Bobby Love, AKA Walter Miller, is a former fugitive who busted out of jail in Raleigh, N.C. in the late 70’s, then fled to New York where he got married and settled into marital bliss before authorities tracked him down in 2015.
Now his story is being told in an 11-part series with the popular blog Humans of New York.
As reported by blavity.com, Bobby’s wife Cheryl tells how she learned the truth about her husband’s past when police showed up at her door.
“It didn’t make any sense. I’d been married to Bobby for 40 years. He didn’t even have a criminal record,” she said. “At this point I’m crying, and I screamed: ‘Bobby, what’s going on? Did you kill somebody?’ And he tells me: ‘This goes way back, Cheryl. Back before I met you. Way back to North Carolina.’”
Bobby opens up in the series about his life before marriage, including his troubled youth and how he first started robbing banks in North Carolina. He was ultimately busted and charged with armed robbery and sentenced to 30 years in prison, according to The News & Observer.
Bobby, who was imprisoned at the now-closed Triangle Correctional Center, managed to escape while on work detail. According to the report, he fled by way of an unlocked rear door on the prison bus, according to part six of the story.
“I could hear the alarm blaring behind me, but I didn’t look back. I peeled off my green clothes and just kept running. The sweat was coming off me. I looked like trouble, so I did my best to keep out of the white neighborhoods. Every time I passed a brother, I asked for directions to the Greyhound station. Everyone kept telling me: ‘Keep going, keep going, keep going.’ When I finally got there, I found a brother in the parking lot who agreed to buy me a one way ticket to New York.”
Bobby met Cheryl few years later, while working together at Baptist Medical Center. By that time, he was using an alias.
Bobby and Cheryl married on March 30, 1985, and had four children.
When authorities tracked him down in 2015, he was arrested and served less than a year behind bars before being released, per a report from the Daily News.
“I’m excited to be back with my children and my wife,” he told the publication. “I’m trying to put my life back together.”
