ANALYSIS OF RUBY FRANKE'S DIARY

   

 

    I'd like to comment, before this assessment that I was horrified by everything that I saw in her handwriting. EVERYTHING. She has so many "weapons" in her handwriting, combined with cruelty, humiliation, and escalating thoughts, that there is NO DOUBT, in my mind, that she and Jodi knew/were ok with death being an outcome they were aware of and had to be somewhat "ok" with. It appears that is back up medically with the dire conditions both children were found in.

1. RIGID CONTROL: There are portion, and they are distinct from the rest, where her writing, you can tell, she is pressing harder on the paper, and she attempts to control every stroke in her own handwriting. She apparently, when writing it, was likely feeling out of control. The more out of control, someone obsessed with control gets, the more dangerous the choices become to try to regain that perceived loss of control and power.

2. TEMPER: Consistently, throughout the entire sample, Ruby. though at times there is a disassociation from reality, depending on her mood, is overall, consistently, whether delusional or not, her prevailing emotion is RAW ANGER. She becomes furious with R or E if they do not do exactly what she asks. 

3. RED FLAGS ON DISTANCING LANGUAGE: RUBY clearly uses words that sound better, or more morally acceptable to her. For instant, she says the kids are "fasting." Certainly not voluntarily. Given that it isn't voluntary, what she really means is "starving" or "withholding." She repeatedly degrades her son, and her thinking starts, early on, to be BLACK or WHITE; GOOD or BAD. THERE IS NO MIDDLE GROUND. No room for perceived. mistakes.

4. low-self-esteem: you can tell by looking at your own handwriting and how high up on a lower case "t" to you place the cross stroke. The higher you cross it, the higher your own self-esteem/self-confidence. And, equally so, the lower you cross the "t" bar, the lower your self-esteem/self-worth. I saw something in Ruby's writing, regarding her self-esteem, that I have only seen in class, not in an actual person's handwriting. Signs that were quite frightening. There are various parts of the journal that she actually crosses her "t" stem so low, that it almost doesn't look like a "t" anymore. It looks more like a weapon (which is not common to see). Her self-esteem was being torn down over time as well. Whether that was due to herself, and how she felt about herself, in her own mind, I don't know. It could have been Jodi, over time, making her self-esteem lower and lower. So low that it becomes dangerous. It becomes, dangerous when you are willing to cause/inflict pain to yourself or others. Anger and raw hatred of herself, are driving her increasingly more depraved "tactics."

5. BLACK AND WHITE THINKING: all or nothing....everything is distilled down to one truth, one right, one wrong, and this kind of "cult thinking" is another way to justify any chocies she made. She convinced herself that she was furious with both of her children because they "would not repent." Jodi's tactic is to get a person to tell you everything, and make them vulnerable to emotional exploitation. Even after you have told her everything, if she or Ruby believes, just "believes", there is more unsaid, they fee justified to start the torture all over again. This will repeat until perceived perfection is achieved. And Ruby has what she calls "!00% obedience with absolute completeness." A standard of perfection; on that does not exist. In other words, expectations were unrealistic or unachievable; so once it started, there was no end. Til death. 

6. Whenever Ruby feels she cannot control anything about the children, she becomes furious, and more punitive in response.

7. MOOD INSTABILITY WITH CONSISTENCY OF ANGER:  Her moods were high, low, up and down, completely unstable, disassociated at times, present at times; all over the board. The one consistent emotion, despite her shifting moods, is ANGER. FURIOUS ANGER. She cannot stand that her kids start to defy her meaningless requests to work or stand in the sun. R really fought back and talked back a lot. Unfortunately, for him, that only made her more FURIOUS.

8. OBSESSION/RUMINATION ON THEMES OF CONTROL: A Pattern that keeps on repeating. She is constantly reflecting on what her and Jodi need to do, to change, to have better control. TOTAL CONTROL. She was keeping track, I'd imagine, of his water intake. She mentioned that she knew R was a thief who stole water (again, "stole water" is distancing language). He was probably DE-HYDRATED, and was more about SURVIVAL for him. But, at one point, R was sick to his stomach and had liquid #3. Ruby saw it, and started immediately in on the "proof", in the TOILET, that he was stealing water. From her perspective that it appears SHE genuinely believed, at a time, under the guise of religion, and kids obeying their parents was paramount.

