His Wife Had No Idea
The year was 2015, the month was January, and Cheryl Love was about to make herself tea. This was part of her morning routine. Her husband, Bobby, was still fast asleep in their bedroom when she heard a knock at the door. “I opened it slowly and saw the police standing there,” Love said in an interview with Humans of New York.
“At first I wasn’t worried,” she continued. Their next-door neighbor was known to be a “crazy lady” and police officers often came and checked in on her. Cheryl assumed the police were simply knocking on the wrong door. “But the moment I opened the door,” she said, “twelve officers came barging past me.” She had no way of knowing at the time, but Cheryl’s life was about to turn upside down.
“What’s Your Name?”
“They went straight back to the bedroom, and walked up to Bobby,” Cheryl said as she recalled vivid memories of those distinctive FBI letters glaring out from the back of their jackets.
Cheryl overheard the officers interrogating her husband. “What’s your name?” “Bobby Love,” her husband answered. “No, what’s your real name?” Love’s husband whispered in such a soft voice, she couldn’t catch his answer. “You’ve had a long run,” the officers responded. The next thing Cheryl knew, Bobby was in handcuffs and being rushed out the door. Cheryl begged to know what was wrong. “This goes way back, Cheryl. Back before I met you,” he called over his shoulder as he was hustled out of their home.
Walter Miller’s Story
Walter Miller (aka Bobby Love) grew up in the sixties in North Carolina. He described his childhood as “pretty normal,” but he grew up poor, and his mother struggled to make ends meet. With eight children to care for, she barely had enough to support all of them. It wasn’t surprising that Walter began feeling neglected.
His run-ins with the law started when he attended a 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 yelled profanity at the stage and was subsequently arrested for misconduct. “Things went downhill pretty quickly after that,” he said.
Getting More Familiar with the Law
The incident at the Sam Cooke concert happened in 1964 and Walter soon developed his own record of misbehavior. Things worsened rapidly for him. “I got into all sorts of trouble,” Walter admitted.
“I lifted purses from unlocked cars, I was stealing government checks out of mailboxes, I got bolder and bolder,” Walter said. When he was caught stealing from the band room at his school, the young delinquent had to face the consequences of his petty crimes. He was sent to a nearby juvenile detention center.
Juvenile Detention for Young Walter
“I hated everything about that place,” Walter recalled years later. One moment he was enjoying his youthful freedom, the next, he was living a life of strict code and conduct. He complained about everything in that place, but it was the violence that really got to him.
Other young delinquents in the place were far more violent than he was. “I still have scars from all the times I got beat up,” Walter said years after he had left the center. He used to hear the train whirl past every night as he fell asleep, and with its comforting noise came dreams of leaving the center. Walter wanted to get out. He just needed to think of a solid plan.
The Great Escape
The nightly sound of the train was a haunting reminder to Walter of the things he was missing out on. “I always wanted to know where that train was going,” he said. His time at the juvenile center was testing his patience, so he watched for a chance to escape.
Walter’s golden opportunity came one night when the night guard stationed by the exit doors turned his back and checked the time. Walter saw his chance and made a run for it. “I ran out the back door – toward the sound of that whistle. And that was the first place I ever escaped from,” he said. It wouldn’t be the last.
Towards the Train Tracks
Walter ran towards the tracks and did something he had been dreaming of for months. He wanted to see where the train led. He followed it out of North Carolina and bore down on Washington, D.C. For the first time in months, he felt like things were finally looking up.
As luck would have it, Walter had a brother living in D.C. He stayed with him and enrolled at a local high school. He began attending classes and even played baseball with friends. Unfortunately, Walter started hanging out with “the wrong group of kids.” His life was getting set to change once again.
Bad Influence from the Wrong Crowd
This group of new “friends” got into more serious crimes than those Walter had previously been involved in. They had been robbing banks and so far had never been caught. Their trick was to drive down to North Carolina to do the deed because the security there was more relaxed.
Walter and his friends got away with many heists. “After every score, we’d hand out on the strip at 14th and T [Streets], and act like big timers. We felt like gangsters.” In a moment of honest reflection, Walter admitted: “I have nobody to blame but myself. I just enjoyed the feeling of having money.” He would soon see that he wasn’t so lucky after all.
