This playlist documents an entire year of Gypsy Rose Blanchard's prison phone calls from 2018, organized chronologically so you can follow the conversations and events as they unfolded in real time. Throughout the year, you'll hear Gypsy's conversations with Kristy and Rod Blanchard, Ken Urker, family members, friends, supporters, and others in her life while she was incarcerated at Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. These calls cover everything from ordinary day-to-day prison life and family updates to relationships, money, media coverage, documentaries, her criminal case, Dee Dee Blanchard, Nicholas Godejohn, future plans, and the public attention surrounding her story. Some calls are uneventful. Others contain details that become much more significant when viewed alongside later interviews, documentaries, public statements, and other records. Rather than focusing only on selected clips, this series is intended to preserve the larger context of the 2018 calls and allow viewers to hear how conversations, relationships, and stories developed throughout the year. The calls are presented chronologically, beginning in January 2018 and continuing through December 2018. Prison call recordings were obtained through a public-records request from the Missouri Department of Corrections and are being shared for commentary, documentation, research, and educational purposes.
Curated by: Audaciousaudrey06 (216 videos)
In this May 4, 2018 call, Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Ken Urker have a lengthy conversation about money, Ken's planned move to Missouri, Dee Dee, prison life, relationships and even the Menendez brothers. The call begins with Ken saying he doesn't want to wait another month to see Gypsy and considers visiting her in two weeks. Gypsy gets serious and asks exactly how much money he has saved. Ken says: “I have about $3,000 saved up right now.” He also tells her his paychecks are approximately $1,000 a week. Gypsy again brings up the $300 per month Ken has been sending her. She proposes cutting it to $100 a month because she wants to help him save for the move. Ken pushes back, explaining that knowing Gypsy has enough money for food, hygiene products, clothes, stamps and phone time gives him peace of mind. Ken says he's leaving Seattle in weeks Ken talks about being miserable at work and says the only thing getting him through it is knowing he's leaving. “I'm leaving Seattle in a few weeks anyway.” And: “I just wanna get to Missouri yesterday and... just fucking start my life.” Later, he gets even more specific. Ken promises Gypsy he'll be there for June 10, which Gypsy calls her next difficult day. He says he's aiming to be officially moved by the beginning of June and insists this time he isn't going to turn around and say he needs another month. “I'll be there, moved in by the beginning of next month for sure.” That's especially interesting considering how many times we've heard this move date change already. Dee Dee's birthday There's also a continuation from the 05/02 call. Gypsy thanks Ken for remembering the previous day and says his message: “got me through the day.” She says she's okay again, but that her next hard day will be June 10. Based on the date and the previous call, they're referring to May 3, Dee Dee's birthday. Again, in this section they don't explicitly say Dee Dee's name, so I'd explain the context rather than present that identification as something they directly state here. Gypsy wants to write Erik Menendez This is probably the most unique part of the call. Gypsy tells Ken she received a strange letter from a man who seemed to be repeating interests he'd learned about her from watching her documentary. She ripped it up. Then she changes subjects: “Have you ever heard of the Menendez brothers?” Ken says he knows all about them. Gypsy tells him: “So I wanna write Erik. I wanna write him at least one letter.” She says a friend got Erik's DOC information for her and she already has an envelope prepared, but doesn't know what to say. So she asks Ken how he started his first letter to her when he'd only known her from seeing her on television.