Fugitive from Hell: The Autobiography of a Two-Time Killer Turned Evangelist

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Research Uncovers a Secret Kept by the Author
When considering this book to be refreshed and updated for a second edition, I was immediately drawn to Frank Davis and found the story of his life, a man on the road to redemption, to be–incredible. It is heartbreaking; it is amusing; it is raw; and it is real. But most of all, Fugitive from Hell is an inspirational masterpiece. I felt a deep admiration for this humble man. I bonded with the lead character, and that is the mark of a good book.

With no expectation of what lay ahead of me, I dug through the digital archives and could easily verify his facts, dates, and places with no glaring contradictions except for his version of events leading to the second man he shot and killed. In this book, Davis writes that he was provoked, and portrays himself as his brother’s savior, trying to do the right thing, although incredibly foolish .

A newspaper account of everything he did that night does not portray him in such a noble light. In fact, according to the Neosho Times, Frank Davis was a jerk looking for trouble. .

The pendulum swings back to his favor when we discover that prison officials and guards did treat him as a wrongly convicted man – a man who should NOT be there. To compensate, they assign him to the prison bakery, a sweet job for any prisoner. Within months, he masters the trade, makes the best bread prison employees ever ate, and is named trustee–all within nine months of his arrival.

If he was treated this way by the custodians of his existence, perhaps his version of that fatal night is the true one.

But my admiration for this wayward soul was tempered by the discovery of a significant omission by the author. It is a surprising revelation that will be revealed at the end of this book.

As puzzled as I was with this discovery, the explanation–good, or bad–must come from the author, even though he died in 1953. Without it, it would be reckless for conclusions to be based on speculation. He did what he did. He had his reasons. We may never know what they were.

Regardless, Rev. Benjamin Franklin Smith’s saga is an inspiration to those who welcome self-reflection, and yearn to embrace all that is good.