Famed Tennessee sheriff who inspired Hollywood movie 'Walking Tall' implicated in wife's murder

[ad_1] It was lengthy believed that Pauline Mullins Pusser, the spouse of the legendary Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser, was shot and killed in an ambush meant for her husband, however new proof means that it was the late sheriff who killed his spouse.

A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report uncovered "inconsistencies in Buford Pusser's statements to regulation enforcement and to others," District Legal professional Mark Davidson mentioned at a press convention Friday.

Regulation enforcement uncovered bodily, medical, forensic, ballistic and reenactment proof that contradicted the McNairy County sheriff's account of his spouse's 1967 homicide.

The sheriff's story impressed the film "Strolling Tall" in 1973 and several other sequels, a 2004 remake and several other books, Davidson mentioned.

Buford Pusser died in a automotive accident in 1974.

"This case will not be about tearing down a legend, it's about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her household and guaranteeing that the reality will not be buried with time," Davidson mentioned.

This undated picture supplied by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 29, 2025, reveals the situation in Guys, Tenn., the place then McNair County Sheriff Buford Pusser mentioned his spouse was killed on Aug. 12, 1967.

TBI by way of AP

The sheriff had reported that his spouse volunteered to journey together with him in the dead of night, early morning hours on a disturbance name. He claimed {that a} automotive pulled alongside his and fired a number of photographs towards them, killing Pauline and injuring him in what he claimed was an ambush meant for him carried out by unknown assailants, in accordance with Davidson.

The sheriff, who was additionally shot within the ambush, recovered from his accidents and no viable suspects had been discovered and no fees had been filed.

Investigators now imagine that Pauline Pusser was shot exterior the automobile then positioned contained in the automobile, which isn't what Buford Pusser has instructed investigators on the time of the homicide.

"This was a chilly case for many years however in 2022 TBI brokers took one other have a look at the archive file and coordinated with our workplace. That work accelerated in 2023 and in 2024, Pauline Mullins Pusser was exhumed for an post-mortem," Davidson mentioned.

A portrait of Pauline Pusser is proven subsequent to a display screen enjoying a video of her brother, Griffon Mullins, giving a press release, at a press convention on Aug. 29, 2025.

WKRN

"It has been mentioned that the lifeless can not cry out for justice, it's the obligation of the residing to take action. On this case that obligation is being carried out 58 years later," Davidson mentioned.

Investigators used fashionable forensic science and investigative strategies that weren't out there in 1967, officers mentioned.

A brand new post-mortem additionally revealed cranial trauma suffered by Pauline Pusser doesn't match crime scene pictures of the inside of the automobile she was allegedly killed in. Blood splatter on the skin of the automobile additionally contradicts Buford Pusser's account of the homicide, Davidson mentioned.

A forensic investigator additionally decided {that a} gunshot wound to Buford Pusser's cheek was a detailed contact wound, not lengthy vary as he had described, and was doubtless self inflicted, Davidson mentioned. Blood splatter evaluation additionally indicated that somebody was injured each inside and out of doors the automobile, he mentioned.

Investigators now imagine that the crime scene was staged.

The sheriff spent about 18 days within the hospital and required a number of surgical procedures to get well, Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Director David Rausch mentioned on the press convention.

The case, which was primarily based largely on his assertion, closed "maybe too rapidly," Rausch mentioned.

Investigators acquired a tip in regards to the potential homicide weapon in spring 2023.

On this undated picture supplied by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 29, 2025, Pauline Mullins Pusser's physique is exhumed from her grave in Adamsville Cemetery, in Adamsville, Tenn., in 2024.

TBI by way of AP

The post-mortem additionally signifies that previous to her demise, she had a nasal fracture that had healed mostly attributable to "interpersonal trauma," in accordance with Davidson.

If he had been alive in the present day, investigators imagine they've produced sufficient possible trigger that prosecutors may have delivered a felony indictment for homicide.

"Pauline's demise was not an accident, not an act of likelihood, however primarily based on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate violence," Davidson mentioned.

"Justice for Pauline has been a very long time coming and due to all of the laborious work put in by many we're lastly in a position to announce to Pauline's surviving household and to the general public that we imagine we're as shut as potential to justice," he mentioned.

On this April 12, 1973, file picture, former McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser is proven in Selmer, Tenn., close to a bit alongside a lonely blacktop street the place he and his spouse Pauline had been ambushed in 1967.

Bettmann Archive by way of Getty Photos, FILE

Griffon Mullins, the brother of Pauline Pusser, thanked regulation enforcement for his or her work and urged others to simply accept the findings of the investigation.

"To be completely sincere with you, I am not terribly shocked," he mentioned.

He mentioned he was grateful to have gotten this closure so a few years later.

"I cherished her with all my coronary heart and I've missed her horribly this final 57 years," Mullins mentioned in a recorded assertion.

"I'm devastated. It has been a very long time since she left ... I've had a number of time to assume and look again at Pauline's life. She did not inform me a complete lot. She wasn't the kind of individual to inform you her issues, however I knew deep down there was issues in her marriage," Mullins mentioned.