Caught at the Bank
Walter and his friends conducted several successful bank robberies. However, in August 1971, they were finally caught. Their operation backfired on them when they decided to rob a bank that had a silent alarm system. The bank teller was able to use this system to alert the police without Walter or his friends noticing.
Upon leaving the bank, Walter discovered the police were waiting for him in the parking lot. “I tried to get away, ducking and weaving, running through cars,” he said. However, this behavior only led to him being shot and caught. Still, this indomitable young man was going to find a way to flout the system once again.
Inmate No. 0283128
Aside from this last failed robbery, Walter was found guilty of one other. His sentence? 25-30 years in prison. As if things couldn’t get any worse, Walter learned that his mother had passed away. This was a devastating blow to him, and he vowed to turn his life around.
Walter made several appeals, but none were successful. By this time, he had already gotten used to spending time behind bars. Still, he wanted a better life for himself, so he hatched a plan to be transferred from a maximum-security prison to a minimum-security facility.
Transferring Was His Hope
Walter wanted to make positive changes in his life. “I became the perfect inmate,” he said. “I never had a mark on my record.” His good behavior earned him the privilege of being transferred to a minimum-security facility.
This new locale was a fresh start for Walter. It felt like “camp” compared to his previous facility. Though there were still towering walls and fences and guards on duty, inmates had more freedom to do pleasurable things. They were afforded calls to family and loved ones and were allowed to walk outside. Walter even had the chance to host his own radio show. At that time, he had no plans of escaping. But things were about to change.
Spiraling Downward
Things felt relaxed for Walter for the first time in years. He was thoroughly enjoying his time as a radio show host, and his time at the minimum security system was the best he had felt thus far. But things took a turn for the worst when a fellow inmate shouted profanities at the prison captain. The captain assumed it was Walter, and things were never the same after that.
The captain kept on calling Walter out, regularly writing infractions. “The negative reports kept piling up until I was one mark away from being sent back up the hill,” he said. He didn’t want to leave, and he knew his only hope was to escape.
A New Opportunity for Walter
Because of the pile of negative reports against him, Walter was given one of the toughest (and worst) jobs in prison. He was assigned to clean roads with a few fellow inmates. He had to wake up much earlier than the rest of the prison population, ride a bus to Raleigh, and pick up trash along the road.
“It was awful,” he recalled. “People would be throwing hamburgers and milkshakes at you. And it was almost winter, so it was starting to get cold.” Despite these dire conditions, Walter saw this as an opportunity to plan his next escape. “That’s when I started planning and plotting,” he said.
How to Escape
To fund his grand scheme, Walter began saving up his money. He also started to take note of small details. He noticed that the guard stationed at the door on Tuesdays was lazier than the rest. He didn’t give any of the inmates a pat-down, letting them leave the facility and head to the bus with no idea as to whether they were carrying anything they shouldn’t have.
Walter also noticed that on their way out they would always stop at a certain intersection that had a wooded area right beside it. The crafty young man spent months collecting information to ensure his plan would be a success. Then, one Monday night while watching TV, Walter made his final decision. “That was going to be my last night in prison,” he said.
Slippin’ Away
The following day (a Tuesday), the lazy guard was stationed at the door. Walter was prepared for his big escape. He had cleaned out his locker and had the civilian clothes he was allowed to wear for his radio show underneath his prison suit. Everything was set.
A kind stranger was nice enough to lend Walter some money to buy a one-way ticket to New York City. As he settled into his seat, the woman beside him turned to strike up a conversation. “She asked me my name. I thought for a moment, and said: ‘Bobby Love.’ And that was the death of Walter Miller.” This was it. Walter was about to start a brand new life.
A New Identity
Walter arrived in New York City in November of 1977. He was now known as Bobby Love and he couldn’t wait to start his new life. What little money he had left he spent on a motel. Pretty soon though, his money ran out. With that, Bobby was homeless and living on the streets. Even then, he was determined to make this new chapter of his life a success.
Bobby was lucky to get a new social security number and other important documents like a driver’s license. He then began hunting for work. He stayed at $8-a-night motels to keep expenses at a minimum. Little did he know something was brewing that would change his life forever.
