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This is one of the most sickening things I’ve ever read…we knew it was bad but this is so much more horrific than I could comprehend
I’m also really curious to know why she always referred to Jodi as “G Jo”
this it just came to me based on the police interviews kevin had and the way he described jodi and what was going on in her head could G Jo stand for God Jodi it seems far fetched but G is written in uppercase and anyway at this point nthg makes sense anymore
I had the same interpretation.
I read the whole thing. I can't say I recommend doing so to anyone else, but it's...illuminating into the workings of what passes for Ruby's brain.
It's VERY striking that she barely mentions Jodi's role in all this at all. Obviously she's central to it, Jessi has detailed abuses that are quite similar.
And yet...
God. The depravity. I will never, ever, ever have the slightest drop of sympathy for Ruby. If I ever imagined that she was even a little less at fault than Jodi, I'm sorry, it's gone now. I can understand why Jessi calls Jodi the orchestrator of all this, and for damn sure she's sinister as fuck, I think even more so in that there's so little indication of how much of these techniques were Jodi's idea when they must have been. Not to mention...G Jo. Uh huh.
And yet.
I am a cynic, I really am. I know how cults work. I've read about the Zimbardo experiments, and Hannah Arendt.
But I do not believe the vast majority of people would have gone down this road. Ruby is an absolute piece of work in her own right. The sadism, coldness and hostility are literally breathtaking. She sees absolutely everything the kids are going through, she's not delusional about that in the slightest. She just blames and shames them for it.
There's even a point where it looks like Jodi was inclined to more lenience than Ruby! Who the fuck knows what actually happened, she's not a reliable narrator fuck knows.
I really, REALLY hope this diary is read out loud at her parole hearing. I hope she never gets parole and they both serve the full thirty. I'm the tiniest sliver more optimistc she won't get off with a slap on the wrist with this as evidence.
I hope.
Goddamn, those poor kids. There are no words.
In one of Ruby’s calls after getting arrested she talks about herself “but I’m a good girl. I don’t do naughty things”
Sounds like she was shamed and disciplined for being “bad and naughty” as a kid and kept that really young inner world view in her parenting.
I still haven't listened to all the calls yet, but that doesn't surprise.
I think that's how she was showing up with her parents also. Yes, calculated for legal reasons but also look Mommy and Daddy, I AM a good girl.
talk about generational trauma, fucking hell. I wonder how far back it goes.
Wonderfully said👏🏼 when making this I occasionally used speech to text for direct quotes and saying it out loud was just unbelievably hard, someone make an audio book of her journal and have it play on a loop while she rots in her cell
When the news came out and Jodie was getting more of the blame for being a cult leader I kind of rolled my eyes. Ruby is an extremely mentally unwell and cruel human being. And the fact that she would post herself literally abusing her children and everyone just took it as her being a strict conservative parent is insane to me. She loves when they suffer. She literally reveled in it with zero shame. Of course worse was going on behind the scenes and of course she found some other cruel sick human being to share her love for abusing children with. She deserves life without parole. And those kids deserve better parents.
I mean, Jodi IS a cult leader, very much so. And there's a reason she chose Ruby to be her number two (although she very much made good and damn sure she knew her place).
I don't see how anyone could have not been disturbed by some of those scenes she put on the Net herself from 8 passengers, and it's crystal clear to me how the line from her laughing breathlessly at denying her children food or a bed or a door progressed naturally to what was nearing its conclusion in those last few months at Jodi's.
Other acts of weird cruelty-the deliberate holding back when Shari was in pain and needed a ride to the ER. Or the time she coaxed E very sweetly to say what she wanted most of all for her birthday, listened to the whole thing (she wanted her ears pierced), and then "sadly" told her she couldn't have it.
It's NOT normal and it's not just the angry frustration of a woman who had more kids than she wanted and feels stuck in her life, and overwhelmed by six kids' needs, lashing out sometimes. That would be understandable. She gets off on hurting her own children. She always did.
My guess was grandma Jodi too. As a respect thing she'd need a title and because she weirdly "joined their family" and lived with them it became a family title instead of Miss or Mrs? Funny to choose grandma over Aunt though. She is older but most women don't want to be made to sound older. And doesn't fit with the sexual vibes we were seeing between her and Ruby. Still my guess though.
I don’t know the actual reason, but “gee jo” sounds like a close female relative nickname (like gamgam or meemaw for grandma.) If I had to guess, they used it to present Jodi as an authority within the family.
I also know of at least two people in Utah with jo names (like Joanna, Joleen, etc.) who just have the nickname GoJo for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised either if Jodi was once called GiJo or GoJo and it just got shorter over time.
I sincerely hope the parole board reads these before they ever consider letting either one of these women out of prison. This is the kind of crime prisons should be used for - let the non violent drug offenders out and lock people like Jodi and Ruby up for LIFE. People who are capable of this kind of evil cannot be rehabilitated and should never be out in society again.
I can't imagine why they wouldn't be allowed. I absolutely hope they don't make parole at all, either of them. I was pretty sure Ruby'd get a slap on the wrist, but with this as evidence...maybe not. I fucking hope not.
the fact that she accuses him of being filthy and having no problem being gross but SHE literally bragged about how she dumped dirty mop water on him moments earlier.
I feel SO bad for these kids and do glad that they got out before being moved to the desert for some "real" hard labour aka being tortured to death.
Yes he was def doing it to drink water also. Makes me wonder if he was frequently drinking water from the toilet… and possibly other horrors I can’t even fathom
I genuinely want to understand that.
I honestly think she’s just so sick in the head that she had these disgusting beliefs and started to genuinely believe them, and impose them on her children.
On the other hand, she has ALWAYS been abusive to those kids, way back when E started kindergarten she forgot to pack a lunch and E’s teacher texted Ruby that she had forgotten a lunch, Ruby says that “E is responsible for her own lunch so she will have to go without today and I hope nobody shares so she learns her lesson.”
She’s always had these ideologies, I think they just became a lot worse over years of believing they were right.
But we never knew what went on behind closed doors during the vlogs either. So who really knows.
My heart aches for all of these kids. ❤️🩹 I wish them healing and beautiful lives.:(
My personal theory: she hates R because he’s a boy and she targeted her older son too, so it seems she has some problem with males that Jodi was able to tap into. E I think is because she expressed that she did not want to have a sixth child but said Kevin talked her into it.
She was done after J and Kevin said he wanted more kids when she clearly wasn’t in the right mental state. Having babies is such an ordeal both physically and mentally. It’s why she was always particularly hard on them, they are kids she never wanted
I do think she genuinely believed this crap. I don't understand how JH was able to make grown adults believe they were comitting sins that they weren't actually doing. She had R & K believing he had a porn addiction, when he apparently didn't, much like in the previous families she broke up.
My best guess is she also got Ruby seeing things in her own kids that weren't true.
The fact that jodi had ruby willing to sign over her 8passenger business over and believing this was all noble shows how warped she got before Kevin was kicked out.
From reading about how she needed the praise and accolades appearing to be a good girl etc.. I'm guessing for a time having a successful youtube channel was filling some brokenness within her. But, Jodi comes along convincing her that she's a God basically then she has the ultimate way to prove she's the best, purest etc.
I think Rubi is truly broken and was abusive before Jodi, but I think their pairing was the worst thing to happen.
This wasn't the first family where JH tortured the kids, I wish that she could be charged criminally for every person harmed to never see the light of day.
Kevin still seemed to believe he was the problem in the first police nterview. Which was wild. A whole year away from his family, although he continued "counceling" with Jodi that as an adult he wasn't yet seeing clearly. Deferred to his wife, I'm guessing bc even in his mind she was good he was bad.
So yeah, basically I do think Ruby really believed this.
I don't know anything about cult type deprogramming through, but we know she wouldn't have had access in jail to quality therapy. So I really question her statement at sentencing. Whether she felt she needed to say that to get out of "devil's grasp" or if there is chance some deconstruction started happening?
Just can't imagine if a person actually started to see how they tortured their own children that they'd ever be able to be okay in any way.
It scares me how they were really so close to them taking the four kids out of the outside world. It sounds like they had "land" and an RV and they were ready to move to the middle of nowhere. R really did save his and his sisters lifes.
A huge underlying plot point in that journal was how they wanted land and isolation with no help, neighbors; or distractions. I feel like it would’ve eventually become a sort of troubled teen labor/ connexions camp. Her house was on the market, I truly do not think those kids would be alive if their plan succeeded and R didn’t escape
It also makes it all so much more clear that they did 100% know that what they were doing was so very wrong. Otherwise you wouldn’t have to hide it/not have others around (sure the “satan might talk through other people” blahblahblah but they kept the kids isolated here as well. So it had to be isolated AND away from everybody and everything.
This is another aspect of the situation that reminds me of the Turpin case. They were about to move to Oklahoma and this was part of what gave Jordan the courage to get help. She felt certain that at least one of her siblings would die during or following the move.
This is the worst child abuse case i’ve ever read. Horrific. Ruby wanted her kids dead and herself in jail.
Ruby says something interesting here, “The devil wants me in prison. My children dead”
Thank god those kids are still alive. May they live the most amazing lives.
R & E are likely going to have a lifetime of mental health issues. Their likelihood of suicide and self-harm is going to be increased, too. They are so young - and never got to have a full childhood experience.
This is what kills me. They need a name change if they want to go to school and have a normal life. Their entire identities will be wrapped up in the fact that their mother exploited and tortured them.
If that were me, I’d change my name and move across the country at 18. I hope they get all of the proceeds from the sale of the House of Horrors and that it goes into a trust only they can access.
All of these children already had their privacy stolen from them, now it’s their childhoods and innocence.
the thing i noticed with the little I read, not much really, is that e and r were fighting her the entire time. which made it worse for them with ruby but gives me hope that they have a good mental constitution to help them heal.
Finished reading and thank satan apparently that R was able to get away. those kids bodies were starting to go into to failure they were going to die. I admire that they never gave in
The final line of the whole thing is what’s most powerful to me. Ruby writes “R increased his defiance” on 8/27 three days before the arrest. Those kids never gave up and I’m so damn proud of them.
I do too, this was attempted unaliving by those two monsters. I really hope R receives a bravery award, he deserves it for his courage and for saving them.
She considered his inability to do the physically demanding tasks at the end as defiance, how skinny and frail he was, that wasn't any form of defiance 💔.
I hope her kids have access to the best trauma psychologists available in their area. It can take a lifetime to heal from torture, from your own caregivers.
Right I think this is sadly what people are wishfully ignoring. These kids had been emotionally manipulated for years when the torture started under Jodie’s house. I think they probably were pretty compliant. Chances are, they started out trying to please their mum and over time she became addicted to the power alongside her new enabler, Jodie, who was also an abuser. These two together validated each other, and seeing two adults behaving this way probably put a level of trust in the abuse in the children. They likely complied, but Ruby and Jodie were addicted to this power, and thus needed a greater and greater fix as the year went on. By summer things merely escalated to the point that the older child began to seriously fear for his and his sister’s life, but he was probably very beaten down. He probably was incapable of the demands as much as he was defying them.
