Authorities acknowledged the news may shock many who grew up as Buford Pusser’s fans and watched the 1973 “Walking Tall” movie he inspired or the 2004 remake.
A late Tennessee sheriff who inspired a Hollywood movie about a law enforcement officer who took on organized crime killed his wife in 1967 and led people to believe she was murdered by his enemies, authorities in Tennessee said Friday.
The finding will likely shock many who grew up as Buford Pusser fans and watched the 1973 “Walking Tall” movie that immortalized him as a tough but fair sheriff with zero tolerance for crime, authorities said.
There is enough evidence that if then-McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser were alive today, prosecutors would present an indictment to the grand jury for the murder of Pauline Mullins Pusser, said Mark Davidson, the district attorney for Tennessee’s 25th judicial district. Investigators also uncovered signs she suffered from domestic violence.
Prosecutors worked with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which began reexamining decades-old files on Pauline’s death in 2022 as part of its regular review of cold cases, agency director David Rausch said. Agents found inconsistencies between Buford Pusser’s version of events and the physical evidence, received a tip about a potential murder weapon and exhumed Pauline’s body for an autopsy.
Authorities acknowledged the news may shock many who grew up as Buford Pusser’s fans and watched the 1973 “Walking Tall” movie he inspired or the 2004 remake.
