7 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Dirty John’, As Explained By Debra Newell Herself

The story of John Meehan, an unemployed ex-convict posing as a romantic anesthesiologist, first entered the true-crime universe via the viral LA Times Dirty John podcast in 2017, which then became a popular Bravo series starring Eric Bana and Connie Britton.

The handsome 6-foot-2-inch law school dropout reportedly acquired the “Dirty” because of a sex act he requested of his college girlfriends — but he actually did much worse things than that.

After becoming a nurse, he stole OxyContin, and fentanyl to feed his addiction. He faked personal-injury accidents and accumulated a stack of restraining orders thanks to women he charmed, conned, and menaced.

John, 55, met wealthy Newport Beach, Calif., interior designer Debra Newell, 59, on the OurTime dating website.

He said he just returned from a year of dodging RPG’s with Doctors Without Borders in Iraq. In reality, he got out of prison two days before his first date with Debra and was living in an RV park. 

John and Debra married in Las Vegas after a two-month courtship, during which he acted as a humble servant, cleaning her condo, cooking her dinner, and driving her to and from work in her Tesla.

He went on to burrow deeply into her finances, stalk her, alienate her children — he sent her daughter Jacqueline a “kill yourself” text — and ultimately demand half of Debra’s multimillion business, Ambrosia Interior Design, and other assets.

The sensational denouement came in 2016, when he used a knife to attack Debra’s youngest daughter, Terra.

The case spawned not only the podcast, which got 30 million downloads, but also the Bravo network miniseries — now streaming on Netflix as Season 1 of Dirty John — an Oxygen documentary, and stories in People and Harper’s Bazaar. 

But for a true-crime story as tantalizing as Dirty John’s, there’s no such thing as too much information.

Debra has written Surviving Dirty John: My True Story of Love, Lies and Murder (BenBella Books), a book that explains why John Meehan was both worse than, and not as bad as, his portrayal in popular culture.

Courtesy of Decider’s recent phone interview with Debra and a sneak peek at her tome, here are seven revelations hitherto unknown to even the most avid fans of the epic that is Dirty John:

1

John wasn't 100 percent a gigolo

The charasmatic grifter financed all the initial dinner dates with Debra, including a meal at Eddie V’s Wildfish, where twin lobster tales go for $102. He continued to pay “90 percent of the time we went out,” she told Decider. “He bought groceries.” That doesn’t mean that John, who had lost his nursing license and had no job, came into his money honestly. Debra suspects drug sales and questionable disability claims. 

3

Debra's girlfriends didn't share her children's low opinion of John

“Two of my best friends liked him and he went out of his way to be really nice to them,” she told Decider.

4

John took stalking to a nuclear level

Debra found a 2013 police report revealing he texted a woman 20 times and emailed her 80 times in one day — despite a restraining order.

5

The miniseries didn't always do justice to Debra

Bravo portrayed her as reconciling romantically with John after his emergency hospitalization for an intestinal blockage, but she was actually just trying to placate him while quietly plotting her exit strategy. “He had my passwords and my keys and he was entangled in every aspect of my life,” she says.

6

John's attack on Terra Newell was likely a kidnapping attempt gone awry

Debra believes John wanted to use her youngest daughter as a bargaining chip amid the breakup. He thought he would only have to threaten Terra — who was tiny and known for nonaggression — with his knife to make her get into a car. Instead, Terra repeatedly kicked John, seized his weapon, and stabbed him multiple times, ultimately burying the blade directly in his eye. He died.