Transcript

Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS

From Behind the Bastards · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 1 h 6 min · 12,671 words · 199 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS", an episode of Behind the Bastards published September 26, 2025 (1 h 6 min, about 12,671 words). It mentions 15 people, works and ideas, including Buford Pusser, Pauline Pusser, Dixie Mafia, Stateline Gang, Walking Tall.

What this episode is about

The discussion delves into the controversial legacy of Buford Pusser, a sheriff known for his brutal tactics while combating crime, often depicted in films like "Walking Tall." It explores his infamous reputation, the violent nature of his enforcement methods, and the cultural references that stemmed from his life and actions, including the impact on popular media.

Key takeaways

  • Buford Pusser: a hero mythologized, yet his real exploits paint a more complex portrait of violence.
  • The 'log' in Walking Tall? More of a prop than Pusser's actual weapon of choice—reality is often less glamorous.
  • Taglines can lie: 'The measure of a man'? In Pusser's case, it's the height of his violence, not stature.
  • Hollywood loves a tall tale; The Rock's reboot underscores fiction’s flair over gritty reality—truth is stranger than cinema.
  • Even mobsters have families and morals; Pusser's brand of justice raises questions: does crime ever pay, or add to the chaos?

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 10:00: Buford Pusser, Walking Tall, Pauline Pusser, Stateline Gang
  2. – 20:00: Stateline Gang, Buford Pusser, Adamsville, Louise Hathcock
  3. – 30:00: Dixie Mafia, Stateline Gang, Carl White, Jack Hathcock
  4. – 40:00: Buford Pusser, Dixie Mafia, Pauline Pusser, Adamsville
  5. – 50:00: Buford Pusser, Pauline Pusser, Mississippi Moonshine Politics
  6. – 1:00:00: Walking Tall, Buford Pusser, Adamsville, Carl White
  7. – 1:06:07: Buford Pusser, Walking Tall

Notable quotes from "Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS"

  • Settle a problem by calling in the police because they were a mafia. But in this case, Buford and his friends had committed straight up felony assault against somebody. So Hathcock Jr.
    about Buford Pusser · at
  • Louise had decided to end her 20-year partnership and marriage with Jack Hathcock because in 1957 she'd fallen in love with a different criminal figure, a lieutenant from one of the most powerful.
    about Louise Hathcock · at
  • Something. if you've ever been to that [ __ ] town. per his description, the Dixie Mafia was started by a lot of guys who you might call rejects from East Coast organized…
    about Dixie Mafia · at
  • And according to that story, despite Buford being basically an unkillable law god, Towhead White decides, I'm going to take this guy down for murdering my girlfriend Luis.…
    about Carl White · at
  • For a summary of what happened next from an article on al.com, His wife Pauline, a 33-year-old mother of three, insisted on going with him, and they listened to an eighttrack cassette. He said, We were discussing a vacation we were.
    about Pauline Pusser · at
  • In the book Mississippi Moonshine Politics, Janice Tracy describes him as having quote the lower half of his face virtually shot off. Now, Janice is a good writer and this is a good book, but.
    about Mississippi Moonshine Politics · at
  • Yeah. In 1971, WR Morris wrote a book about Buford titled The 12th of August, which is the day that he and his wife were targeted by that quote unquote assassination attempt. This is the book that was ultimately adapted into 1973's.
    about Walking Tall · at
  • Other reason people are heading to McNary for tourism, right? Which is why the water tower in Adamsville has a silhouette of Buford with his trademark big stick. There's a…
    about Adamsville · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Buford Pusser — Person · Primary subject (bastard profile) · 17 mentions · first at
    Central figure of the episode: a Tennessee lawman whose public 'Walking Tall' hero myth is contrasted with allegations of corruption, violence, and murdering his wife Pauline.
  • Pauline Pusser — Person · Victim / key figure in disputed 사건 · 3 mentions · first at
    Buford Pusser's wife; her 1967 killing is presented as the pivotal event where modern investigators suspect domestic-violence homicide staged as a mob hit.
  • Louise Hathcock — Person · Organized-crime figure / antagonist in narrative · 2 mentions · first at
    Depicted as a prominent Stateline gang leader; her conflict with Buford culminates in her being shot dead during a raid, with allegations she was shot in the back.
  • Carl White — Person · Organized-crime figure (Dixie Mafia lieutenant) · 4 mentions · first at
    Identified as Louise Hathcock's lover ('Towhead') and a Dixie Mafia figure; later framed in lore as orchestrating retaliation against Buford after Louise's death.
  • Dana Pusser — Person · Family narrator / source author (in-episode) · 1 mention · first at
    Buford and Pauline's daughter; cited as an authorial voice defending/romanticizing Buford (e.g., time-card alibi as 'smart planning') and describing his use of lumber as a weapon.
    That Yeah, that is a good wrestling bit. so one of the last things that Buford and Pauline would do in Chicago before they moved back to Adamsville was have their first child, Dana, on January 9th of 1961. And almost immediately after.
  • Jack Hathcock — Person · Criminal figure / Louise Hathcock's husband (historical) · 2 mentions · first at
    Louise Hathcock's husband and criminal partner; later murdered in a plot involving Louise and Carl 'Towhead' White, illustrating the violent milieu around the Stateline gang.
    Now, she does file for divorce, but that's just step one because Jack, like everyone else in the story, is a murderous gangster. And Luis and Carl know, just divorcing him isn't going to be quite enough, right? Like that's.
  • Kirsy McNord Nicks Jr. — Person · Alleged intermediary / hitman organizer (as described) · 2 mentions · first at
    Named as a Dixie Mafia-connected figure allegedly used by Carl White to arrange an assassination attempt on Buford; part of the contested 'official' lore around Pauline's death.
    He has strong connections to another Dixie Mafia figure, a guy named Kirsy Mcnord Nicks Jr. So, Towhead White.
  • Benjamin Buford Blue — Person · Pop-culture reference (name example) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned only as the full name of 'Bubba' from Forrest Gump, used as a humorous aside about the rarity of the name 'Buford.'
    The only This is not a person that I know. The only time I've ever heard that name was Benjamin Buford Blue. The full name of Bubba from Forest Gump. I know that doesn't count. I didn't remember that was Bubba's full name.

Books & papers

  • Walking Tall — Book · Referenced work · 10 mentions · first at
    A book that contributed to the mythos of Buford Pusser, later adapted into a movie.
  • Mississippi Moonshine Politics — Book · Referenced work · 3 mentions · first at
    A book providing context on the criminal and political landscape of the time, including the Dixie Mafia and Stateline Gang.
  • True Detective — Book · Referenced work · 1 mention · first at
    A magazine where Buford Pusser wrote about his wrestling career.
    We don't there's just not I wish there was more detail about his wrestling career. Basically, the only real documentation we have of it is a 1970 article that Buford wrote…

Companies & orgs

  • Walking Tall Museum — Company · Business focus · 1 mention · first at
    A museum dedicated to Buford Pusser and the Walking Tall mythos.
    The water tower in Adamsville has a silhouette of Buford with his trademark big stick. There's a museum for him and of course the town historical soc or the county historical…

Concepts & topics

  • Dixie Mafia — Concept · Core topic · 8 mentions · first at
    A criminal organization based in the South, mentioned in the context of Buford Pusser's conflicts and the broader criminal landscape of the time.
  • Stateline Gang — Concept · Core topic · 5 mentions · first at
    A criminal group operating near state lines, central to Buford Pusser's story and his alleged war on crime.
    Yeah. so normally the Stateline gang was not the kind of group who would settle a problem by calling in the police because they were a mafia. But in this case, Buford and his friends had.

