The Story of Escaped Prisoner Bobby Love and His Wife Cheryl Is Rocking the Internet

Photo credit: @humansofny
Photo credit: @humansofny

From Oprah Magazine

  • On Wednesday, January 5, the blog Humans of New York shared the incredible 11-part story of Bobby Love.

  • Love—formerly named Walter Miller—escaped from jail 40 years ago, but was caught by the FBI in 2015.


Just when we thought Humans of New York (HONY) couldn't top itself with wild stories—like the tale of a 1970s stripper named Tanqueray—they proved us wrong.

On Wednesday, the popular blog and social media account—run by photographer Brandon Stanton—shared an incredible 11-part story on Instagram that had followers hooked from the first post. It started out from the perspective of a woman named Cheryl Love, who explains that one morning she was making tea in her kitchen when she answered a knock on her door. It was the FBI.

"They went straight back to the bedroom, and walked up to Bobby," she said, according to the HONY post. "I heard them ask: ‘What’s your name?’ And he said, ‘Bobby Love.’ Then they said, ‘No. What’s your real name?’ And I heard him say something real low. And they responded: 'You've had a long run.' That’s when I tried to get into the room."

Cheryl went on to explain that they ended up putting her husband, Bobby, in handcuffs—which didn't make any sense to her. She'd never known him to have any run-ins with the law.

"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.’”

And that's where the story first ended—well, the first post anyway. But for people who were keeping up in real-time, that was one hell of a cliffhanger. The next seven posts were slowly rolled out from the perspective of Bobby, who was born Walter Miller. He explains that he grew up in North Carolina and got into trouble from a young age. He stole frequently until he was put into a juvenile detention center, but he didn't stay there long.

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(5/11) “Everything changed for me when someone screamed ‘punk ass’ at the prison captain. He was walking through the parking lot. It was early in the morning, and it was still dark, so he couldn’t see who did it. I was working in the kitchen, so there was no way it could be me. But the captain said that he recognized my voice—and he wrote me up. After that he started picking on me. I tried to keep my head low. But the more I tried to do good, the more I got punished. He wrote me up for all kinds of phony things. He accused me of stealing a newspaper. He accused me of faking sick. The negative reports kept piling up, until I was one mark away from being sent back up the hill. And that’s when they started putting me on the road. It was the worst job in the prison. They’d call your name before sunrise, and you had to get on this bus. Then they’d drive you all over Raleigh to clean trash off the highways. It was awful. People would be throwing hamburgers and milkshakes at you. And it was almost winter, so it was starting to get cold. That’s when I started planning and plotting. I saved up my money. I memorized the bus route. I noticed that we always stopped at a certain intersection—right next to a wooded area. And I figured I could make that distance in no time at all. I also noticed that the guard who worked on Tuesday never searched the prisoners as they boarded the bus. So one Monday night, while we were watching the Colts game on TV, I made the decision. That was going to be my last night in prison.”

A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Feb 5, 2020 at 12:01pm PST

"Every night while I was falling asleep, I could hear the whistle of a freight train in the distance," he said. "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.”

As the last sentence signaled, there was definitely more to come. Bobby went on to reveal he managed to make it to D.C., but eventually fell-in with the wrong crowd again. They'd travel to North Carolina and rob banks, which landed him in a maximum security prison.

He said that he worked to be the "perfect inmate" for years, but decided to escape as harassment from a prison captain got to be too much.

"I saved up my money," he said. "I memorized the bus route. I noticed that we always stopped at a certain intersection—right next to a wooded area. And I figured I could make that distance in no time at all. I also noticed that the guard who worked on Tuesday never searched the prisoners as they boarded the bus. So one Monday night, while we were watching the Colts game on TV, I made the decision. That was going to be my last night in prison.”

Bobby's get away was successful, and he managed to get to New York on a Greyhound bus in 1977. Walter Miller re-named himself Bobby Love with only $100 to his name. In a line that HONY followers became obsessed with, he claimed he survived on "hotdogs and marijuana," but was somehow able to obtain a new social security card, birth certificate, and driver's license.

