FROM THE VAULT: Ruby Franke: Monster Momfluencer | #364
RedHanded
Wondery | RedHanded
4.5 • 18.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 68 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the son of Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke turned up bound, emaciated and apparently covered in blood – it horrified the police, the internet and Franke’s millions of followers.
The uber-strict brand of parenting advice she preached on her YouTube channel, “8 Passengers”, had been drawing online criticism for years. But even her loudest detractors couldn’t know how despicable and unhinged her punishments had grown. That is, until a diary, found among evidence of torture in a windowless basement, revealed the depths of her abuse to the world.
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Suruti. I'm Hannah. And welcome to Red Hand It, where this week we're keeping it kind of current. Not as current as last weeks, but this is one that has been heavily heavily also requested by you guys. |
| 0:24.5 | And it's a weird one. |
| 0:25.6 | I feel like I saw so much coverage and sort of kept up with it, |
| 0:29.0 | but I had no idea it was this bad. |
| 0:32.4 | No, no, no, no. |
| 0:33.7 | There's often a lot of criticism that the fools YouTubers, rightly, wrongly, whatever. |
| 0:39.5 | I do feel like they do tend to get sucked into a lot more drama than podcasters. |
| 0:46.0 | But this one definitely transcends like a bit of YouTube drama. This is bonkers. |
| 0:52.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:53.6 | It was a hot summer morning in the Utah desert |
| 0:56.5 | when an elderly man answered the door |
| 0:58.8 | to find a young boy looking back at him. |
| 1:02.4 | The child appeared to be weeks from death, |
| 1:06.0 | his tiny legs like matchsticks, |
| 1:08.6 | poking out from underneath an oversized, blood-stained shirt. |
| 1:13.1 | He was dirty, shoeless, and had duct tape wrapped around his wrists and ankles. |
| 1:19.4 | This little boy was Russell Frankie, and his voice trembled as he begged the man to ring the |
| 1:25.3 | police. Here is the 911 call. |
| 1:28.9 | You can hear the man choking back tears. |
| 1:34.9 | I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help. |
| 1:41.2 | And he said he just came from the neighbor's house and he's emaciated he's got |
| 1:48.0 | tape around his legs he's hungry and he's thirsty need someone immediately but he has duct |
... |
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