News TBI: New evidence implicates Sheriff Buford Pusser in wife’s 1967 murder
News TBI: New evidence implicates Sheriff Buford Pusser in wife’s 1967 murder
https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/pauline-pusser-update/
This story may not mean much to anyone who's not an American of a certain age. I was a little kid when the "Walking Tall" movies came out. Sheriff Buford Pusser was a legend, a stick-carrying badass cleaning up organized crime in McNairy County, Tennessee. Only problem is, looks like he probably killed his wife and may have been abusive to her before that.
I saw some comments on Twitter from people who say they knew him, or knew people who knew him (one of the sources being a professor in TN) and that Pusser was not a good man, nothing like the Hollywood image. At least one comment implied he may have had ties to organized crime himself, although I haven't seen anything yet that looks credible on that.
Anyway, this is another "childhood hero ruined" moment. Of course a rural Tennessee sheriff wasn't going to be a perfect human being, but for someone who grew up watching "Walking Tall" movies when they came to TV, it's a bummer to find out this man MURDERED HIS WIFE.