The Eric Metaxas Show - Robert Leon Davis (Encore Continued)

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

Former police officer and wilderness survivor Robert Leon Davis returns to the show to tell more of his astonishing story of redemption and survival, all part of "Running Scared."

Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Did you ever see the movie The Blobs starring Steve McQueen? The blood-curdling threat of the blob. Well, way back when Eric had a small part in that film, but they had a cut in the movie. is seen because the blob was supposed to eat him, but he kept spitting him out. Oh, the whole thing was just a disaster. Anyway, here's the guy who's not always that easy to digest. Eric the Texas. If you listened to my first hour with Robert Leon Davis, his book is Running Scared. This is a New

Orleans cop who became corrupt, got arrested, and then decides to skip off into the of Canada for the rest of his life and survive off the land running from the law. One of the most amazing stories, just beyond belief. We got pretty far on the story, but I said, we got to do part two. Hey there, Robert Leon Davis, welcome back to the program. I cannot get over your story, and I don't want to speed past. I said, we've got to do part two because this is so rich. For people who are just tuning in, if you didn't listen to Part 1 with Robert Leon Davis,

the book is Running Scared Beyond Belief. This is one of these stories I cannot, I cannot believe it. It says for 22 years of fugitive, the corrupt cop busted by God. And this doesn't, that it doesn't even begin to tell the riches of this story. So when we last left you, you were, you had escaped the law, you're a corrupt cop, you're going to go to Angola prison, you're going to be, you know you're going to die, and you make a decision to study up and to figure out how to live off the land. Your only hope is to escape into the wild woods of Canada.

and to live your life out there. So you succeed in doing that, as we heard in the last show, and now you are alone in the woods, the deep woods of Canada. What are you planning to do up there with the rest of your life? I guess I had been out in the woods, maybe two tricks on you, you know. I begin to have vision problems. I said, you know, I'm probably to have some kind of brain tumor because I had some stuff. So I came out the woods.

And where, what part of Canada are you in? Are you still in that same area or did you go north? 100 miles and about 100 miles. I was going to say at that point, I don't know what the answer is. What's the answer? Yes, I would be suspicious. I'm out in the middle of nowhere, and I just happened to reach an area where there were some tourists.

So I guess we thought maybe this guy is just a hiker, a day hiker. And so I took the ride time. When I got behind, I got in the back of his vehicle. And I was going to say if he smells you, he knows you're not a day hiker. In Montreal, people probably don't know that because a lot of people from the islands, if they can't, like Jamaica and Haiti, if they can't get into the U.S., that's where they go.

I didn't know that. I would never expect to see too many black people in Montreal. That's interesting. Okay, so you could blend in a little bit. In Montreal. I forgot about that. Okay. Yeah, that's the key point.

As a Haitian and that's the problem with reading too much. If you read the Merck manual, you think you're dying from nine different things. But, yeah, that's what I said. Too much knowledge is bad for years. Yeah, because you get to thinking all kinds of stuff. And by that time, I was, I wasn't as hot. Even though I know the police was later, mom told me about that.

20 years later? I gave myself up. Oh, I see. That all the way to anybody is those of the day. So I came on back and I came into some of the cities. And for maybe a week, I did a little work enough to maybe get. get some can't go. Well, now, hang on.

So, so you're still living in the woods, but you will come out now and again, and this is, again, this is in Canada, you're west of Montreal. So you're living in the woods, but you feel safe enough to come out now and again to do what? I'm not in the woods. You are just so full of surprises. I don't know what you're going to say next. You missed coffee. Yeah.

Because I had to bowl myself up. my toenails all because it was going through my socks. This is. And I needed my socks for warmth. You are, you are bringing up stuff that most people, including you, would not think of ahead of time. That is very funny. No, you know, and, you know, and I got pretty adept at me. I could, I could clip them pretty good with my teeth.

I don't need that image. You know, brother, I rebuke you. I won't give you that. I don't, I don't need the image of a man in, in the woods of Canada doing that. But, I mean, this is really nuts. If anybody's thinking about going living in the woods, be sure in Pacetonell Clipper or something. Okay. So you needed some stuff.

So you go and you said you would work like odd jobs? Or what would you do? Yeah, just stop that stealing cars. American cars would strip it down for the usual parts and I sell it to the fence and then I go get some canned goods like coffee and Vienna, sausage, spam. That's my favorite meal. My wife won't cook it. Oh, I love it, you know. And so that, even though I was hunting, so you got to remember now, for the first two years I'm out there, I'm existing only on game.

