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U.S.|Sheriff Who Inspired ‘Walking Tall’ Movie Killed His Wife, Inquiry Says
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/us/buford-pusser-walking-tall-tennessee.html
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Buford Pusser, who was portrayed in the 1973 hit movie, led people to believe that his wife was ambushed by his enemies, cold-case investigators in Tennessee said.
Aug. 31, 2025, 2:37 p.m. ET
A rural Tennessee sheriff who was portrayed by Hollywood as a leader who had to bend the law in order to fight crime killed his wife 58 years ago, prosecutors announced on Friday.
They said that they had amassed enough evidence against the sheriff, Buford Pusser, who served in McNairy County from 1964-70, to present an indictment to a grand jury in the killing of his wife, Pauline Mullins Pusser, 33, who died in 1967.
Though Sheriff Pusser died in a car crash seven years after his wife’s death, prosecutors said it was critical to make public what they had learned, in part because the case inspired the Nixon-era law-and-order hit “Walking Tall” in 1973.
The movie is set in a Tennessee town taken over by bootlegging, illegal gambling, and prostitution. It starred Joe Don Baker as Sheriff Pusser, a crusading official who cleaned up the streets with the help of a colossal baseball bat.
Before becoming sheriff, Sheriff Pusser, 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, had been a wrestler known as Buford the Bull.
According to Variety, “Walking Tall” was made for about $500,000 and earned more than $40 million worldwide.
