It was lengthy believed that Pauline Mullins Pusser, spouse of 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 legislation enforcement and to others,” District Legal professional Mark Davidson stated at a press convention Friday.
Regulation enforcement have uncovered bodily, medical, forensic, ballistic and reenactment proof that contradict the sheriff’s account of his spouse’s 1967 homicide.
The sheriff’s account impressed the film “Strolling Tall” in 1973 and several other sequels, a 2004 remake and several other books, Davidson stated.
Buford Pusser died in a automobile accident in 1974.
“This case shouldn’t be about tearing down a legend, it’s about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her household and making certain that the reality shouldn’t be buried with time,” Davidson stated.
This undated photograph offered by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 29, 2025, exhibits the placement in Guys, Tenn., the place then McNair County Sheriff Buford Pusser stated his spouse was killed on Aug. 12, 1967.
TBI by way of AP
The sheriff reported that his spouse volunteered to experience together with him at nighttime, early morning hours on a disturbance name. He claimed {that a} automobile pulled alongside his and fired a number of pictures towards them, killing Pauline and injuring him in what he claimed was an ambush meant for him carried out by unknown assailants, in response to Davidson.
The sheriff, who was additionally shot within the ambush, recovered from his damage and no viable suspects had been discovered and no expenses had been filed.
Investigators now consider that Pauline Pusser was shot exterior the car then positioned contained in the car, which isn’t what Buford Pusser has advised investigators on the time of the homicide.
“This was a chilly case for many years however in 2022 TBI brokers took one other take 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 stated.
A portrait of Pauline Pusser is proven subsequent to a display enjoying a video of her brother, Griffon Mullins, giving a press release, at a press convention on Aug. 29, 2025.
WKRN
“It has been stated that the lifeless can’t cry out for justice, it’s the obligation of the dwelling to take action. On this case that obligation is being carried out 58 years later,” Davidson stated.
Investigators used trendy forensic science and investigative strategies that weren’t out there in 1967, officers stated.
A brand new post-mortem additionally revealed cranial trauma suffered by Pauline Pusser doesn’t match crime scene images of the inside of the car she was allegedly killed in. Blood splatter on the skin of the car additionally contradicts Buford Pusser’s account of the homicide, Davidson stated.
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 stated. Blood splatter evaluation additionally indicated that somebody was injured each inside and out of doors the car, he stated.
Investigators now consider that the crime scene was staged.
The sheriff spent about 18 days within the hospital and required a number of surgical procedures to get better, Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Director David Rausch stated on the press convention.
The case based mostly largely on his assertion closed “maybe too shortly,” Rausch stated.
Investigators obtained a tip concerning the attainable homicide weapon in spring 2023.
On this undated photograph offered 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 dying, she had a nasal fracture that had healed mostly attributable to “interpersonal trauma,” in response to Davidson.
If he had been alive right now, investigators consider they’ve produced sufficient possible trigger that prosecutors may have delivered a felony indictment for homicide.
“Pauline’s dying was not an accident, not an act of probability, however based mostly on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate violence,” Davidson stated.
“Justice for Pauline has been a very long time coming and due to all of the onerous 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 consider we’re as shut as attainable to justice,” he stated.
On this April 12, 1973, file photograph, former McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser is proven in Selmer, Tenn., close to a piece alongside a lonely blacktop street the place he and his spouse Pauline had been ambushed in 1967.
Bettmann Archive by way of Getty Photographs, FILE
Griffon Mullins, Pauline Mullins Pusser’ brother, thanked legislation enforcement for his or her work and urged others to just accept the findings of the investigation.
“To be completely sincere with you, I am not terribly shocked,” he stated.
He stated 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 stated 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 suppose and look again at Pauline’s life. She did not inform me an entire lot. She wasn’t the kind of particular person to inform you her issues however I knew deep down there was issues in her marriage,” Mullins stated.