Game can be kind of gamey. Oh, game is gaming. I mean, you're looking for a little chicken or a little something and you got to eat raccoon. What kind of, what kind of, what did you eat? We're talking about white-tailed deer. You won't find that in, and they always three times a size of a rabbit. Right. I would eat that.

They had their suspension white-tailed deer. I had beavers out there. Beaver is good. They had what? Beaver. Beaver? Yeah. I thought Beaver would, that they would be really like a strong, strong taste.

Too strong. We're going to go to a break. We're going to go to a break, and I'm going to interrogate you on what other wild game you ate. We've covered the toenail thing, so we're not going to return to that subject ever in my lifetime. We'll be right back, folks. I'm talking to Robert Leon Davis. The book is Running Scared. There's a Revolution.

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In town, have I seen my song. Play and sing, and pack my things, and move alone. Taxis show, have I got a story for you? I don't know if you've been listening, but boy, oh boy, part one was amazing. We're now into the second part of the story of Robert Leon Davis. The book is running scared. Robert, I really cannot get over this. So you are in the woods, but now you feel the safety after a couple of years to come out of the woods now and again.

You're in Canada, so you're a long ways from New Orleans. Oh, you're a long ways. And you're basically, you're living off the land, but you can come into the woods and out again and, you know, steal something, sell something. But normally you're eating game. So what is the crazy? thing you ate out there in the woods? Yeah. Those are, I'll tell you, those are the nastiest looking.

Yeah, the wounded can of that. The worst of 20 below zero comes down to survive. If you ate a turkey vulture. Now, Turkey vulture, I mean, anybody who has seen a vulture, they are some of the foulest-looking creatures. They look like something right out of hell. They're just ugly, nasty. But if you're hungry, you're not asking questions.

Well, I didn't eat four. I ate food fishing purposes. Wait, you couldn't get salt and pepper after you, you know. Well, yeah, sometimes I could, but I develop a taste, and that's a funny thing. You develop a taste where if you don't do my doctor's, he has to make me have some salt on food, because my salt level is extremely low to it anymore. You detoxed in the woods of Canada. I just detox from it.

Yeah. I just detox from it. It sounds like you didn't detox from caffeine. Well, I still do my teatheaval. But I'll tell you what, that you find surprising. And like I said, I've got eight siblings here, and they laugh at me when they come over to the house. And some of my son, though, if I cook my food in a pot, I don't put it in a, like people, most of these. Are you married?

No. I knew it. I knew it. I knew it, because there's no. Somebody's a married somebody like me, man. No woman would put up with that. No. The daughter told me she's trying to finish up eventually to be a psychologist, and I told her she said you'd be my first base.

Well, listen, without women, men would all be living under. bridges, eating raw food, you know, like, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's a whole other story. Okay, so you, so you're doing this for, for 22 years, and I want to get to the, to the end part, but I still can't believe, here's a stupid question. Why didn't you go to Mexico, which is a lot closer to New Orleans? No, no, no, no, no, black, there's not, listen, that's the worst place of black man to go in the 70s.

Come on, Mexico? I don't know. No way. No way. You're not going to, you're not going to find, even today, you're not going to find many black people in Mexico. Now, if you can get a little bit further south, you know I'm saying, I'm talking about areas like

Brazil. Yeah, you've got a large black population. But why didn't you think of going in that direction rather than... Because I knew there was going to be the area they looked for. I mean, keep in mind, New Orleans is only a don't store, figuratively speaking, from the border of Mexico. All I got to do is go through Texas. I can get the Mexico border from New Orleans

in five and a half hours. Well, I'm just saying if he kept going south, you know, the woods of Brazil might have been more friendly. But anyway, Okay, so you're up there, and when you say you were up there for 22 years before you turn yourself in, so what happened? I still cannot get over the fact that you're in a different place in Montreal. Now, I come back to the state. I go through the Smoky Mountain.

Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You came back to the States. I got cooled a little bit. You're just looking for me. Oh, you don't mean, you don't mean, right. Okay. So five years after Canada, you go across the border back to the states, and you go all the way down to the smoking. mountains. Sometimes I may be

remember national forests. It's up a because Vermonters are racist. Everybody knows that. See, I didn't know that. Yeah. They're famous liberal racists. That's you know, they go to Vermont and they vote, they vote communist and socialists,

but the reality is they don't like black people. Is that right? No. I guess, you know, I went through now to New York State. I went to stayed in the Great Smoking Mountains, in North Carolina. This is like Johnny Appleseed. I mean, I cannot believe that you did this. And all this time...