When Bobby Met Cheryl
Bobby was able to find a stable job at the cafeteria of a Baptist Medical Center in Brooklyn. There, he met a woman named Cheryl who would eventually become his wife. Their first date consisted of a movie and a concert: Purple Rain from Prince and Gladys Knight and the Pips, respectively.
Cheryl stood out to Bobby the moment he met her. “Cheryl was innocent. The opposite of me. And that’s why I was so attracted to her,” he said, “Cheryl was soft. Almost in a naïve way.”
Bobby was tempted to build a life with her, even though he knew it would be a risky move. He was well aware that at any given moment, the police could arrive and his new life could come crashing down.
A Whole New Life
The two wed on March 30, 1985. Bobby was 34 years old while Cherly was 21. They welcomed their first child, a daughter named Jasmine, soon thereafter. A couple of years later, another daughter, Jessica, came along. Finally, 11 years later, twins Justin and Jordan were born.
Bobby worked two jobs to keep the family afloat, even going as far as cutting his sleep to just two hours a night. He was active in church, volunteered, and participated in community activities. Bobby’s life couldn’t have been happier, yet the weight of the past was pressing down on him.
A Secret to Share
Bobby was tempted to share his past with his wife, but he felt that he couldn’t risk it. Cheryl was a religious woman who would most likely try to convince him to turn himself in. He couldn’t let his new life go, but he was still communicating with some relatives back home in North Carolina.
Bobby asked his sister for a favor: to only tell his wife his secret when he dies. She, however, wanted him to come clean already. “That part of my life was buried back in North Carolina. And it wasn’t coming back,” he said. If only he knew what was coming.
“Something Was Different”
“There was a piece missing,” Cheryl later said, “something was different.” Bobby would avoid having his photograph taken, kept mostly to himself, and was very cautious of strangers. Sometimes when a random stranger would come up to him and ask for directions, he “seemed spooked,” Cheryl explained.
Bobby would put his guard up whenever he had arguments with Cheryl. “I remember during Christmas of 2014, I was on my knees in church, saying ‘Lord, please, I can’t do this anymore,’” Cheryl said. “That was a few weeks before everything went down.”
The Day Everything Changed
After several years, Bobby felt more comfortable being himself and let his guard down. He went to North Carolina to attend a sibling’s funeral, and this would prove to be a crucial moment in his life. This was the moment Bobby believes this was the moment someone recognized him and tipped off the police. Soon after that event, the FBI came knocking on his door, handcuffs ready.
Figuring Out a Plan
Bobby was finally experiencing the consequence of his actions. He was held at Rikers Island, an infamous prison in New York, awaiting extradition to North Carolina. Once there, he would serve the remaining ten years of his original sentence, plus a few extra years for his escape. Cheryl visited him and saw the suffering her husband was enduring.
“When I first visited him in prison, he broke down crying,” she remembered. “His head was in his hands, and he told me: ‘I know, you’re going to leave me.’ I told him: ‘No, Bobby Love, I married you for better or for worse. And now this is the worst.” The loyal woman was determined to do something for her husband.
A Plan Unfolds
Cheryl did everything she could to get her husband out of prison. She composed letters of appeal to the governor and even sent one to President Obama himself. Their children and everyone who knew the family wrote testimonials about Bobby’s life. “I didn’t know a thing about Walter Miller,” she said. “But I told them all about Bobby Love.”
After all of this hard work, Cheryl brought a massive number of testimonials to Bobby’s parole board, so his case could be appealed and hopefully overturned. It seemed like an impossible request, but after a year behind bars, the parole board agreed to let Bobby go. He was to continue his new life, but things wouldn’t be quite the same.
Mending Things
Cheryl couldn’t stay angry at Bobby for long, and she eventually forgave him. Once his secret came out in the open, the burden he was carrying fell away, and their marriage improved greatly. Bobby was more relaxed, and he interacted with people more freely. He was more open to his wife and paid more attention to her. They both felt more connected than ever before.
Cheryl finally experienced what marriage was supposed to feel like. There were no secrets between the two of them. “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.’”
