At the end of every episode of Hulu’s The Act, there’s a quick flash of text on the screen reminding us that while many things in the episode are based on true events, some of them have been heightened for dramatic effect. It is television, after all. While many things in the new series seem like they’re so far-fetched there’s no way they could be true, I’ve got some bad news. While conversations and arguments between Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee have clearly been written for television, things like Gypsy buying a computer and starting an online relationship with a man named Nick Godejohn, who’s really into BDSM, is absolutely true. If you still don’t believe it, there are text messages and chat conversations to prove it — and ones that eventually came to light in court.
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We’ll see all of this play out over the course of The Act’s season, but if you’re looking to jump right to where is Nick now (spoiler alert: he’s in jail), but before we can talk about how long he's there for, we should probably review the facts about Dee Dee Blanchard's convicted killer.
In real life, with Gypsy’s (in her mother’s eyes) contraband technology, she and Nick started up a relationship online in 2012. At first, Nick was just a sounding board since Gypsy was all alone; not much is known about Nick’s own backstory but he told Gypsy that he had “voices” inside his head, and determined that he probably had some sort of split-personality disorder. While this certainly factored into his murder of Dee Dee, after which he claimed his “dark side” took over, his mental capability ended up being a major point of his trial and conviction for his killing.
On The Act, Nick, played by Calum Worthy (who is not that unnerving in real life), is introduced in the fourth episode, “Stay Inside.” After her friend Lacey (AnnaSophia Robb) mentions that she’s been on a dating site recently, and since Gypsy (Joey King) has just lost her first “prince charming” Scott, she gets the idea to find love online herself. Instead, she finds Nick. This chance encounter online leads Gypsy down an even darker path in her life that eventually ends with the murder of her mother (Patricia Arquette).
Back in the real story, according to the Springfield News-Leader, Godejohn falls on the autism spectrum at disorder level 2. During the murder trial, a psychologist explained that he also has a low IQ, and because of this would be unable to take the stand without assistance; a second psychologist later took the stand and claimed that Godejohn instead had autism spectrum disorder level 1. This argument was used to determine whether Godejohn could even stop himself from committing murder after he got the idea in his head, and if he could stop one of his other personalities from doing it.
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The trial, which took place in the fall of 2018, didn’t so much question as to whether or not Godejohn killed Dee Dee or not (because he did, and there was a massive amount of evidence to prove it), but rather his mental capacity. He plead "not guilty" but was eventually convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, along with an additional 25 years for armed criminal action. (Gypsy plead guilty to the murder in 2016, and received a sentence of 10 years in prison.)
Since neither side sought the death penalty during Godejohn’s trial, life in prison without parole was the only option. He was found guilty back in November of 2018, but only recently sentenced, on February 22, 2018. According to KY3, Godejohn does not plan to appeal his conviction.
So it would appear that this is the end of his story and that, after the events dramatized in The Act and the documentary Mommy Dead & Dearest, Godejohn will be in prison for the rest of his life.