Places & events

  • Adamsville — Place · Setting · 4 mentions · first at
    The hometown of Buford Pusser and a central location in his story.

Full transcript with timestamps

And we're back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast about bad people, the worst ones in all of history. This is part two of our series on Buford Pusser, the man whose family could not give their kids normal names to save their lives. Uh, also, he committed a bunch of horrible crimes and killed people. Back as my guest, Dan O'Brien. Hello. Thank you for having me. There's uh there's no depth to my appetite for pusser.

Mhm. That's that's right. I just love pusser. Um Buford I I'm agnostic on. Have you ever met a Buford?

Do you know a single Buford? The only This is not a person that I know. The only time I've ever heard that name was uh Benjamin Buford Blue. The full name of Bubba from Forest Gump. I know that doesn't count. I didn't remember that was Bubba's full name.

That's a person I know. But yeah, that's the only other instance of that name I've ever heard anywhere.

Huh. Yeah, I I I know that I'm actually looking up the name of the sheriff from Smokeoky and the Bandit. Yeah. Buford T. Justice is the sheriff from Smokey and the Bandit. Yeah.

Um which I think is probably the first time I heard that name and did not realize that it was Yeah. That was m came out in 77. So he was definitely named after Buford Pusser cuz Walking Tall came out in 73. um kind of a more accurate parody of of Buford Pusser as opposed to the the version in Walking Tall that's basically a hero.

The cool sheriff guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of those movies, if you've watched any of the Walking Tall movies, you're probably aware, as I've mentioned, that he was Buford was mostly famous for using a large stick or a bat or piece of wood to beat up gangsters. the original poster, which Sophie's going to show for those of you watching the video version, uh, is just, it looks like he's just holding like a log, like but like a trimmed log, like a log that someone has processed to be nice firewood, like it's had the bark shaved off and everything, but it does just look like a log. Like

he kind of looks like if Javier Bardm was also a zombie. Yeah, that's that's how the illustrated Yeah. Uh, Buford in walking in the poster looks.

Yeah. And then of course the tagline of the original movie, the measure of a man is how tall he walks.

What does that mean? I mean, you just mean that like the taller you are, the better you are. Like

shut up. Just shut the [ __ ] up. What is What is that? It's somewhere between literal and poetic,

right? Where where like you would measure I mean I guess the measure of a man Yes. is how tall

literally yes you can measure a man by how tall he is. Yes. But I don't think like you're saying a lot about the man necessarily, especially since like the fact that a man can walk tall after being born or after being 6'6. Like that's that's less impressive. Like if he was a short man who had like a his personality, you know, or whatever you're saying like he he walked tall, that's something just being like that's just Napoleon,

you know, this giant guy. He sure was tall, right? If they're if they're going literal, it's very boring and there's nothing much to say about it. You're saying that the the tallness is the tallness. If they're going poetic, they also don't do a good enough uh job defining what walking tall means. Like what is

it means? You've beaten a man half to death with lumber. He walks the most tall.

Yeah, I mean I guess so, but that's not really a point in his favor. He just happened to be big. Um, now the more recent reboot featuring The Rock, which was a loose adaptation of the original movie that was not explicitly based on the life of Buford Pusser shows The Rock carrying It's interesting the differences between these. Instead of carrying like a trimmed log, he's carrying what looks just like a piece of like uh construction timber.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That he's just he's just gotten his hand there. Uh, and the tagline there is one man will stand up for what's right, which is at least a better tagline than the first movie had. Uh, and it notes that it's inspired by a true story, which it wasn't.

Yeah. As we'll discuss today. Um, so the whole myth, as I I noted about him using a large piece of wood to fight crime started when Buford hit WO Hathcock Jr. in the skull with a fence post. Buford's daughter noted in her book, Walking On, "There was a handful of other times when Daddy would find use for a sizable piece of lumber when going up against bad guys, but as often as not, he went in bare-handed or maybe would grab something more like a switch. That's usually all that was necessary. But his first retaliation against the Stateline mob was personal, and it did indeed require a fence post."

Yeah. Yeah. It's okay. That's so interesting to describe a a mob fight as personal. They're all personal.

Yeah. Yeah. People are trying to kill you. It feels very personal. Um it is funny to me that she's like there were a handful of times where he'd find a big piece of lumber to fight people with. That was like a thing he did.

Yeah. Um, so normally the Stateline gang was not the kind of group who would settle a problem by calling in the police because they were a mafia. But in this case, Buford and his friends had committed straight up felony assault against somebody. So Hathcock Jr. pressed charges and Buford was arrested with his buddies and extradited to Mississippi. They were charged with assault with attempt to commit murder and armed robbery, both of which are probably accurate descriptions of what they'd done. Buert's daughter doesn't write that he robbed Hathcock Jr. but it sounds like he did and I wouldn't be surprised if he well they took my money that I gambled away so I'm going to take whatever's in his wallet, right? Like I really It does sound like he actually also just robbed the guy again rather than this being he was so upset at all the crime he had to fight against these gangsters. It was like no

he beat a man to death and took his money. He lost money at a casino and got beat up and then wanted to rectify that specific situation for himself 10 days after his wedding. It needs to be repeated.

Yeah. Right after the wedding. Yeah. Um, so Buford and his friends, they get extradited, but they don't wind up getting convicted because again, he's got that, like you said, he's got that cop brain for when he's committing violent crimes where he made sure to set up an alibi for himself and his his buddies before they went out to attack Hathcock Jr. And their defense hinged on the fact that they worked at a factory together in Chicago, and they'd all filled out time cards, and there were time cards for all three men that showed them working on the day of the assault.

Um, and then they just had like a friend fake the time card so they could go out and beat that guy. And Dana Pusser writes about this in her book about her dad and again describes it as like a light-hearted prank as opposed to somebody like consciously trying to evade the law while committing felonies.

Quote, "As it turns out, yeah, very premeditated." Yes. As it turns out, having a friend clock their their time cards for them while they were gone proved to be a stroke of really smart planning by Daddy and his friends. That's one way to describe a criminal conspiracy. Yeah. A stroke of really smart planning.

God, it's like one of my favorite planners, the Zodiac Killer. Yeah. Great at planning. In a stroke of very smart planning, he cut the body up into 40 pieces and threw it in a river. So once the trial ended, Buford and his new wife Pauline returned to Chicago where he started attending a mortuary school to get a proper degree. So he he he decides to try to make this a career still. And he's kind of like working at a factory. He's going to mortuary school at night and then on the weekends he starts wrestling. He becomes a pro wrestler as a way to pick up extra money. Now, Buford was good enough that he caught the eye of Jerry Lawler, uh, the wrestling icon who later helped The Rock get started, which is a weird direct connection between the two men.

But King Lawler. Yeah. Yeah. Lawler was reportedly a friend of Buford Pusser when or like a fan of his when he was a wrestler.