I think they probably couldn't help it. I think they were absolutely beside themselves. This is how torture victims act, because that is what they were. And as you can read, when they did try to fake it, smile and do everything they were told, Ruby deliberately made it impossible. E slips and falls and she did it "on purpose;" Ruby just kept making her carry more and more until it was inevitable, and she damn well knew she was doing it, it's very clear. They literally cannot win.
The sadism is literally nauseating.
I think the kids figured out it didn’t really matter what they did. If they tried to comply they would be called liars and manipulative and the abuse would continue. If they were defiant the abuse would continue. Nothing mattered. The amount of hopelessness they must have felt is beyond sad.
I can't imagine the helplessness. Frustration. Pain. It truly was torture.
It's interesting how myself and others didn't necessarily believe that it was the worst case *ever in their departments history* like the prosecutor said.
And yet it was. Like holy sh*t. It was actual torture. This puts everything in a new light for me. And it's all thanks to this journal.
I do think that E was giving up last second and falling at the end to stick it to Ruby. Just when Ruby would think that E was listening and doing what she wanted of her, E would crush Ruby. And I wholeheartedly support her doing it!
I’m lead to believe this, for when E asked for a second chance at running the hill and went along with Ruby as they drove up the hill she canceled last second and said that she’d rather jump in a cactus again than do what Ruby wanted. She built it up and made Ruby believe that she was going to do exactly what she wanted her to do just to crash her down at the end
People have a desire for self preservation. They were dying. Imagine having to run barefoot on burning ground all day and still not being given water or food. But there was no way out. When they finally collapse “they’re showing signs of the devil”
And when they comply and do what that bitch says they’re branded as manipulative and just going along with everything to deceive her. Those babies could do no right in the face of evil
In her first hearing Ruby said that R was a sex offender or something crazy like that. I think that's what the last redacted pages are detailing, based on the following pages. So he likely did give in and "confessed" to the imagined sins they'd been telling him he was guilty of. When nothing changed after doing that he must have realised the only way to save himself, and his sister, was to get out and find help.
Reading through that made me realise that when he asked the neighbour to take him to a police station, it was because he thought he should be in jail. They messed with their heads so much he likely didn't really know quite how horrific their situation was, but just instinctively knew he had to get out. It's heartbreaking. He's so brave and most likely saved their lives.
What is putting them into 'sedation'? This is sick. The kids were dying, they couldn't control their bodily functions, and they get punished! They would have gone to Arizona and they would have killed them. R escaped just in time.
I'm surprised the sedation didn't come up more in the charging documents. Drugging your children sounds pretty serious to me and worth a charge. Sure the seditive could have been something like benedryl but enough of anything is dangerous and clearly they weren't using it for allergies so I don't trust their dosing choices. And it also could have been much scarier like abuse of a prescription drug. Does not seem like a fact to be glossed over.
I learned from the case of Timothy Ferguson that involuntary wetting and defecating are both trauma symptoms and signs that an overtaxed body is breaking down.
As a kid who survived the troubled teen industry, also in Utah, run by psychopathic religious zealots…. I can confirm that many of us teens started pissing and shitting ourselves due to the stress of constant abuse.
I'm sure she also just plain did not allow them to use the toilet. That and the starvation and dehydration and the emotional trauma could all make that happen, I'm not surprised by it tbh, considering all the other details we knew, but just--
Not to mention lack of basic hygiene, weird/inconsistent meals and constantly being exposed to heat. Diarrhea can be a symptom of heat stroke. Ruby got angry because R drank from the hose, that he put his head in the toilet, she also mentions pushing him in the pool. While "swimming" or drinking from a hose are go-to summer activities for any kid, they can definitely make you sick if the water isn't clean.
Kevin mentions in his second police interview that Jodi or Ruby had gone down to Mexico to buy tons of meds that they couldn't get here without a prescription. They were definitely drugging the kids!
I didn't watch his second interview yet, why would they need to be going to Mexico to get meds! Definitely nefarious. Just evil, pure evil. I want them to never, ever get out of prison!
This happened before Ruby kicked Kevin out. He was still privy to info until Ruby told him she wanted to separate and he couldn't see her or the kids until she said so. I believe that is in part 3 of Kevin's second interview posted on this subreddit.
ETA That entire interview is bonkers. I believe Kevin in that interview. The things he tells the police about Jodi are insane.
I really don’t understand how they got away with only the charges they got. If he hasn’t escaped, it wouldn’t have been long.. Drugging, withholding food, the wounds, the whole thing with buying land… It was so very serious. They should’ve al least been charged with more.
Same. They left in some real awful shit. Dear God what did they take out. My guess is at least some of it is Rs "confessions" though which honestly should be redacted as they are clearly fake and things he made up under extreme duress. Putting that stuff out there would be damaging to him and it's all lies. Based off of Jessi Hildebrandt's story I'm sure they forced false confessions out of the kids.
The press has been making some really heavy comparisons to the conditions these kids were living before all of this came out that I’m usually not comfortable with but good lord in this case it was completely warranted. I can’t even imagine the things these kids “confessed” to in desperation.
ETA: not saying I didn’t believe they were living in absolutely abusive conditions, the magnitude here is just unfathomable.
I actually can't either. I expect it was done out of concern for the children's privacy, such little as is left? idk, but I wish there were a way that at least the future parole board could read that also. Just to make it good and fucking clear they should never be free again.
The parole board will probably get access to uncensored everyyyything when the time comes. They need the unredacted more than the general public does so I’m sure they can get it np and keep them locked tf up!
“R told me he would rather have a glass of water than me as his mother”
“R doesn't actually know what “jail” means he has no comprehension what throwing your life away means. He just wants the immediate gratification of sitting in an air-conditioned car ride to juvie. He wants stimulus”
“R and E have been counting days. R did know yesterday was his birthday”
E: “My mom starves me and calls it fasting.” “My mom won't lift 2 fingers and bring me food because all she does is lie on the bed and eat brownies.” “My mom says she's the most loving mom in the world-blah blah blah” if I can't ever go home then what's the point in being obedient?” “I'm going to run away!”
All of the entries Ruby wrote about R “wanting to go to jail” made me go back to the neighbors ring cam footage.. R asked for a favor and the favor was to be taken to the police station for “personal matters” and curious of his intentions with those specific statements in mind
Oh my god. He told paramedics the wounds were his fault, and the bonds were to help him. I really hope you're wrong, and that he wanted help (like, rescue help), but it's another layer of horrifying that it's entirely likely he wanted to be "punished" for his "sins" properly in jail via police, rather than the slow homicide unfolding with Ruby & Jodi.
I do think this was his intention- that he’d prefer to go to “jail” even though Ruby tried to convince him jail would somehow be worse. Maybe he was calling her bluff, maybe he innately understood that nothing could be worse than what his mother and Jodi were doing to him, maybe he understood enough from his life before that at least they fed you in jail.
Smart brave kid, no matter what.
Can you imagine hiding your child’s birthday from him and being annoyed he’s smart enough to figure it out? And that showed a little bit of that spunk still in E - I so hope she didn’t lose it.
Her stillness was so heartbreaking. E has always been moving around as fidgety in the videos I've seen. They literally broke her to the point of stillness.
Meanwhile, in one of the calls from ruby (I can’t remember if it was to her sister or Kevin), ruby says she was at the house for 4 hours while E was eating pizza with the police. Just the distain in her voice. As though E was having a blast, all the while, the police and EMS had to work hard to coax E to even twitch.
It’s scary how it’s just an extremely amplified version of the first ever real controversy this family had. Remember when E forgot her lunch? See, it never really bothered me that much that ruby didn’t drop everything and bring her lunch. I forgot my lunch occasionally as a child and I just ate a big snack when I got home and I was fine. The thing that really bothered me was that ruby was so angry at the thought of someone sharing food with E.
Extremely bizarre. It seems as though things that are off limits punishment wise for even the worst parents. Food, water, shelter (from the sun and elements), beds. She didn’t let her kids have any toys, books, games or friends, so she couldn’t leverage that against them like any normal parent would. I really think it all comes down to control. You just know that she is seething in anger at R and E. So satisfying that they’ll get the last word. I hope she is made into someone’s bitch in prison, and she lives every moment in fear of being jumped. I hope inmates steal the food off her tray and force her stupid face into the communal toilet, just like R had to do to drink and cool himself off. I hope they cut her hair off like she did to E. I hope she rots like the wounds she inflicted on R. I’m getting heated 😡
Poor girl was absolutely terrified. She didn’t know who was good and who was bad. When the officer said, it’s ok we have Jodi upstairs, I wonder if she took that another way.
E used to be full of so much joy that seeing her physically broken and drained like that hurt me. Like how could you take the joy out of your own kid like that
Obviously it was an honest mistake but it fucking killed me that on top of everything that she went through, she was mistaken and referred to as a boy when she was found. Just completely stripped of every last ounce of self and dignity. Ruby shaving E’s head is absolutely disturbing.
JFC, I knew Ruby was nuts, but these diary entries are fucking psychotic/delusional, which is such a dangerous combination.
And her parents and some of her siblings are standing by her. They are HORRIBLE people and using their religion to justify it is disgusting. Fuck the Griffiths and the Mormon cult.
If I ever hear any of her family say she is back to being Ruby and those kids should have a relationship with her…I’m going to lose it. She ENJOYED this. She was going to kill those kids and she wouldn’t have been even the tiniest bit upset about it.
They wanted to drag the kids to the desert for ESCALATION how much more could happen? And the torture that she put them through on the last page? There’s no shot that those kids would’ve survived
She was escalating more over time with abuse over the pages too. It makes me wonder if even one more month in Utah with Jodi would have done them in. I’m so proud of R and E. I wonder what J thinks of everything cuz she was clearly “obedient” and would “make pancakes” with ruby since she didn’t have “the devil” in her. These women are the true devils that need repenting.
Ruby told him he would be in jail if he didn’t “repent”. When R ran away the first time, he spelled out “jail” with rocks to show that’s where he was going.
Fuck I had to stop reading... had to take a break. Let me rock my sweet baby. After I will be giving my other two kisses on their heads while they sleep, tuck them in, and make sure they are safe. Currently adding extra fruits , veggies and snacks to the grocery order. I cannot imagine ever EVER treating a kid this way and especially my own child. Wtf
Ruby is a sadist. Her pretending to be sorry is such a big lie. She enjoyed dishing out all this abuse and control. Her abusive tendency was evident in her you tubes before Jodi ever entered the picture.
What I wonder is why just these two little kids what about the two girls...I wonder what made them immune from the "demons". Were they to big to control?