9. PROJECTION: THERE IS SO MUch projection of her own feelings onto the kids, you could pretty much read the journal, and the quoted things she is saying to these children, is nothing more than pathetic attempts to blame shift and fault find. SHE LITERALLY IS A PROJECTOR MACHINE itself. Inability to look and examine inward at choices. Focus becomes outward, and projecting her feelings onto the children; while believing her own delusional thinking.

10. EASILY MANIPULATED: DUE TO the low self-esteem, you can over-dependence on others. In Ruby, she over-depended on Jodi for answers, solutions, the game plan, she saw Jodi as a person of higher knowledge not just academically, but spiritually. Because she was already in a high demand religion, that works by not having to think for yourself, and rely on those above you, made Ruby primed to being obedient to whatever "answers" were revealed unto Jodi. She saw her as a spiritual guru who was a much more powerful moral and spiritual person. She loved the power and control and Jodi commanded and was successful at manipulating Ruby in any number of ways.

11. MOTIVES FOR BX: her thoughts she's having inward, she cannot manage or regulate or figure out. Because she cannot "sit" with her feelings, or look inward, at herself, she instead, projects her inner feelings outward through physical abuse and anything punitive. Judging on handwriting alone, she was motivated SOLELY by perceived loss of control, anger (furious, raw anger bordering on hatred). I saw this so much and so often, I have come to believe that, when she made Kevin move out, and started working with Jodi, I believe, inside her own mind, that she was starting a NEW life. I don't think that she desired to be a parent anymore despite having 4 minor children (out of 6 total) in her care. Some of the hate may be pure resentment for having to fulfill a role that she no longer is interested in "playing"; the role of Mother. I believe that handwriting supports these notions.

12. DELUSIONAL ASPECTS: at times, in her writing, she was separated from reality. It could be more than one time a day, or just interspersed in the handwriting. However, her basic belief system, at its core, became increasingly more delusional. As a snowball effect, the more delusional she was, the closer to death Ruby was willing to take her behavior. There are hints at, though in softening language, that she covering her son's mouth and nose and putting him under the water. She came to believe that she could give oxygen to R by merely placing her hands on him. The more delusional she was, the scarier the punishments and the more extreme. If she wasn't utterly delusional, she was one emotion: RAGEFUL. Again, really, this is self-hatred formed inward, manifested and projected outward. I do not believe Jodi believed ANY of the BS she was spitting to Ruby. I think she said whatever she said because she's a self-hating, with repressed anger, I imagine toward sexuality and an inability to to acknowledge the taboo of that with her religion. Jodi was constantly manipulating everyone around her. There is no doubt that Jodi was a self-harmer; Ruby talked about her wearing hoodies in the summer bc her forearms were COVERED in slashes. Jodi is extremely mentally ill, but, through the skills of being a therapist, is a master manipulator. With an eye open always for a grift or her agenda; whatever that might be. It wold appear that Ruby saw Jodi as more powerful, more all-knowing, and, would take up any of Jodi's suggestions because, delusional or not, Ruby believed, or convinced herself she was doing the "right thing" by listening to Jodi.

13. RUBY's CONNECTION TO HER OWN PARENTS: IT is plain as day she feels she has NO connection, to or with either parent. If I were a betting woman, I would bet she was cut off all contact, for some time now.

14.  IDEAS THAT LOVE MUST HURT TO TEACH: Ruby believes, whatever Jodi tells her to be true. Again, maybe that lack of any self-esteem, that self-hatred. is what made Ruby even more naive, suggestable, open to being exploited by someone like Jodi; whose motives are ulterior.

  This was very difficult to see this handwriting sample. I mean, there is absolutely nothing positive, or good, or normal, or even human, about the depths of her depravity. I cannot say whether she actually WANTED her kids to die, but I can say that she had to have been open to the idea of death as an outcome just in the condition that they were found in on body camera. Loose guess, combined with mortuary science knowledge, I know it to be true that this was a "making it, or break it" moment for R when he escaped that day. I believe he was only able to walk to the neighbors on pure adrenaline and survival instinct. Had he not reached the family that helped him, and rescued his sister, I do not think they could have sustained life more than a few more days; week maximum. Thank God R was the hero of he and his sister's story. And keep in mind, the journal only details 3 months in which this ALL took place. Without outside intervention, those children, in all likelihood, would not have survived much longer. Cannot emphasize their direness enough. Disgusting to read, to see, and put together.