‘Dirty John’ is a godsend for all true crime lovers. Based on a real-life tale and characters, the new Netflix original show tells a story about a disastrous love affair between a successful Orange County divorcee Debra Newell and an ex-con, lifelong conman John Meehan who was addicted to opioids. This shocking story has all the components of a satisfying true crime series – psychopathic mind games, sex, family drama, lies, clash with the law enforcement, violence and a shocking yet happy ending where the good guys win.
Eric Bana and Connie Britton delivered an amazing performance; Britton received Golden Globes nominations for her portrayal of Debra Newell. Watch the video above to listen to Eric Bana talk about what it was like playing the psychopathic villain.
If you are fiending for more juicy details around this worse-than-fiction story, we got you. We have summarized additional facts about the destructive life and death of Meehan. SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t seen the show yet, many of the truths we share here will give away the plot/ending!
1. The Small Lies John Meehan Told for No Reason
John Meehan lied to hide his dirty past and attract wealthy, lonely women he wanted to manipulate. But some of his lies seemingly had no apparent purpose at all. For instance, he told his first wife Tonia Sells that he was 26 when he was in fact 31. He claimed that his full legal name was Jonathan when it was actually just ‘John.’ Sells only found out after 10 years into their marriage when she reached out to his estranged mom, Dolores.
He also boasted of his blood relation to the notorious Mafia hitman who once ran Murder Inc. which is not verifiable. John falsely claimed he attended the Mariners, an Irvine megachurch.
Meehan described his family as ‘dysfunctional drug addicts and alcoholics’ and he was raised by others who stepped up to help. However, his sisters at least initially showed him strong support. His sister Donna paid for his Ohio home to avoid foreclosure as well as his overdue child support when he was incarcerated.
He told Debra Newell that he went on a shopping trip with his daughters and used a photo of 2 random girls he got off the internet. Not only did he make up a story about him being in Iraq for Doctors without Borders, but he also made up dubious stories about him jumping off helicopters with machine guns.
2. His Daughters’ Thoughts on Their Dad
John Meehan was granted supervised visits with his daughters, Emily and Abigail, after his release from prison. But after just a few sessions, he decided to stay in California and stopped his visitations in 2005. When they were together, John reportedly would shower the girls with gifts.
He gave Emily and Abby a cellphone to stay in touch when they moved to Georgia. Emily confronted him about his treatment of Tonia to which he eerily responded “One day you will find out the truth” and disconnected the phone.
She admitted it was often tempting to reconnect with him. Emily told Oxygen, “I think at a young age, I craved his attention just because it was very rare, and I think it came back to me that oh, after all of these years, he wants to talk to me.”
In 2015, he tried to reach out to Emily on Twitter. He sent her a photo of them together and said he needed to talk to her and that he was proud of her.
When they learned about his death, Abby was extremely emotional. Emily, on the other hand, said she had initially found it “humorous,” adding that it was like a movie script. When asked what she’d want to ask her father if he were here today, she responded “…What was your plan when you married my mom and you decided with her that you wanted children? Was this going to go on forever?”
Currently, Emily is a nurse and Abigail is in college. The girls are also close friends with Terra Newell.
3. Netflix Show vs. Real Life
The series got most of the facts down, with some scenes verbatim retelling of the actual events.
Tonia did not meet John’s mistress at a conference as portrayed in the show. John surprised Tonia when he abruptly asked for a divorce. That’s when Tonia found out about his affair with a doctor in Michigan, with whom he reportedly had a daughter.
Debra Newell in real life has 4 kids, not 3. Her oldest daughter was left out of the series. Her second daughter’s name was changed from Jacquelyn to Veronica.
John Meehan often begged Debra to marry him before she finally caved while they were on a work trip in Vegas.
Meehan in the series makes a moving declaration to quit heroin cold-turkey and Newell decides to help with the withdrawal and rehabilitation. In reality, he never went to rehab or quit cold-turkey but Newell still took him back.
The series did not go into too much depth about Meehan’s mom Dolores. Dolores left Meehan’s dad after having an affair when he was in high school. Meehan claimed to his sister Donna that he had pissed on his mom’s grave.
His sister actually had a court judgment against him for the $90,000 she lent him. She felt as though that was the only way to protect herself from her volatile brother.
After deciding to leave Meehan for good, Debra secretly deducted $2,000 from her paycheck and gave it her daughters or friends for safekeeping.
4. Why Did Debra Go Back to John?
Many expressed their frustration with Debra’s decision to get back together with Meehan after discovering the long trail of his violent criminal history. She explained that she decided to forgive as Meehan had a detailed & somewhat plausible explanation for everything.
He knew what to admit to and what he could deny. He confessed his lies about his profession as a doctor but explained it was only to impress her who would’ve never given him a chance otherwise. Meehan claimed the cyanide pills that the police had found were for his never-mentioned-before multiple sclerosis. All the restraining orders were related to someone else with the same name.
After 4 failed marriages, Debra was desperate to make her fifth one work and keep her vows ‘for better or for worse.’
5. Crimes He Likely Committed But Was Not Charged For
So Meehan’s documented crimes, which is already a long list, do not include certain chilling accusations. He looked for a hitman to kill his ex-wife and the cops investigating him after his arrest on drug-related charges.
John Meehan sent drugs to his 44-year old brother Daniel who soon after died of an overdose. The detectives found some compelling evidence of John’s involvement in Daniel’s death but never filed charges.
As suggested in the show, his real-life sister Donna was very suspicious of John’s involvement in the death of their father. She suspected that he might’ve injected him with fentanyl.
When Debra and John got married, he had 3 standing restraining orders and at least 3 additional women requesting one.
His coworkers also claimed that he brought a gun into an operating room when he was being investigated for stealing drugs.