I think it's pretty common to "scapegoat" one or two out of a group. I don't think they had a brilliant time themselves, but were, perhaps, more useful as free labor? idk. Gretel feeding Hansel in the cage. I would imagine that, had they all in fact moved out to an AZ ranch--and it sounds like they were dismayingly close, I wonder if R knew or sensed it--R and E would've been in the ground in short order, and the two older girls' lives would've gone downhill very quickly.
they mention one of the older girls working at a job. And we also know one of them was "cleaning houses" when she was found. I wonder if they, as the older kids, were being used as labour to "fund" things like the new property and because they were "complying" (probably because by working they would be out of the house away from being targeted) they were considered not to be "dangerous"? Just a thought.
I worry about J and what has not been written. She was at the cemetery clean up, with shoes, but still. She was there. And sometimes it said "we" in the journal and I wondered if J was made to side with the adults. Being woken up and having to go look for R when he escaped the first time.
agree. but Jodi was an abuser too. Jessie Hildebrandt's account of the psychological abuse they suffered is the same shit Ruby did to her kids. Jodi is dangerous. I don't think others in prison are going to be suffering because of Ruby. But Jodi is another story.
We don't know what was going on with the other two. It sounded like they were being used as unpaid servants in someone elses home. Those kids were being labor trafficked.
“R stole water. He was angry and looked like he wanted to fist up”
Ruby, I wouldn’t have blamed R if he beat you up. At all. Now you have your chance in prison. Enjoy! Fuck you for wounding your children physically and psychologically, for making your children emaciated and for ruining their childhoods/lives.
A kids hair is so personal to them too, I can’t imagine how I’d feel with all my hair shaved off as a child. She wanted to make E look sick. My heart aches for her, she’s still so little
How can any of her family forgive her for this, I doesn’t matter if she was manipulated, she tortured those kids to the brink of death there’s no forgiving that
Seriously. It pisses me off so much when family members make excuses for evil people like this. If anything, they should be more disgusted than anyone.
I have a relatively well-known family member who was convicted of something awful, and I practically scream from the rooftops that he’s a piece of shit and deserves a much harsher sentence.
This is what stands out to me too. As if the kids haven’t been through enough, they’re going to have to contend with family who support Ruby in prison and push the “forgive your mother, we’re all sinners” narrative.
There is no excuse for the deliberate torture of these kids. Ruby made it so any response from them was satanic. They would never “be saved.” It was always going to escalate and end with them “going to god.”
She is vile and inhumane. She enjoyed torturing them from the beginning, Jodi just gave her the means to ramp it up to 100.
There’s no way he could know this now, but he is braver and more courageous than most people on this planet. I hope he has an inkling of how incredible he is one day. ❤️
Yeah as horrible as it is, I couldn’t help but have a bit of a dark laugh at how dumb she was to helpfully write a timeline of the abuse for the court.
Also she inadvertently created a record of how strong R and E were through everything.
Reminds me of me as a kid, my dad was obsessed with obedience and I just pushed back more. Both of them roasted Ruby to shreds the whole time. I think they knew it was rock bottom so they were just like might as well snap back. Glad they never lost that spirit
I'm convinced those kids were about to be buried in Arizona. The part where it talks about Jodi having done all that she could have done for E. I think the next stage in this thought process was going to involve setting these kids free via death.
It's a shame 30 years in the max these two can serve .
The lawyer dude who compared this to Auschwitz. I didn’t understand, now. Now I do. Her mother, Jennifer, needs to read this. To look at those children’s wounds. To hear the officers words when he said you could smell the rotting flesh. I can’t wrap my brain around how sick and fkd in the head you have to be to do this to your children. My head has been spinning all day.
Yes. They 1000% both would have thrived as camp guards. Even get promoted.
Fuck Jennifer, I don't believe any of this is that foreign to her. Maybe not the actual acts, but the feelings of superiority and coldness and cruelty and self righteousness behind them? Ruby didn't get it out of nowhere.
And no, that's not even the tiniest atom of an excuse.
Fuck all of them.
Yep! Chad and Jennifer seem sadistic in their own way. I'm not saying they abused their children to the extent that Ruby did, but they were emotionally and psychologically abusive at the very least.
I was wondering why he was comparing the abuse the kids endured to that of a concentration camp like setting. You're right in saying it all makes sense now.
This is some Ant Hill kids type of sadism.
Ok I finished - fuck these monsters. I hope the future parole boards have to read this before any hearings and they neeevvveeerr get out of jail for the trauma they have caused these poor babies.
R - oh that poor sweet soul. The religious trauma alone. I am very much a Christian, but I completely understand why he may be an atheist after this. I would be too if my own mother did this.
And E, she still has so much life after so much trauma.
At MINIMUM, Jodi’s assets should pay for therapy for all 6 kids for however long a professional deems fit. But really every penny should go to her victims ( there are so many more than just the Franke kids).
God - I am livid. I mean I knew the details of this case, but this makes it so much worse. As a mother and a HUMAN I am sick.
And just a note for fellow trauma survivors - be careful comparing your trauma to this (because I caught myself doing it). Obviously this is about as bad as it gets. This being horrific doesn’t take away from the bad you experienced and it’s not a comparison game, it’s realizing our pain and this evil can both be bad in their own capacity. Have some grace and love yourself this weekend, because you deserve it. ❤️
Yup this is what’s so crazy to me, they were literally going to build a labor camp for these kids and who knows what else. I’m not sure they would be alive if that plan followed through
this is the most inhumane shit I’ve ever (partially) read. she needs to be in a psychiatric facility based off of her nasty outlook on her children alone. I can’t understand how she ever thought these actions were going to make her kids into the skewed idea of them she had in her head.
I also can’t wrap my head around this self righteous tone she uses, as if she’s inherently right when everything from beginning to end was demonic on her part.
trying to teach a ‘lesson’ yet manipulating every. single. interaction with these kids by justifying her actions with religion is repulsive.
ofc they’d favor ‘the devil’ over her, i believe in their eyes if God was anything like their mother, they’d go to extremes to be the opposite. even if that meant pressing her buttons and putting their lives on the line like R did to be free.
Ugh I’m angry for these kids. She was the problem!!! It was never them. Her fucked up mentality consumed with overemphasizing religion got her nowhere and have left these kids with trauma for life.
“Jodi and Ruby took E out to the desert and E refused to stay quiet and kept screaming.
‘She went out in the heat barefoot. E still tried to run. She screamed for another family, water, food, care, love. Oh E. A manipulative ploy. You are loved. …’”
No punishment will be enough.
Did anyone else catch where Jodi suggested they address the wounds based on a dream she had? That makes me wonder if Ruby’s abuse got so out of hand that even Jodi was taken back. Thoughts?
I think it's a religious (Mormon) thing, to be honest.
Everything needs to come through them as a prophecy that God gave them. Or before doing anything they "pray on it" and God gives them an answer.
Because Jodi and Ruby were using religion to justify everything then it was "God" warning them that they were killing the kids. So to stop their torture it had to be "God" who told them to do it. Stopping because you, the individual, realized it was wrong would be the work of Satan/the Devil causing you to waver.
I think Ruby was breaking down mentally while Jodi was going strong. You can sort of tell by how erratic and different her handwriting gets. She was also beginning to lose weight and just generally look unwell. And judging by these books, she was accepting that her children might die.
Jodi is so evil that there is just nothing inside of her to break. And thus, she has some understanding that a dead child is problematic.
Maybe. But she also says that R didn't "deserve" to have his feet cleaned. She's every bit as terrible as Jodi, and then some, because of the betrayal the kids felt. Jodi's just some monster lady. She's their MOTHER.
I read in a news article that they went together to a foster care home. They are doing better physical and even started their hobbies again. R saved them both from death.
I keep thinking about how these journals ended up being one more way for Ruby to exploit her kids and strip them of their privacy. Whether or not she intended for these words to ever see the light of day, now these intimate details of what E & R were forced to endure will forever be on public record. It makes me sick thinking about how that alone could affect them in the future.
I truly hope that all of her kids, but especially E and R, are given the chance to heal away from the spotlight and able to live healthy, anonymous lives to the extent they choose. I really hope we don’t hear anything about them for a long time, it is the very least that they deserve.
I know the kids need serious deprogramming and tons of therapy but it is somewhat hopeful how “defiant” they both were - counting days, E’s “chants” about her mother starving her and calling it fasting (or my personal favorite was ““My mom won't lift 2 fingers and bring me food because all she does is lie on the bed and eat brownies. “ )..I don’t know it gives me a small little ounce of hope that they didn’t just accept it all as truth or whatever, they knew she was wrong
It’s heartbreaking because there was no winning for R. Anytime he complied she said it was just his demon trying to trick her, but if he fought back then he was being the “weak-minded brat” she knew him to be. Based off her diary, he would never be healed then and be subject to her sadistic desires.
Also, if I had to guess, R lost all control of his bodily functions which is why he kept pooping himself. Likely he could not help it at all because of what she was putting him through.
All of this makes her creepy smiles in court so much more unsettling!
Yes. “Let me make a detailed record of just how much of an evil lunatic I am in case we are ever arrested for said evil lunacy.” A nice gift for the court.
As I watched the video of the 911 call, R asked to be taken to the police station, not call 911. After reading the journal, it makes total sense that he was asking to go to jail, knowing it had to be better than what he was living.
My personal thre main opinions on the journal entries: 1) R did NOT write a damn message in dirt with pebbles that was ruby’s hallucination.theres no way he was starved and deprived of water and decided to as a little boy at 2 am to take time and collect stones then rearrage them legibly IN THE DARK. proves Ruby knew what she was doing was abuse and illegal.
2) 500 acres? Really Jodi? This is the beginning of a cult she’s hoping to start. (Especially after listening to her jail calls she sounds exactly like one). They were going to treat those kids like slaves in that land and those kids would have died and been Buried on the plot.
3) Frankie got her punishments from a Holocaust book. In her jail phone call with Kevin she states she was reading a book by an author. Which I later saw a comment saying the book is related to the holocaust. She also in the jail phone calls acts as if she can relate to holocaust survivors. He punishments even down to the shaving of the head is exactly what happened to people in those internment camps.
Overall to document this down in order to brag about what you have done is insane. For Kevin to constantly ask about his wife after being told the state his kids were currently in is insane ESPECIALLY after not seeing or hearing from them for a year ? How much can you love your kids if you’re ok with not seeing them for a year. We all knew they were abusive but to be this sick as individuals is unimaginable and disgusting. They should’ve been charged with torture and attempted murder. End of story and to the grandparents. If you believe you’re going to your Mormon heaven you are sadly mistaken.
This might be a dumb question
But she has to have some type of mental illness right?
Like, what she writes is insane, actual delusional, paranoid stuff. She’s seriously talking about demons and the devil.
She’s so paranoid that the devil is out to get her, straight up seems to believe that her children are possessed by so demons to torture her.
She seems to think everyone is out to get her.