That's I mean, there you go. If there's a beh if there's a behind the bastards on Jerry the King Lawler, I will never that'll be the one episode that I skip because I love

I love him too much. I I don't have any evidence of him doing anything bad. And we don't I don't actually have proof that he actually was a fan of Buford. He's reported reputed to have been a fan of Buford,

but there's a lot of like maybe that was a lie. I don't know. You know, uh it's it's also not entirely like

like he was a huge dude, you know. I could see him being decent at wrestling. Um,

absolutely. Yeah. So, that said, he's not wildly successful and he does not become a national name. This is never going to be anything that like makes becomes a career for him, but it does teach him some lessons that will be useful in his later crimes. Uh, as of 1958, it was still mostly a weekend gig. He does do some pretty good perizmances. His largest being he he wrestles at an event at Kamiski Park in Chicago in front of 37,000 people. So, like, you know, he's not he's not a nobody here, you know, that's that's that's not nothing. Um, he we don't there's just not I wish there was more detail about his wrestling career. Basically, the only real documentation we have of it is a 1970 article that Buford wrote after he got famous uh for an issue of the men's adventure magazine, True Detective. So, again, not great journalistic reputation, True Detective magazine. Um, but in that article he claims that the

hardest match of his wrestling career was in Union City, Tennessee against a guy named Big Bill Crockett. They both wrestled the night before in Jackson and Buford had gotten a nasty gash on his forehead during that fight. And so when they fight again the next fight, I'm going to continue here from Buford's article. When the referee called us out to shake hands in Union City, he hauled off and hit me with his fist, busted open the cut he'd opened the night before. When he hit me the second night, that's when the fight come off. We didn't wrestle, we just fought. It was a little old makeshift ring and we tore it down. The referee stopped us, got some canvas and lumber and patched it up.

Then we fought some more and tore it down again. I don't know how I'd got home that night if I hadn't had a wrestler named Billy Daniels to drive for me. Both eyes were swollen shut. My hands were so sore my fingers got stiff like claws. I was stiff as a board for days. It was along then that I decided to give up wrestling. So that'll be basically his only rational decision in life. Um,

I I would argue uh that makes him a bad professional wrestler. I think that's probably fair.

Okay, good. Yeah. Yeah. I I think when you when you lose your temper enough that you have an actual fight and destroy the ring twice, although I do want to see that fight,

like I bet that was a hell of a thing to watch. And like gosh, whether this is a embellishment or not, uh it's a really good legitimate pro wrestling bit to fight so bad that the ring breaks and then they rebuild the ring and then the ring around you.

That's excellent. That Yeah, that that is a good wrestling bit. Um, so one of the last things that Buford and Pauline would do in Chicago before they moved back to Adamsville was have their first child, Dana, on January 9th of 1961. And almost immediately after that happens, uh, they move back to Adamsville. And I I I want to quote now from an article uh, by the McNary Historical Society. His dad Carl was chief of police in Adamsville. He was retiring and encouraged Buford to apply for his job. After a vote from the city board, Buford was made chief of police.

Thus began his law enforcement career. Now that's a that seems like it's leaving out a lot, right?

Was made chief of police. He was made chief of police, right? And the the way Dwana describes it, they had to beg him to be the chief of police. Like he really didn't want it and they had to force it on him. There's a lot that we just don't have here. the the little bitty details around the edges that get left out that I have been able to find paint to kind of a darker picture. So, among other things, this is back during a time when small town law enforcement was less of like a career track and more like a gig you could fall into by accident, right? Like if you're in a county and like the sheriff is like an elected position and you're just a popular guy, you might wind up being the sheriff even if like that wasn't your ambition, you know? Um, but also there's a lot of money being the sheriff in a town that has organized crime in it. And that's kind of the this I I can't say this for certain, but I really heavily

suspect based on a couple of things I've read that his dad Carl was crooked and wanted to pass on the job as police chief to his son so that the money from being crooked cops in this mafia town could continue to stay in the family. Right. Um, he becomes the police chief after he's horribly injured in a car accident. There's a lot of car accidents in this story.

No, no, no. This is his dad. Totally separate car. So, his dad becomes the chief of police after he gets too hurt to work in a pipeline. Um, which is also weird. And yeah, does the job for just a few years and then decides he's he's too hurt and he pushes for his son to take the job. Now, given the reality of crime at the time in McNary County, this was not an easy job enforcing the law near the state line. Um, and it was made harder by the fact that everyone whose job was to enforce the law in the area was, as best as I can tell, also incredibly corrupt, right? Like, no one was really all that interested in enforcing the law, including Buford. The McNary County Sheriff worked with the Stateline gang to ensure that alcohol kept getting smuggled into the county.

Uh, and as soon as he became the police chief, Buford, the way he he would describe things is like he set himself against these corrupt cops to like fight for justice and fight against the mafia. The way I interpret it and what I think the the body of evidence suggests now is he was just kind of trying to edge these other law enforcement guys out of the racket, right? Because they were all getting

cuts and he wanted more money for himself. Um because as soon as he becomes the police chief, he runs for constable and he wins a narrow victory as constable in uh 1962 and after that he's going to immediately like set his sights on becoming the sheriff. So like what he's doing here is he's getting rid of the competition. He's trying to make himself the only lawman in town in part because then the cut only gets split one way. Right.

Sure. Now kind of delay laying out exactly what happened here is hard because most of what was written during this time period was written from the perspective that like Buford Pusser was a hero who w was going on a crusade against the whiskey trade. That's how Michael Birdwell describes what he does for the Tennessee Encyclopedia as like a crusade. Like this was a like a almost like a holy war that he was waging against bootleggers.

Yeah, those are always good, right? Yeah, we love a good holy war. Yeah. No one's ever done one of those with uh uh an ulterior motive.

Yeah. Anytime someone has committed to something that they've described as a crusade, my immediate thought is like, well, it sounds like they're cleareyed, levelheaded about it.

Yeah. It sounds like you're sane and reasonable and pursuing this reasonably. Um, now again, modern evidence suggests that he was perfectly happy taking money from bootlegging. Uh, and that his issue was both specifically with the state line gang because they had beef and with the fact that like he wanted more of the money that was coming in from these illegal businesses, right? Rather than he had an issue with the businesses in the first place. So that's why he would go after people, right? he was effectively starting to make people pay protection

first as the police chief and then as the sheriff, right? Um now we do know that the evidence of corruption between area law enforcement and the state line gang is certainly a lot broader than even just the stories Buford would tell. Like there is out he's not the only guy saying that like the sheriff when he became police chief was crooked. There's evidence for this outside of Buford. The book Mississippi Moonshine Politics is a great anecdote about Luis Hathcock that really sells how locked down the Steline gang had things with the cops before Buford got into the mix. Quote, "After one particular raid on the 45 Grill, a deputy sheriff arrived early one morning at the Hathcock home in Corinth to arrest Luis on liquor charges. Since Luis was still in her bathrobe, she asked the deputy to wait while she changed into her workc clothes, fixed her hair, and applied some makeup.

Oddly, the deputy agreed. Once she was dressed for work at the roadhouse, the deputy allowed Louise to drive to the sheriff's office in her own vehicle. Once Luis arrived, she quickly posted a $500 bail and made it to work before the lunch crowd arrived. And that's just that's just you're paying a bribe on your way to work to the cops. Right.

I love this woman so so much. It's a shame what happens to her cuz she's very cool.

What a bummer. Speaking of things that depress me, not go into ads. I every moment of my life is agony outside of the the the brief periods of time in which products and services are being advertised on this podcast. We're back and my long nightmare continues. Tragic. So, uh Pusser is going to run for sheriff. You know, he becomes the the the police chief. He becomes the constable. Uh, and the next thing he's going to do is he's going to get that crooked McNary County Sheriff out so that he can continue his crusade against Moonshine/take all of the money for himself. Now, he made some interesting decisions when he started this run. Uh, the weirdest of which is that he chose to run as a Republican in what was then a Democratic stronghold.

