The Eric Metaxas Show - Robert Leon Davis - Part 2 (Encore)

Episode Date: June 25, 2020

Eric's interview with Robert Leon Davis continues with Robert's thrilling account of his evasion of the law for 22 years, sharing stories from his book, "Running Scared." (Encore Presentation)

Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. It's the show featuring Go Go Go The Chim. Nothing like a Chim till I'm in a radio show. Easy there, Gogo. Go-Go, no. No, Gogo, no. Now your host, Eric Mataxon. Wow, that's an old intro, because as you know, gogo died earlier this year, took his own life.

Very rare for chimps to do that. But Todd Wilkeson, he'll just drive you over the edge. I if you listen 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 Descott decides to skip off into the woods 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? For about two, maybe two tricks on you, you know. I began to have vision from, because I had some stuff. I came out to woods. Now, what part of Canada are you in?

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

So I guess I thought maybe this guy is just a hiker, a day hiker. And so I took the ride. And for the first 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. But he gave me a ride to the nearest town. And a lot of people from the islands, if they can't like you know. 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. A common language in monos. I forgot about that. Okay. Yeah, that's the phone as a Haitian. 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, for years, because I was, I was, I was, 20 years later. Years after I gave myself up. Oh, I see. That all over six years, they were still doing wiretaps on her phone. And, of course, anybody is. So, I came on back and, and I came into some of the, cities and for maybe a week I did a little work enough to maybe get some can go.

Well, no, now hang on. So, so you're, 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, of Montreal. So you're living in the woods, but you feel safe enough to come out now and again to do what? This city, you are just so full of surprises. I don't know what you're going to say next. You missed coffee. Yeah. Because I went through my sock. 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. You know, and I got pretty adept. I mean, I could clip them pretty good with my teeth. I don't need that image. Brother, I rebuke you. I won't give you that.

I don't need the image of a man in the woods of Canada doing that. But, I mean, this is this, this is really... really nuts. If anybody's thinking about going living in the woods, be sure in pack a toenail 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 strip it down for the, you and I go get some canned goods, like coffee. That's my favorite meal. My wife won't cook it. Oh, I love it, you know. And so that, even though I was, 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 gamey. I mean, you're looking for a little chicken or a little something and you got to eat raccoon. What kind of, what kind, what did you eat? We're talking about white-tailed deer. You won't find that. And we had, they had rabbi. Yes. Three times a size of rabbit.

Right. I would eat that. They had, uh, they had, uh, debasers out there. Beaver is good. They had what? Beaver. Beaver. Yeah.

I thought Beaver would, that they would be, uh, really. like a strong, strong taste. Too strong. We're going to go to a break. We're going to go to 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. Different town. I sing my song. Play and sing, and pack my things, and move along.

A pretty face, another face, I'll never get you. Folks, it's the I'm going to talk to. 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 long ways. And you are basically, you're living off the land, but you can come into the woods now and again and steal something, sell something. But normally you're eating game. So what is the craziest thing you ate out there in the woods? Probably eight. Those are, I'll tell you, those are the nastiest looking. Yes, time that Canada, the worst of the 20 below comes down.

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, out there, an olive oil. I ate pretty efficient. 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. Hey, my doctor's seeing me here has to be it anymore. You detoxed in the woods of Canada. Yeah, I just detox from it. It sounds like you didn't detox from caffeine. I'll tell you what, that you would 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 life, meaning that if I cook my food in a pot, I don't put it in a pot.

Yeah. And like people, most of these. Are you married? No. I knew it. I knew it, because there's no. to marry somebody like me, man. No woman would put up with that.

No, I'm a mental case. My daughter told me she's trying to finish up eventually be a psychologist, and I told her she said, you'll be my first patient. Well, listen, without women, men would all be living under bridges, eating raw food, you know, like, that's a whole other story. Okay, so you're doing this for 22 years, and I want to get 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, a place of black man to go in the 70s. Come on, Mexico? I don't know. No way. 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 what 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 first. I mean, keep in mind, New Orleans is speaking from the border of Mexico. I got to do is go through tech. All this is 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 know. I'm in different places now. Now, we're going. We're five years. I'm in Montreal. Now I come back to the state.

I go through the Smoky Mountain. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You came back to the States. I came back to the States. when it got cool with me. Oh, you don't mean, you don't mean, right, okay. So five years, five years after Canada, you go across the border back to the states and you go all the way down to the Smoky Mountains.

I go down to forces, up a state. 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 socialist, but the reality is they don't like black people.

Is that right? I guess, you know, I went through New York State. I 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 tried to make... I could hear that long. And I said, you see your grandmother no more. You're not going to see your mom, your kids. You know, and I began to tell his guy, this was his first day on the run. you know the next day he turned himself in him he has to look ahead to wow well he wasn't going to go get killed in angola so you know yeah well just let him know you know that uh you know this is real

life all this pack and suitcases and too okay so so uh so this goes on and at and at what point do you begin to think i got to i got to end this well now that doesn't make sense because you said you left in 79 you must have been in your 20s but i'm about 20 when i leave but now i'm turning myself in like, 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 do you had any contact with her? I went on the run in 1979. My grandfather died and so sad. After 22 years, the scriptures are popping into your head, even though you were functionally an atheist. Yeah. Poping up. 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. The book is Running Scared, Robert Leon Davis. The Trump campaign has a special offer just for you. President Trump wants to meet you. This will be the first opportunity he's had to meet with American patriots like you since our country started reopening. His team will cover the flight and hotel and give you VIP access for yourself and a guest. He'll even take a picture with you.

