Father's death a mystery

LANGLEY - The shotgun houses on Pelzer Street were adorned with pumpkins and scarecrows. Perfect weather for a game of pickup football.

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And John and Douglas Payne spent hours outside with their father that day, wrestling one another to the ground and catching his shadow.

The next time the boys saw their father, they were standing in a winged-back chair at Posey's Funeral Home, peeping inside his casket. John was 5 and Doug was 6.

Charles A. Payne Jr. died at University Hospital on Nov. 12, 1973, after lingering in critical condition for about two weeks. One minute he was playing with his two children in the back yard; hours later, on Oct. 27, a one-vehicle accident, which took the life of Marion "Meg" Grant, left the 25-year-old Aiken County sheriff's deputy near death.

As a child, John Payne accepted what he was told about his father's accidental death. But at age 25, he learned his father had been an undercover narcotics agent.

Mr. Payne's life has never been the same since. The discovery led him to uncover what he believes is a mystery surrounding the real manner of his father death.

The family believes that a dealer had the older Payne killed because he had routinely traveled to Kentucky, Maryland and Florida to make drug buys. At one point, the family said money was collected for a hit at the former Turf N' Surf on Richland Avenue, a nightclub where the deputy worked undercover.

Family members also said the State Law Enforcement Division decided to get Deputy Payne out of the picture until the "druggies" he turned over during a massive bust were tried. Mr. Payne was reportedly issued a new deputy identification card, purchased a passport on Oct. 25 and was due to leave four days later.

The suspected "hit" was carried out two days later.

"We are pointing our fingers at SLED and the Aiken County Sheriff's Department, and demand answers concerning our father's death," the deputy's son said in a voice full of frustration and bereavement.

"For the past 24 years you have lied, deceived and manipulated. And have done everything possible to deny us the truth, even keeping us from receiving death benefits from the state Police Officer's Retirement System that we should have received growing up."

Last year, the younger Payne learned that, as the child of a parent killed in the line of duty, he was entitled to receive four years of free college tuition. By law, the Payne brothers are also entitled to benefits from the Police Officer's Retirement System because they were fully dependent on their father at the time of his death.

At the time of the accident, Mr. Payne's father and mother were divorced.

The brothers are receiving none of that money because Mr. Payne claims that the attorney representing the retirement system accused him of altering his father's death certificate.

Mr. Payne claims foul play after finding out that his father's insurance company settled a wrongful-death claim by Eloise M. Grant, Meg's mother, for $17,500. The Payne family said they never negotiated a wrongful-death claim on May 22, 1974, as the estate claims. Mr. Payne said the family was unaware that a claim even existed until March 1996.

But transcripts of the interview conducted by SLED agents James Perry and Donald Sullivan indicated that the sheriff and Mrs. Grant understood the crash was simply accidental and they would not file charges.

"(They) know that you would not purposely, intentionally, in any way, do anything to hurt their daughter," Lt. Sullivan said in the transcript.

And when the case was closed, 10 months after the accident, SLED officials stated that Mr. Payne was off duty at the time. His death certificate indicates, however, that he was on duty.

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office, however, is not actively pursuing the matter, said spokesman Lt. Michael Frank.

In a letter written to U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, SLED Chief Robert Stewart said the case was determined to be "unfounded."

News accounts said the automobile, a red, 1972 Ford Gran Torino, veered off the road near Kitchings Mill and smashed into a tree. Mr. Payne was returning to Aiken after taking Meg, the daughter of then-Aiken County Sheriff Paul Grant, to the State Fair in Columbia to celebrate her 16th birthday.

Two weeks later, the young deputy, who joined the department in July, died.

He never had the opportunity to show his boys the right way to field a baseball. He was not there to see his sons graduate from Midland Valley High School. Nor was he there when they returned home from the Persian Gulf War to a hero's welcome.

Transcripts of an interview conducted by Mr. Perry and Mr. Sullivan provide the following:

Mr. Payne said a car came up from behind him. Shots were fired, causing him to lose control of the car, which belonged to Tim Chipley, the current head of the Narcotics Division of the Aiken County Sheriff's Office.

"I'll swear before God, I seen flashes, like gun flashes, and that's the reason I headed off the road," Mr. Payne told the SLED agents while in the hospital.

The Gran Torino was dismantled into eight pieces by SLED technicians the day after the accident for what they called investigative purposes and a .38 revolver, which belonged to Mr. Payne, was found, plus spent shells that apparently exploded from the intensity of the fire.

"But our technicians revealed nothing in the world in the way of anything where anybody had shot or hit that automobile," Lt. Perry said in the transcript.

"The only thing I remember ... it was gun flashes," Mr. Payne responded. "I told Meg to lay down in the seat behind me and that's when my car left the road. And I got in front of Meg.

"When I was in front of Meg and the car was burning my legs and I was trying to get Meg and I couldn't get Meg and Meg wasn't out and I couldn't move and I was praying and I was hoping I would die."

SLED and the sheriff's office concluded that the accident was caused by the deputy's negligence.

At the same time, news accounts said a massive drug bust took place 17 days before the accident, ending a six-month undercover operation. More than 30 people were arrested for possession and distribution of narcotics.

Mr. Payne's family said that during the weeks following the bust, the deputy received numerous death threats. The seat of his motorcycle was slashed and the windows of his Toyota Land Cruiser were shot out.

Still haunted by the mystery surrounding his father's death, Mr. Payne said he will continue combing for clues that will clear his name.

He vaguely remembers his father - a man who loved Elvis, had a deep voice, and loved steak and potatoes.

"I'm tired of having doors slammed in my face," said Mr. Payne, a criminal justice major at the University of South Carolina-Aiken. "Everyone tells me I'm making something out of nothing."

Mr. Payne has recommended that his father be inducted into a hall of fame for officers killed in the line of duty.

" He wasn't just a father. He was a brother, a son, a friend ... and a damn good cop," Mr. Payne said.