Fans are engrossed and horrified by the details of what happened to Derrick Johnson, but many don't know who "Dman" is despite being mentioned in Netflix's new Tell Them You Love Me documentary.
Tell Them You Love Me is a new true crime documentary explaining what happened to Derrick Johnson, who has cerebral palsy and is unable to walk or talk.
[ Derrick Johnson Now: Where Is Netflix's 'Tell Them You Love Me' Doc Subject Today? ]
Who Is 'Dman' in Tell Them You Love Me?
At multiple points in Tell Them You Love Me, former Rutgers University-Newark professor Anna Stubblefield (who was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault on Derrick Johnson) often uses the name "Dman."
Dman is the nickname that Stubblefield gave Derrick Johnson when he was supposed to be in her care and learning communication skills.
In the documentary, Stubblefield explained how the nickname came about.
Stubblefield claimed in Tell Them You Love Me that she asked Derrick Johnson what he would "like to be called" when she was teaching him to communicate through typing and that "he typed D-M-A-N:"
"I said, 'You know what, it's occurring to me that I never actually asked you what you liked to be called. Your brother told me your name is Derrick, you came in, I've been calling you Derrick. Tell me, what do you want me to call you?' And he typed D-M-A-N."
The former professor then said that Derrick's mother, Daisy, walked in and explained that Derrick "had this really great teacher" earlier in life "who got him out of the wheelchair and got him walking" and that she "used to call [Derrick] Dman:"
"And I was looking at that and it didn't look like any name that I recognized. Daisy [Johnson] came back in the room at that point, and I said, 'He typed D-M-A-N, does that mean anything to you?' She said, 'Oh, he had this really great teacher back when he was 13 years old, who used to call him Dman.' That was the teacher who got him out of the wheelchair and got him walking."
Stubblefield then said she asked Derrick if his mother was right, claiming that he confirmed, "so [she] called him Dman from there:"
"So I said, 'Is she right?' And he said, 'Yes.' So I called him Dman from there. That was a very important moment. Being able to tell people what you wanna be called is this important emotional aspect of life that we take away from people when they can't speak."
Stubblefield still refers to Derrick as Dman throughout Tell Them You Love Me, which is fairly disturbing, considering Derrick's mother stated that Derrick could not have communicated through typing without Stubblefield's manipulation.
Tell Them You Love Me is streaming on Netflix.
Read more about other Netflix documentaries:
Full Cast of How to Rob a Bank 2024 on Netflix: Meet the People In Documentary Movie (Photos)
Dancing for the Devil Netflix Cast: Meet the People In 7M TikTok Cult Documentary Series (Photos)
