Disgraced YouTube mommy vlogger Ruby Frank asked if “we made the news” one day after she was arrested for the brutal abuse of her two young children, newly released audio of her jailhouse calls revealed.
Franke, 42, also appeared to blame her children for their own torture, claiming that “adults have a really hard time understanding that children can be full of evil, and what that takes to fight it,” according to newly released phone records obtained by ABC 4.
Franke, who ran the popular “8 Passengers” YouTube channel that focused on her tough approach to parenting, detailed her sadistic abuse of her two youngest children — which included shaving their heads, starving them, dousing them with dirty mop water, making them stand outside barefoot in the brutal desert heat for hours and forcing them to wear adult diapers — in recently-released diary entries.
The mom-of-six, who once whipped her children with a belt, was sentenced to up to 60 years in prison last month after admitting that she abused the very children who helped make her famous online.
During the jailhouse call, an unidentified man told Franke new stories about her abuse were making headlines.
“Are we in the news,” Franke asked.
“It sounds like at least you’re in the news,” he responded, adding that he was “going dark.”
“This is a witch hunt,” Franke added. “The devil’s been after me for years.”
In other phone calls, which took place between August 2023 and December 2023, Franke defends her abuse as well as the choices made by her former business partner Jodi Hildebrandt, comparing them to Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon church.
“The most upsetting thing is that I am completely misunderstood,” Franke told her husband, whom she separated from in 2022, during a Sept. 1, 2023 call.
“That is the most horrible feeling. Like, my own family misunderstands me, they misinterpret me,” she added.
Following her separation from her husband, Franke began spending much of her time in Ivins, Utah with Hildebrant, who was a controversial mental health coach. There, they launched a video channel featuring Ruby’s two youngest children, a 12-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.
Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on Aug. 30 when her son managed to escape from their house of horrors and rang a neighbor’s doorbell asking for help. He was covered in wounds, with duct tape around his wrists and ankles.
Following her separation from her husband, Franke began spending much of her time in Ivins, Utah with Hildebrant, who was a controversial mental health coach. There, they launched a video channel featuring Ruby’s two youngest children, a 12-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl.
Here’s the latest coverage on YouTuber Ruby Franke’s child abuse case
During the call, Franke said Hildebrandt was also misunderstood and misinterpreted.
“Joseph Smith — every wonderful man of God has had to be misunderstood,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion..
“God told me I’m done,” Franke said. “Satan has taken everything away from me that I love. And I’m a good woman. I don’t do naughty things.”
However by December Franke’s views on Hildebrandt had drastically changed, according to records of a Dec. 2, 2023 phone call.
“I could not come out of this without … without His grace, without His mercy, without His help,” Franke said. “This has been the strangest, and the most miraculous intervention. It put everyone where they needed to be.”
Franke said being separated from Hildebrandt “cleared a lot of things up” for her.