It might be a good plot for a movie but one doesn’t expect and can never be prepared for such a shocking twist in their life. Such is a shock that Cheryl Love experienced when one morning FBI knocked at her door and arrested her husband Bobby Love, who according to the authorities was a criminal Walter Miller. After escaping from the prison 40 years ago and determined to reset the course of his life, Walter not only changed his identity, but started a family and altered his reality by burying his top secret under 40 years worth of time layers. But as they say, one day you must face the truth.
How it Dawned
It was just another regular morning in January of 2015 and Cheryl Love was busy in her morning routines as usual, started the day with a cup of tea. Bobby, her husband was still asleep in his bed. Suddenly there was a knock at the door.
“I opened it slowly and saw the police standing there.” She thought the police simply knocked on the wrong door as they were known to come and check in on the “crazy lady” who lived next door. “At first I wasn’t worried, I opened it slowly and saw the police standing there,But the moment I opened the door, twelve officers came barging past me,” Cheryl said in an interview with Humans of New York.
Cheryl was about to face the truth and get her life-beliefs shaken.
The Revelation
The officers that rushed past Cheryl into the house had “FBI” written on their jackets. Cheryl did not know what was going on, thus just followed the officers who entered Bobby’s bedroom and started asking questions.
“They went straight back to the bedroom and walked up to Bobby,” Cheryl said. One of the officers asked Bobby: “What’s your name?” “Bobby Love,” he said. “No, whats your real name?” they asked. Bobby whispered something in a hushed tone and the officers responded: “You’ve had a long run.”
Moment Of Truth
Cheryl was still trying to make sense of the whole thing that was going on. First thing she did not understand was why they asked him his real name? And why the hell was FBI in her husband’s bedroom and acting as if Bobby was some criminal, who according to her, wasn’t!
Next moment, Bobby was handcuffed and Cheryl was pleading to know what was going on all of a sudden. “This goes way back, Cheryl. Back before I met you.” He said while he was being dragged out of the door.
Who was Walter Miller?
It was the 60s in North Carolina where Walter Miller grew up and had a “pretty normal childhood,” as he himself describes it later. Poor family and struggling mother to raise eight children, Walter soon started slipping the cracks.
It all started at Sam Cooke concert. “The crowd was really moving, because it was dance music. And Sam Cooke didn’t like that. He kept telling people to sit down. And after only two songs, he walked off the stage,” Walter said. He jokingly yelled a profanity at the stage — and was promptly arrested for disorderly conduct. “Things went downhill pretty quick after that,” he said.
Law Abiding Citizen? Not!
Walter came into the records after that Sam Cooke concert in 1964. But this was just the beginning. He admitted that then onwards he got into all sorts of troubles, one after the other. He lofted purses from unlocked cars, stole government checks out of mailboxes, and his crimes got bolder every day.
One day he finally he got caught stealing from the band room in his school, for which he faced the tough consequences and was sent to juvenile detention center.
Petty Life In Juvenile Detention
How pretty fast the tables of life turned around! All his freedom to do whatever he pleased was suddenly taken, thanks to the strict code of juvenile detention. He wasn’t a free bird as he was on the other side of the guarded door.
Walter recalled that he hated every moment he spent in that institution. The food was bad, life was bound but most of all, he complained about the violence. After all, they were all criminals in making but Walter was in for non-violent crimes. He could not see himself finishing the sentence in that dreadful place.
Planning To Break Out
According to Walter, all his peers at the detention center were categorically violent. He still has scars from all the beat-ups he got while serving his time at the center. He remembered how he used to fall asleep to the sounds of trains rushing on the tracks not so far away. Those sounds kept reminding him that just like the trains, he must leave this station soon.
That’s what gave him some assurance that he may pull off the plan of breaking out from there. He worked out his strategy in his head and waited for the right moment to be free again. Freedom was too precious to be sacrificed.
