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 Lawyer Mark Davidson mentioned at a press convention Friday.
Legislation 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 mentioned.
Buford Pusser died in a automobile accident in 1974.
“This case is just not about tearing down a legend, it’s about giving dignity and closure to Pauline and her household and guaranteeing that the reality is just not buried with time,” Davidson mentioned.
This undated photograph supplied by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on Aug. 29, 2025, exhibits the placement in Guys, Tenn., the place then McNair County Sheriff Buford Pusser mentioned his spouse was killed on Aug. 12, 1967.
TBI through AP
The sheriff reported that his spouse volunteered to trip together with him at the hours of darkness, 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 supposed for him carried out by unknown assailants, in keeping with Davidson.
The sheriff, who was additionally shot within the ambush, recovered from his harm and no viable suspects have been discovered and no expenses have been filed.
Investigators now imagine that Pauline Pusser was shot outdoors the car then positioned contained in the car, which isn’t what Buford Pusser has instructed investigators on the time of the homicide.
“This was a chilly case for many years however in 2022 TBI brokers took one other have 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 mentioned.
A portrait of Pauline Pusser is proven subsequent to a display screen enjoying a video of her brother, Griffon Mullins, giving an announcement, at a press convention on Aug. 29, 2025.
WKRN
“It has been mentioned that the lifeless can not 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 mentioned.
Investigators used trendy forensic science and investigative strategies that weren’t out there in 1967, officers mentioned.
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 mentioned.
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 seemingly self inflicted, Davidson mentioned. Blood splatter evaluation additionally indicated that somebody was injured each inside and outdoors the car, he mentioned.
Investigators now imagine 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 mentioned on the press convention.
The case based mostly largely on his assertion closed “maybe too rapidly,” Rausch mentioned.
Investigators obtained a tip in regards to the attainable homicide weapon in spring 2023.
On this undated photograph supplied 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 through AP
The post-mortem additionally signifies that previous to her loss of life, she had a nasal fracture that had healed mostly attributable to “interpersonal trauma,” in keeping with Davidson.
If he have been alive right this moment, investigators imagine they’ve produced sufficient possible trigger that prosecutors may have delivered a felony indictment for homicide.
“Pauline’s loss of life 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 mentioned.
“Justice for Pauline has been a very long time coming and because of all of the exhausting 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 imagine we’re as shut as attainable to justice,” he mentioned.
On this April 12, 1973, file photograph, former McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser is proven in Selmer, Tenn., close to a bit alongside a lonely blacktop street the place he and his spouse Pauline have been ambushed in 1967.
Bettmann Archive through Getty Pictures, 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 trustworthy with you, I am not terribly shocked,” he mentioned.
He mentioned 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 mentioned in a recorded assertion.
“I’m devastated. It has been a very long time since she left … I’ve had plenty of time to suppose and look again at Pauline’s life. She did not inform me a complete lot. She wasn’t the kind of individual to inform you her issues however I knew deep down there was issues in her marriage,” Mullins mentioned.