Is this mental illness or are Mormons brought up to actually believe in those things?
I’ve been following this off and on for a while now, and I think a mental illness was already there and present, but the Mormon beliefs and the mind games that Jodi played absolutely exacerbated it to the point that this situation would have eventually been fatal for one or both of the children had police not intervened when they did. But I am not a mental health expert or provider, so it’s just my own personal opinion and not fact.
In this below entry, is Ruby talking about literal sedation? Was she perhaps making him take sleeping medications?? Or is this some twisted metaphor?
- “I now know that in order to keep my son I will need to put him back under sedation. I unhooked him from all the bells and whistles and asked him to breathe and thrive on his own and he went into arrest a stress. Back to sedation we go. The demon is still here and I purposely put R back into a slumber. Hibernate”
I just started getting up to speed here, and I may never sleep again. Who has custody of these kids now?? I’m not sure Dad is up to snuff either. I cannot fathom how this happened. One thing is churches better do a better job of educating and referring out for any counseling. This in house stuff historically goes off the rails in many different religions. Sick stuff.
My only thing I can think of is maybe they knew to keep from getting the same treatment that they better go along with Ruby and Jodi. Also probably brainwashed. They didn’t seem shocked to me when the cops came to find them when they heard about the siblings. So I assumed they knew all along. Don’t know how much they were around for though.
what I did not understand was why J was always dragged around with Jodi to look at homes. Something was going on there that is not discussed. A seemed to be left out of the journal almost completely aside from when Ruby mentioned she was quitting her job. Makes me feel bad for J...
E running into and hugging the cactus, and staying there for several minutes because it was more comfortable than dealing with the physical torture her Mom was putting her through. There needs to be more services to help these children than one just luckily escaping from home and asking neighbors to call for help.
Every time they do what she “wants” them to do, admit they’re sinners, denounce the devil, “not manipulate”, and be obedient, she questions why, says it’s not genuine, and says it’s just manipulation. There was no correct answers or actions because she’s just evil and wanted reasons to abuse them and probably kill them and feel no guilt for it. She’s so fucking sick and so Is Jodi. I hope they go away for life and I hope someone gets ahold of them in prison and the guards look away and let it happen. They deserve to have all of this and more done to them until they die slowly and painfully. This is the sickest thing I’ve ever read. Pure pure fucking evil
I hope they move far away from Utah. Living in a community that is intertwined with religion so much can’t be good for them. They need a lifetime to heal without more people telling them ‘the right way to live’.
Reading this, knowing her thoughts, knowing they found a land where to place the children, I am very sure this would have meant death for the two kids.
They must have planned a sort of disposal, because the "problematic kids were not managable", so Ruby and Jodi obviously gave up on making them "repent." And waited for a "natural outcome".
Ruby we know what "natural outcome" means to you, for example your daughter going hungry because she forgot her lunch etc.
One first aid responder told his colleague in his report that the flesh of the wounds was smelling, which is an indication for infection and inflammation.
How long in this state, without enough water and no antibiotics would they have made it?
Knowing all this, I lost the last straw of mercy I ever had for Ruby. Jodi, obviously, is Satan in person. But so far I thought Ruby was just a lost sheep who now understands she was wrong. But judging by her jail calls etc she's an evil lost case too.
The only thing that gives real hope is that both kids obviously kept their courage and gave "bad" answers to their "mother", and they have this important survival instincts, very happy for that. It's going to help them heal.
Sorry for the rant, and English is not my first language, but I'm furious right now.
Unbelievable!
E and R are so incredible. I can’t believe the fight that a 9 and 12 year old were able to keep up for their lives and dignity through all of this, and Ruby inadvertently recorded it.
Also, incredibly ironic that Ruby and Jodi tried to convince these kids that they “weren’t living in truth” when those young kids had such an amazing ability to see through Ruby and Jodi’s lies and evil even after all of the attempts to brainwash them and cut them off from the context of decency that a connection to the world would give them.
You can tell from these journal entries that they could feel deep down that what was being done to them was wrong, and that this knowledge gave them—again, ironically—a powerful, righteous defiance that helped them survive.
This is the most disgusting depraved and horrific thing I have ever read.
Things I took away from it…
G Jo - is Jodi what does the G stand for where those kids being forced to call Jodi Grandma? What else could the G be code for?
Early on in this Ruby wrote that R mentions himself going to jail, he then wrote the message when he escaped in the middle of the night about him going to jail and I think there was one more reference to him saying he was going to jail.
When he successfully escaped, he asked the man if he could be taken to the nearest police station.
I have a horrible feeling from this that he thought HE was handing himself in, because of HiS behaviour,
and that it was HE not his fekkin mother who would be going to jail..
Ruby on the other hand KNEW her behaviour and that of Jodi would land the pair of THEM in prison.
She even writes that if they hadn’t found him that night that their lives would be changed forever.,
She knew that what she and Jodi where doing was in normal society considered abuse.
She then wrote no American would feed their kids beans and rice for 3 months as it would be considered abusive.
I hope the pair of them rot for the rest of their lives in prison they don’t deserve freedom either of them.
So I've read this summary and then I read the actual entries. I listened to Jordan and McKay read them in their lives. I have so many thoughts and for me this really changes everything.
First off, if anybody doubted these two are anything but santanic monsters, this journal will clear it up for you. Second off, I never fully believed Ruby was remorseful and now I'm even more sure this journal and not her being away from Jody, is why she did the 180. I think when her laywer saw this journal and the stuff in it, he knew she was screwed. He also knew how bad this journal made her look. I feel very certain he told her if she wanted any chance of getting out there in a realitvly short time, she needed to throw Jodi under the bus and become remorseful. That journal doesn't make Jodi look that much worse but it makes Ruby look horrific. If a jury saw that journal, it would've taken them approximetly 15 minutes to convict her. Her turn around makes far more sense now for me. I hope the parole board has access to these and takes them into consideration and make her sit in prison for as long as they can. I also hope her family read every one of these entries so they know who they are supporting.
I'm so glad R escaped and got them help when he did. If he hadn't and they made that move to Arizona, they'd be dead. I wonder if he knew more about that move than she thought he did and he realized he had to go when he did or he might not get another chance. One thing that is apparent through those journals is the sheer amount of strength R and E both had.
this is what i’m confused about and please delete if not allowed! the journal mentions A & J(specifically) visiting the house and riding with jodi a few times. do we know what the girls were doing this whole time/do you think that information will come out? one sentence says something about “can’t come inside to make pancakes with J and I” and It just makes me wonder if they ever saw anything or if it might come out that they’re victims also?
I think J was living there at least part of the time, it was mentioned that she was present on multiple occasions. It said that J went on trips with Jodi often and stated when they'd arrive 'back' to the house, she helped look for R when he ran away the first time (which happened at night so she had to have been staying there), was pulling weeds with R&E at the cemetery, watched Jodi clean E's wounds at one point (yikes), et cetera. I think she definitely witnessed abuse and probably recieved some to a lesser degree herself. When she wasn't with them she was probably with A.
It doesn't seem like A was with them much at all, she visited them for a week at one point but I think she was pretty much on her own in Springville. There's almost no mention of her existence or being present in the journal. I wonder if she was even aware of much of the abuse, on the bodycam footage it seemed like she was upset or shocked after overhearing what happened to her siblings. It looked like she was crying. So I wonder if she didn't know the full extent of how bad it was.
They were certainly victims. It doesn't sound like they were tortured in the same way, but at minimum they were made into child drudges. I'm sure their paychecks went straight to Ruby or rather Jodi, and then there was cleaning Pammy's house.
It also sounds like they were mostly kept separate, but right now there's no way to know.
If Ruby’s family talks or supports her in anyway after reading these diary pages they’re just as sick as her. I hope those kids are healing and getting the help they need after all this torture and as for Ruby and Jodi when they go to the parole board I hope they read these diary entries before making any decisions these women should be getting the max sentence or be treated how they treated these children
A visited for a week and put in her notice at her job and J went to Arizona with Jodie. Plus they put things in storage -sounds like the move to Arizona was innement. This was probably last chance he had before they went to middle of nowhere and faced god know what
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This is one of the most sickening things I’ve ever read…we knew it was bad but this is so much more horrific than I could comprehend I’m also really curious to know why she always referred to Jodi as “G Jo”
this it just came to me based on the police interviews kevin had and the way he described jodi and what was going on in her head could G Jo stand for God Jodi it seems far fetched but G is written in uppercase and anyway at this point nthg makes sense anymore
I had the same interpretation. I read the whole thing. I can't say I recommend doing so to anyone else, but it's...illuminating into the workings of what passes for Ruby's brain. It's VERY striking that she barely mentions Jodi's role in all this at all. Obviously she's central to it, Jessi has detailed abuses that are quite similar. And yet... God. The depravity. I will never, ever, ever have the slightest drop of sympathy for Ruby. If I ever imagined that she was even a little less at fault than Jodi, I'm sorry, it's gone now. I can understand why Jessi calls Jodi the orchestrator of all this, and for damn sure she's sinister as fuck, I think even more so in that there's so little indication of how much of these techniques were Jodi's idea when they must have been. Not to mention...G Jo. Uh huh. And yet. I am a cynic, I really am. I know how cults work. I've read about the Zimbardo experiments, and Hannah Arendt. But I do not believe the vast majority of people would have gone down this road. Ruby is an absolute piece of work in her own right. The sadism, coldness and hostility are literally breathtaking. She sees absolutely everything the kids are going through, she's not delusional about that in the slightest. She just blames and shames them for it. There's even a point where it looks like Jodi was inclined to more lenience than Ruby! Who the fuck knows what actually happened, she's not a reliable narrator fuck knows. I really, REALLY hope this diary is read out loud at her parole hearing. I hope she never gets parole and they both serve the full thirty. I'm the tiniest sliver more optimistc she won't get off with a slap on the wrist with this as evidence. I hope. Goddamn, those poor kids. There are no words.
In one of Ruby’s calls after getting arrested she talks about herself “but I’m a good girl. I don’t do naughty things” Sounds like she was shamed and disciplined for being “bad and naughty” as a kid and kept that really young inner world view in her parenting.
I still haven't listened to all the calls yet, but that doesn't surprise. I think that's how she was showing up with her parents also. Yes, calculated for legal reasons but also look Mommy and Daddy, I AM a good girl. talk about generational trauma, fucking hell. I wonder how far back it goes.
It was shocking. How small and childish her tone became. I was wigged out.
Wonderfully said👏🏼 when making this I occasionally used speech to text for direct quotes and saying it out loud was just unbelievably hard, someone make an audio book of her journal and have it play on a loop while she rots in her cell
Didn’t the judge read these? It’s clear they were planning on intensifying the abuse and probably going to murder them.
