Buford Pusser

Infobox_Person
name = Buford Pusser


ca [topm =Buford Pusser's official sheriff badge.
residence = Adamsville, Tennessee
birth_name = Buford Hayse Pusser
birth_date = December 12, 1937
birth_place = city-state|Adamsville|Tennessee
death_date = death date and age|1974|8|21|1937|12|12
death_place = Adamsville, Tennessee
occupation = Police officer
religion = Churches of Christ
spouse = Pauline Pusser
website = http://sheriffbufordpusser.com
height =
weight =

Buford Hayse Pusser (December 12, 1937 - August 21, 1974) was the Sheriff of McNairy County, Tennessee (in West Tennessee), from 1964 to 1970. Pusser is known for his virtual one-man war on moonshining, gambling, and other vices on the Mississippi-Tennessee border. His story has directly inspired several books, movies and two movie remakes and at least one TV series. The Buford Pusser Museum [http://www.bufordpussermuseum.com/] has been established at the house where he was living at the time of his death in 1974. Each May, there is a Buford Pusser Festival in his hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee.

Life and career

Buford was born in 1937. His father, Carl Pusser, was the police chief of Adamsville, Tennessee, and his mother was Helen Pusser.

Buford was 6'6 and 250 pounds.

Buford joined the Marines when he was 18, but his military career was cut short during boot camp, when it was discovered he had asthma. He thereafter moved to Chicago in 1957, working at Union Bag Co. and also as a wrestler. While there, he met and married his wife, Pauline, on Dec. 5, 1959. Pusser later returned to his hometown of Adamsville, Tennessee, with his wife in 1962.

Pusser served as the Adamsville police chief and constable from 1962 to 1964. He then ran for McNairy County, Tennessee, sheriff in 1964 and won, making him at the age of 26 the youngest Tennessee sheriff in state history. Pusser's predecessor as sheriff, James Dickey, died in a car accident about two weeks before the 1964 election.

At that time, the Dixie Mafia was led by Jack Hathcock who ran The Forty-Five Grill, a restaurant and dance hall near Corinth, Mississippi, just inside the Mississippi state line. The restaurant had opened in 1950, doubling as a gambling whorehouse with a reputation for violence towards any patrons who complained about crooked games. The restaurant was also the focal point for organized crime that included bootlegging. Jack was killed by Carl Douglas "Towhead" White (the infamous leader of the State Line Mob), who successfully claimed self defense. Jack's wife, Louise Hathcock would soon become (or perhaps already was) White's mistress.

On February 1, 1966, Pusser attempted to arrest Louise Hathcock for robbery; when she opened fire on him, he fired back and killed her.

Already a local hero, Pusser's "war" on the "State Line Mob" was brought to national prominence when his wife, Pauline, was killed on August 12, 1967, in an assassination attempt meant for him (ordered by Carl Douglas "Towhead" White, see below). On April 5, 1969, White was killed by Berry "Junior" Smith, who also claimed it was in self defense. Pusser named Kirksey McCord Nix Jr. as the contractor of his wife's killers, but Nix was never charged with the crime.

In 1970, Pusser relinquished his role as sheriff due to a law limiting the number of terms a sheriff could serve at that time. Pusser was defeated in his attempt at reelection to sheriff in 1972. There was controversy regarding the film developing in the county and Pusser blamed that controversy for his defeat by incumbent Sheriff Clifford Coleman. Pusser was later elected again as constable by a majority of voters who wrote his name on their ballots. He served in that position for two more years.

Pusser died August 21, 1974, from wounds sustained in an automobile crash in which his Corvette hit an embankment and he was ejected from the vehicle. While the crash was ruled to be accidental, there has been ongoing speculation that, in light of the apparent speed of travel, foul play may have been involved in the incident; Buford's mother Helen (1908-1987) and his daughter Dwana (1961-) believed he was murdered. During his tenure as sheriff, Pusser was shot eight times and stabbed seven.

His memorial service was held at the Adamsville Church of Christ, where Buford was also a member.

Murder of Pauline Pusser

On the pre-dawn morning of August 12, 1967, Pusser's phone rang, informing him of a disturbance call on New Hope Road in McNairy County. He responded, with his wife Pauline joining him for this particular ride. Shortly after they passed the New Hope Methodist on New Hope Road, two cars came alongside Pusser's; the occupants opened fire, killing his wife and leaving Pusser, who had suffered a shotgun wound to the face, for dead. He spent eighteen days in the hospital before returning home, and would need several surgeries to restore his appearance.

Pusser vowed to bring all involved with his wife's death to justice. He identified four assassins: Louise Hathcock's former boyfriend, Carl Douglas "Towhead" White, George McGann, Gary McDaniel, and Kirksey Nix. Beverly Oliver, George McGann's wife, claimed in 1970 that she was the famously mysterious Babushka Lady who appears with her own movie camera in the Zapruder film of the actual Kennedy Assassination.

