Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke

"Devil in the Family" (2/27/25, 3eps, 50-min, Hulu) This documentary charts the rise and fall of Ruby Franke's "8 Passengers" Youtube channel. Hulu did a really good presentation with this, but the visual and audio redactions were annoying and apparently unnecessary since you can find a short 20/20 presentation of this on YT which has no such restrictions. When you watch you'll wonder how it took so very long for her abuse to be identified and stopped, especially regarding the Utah state agency whose JOB it is to investigate such matters! And husband/father, Kevin, is a sorry, pathetic character. He should've been prosecuted for criminal negligence, so much disgrace to spread around. And we find at the very end that she is eligible for parole in Dec 2026! That's horrifying, this monster should've been sentenced MUCH more harshly to 25 yrs hard time w/o the chance of parole. Finally, I hope people don't miss the incredible religious irony that in her effort to battle the evil in her children, she and Jodi exhibited the most heinous evil we dared imagine.

It absolutely blows my mind that there are people like these operating in our world. They are so completely consumed by delusions and magical fantasies that they actually act in their insane and inane beliefs. In truth, they use their false deities and revelations to advance their own agendas, prejudices, and desires for more money and more power. Then they lord or over their children and their families through punishment, denial of love and affection, and outright abuse. If any of them actually attempted to live the words ascribed to their mythical savior, they would share all of their wealth and resources with the poor and needy. Yet they never do. Grow up, you ridiculous fools and con artists.

Documentary is great. Shows how terrible Ruby & Jodi are. The father was obviously brainwashed but he had to know some sort what was happening....probably just did this for the paycheck not the story.

Anyway, it is entertaining cause you see a manipulative Karen (Ruby) throughout her videos but the abuse she did to her children was the sad part. She was extremely controlling and it was funny how all her neighbors did not like her. Cutting off your children is insane when they did nothing, I feel like she started cutting off the older children because they couldn't be controlled anymore and she couldn't profit off of them cause they were becoming adults. Terrible person.

I watched this interesting crime documentary thinking in the beginning it was going to be just about Ruby being the baddie, but the more I watched it the more I got annoyed by her labile husband Kevin in this little weird 'Pleasantville' town in Utah. The fact of the matter is that he condoned everything and I was surprised he wasn't charged or held accountable for gross negligence. He wasn't brainwashed at all. He just complied with everything his wife wanted without any objection. He could've saved his kids if he had been stronger. And then in the end him saying he still loves his wife? Has the man no self respect?

It was sad to see the kids suffer at the hands of a delusional and possessed mother and conwoman Jodi. By the way, that whole town and the other people that were in this documentary gave me the creeps. Not only were they passive and naive but also weird and plastic. The only person I really like was the oldest daughter Shari. She is a strong and normal woman. I hope all the other children will grow up to be like her.

I would've preferred to see this without the husband and perhaps also the eldest son as I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth. And so I think two episodes would've sufficed...

The fact that a mother can do all of this to her family and not have remorse,(I don't think she meant her apology). But KEVIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING. I'm not saying he should have got the same sentence but dude you were there before you got kicked out of the house. Both of these women are despicable and the hurt you see on Chad and Shari on the archived footage is haunting, Ruby just treating them like trash, screaming at them because she is recording. I don't ever want to see something like this happen to children, the pain they all have to live with now is beyond comprehension. I'm just glad they were put in jail before anyone was killed. Series was good, some stuff with Kevin needed to be addressed more.