What do you think of me adding a family that is infamous for doing dirty work? Like really dirty work? One of those families that you only call on when you're desperate. They'll do ANYTHING as long as the price is right, and they answer to no one. They're one of those families that lives apart from most other folk and are considered kind of wild. Like when they roll up the first thing people think is "Uh-oh, what are THEY doing here?"
Name: Negan Grange. Most just call him Grange or Old Man Grange; to some white folks in Louisiana he's called the Butcher, black folks there call him Nero (hero in Creole)
Appearance:
Speech color: Blue
Age: 46
Occupation/ Cover: Brewer (Rum)
Racket: protection, smuggling, assassinations, intimidation, etc. If there's something you need done, you don't really care how, and can pay the right price, Negan will get it done. Man, woman, elderly, single, married, black, white...he doesn't discriminate. He only has one rule: no kids. Asking him to hurt a kid is liable to get you killed yourself.
Public Goals: Wants to enjoy retirement with his wife and do right by his kids. His family is his life.
Private Goals: Negan will never actually retire. He enjoys...no thrives on being in the life. The harder the challenge the more he enjoys it. A year that goes by where he hasn't killed anyone or been in some sort of close call with the police he considers a boring one. He does still care about his family though, and he wont let anything happen to them. Everything he earns or steals goes to giving them a better life.
-Lucile Grange: wife, Voodoo Queen, midwife, and herbalist (speech color is Red)
-Maverick Grange: first-born son, trouble-maker, master strategist, and mechanic (speech color is Purple)
-Alejandro Grange: adopted son, partner in crime, smooth talker, and chemist (speech color is Green)
-Ja-Ki Grange: adopted daughter, level-headed one, master thief, and writer (speech color is Pink)
-Kimber Grange: adopted daughter, rebel, hunter, and hound breeder (speech color is Orange)
Personal History: He was born in 1926 in Alabama to well off white parents. They were good Christian folks to the community but radical and disciplinarian in the home. Negan rebelled against everything they stood for in any way he could: skipped school and church, ran around with poor and colored kids, vandalized, smoked, drank, stole then resold valuables, etc. As a result he was often subject to beatings, intense bible study sessions, and long periods of being locked in his room to “exorcise the devil out of him” but it only made things worse. In 1942 he finally ran away from home to join the army. Although he was only 16, he managed to slip in and was soon on the field if WWII.
Negan thrived in the chaos of war and quickly developed quite a reputation for using insane tactics but succeeding anyway, quickly rising through the ranks. When the war ended (a little too soon for Negan) he had the rank of SGT. When he was sent back to the states he didn't bother returning to his parents and instead landed in New Orleans. That is where he met Lucile, a beautiful, black, Creole girl of 17. She was a well respected voodoo priestess, medicine woman, and midwife in the black community but had many wealthy white clients as well. She happened to be invited to a military social that Negan was attending. The two fell madly in love and spent the next several months in wild passion.
When they found out that she was pregnant, Negan finally went home to inform his parents that they were going to be grandparents. That's when he found out that his mother had died of illness two years after he had left and his father had become even more radical in his faith. His father informed the local K.K.K of their union then lured his son away on the pretext of making amends. Negan figured out that there was something wrong however and forced the truth out of him. Negan raced to the meeting place and killed all twelve klan members using two six-shooters before they could hurt Lucile. He then went back to his father and beat him to death with a baseball bat. They fled to Mexico before the authorities could be informed.
Their son Maverick was born in a quiet Mexican village, and although he was in perfect health the birth had taken quite a toll on his mother. She lived, but became barren afterwards. To help support his family Negan got involved with the local cartel where the work was risky but paid well. Their neighbors were decent folk with a son of their own son, Alejandro, who was a year younger than Maverick. When the boys were 2 and 3, Alejandro's dad ran afoul of a rival cartel and they shot up the house in retaliation. Only Alejandro, shielded by his mother's body, had survived. Lucile rescued the blood-splattered toddler from the house while Negan tracked down the men who did it and killed them.
While no one took specific exception to Negan's actions, cartel activity did escalated in the area. The couple decided to take both boys back to the States but got caught at the border. Using his previous rank in the military Negan was able to barter a deal with the authorities. He agreed to fight in the Korean War that had just started in exchange for the safety of his family. Since the battle had happened so quickly and wasn't looking good they agreed. Negan was flown overseas once more while his family was kept on a military base. While there he met a woman who had given him shelter and treatment when a bullet wound took him down. They became good friends while he recovered, but she died in a surprise strike from enemy forces. She left behind a baby girl named Ja-Ki, who Negan took in and protected until the war's end. When his term was served he ducked the officers intending on taking him into custody as soon as they touched down on U.S. Soil and snuck the rest of his family out in the night.
The family settled in O'Connor county where they built a house in the quiet backwaters. With Negan's record they had to do so very carefully, keeping as much to themselves as possible. It was difficult at first but they managed to make a living for themselves. Eventually though Negan sought a way to reintegrate into society. When the Vietnam War started he saw an opportunity to do just that. Once again he cut a deal, 2 years in combat in exchange for a clean state. Since there was a lack in volunteers, an excess in draft dodgers, and his reputation proceeded him they agreed.
While there he met a doctor and his nurse wife. They had just had a child, Kimber, the year before but both had decided they were needed to preserve lives, whichever side they fell on. They were both killed in action. After his term was over Negan went to check on their daughter, who they had left with her aunt, only to find that the child was being neglected and abused. After threatening the aunt with pain and/or death if she ever went to the police, he took the little girl with him back home.
With his record now clean, he settled into his life with his wife and four children. They started a sugar cane farm and began making their own rum. Negan also took underhand work and quickly secured himself a position of respect and notoriety among the mobsters. He sent his two boys to college at the University of Mississippi in '65, then his oldest girl Ja-Ki in '69.
Maverick and Alejandro got degrees in engineering and chemistry, which jump-started their rum production. Ja-Ki got a degree in journalism and now writes articles for the local paper. Kim, who is still a year off from being given the option, raises hound dogs and sells them to locals for money. Negan himself is scarcely seen unless he's on a job. His wife goes into town once a month for certain groceries but otherwise isn't seen, at least by white folks. She's active in the black community and often makes well-fare checks on elderly members.