This should have been more of a problem for him, but he got lucky because his rival, the incumbent sheriff James Dicki, died in a horrible car accident partway through the election, clearing Buford an easy path to victory. Now,

man, did Buford have anything to do with that car accident? Can I can I just just on behalf of the audience just without any jokes or frills just say that yes, you're

Dicky and Pusser. Dicky is the name. It was Dicky v Pusser and Dick was pulverized and cleared a path for Pusser to snatch this victory.

Mhm. All right. Yeah, that's uh that's story of Dicky v Pusser. Yeah. Um and again, we know Buford is willing to kill people and stage assassinations to get what he wanted. Like this is me speculating. I just wouldn't be shocked if he had something to do with Dickiy's death. That said, this is like the fourth car accident that we've talked about in these episodes.

So, you also have to acknowledge it was the 60s. Everyone was drunk and nobody had seat belts, right? So, people just die in cars a lot back then.

Um, so as soon as he gets elected, sheriff Pusser began an immediate spree of high-profile raids against state line gang properties. Local papers reported that he'd bust into gambling dens carrying a pickaxe and use it to destroy tables and roulette wheels. In his first year on the job, he is said to have raided 42 stills and arrested almost twice as many moonshiners. So, he's he's he's going on like a rampage here, right? Like, as soon as he gets in and he get like the news picks up on this, like he he gets famous for the way he's doing this cuz sometimes he's calling reporters along so they can see him busting up stuff with a pickaxe or a stick. Now, by this point, the Stateline gang that he's he's declared war against has undergone a change of leadership.

Louise had decided to end her 20-year partnership and marriage with Jack Hathcock because in 1957 she'd fallen in love with a different criminal figure, a lieutenant from one of the most powerful gangs in the area, the Dixie Mafia.

Now, yeah. Yeah. Uh, this is John Fcock. It would be that would be pretty funny if she if she'd fallen for John Folk. No, she keeps going to Jack by by Hathcock, by the way, after she does what she does, which is interesting to me. But that's the story we're telling now. So, the Dixie Mafia, where she falls for this guy who's a lieutenant there, is based out of the strip, which is this neighborhood in Baloxy that's basically Mississippi's answer to Las Vegas. Edward Humes, the author of a book called Mississippi Mud that's on the Dixie Mafia, describes the strip as the cancerous heart of Beloxy. And given the rest of Boxy, that's really saying something. if you've ever been to that [ __ ] town. Um, per his description, the Dixie Mafia was started by a lot of guys who you might call rejects from East Coast organized crime. Like, it was initially a bunch of guys who got in too much trouble in night like New York or

Jersey and had to flee to the middle of nowhere so they wouldn't get offed. Like, that's kind of who founds the Dixie Mafia. Um,

yeah. So these are these are both tough guys and also maybe not quite the top of the game, right? Because they had to flee to

Bloxy, right? It's oops Alfredo. It's not you're not going to get any of the the cream of the crop there.

No, no, no. It these guys are like Yeah. the the dudes who My alternative to moving here was to get murdered. Um, so Luis Hathcock, the guy she falls for, is named Carl White and he's nicknamed Towhead. Uh, a Tallahhatche boy. Yeah,

Carl Towhead White. This these episodes, the names. There's some great names. I think you're [ __ ] with us. You're just throw I feel like you're just throwing fake names in there.

I was worried when when we went from puss and dickies and Hathcocks to a white, you know, boring name, but then nicknamed towhead. We're back in the game baby.

Yeah, boy. Honey. Yeah. Towhead was a Tallahe born gangster who'd risen to the highest levels of the Dixie Mafia. Um, and yeah, Louise falls in love with this guy. Uh, and so she's got to split up with Jack. Now, she does file for divorce, but that's just step one because Jack, like everyone else in the story, is a murderous gangster. And Luis and Carl know, just divorcing him isn't going to be quite enough, right? Like that's that's not really an option with this kind of crime marriage. Author Janice Tracy summarizes, "The rest of the story of Janice and Louise reads like a bem movie script. Luis divorced Jack.

Towhead and Luis conspired to murder Jack, and Toadhead shot and killed Jack in a motel room where he was enticed by his wife. Luis convinced authorities she had shot Jack in self-defense and showed bruises to authorities that she had allowed Toadhead to inflict on her body. Although Luis was charged with killing Jack in self-defense, it was no surprise when the charges later were dismissed. Luis and Toadhead continued their off and-on relationship, at least when Toadhead was in town. The couple never married in part because Luis saw through Toadhead's often obvious attempts to gain control of her money and her business operations.

So, yeah, this is a smart, tough lady. Orchestrates the murder of her husband and then

keeps her boyfriend at arms lengths cuz she's like, "Look, man, I like you and thanks for help with the murder, but like you're not going to own my businesses. Like, that's that's my stuff. You know, I put up with this guy for 20 years. I'm not giving up my business.

Yeah. It's such a bummer that this was the past. If she had waited a few more decades before being alive, she'd have been a very powerful figure in government.

Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yes. She she could have she might have been able to win the presidency right?

She's got that kind of ruthlessness and uh organizational school and apparently a very good cook. The whole package really.

Yeah. um if you don't mind getting murdered maybe which I've had worse things happen in relationships. So, and this is another crucial dimension to the Buford Poser story because by the time he declares his war on the stateline gang, their most prominent leader is a woman, right? And it may just be the case that why Buford starts going after them is less because he's hates crime and he's got this vendetta and more he thinks they're weak because a woman's in charge and he can take over control of the business, right? or at least get a better deal, you know, if somebody else winds up in charge or if he doesn't have like right he sees weakness here. I think that's why he does what he does.

Whatever the case, in late 1964, Louis's gang strikes back. Buford was ambushed by an unknown number of questionably competent assassins who stab him seven times and then leave him for dead. They don't take any effort to confirm that he's dead. Buford survives and this obviously makes him famous, right? like that there's this law man who's he's been doing all these very showy raids, cracking down on bootleggers and and you know, organized crime in the area and then he gets ambushed and stabbed repeatedly and he manages to survive and continue attacking the mob. You know, he's becoming a hero at this point. The news is is is covering him like that.

And did this really he was definitely stabbed a bunch of times. Was it an assassination attempt or is this something because he's later going to injure himself as part of like a faked assassination attempt? And so it kind of

this is probably real cuz they definitely the Stateline gang had a reason to, but I can't not doubt it now. Right.

Right. For all we know, he just got tangled up with so many [ __ ] volleyball nets again and was like, "Oh no,

I had to cut down seven volleyball nets." Live this down. Yeah, we found him tangled t covered in blood, tangled in seven volleyball nets. What happened, Buford? They tried to kill me.

It was the mob again. It was the mob. It was the Stateline mob. Um, but Buford does like the thing he's best at is he's very good at nursing this growing mythos around himself, right? He gives he gives a lot of interviews. He likes talking to the press. He's good at working the media, such as it is in his era. and he really likes the image of himself as this badass log wielding juggernaut of justice. So he starts making a point when that when he realizes, oh that's one of the things that like is really playing well with the audience, he starts carrying a hickory stick whenever he goes to on raids to bust moonshine stills so the press sees him with it, right? Even though it's it's not really useful for anything, it's part of his his legend at this point.

