Famous YouTubers Who Were Charged With Serious Crimes

Is YouTube a platform for dark, disturbed narcissistic individuals to find the audience they crave? It seems the video-sharing platform has had more than its fair share of disturbing creators.

Ruby Franke

Ruby Franke is the latest YouTube star to receive prison time after being charged with serious crimes against her young children. Franke was arrested in August 2023 after one of her kids escaped the Utah home described as a “concentration camp” and ran to a neighbor’s home pleading for food and help.

Franke deprived the kids of food, education, and medical attention and abused them while in front of the camera, she pretended to be the perfect mother, a self-described parenting advice guru. Franke will spend four to 60 years behind bars after accepting a plea deal sentencing her to one to 14 years on each of four charges.

Jake Davison

In 2021, Jake Davison created a YouTube channel using the alias Professor Waffle. On the channel, he featured videos of himself discussing topics like inceldom and nihilism and referred to himself as “The Terminator.” He described himself as “beaten down with life.” In his last video, uploaded July 28, 2021, he is ranting about his hatred for women.

On August 12, 2021, Davison dressed in all black, and visited his family’s home in Plymouth armed with a pump-action shotgun. Inside the home, he shot his mother, Maxine, who disagreed about his lifestyle.

After shooting his mother, Davison shot and killed a woman and her 3-year-old child standing outside the home, and then shot another man and woman, both of whom survived. Davison shot two more people as he walked down the street before turning the weapon on himself.

Davison’s YouTube was disabled the day after the mass murder, although a copy can be found on the Internet Archive.

Trey Sesler

“I will never forgive myself.”

“I love my family.”

“I don’t know why I did this. God help me.”

Those messages are three of several Tyler Sesler wrote in black marker on the wall of his home after killing his family. The 22-year-old self-described loner killed his mother, father, and brother. Known as Mr. Anime on YouTube, Sesler was obsessed with serial killers and mass murders, namely the Columbine School Shooting.

He had planned an attack at his former high school, Waller High, and had participated in criminal and destructive behavior for years before the murders. Sesler set fires, shot at businesses, and killed people’s pets.

Chris Chan

Ranking among the most delirious YouTubers Christine Chan Weston, aka Chris Chan, a transgender YouTuber who became famous after an internet meme depicting their image went viral. Chan drew a series of comic strips that never really took off and was known for trolling various platforms. They were disliked by many, which potentially helped save their 79-year-old mother with dementia after someone leaked a phone call of Chan allegedly admitting that they engaged in sexual relations with the woman.

Chan was arrested in 2022 and charged with incest, but they have since been released after a judge dismissed the charges against them.

Randy Stair

Shortly before 11 a.m. on June 8, 2017, Randy Stair opened fire at a Weis supermarket in Eaton Township, PA, where he had worked for 7 years, killing three coworkers before taking his own life.

Known as Andrew Blaze on YouTube, Stair posted dark and disturbing videos expressing his admiration for Eric Harris and Dylan Kleibold, the two teens responsible for the Columbine School Shooting. He documented his plans to shoot up the store on the YouTube page, kept a journal detailing his morbid thoughts, and frequently posted disturbing thoughts on other social media sites showing a deeply mentally disturbed person. He stated that he wanted to cause “maximum destruction” at the shoot-out.