In April 1969, the person who paid for the hit, Carl Douglas "Towhead" White was gunned down in front of the El Ray Motel on U.S. Highway 45 in Corinth, Mississippi. The alleged triggerman was a small-time hood named Berry Smith. (Author W.R. Morris wrote in 1990 that Pusser himself had hired a hit man who killed White with one shotgun blast to the head.)

In late 1970, both McDaniel and McGann were found shot to death in Texas. According to Edward Humes in "Mississippi Mud," Pusser was suspected by some law enforcement officials of having killed both.

Pusser never brought Kirksey Nix to justice. Nix was sentenced to Angola State Prison in Louisiana for the Easter Saturday, 1971 murder of a New Orleans grocer, Frank J. Corso. Nix was later involved in the 1987 murder-for-hire killing of Judge Vincent Sherry and his wife Margaret, in Biloxi, Mississippi. His conspirator, Biloxi Mayor Pete Halat, had stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from Nix and blamed it on his law partner, Vincent Sherry. Nix ordered a hit from prison and was later sentenced to isolation for the rest of his life. Nix has repeatedly refused to comment about Pusser's claims that he was one of his wife's killers.

The other assassin, Carmine Raymond Gagliardi, was found floating in Boston Harbor, his body riddled with bullets (see Morris: 1990).

Pop culture

Pusser was the subject of three biographical books written by W.R. Morris: "The Twelfth Of August: The Story of Buford Pusser" (1971), "Buford: True Story of "Walking Tall" "Sheriff Buford Pusser (1984) and "The State Line Mob: A True Story of Murder and Intrigue" (2001). In addition, Morris also created a pictorial history book of Buford called "The Legacy of Buford Pusser: A Pictorial History of the "Walking Tall" (1997).

The 1973 movie "Walking Tall" was dedicated to Pusser. Based on Pusser's true story, it was a combination of loosely based fact and Hollywood revisionism. This has since become a well known cult classic (with two direct sequels of its own, a TV movie, "A Real American Hero", and a brief TV series, also called "Walking Tall").

On a 2004 episode of the HBO drama "The Wire" titled Moral Midgetry, Baltimore Police Detectives Jimmy McNulty and Kima Greggs leave Baltimore for Virginia where McNulty deragatorily refers to the southern sheriff as Buford Pusser.

A remake by the same name was released in 2004 as a somewhat less realistic and more mainstream film. Also dedicated to Pusser, the remake stars The Rock and again takes liberties with the story, giving the action a more modern setting and premise. Coincidentally, like Pusser, The Rock has had a background in professional wrestling. In this version the main character is not referred to as Buford Pusser but as Chris Vaughn.

Drive-By Truckers wrote songs about the events surrounding Pusser's wife's death and his colorful tenure as sheriff for their 2004 album, "The Dirty South". The album contains a three-song suite, "The Boys from Alabama", "Cottonseed" and "The Buford Stick", that purport to tell "the other side of that story".

Jimmy Buffett references a run-in he had with Pusser in the lyrics of 2 of his songs: "Presents to Send You" ("But my last little bout/I had my hair pulled out/by a man who really wasn't my friend") and "Semi-True Stories" ("A walkin' tall sheriff/and a big Cadillac/and me in my golf shoes/on the hood makin' tracks/this daring young singer/was under attack").

After the success of the 2004 film, "Walking Tall: The Payback" was released in 2007 direct-to-video. The main character ( Kevin Sorbo)'s name was changed to Nick Prescott, and the movie was set in the Dallas area. Later that year on September 25, 2007 Kevin Sorbo returned in "".

In a November 16, 2007 column, Bill Simmons, "the Sports Guy," compared NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to Pusser. Comedian and talk-radio host Dennis Miller occasionally refers to a "Buford Pusser Stick" on his radio show, in reference to a fictional scene from the movie "Walking Tall" where Pusser uses a stick to beat up everyone in a roadhouse.

Buford T. Justice, the southern lawman played by Jackie Gleason in the film Smokey and the Bandit, is loosely based on Pusser.

Other Family Information

* Daughter Dwana Pusser-Garrison previously owned the restaurant, Pussers, which was dedicated to her father. It included plaques of his movies on the walls, and, many of his items set up around the restaurant. It is no longer in business.

* Dwana's daughter named her son after Pusser, his name is Hayses

ee also

*Walking Tall (movies)
*Adamsville, Tennessee

External links

* [http://www.sheriffbufordpusser.com/ Official home page]
* [http://www.bufordpussermuseum.com/ Official Buford Pusser Museum Home Page]
*imdb name|id=0701131|name=Buford Pusser
* [http://www.beyondthebadge.com/bufordpusser.htm A Buford Pusser Page & More Links]
* [https://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/2007/07/2007_07_060.asp Essay on George McGann, who Pusser thought was partially responsible for his wife's murder]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1603 Buford Pusser Gravesite]
* [http://www.legendarysheriff.com/ History of Buford Pusser]