‘Devil in the Family’ Unpacks the Disturbing Horrors of Ruby Franke’s Parenting Empire

We covered Ruby Franke a couple of times a couple of years ago after she pleaded guilty to child abuse — she’s now serving 30 years in prison — but I had no idea just how deeply depraved and disturbed she was until I got sucked into Hulu’s latest three-part documentary, Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

Based on what little I knew, mostly about the excessively harsh punishments she doled out to her kids during her Mommy Vlogger days, I assumed the documentary would be a quick, exploitative cash grab for Hulu. But it’s not that quick; it’s been a year and a half since her arrest, and the most compelling aspect of the series is that the events leading to Ruby’s downfall are relayed by her own family — her two oldest kids and her estranged husband, Kevin.

When it comes to documentaries, I rarely critique the quality — I’m more interested in the content — but I will say that director Olly Lambert does a solid job. The series is gripping, especially for those who weren’t steeped in the details. And there are a lot of details, many shared for the first time, along with unearthed video footage from her vlogging days that reveals what Ruby was like when she wasn’t performing for an audience.

Devil in the Family walks us through the whole ordeal, starting with the first video Ruby posted to YouTube, which earned her a mere $32 in ad revenue. That tiny sum sparked what I can only describe as an attention addiction, pushing her to turn Mommy Vlogging from a hobby into a full-time job for her family of eight. Within a short time, it was raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At first, the kids were on board, happy to share their lives for the sake of the family business. But after a few years, the older two — Shari and Chad — grew weary. Chad, in particular, started acting out and was even expelled from school. This coincided with Ruby’s first major scandal: Chad revealed on camera that she had taken away his bed, forcing him to sleep on a beanbag for seven months. Ruby must have thought it was a cutesy, lighthearted anecdote, but the Internet turned on her fast, unearthing more examples of her questionable parenting from past videos.

When social media turned against her, Ruby reacted the way many do when they become the target of online backlash: it rewired her brain, filling her with spite, paranoia, and resentment (which explains a lot about the online right). Before this, she made a lot of bad parenting decisions. After this, things became outright monstrous.

Enter Jodi Hildebrandt, a so-called “mental health coach” who had achieved some success but was, in reality, running a cult. Ruby became her partner in that cult, cutting off everyone in her life. She kicked Kevin out of the house, severed ties with Shari and Chad, and moved in with Jodi along with her younger children.

Together, Ruby and Jodi convinced themselves that the younger kids were possessed by the Devil (these are deeply religious people, after all) and began starving and torturing them to drive the supposed evil out. By the time one child escaped and flagged down a neighbor, the youngest two were near death — emaciated, chained up, covered in sores that Ruby and Jodi would “treat” by rubbing cayenne pepper into their wounds. The details are beyond disturbing. The house was straight out of a horror movie. Ruby and Jodi were arrested, pleaded guilty almost immediately, and are now locked away for a long time.

But what about Kevin? That’s the big question I kept coming back to: How did he let this happen?

He hadn’t seen his family in over a year before the arrest, so he wasn’t directly involved in the most horrific abuse. He claims he had no idea what was going on, and honestly, I believe him — who in their right mind would suspect their spouse of torturing their own children, even a spouse as controlling and mean as Ruby?

But also: how does a father allow himself to be so easily exiled? Kevin was brainwashed by Ruby and Jodi to the point where he believed them when they told him he was an “evil influence” on his own kids. Again, this is someone deeply steeped in religious dogma, and people like that can be highly susceptible to manipulation. Even when authorities informed him about the abuse, he initially refused to accept it. It took serious effort for him to finally see the truth.

I believe Kevin. There’s nothing in the documentary to suggest he’s lying. He doesn’t try to excuse himself; he fully admits he was weak and easily manipulated. That becomes apparent throughout the series, starting with how Ruby forced him to participate in the family vlogs.

But I still don’t understand it. How does a father who clearly loves his children abandon them for an entire year? It’s deeply messed up, a profound abdication of responsibility. But I don’t think it was malicious. He fell under a toxic spell. He was possessed by the Devil, and the Devil was Ruby Franke.