The Tennessee sheriff who inspired the «Walking Tall» movie franchise may have shot his wife to death in 1967, state investigators said, citing new evidence.
Aug. 31 The Tennessee sheriff who inspired the Walking Tall movie franchise may have shot his wife to death in 1967, state investigators said, citing new evidence.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced Friday that the late McNair County Sheriff Buford Pusser’s story about the night in 1967 that his wife was shot and killed had inconsistencies. If Buford Pusser, who died in 1974 in a car crash, were still alive, there would be enough evidence to charge him with the murder of Pauline Pusser, District Attorney Mark Davidson said in a news conference.
Friday’s announcement caused Buford Pusser’s decades-long Hollywood image to come crashing down. He was the inspiration for the Walking Tall movies about a wrestler-turned-sheriff intent on cleaning up organized crime in his county and seeking revenge after his wife’s murder.