Bold Escape
Walter needed a lungful breathe of the fresh air of freedom desperately. Trains being his daily reminder, the plans of escape kept on thickening like a gravy on stove. He was always curious to find out where that train was going. Everything in the juvenile detention was putting his patience to trial, but he waited for an opportunity until he found one.
That night, Walter got the opportunity he was waiting for; just that precise window of time he needed. As soon as the guard stationed at by the detention center’s doors turned his back to look at time, he acted quickly and dashed for the exit doors. He ran out the back door, towards the sound of the train whistle, and that was his first escape, but not the last.
Run For The Tracks
His plan was panning out well so far. Walter ducked the guard secretly when he wasn’t looking, and he acted quickly on the awaited opportunity.
After exiting the center, Walter made his way to the railroad tracks and did what he wanted to do for months: he followed the trains to find out where they led. His journey would eventually be led north along the tracks, from North Carolina all the way to Washington, DC. He did feel everything is turning around for him at first.
Washington, DC
The train he boarded was bound for Washington, DC. Walter’s brother lived in Washington, DC. He began to crash in his brother’s city apartment. Walter also enrolled himself into a school there without wasting much time, and actually began attending his new high school. He attended classes and played basketball with his friends.
Just like any other high school, there were good guys, and there were bad ones. In case of Walter, he got acquainted himself with the bad ones. He started hanging out with the wrong group of kids and his life took another dramatic elbow turn.
Show Me The Bad!
Walter was kind of into petty theft earlier. But his new group of friends were a level above him. They were into even worse crimes and Walter, to prove himself an equal, learnt to rob the banks quickly. He and his friends robbed many banks and got away with their crimes because they drove down to North Carolina. Security was known to be a little bit more relaxed there.
Walter and his friend continued robbing banks and after every score they would hand out on the strip at 14th and T-streets, acting like big timers. All of them enjoyed that gangsta-life while they could. In a moment of honesty, Walter admitted:“I have nobody to blame but myself. I just enjoyed the feeling of having money.” But his luck was about to run out.
Busted!
Walter’s gang enjoyed how they got away with every robbery each time. But this did not go on for much long. One of the banks the gang decided to rob, had a silent alarm. The bank equipped itself in such a way that they could inform the police about an on-going robbery without alarming the robbers. While the action was on, one of tellers pressed this silent alarm.
As Walter tried to exit the bank, police was ready waiting for him in the parking lot. He tried to get away, ducking and weaving, running through cars, but one officer had enough of it and he shot him. That was it. Walter was caught. But for how long? Walter was not known to comply with prison walls.
Inmate No. 0283128
When it came to his sentence, what he received was not only for the bank robbery he got arrested redhanded for, but he was found guilty of committing yet another. In total, he was sentenced to serve about 25 to 30 years of prison time.
During this, he received another devastating news. His mother passed away. This broke his heart, because of his life choices he couldn’t be with his mother in her final days. He pledged to do whatever it takes to turn his life around.
Trying To Be Better
Walter was quite affected by his mother’s passing away. He realized if he were a good person, he would have been with his mother in her last days, like a good son. But what was it worth, he was already in a maximum security prison and there is nothing much he could do about it.
Walter went through a few appeals and none of them turned out successfully. He was getting used to the prison life, but he decided that the only way to make this life slightly better would be to get himself transferred from maximum security to a minimum security center. And it was just down the hill, so he drafted a smart plan.
Wishful Transfer
Walter was fully committed to turn his life around. He wanted to be a better person and do better in life. He became the perfect inmate and never had a mark on his record. Finally, his hard work and patience paid off and because of his good behavior, he earned himself a wishful transfer to a minimum security facility.
The new facility felt more like a fun camp to Walter. Maximum security place was one hell in front of this. Though the facility had mandatory gun towers and high fences, it still came with a bigger sense of freedom. The inmates here were allowed to walk outside and have phone calls with their family. Walter even hosted his own radio show. Till this time, he had no plans to escape, but things changed.
