Investigators said Friday that new evidence indicates that the Tennessee sheriff made famous in the movie “Walking Tall” was likely responsidble for the death of his wife in 1967.
Mark Davidson, district attorney for the state’s 25th judicial district, said at a news conference that the evidence they’d found would “more likely than not” bring an indictment against then-McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser if he were still alive, WKRN reported.
“It’s been said that the dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the job of the living to do so,” Davidson said. “ … Justice for Pauline has been a long time coming.”
The official story, for nearly 60 years, was that Pauline Mullins Pusser was shot and killed in an ambush that had been meant to kill her husband. Buford Pusser suffered a gunshot wound to the cheek in the supposed attack.
But Davidson said that Dr. Michael Revelle, an emergency medicine physician and medical examiner who examined Pauline Pusser’s wounds when her body was exhumed last year had determined that the shooting may have been staged and that her husband’s wound appeared to have been a close contact wound.
Investigators also said that bloodstain patterns on the hood of Pusser’s car, cartridge locations, and bullet trajectories appeared to contradict the sheriff’s version of events. They said it appeared that someone was shot inside and outside the vehicle. Most likely, Davidson said, Pauline Pusser was shot while outside the vehicle and dragged back inside.
Revelle determined that her wounds did not match photographs of the inside of the vehicle.
“The work to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the facts of this case, using the full strength of the Bureau as it exists today, has reshaped our understanding of what transpired now almost 60 years ago,” Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch said.
The new evidence provides probable cause, Davidson said, that her death was “not an accident” but instead was an “act of intimate, deliberate violence.”
Buford Pusser was known for carrying a big stick as he fought crime in McNairy County, taking on bootleggers, prostitution, and gambling. Joe Don Baker played Pusser in the 1973 movie “Walking Tall. Two sequels starred Bo Svenson as the title character, and wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johson played Pusser in a 2004 remake. Two direct-to-video sequels of that film starred Kevin Sorbo.
“This case is not about tearing down a legend. It is about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her family and ensuring that the truth is not buried with time,” Davidson said. “The truth matters. Justice matters. Even 58 years later, Pauline deserves both.”
Pauline Pusser’s brother, Griffon Mullins, thanked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in a video statement shared at the press conference
“I knew, deep down, there was problems in her marriage,” Mullins said. “If I only known now what I knew then, she would have never went back to Tennessee.”
Pauline Pusser’s body was exhumed last year when investigators received a new lead. The new autopsy uncovered a healing fracture “caused by interpersonal trauma.” Davidson said after conducting interviews with people who knew the Pussers at the time, concluding that she was. victim of domestic violence was “not making a leap.”
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[Featured image: Investigators look at the Pussers’ vehicle after the supposed ‘ambush.’ Inset: Pauline Mullins Pusser/Tennessee Bureau of Investigation]
