Do you believe in angels? Yeah, me too, but not the heaven kind with wings and white gowns. The angels I'm talking about are the ordinary good people we've all known and loved in life. Mom was an angel. Dad too, even if his halo tilted a little. I wrote about them in my memoir, Better Rags, and now pay tribute to three equal earth angels whose stories just begged to be told.

I've had an exciting life, I think-shootings and cuttings and high speed chases-far too many wives and way too little money. Yes, life was exciting when I was a randy young policeman working the mean streets of Denver . . . every day was an adventure

Legends in our own minds, each of us share a similar family history . . . people with parents who loved us and taught us the difference between right and wrong, and just like our spouses, feared for our safety every day we walked in harm's way. Not really the Superman little kids see us as or the Stormtroopers far too many people choose to...