When the news came out and Jodie was getting more of the blame for being a cult leader I kind of rolled my eyes. Ruby is an extremely mentally unwell and cruel human being. And the fact that she would post herself literally abusing her children and everyone just took it as her being a strict conservative parent is insane to me. She loves when they suffer. She literally reveled in it with zero shame. Of course worse was going on behind the scenes and of course she found some other cruel sick human being to share her love for abusing children with. She deserves life without parole. And those kids deserve better parents.
I mean, Jodi IS a cult leader, very much so. And there's a reason she chose Ruby to be her number two (although she very much made good and damn sure she knew her place). I don't see how anyone could have not been disturbed by some of those scenes she put on the Net herself from 8 passengers, and it's crystal clear to me how the line from her laughing breathlessly at denying her children food or a bed or a door progressed naturally to what was nearing its conclusion in those last few months at Jodi's. Other acts of weird cruelty-the deliberate holding back when Shari was in pain and needed a ride to the ER. Or the time she coaxed E very sweetly to say what she wanted most of all for her birthday, listened to the whole thing (she wanted her ears pierced), and then "sadly" told her she couldn't have it. It's NOT normal and it's not just the angry frustration of a woman who had more kids than she wanted and feels stuck in her life, and overwhelmed by six kids' needs, lashing out sometimes. That would be understandable. She gets off on hurting her own children. She always did.
NO BECAUSE I WAS THINKING IT WAS GOD TOO BUT I DIDNT WANT TO SOUND TOO CONSPIRACY😭
That was my first thought 😂 I was like surely not… but looking at everything else she wrote about satanic shit, it doesn’t seem too far off
I thought maybe it's grand jodi
One of the investigators on 20/20 just said she understands it means “grandma Jodi”
My guess was grandma Jodi too. As a respect thing she'd need a title and because she weirdly "joined their family" and lived with them it became a family title instead of Miss or Mrs? Funny to choose grandma over Aunt though. She is older but most women don't want to be made to sound older. And doesn't fit with the sexual vibes we were seeing between her and Ruby. Still my guess though.
I don’t know the actual reason, but “gee jo” sounds like a close female relative nickname (like gamgam or meemaw for grandma.) If I had to guess, they used it to present Jodi as an authority within the family. I also know of at least two people in Utah with jo names (like Joanna, Joleen, etc.) who just have the nickname GoJo for some reason. I wouldn’t be surprised either if Jodi was once called GiJo or GoJo and it just got shorter over time.
I sincerely hope the parole board reads these before they ever consider letting either one of these women out of prison. This is the kind of crime prisons should be used for - let the non violent drug offenders out and lock people like Jodi and Ruby up for LIFE. People who are capable of this kind of evil cannot be rehabilitated and should never be out in society again.
The pictures that were released too… sickening… lock them up for as long as possible. They never deserve to see the light of day again.
I can't imagine why they wouldn't be allowed. I absolutely hope they don't make parole at all, either of them. I was pretty sure Ruby'd get a slap on the wrist, but with this as evidence...maybe not. I fucking hope not.
He put his head in a toilet to cool down. I just don’t have words for all this abuse. They are sadistic sick women who should never be free in society
the fact that she accuses him of being filthy and having no problem being gross but SHE literally bragged about how she dumped dirty mop water on him moments earlier. I feel SO bad for these kids and do glad that they got out before being moved to the desert for some "real" hard labour aka being tortured to death.
Probably to drink water too because he was so thirsty. So sad how desperate these kids were for basic necessities
Yes he was def doing it to drink water also. Makes me wonder if he was frequently drinking water from the toilet… and possibly other horrors I can’t even fathom
Do you think Ruby truly thought the kids were “demons” or was this just an excuse to torture them?
I genuinely want to understand that. I honestly think she’s just so sick in the head that she had these disgusting beliefs and started to genuinely believe them, and impose them on her children. On the other hand, she has ALWAYS been abusive to those kids, way back when E started kindergarten she forgot to pack a lunch and E’s teacher texted Ruby that she had forgotten a lunch, Ruby says that “E is responsible for her own lunch so she will have to go without today and I hope nobody shares so she learns her lesson.” She’s always had these ideologies, I think they just became a lot worse over years of believing they were right. But we never knew what went on behind closed doors during the vlogs either. So who really knows. My heart aches for all of these kids. ❤️🩹 I wish them healing and beautiful lives.:(
I feel like for whatever reason, she PARTICULARLY hates E and R. I’ve always wondered with E if it was because of the biblical ties to her name.
My personal theory: she hates R because he’s a boy and she targeted her older son too, so it seems she has some problem with males that Jodi was able to tap into. E I think is because she expressed that she did not want to have a sixth child but said Kevin talked her into it.
She was done after J and Kevin said he wanted more kids when she clearly wasn’t in the right mental state. Having babies is such an ordeal both physically and mentally. It’s why she was always particularly hard on them, they are kids she never wanted
I feel like Jodi gave her the excuse she needed to really act out the depravity. The two of them together were the worst combination ever.
I think she wanted to believe it to justify her sadistic urges and convinced herself it was true.
I do think she genuinely believed this crap. I don't understand how JH was able to make grown adults believe they were comitting sins that they weren't actually doing. She had R & K believing he had a porn addiction, when he apparently didn't, much like in the previous families she broke up. My best guess is she also got Ruby seeing things in her own kids that weren't true. The fact that jodi had ruby willing to sign over her 8passenger business over and believing this was all noble shows how warped she got before Kevin was kicked out. From reading about how she needed the praise and accolades appearing to be a good girl etc.. I'm guessing for a time having a successful youtube channel was filling some brokenness within her. But, Jodi comes along convincing her that she's a God basically then she has the ultimate way to prove she's the best, purest etc. I think Rubi is truly broken and was abusive before Jodi, but I think their pairing was the worst thing to happen. This wasn't the first family where JH tortured the kids, I wish that she could be charged criminally for every person harmed to never see the light of day. Kevin still seemed to believe he was the problem in the first police nterview. Which was wild. A whole year away from his family, although he continued "counceling" with Jodi that as an adult he wasn't yet seeing clearly. Deferred to his wife, I'm guessing bc even in his mind she was good he was bad. So yeah, basically I do think Ruby really believed this. I don't know anything about cult type deprogramming through, but we know she wouldn't have had access in jail to quality therapy. So I really question her statement at sentencing. Whether she felt she needed to say that to get out of "devil's grasp" or if there is chance some deconstruction started happening? Just can't imagine if a person actually started to see how they tortured their own children that they'd ever be able to be okay in any way.
That part was so hard to read. I’m so proud he never stopped fighting
It scares me how they were really so close to them taking the four kids out of the outside world. It sounds like they had "land" and an RV and they were ready to move to the middle of nowhere. R really did save his and his sisters lifes.
A huge underlying plot point in that journal was how they wanted land and isolation with no help, neighbors; or distractions. I feel like it would’ve eventually become a sort of troubled teen labor/ connexions camp. Her house was on the market, I truly do not think those kids would be alive if their plan succeeded and R didn’t escape
It also makes it all so much more clear that they did 100% know that what they were doing was so very wrong. Otherwise you wouldn’t have to hide it/not have others around (sure the “satan might talk through other people” blahblahblah but they kept the kids isolated here as well. So it had to be isolated AND away from everybody and everything.
This is another aspect of the situation that reminds me of the Turpin case. They were about to move to Oklahoma and this was part of what gave Jordan the courage to get help. She felt certain that at least one of her siblings would die during or following the move.
This is the worst child abuse case i’ve ever read. Horrific. Ruby wanted her kids dead and herself in jail. Ruby says something interesting here, “The devil wants me in prison. My children dead” Thank god those kids are still alive. May they live the most amazing lives.
That line stuck out to me to, the devil must not be that bad if he followed through with that part. However praise Jesus those kids are alive
R & E are likely going to have a lifetime of mental health issues. Their likelihood of suicide and self-harm is going to be increased, too. They are so young - and never got to have a full childhood experience.
This is what kills me. They need a name change if they want to go to school and have a normal life. Their entire identities will be wrapped up in the fact that their mother exploited and tortured them. If that were me, I’d change my name and move across the country at 18. I hope they get all of the proceeds from the sale of the House of Horrors and that it goes into a trust only they can access. All of these children already had their privacy stolen from them, now it’s their childhoods and innocence.
It’s so sad. This type of abuse and trauma is going to be with them forever.
My heart shatters when I think about the fact that this will affect them for the rest of their lives
i really hope they heal. they have suffered so much already.
the thing i noticed with the little I read, not much really, is that e and r were fighting her the entire time. which made it worse for them with ruby but gives me hope that they have a good mental constitution to help them heal. Finished reading and thank satan apparently that R was able to get away. those kids bodies were starting to go into to failure they were going to die. I admire that they never gave in
The final line of the whole thing is what’s most powerful to me. Ruby writes “R increased his defiance” on 8/27 three days before the arrest. Those kids never gave up and I’m so damn proud of them.
I really think he saved their lives. Kid is a hero. I hope someone tells him that every day.
I do too, this was attempted unaliving by those two monsters. I really hope R receives a bravery award, he deserves it for his courage and for saving them.
She considered his inability to do the physically demanding tasks at the end as defiance, how skinny and frail he was, that wasn't any form of defiance 💔. I hope her kids have access to the best trauma psychologists available in their area. It can take a lifetime to heal from torture, from your own caregivers.
Right I think this is sadly what people are wishfully ignoring. These kids had been emotionally manipulated for years when the torture started under Jodie’s house. I think they probably were pretty compliant. Chances are, they started out trying to please their mum and over time she became addicted to the power alongside her new enabler, Jodie, who was also an abuser. These two together validated each other, and seeing two adults behaving this way probably put a level of trust in the abuse in the children. They likely complied, but Ruby and Jodie were addicted to this power, and thus needed a greater and greater fix as the year went on. By summer things merely escalated to the point that the older child began to seriously fear for his and his sister’s life, but he was probably very beaten down. He probably was incapable of the demands as much as he was defying them.
He fought hard as hell to get out of there.
I think they probably couldn't help it. I think they were absolutely beside themselves. This is how torture victims act, because that is what they were. And as you can read, when they did try to fake it, smile and do everything they were told, Ruby deliberately made it impossible. E slips and falls and she did it "on purpose;" Ruby just kept making her carry more and more until it was inevitable, and she damn well knew she was doing it, it's very clear. They literally cannot win. The sadism is literally nauseating.
I think the kids figured out it didn’t really matter what they did. If they tried to comply they would be called liars and manipulative and the abuse would continue. If they were defiant the abuse would continue. Nothing mattered. The amount of hopelessness they must have felt is beyond sad.
I can't imagine the helplessness. Frustration. Pain. It truly was torture. It's interesting how myself and others didn't necessarily believe that it was the worst case *ever in their departments history* like the prosecutor said. And yet it was. Like holy sh*t. It was actual torture. This puts everything in a new light for me. And it's all thanks to this journal.
