Bobby Love is not an actor, not an athlete, but his story is known to many. His life was exciting in some ways.
Bobby Love, also known as Walter Miller, escaped from a prison in 1977 and was just captured back in 2015. He was a fugitive who led a double life for decades.
It all started or probably ended on the day that the cops came knocking at their door. His wife, Cheryl, though they wanted to ask them about a crazy neighbor; instead, they went straight to their bedroom, where Love was lying down.
The police were putting on his handcuffs, and she was told to back off. “You don’t know who this man is”, that was what they told her. She was shocked, “It didn’t make any sense. I’d been married to Bobby for 40 years. He didn’t even have a criminal record. “
She narrated, “I heard them ask: ‘What’s your name? And he said, ‘Bobby Love.’ Then they said, ‘No. What’s your real name?” She continued, “And I heard him say something really low.”
And they responded: ‘You’ve had a long run.’ At this point, I’m crying, and I screamed: ‘Bobby, what’s going on?’ Did you kill somebody?” and he answered back, “This goes way back, Cheryl. Back before I met you. Way back to North Carolina.’”
Love’s predicament started on the night he got arrested at the Sam Cooke concert when he yelled, “Sam Cooke ain’t sh*t.”
He got into a Morrison Training School, and he said, “Every night, while I was falling asleep, I could hear the whistle of a freight train in the distance. And I always wanted to know where that train was going. So one night, when the guard turned his back to check the clock, I ran out the back door — toward the sound of that whistle. And that was the first place I ever escaped from.”
He was robbing banks in North Carolina but eventually got caught again “All hell broke loose. I tried to get away, ducking and weaving, running through cars. But I got shot in the buttocks. The bullet went right through me. I woke up in the hospital — with a hole in the front and back of my coat.”
He went to Triangle Correctional Center and was sentenced for 30 years. He was doing some prison work when he hopped on a bus, paid $10 for the ticket while wearing civilian clothes that were under his prison uniform.
He met his wife in New York in 1980 and had gotten married in 1983. In the marriage license, he has named Bobby Allan Love born Walter Miller.
He went back to prison in January 2016. His then double life ended, and his family waited on him until he got released.
According to Love, “I feel like a big burden has been lifted off my shoulders.” Brown is now 69 years old, and his story is featured in Humans of New York, a photographic portrait of everyday people.