Sliding All The Way Down
Walter really enjoyed hosting his own show and his life at minimum security prison. He never felt this relaxed in so many years. But once a prisoner yelled a profanity at the prison’s captain, and the captain mistakenly thought that it was Walter. Everything changed that day and the captain had it out for Walter ever since.
Soon after, the captain started picking on Walter and the captain would write him up for infractions on a daily basis. The negative reports kept piling up and Walter was on the verge of being sent to the maximum security prison up the hill once again. Walter could not imagine his life like that again and he knew it was his time to follow the trains once again.
A New Job, A New Opportunity
As a consequence of his continuous negative reports, he was assigned the worst job available for the inmates and there were a handful of others like him who were assigned to similar jobs as well. The job required him to wake up before any of the prisoners, pile into a bus, drive to Raleigh and pick up the trash and clean the roads.
It felt awful. People keep throwing milkshakes and hamburgers at him and while it was almost winter, it started getting cold. Despite the conditions, Walter actually was able to see an opportunity with his new job. He started planning and plotting.
Escape Plan
Walter began to save money to plan his big escape. He began to notice things like the fact that the guard on the Tuesday morning shift was a little bit lazier than most. Instead if patting down each inmate he let them walk right by and into the bus.
He also noticed the intersection where the bus would halt, and a wooded area was right next to it. Walter went on for months to collect as much information as he could and finally, while watching football on a Monday night, he made up his mind. He was determined to make sure that it was his last night in the prison.
Away Flies The Bird
As expected, the Tuesday shift guard was lazily standing by the doorway of the bus and Walter was prepared for the dash. He brought everything he could out of his locker, along with some civilian clothes under his prison uniform, which he used to wear while his radio broadcast. The field was set and everything was falling into plan so far.
Walter took his position all the way at the back of the bus, right next to emergency exit. As the bus slowed down for a stop, Walter swung the back door open and he was gone just like that, he vanished into the deep woods. He stripped off his prison clothes and with the wail of the sirens, he became more and more distant.
Miles To Go Before I Sleep
He could hear the sirens blaring behind him but he did not turn to look. As soon as the coast was clear, he began to calmly ask people he encountered for directions to Greyhound station. “Keep Going,” they would say.
At last, he reached the bus station and borrowed some money from a stranger to board the next bus to New York. A woman slumped in his seat turned to him and strike up a conversation. She asked him his name and he thought for a moment, and he said: “Bobby Love.” That moment right there, marked the death of Walter Miller. Walter never returned, and Bobby Love was born.
Bobby Love: The Next Chapter
Walter, using his alias Bobby, arrived in New York and started a new life. He stayed at a motel using the little money he had, which soon ran out. He was broke and straying on the streets. But even from the streets, Bobby began to build his new life.
There was a series of lies to crack through lucky breaks, he obtained a social security number, a birth certificate and eventually a driver’s license. Now he wanted employment. He worked odd jobs, picking up where he could, stayed at $8-a-night hotels in the city and finally had a turn of luck that changed the course of his life.
When Bobby Met Cheryl
Bobby found a job in a cafeteria of the Baptist Medical Center in Brooklyn by the 1980s. He met Cheryl, who was his co-worker, later became his wife. Their first date was a movie date. They saw Prince’s film Purple Rain and a Gladys Knight and the Pips concert.
Cheryl was nothing like the people he met earlier in his life. She was innocent, entirely opposite to Bobby. And opposites attract. Thats why Bobby got attracted towards Cheryl so much. She was naïve, soft and beautiful. Bobby dreamt his life with Cheryl, but he knew hiding his true identity and his past could come crashing down any day. He did not want to lose the most amazing woman he ever met, so he decided to take the secret to his grave.
A Fresh Start
34 years old Bobby and 21 years old Cheryl said their vows and officially became family on March 30, 1985. Soon after the wedding, they welcomed their first daughter Jasmine and two years later, they had Jessica. 11 years later, the Love family got blessed with twins Justin and Jordan.
Bobby worked two jobs and slept merely 2 hours to make the ends meet for him and his family. He acted as a very responsible and hard working father. Bobby also became active in his church and volunteered for community work and meetings. The fresh start suited Bobby and in a way, fulfilled his dream of turning his life around.