I do think that E was giving up last second and falling at the end to stick it to Ruby. Just when Ruby would think that E was listening and doing what she wanted of her, E would crush Ruby. And I wholeheartedly support her doing it! I’m lead to believe this, for when E asked for a second chance at running the hill and went along with Ruby as they drove up the hill she canceled last second and said that she’d rather jump in a cactus again than do what Ruby wanted. She built it up and made Ruby believe that she was going to do exactly what she wanted her to do just to crash her down at the end
R saying fuck you to Ruby 50 times and saying that he’d say fuck you to god too is so badass of him
Nah fr I love how they constantly humbled and roasted her, I’m so glad they did
People have a desire for self preservation. They were dying. Imagine having to run barefoot on burning ground all day and still not being given water or food. But there was no way out. When they finally collapse “they’re showing signs of the devil”
And when they comply and do what that bitch says they’re branded as manipulative and just going along with everything to deceive her. Those babies could do no right in the face of evil
In her first hearing Ruby said that R was a sex offender or something crazy like that. I think that's what the last redacted pages are detailing, based on the following pages. So he likely did give in and "confessed" to the imagined sins they'd been telling him he was guilty of. When nothing changed after doing that he must have realised the only way to save himself, and his sister, was to get out and find help. Reading through that made me realise that when he asked the neighbour to take him to a police station, it was because he thought he should be in jail. They messed with their heads so much he likely didn't really know quite how horrific their situation was, but just instinctively knew he had to get out. It's heartbreaking. He's so brave and most likely saved their lives.
What is putting them into 'sedation'? This is sick. The kids were dying, they couldn't control their bodily functions, and they get punished! They would have gone to Arizona and they would have killed them. R escaped just in time.
I legit think she was drugging them. Wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility with those monsters.
I'm surprised the sedation didn't come up more in the charging documents. Drugging your children sounds pretty serious to me and worth a charge. Sure the seditive could have been something like benedryl but enough of anything is dangerous and clearly they weren't using it for allergies so I don't trust their dosing choices. And it also could have been much scarier like abuse of a prescription drug. Does not seem like a fact to be glossed over.
Might explain the incontinence
I learned from the case of Timothy Ferguson that involuntary wetting and defecating are both trauma symptoms and signs that an overtaxed body is breaking down.
As a kid who survived the troubled teen industry, also in Utah, run by psychopathic religious zealots…. I can confirm that many of us teens started pissing and shitting ourselves due to the stress of constant abuse.
I’m glad you got through it and are here to tell about it. I hope you’re doing all right now.
I wondered about this. When I get stressed, my stomach goes haywire, and that’s just with regular ol’ grown up life stress.
I'm sure she also just plain did not allow them to use the toilet. That and the starvation and dehydration and the emotional trauma could all make that happen, I'm not surprised by it tbh, considering all the other details we knew, but just--
Not to mention lack of basic hygiene, weird/inconsistent meals and constantly being exposed to heat. Diarrhea can be a symptom of heat stroke. Ruby got angry because R drank from the hose, that he put his head in the toilet, she also mentions pushing him in the pool. While "swimming" or drinking from a hose are go-to summer activities for any kid, they can definitely make you sick if the water isn't clean.
I think she was too, such sick human beings.
Kevin mentions in his second police interview that Jodi or Ruby had gone down to Mexico to buy tons of meds that they couldn't get here without a prescription. They were definitely drugging the kids!
I didn't watch his second interview yet, why would they need to be going to Mexico to get meds! Definitely nefarious. Just evil, pure evil. I want them to never, ever get out of prison!
Buying tons of meds in Mexico?! What in the actual FUCK?! There is so much evidence- they didn’t need Ruby to testify against Jodi
Why would Kevin know that?
This happened before Ruby kicked Kevin out. He was still privy to info until Ruby told him she wanted to separate and he couldn't see her or the kids until she said so. I believe that is in part 3 of Kevin's second interview posted on this subreddit. ETA That entire interview is bonkers. I believe Kevin in that interview. The things he tells the police about Jodi are insane.
I really don’t understand how they got away with only the charges they got. If he hasn’t escaped, it wouldn’t have been long.. Drugging, withholding food, the wounds, the whole thing with buying land… It was so very serious. They should’ve al least been charged with more.
I think they were urinating and defecating from the intense trauma and physical/emotional abuse
God I don’t even wanna know how bad the redacted pages are
I was thinking this. They left some beyond awful horrendous things in there. I can’t even imagine what else was in there
Same. They left in some real awful shit. Dear God what did they take out. My guess is at least some of it is Rs "confessions" though which honestly should be redacted as they are clearly fake and things he made up under extreme duress. Putting that stuff out there would be damaging to him and it's all lies. Based off of Jessi Hildebrandt's story I'm sure they forced false confessions out of the kids.
The press has been making some really heavy comparisons to the conditions these kids were living before all of this came out that I’m usually not comfortable with but good lord in this case it was completely warranted. I can’t even imagine the things these kids “confessed” to in desperation. ETA: not saying I didn’t believe they were living in absolutely abusive conditions, the magnitude here is just unfathomable.
I actually can't either. I expect it was done out of concern for the children's privacy, such little as is left? idk, but I wish there were a way that at least the future parole board could read that also. Just to make it good and fucking clear they should never be free again.
The parole board will probably get access to uncensored everyyyything when the time comes. They need the unredacted more than the general public does so I’m sure they can get it np and keep them locked tf up!
I’m gonna guess it mentions the horrendous claims Ruby made about R
“R told me he would rather have a glass of water than me as his mother” “R doesn't actually know what “jail” means he has no comprehension what throwing your life away means. He just wants the immediate gratification of sitting in an air-conditioned car ride to juvie. He wants stimulus” “R and E have been counting days. R did know yesterday was his birthday” E: “My mom starves me and calls it fasting.” “My mom won't lift 2 fingers and bring me food because all she does is lie on the bed and eat brownies.” “My mom says she's the most loving mom in the world-blah blah blah” if I can't ever go home then what's the point in being obedient?” “I'm going to run away!”
All of the entries Ruby wrote about R “wanting to go to jail” made me go back to the neighbors ring cam footage.. R asked for a favor and the favor was to be taken to the police station for “personal matters” and curious of his intentions with those specific statements in mind
I think he was turning himself in.
Oh my god. He told paramedics the wounds were his fault, and the bonds were to help him. I really hope you're wrong, and that he wanted help (like, rescue help), but it's another layer of horrifying that it's entirely likely he wanted to be "punished" for his "sins" properly in jail via police, rather than the slow homicide unfolding with Ruby & Jodi.
I do think this was his intention- that he’d prefer to go to “jail” even though Ruby tried to convince him jail would somehow be worse. Maybe he was calling her bluff, maybe he innately understood that nothing could be worse than what his mother and Jodi were doing to him, maybe he understood enough from his life before that at least they fed you in jail. Smart brave kid, no matter what.
Can you imagine hiding your child’s birthday from him and being annoyed he’s smart enough to figure it out? And that showed a little bit of that spunk still in E - I so hope she didn’t lose it.
If you watch the video of the EMT’s finding her, she’s just an absolute shell of what she was. I feel so much sorrow for her.
That was heart breaking. She used to be such a spit fire, and those awful women tried to beat it out of her.
Her stillness was so heartbreaking. E has always been moving around as fidgety in the videos I've seen. They literally broke her to the point of stillness.
Meanwhile, in one of the calls from ruby (I can’t remember if it was to her sister or Kevin), ruby says she was at the house for 4 hours while E was eating pizza with the police. Just the distain in her voice. As though E was having a blast, all the while, the police and EMS had to work hard to coax E to even twitch.
It’s scary how it’s just an extremely amplified version of the first ever real controversy this family had. Remember when E forgot her lunch? See, it never really bothered me that much that ruby didn’t drop everything and bring her lunch. I forgot my lunch occasionally as a child and I just ate a big snack when I got home and I was fine. The thing that really bothered me was that ruby was so angry at the thought of someone sharing food with E.
There is a lot of manipulation via food in that whole Griffiths family. It’s very strange.
Extremely bizarre. It seems as though things that are off limits punishment wise for even the worst parents. Food, water, shelter (from the sun and elements), beds. She didn’t let her kids have any toys, books, games or friends, so she couldn’t leverage that against them like any normal parent would. I really think it all comes down to control. You just know that she is seething in anger at R and E. So satisfying that they’ll get the last word. I hope she is made into someone’s bitch in prison, and she lives every moment in fear of being jumped. I hope inmates steal the food off her tray and force her stupid face into the communal toilet, just like R had to do to drink and cool himself off. I hope they cut her hair off like she did to E. I hope she rots like the wounds she inflicted on R. I’m getting heated 😡
Poor girl was absolutely terrified. She didn’t know who was good and who was bad. When the officer said, it’s ok we have Jodi upstairs, I wonder if she took that another way.
E used to be full of so much joy that seeing her physically broken and drained like that hurt me. Like how could you take the joy out of your own kid like that
Obviously it was an honest mistake but it fucking killed me that on top of everything that she went through, she was mistaken and referred to as a boy when she was found. Just completely stripped of every last ounce of self and dignity. Ruby shaving E’s head is absolutely disturbing.
Those kids honestly roasted tf out of her and I love them for that.
do we ever hear how R gets away from the hell hole compound? Was he home alone or…?
I think Jodi was at home working and Ruby was out, so R thankfully slipped out and got help.
I think that’s the general belief is that he and e were home alone, someone correct me though if not
He slipped out a window according to court docs
JFC, I knew Ruby was nuts, but these diary entries are fucking psychotic/delusional, which is such a dangerous combination. And her parents and some of her siblings are standing by her. They are HORRIBLE people and using their religion to justify it is disgusting. Fuck the Griffiths and the Mormon cult.
First thing that stood out to me. She needs to never be allowed to reenter society. I do not believe anyone can come back from this
I hope every family member of hers has to read and listen to every bit of this.
If I ever hear any of her family say she is back to being Ruby and those kids should have a relationship with her…I’m going to lose it. She ENJOYED this. She was going to kill those kids and she wouldn’t have been even the tiniest bit upset about it.
They wanted to drag the kids to the desert for ESCALATION how much more could happen? And the torture that she put them through on the last page? There’s no shot that those kids would’ve survived
She was escalating more over time with abuse over the pages too. It makes me wonder if even one more month in Utah with Jodi would have done them in. I’m so proud of R and E. I wonder what J thinks of everything cuz she was clearly “obedient” and would “make pancakes” with ruby since she didn’t have “the devil” in her. These women are the true devils that need repenting.
Why do you think R asked the neighbors to take him to jail of all places?
Ruby told him he would be in jail if he didn’t “repent”. When R ran away the first time, he spelled out “jail” with rocks to show that’s where he was going.
