Devil in the fam: Ruby Franke

[Supersimkin7]

Dear God.

Has anyone seen this? No wonder the US is keen on capital punishment.

I’ve rarely considered if evil exists, but safe to say the two female torturers don’t show Mormons at their best.

I've watched most of it / just last 10 minutes of last episode to go.

I am amazed her husband was so brainwashed he stayed away from his children. Well I cannot decide if he was or just didn't care enough for them to fight.

Just finished it. IMO the husband is responsible for this too. When he said he still loves his wife and has longing for her after what she did, it just makes me think he's still drinking the cool aid. He's pleading innocence but I think he knew exactly what was happening. Also, and I hate to say it, but I get vibes from the eldest boy too... clearly an abuse survivor too but it just seemed off.

The whole thing was so crazy 😵. I don’t understand why they thought they were God’s chosen ones and that the oldest boy, the therapist and the 2 youngest were possessed by demons. It doesn’t make sense. The dad was awful for abandoning his children just because his wife said to.

The husband was - and remains - keener on his wife than his DC, even the youngest ones she tried to murder.

No such thing as one bad parent, as the cliche goes.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding there’s a strong hint that the fantasist who became the wife’s lover faked her own possession (as you do) then accused the rest of the family in sequence of being in
the grip of demons. To get rid.

Having ejected/tortured/imprisoned the DH & DC x6, she moved Ruby out to her house & shagged her in peace. Till the 12 yr old, who was annoyingly still just alive, blew the whistle. He and his DSis were meant to have died.

Thank god the youngest son managed to escape as I’m sure him and his younger sister would have eventually been killed.

I found the dad so infuriating with how passive he was and the fact that he did not protect his children and was around for some of the abuse. I bet if Ruby were to released he’d go back to her if she’d take him.

Sheri seems to have a good head on her shoulders and I hope shes able to have a good relationship with her siblings.

@ilikeeggs

I thought it interesting that the girl called her Ruby and the boy referred to her as mum.

Just finished this and I agree, the Dad is still 'under' by the looks of it. I really hope he doesn't win custody of those poor kids. I found it so odd that his main concern was always his wife. Even when he'd been told about the horrendous state his little boy was found in, he didn't ask how he was, where the other kids were, can he see them etc etc.
I just read that the two women are serving their sentences in the same prison, which seems dangerous to me.
Can't help thinking that their religion had them halfway to the cult mindset anyway. Their whole neighbourhood seemed very Stepford Wives!

The police said the two youngest children would have been murdered very shortly, but they were rescued in the nick of time.

What cult? Brainwashing yes, but hardly by an org of thousands. Does being persuaded by one person count? More Hindley & Brady than the Moonies.

I just watched this. I'd never heard of Ruby Franke but she's vile and I'm so glad she wasn't able to continue. She was absolutely vile to her children.

Those poor children, I agree the Dad is just as responsible.
On Tik Tok there's her phone calls to him, she thinks she's "misunderstood" and "why is it so hard to believe children can be full of evil?"

the absolute irony of being such a devout Mormon thinking she was god's chosen one (with a holy mission to spread His word via....youtube blogging), while having an extra marital affair with another woman! the mind boggles at the level of double-thinking you'd need to rationalise that.

Does anyone know what happened to the kids? Did they go into foster care? I agree there is no way the dad should ever take care of them.

They didn't say much about the two middle sisters but presumably the middle sisters didn't know what was happening to the two youngest if they'd been kept in different houses?

Was she having a sexual relationship with the other woman? I didn't pick up on that fully although it was hinted at when they mentioned husband was thrown out and she shared a room with her. I lost track of which house they were living in but think the younger children were in the other woman's house (already forgot her name!) and the older two had been thrown out.

I don't know what to think of the dad because he had actually been thrown out which leads me to think he wasn't involved but he does seem in awe of her somewhat and I don't think I could forgive him if I were his children.

Yes, they were sleeping together and apparently Ruby has a different girlfriend in prison.

I think the Dad was awful. Not exactly winning Dad of the year by any means! And wonder what his children will say when they see footage of him saying he still loves Ruby! 😳

Found it very interesting that the eldest dd is campaigning against family vlogging and the eldest son is making a career as a social influencer…! Polar opposites in many ways.

I’ve read the daughter’s book this week too. That’s very interesting.

I haven’t seen it, is it on a TV channel or paid subscription like Netflix etc? From what I’ve seen on YouTube it sounds horrific and I can’t imagine why a spouse could not get the children away to safety.

We watched it a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't believe just how unhinged she was! Honestly appalling. There's not much I find difficult to watch but this was definitely up there. Those poor poor children.

What really shocked me, was the father near the end of the series, saying how he still loves his wife and (essentially) stands by her over his children. I mean, wtf?!

Disneyplus

I think a lot of these family vloggers must be unhinged!

Thank you PigeonQueen

Such an interesting documentary. The eldest boy was still so attached to his mother. He said she went from fun and loving to abusive. The girl said in hindsight she was always abusive but that it went from bad to worse.

The Dad thing was mad. Emotionally abused himself really I suppose. But it is hard to understand why he still loved her.

I thought he'd said he stood by her then but didn't realise he meant now! If so that is unhinged.

Thing is they really skated over what happened to the father, he was very badly treated and he was routinely emotionally abused by the group meetings online, I’ve listened to a long podcast about it all and they give much more depth to the marriage disintegration, in the documentary it’s fascinating to hear the eldest sons take on it and how much they believed that not seeing family was the right thing to do. Though I was disturbed by how under her spell the father still is, he is at least filing for divorce.

I've watched it and was horrified. My children used to watch them when they were on YouTube and I remember when everyone turned against them for her treatment of the oldest son.

I'm reading the eldest daughter Shari's book now. I'm glad she now has new parental figures who are supporting her.

I was infuriated by the dad, such a weak willed man. I can't believe Mormons have to give 10 percent of their income to the church either. The whole thing just seems like a cult.

There's a really good podcast called The Rise and Fall of Ruby Franke which goes into a lot of detail and you see how they were all poisoned by Hildebrandt. The whole thing is an absolute horror story. Franke was however controlling and abusive from the start, but Hildebrandt validated her bizarre parenting ethos and ramped it up to a psychotic level. The husband was abused and controlled in much the same way as Hildebrandts other victims (in the podcast it explains that she has done this to other people before, but with the Frankes she finally got caught). If the youngest son had not escaped and raised the alarm, it would have been catastrophic.

The thing that upsets me about this (among so many things) is that she had a life others could only ever dream of, healthy beautiful children, beautiful home in an idyllic neighbourhood, a husband who absolutely ADORED her and none of it was ever enough, nothing was ever good enough, perfect enough. Shari has written a book in which she describes that whatever the children did or achieved, it was never good enough. And now, she has lost absolutely everything as a result of her inhuman actions. When she could have simply enjoyed her life and been grateful.

I don't know who is more to blame, Ruby or Jodi, they just fed off each other in this hellish cycle that would have only ended in tragedy.

I wonder if either of them will ever truly understand what they've done, or will they always be delusional?

It was a riveting car crash watch and I only hope that those poor children have received the therapy they deserve. Whilst the husband didn't partake in the worst abuses, he has clearly been coerced and manipulated. I'm not saying he was any kind of hero, but you hear of brainwashing and coercion happening to women. Why not men sometimes?