Well, you keep moving. You keep moving, you know? Yeah. Well, I keep that in mind because... Well, there was a guy that came in, and he was obviously, I'll try to make this quick. I could tell, obviously, it was in the woods of Tennessee. And it was just before I gave myself a matter of fact. And he was coming down and gave him some coffee and tell him about the story of my story. And he said, you've been out here that long.

And I said, yeah. And I said, you're not going to see your grandmother no more. You're not going to see your mom. Your kids. I began to tell his guy this was his first day on the run. You know the next day he turned to self-in him, he turned to self-in with him. He has to look ahead to him. Well, he wasn't going to go get killed in Angola, so, you know.

Yeah, well, let him know, you know, that, you know, this is real life, all this packing. Okay, so, so this goes on, and at what point do you begin to think I got to, I got to end this? Let's see, yeah, I was going. Well, now, that doesn't make sense because you said you left in 79. You must have been in your 20s. About 22 when I leave, but now I'm turning myself in like 46. Okay, so you do the mat. Okay.

So what I'm saying. I got you. I got you. Yeah, no, I got you. I got you. I've spent a much time in the woods traveling than I did in New Orleans. Yeah, okay. Is what I'm saying.

Yeah. And so I've never, I have nothing to look for in New Orleans. I mean, New Orleans is. You had any contact with her? And I'll tell you something. And this was, I went on the run in 1979. Damn, my grandson. Gotcha.

I have those kind of thoughts about my grandmother, what she would be saying. After 22 years, the scriptures are popping into your head, even though you were functionally an atheist. Yeah. Popping up in my head from her mouth. I got you, I got you. Okay, hang on. We're going to go to another break. Folks, one of the most fascinating stories you will ever hear.

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scared, which is his book, what a story, 22 years on the run, living in the woods, living off the land. This is nuts. And then at the end, you're telling me now, after 22 years on the run, successfully running from the law, you are being haunted by the words of your grandmother, quoting scriptures. It begins to get to you. Because, you know, the readers one day, that was one week that when I would be in the woods there, I started thinking about her and I started thinking, I said, you know, they're saying sometime, and this went off about a week. I would say, you know what? When I come back from this, watching TV, I explain what watching TV meant to me. You know, maybe this would happen. Just a little bitty, crazy little things.

So you're looking for signs from God in nature? I've mastered nature at this point. I know nature. I mean, I know at this point, I could tell you any track I saw. I could tell you whether that animal was hunting or was running. I had a true sense of the word. But, you know, there's carnival stories. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You were attacked by a wolverine? Oh, yeah, I was attacked by Wolverine.

You think I'm just going to skip past that, Robert? A Wolverine is one of the scariest animals on this planet. About that, when you're talking about nature and talking about the Lord, you've got to understand something with this, with the Wolverine, and maybe God I put that up for a reason. I had to put him down, okay? But I wind up, he had out. It must have been a she if she had cubs.

Yeah, she was a. She Wolverine. Okay. I'm going back there every day looking at those and wondering if they were going to die. And they were yippin and yuppin and yupping for their mother. And I'm beginning to think, you know, they're doing the same thing I'm going through, you know, there's son back there and they were dead. I never thought, and I'm not kidding, I never thought I would feel sad over the death of a wolverine.

But you just managed to. I never did neither. I mean, but I tell you some happy moments. Four generations of a bird, a bird fell out the tree. They usually sent back and I was... And I listened to something, a sense that I was not threatening. And she went off, the same tree, and I was able to go there and pick up their babies without the mother even leave that for four generations. Actually, they're about leaving Canada.

Unbelievable. I got to ask you, Chris, did you homeschool your kids, any of them? Yeah. In fact, we kicked it off this week. It was like a back-to-school week. Well, if you're interested in homeschooling or if you're interested in homeschooling, or if you're interested, in quality K through 12 Christ-centered education. We want you to know about our friends at the Herzog Foundation.

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So these guys are helping to find those people in advance, which really saves a lot of time. So 25truth. dot com is the website. That's the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. There is great stuff on there. It was on a thread on Twitter some weeks ago that was hilarious stuff. But, you know, how to take our country back to, you know, the founder's vision. So 25truth.com is the website as the Heritage Foundation. And Donald Trump does not endorse this message. It's actually very exciting, very exciting. There's a revolution happening right above our heads. It's about to make silver more precious than ever. The sun's power is taking over the world. It's growing so fast, it'll be the

