Chad Daybell’s “Ghost Letter”: Inside the Mind of a Murderous Prophet
Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
True Crime Today
3.3 • 908 Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the letter, Daybell claims that while working as the sexton of a Utah cemetery, he was haunted by the ghost of a petty thief named Eddie — a spirit that supposedly opened gates, picked locks, and moved padlocks onto pegs. He writes that he eventually told Eddie to “go toward the light,” and that the disturbances stopped.
Then the letter descends into something far darker. Daybell describes being electrically jolted and shoved by an unseen force while probing a “haunted grave.” He calls it a demonic attack and connects it to the same “evil legions” described in 19th-century LDS texts. To him, it wasn’t psychosis or imagination — it was confirmation of his divine purpose.
From there, he recounts hearing a dozen disembodied voices outside his window shouting, “We hate your books!” and claims this was proof that Satan opposed his writing. For Chad, it all fit the narrative: he wasn’t an aspiring author with an obsession — he was a spiritual warrior under attack.
That mindset — the blending of fantasy, religion, and grandiosity — would become the foundation of his later relationship with Lori Vallow, the “prophetess” who believed their murders were part of God’s plan.
Tony breaks down how this letter foreshadowed everything that came next:
- The God complex behind Chad Daybell’s self-anointed mission.
- His habit of reframing delusion as divine validation.
- The chilling psychological progression from “I saw a ghost” to “I’m chosen to cleanse the world.”
#ChadDaybell #LoriVallow #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #CultCrimes #PsychologyOfEvil #ReligiousDelusion #MurderMystery #TonyBrueski #PrisonLetters
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, Stacey Cole, and Todd Michaels. |
| 0:08.2 | Speaking of crazy, Lori Vallow Daybell was in court just the other week. |
| 0:15.5 | She had a new hearing. |
| 0:17.6 | And just like Brian Coburger, just in that, a different sort of chaotic, dark triad |
| 0:24.7 | of narcissistic thinking, she too doesn't like the idea of paying back restitution. |
| 0:33.1 | Doesn't think she should have to do it. Why? Well, other people have done it. And it all goes |
| 0:37.4 | back to GoFundMe. Well, GoFundMe is paying this to people. Why should I have to? |
| 0:42.4 | Because you're the one that was convicted of the crime. |
| 0:45.6 | Isn't it fascinating that some people will take that GoFundMe? |
| 0:50.5 | Somebody else is already providing that for them them so that should be good enough for me |
| 0:54.3 | yeah you know where where on the crime you should pay yes i mean where in history has this ever |
| 1:01.0 | been like this where it's like well someone else is going to make you whole so why should i have to i mean |
| 1:05.6 | if you get a civil judgment against you there's no like well you already got whole from your GoFundMe. |
| 1:11.9 | So I don't have, I'm off the hook for that now. |
| 1:14.2 | And somehow think that arguing that aloud, speaking that into the atmosphere, into the world is |
| 1:21.8 | somehow going to make it happen. |
| 1:23.5 | But that's the magical narcissistic thinking that these people have. |
| 1:28.5 | Let's watch some of this. |
| 1:29.7 | It's a short piece of the hearing of Lori Valo-Daybell. |
| 1:33.6 | And then after that, we're going to watch a little bit of Chad telling ghost stories. |
| 1:39.1 | And CR 2020-202-20122. |
| 1:44.3 | State of Arizona versus Lori Daybell. |
... |
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