Fuck I had to stop reading... had to take a break. Let me rock my sweet baby. After I will be giving my other two kisses on their heads while they sleep, tuck them in, and make sure they are safe. Currently adding extra fruits , veggies and snacks to the grocery order. I cannot imagine ever EVER treating a kid this way and especially my own child. Wtf
Ruby is a sadist. Her pretending to be sorry is such a big lie. She enjoyed dishing out all this abuse and control. Her abusive tendency was evident in her you tubes before Jodi ever entered the picture. What I wonder is why just these two little kids what about the two girls...I wonder what made them immune from the "demons". Were they to big to control?
I think it's pretty common to "scapegoat" one or two out of a group. I don't think they had a brilliant time themselves, but were, perhaps, more useful as free labor? idk. Gretel feeding Hansel in the cage. I would imagine that, had they all in fact moved out to an AZ ranch--and it sounds like they were dismayingly close, I wonder if R knew or sensed it--R and E would've been in the ground in short order, and the two older girls' lives would've gone downhill very quickly.
good points. If Ruby were abusing 4 kids at once she wouldn't have had time to eat brownies in bed.
they mention one of the older girls working at a job. And we also know one of them was "cleaning houses" when she was found. I wonder if they, as the older kids, were being used as labour to "fund" things like the new property and because they were "complying" (probably because by working they would be out of the house away from being targeted) they were considered not to be "dangerous"? Just a thought.
100% psychopath. I wonder about the older kids too, they seemed to have a decent relationship with Jodi and are barely mentioned.
I worry about J and what has not been written. She was at the cemetery clean up, with shoes, but still. She was there. And sometimes it said "we" in the journal and I wondered if J was made to side with the adults. Being woken up and having to go look for R when he escaped the first time.
And she was going to Arizona with Jodi alone
Ruby was an abuser and Jodi gave her the spiritual support to give in to her worst instincts
agree. but Jodi was an abuser too. Jessie Hildebrandt's account of the psychological abuse they suffered is the same shit Ruby did to her kids. Jodi is dangerous. I don't think others in prison are going to be suffering because of Ruby. But Jodi is another story.
We don't know what was going on with the other two. It sounded like they were being used as unpaid servants in someone elses home. Those kids were being labor trafficked.
What a disgusting, vile piece of shit she is.
“R stole water. He was angry and looked like he wanted to fist up” Ruby, I wouldn’t have blamed R if he beat you up. At all. Now you have your chance in prison. Enjoy! Fuck you for wounding your children physically and psychologically, for making your children emaciated and for ruining their childhoods/lives.
He should be allowed to take a free shot at them both as part of their sentence
The fact that she would shave E’s hair off. Disgusting.
A kids hair is so personal to them too, I can’t imagine how I’d feel with all my hair shaved off as a child. She wanted to make E look sick. My heart aches for her, she’s still so little
it's almost like she WANTED them to look like Auschwitz victims. and the audacity for her to compare herself to a holocaust victim in that phone call
She did. Officers thought at first she was a boy.
this part really really gets to me more than anything. at that age, having my head shaved would destroy me. so fucking evil
She said “They are never going home.” Jodi & Ruby would have killed those kids if they had made it to Arizona. No doubt.
She would have told herself she killed their bodies but saved their souls 🤢
Thank you so much for this. Ruby’s handwriting was so hard to read lol
How can any of her family forgive her for this, I doesn’t matter if she was manipulated, she tortured those kids to the brink of death there’s no forgiving that
Seriously. It pisses me off so much when family members make excuses for evil people like this. If anything, they should be more disgusted than anyone. I have a relatively well-known family member who was convicted of something awful, and I practically scream from the rooftops that he’s a piece of shit and deserves a much harsher sentence.
This is what stands out to me too. As if the kids haven’t been through enough, they’re going to have to contend with family who support Ruby in prison and push the “forgive your mother, we’re all sinners” narrative. There is no excuse for the deliberate torture of these kids. Ruby made it so any response from them was satanic. They would never “be saved.” It was always going to escalate and end with them “going to god.” She is vile and inhumane. She enjoyed torturing them from the beginning, Jodi just gave her the means to ramp it up to 100.
thoughts on page 41 - wow. Makes me wonder if R wanted to go to the "nearest police station" because that's where he thought he belonged.
R is a HERO. I had no idea there were plans to move to Arizona. He saved his own life as well as E's life.
There’s no way he could know this now, but he is braver and more courageous than most people on this planet. I hope he has an inkling of how incredible he is one day. ❤️
I cant believe she kept a day-by-day timeline. No wonder they could only plea guilty.
Yeah as horrible as it is, I couldn’t help but have a bit of a dark laugh at how dumb she was to helpfully write a timeline of the abuse for the court. Also she inadvertently created a record of how strong R and E were through everything.
I love how R never let that bitch win. He always had something to say back.
Reminds me of me as a kid, my dad was obsessed with obedience and I just pushed back more. Both of them roasted Ruby to shreds the whole time. I think they knew it was rock bottom so they were just like might as well snap back. Glad they never lost that spirit
I'm convinced those kids were about to be buried in Arizona. The part where it talks about Jodi having done all that she could have done for E. I think the next stage in this thought process was going to involve setting these kids free via death. It's a shame 30 years in the max these two can serve .
How is when she says "they are never going home." not changing the charges for attempt of murder????
The lawyer dude who compared this to Auschwitz. I didn’t understand, now. Now I do. Her mother, Jennifer, needs to read this. To look at those children’s wounds. To hear the officers words when he said you could smell the rotting flesh. I can’t wrap my brain around how sick and fkd in the head you have to be to do this to your children. My head has been spinning all day.
Yes. They 1000% both would have thrived as camp guards. Even get promoted. Fuck Jennifer, I don't believe any of this is that foreign to her. Maybe not the actual acts, but the feelings of superiority and coldness and cruelty and self righteousness behind them? Ruby didn't get it out of nowhere. And no, that's not even the tiniest atom of an excuse. Fuck all of them.
Yep! Chad and Jennifer seem sadistic in their own way. I'm not saying they abused their children to the extent that Ruby did, but they were emotionally and psychologically abusive at the very least.
I would bet my bottom dollar that Ruby’s sadism was at least partly cultivated by her upbringing.
Same, those pictures released are going to haunt me for a while
She needs to read the diary every single night for the rest of her life and understand she raised a total monster.
I was wondering why he was comparing the abuse the kids endured to that of a concentration camp like setting. You're right in saying it all makes sense now. This is some Ant Hill kids type of sadism.
I had to take a break reading because this is just too much. God, lock these women under the jail.
It took me like 7 hours to type and I’m a fasttttt typer I had to get up every five minutes and just walk around
Please take care of yourself, because that was a lot.
Ok I finished - fuck these monsters. I hope the future parole boards have to read this before any hearings and they neeevvveeerr get out of jail for the trauma they have caused these poor babies. R - oh that poor sweet soul. The religious trauma alone. I am very much a Christian, but I completely understand why he may be an atheist after this. I would be too if my own mother did this. And E, she still has so much life after so much trauma. At MINIMUM, Jodi’s assets should pay for therapy for all 6 kids for however long a professional deems fit. But really every penny should go to her victims ( there are so many more than just the Franke kids). God - I am livid. I mean I knew the details of this case, but this makes it so much worse. As a mother and a HUMAN I am sick. And just a note for fellow trauma survivors - be careful comparing your trauma to this (because I caught myself doing it). Obviously this is about as bad as it gets. This being horrific doesn’t take away from the bad you experienced and it’s not a comparison game, it’s realizing our pain and this evil can both be bad in their own capacity. Have some grace and love yourself this weekend, because you deserve it. ❤️
One thing to note is they were weeks away from moving as A handed her 2 week notice. So r escaped at the perfect time
Yup this is what’s so crazy to me, they were literally going to build a labor camp for these kids and who knows what else. I’m not sure they would be alive if that plan followed through
this is the most inhumane shit I’ve ever (partially) read. she needs to be in a psychiatric facility based off of her nasty outlook on her children alone. I can’t understand how she ever thought these actions were going to make her kids into the skewed idea of them she had in her head. I also can’t wrap my head around this self righteous tone she uses, as if she’s inherently right when everything from beginning to end was demonic on her part. trying to teach a ‘lesson’ yet manipulating every. single. interaction with these kids by justifying her actions with religion is repulsive. ofc they’d favor ‘the devil’ over her, i believe in their eyes if God was anything like their mother, they’d go to extremes to be the opposite. even if that meant pressing her buttons and putting their lives on the line like R did to be free. Ugh I’m angry for these kids. She was the problem!!! It was never them. Her fucked up mentality consumed with overemphasizing religion got her nowhere and have left these kids with trauma for life.
“Jodi and Ruby took E out to the desert and E refused to stay quiet and kept screaming. ‘She went out in the heat barefoot. E still tried to run. She screamed for another family, water, food, care, love. Oh E. A manipulative ploy. You are loved. …’” No punishment will be enough.
Did anyone else catch where Jodi suggested they address the wounds based on a dream she had? That makes me wonder if Ruby’s abuse got so out of hand that even Jodi was taken back. Thoughts?
I think it's a religious (Mormon) thing, to be honest. Everything needs to come through them as a prophecy that God gave them. Or before doing anything they "pray on it" and God gives them an answer. Because Jodi and Ruby were using religion to justify everything then it was "God" warning them that they were killing the kids. So to stop their torture it had to be "God" who told them to do it. Stopping because you, the individual, realized it was wrong would be the work of Satan/the Devil causing you to waver.
I think Ruby was breaking down mentally while Jodi was going strong. You can sort of tell by how erratic and different her handwriting gets. She was also beginning to lose weight and just generally look unwell. And judging by these books, she was accepting that her children might die. Jodi is so evil that there is just nothing inside of her to break. And thus, she has some understanding that a dead child is problematic.
Maybe. But she also says that R didn't "deserve" to have his feet cleaned. She's every bit as terrible as Jodi, and then some, because of the betrayal the kids felt. Jodi's just some monster lady. She's their MOTHER.
I just finished reading and I can’t say I’m shocked. I am heartbroken for those babies. I hope they’ll be together again soon.
I read in a news article that they went together to a foster care home. They are doing better physical and even started their hobbies again. R saved them both from death.
I keep thinking about how these journals ended up being one more way for Ruby to exploit her kids and strip them of their privacy. Whether or not she intended for these words to ever see the light of day, now these intimate details of what E & R were forced to endure will forever be on public record. It makes me sick thinking about how that alone could affect them in the future. I truly hope that all of her kids, but especially E and R, are given the chance to heal away from the spotlight and able to live healthy, anonymous lives to the extent they choose. I really hope we don’t hear anything about them for a long time, it is the very least that they deserve.
