Code Name: Pale Horse How I Went Undercover to Expose America's Nazis

by Payne, Scott; Shephard, Michelle

• ISBN13: 9781668032916
• ISBN10: 1668032910
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781668032923
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2026-03-03
• Publisher: Atria Books
• More Book Details

Summary

The thrilling true story of one man who risked his life to infiltrate the most dangerous neo-Nazi group in the United States, an “urgent and exciting look into the life of an FBI undercover agent” (Joseph D. Pistone, New York Times bestselling author) by “one of the top undercover agents in the Bureau” (Joaquin “Jack” Garcia, retired FBI agent and New York Times bestselling author).

When Scott Payne was growing up, an ‘80s kid with a big attitude and a taste for sleeveless shirts, he could never have envisioned where he’d find himself on Halloween night 2019. Having transformed into “Pale Horse” and infiltrated the nation’s most dangerous, fastest-growing white supremacy group, The Base, he was huddled with a cell of neo-Nazis in the backwoods of Georgia as they slaughtered a goat and drank its blood in a ritual sacrifice.

A decorated agent dubbed the “Hillbilly Donnie Brasco,” Payne takes readers along with him on some of the most terrifying and riskiest assignments in FBI history. He went deep undercover with the lethal Outlaw Motorcycle Club in Massachusetts; to the front lines of the opioid epidemic in Tennessee; and infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Alabama. Through it all, he stayed married to the love of his life, raised two girls, and spent his Sundays at church, sustained by family and faith.

Timely and unputdownable, Code Name: Pale Horse is a hard look at some of the most pressing threats facing America today. Honest and inspiring, it’s the story of a hero determined to take down a hateful army—before the unthinkable could come to pass.

Author Biography

Scott Payne is a retired FBI Special Agent who spent twenty-eight years in law enforcement investigating cases against drug trafficking organizations, human traffickers, outlaw motorcycle clubs, gangs, public corruption, and domestic terrorists. He was also a SWAT team operator and instructor for firearms, tactics, and undercover operations. He lives in the southeast with his wife, two daughters, and dogs.

Michelle Shephard is an award-winning journalist, author, and filmmaker who covered terrorism, national security, and civil rights for two decades as a correspondent with The Toronto Star. Her career has taken her around the world, including multiple reporting trips to Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, and Guantanamo Bay. She is based in Toronto, where she lives with her photojournalist husband, a dog named Parker, and their cat Deep Throat.