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(8/11) “Cheryl was innocent. The opposite of me. And that’s why I was so attracted to her. I never wanted to date someone like myself: who drank, and smoked, and had a past. Cheryl was soft. Almost naïve in a way. I never told her about my history, and she didn’t really press me. I did tell her that I grew up in the South-- which was true. And that I’d come to New York City to try something new. That was true too. But I never told her about Walter Miller. I didn’t see the need. Walter died a long time ago, on that Greyhound bus out of Raleigh. I was a new man. I was Bobby Love now. And if that was enough for her, why complicate things? We got married in 1985. Time went by. We raised four children together. I just couldn’t risk it. My family in North Carolina kept telling me: ‘You’ve got to come clean. You’ve got to tell her.’ But they didn’t know my wife. Not like I did. Cheryl is a righteous woman. Most people, when they see a dollar dropped on the street, will put it in their pocket. But not Cheryl. She will stop everyone on the sidewalk, looking for the owner. She’s that kind of woman. And that’s not the kind of woman who could keep a secret like this. I’m not trying to say that she’d have called the cops on me. But she’d have made me call the cops on myself. She’d turn up the heat. So I just couldn’t tell her about Walter Miller. And there was no need. Bobby Love didn’t have a criminal record. Bobby Love was a family man. Bobby Love was a deacon at his church. Every Sunday our pastor would preach about forgetting the past, and forgiving ourselves, and looking ahead. And that’s exactly what I was doing. That part of my life was buried back in North Carolina. And it wasn’t coming back.“

A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Feb 5, 2020 at 3:37pm PST

Eventually Bobby met Cheryl and re-invented himself. They had four kids, and he became a deacon at his church. He never told his wife anything. The day she found out about his past was in 2015 when the FBI came to the door. But despite the lies, Cheryl decided to stay with Bobby after 40 years of marriage.

"When I first visited him in prison, he broke down crying. 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 right now this is the worst,’” she said.

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(11/11) “I got to work. I wrote letters to the governor. I wrote letters to Obama. I gathered testimonials from everyone that Bobby ever knew: all the kids he used to coach, all the people at our church, all of our family members. I testified on his behalf. I didn’t know a thing about Walter Miller. But I told them all about Bobby Love. And the parole board took mercy. After a year in prison, they let him come home. The day after he was set free, I sat him down and asked: ‘What is it? Are we the Loves? Or are we the Millers?’ And he said: ‘We Love. We Love.’ So I had him change his name legally. And now we’re moving on. I still have my resentments. When we get in a fight, I’ll think: ‘This man better appreciate that I forgave him.’ But the thing is-- I did forgive him. And when I made that decision, I had to accept all the territory that came with it. I can’t make him feel that debt every day of his life. Because that’s not the marriage I want to be in. The whole world knows now. We’ve got no secrets. But I think this whole mess was for the better of things: better for me, better for the kids, and better for Bobby. He doesn’t have to hide anymore. He can look at me when I’m speaking. Not only that, he’s hearing me too. My voice is heard. I used to walk on eggshells. I used to just go along. But I told him one thing. I said: ‘Bobby, I’ll take you back. But I’m not taking a backseat to you no more.’ Because I got my own story to tell. I can write a book too. I might not have escaped from prison, and started a whole new life, and hid it from my family. But I forgave the man who did.”

A post shared by Humans of New York (@humansofny) on Feb 5, 2020 at 6:47pm PST

We know that was a lot, but we didn't even scratch the surface. You can catch the story in its entirety on HONY's social media accounts. But we are happy to report that Bobby only had to spend a year in jail and was released in 2016.

As for the internet's reactions, they couldn't get enough. We've included some of our favorite responses below.

And just as she did with Tanqueray, Jennifer Garner took to the comments, too.

Photo credit: Screenshot
Photo credit: Screenshot

"This is the most beautiful, inspiring Love story I have ever watched as a ten hour mini series. And sitting in this big audience with everyone today has been ♥️♥️♥️. Thank you, @humansofny. You were right to take your time. Just like Bobby figured out-Cheryl was worth every second."


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