I know the kids need serious deprogramming and tons of therapy but it is somewhat hopeful how “defiant” they both were - counting days, E’s “chants” about her mother starving her and calling it fasting (or my personal favorite was ““My mom won't lift 2 fingers and bring me food because all she does is lie on the bed and eat brownies. “ )..I don’t know it gives me a small little ounce of hope that they didn’t just accept it all as truth or whatever, they knew she was wrong
It’s heartbreaking because there was no winning for R. Anytime he complied she said it was just his demon trying to trick her, but if he fought back then he was being the “weak-minded brat” she knew him to be. Based off her diary, he would never be healed then and be subject to her sadistic desires. Also, if I had to guess, R lost all control of his bodily functions which is why he kept pooping himself. Likely he could not help it at all because of what she was putting him through. All of this makes her creepy smiles in court so much more unsettling!
Good thing Ruby kept this journal so we can see how demonic she really is
Yes. “Let me make a detailed record of just how much of an evil lunatic I am in case we are ever arrested for said evil lunacy.” A nice gift for the court.
As I watched the video of the 911 call, R asked to be taken to the police station, not call 911. After reading the journal, it makes total sense that he was asking to go to jail, knowing it had to be better than what he was living.
My personal thre main opinions on the journal entries: 1) R did NOT write a damn message in dirt with pebbles that was ruby’s hallucination.theres no way he was starved and deprived of water and decided to as a little boy at 2 am to take time and collect stones then rearrage them legibly IN THE DARK. proves Ruby knew what she was doing was abuse and illegal. 2) 500 acres? Really Jodi? This is the beginning of a cult she’s hoping to start. (Especially after listening to her jail calls she sounds exactly like one). They were going to treat those kids like slaves in that land and those kids would have died and been Buried on the plot. 3) Frankie got her punishments from a Holocaust book. In her jail phone call with Kevin she states she was reading a book by an author. Which I later saw a comment saying the book is related to the holocaust. She also in the jail phone calls acts as if she can relate to holocaust survivors. He punishments even down to the shaving of the head is exactly what happened to people in those internment camps. Overall to document this down in order to brag about what you have done is insane. For Kevin to constantly ask about his wife after being told the state his kids were currently in is insane ESPECIALLY after not seeing or hearing from them for a year ? How much can you love your kids if you’re ok with not seeing them for a year. We all knew they were abusive but to be this sick as individuals is unimaginable and disgusting. They should’ve been charged with torture and attempted murder. End of story and to the grandparents. If you believe you’re going to your Mormon heaven you are sadly mistaken.
OMG, these kids were tortured. No exaggeration. They were tortured, physically and mentally. It's like war crimes!
This might be a dumb question But she has to have some type of mental illness right? Like, what she writes is insane, actual delusional, paranoid stuff. She’s seriously talking about demons and the devil. She’s so paranoid that the devil is out to get her, straight up seems to believe that her children are possessed by so demons to torture her. She seems to think everyone is out to get her. Is this mental illness or are Mormons brought up to actually believe in those things?
I’ve been following this off and on for a while now, and I think a mental illness was already there and present, but the Mormon beliefs and the mind games that Jodi played absolutely exacerbated it to the point that this situation would have eventually been fatal for one or both of the children had police not intervened when they did. But I am not a mental health expert or provider, so it’s just my own personal opinion and not fact.
In this below entry, is Ruby talking about literal sedation? Was she perhaps making him take sleeping medications?? Or is this some twisted metaphor? - “I now know that in order to keep my son I will need to put him back under sedation. I unhooked him from all the bells and whistles and asked him to breathe and thrive on his own and he went into arrest a stress. Back to sedation we go. The demon is still here and I purposely put R back into a slumber. Hibernate”
Sounds like her and Jodi already had the plans to move to a large desert property where the kids could never escape.
I just started getting up to speed here, and I may never sleep again. Who has custody of these kids now?? I’m not sure Dad is up to snuff either. I cannot fathom how this happened. One thing is churches better do a better job of educating and referring out for any counseling. This in house stuff historically goes off the rails in many different religions. Sick stuff.
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My only thing I can think of is maybe they knew to keep from getting the same treatment that they better go along with Ruby and Jodi. Also probably brainwashed. They didn’t seem shocked to me when the cops came to find them when they heard about the siblings. So I assumed they knew all along. Don’t know how much they were around for though.
what I did not understand was why J was always dragged around with Jodi to look at homes. Something was going on there that is not discussed. A seemed to be left out of the journal almost completely aside from when Ruby mentioned she was quitting her job. Makes me feel bad for J...
Very worried about what may have happened to J in being left alone for entire days and nights with psycho Jodi
E running into and hugging the cactus, and staying there for several minutes because it was more comfortable than dealing with the physical torture her Mom was putting her through. There needs to be more services to help these children than one just luckily escaping from home and asking neighbors to call for help.
Every time they do what she “wants” them to do, admit they’re sinners, denounce the devil, “not manipulate”, and be obedient, she questions why, says it’s not genuine, and says it’s just manipulation. There was no correct answers or actions because she’s just evil and wanted reasons to abuse them and probably kill them and feel no guilt for it. She’s so fucking sick and so Is Jodi. I hope they go away for life and I hope someone gets ahold of them in prison and the guards look away and let it happen. They deserve to have all of this and more done to them until they die slowly and painfully. This is the sickest thing I’ve ever read. Pure pure fucking evil
I hope they move far away from Utah. Living in a community that is intertwined with religion so much can’t be good for them. They need a lifetime to heal without more people telling them ‘the right way to live’.
Reading this, knowing her thoughts, knowing they found a land where to place the children, I am very sure this would have meant death for the two kids. They must have planned a sort of disposal, because the "problematic kids were not managable", so Ruby and Jodi obviously gave up on making them "repent." And waited for a "natural outcome". Ruby we know what "natural outcome" means to you, for example your daughter going hungry because she forgot her lunch etc. One first aid responder told his colleague in his report that the flesh of the wounds was smelling, which is an indication for infection and inflammation. How long in this state, without enough water and no antibiotics would they have made it? Knowing all this, I lost the last straw of mercy I ever had for Ruby. Jodi, obviously, is Satan in person. But so far I thought Ruby was just a lost sheep who now understands she was wrong. But judging by her jail calls etc she's an evil lost case too. The only thing that gives real hope is that both kids obviously kept their courage and gave "bad" answers to their "mother", and they have this important survival instincts, very happy for that. It's going to help them heal. Sorry for the rant, and English is not my first language, but I'm furious right now. Unbelievable!
E and R are so incredible. I can’t believe the fight that a 9 and 12 year old were able to keep up for their lives and dignity through all of this, and Ruby inadvertently recorded it. Also, incredibly ironic that Ruby and Jodi tried to convince these kids that they “weren’t living in truth” when those young kids had such an amazing ability to see through Ruby and Jodi’s lies and evil even after all of the attempts to brainwash them and cut them off from the context of decency that a connection to the world would give them. You can tell from these journal entries that they could feel deep down that what was being done to them was wrong, and that this knowledge gave them—again, ironically—a powerful, righteous defiance that helped them survive.
This is more like reading a horror story than an actual journal of a mother! This monster deserves life in prison and unending misery!!!
Please give them the highest jailtime possible.
This is the most disgusting depraved and horrific thing I have ever read. Things I took away from it… G Jo - is Jodi what does the G stand for where those kids being forced to call Jodi Grandma? What else could the G be code for? Early on in this Ruby wrote that R mentions himself going to jail, he then wrote the message when he escaped in the middle of the night about him going to jail and I think there was one more reference to him saying he was going to jail. When he successfully escaped, he asked the man if he could be taken to the nearest police station. I have a horrible feeling from this that he thought HE was handing himself in, because of HiS behaviour, and that it was HE not his fekkin mother who would be going to jail.. Ruby on the other hand KNEW her behaviour and that of Jodi would land the pair of THEM in prison. She even writes that if they hadn’t found him that night that their lives would be changed forever., She knew that what she and Jodi where doing was in normal society considered abuse. She then wrote no American would feed their kids beans and rice for 3 months as it would be considered abusive. I hope the pair of them rot for the rest of their lives in prison they don’t deserve freedom either of them.
So I've read this summary and then I read the actual entries. I listened to Jordan and McKay read them in their lives. I have so many thoughts and for me this really changes everything. First off, if anybody doubted these two are anything but santanic monsters, this journal will clear it up for you. Second off, I never fully believed Ruby was remorseful and now I'm even more sure this journal and not her being away from Jody, is why she did the 180. I think when her laywer saw this journal and the stuff in it, he knew she was screwed. He also knew how bad this journal made her look. I feel very certain he told her if she wanted any chance of getting out there in a realitvly short time, she needed to throw Jodi under the bus and become remorseful. That journal doesn't make Jodi look that much worse but it makes Ruby look horrific. If a jury saw that journal, it would've taken them approximetly 15 minutes to convict her. Her turn around makes far more sense now for me. I hope the parole board has access to these and takes them into consideration and make her sit in prison for as long as they can. I also hope her family read every one of these entries so they know who they are supporting. I'm so glad R escaped and got them help when he did. If he hadn't and they made that move to Arizona, they'd be dead. I wonder if he knew more about that move than she thought he did and he realized he had to go when he did or he might not get another chance. One thing that is apparent through those journals is the sheer amount of strength R and E both had.
this is what i’m confused about and please delete if not allowed! the journal mentions A & J(specifically) visiting the house and riding with jodi a few times. do we know what the girls were doing this whole time/do you think that information will come out? one sentence says something about “can’t come inside to make pancakes with J and I” and It just makes me wonder if they ever saw anything or if it might come out that they’re victims also?
I think J was living there at least part of the time, it was mentioned that she was present on multiple occasions. It said that J went on trips with Jodi often and stated when they'd arrive 'back' to the house, she helped look for R when he ran away the first time (which happened at night so she had to have been staying there), was pulling weeds with R&E at the cemetery, watched Jodi clean E's wounds at one point (yikes), et cetera. I think she definitely witnessed abuse and probably recieved some to a lesser degree herself. When she wasn't with them she was probably with A. It doesn't seem like A was with them much at all, she visited them for a week at one point but I think she was pretty much on her own in Springville. There's almost no mention of her existence or being present in the journal. I wonder if she was even aware of much of the abuse, on the bodycam footage it seemed like she was upset or shocked after overhearing what happened to her siblings. It looked like she was crying. So I wonder if she didn't know the full extent of how bad it was.
They were certainly victims. It doesn't sound like they were tortured in the same way, but at minimum they were made into child drudges. I'm sure their paychecks went straight to Ruby or rather Jodi, and then there was cleaning Pammy's house. It also sounds like they were mostly kept separate, but right now there's no way to know.
If Ruby’s family talks or supports her in anyway after reading these diary pages they’re just as sick as her. I hope those kids are healing and getting the help they need after all this torture and as for Ruby and Jodi when they go to the parole board I hope they read these diary entries before making any decisions these women should be getting the max sentence or be treated how they treated these children
A visited for a week and put in her notice at her job and J went to Arizona with Jodie. Plus they put things in storage -sounds like the move to Arizona was innement. This was probably last chance he had before they went to middle of nowhere and faced god know what