at the family home in Springfield in June 2015. However, the exact date of the attack is not clear as Dee Dee lay in a pool of blood for several days.
He was let into the house by Gypsy Rose after her mother fell asleep and hid in the bathroom with his hands over his ears to drown out the noise of the brutal knife attacks.
She told ABC News that she wanted her mother dead “not because I hated her … but because I wanted to escape her.”
Dee Dee was found on the morning of June 14, 2015, after Godejohn stabbed her 17 times while she slept.
Police were initially confused about Gypsy Rose's disappearance following her mother's murder and assumed she may have been kidnapped. However, investigators quickly realized that her personal life may not have been what it first seemed.
Chilling Facebook posts announcing and celebrating Dee Dee's death led investigators to Godejohn's home in Big Bend, Wisconsin, and the two were subsequently arrested.
As Gypsy Rose prepares for freedom, her twisted story continues to raise eyebrows to this day. Green County Sheriff Jim Arnott recently told Ozarks First that he still has doubts about the case to this day.
“In my view, she was the mastermind of her mother's murder,” he said, suggesting that the 10-year prison sentence she received in response to a guilty plea was too lenient for her role in her mother's murder.
“If she met the 85%, then it is what it is.” “She took the time,” he said. “There are a lot of victims in this deal.” And it's not just Deedee and it's not Gypsy. It’s the entire community.”