#674 - Scott Payne
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Who is Scott Payne and what led him to a career in undercover law enforcement?
Today's guest is a retired FBI special agent who spent 28 years in law enforcement. A lot of that undercover. He infiltrated some of the most dangerous groups in America: motorcycle gangs, uh, drug traffickers, the cartel. He has a book out called Codename Palehorse: How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis. We go way down. the rabbit hole in this one. Uh we want to let people know that some of this uh the stories in this one can be a little bit graphic. Uh had a nice chat with today's guest, mister Scott Payne.
And I will find a song, I'll just sing it on just
Scott Payne, the author of Codename Pale Horse. Uh, that's your book. And you you had some codenames too. I saw that big country they called you. Is that yeah? I'm more like Schmedium now, but yeah. Oh, yeah, you coming down, huh?
You de-escalated.
Where where are you where are you from?
Uh born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. Oh, dude, that's a beautiful city. Yeah. But born and raised there, lived in Charleston, played ball in Charleston, South Carolina, but I'm I'm an
East Tennessee now. Amen, man. Well, welcome to Tennessee, dude. To catch our listeners up, for those who don't know, you spent uh 28 years in law enforcement, right? And and so that was in police work, SWAT, uh, FBI, undercover. Yep. Um, and that was uh undercover with drug trafficking, cartels, um, white supremacist groups. Yeah. Um, what about your life before law enforcement made you think uh that that's a a direction I want to?
of those things you look back and you go, Oh, I can see what was happening. I didn't really know what was happening at the time, but I just love connecting with people. I mean I it uh I go into great detail in the book but like in high school When I was in high school in the eighties you had a smoking area. You know, you all uh you go out there with your cigarettes, you know, and then you had like I could go I could hang in in in almost every crowd. That's all. It's it's not saying I could be one of them necessarily, I could just be accepted. So potheads, I'm there. Jocks, I'm there. Musicians, I'm there. You look back and you see these things, uh, but something about I don't know if it started when I became a cop, but
Like some of my mentors, there's a guy named Gary Ward, uh, who was at the Greenville County Sheriff's Office in South Carolina. And he was the strongest man in the late eighties. So he came in after like Bill Casmire. He was he was a Marine former Marine, but at that time he was a Marine and and he he won the heavyweight class and bench squat and deadlift. So now he's on narcotics and he's this jacked big dude with Yeah, yeah. Goodness gracious. That's him. Oh my god. Dude, look at him. And he got bigger. And then what's the thing?
Look at the thighs on they would damn sell him at auction.
Yeah, when I met him, he had a I mean he had a beard and everything. And yeah. I bet he damn goes to the toilet and his yard just grows better. I you know, I used to ask him, I go we'd be at the gym and I'm like Uh, I'm like, Man, I never see you doing like this exercise or exercise like this, but man, your neck and your shoulders are he says, Son, when you pick that much weight up off the ground, something's gonna grow. I was like, all right, man. Yeah. He used to bust my jobs, man. We'd he he helped me perfect my squat. Squat was my strongest lift.
So, you know, so so you had a role model like that kinda?
And he had done undercover and biker stuff. And I was becoming a biker. I mean I grew up on motorcycles, but I mean like riding like American made, you know, Harley out there going to rallies and all that stuff. And uh he had done that. And I don't know if that's what gave me the bug. All I know is that Like it doesn't matter during that time frame, that eighties, nineties, it doesn't matter if it was the cheesiest undercover movie. I loved them all.
Amen. Loved them all, man. Things like that have an effect on your life. The people you meet in the gym have an effect on your life. Yeah. Um So you get into police work over there in Greenville, South Carolina.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Who is Scott Payne and what led him to a career in undercover law enforcement?
0:00–10:49
2
What does Scott reveal about the FBI’s selection process and training at Quantico?
10:49–1:02:24
3
How do undercover agents choose disguises and handle weapons without exposing their cover?
1:02:24–2:01:05
4
What happened during the occult goat‑sacrifice ceremony at the “holy spot”?
2:01:05–2:44:17
5
How did Scott infiltrate the Outlaws biker gang and what tactics did he use?
2:44:17–2:56:43
6
What happens when an undercover agent is forced to strip and undergo a wire search?
2:56:43–3:06:59
7
How does Scott reflect on his career, retirement, and the aftermath of the case?
3:06:59–3:49:05