Sheriff Buford Pusser, Who Inspired the 'Walking Tall' Movies, Killed His Wife, According to Authorities

In August 2025, investigators in Tennessee held a press conference in which they asserted that newly uncovered evidence strongly suggested that Buford Pusser, a small-town sheriff who was turned into a veritable folk hero by Hollywood, murdered his wife Pauline Mullins Pusser in 1967.

As sheriff of McNairy County from 1964 to 1970, Pusser tackled organized crime along the Mississippi-Tennessee state line, an ostentatious crimefighting career in which he was allegedly shot eight times and stabbed seven times while attempting to stop moonshiners, prostitution rings and gamblers.

He became famous nationally in 1973 as the subject of Walking Tall, a smash hit biopic action film which spawned several sequels and a 2004 reboot starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. 

Pusser died in a one-car accident in 1974 at the age of 36.

Pauline Mullins Pusser was shot and killed on a McNairy County country road while riding alongside her husband in the early morning hours of August 12, 1967. Buford was also shot twice in the face. He told authorities at the time that the couple were ambushed by gunfire from another car, presumably as retribution for his law enforcement career. 

Pauline’s death remained unsolved, while Buford’s legacy posthumously grew. In his hometown of Adamsville, his home was converted into a museum.

But even before the recent revelations—which authorities say would be enough to secure an indictment against Buford if he were still alive today—there were those who had reservations about the “official” story of Buford Pusser and investigated the matter themselves. 

Amongst them, notably, was a former deputy sheriff from Benton County, Arkansas.

Mike Elam tells A&E Crime + Investigation that he was inspired by Buford Pusser’s story when he was a young man, cutting his teeth in local law enforcement in the early 1970s, around the same time Walking Tall hit the silver screen.

“I thought it was amazing. But I didn’t think it could all be true,” Elam says. For one, Elam says of Buford, “He was allegedly shot eight times and stabbed seven times. That wasn’t happening to anyone else.”

After a brief stint as sheriff, Elam moved into the private sector, where he investigated theft and fraud claims. In the late 1990s, he began applying those skills on regular trips to Adamsville, driving the 465 miles from his hometown of Bella Vista, Ark., to collect interviews from locals about the Buford Pusser legend. In January 2020, he self-published a book, Buford Pusser: The Other Story, in which he alleges that Buford was likely responsible for his wife’s murder, amongst other crimes.

Elam says he interviewed several club owners along the notorious state line where Buford supposedly fought crime. There, he heard several statements that diminished the impact of the sheriff’s work. He also was told that Buford was “a womanizer” who allegedly had several extramarital affairs. But it was when Elam got access to the potential murder weapon and called it into the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) that the case against Buford began to pick up steam.

According to Elam, “an individual came forward” via a Buford Pusser Facebook group and told Elam that he had good reason to believe that he was in possession of the military-style rifle that took Pauline’s life.

Elam says he called that information into the TBI, who retrieved the gun. 

“For 56 years, Pauline’s file had gathered dust,” Elam says. “I turned the gun in in July 2022.”

After Pauline was exhumed, investigators found several inconsistencies between their forensic examination and the story of events that Buford had shared at the time surrounding her death.

A medical examiner in 2025 determined that Pauline had likely been shot outside the car and then placed into the vehicle, according to The New York Times; Buford said she had been shot inside the vehicle. The examiner also found that the blood spatter on the hood of the vehicle didn’t match Buford’s description of events, and that the gunshot wound that the sheriff suffered to his cheek was from close range rather than long range—meaning that it had likely been self-inflicted.

The autopsy also revealed that Pauline had suffered a broken nose that had healed before her death. 

Elam says amongst the evidence he handed over to the TBI were audio recordings from interviews he’d conducted while researching his book, including one with a friend of Pauline’s who’d claimed that Buford’s wife had been suffering domestic abuse at the sheriff’s hands and that the couple lived apart at the time of her death. Files released in October 2025 suggest that Pauline had been planning to leave Buford.

The Bufford Pusser Home & Museum did not respond to A&E Crime + Investigation’s request for comment.

Still, Elam says, “The Pusser legend is strong. And I support the museum. I think it’s an interesting story. I just wish they’d tell it like we learn the story of Wyatt Earp: that this was a person who did a lot of good, but a lot of bad as well.”