In 1966, he launches his most ambitious arrest yet. He takes a squad of deputies to the Shamrock Hotel, which is the center of the Hathcock Criminal Empire. The official story is that during the arrest, Luis pulls a gun and Buford shoots her dead in self-defense. Louise's family will insist up to the present day that she was shot in the back and thus probably not a self-defense case. He just murdered her. Right.

Yeah. And again, the I think that's pretty credible. That said, Louise definitely is not the kind of person who wouldn't pull a gun on a law man, right? I just think she was probably too smart to have tried to do that then. I think it's likelier that he murdered her.

Yeah. I don't think uh for the the woman shrewd enough to keep her financials intact and the woman shrewd enough to like let me get changed and put on my makeup and drive myself to post my own bail before I go to work. I don't I think she is also shrewd enough to not shoot the the famous hero cop that everyone talks about. I think

who's there with all of his cops in a daylight raid. Yeah. Yeah. I I that's how I feel too. And it there's something very sad about within the criminal underworld. Obviously, this is like a brutal these are brutal, violent, dangerous people. But within that world and its rules, she is able to succeed and survive

and taking her out requires someone the only kind of person who doesn't have to abide by any sort of rule, which is a sheriff, right? Like that's the reality of law enforcement then and now. But like sheriffs have such a degree of autonomy and power. And when Buford says, "Oh yeah, she pulled a gun on me so I had to shoot her." doesn't matter that she was shot in the back. Like no one else's version of events is is going to carry water here. And it's just it's so unfair. Like if you were playing by the same rules Luis was playing, you never would have won Buford, right?

Yeah. Absolutely. Just such a a a coward coward's way to win this war, right? And like

probably set back women's rights, at least in crime, couple of crime rights. Yes.

Yeah. It took decades for them to to to recover. Um, yeah. I was trying to remember a famous lady mafioso, but actually they they mostly were in most of the ones I know were from like the ' 60s7s like that that that lady who invented murdering people using motorcycles.

Um, that's cool. Yeah, we did a BTB on her at one point. She was she was great. Um, so yeah, Buford's people write the official reports and so his version of events here is the one that history accepted. people are only now starting to really like question it on a white although I I should point out the Hathcock family has for decades been saying like no he totally murdered her right

people just didn't listen to them because they were famous criminals of course um now over the next couple of years Buford expanded his war on crime across the state line and even into territory operated by the Dixie Mafia his legend grew with him the Buford Pusser Museum lists his greatest hits and a bulleted list that I am sure is largely inaccurate But it gives you an idea of how people talk about like the legends that's grown up about this guy. So here's the their bulleted list of his accomplishments. Shot eight times, knifed seven times, fought off six men at once, sending three to jail and three to the hospital, destroyed 87 whiskey stills in in 1965 alone, killed two people in self-defense, hopped on the hood of a speeding car, smashed the window, and subdued the man who had tried to run over him. Okay.

Now, could be a little bit of truth in that. I mean, it's fair to say that he came into contact with a car and its window.

We know that he was he was stabbed several times. Who did the stabbing? Was it him? Was it other people? Probably a mix. He was shot several times.

At least one of those times he shot himself. Were the other times people shooting him or did he like who knows?

Uh he may have fought six men at once, although I kind of doubt it, but he was a really big guy.

Yeah, I mean it's it depends on the definition of fighting. I would believe that he like a a crowd of guys were around him and he

starts hitting took took a stick out and spun in a circle real fast the way children do. I think that's that's viable.

Yeah. uh or he got angry and he started beating on some guys and they were like, "Well, that is literally the sheriff, so we probably can't really fight back.

We're not allowed to kill him. His deputies have guns pointed at us. Maybe we just take the beating." Um perhaps that's likelier. Um that said, no one doubts that Buford got into a lot of gunfights and basically every other kind of fight under the sun. The more recent allegations do suggest that he killed more than two people and probably not any of them in self-defense and what we would call self-defense.

Um, and modern evidence also suggests heavily that he personally profited from his crime busting work. And maybe what he was doing was less a one-man war on crime than demanding protection money and busting operations who wouldn't pay him.

So, this next part of the Buford poster story is by far the most debated. Okay,

first I'm going to give you the story that almost definitely didn't happen, but this is what everyone believed had happened for decades, right? This is the story that's like the basis for the the climactic events of the movie Walking Tall right?

Okay. And according to that story, despite Buford being basically an unkillable law god, Towhead White decides, I'm going to take this guy down for murdering my girlfriend Luis. Right? that that's the the the story that Towhead is just he's he's trying to get vengeance for his dead lover. So White, who was known to the FBI as one of the top hoods in the Southeast, which I I think just means top gangsters and not the other thing a hood might mean in the rural South.

Um he was furious and still grieving over the loss of his lover in 1966. And he decides to get Buford assassinated. He has strong connections to another Dixie Mafia figure, a guy named Kirsy Mcnord Nicks Jr. So, Towhead White. Again, not a normal name in this episode.

Kirby McNord Nicks Jr. Kir Kirsy Mcnord Nicks Jr. Yes. Oh, Kirsy. Um, now the reason why White needs Kirsy is that White is behind bars at this point. He's gotten locked up for one of his many crimes. Um, while Nyx is free and allegedly the center of a gang of hitmen and hired muscles. So Nyx is kind of like the guy in the Dixie Mafia that you call if you need some wet work done, right? He'll he'll ice a [ __ ] for you. So from prison, Towhead is accused to have orchestrated an assassination attempt using Nyx to do the on the ground work. Nixon has hired goons. So, we know that Nick visits the Shamrock Hotel the day before uh on August 11th, the day before Sheriff Pusser receives a phone call from an anonymous caller who tells him there's a couple of drunks going at it out on the edge of town. Someone's going to get killed. So, an anonymous caller calls the station and reports these drunk guys

are like fighting and the police need to break it up otherwise someone's going to die, right? And they give a location to Sheriff Pusser who promises to drive out and take care of it. In the lore established by Pusser after this point, his wife Pauline wasn't just a good wa life partner. She was also moderately involved in his business as sheriff and regularly rode along on calls with him. This is what he claims that she loved to go with him as he was fighting crime. She was his ride or die and she decides at the last minute as he's heading out to bust up this fight between these drunks to come along with him. So, the couple hits the road a little after 4:00 a.m. on August 12th, 1967.

For a summary of what happened next from an article on al.com, "His wife Pauline, a 33-year-old mother of three, insisted on going with him, and they listened to an eighttrack cassette." He said, "We were discussing a vacation we were planning to take to Florida the next day," Buford Pusser told the Tennessee in 1969. After they passed New Hope Methodist Church, he claimed a car pulled up alongside his Plymouth and someone inside fired a 30 caliber carbine rifle into his vehicle. I knew Pauline was hit, Pusser told the newspaper. I cradled Pauline's head in my lap and prayed over and over again, "Oh God, don't let her die." He told the reporter he never returned fire from the shotgun or handgun by his side and instead drove several miles, waiting until he thought he escaped the ambushers to pull over. He then claimed the car again pulled up to his and someone fired at him at point blank

range. I felt my face getting torn off my head. Pusser said my chin was hanging on my chest. I don't see how I lived. So that's the story he gives. And this is this is the story that makes him famous, right? Um now you might have noticed there's a couple of sketchy things there, right?

Yeah. First off, the fact that he's describing, well, we got shot first and my wife was hit and then I drove and I thought I had gotten away from them and then later they came up and shot me. Well, what are you establishing? That my injuries and my wife's injuries didn't happen simultaneously. Right. Right.

