Current:Home > FinanceYouTuber Ruby Franke's Chilling Journal Entries Revealed After Prison Sentence for Child Abuse -Streamline Finance
YouTuber Ruby Franke's Chilling Journal Entries Revealed After Prison Sentence for Child Abuse
View
Date:2025-04-13 13:52:59
Content warning: This story discusses child abuse.
Details into Ruby Franke's horrific mistreatment of her kids have come to light.
More than a month after the disgraced parenting influencer was sentenced to four to 30 years in prison on child abuse charges, prosecutors released scans from a handwritten diary belonging to Franke that detailed her behavior toward her children.
In the journal, which had the names of Franke's kids redacted to protect their privacy, the 42-year-old described one child as "Satanic."
"He slithers & sneaks around looking for opportunities when no one is watching & then he scurries," she wrote in an entry dated July 10, 2023, which was the boy's 12th birthday. "If he wants to emulate the savior, he needs to be 100% obedient with exactness. No wavering, no hiding."
Elsewhere in the diary, the mom of six detailed how she confronted the same son over his "deviant behavior" by holding him underwater in the family pool.
"I told him, 'Give your demon friend a message for me. I will not rest. I will not stop,'" she wrote. "'The devil lies and says I'm hurting you, abusing you.'"
In addition to her son, Franke also believed another one of her children was possessed by a demon. In multiple diary entries, the YouTuber described her 9-year-old daughter as "sinful" and "manipulative."
"These selfish, selfish children who desire only to take, lie, and attack have zero understanding of god's love for them," Franke wrote in a July 23, 2023 entry. "Oppositional force is required for growth, development and maturity. [They] have never experienced oppositional force. They are very weak-minded."
Throughout the journal, Franke also seemingly detailed a variety punishments she imposed on her kids, including beating, poking, withholding food and water and forcing them to jump on a trampoline.
"The world we live in today does not support children being uncomfortable," she wrote in an Aug. 15, 2023 entry. "They, the adults, are uncomfortable w/ children being uncomfortable. And so children are comforted, entertained, distracted from the need to confess + change. Stripping down a child's world to the basics of beans + rice + hard work would be considered abuse. And it's not. It's necessary for the prideful child."
Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt were arrested in August after the 12-year-old boy ran to a neighbor's home for help, according to the Washington County Attorney's Office. Upon further investigation, prosecutors said in a case summary that Franke and Hildebrandt—a mental health counselor—"appeared to fully believe that the abuse they inflicted was necessary to teach the children how to properly repent for imagined 'sins' and to cast the evil spirits out of their bodies."
Three months following their arrest, Franke pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse, while Hildebrandt pleaded guilty to four counts of the same charge as part of a plea deal.
Like Franke, Hildebrandt was ordered to spend four to 30 years in prison—the maximum sentence for this kind of an offense—when they were both sentenced in February.
E! News has reached out to Franke and Hildebrandt's attorneys for comment on the journal entries but hasn't heard back.
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News AppveryGood! (1825)
Related
- Olympic women's basketball bracket: Schedule, results, Team USA's path to gold
- Here's what to know about viewing and capturing the solar eclipse with your cellphone camera
- Bomb threat forces U-turn of Scoot plane traveling from Singapore to Perth, airline says
- 'The Fall of the House of Usher' is Poe-try in motion
- Jay Kanter, veteran Hollywood producer and Marlon Brando agent, dies at 97: Reports
- Sri Lanka says it has reached an agreement with China’s EXIM Bank on debt, clearing IMF funding snag
- $1.765 billion Powerball jackpot goes to a player who bought a ticket in a California mountain town
- Kentucky's Mark Stoops gives football coaches a new excuse: Blame fans for being cheap
- Family of explorer who died in the Titan sub implosion seeks $50M-plus in wrongful death lawsuit
- 'Eras' tour movie etiquette: How to enjoy the Taylor Swift concert film (the right way)
Ranking
- Bodycam footage shows high
- The US government sanctions two shipping companies for violating the Russian oil price cap
- The morgue at Gaza’s biggest hospital is overflowing as Israeli attacks intensify
- GOP-led House panel: White House employee inspected Biden office where classified papers were found over a year earlier than previously known
- DoorDash steps up driver ID checks after traffic safety complaints
- Beavers reintroduced to west London for first time in 400 years to improve biodiversity
- RHOC's Shannon Beador Slammed Rumors About Her Drinking 10 Days Before DUI Arrest
- Auto workers escalate strike as 8,700 workers walk out at a Ford Kentucky plant
Recommendation
John Galliano out at Maison Margiela, capping year of fashion designer musical chairs
Penguins' Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang set record for longevity as teammates
A possible Israeli ground war looms in Gaza. What weapons are wielded by those involved?
With funding for Kansas schools higher, the attorney general wants to close their lawsuit
9/11 hearings at Guantanamo Bay in upheaval after surprise order by US defense chief
As Israeli military retaliates, Palestinians say civilians are paying the price in strikes on Gaza
Stockholm to ban gasoline and diesel cars from downtown commercial area in 2025
Fish and Wildlife Service to Consider Restoring Manatee’s Endangered Status