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That's DC Talk with Jesus Freaks. I'm talking to Robert Leon Davis about running 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. Of course, you know, the real proved existence of that would be in the woods there were.

I started thinking about her saying sometime, and this went off about a week. I would say, you know what? There's a tree. I'll say, you know what? Say, well, when I come back from this, watching TV, I explain. So you're looking for signs from God in nature? I mean, I know the true sense of the word. I believe they felt that. They're no harm because, you know, there's carnivores. They're stories.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You were attacked by a wolverine? Oh, yeah, I was attacked by a wolver. 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 put that up for a reason.

I had to put him down, okay, but I wind up. It must have been a shot. She if she had cubs. Yes, she was a she-wolf ring. Okay. Of going back there every day, looking at those animals, looking at, and wondering if they were going to die. And they were yippin and yupping and yupping for getting to think, you know, 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 bird fell out the tree. Right. Going back and I was. Yeah. And I was able to go there and pick up their babies without. the mother even leaves.

I went through that for four generations. Actually, that's in Canada. Unbelievable. The only thing I had a feeling for was those birds. Everything seemingly is bad. What I mean by that is that, you know, you could, God could, God can forgive you, but he doesn't necessarily have to restore you. Yeah.

What I'm giving. Oh, yeah. You understand what I'm saying? Well, it's like all those guys in Angola. I mean, that, you know, they loved a lot of guys there now. They love Jesus, but they're not. They're not coming out of there except in a pine box. That's for you.

In my case, not to do that chance for anybody. It doesn't make any difference. I don't charge nothing. We're going to come back to talk to Robert Leon Davis. Folks, the book is running scared. If you don't get a copy, you might be crazy. You know, I need your love. I got your love.

A little captain and Tenniel and a lot of Robert Leon Davis. The book is running scared. We got to get to the punchline, 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?

Yeah, I couldn't hear you there for a second. Yeah. Now I was just 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? Well, basically with nature, some people here, that, you know, with certain people, and I still do believe his life. And whether a person believe it or not,

you're on the point. The point is, keep it. Yes. You know what 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 week of plan. This would be the ultimate. I will give myself up. 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. At the tent, I'm looking at it. It's not there. Now, keep in mind two factors. I never looked underneath the can. Of course. Underneath that can.

I was so petrified at what I didn't see urinated on myself. 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 skip taking it. A squirrel could have come around and taking it, you know, I believe firmly the rock was enough for me to completely give up all.

All atheistic stult and give myself immediately up the next day after 22 years. So you never looked under the can. Never looked under the can. My brother laughed at me now like, you think when we go back there, you could find that can? Huh. You want to see that can. Oh, my gosh.

I don't even want to see that can. I mean, what I'm saying, you're trying to break, in other words, the miracle that made me the, trying to tell me skeptics, I'm telling them, I'm talking about the skeptics, You're trying to tell me that it was for naught, that that's not what I experienced, that it was the only thing that could make me violent. They never caught me. I voluntarily surrendered to the point that they couldn't even find me in the computer system in 2001 because we wasn't using computers back in 1979. 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. Turn yourself in. Do they care? What do they say when you turn yourself in? I looked in the phone book because at that time was no cell phones or whatever. My sister and I told her that I'm your brother Rob. You never heard of me? And she said, no. She said, I'm in them did tell me that I have. So did you, 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 are they?

they do? No, until the district could turn his office. There's no warning that I was warned. And 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 proved to them that.

that you are the man, that you have been running from law 22 years, they take you to the judge. What happens? Judge, it was close again. We're talking about original judge that put back in 1979. In 22 years, he happened to be sick the day that another substitute judge with that judge was the judge to my freedom. She eventually went out there. I hope you don't face it. Now, I want you to understand what I'm sick.

only doing a specific amount of time after 20 years, and I walked in to give me freedom. Did this bolster your faith in God at the time? What can it do? What can't it do but that? I mean, you know what I'm trying to say? I mean, it's, you know, it's amazing. And matter of fact, once I wrote the book and so forth, I sent there a copy of the book, and she saw me on TV and I'm very proud.

I'm very proud of that day. It took me there. It was the only date in December. 2000 and 2000 and what there was 2001 December

right and the funny thing about it was it was seven it was like eight days he'd pop him up until the court date

and she looked at she said because he's a flight risk because it's already proved he would be he will run she took her glasses off her face and looked at the DA

and said if you couldn't catch him in 22 years what make you think if I let him go to his sister and Joique wow so man

I know part two on that to your audience. It's very involved and important to me, and I'm sure you'll understand. I don't profit from this book, this work, my stuff. I donate that to women and children and I live in a life variety. You know what I'm saying? And that they probably would send me a little donation. I will send you a, 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. Yeah. But I want to have you back. get us, 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, sir. God bless you. Folks, this is a true story. Tell your friends. Thank you.