Eerie three-word demand Ruby Franke gave her six children before filming abusive YouTube videos that would later see her jailed
It's been two years and six months since American vlogger Ruby Franke was jailed for child abuse - and this week, a harrowing new documentary has shed light on the extent of her sickening crimes for the very first time.
The former YouTube star's two eldest children - Shari and Chad - are among the handful of participants interviewed by producers of Hulu's Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.
Speaking in the three-part docu-series - which landed earlier today (27 Feb) - the pair open up about the torturous punishments that Ruby, 43, would inflict upon their four siblings when the cameras were rolling, and the extreme lengths she went to for fame and fortune.
Who is Ruby Franke?
Ruby Franke was a family vlogger and devout Mormon mother who started a Youtube channel in early 2015. In August 2023, she was dealt four consecutive one to 15-year sentences after admitting as part of a plea agreement that she'd physically and mentally hurt her two youngest children - a son and a daughter.
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The ex-family influencer claimed at the time that the pair were 'evil and possessed', and that she'd denied them both food and water on several occasions as a means of casting out the devil.
She also confessed to handcuffing her young son's wrists and ankles and holding him underwater.
Ruby's children later alleged that their mother's abuse came hand-in-hand with her collaboration with a strict parental discipline-advocating therapist named Jodi Hildebrandt, with whom she hosted a devout Christian podcast.
Prior to partnering up with Hilderbrandt, however - who was also convicted of child abuse and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years in 2023 - Ruby had already made a solid name for herself in parental influencing.
Allegedly in a bid to become 'America's mother', she previously fronted a largely-successful YouTube channel called '8 Passengers' - referring to herself, Kevin, and their six kids' journey through life.
The '8 Passengers' YouTube channel
In the years after creating her social media channel, Ruby became one of the US' most successful parenting vloggers, and posted 'daily life' videos with her Utah-based family.
Despite having amassed a staggering 2.5 million subscribers by June 2020, viewers watching her uploads had no idea her children were being exploited behind the scenes.
"Our entire schedule revolved around YouTube," Shari, 22, says in the new three-part true-crime documentary.
Her brother, Chad, also speaks in the programme, revealing: "There were times that she blew up off camera.
"She would spank, whip, take the belt out and whip my butt. You know, pull down my pants, you know, whip me."
Ahead of the documentary, Ruby's children provided producers with 'an archive of over 1,000 hours of unseen footage' - the vast majority of which never made it to her YouTube channel.
Several particularly distressing scenes see the vlogger verbally abusing her children for interrupting her recordings, appearing to target a visibly saddened Chad in particular.
"I did always feel bad when he got in trouble," Shari added of her brother. "You know, he'd get a bloody nose, and I'd bring him toilet paper.
"I didn't really know what to do.
"He got beat really bad one time and I helped him clean blood off the walls."
Three-word demand
One heartbreaking clip featuring in the doc sees Ruby attempting to film an upload with Chad, where she asks him where his name comes from.
The youngster, visibly uncomfortable to be on camera, shyly replies that he is named after his 'grandpa'.
Unhappy with Chad's lack of enthusiasm, Ruby then scowls, telling him, 'We're going to try this again, you be a little more talkative.'
"I am", the boy replies. "I'm answering your questions."
Then, asking screaming at, presumably, another of her children to 'get out!' of the room, Ruby tells Chad: "If I'm going to let you vlog, and if I'm going to spend all my time helping you, you're going to help me, too."
"I don't know what to do", Chad then confesses, before Ruby instructs him: "Be excited to tell them where your name came from, even if you have to fake it."
The mother-of-six then gave her eldest son an eerie warning: "Fake being happy."
"Looking back on it, I don't think she was a good person," Shari shared in the documentary. "I think she was already an abusive mother before, and then obviously it escalated dramatically in the last couple of years."
Elsewhere in the series, Shari claims she and her siblings were considered 'employees' of their mother's content creating business, revealing the youngest was 'four or five' at the time.
"That kids were all employees - is how we were referred to," she recalled. "And Ruby was the CEO."
Ruby's downfall and arrest
After getting 'cancelled' for sharing a video on YouTube that included Chad revealing he'd recently been made to sleep on a beanbag for seven months, losing his bedroom privileges, Ruby turned her attention to Mormon therapist Jodi Hildebrandt's ConneXions podcast.
This move subsequently saw her kicking Chad, Kevin, and Shari out of the family home, and welcoming Hildebrandt to move in.
In August 2023, she and Hildebrandt were arrested on child abuse charges after a neighbour was alerted by Ruby's 'emaciated' 12-year-old son who'd escaped to knock on their door to ask for help.
The Santa Clara Public Safety Department were called to the Ivins neighbourhood in Utah, discovering that the youngster had visible marks and wounds from duct tape put around his ankles.
Police found his 10-year-old sister in a 'similar physical condition of malnourishment' in Hildebrandt's house.
On 20 February 2024, Franke and Hildebrandt were convicted and given four separate prison sentences for one to 15 years, with the length of each sentence decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole. Due to a law in the area, their sentences are capped at a maximum of 30 years.
Devil In The Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke is now available to streaming on Hulu.
Topics: Crime, Documentaries, Ruby Franke, TV And Film, True Crime, Parenting
Rhianna Benson