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trump coins or a 10 ounce silver American flag bar with every qualifying IRA. That's noblegoldinvestments.com. Captain and Toneil and a lot of Robert Leon Davis, the book is running scared. We got to get to the punch line, Robert, because this is like, there is so much here. I'm just in love with this story and with you. And I, but you're telling me now that you are, God is haunting you. You're in the woods 22 years and something happens. Can you tell us what happens? I couldn't hear you there for a second. Yeah. Now, I was going to say, tell us what happened that drove you to turn yourself in. Did God reveal himself to you in the woods? What happened? Tennessee in my 20, some people are there that don't believe it. Some people believe.

with certain people, I'm trying to say. I wrote a book on miracles. I'm right with you. This is, you know, when we're done with this whole thing, I want to get your address, and I'll mail your copy because this is big. So you're telling me you experienced the miracle in the woods. Coffee cans. Yep.

I took that, and I, remember, I got a weaker plane with nature, a weaker plane with God. And I call my tent under the can. Are you kidding me? Wait a minute. You put a stone on top of a can, upside down, can. And you're asking God to do what is a real crazy miracle. You're saying that if I wake up and the rock is under the can, I will turn myself in.

Right. Now, now I'm looking at the tent. I'm looking at it. It's not there. Now, keep in mind, two factors. Looked underneath the can. Fixed says. Of course.

Underneath that. I was so petrified at what I didn't see. Okay. So you wake up. In other words, you've done this thing, and you were so freaked out. Yeah. Because you're alone in the woods and rocks don't disappear. Well, you know, as I said, I've had to get around and taking it, you know, whatever.

I mean to you is. So you never looked under the can. Never looked under the can. Yeah. My brother's last thing I'm telling it. I'm trying to tell me that it was for North. That's it then. I already surrendered.

They couldn't even find me in the, computer system in 2001 because we wasn't using computers back in 2779. Okay, now we got to find out. Okay, so you are convinced God tells you to turn yourself in. You turn yourself in where? Where are you? I'm in Tennessee. Okay, so you're in Tennessee.

Do you yourself in? Do they care? What do they say when you turn yourself in? At that time, there was no cell phones or whatever. It was phone boots. My sister, I said, this is your brother. She said, who is this? And I said, it's your brother Robert.

He said, I'm your brother Rob. You never heard of me? And she said, no, she said, oh, you know what? Mom and them did tell me that I had a older. So did you, because we're going to run out of time here, you go in, you turn yourself in, and what do they give you time? What do they do? No, I turned myself into the district that's office. Out of the computer, you're free to walk out here.

After thinking about the rock and the can, I said to myself, there's nowhere in the world, which is that I am wanted. So I pointed across the street, showed my name on it, and that I was wanted. Hang on right there. We're going to be right back, folks. Final segment with Robert Leon Davis. The book is Running Scared. Hey there, folks. It's here from Texas. Safe bet that Neil Sedaka never spent any years hiding out in the woods from the law. I'm talking to Robert Leon Davis, running scared is the book. We just got a couple of minutes, Robert. We've got to have you back another time. But just to wrap up. So you prove to them that you are the man, that you have been running from law 22 years. They take you to the judge. What happens? The judge, it was, again, we're talking about miracles again. The original judge that put me in jail, Bob and all that back in 1979, in 22 years, of two weeks, he happened to be sick the day that another substitute judge, that judge was the judge to my freedom

that you had spent out there, going to take a chance on you. And I want you to understand what I just said. A amount of time, after 20 years, and I walked in. Did this bolster your faith in God at the time? What can it do? What can it do? You know what I'm trying to say? I mean, it's amazing.

And matter of fact, once I wrote the book and so forth, I said there were a copy of the book, and she saw me on TV and news and stuff. And when they took me over to the funny time, it took me there. It was only, remember, I left December 17. And I returned the same date, 2001 December. Right. And the funny thing about it was, it was like eight days lock him up until the court date. And she looked at it.

She already proved he would be a will run. She took her, couldn't catch him in 22 years. What make you think if I let him go to his sister and joy this week? Wow. So, oh, man. I know. Viled are important to me, and I'm sure you understand. I don't provide from this book, this book, there's a life variety.

You know what I'm saying? if they would send me a little donation. I would like to send you a knife and a fork and a toenail clipper. Oh, my gosh. Robert, listen, Robert, this has been a tremendous blessing to me. I want to have you back because there's more to this. We're out of time now. But I want to have you back.

Get us to stay on the line. I want to get your address so I can send you a book. But we'll continue on this and we'll stay in touch with you. This has been a huge blessing for me. Thank you, Robert Leon Davis. Thank you, thank you, sir. God bless you. This is a true story.

Tell your friends. Thank you.