And that there's multiple locations involved in the shooting. And I get that he's uh a a law man, but what are you stopping at lights? What do you mean they caught up to you and shot you again when you were

Buford while your wife's bleeding to death or whatever? Right. You didn't go straight to a hospital? Like what was your plan there? Um, now as far as the injuries Buford got, both he and his wife were shot with a 30 caliber uh I mean it's it's technically a rifle or a carbine, right? And most of the articles will describe it as like these is high velocity rounds, but in terms of ballistics, a 30 caliber is not like a big bullet, right? it it's closer to like a a 9mm handgun round than for example like a 5.56 the the the the round that you that's fired by an AR-15 normally, right? And I bring this up not for gun nerding purposes, but because it explains how he could survive being shot in the face, right?

Because people often have that question when they hear about this is like, oh well, how could he how could he number one, how could he have survived being shot in the face and also how could he have faked something as serious as being shot in the face? Well, because he was shooting himself in a place and with a bullet that was survivable, right? Okay. Like that. That's the reason I'm bringing that up. Now, the only parts of this initial story that have proven accurate with time is that Pauline Pusser was shot and killed and Buford was shot but not killed, right? Like those are the only two things that definitely happened.

Everything else about the story that Buford told to authorities when he was found and nursed back to health has been shown to have been a lie. No one in law enforcement seriously questioned the heroic sheriff's version of events. He started to claim after he recovered that informants he had inside the Dixie Mafia and the Stateline mob had brought him word that Nicks and White had orchestrated the shooting and they also these informants brought in the name of like three other guys who had been the goons who took part in the actual assassination attempt. Now he never provided any evidence of this nor did he ever produce an actual live informant who was willing to go on the record. And this is the other really suspic thing that should have been suspicious at the time. No charges are ever filed in Pauline's murder against anyone. Even though the sheriff is saying, "I have an informant telling me it's these guys."

No one ever pushes charges. Like nobody ever Yeah. Which Oh, that seems suspicious. You know,

um all of this should have erod like caused suspicion at the time, but it didn't. And it didn't for a couple of interesting reasons. Um, now the reality of the story and what is we're pretty sure at this point happened is that Buford Pusser murdered his own wife and then covered up the murder by faking an assassination attempt. He shot himself, right? After he shot and killed his wife. Now, there were rumors that this had happened immediately afterwards, right? Like it was kind of thing people would whisper about in Adamsville, right? That like I don't know if I believe Buford's story. I don't know if I think that like this is exactly what happened. Um, but it wasn't the kind of thing like this was always like a matter for either like local gossip or independent investigators and and there were through the years a couple of independent investigators who got interested in the Buford Pusser myth.

Uh, one of them published a book trying to like basically arguing years before the most recent round of investigations that Buford had probably murdered his wife. Um, so there were there were people pointing this out earlier, but it wasn't until the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agreed to reopen the case in 2022 that things started to really change publicly. Um, now the reopening of the cold case of Pauline's mur pusser's murder was publicized and once you know there started being articles out that like, oh, they're looking into this famous assassination attempt, the TBI received a tip about the murder weapon which had been sold years later and wound up in the hands of someone who like had tracked it back to its original owner and was willing to give it over to the TBI. So they look at the gun, they analyze the gun, and they conclude based on physical evidence from the crime scene that Pauline was likely shot and

killed outside of the vehicle and then placed inside after death and driven to a second location where Pusser wounded himself and then radioed for help. One investigator concluded this appears to be a domestic violence homicide rather than this notion that they were ambushed in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere in 1967 with no street lights. I mean, this forensic evidence is incredibly helpful, and broadly speaking, I'm uh I'm pretty pro- innocent until proven guilty. If a wife dies and the town is saying, "I bet the husband did it. I don't think this story

like that like generally the the town being lockep in their suspicion. It's like, yeah, he probably did that shit."

Yeah, I think I think Well, Buford killed his wife. Right. And there's there's comes home with a dead wife and a scratch on his face and and everyone's immediately like, "Oh [ __ ] he finally did it."

Yeah. Well, what are you going to call out the guy who murders people who annoy him? The man who shot his grandpa with a 12 gauge for fun? Like,

right. Nah. The mafia killed my wife, man. Sure. Sher Sheriff, that's crazy. That sucks.

Yeah, that definitely sounds real, Sheriff. For sure. also feels pretty case closed, man. I'm not going to ask any questions.

Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. I'm good. Please just stay away from my house. So, uh, look, I got shot, too. No. No. Totally.

That's crazy that you got out of that alive. That mafia must really hate you. Yeah, the mafia did it, huh? Um, so when it after cuz the the case gets reopened by the TBI in 2022 and then in 2024 they have feel like they've got enough evidence to justify exu exuming Pauline and actually doing like a second autopsy. And upon re-examining her body, they find evidence of several serious injuries consistent with domestic violence, including a pre-death nasal fracture that had been in the process of healing when she was killed.

In other words, Buford had broken his wife's nose. day his wife's nose days before actually murdering her.

And you'll never guess, a week before the assassination, the mafia punched my wife.

That's crazy. Came over right to our house and punched us straight in the nose.

Can you believe it? Classic mafia stuff. Uh now as we've talked about there are a couple of reasons why there's not any like serious like at the professional like like public level no one really questions the story at first. Right. Yeah. And first off, it the most obvious reason is that Buford is is so grievously wounded in the attack that people just didn't think he could have inflicted the injuries on himself based on, and this is crucial, his description of the injuries he suffered.

In the book Mississippi Moonshine Politics, Janice Tracy describes him as having quote the lower half of his face virtually shot off. Now, Janice is a good writer and this is a good book, but she's based that line entirely off of Buford's testimony to police, which I quoted earlier, right? Where he's like, "I can't believe I survived. My jaw was basically hanging on to my chest." Right now, Buford himself relied heavily on the supposed severity of his own injury to explain away lingering questions about what happened that night. In a 1969 interview, he insisted, "I loved my wife. I'd have been pretty damn stupid to blow my own jaw off. And it's here I will remind you Buford Pusser was a pro wrestler. He had made a living pretending to suffer serious injuries and even faking injuries for the entertainment of a crowd. District Attorney Mark Davidson, who has been intimately involved with the

re-examination of the case, told al.com, "Our theory is he put a pistol inside his cheek and pulled the trigger and created a flesh wound." And this would have been easy for Buford because as a result of his wrestling career, his the left side of his face was numb because he'd gotten seriously injured a number. It was either that or the car accidents, but he didn't have feeling in that side of his face that he shot himself. And this is a pro tip for all of you listeners out there. If you ever need to fake a grievous injury, shooting through your own cheek creates a hideous looking wound that is unlikely to kill you or even all that seriously injure you.

Right? Like it's not nothing but like not that we're giving is not right. Look, if you've got to if you've got to fake an assassination attempt, shoot yourself in the cheek.

That's all I'm saying. Actually, I think they're pretty it's pretty easy to tell when you've fired the bullet from inside of your mouth. But, you know, if you if you're in a pinch, maybe try shooting yourself in the cheek.

Or Evans. Evans, is it just to fake assassination attempts or if I wanted to scare but not kill or if your listener wanted to scare but not kill someone, would you also recommend shooting your enemies in the cheek?

Absolutely. You know, that is the official stance of this podcast of iHeart Radio. Uh, and of our sponsors, all of whom are very pro- shooting people in the cheek as a bit.

And we're back. Killing me. Yeah. Well, Sophie, apparently we're allowed to say whatever we want about our sponsors because it has not been a problem for us yet.

