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5 hours ago
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Ruby Franke turned her life into content for years, so there is a bleak irony in her content being repurposed now to reveal the extent of her crimes. As a vlogger, she and her husband, Kevin, made a living from YouTube, posting videos on the popular channel 8 Passengers, now defunct, about Mormon family life and parenting their six children in the picturesque city of Springville, Utah. But in 2023 Franke was arrested and charged with aggravated child abuse and sentenced to up to 30 years in prison. The astonishing three-part documentary Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke tells the story, from the beginning of the family’s internet fame in 2015 all the way to Franke’s imprisonment.
It starts with the now infamous and distressing doorbell-camera footage of one of the Franke children, a 12-year-old boy – the documentary blurs the faces of the four youngest children and does not name them – who turns up on a neighbour’s porch, asking to be taken to the nearest police station. He is evidently injured and emaciated. Later, we see more from that day and witness the neighbour sobbing when he realises the state the child is in. The boy has escaped imprisonment from the house of a woman called Jodi Hildebrandt. It is the spark that lights the inferno.
The first episode follows the rise of 8 Passengers, a channel that gave the illusion of a slice-of-life vlog, but was so considered and curated that the bulbs in the family home were all changed to ultra-bright, to emulate television studio lighting. The family members, including the children, were roped in to what quickly became a profitable enterprise. In a recent interview with this newspaper, the eldest daughter, Shari, raises key questions about consent and children’s lives being broadcast online. The second episode explores how the shiny facade of 8 Passengers began to crumble, as hints about the hardline treatment and punishment of the children, such as removing “bedroom privileges”, were broadcast to the concern and condemnation of viewers.
At around the halfway point, it takes another turn, into truly jaw-dropping territory. The grim brutality behind a lifestyle-channel empire would be enough material for most documentaries, but this veers off into wild and even more horrifying corners. Ruby and Kevin meet Hildebrandt, a counsellor and relationship coach with a distinctly cult leader-esque air. The arrival of Hildebrandt, along with a rise in apocalyptic religious beliefs and a sense of impending doomsday, makes for a darkening narrative. There are demonic possessions and suggestions of a clandestine sexual affair. All this is happening while Ruby and Hildebrandt continue to broadcast tough, anti-woke parenting “advice” on YouTube and Instagram.
The story has been widely reported, but a number of factors elevate this particular documentary above the true-crime pack. First, the film-makers have had access to thousands of hours of footage, which reveals the underbelly of the family vlogging in the first place. We see what happens before and after the edits have been made, exposing the flimsiness of the wholesome, money-making image. Second, it doesn’t rehash old territory but reveals new details, including footage of Hildebrandt, in the Franke house, claiming to be possessed by the devil. Third, it has been made with the participation of Ruby’s husband Kevin, and the two eldest children, Shari and Chad.
Shari, who only ever refers to her mother as “Ruby”, is a mature and impressively steady presence. “I’ve come to understand evil in a way that most people don’t,” she says. Their reflections on, and interpretations of, the events leading up to their mother’s incarceration vary from shellshocked to staggeringly circumspect. One issue with true crime documentaries is the ease with which they can become exploitative but, given the family’s involvement and the fact that the identities of the younger children have been obscured, this feels like less of a concern here.
Even in its most out-there moments, the film never loses sight of the fact that, ultimately, this is about child abuse and the collapse of a family unit under extreme religious beliefs. It is sober in its telling of the story, and leaves plenty of questions for viewers to consider. Why did Ruby and Hildebrandt do it? Neither has given much of an account of her role in the cruelty to the children, though both pleaded guilty to the charges. What is Kevin’s culpability? He doesn’t quite seem to know himself. More pressingly, how could this happen so publicly, in relatively plain sight, under the watchful eyes of the internet? To its credit, the documentary, while thorough, seems to admit that there are no easy answers.
