Pauline was a married mother of 3, her husband, Bufford was a police officer in McNairy County Tennessee near the Tennessee Kentucky line along I40., eventually becoming sheriff. Pauline was married before, having a son named Michael and a daughter Dian Vance. After growing up in Virginia and living in Chicago, Pauline met Bufford at a wrestling match. Bufford started off in wrestling. Buford Pusser was born in Finger, McNairy County, Tennessee, on December 12, 1937, his father was the police chief of Adamsville, Tennessee. Buford Pusser was a high-school football and basketball player and was 6 feet 6 inches tall. He joined the United States Marine Corps when he graduated from high school. His service ended and he was given a medical discharge for asthma.

In 1957, he moved to Chicago, where he was a local wrestler known as "Buford The Bull". He married Pauline Mullins on December 5, 1959. Pusser returned home in 1962. He was Adamsville's police chief and constable from 1962 to 1964. After the sheriff James Dickey was killed in an auto accident, Pusser was elected sheriff, becoming the youngest sheriff in Tennessee's history. Pusser promptly began trying to eliminate crime and mob/mafia groups like the Dixie Mafia and the State Line Mob.

Pusser was ineligible for re-election in 1970 due to the term limit then in effect. He was defeated in his bid for sheriff in 1972. Pusser blamed the loss to incumbent Sheriff Clifford Coleman in part on the controversy surrounding the making of the semibiographical movie Walking Tall. “Walking Tall” was a movie based on Bufford in the 1970’s then a remake happened in 2004 featuring Dwayne the rock Johnson and Johnny Knoxville. 

The early morning of Aug. 12, 1967, the couple was heading to a disturbance call near the Tennessee-Mississippi line when a vehicle pulled up alongside theirs and began firing into the car with a military rifle, according to The Historical Marker Database and McNairy County Historical Society. According to Pusser, his phone rang before dawn on the morning of August 12, 1967, informing him of a disturbance on New Hope Road in McNairy County; Pusser responded and his wife Pauline rode along. Ride along were allowed then, but usually happened in daylight hours on a slow Sunday. Some believe he got a call around 2 am and where the shooting happened was only 20 minutes away from his house and the call came in of the shooting around 4 am. Shortly after they passed the New Hope Methodist Church, a fast-moving car came alongside theirs and the occupants opened fire, killing Pauline and leaving Pusser for dead. Doctors said he was struck on the left side of his jaw by at least two, or possibly three, rounds from a .30-caliber carbine. He spent 18 days in the hospital before returning home, and needed several more surgeries. 

Pusser died on August 21, 1974, of injuries sustained in a one-car automobile accident four miles west of Adamsville. Earlier that day, he had contracted with Bing Crosby Productions in Memphis to portray himself in the sequel to Walking Tall. That evening, returning home alone from the McNairy County Fair in his specially modified Corvette, Pusser struck an embankment at high speed that ejected him from the vehicle. The car caught fire and burned.

56 years after Pauline’s death, in February of 2024 they exhumed her body. No water was coming out of the casket so TBI is looking at the body for any other injuries. They weren’t in a wreck, so the only wounds on her body should be the shot to her head. No reports have been made public at this time, but we will keep you up to date. 

Follow us on socials 
@ExpiredPodcast
@ExpiredPodcastChatt
@ExpiredPodcast423

Support the show