In a tight-knit, rural community in Tennessee, Sheriff Buford Pusser has always been known as a legend.
He patrolled McNairy County in the 1960s while wielding an enormous hickory walking stick, took on bootleggers and mobsters, and became the inspiration for the Hollywood film Walking Tall – later remade with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
But behind the man was a tragic death that had never been solved — until today, forever changing the legacy of Sheriff Pusser.
For nearly six decades, the story was told the same way. In 1967, Sheriff Pusser and his wife Pauline were ambushed while driving down a rural Tennessee road, in an attack he said was meant for him.
He survived a shot to the face, while she was killed.
Now, newly released findings from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation paint a very different picture.
Indictment for murder, if still alive
District Attorney Mark Davidson announced Friday that investigators uncovered major inconsistencies in Pusser’s account — and concluded that if Pusser were alive today, the TBI could produce an indictment against him for the murder of his wife.
“Justice for Pauline has been a long time coming,” Davidson said.
He called her killing “not an accident” but “an act of intimate, deliberate violence.”
On Friday, TBI director David Rausch said there were multiple key developments from the investigation: inconsistencies in Pusser’s story, recent statements provided by those associated with the investigation, Pauline’s autopsy, and evidence examined by TBI personnel.
“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,” Rausch said.
Through the investigation, it was determined that “more likely than not,” Pauline was shot outside the couple’s car and her body was moved inside afterward, officials said on Friday.
A brother finally gets closure
Pauline’s brother, Griffon Mullins, appeared via video at the conference, where he thanked authorities for finally giving his family answers.
“This is closure for me,” he said. “I’ve missed her this last 57 years, lord knows I've missed her.
”“She was the most caring, personable person. You would fall in love with her,” he said. “She was just a sweet person and I loved her with all my heart.”
“I had a lot of time to think and look back,” he added. “She was not the type of person to talk about her problems. But I knew, deep down, there was problems in her marriage.”
Justice for Pauline
Her autopsy also revealed prior injuries consistent with interpersonal trauma.
Pusser’s own gunshot wound to his cheek, long seen as proof of the ambush, was at close range and likely self-inflicted.
“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.”
The new investigation began in 2023, when the TBI received a tip that led agents to exhume Pauline’s body the following year. Her remains were reburied in 2025 after a fresh autopsy was performed, but the results were kept sealed.
As months passed without answers, frustration grew. A petition demanding the release of the TBI’s findings gathered more than 400 signatures this summer, with supporters insisting the public had a right to know.
On social media, some have called for “justice for Pauline.” Others remain staunch defenders of the sheriff, still honored each May at the Buford Pusser Festival in his hometown of Adamsville.
“As far as I’m concerned, it happened the way the sheriff said it did because he was there and we weren’t,” Steve Sweat, a Buford Pusser historian, told WKRN.
Others, though, aren’t convinced.
“I believe it was staged to fit Buford’s narrative. But when you look at the evidence, it’s so convincing that he didn’t tell the entire truth,” said Mike Elam, who runs the podcast Buford Pusser: The Other Story and has provided leads to investigators.
“So much of what he said doesn’t make sense.”
For some, Buford Pusser is still the hero who fought corruption and survived stabbings, shootings, and assassination attempts before dying in a 1974 car crash at the age of 36.
His story was immortalized in the 1973 film Walking Tall and its 2004 remake, cementing his place in pop culture as a southern lawman fighting corruption.
But for others, the former sheriff remains a deeply flawed figure accused of corruption and abuse.
