*A decades-old mystery surrounding the death of Pauline Mullins Pusser, wife of famed Tennessee Sheriff Buford Pusser, has been reopened with shocking findings.
According to ABC News, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) now believes Pusser, whose life inspired the 1973 film “Walking Tall,” was responsible for his wife’s 1967 murder. District Attorney Mark Davidson announced at a press conference, “inconsistencies in Buford Pusser’s statements to law enforcement and to others” prompted a renewed investigation.
In 1967, Pusser claimed his wife was killed in an ambush targeting him while he responded to a disturbance call, during which she allegedly volunteered to ride along with him. He reported that a car pulled alongside theirs, firing shots that killed Pauline and wounded him. However, new forensic evidence contradicts this account.
“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.
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Investigators revisited the case in 2022, leveraging modern forensic techniques unavailable in 1967. A 2024 autopsy of Pauline’s exhumed body revealed cranial trauma inconsistent with crime scene photos of the vehicle’s interior. Blood splatter outside the vehicle, and a close-contact gunshot wound to Pusser’s cheek, likely self-inflicted, suggest the scene was staged.
“Pauline’s death was not an accident, not an act of chance, but based on the totality of the TBI investigative file, an act of intimate violence,” Davidson stated.
The investigation also uncovered a healed nasal fracture in Pauline, likely from prior interpersonal trauma, hinting at marital issues. Her brother, Griffon Mullins, expressed mixed emotions: “To be perfectly honest with you, I’m not terribly shocked.” He added, “I loved her with all my heart and I’ve missed her horribly this last 57 years.”
TBI Director David Rausch noted the case closed “perhaps too quickly” in 1967, relying heavily on Pusser’s account. “It’s been said that the dead cannot cry out for justice, it is the duty of the living to do so. In this case that duty is being carried out 58 years later,” Davidson said.
Though Pusser died in a 1974 car accident, investigators believe there’s enough evidence for a murder indictment if he were alive today.
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