Keeping A Secret
Bobby decided to keep the secret safe about his real identity and his criminal past. But the fear of the buried secret still caused him some sleepless nights. He knew he isn’t going anywhere unless someone finds out the truth and takes him away again.
Doesn’t matter how much weight the secret put on Bobby’s conscience, he still couldn’t gather courage to say it out to his wife, Cheryl. He knew she loved him a lot, but there still was a slightest possibility that her trust will be shattered and he would hurt her greatly if not lose her in the best case scenario. He couldn’t afford any of these.
Cheryl, The Righteous Kind
Cheryl was a strong woman and for her, righteousness held the top place in her moral sense. If she ever found out about Bobby, she might forgive him but surely would ask him to turn himself in, which consequently will part him from Cheryl.
Bobby’s past life was like a rear-view mirror. Though he looked forward into the present and future in front, the past still wont stop haunting him.
He asked his sister to tell Cheryl his secret once he passed away, but she insisted that Bobby must come clean now, while there is time. He was sure that time that his long forgotten past is not going to come chasing him, but how wrong was he!
Bobby Was Different
Cheryl noticed something was different about Bobby. Cheryl and other friends couldn’t ignore the oddities that were coming up in Bobby’s behavior. For example, he did not like to be photographed, he was always wary of talking to strangers and mostly kept to himself. At times, when people asked him directions or something else equally mundane, he would always seem spooked.
Bobby would close himself off during arguments with Cheryl. Cheryl remembered Christmas of 2014 when she was on her knees in church and asking for strength to bear what was going on as she was losing patience with Bobby. It was few weeks before everything went down.
Doomsday
Bobby was quite comfortable in his new skin as few years passed by without an incident. He made a trip to his cousin’s funeral in North Carolina. Thats the mistake Bobby regrets having done. He doubts somebody recognized him and informed the police. Shortly after that, the FBI was in his bedroom and asking him questions and putting handcuffs on him.
Cheryl’s world came crashing down, and her hurt overtook her embarrassment. She felt deceived and the deception went on for decades. It wasn’t something anyone can easily come out of. She felt there was no truth in their house. In another interview, Cheryl remarked the moment that it was like she was in a Lifetime movie, but despite her fudged feelings, she still thought she needed to do something.
Planning The Next Steps
Bobby was in a harsh scene. He was held on New York’s infamous Rikers Island, where he had to wait for his further extradition to North Carolina. Once he is there, he would face the prospects for serving out the final 10 years of his sentence, and along with that he would serve extra time for his escape. Cheryl visited him and saw how dire were Bobby’s circumstances.
When she visited him,Bobby broke down crying with his head in his hands. He told her that he knew she would leave him. She assured him that she still loves him and she married him for better or worse. They had the best, and now it was the worst. With that in mind she set to work.
The Fight Begins
Cheryl knocked every door and tried everything she could to bring her husband home. She wrote letters to the governor and even to the President Obama himself. Everyone else, including Bobby’s children and friends wrote testimonials for him. They did not know anything about Walter Miller, but she told them everything.
She gathered every piece of character defense she could, and she brought it all with her to Bobby’s parole board. It though looked like an impossible task, yet after a year of prison, the parole board agreed for a hearing and agreed to let Bobby return to his freedom. He could begin again with a clean slate and return to the life he built for himself.
Completing The Puzzle
Bobby ultimately earned his forgiveness from Cheryl, and the marriage also improved miraculously. Perhaps it was because now Bobby could come out clean and he did not have any secret burdening his head. He became a better person and he was no longer jumpy. He started engaging with more people and he was open and attentive to his wife. The couple never felt as connected before this.
Cheryl and Bobby finally started living the life they wanted, a life without secrets and full of honesty. “The day he was set free, I sat him down and I asked ‘What is it? Are we the Loves? Or are we the Millers?’ And he said: ‘We Love; We Love.’”