That's awesome. Knock on wood. I I think I think it's good. Yeah. I'm not sure if my desk is made of real wood. I guess we'll see.

I believe I believe it is. I ordered it. Thank you, sir. I I I feel like I got in trouble for loudly sighing during one of our podcast reads that I'm contractually obligated to do and then uh uh they no longer came back to us.

Whatever that [ __ ] dog food company that made my dog eat crickets and get diarrhea, I think.

Oh, Chewy. Is it Chewy? No, this was uh Give us money, Chewy. No, Chew. Chewy's all right.

Mave. I think Mave was No, no, no, no. Uh, I'll think of it. I'll think of it. I'm going to pull a pusser. You know, Mave, send us some money if you want us to cut out this part of the show where Dan accuses your food of giving his dog diarrhea. You know, we we're basically holding you up for protection money.

Jimy's. It's Jimy's dog. Jim. That's right. That doesn't sound right. If you want this If you want this all cut out of the episode, Jiminy's send us some cash. You know, I can be bought. It's easy to remember because it's it's called Jimny's because the food is made of cricket meat. Yeah, that's

I was gonna say I've heard good things about Mave. No, Mave is good. Jiminy's the one I'm not allowed to say on our podcast anymore.

I will say all of them are good or bad depending on who pays. You know what I have to say to Jim?

That's my promise. Everybody just like what about like a nice group sigh? Just like a

Jim. So, speaking of eating crickets, Buford Puss are probably not eating crickets for a while after he shoots himself in the face, but otherwise he's more or less okay, right? Um, and I think it's interesting, and this is something the DA Davidson, District Attorney Mark Davidson, who's one of the guys who's been doing this like reopen the cold case, specifically points to his wrestling career as like, well, look, this is a guy with experience selling a fake injury to a crowd. like this is exactly in his wheelhouse. Um, quote, "It was not the debilitating wound many seem to believe it was. It healed up pretty well. People say he got his face blowed off. Nobody believes he did that to himself. That's not accurate."

So, he just didn't have that serious an injury and he lied about it a lot. He he and and the media was like, "Well, looks like he got hit in the face. Sounds serious to me, you know, and just kind of reported what he was saying as if it was the truth." And that's how the legend grew,

which is great. So, this all brings the question, why would Buford Pusser murder his wife? Now,

yeah, right. You do want to ask that, right? Motive matters. Um, unfortunately, I don't think we're ever going to get a perfect satisfying answer because of how long ago this was and how dead basically everyone involved was. There are and I you know I talked earlier there was that uh that uh this guy Mike Elam who was a a former Benton County Sheriff who started his career in law enforcement as like a huge fan of Buford Pusser and then basically through trying to like recreate the crime scene like traveling to where the crimes at he started to notice inconsistencies with Buford's story and what had happened and he's he's one of these guys he like writes a book about it he self-publishes a book in like 2004 about it so he's one of the early guys trying to make noise about how what a fraud this dude was

theory. Pusser truther. An early pussuther, right? Yeah. Yeah. He he's he's I'm trying to find a way to bring Dicky back into it, but it it didn't work. Um but yeah, he's he's a he's a pusser truther. And uh based on his research, one possibility as to why Pusser had his wife murdered is that he was just a garden of variety abusive spouse, right? And maybe and also he's a giant. So he's huge and very strong and he gets drunk one night and he kills his wife by accident or he kills his wife in a moment of passion and then has to fake the assassination attempt, right? Like it's a thing he has to come up with kind of suddenly. That's possible. Um, Elam Elam's like personal theory is that Buford was actually involved himself in the illegal moonshine trade and as I've mused earlier in these episodes was probably taking cuts of a number of different illegal businesses going on in the county. And Elam thinks Buford had

Pauline murdered because she knew what he was up to and maybe they had a fight and she threatened to tell everyone, right? Like it's kind of unclear. Or maybe she wasn't initially aware and became aware and then he had to do But we don't really know. Per an article in the Nashville, Tennesseeum, quote, Tennessian, quote, Elam says he believes Buford Pusser killed her to prevent her from speaking to authorities. Quote, "If he Buofford Pusser took someone's life to keep his secret, what kind of hero was he?" Elam said, and I think the answer is not a hero at all. But maybe maybe a generational talent at self-branding. He's very good at that.

And probably what happens is he this is he has to come up with this fake assassination attempt kind of quickly because he's killed his wife. But once people buy that, he has to lean into this larger than-l life hero figure. And he just keeps kind of

upping the ante on the stories he's telling because part in part continuing to get away with it means continuing to sell people on the belief that he is the guy he's claiming to be. Right. this larger than life hero who survived all these impossible brushes with death. And if he makes this calculation right, it pays off perfectly. In the wake of the murder, Buford Pusser's story spread across the country about as fast as a story could spread in those pre- internet days. Countless news articles celebrated the sheriff as the ideal law man, tough as nails and willing to fight crime, even if he had even if he had to break the rules to do it. Buford was smart enough to know that he had to sell what he done by acting as a grieving husband. And so he vowed public vengeance against the men he had accused of the assassination attempt. Carl Towhead White was shot dead the next year and rumor had it that Pusser had

hired an assassin to do the job. Two other men he accused of partaking in the murder, George Mcan and Gary McDaniel, were shot dead in Texas the next year. Nicks goes to prison at this point so he doesn't get assassinated. But these the fact that these three guys who he has publicly named but not charged with any crime die in very quick succession, a lot of people suspect maybe he orchestrated these deaths, right? Maybe he had these guys killed. And it's it's a sign of like where things are culturally and how much rope we're willing how much slack we're willing to give cops in this country that the average assumption of like a normal person in Tennessee is like, well, he definitely had three guys murdered,

but it's fine. They killed his wife, so like I get it. You know, that's cool. You know, you can't always Sometimes you got to break the law to uphold the law. Why couldn't he have these guys arrested? I don't know. But it's fine.

Yeah. Um, it's actually a surprising to me if if he's going to uh if we're okay with him

bending the law, which it seems like we are. I don't know why he would hire an assassin and why he wouldn't kill those guys himself. Like if people are going to accept the fact that he hired assassins

and he's going to steer into this image of the uh reckless above the law man. I don't know why it's against the rules for him to like kill towhead himself.

I don't know. They weren't all. Yeah. But but that is that is weird like and and it's did he have some did he kill some of these guys himself? Did he hire people to like we don't really It's also possible.

I I think unlikely but not impossible just given these guys are all criminals who are in a violent business. Maybe they just happened to most three of them died in a year or so after this crime. Not the most shocking thing in the world right?

The only stable things that I feel like we can say is that he did pin that sick childproof teddy bear and he definitely killed his wife. Those are the ones that I feel most confident.

Yeah. Um, so I've quoted several times from the book Mississippi Moonshine Politics by Janice Tracy because it's a good book in general about a lot of characters at the edge of the story. But Tracy bought into Buford's lie. And I I think that it's useful, the way she did is useful because it does kind of explain how people thought like why people bought into this at the time. Um, and this is how Janice explains why none of the people that he charged that he named as having tried to kill him and killing his wife actually got charged with crimes. Quote, "This suited Pusser.

However, he preferred a more personal revenge." And that is like the official story that people buy is that like, yeah, he didn't have him charged because he wanted to have him murdered personally. Like, he wanted to do this personally. And we're okay with that out of our law men in Tennessee. This is why

we like that. We like that in America. This guy's a hero. And that's the most interesting thing about the story to me. There was always evidence that Buford was sus and a fraud, but Americans in and outside of law enforcement were happy to ignore it because the story version of Buford Buzzer was so good and it matched exactly with the kind of tale that Hollywood had primed audiences to expect.

