A reexamination of the death of Pauline Pusser revealed that she was a victim of domestic abuse and had been killed by her husband with her body placed in his car to make it seem like she was the victim of an ambush.
Sheriff Buford Pusser Museum/FacebookPauline Mullins Pusser, the wife of Buford Pusser.
A Tennessee sheriff whose story inspired a Hollywood film was not the tragic hero he made himself out to be — in fact, new evidence shows that he killed his wife, then led people to believe she had been slain by his enemies.
Buford Pusser became famous in the 1960s for taking on organized crime, but his story turned tragic in 1967 when his wife, Pauline Mullins Pusser, was killed during an ambush.
In 1973, the movie Walking Tall portrayed Pusser’s story on the big screen, immortalizing him as a tough but fair sheriff with no tolerance for crime. The film was later remade in 2004, inspiring a new generation of officers to enroll, district attorney Mark Davidson told the Associated Press.
Rumors that Pusser killed his wife had been circulating for years, but in 2022 prosecutors and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation began reexamining the decades-old file on Pauline’s death as part of a regular review of cold cases. During the review, agents discovered glaring inconsistencies between Pusser’s version of events and the physical evidence.
This, and a tip about a potential murder weapon, prompted them to exhume Pauline’s body for an autopsy in 2024. Now, they have put together a “voluminous” file of more than 1,000 pages that shows Buford Pusser was responsible for Pauline’s death — with plans to make the full file available to the public.
Who Was Buford Pusser?
Sheriff Buford Pusser Museum/FacebookBuford Pusser, the sheriff who inspired multiple Hollywood films.
Buford Pusser grew up in McNairy County, Tennessee. He excelled in high‑school sports, enlisted briefly in the Marines, then became a Chicago wrestler known as “Buford the Bull.”
In 1959 he married Pauline Mullins, and by 1964 he was elected sheriff, becoming Tennessee’s youngest. He aggressively targeted the Dixie Mafia and State Line Mob, who trafficked moonshine, gambling, and vice. He destroyed illicit stills, personally wielded a pick‑axe, survived eight shootings and seven stabbings, and even a hit‑and‑run.
On August 12, 1967, Pusser answered an early‑morning disturbance call. Pauline rode with him. En route, a car ambushed them. During the attack, Pauline was killed — allegedly by their ambushers — and Pusser was gravely wounded in the jaw. After 18 days and numerous surgeries, he recovered but was left with permanent scars.
He vowed vengeance and cracked down harder on crime than ever before. He named suspects — especially Dixie Mafia leader Kirksey Nix Jr. — but none stood trial. However, the alleged killers later died under mysterious circumstances: White was shot in Mississippi in 1969 as well as two others in Texas in 1970. Rumors linked Pusser indirectly to their deaths.
Sheriff Buford Pusser Museum/FacebookBuford Pusser with a poster for Walking Tall, the film inspired by his story.
His crusade inspired the 1973 film Walking Tall starring Joe Don Baker, followed by sequels, a TV movie, a series, and a 2004 remake with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
Then, on August 21, 1974, seven years after Pauline’s death, Buford Pusser died in a fiery car crash mere hours after signing to star in a film sequel. Many suspected sabotage, but no autopsy was performed.
Now, however, a new story has begun to emerge — one in which Buford Pusser is not a tragic hero seeking revenge for his wife’s killing, but one in which he himself was Pauline’s killer.
Pusser’s Story About His Wife Doesn’t Match The Evidence
Sheriff Buford Pusser Museum/FacebookPauline and Buford Pusser’s marriage was not a happy one.
Mark Davidson believes that if the McNairy County sheriff were still alive today, there is sufficient evidence for prosecutors to present an indictment to a grand jury for the killing of Pauline Mullins Pusser. During the new investigation, authorities also found evidence that Pauline had suffered from domestic violence.
The initial case largely relied on Pusser’s own statement and was closed relatively quickly. No one — at least no one in law enforcement — seemed to think that the vehemently anti-crime sheriff could have murdered his own wife. But during reexamination, medical examiner Dr. Michael Revelle looked at postmortem photographs of Pauline, crime scene photographs, and notes made by the original medical examiner, and determined the evidence didn’t add up.
Cranial trauma that Pauline suffered, Revelle noted, didn’t match crime scene photographs of the car’s interior. Additionally, blood spatter on the hood outside the car didn’t align with Pusser’s statements about Pauline being shot in the vehicle next to him. His own wounds — particularly the gunshot wound on his cheek — didn’t come from a long range.
In fact, the cheek wound was a close-contact one and likely self-inflicted.
Revelle’s reexamination determined that Pauline was more likely than not shot outside the car, then placed inside. It was also found that Pauline had a broken nose that had healed prior to her death, which, along with statements of those who knew her, supports the conclusion that she had been a victim of domestic abuse.
Based on this new evidence, it seems that Buford Pusser abused his wife, then killed her and manipulated public perception to portray himself as a vengeful hero. It was, Davidson said, an “act of intimage, deliberate violence.”
Family Members Of Pauline Pusser React To The News
“I knew, deep down, there was problems in her marriage,” Pauline’s brother Griffon said in a video shared at the press conference. “If I only known now what I knew then, she would have never went back to Tennessee.”
For Pauline’s family, this new investigation had provided a sense of closure. Griffon said in the ig statement that he is grateful that he will die knowing, finally, what happened to his sister.
Sheriff Buford Pusser Museum/FacebookPusser’s car after the attack.
In a statement provided to local WKRN, Pusser’s granddaughter Madison Garrison Bush said she and her family “aren’t looking to reopen closed wounds.”
“I personally never knew Buford or Pauline and cannot speak to their relationship or what happened on the morning of August 12, 1967,” her statement reads.
“What I do know, is my family has endured traumatic loss that few people can comprehend. A dead man, who cannot defend himself, is being accused of an unspeakable crime. I don’t understand what justice can be accomplished by pursuing this theory of my grandmother’s death.”
Buford Pusser wasn’t just any police officer or grandfather, though. He was hailed as a hero and an inspiration for many people who went on to join law enforcement. Pusser’s story became a part of the identity of Adamsville, where a museum in his name still stands. These new revelations extend far beyond his family.
“This case is not about tearing down a legend,” Davidson said. “It is about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her family and ensuring that the truth is not buried with time. The truth matters. Justice matters. Even 58 years later. Pauline deserves both.”
After reading about this shocking revelation about Buford Pusser and the murder of Pauline Pusser, read the dark story of Gregory Green, the man who killed his pregnant wife and then murdered his second wife’s children years later. Then, read about Chicago cop Drew Peterson and how he murdered his third wife.
