Henry LaFalce Tate, ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran returned from Nam and mustered out of the Corp in San Diego. His middle name was from his great grandfather, a slave along the Mississippi River. He took all the money he had saved over the past year and bought a new Harley hog. While looking for a job, he called his sister in Phoenix and she told him that his mother had passed away one week ago.

Henry was born in Phoenix and his father died when he was thirteen of a heart condition. Henry loved his father and his mother very much, however when his mother remarried four years later, Henry would not warm up to the man who now lived in his father place. So Henry left home and went to California, but the draft soon caught up with him, and he was inducted into the service.

Henry would return to Phoenix for his mother's funeral, and to see his sister and step father. He would meet Jim Bronson after a helping hand on the road. Over the years he would regain his sister's love and care for his step father. He would return to school and become a refrigeration mechanic, and start a business making repairs to semi-tractor trailers which hauled produce from the fields of California to the city of New York.

Walker "Spud" Thomas, he got that nick name while in the Army because he loved mashed potatoes. Even before the Army, Spud was a hustler in St. Louis, he had moved to Phoenix after a hitch in the Air Force because the dry air was needed for his sinus condition.

Spud worked for the local rackets boss doing odd jobs like collections and bag man to L.A. or Chicago once in awhile. Most of the time Spud, could be found playing pool or poker in a back room. Several years later he would be arrested and sent to prison on a felony conviction for breaking federal gambling laws.