Letters from the Dark: Donna Adelson’s Prison Plea & Chad Daybell’s Ghost Confession

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

In this full episode of Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, and Todd Michaels take you inside the minds of two of America’s most notorious convicted murderers — Donna Adelson and Chad Daybell — through the words they wrote themselves.
Segment 1: Donna Adelson’s Prison Letter
From a Florida jail cell, Donna Adelson wrote a 2024 letter to her husband Harvey describing how her heart “breaks” over missing her grandsons’ first day of school. What could have been a rare glimpse of remorse quickly spirals into denial and bitterness:
“If I don’t get out, then hopefully I die soon so no one remembers me in prison garb.”
She paints herself as the victim of “vigilante justice” and a “southern sweetheart prosecutor,” refusing to accept any role in the plot that left her former son-in-law, Dan Markel, dead.
The Markel family’s official statement, read in court, shredded that illusion — accusing Donna of callous indifference and of cutting off Markel’s parents from their grandsons for six years.
Tony unpacks the psychology of control, image management, and moral blindness that define the Adelson saga — and why Donna’s letter might be the most revealing confession she never meant to write.
Segment 2: Chad Daybell’s Ghost Story Letter
Then, we shift from manipulation to mysticism. In “Letter #7,” Chad Daybell — the self-proclaimed prophet now convicted of multiple murders — recounts his time as a Utah cemetery sexton.
He writes of being haunted by a thief’s ghost, attacked by unseen forces, and taunted by demonic voices shouting, “We hate your books!” He interprets it all as proof that Heaven had chosen him for a divine mission.
Tony dissects how this “ghost story” maps the arc of Daybell’s descent — from fantasy and grandiosity to apocalyptic belief — showing how delusion and ego fused into a theology that justified murder.
Two letters. Two minds. One terrifying common thread: a total inability to see reality — or remorse — through the walls they built around themselves.
#DonnaAdelson #ChadDaybell #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #DanMarkel #LoriVallow #MurderForHire #CultCrimes #PsychologyOfEvil #TonyBrueski
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