Willie Payne

Willie Payne was a Detective with the Hawthorne, California drug squad. Although he looked like a mean linebacker, Payne was one of the nicest men you could know, provided you weren't a criminal.

One day he and his partner Det. Ralph Sandars were sitting in the police station finishing up paperwork and listening to their boss Lt. Joe Peroni tell old war stories. Normally one chuckled dutifully at one's superior's stories but Peroni was a very good storyteller so Payne laughed hard and long at the punchline. He was so taken with it that he accidentally knocked over his Coke and had to clean it up with a paper towel.