Ruby Franke - the YouTube parenting guru who pleaded guilty in December to four counts of aggravated child abuse - asked in a jailhouse phone call whether the charges she then faced had made the news, newly released recordings reveal.
Franke, 42, and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested last summer after one of Franke's malnourished children escaped from Hildebrandt's house and pleaded with neighbors for food and water. Subsequent investigations revealed that the pair, who ran a parenting business, had neglected and physically abused multiple children.
Utah prosecutors released several documents this week associated with the case, including scans of Franke's journals and recordings of her prison phone calls.
In a call made Aug. 31 - prior to her guilty plea - Franke spoke with a man who told her that he was prepared to take care of her children. Later in the call, the man said that the public was aware of the case.
"Are we in the news?" Franke asked the man, who was not identified by name in the released recordings.
"It sounds like at least you're in the news," he replied, adding that a magazine had contacted him.
"This is a witch hunt," Franke said. "The devil's been after me for years."
Franke maintained the tone in subsequent phone calls - at one point comparing herself to the Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith.
"The most upsetting thing is that I am completely misunderstood," Franke said the following day. "Joseph Smith, every, every wonderful man of God has had to be misunderstood."
In the same phone call, Franke claimed that God told her that her children were going to be taken away.
"God told me I'm done," Franke said. "Satan has taken everything away from me that I love. And I'm a good woman. I don't do naughty things."
By the end of the year, however, Franke's convictions seemingly started to waver. She pleaded guilty on Dec. 18.
In a phone call made Dec. 28, she told another woman that Hildebrandt - who pleaded guilty the day prior to four counts of child abuse - "knew she was lying the whole time."
"I think, in the interview, it's going to be apparent that she's mentally ill," Franke said.
Franke and Hildebrandt were sentenced last month, each to four consecutive terms of one to 15 years.
