A documentary was recently released on Hulu titled, “Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.” This documentary follows the Frankes, formerly a popular family on Youtube called 8 Passengers, as they begin to grow with their popularity. The Franke family includes, mother and wife Ruby, father and husband Kevin, the oldest child Shari, the oldest son Chad, and four younger siblings. The family was once loved on social media for their realism as the documentary exhibits, but one day, a controversial video was published on the channel leading to an extreme amount of hatred from viewers. In the video, Chad reveals that his bedroom had been taken away for 7 months and that he has been sleeping on a beanbag on the floor of their basement; Ruby responds by laughing and stating that it was a punishment because Chad played a prank on his younger brother. This video was taken down by the family as a result of the amount of backlash, but the damage was already done. Furthermore, many viewers began criticizing Ruby’s parenting and looking into her past videos to find more abusive traits and negative signs.
The Franke family is part of a Morman community. It is believed that Ruby and Kevin’s religion played a large part in how their children were treated. Ruby is the primary antagonist, for her husband Kevin was not directly involved in the abuse. Either way, Kevin and the children were manipulated with the excuse of religion. To back up Ruby and her beliefs, a Mormon therapist named Jodi Hildebrandt became involved in the family. What started off as therapy sessions with the oldest son, Chad, became heavy involvement with the family’s day to day life. Jodi’s history as a therapist was never positive. She has had very poor reviews from former clients, some claiming that their relationships were ruined because of Jodi’s manipulative nature. Ruby eventually began working with Jodi and took the family channel off of Youtube. Jodi and Ruby began creating videos giving parental advice that also related to Mormonism. One day, Ruby decided that Kevin was bad for their family. She told Kevin that he needed to spend time apart from the children and herself; Kevin left for one year. This year is when all of the known abuse occurred.
The documentary covers many events leading up to the incident that ultimately got Ruby and Jodi arrested. Some of which include reports of the young children being home alone for days at a time, Chad getting kicked out of the home at 17, and Ruby’s 12 year old son escaping Jodi’s home. On August 31, 2023, the youngest son of the Franke family showed up at the house of Jodi’s neighbor. He was extremely malnourished and had duck tape wrapped around his ankles. The documentary shows a video captured by the neighbor’s doorbell camera where the boy asks the neighbor for help. As a result, the neighbor calls 911, resulting in the arrest of Jodi and Ruby. Ruby’s nine year old daughter was also found in Jodi’s home in a similar condition as the youngest son. After many months, there was a trial for Ruby and Jodi; they both pleaded guilty to child abuse and will continue to serve up to 30 years in prison. In a statement to lawmakers, the youngest daughter said, “I’m not saying YouTube is a bad thing. Sometimes it brings us together, but kids deserve to be loved, not used by the ones that are supposed to love them the most.” Overall, the documentary was released to spread awareness of the impact left on the family and give the oldest children an opportunity to tell this story from their own perspectives.