Yeah. In 1971, WR Morris wrote a book about Buford titled The 12th of August, which is the day that he and his wife were targeted by that quote unquote assassination attempt. This is the book that was ultimately adapted into 1973's Walking Tall, which became a surprise hit and rocketed Buford to the level of a national celebrity. The studio sent him on a tour around the country and Europe to do promotional work for the film. He starts making celebrity friends. He's publicly buddies with Johnny Cash. There's a [ __ ] uh what's his name? Um the Margaritaville guy uh Jimmy Buffett writes a song about him and has a story about Buford like basically assaulting him and his friends. Um, so he he gets famous uh and in fact he becomes such a a public figure in his own right that after the smash surprise success of the movie Walking Tall, the production company Bing Crosby Productions decides to make

a sequel and they ask Buford to play himself. They're trying to do an Audi Murphy with him, right? And the new movie would just be titled Buford and would be based entirely presumably on his exploits as a griefstricken sheriff out to murder the criminals who killed his wife. Um, it's a shame we never got to see this movie because I am really curious what direction would they have gone visa v all of the murders, you know,

right? Um, as his fame sets off, Buford takes questions from fans, including one who asked him how people in his home county treated him after he became famous. And the answer he gave to the newspaper in this when he's doing this Q&A is really interesting to me. I'd say about 80% of the people in McNary County are proud of me. At least they say they are. But there's a handful that never liked me and still don't. They resisted every step of my campaign to clean up the corruption, and they have nothing good to say about me now. It's not that these people like crooks, it's that I think they consider me too big for my britches. There's one man in the county, I won't mention names, who's always bad mouthing me. One of the reasons for that, I think, is because when I was sheriff, I was always after him for passing bad checks. But that's life. No matter what you do, you can never make friends with everybody.

Man, that guy's [ __ ] dead. That guy's [ __ ] dead. That guy killed. Yeah. Beat him to death with a stick. Um, now I think probably based on and and it's it's hard for me to say how much of McNary County thought this guy was legitimately a hero and how many people were aware like, nah, there's something [ __ ] up at the center of that story. I did find an article in al.com uh that notes, quote, Davidson said during the investigation he often heard from those who believe Pusser murdered Pauline and wanted him to tell the truth. In McNary County especially, everybody knew that's what happened. Nobody ever believed the walking tall story. They knew he was a bad guy. And you know, Davidson's the DA who's who's digging up and and reopening the case. I don't know if that's totally accurate or totally accurate to how people would have felt back in the 70s, but you will I I have found a couple of

other quotes to that extent to that basically like, yeah, in his hometown, people kind of knew, but also

like he's kind of the big business. He's kind of the biggest thing that ever happened in this county, right? So at the same time, you have to embrace it because you don't have there's not any other reason people are heading to McNary for tourism, right? Which is why the water tower in Adamsville has a silhouette of Buford with his trademark big stick. There's a museum for him and of course the town historical soc or the county historical society is largely dedicated to him, right? Like it's walking tall and walking tall related tourism are still kind of two of the bigger things in that county.

Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean people will people will add 20 m onto a road trip to see a giant chair. Just imagine what they'll do for a big [ __ ] massive mountain of a

people with a stick in this county. Let's go see the water tower. Right. Buford spent the rest of his life dining out on the lie that he told to cover up for murdering his wife. He spent his last years jet setting around the world and making a lot of money. when he died, he was worth an estimated $1 million, which is a lot more money back then and more money than a guy who was briefly sheriff for six years, uh would have accumulated honestly, right? Um he did fail to win re-election in 1970, uh which is interesting to me. So that that is kind of more evidence for the pe local people knew this guy was full of [ __ ] but that was before Walking Tall came out. So, who knows how his law enforcement career would have gone if he tried to run for election after becoming a celebrity. Had he lived longer, he also might have slipped up or behaved in such a way as to draw more attention back to that alleged assassination

attempt. I have trouble imagining this guy living a lot longer and not killing someone else, right?

Um, but he doesn't get the chance at the height of his fame. Right after signing an agreement to play himself in the sequel to Walking Tall, he's driving back from Memphis to Adamsville and he crashes his sports car and dies on August 21st, 1974. He's in his like mid30s. And that's the Buford Pusser story.

Man, crashing his sports car. What a cool awesome way for a murderer to die. It is very appropriate for this guy being the kind of dude he is that's like, "Yep, sports car crash right at the end." Yeah, that's that's how the story ends. Yeah,

that's so lame. The [ __ ] fake grieving sheriff who's on his way to Hollywood and buys a sports car and then he dies and the entire town is like

honestly dodged a bullet there. That's the best. What would have been cool if he got killed by a big stick?

Yes. Yeah. just impaled by a stick. He did. Maybe he crashed into a tree, Sophie. That's my head cannon. Impaled by a stick after crashing his car into a tree

or like the the the cane of that sickly bear all grown up. Just just glad that this guy's dead.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the good part is he does die and he does die very early, right?

There there are a couple of things that are I mean there there's a lot of tragedy in this story. the the fact that he for sure murdered his wife enough that like everyone was talking about it and his daughter still becomes his biggest evangelist. That's an added layer of tragedy that like like

when I in the beginning in the first episode when I I I I kind of understood her hero worship because

you if you have the opportunity to to write your dad's story uh and you want to embellish a bit and like take all of his tall tales as gospel I there's something endearing about that. But she must have also known the many rumors in the open secret that he for sure murdered her mother and and and decided to ignore that or or or not buy into it. And that's like there's there's I don't know maybe that's Stockholm or brainwashing or or whatever else. But that like that makes it much less endearing and charming and more tragic for her in my mind.

I would agree. And there's also I mean there's also the darker question of like I mean was or was this an act for her too and was she just like look there's a lot of money in being Buford Pusser's family that walking tall money keeps coming in you know

uh I don't know I think that's probably less likely than just this is a daughter who hero worshiped her dad who died very early. Um, but yeah, uh, it is it it did give me a lot of fun detail on growing up in the 50s, which sounded like a [ __ ] nightmare.

So easy to do crime, but so easy to shoot away with it. Yes, especially if you were a cop.

Especially if you were a cop. So, oh my god, if you want to do crime then and now,

cop is the way to go. Being a cop, number one, you can get away with prank shooting your grandpa with a shotgun if you're a cop,

apparently. Mhm. So, yeah, it's great. It's great training for for for really pranking your wife somewhere down the line.

Yeah. Oh, he sure got Pauline good. She didn't see that coming at all. Pranked the whole town. Classic Buford Busser prank. Murdering his wife and staging it as an assassination attempt by the mob. Like, that's the funny thing. I came in here with a lot more detail on these different like organized criminal groups and then as I the more research I did the more I was like oh these guys barely did anything to him.

Yeah. Like maybe they had him stabbed. Maybe he got in some fights but he could have faked a lot more of that. Like

yeah this mafia was running four successful businesses and they were cutting corners. Well they had to pay off the cops. They needed to cover all those financial losses.

Yeah. So, I don't know. Uh it's a there's a fun quote from the DA that I've Davidson that I've quoted from a few times where he's like, I don't know. We probably won't reinvestigate every shooting he was involved in, but you could like maybe we should. Um

we were not going to reopen it because like at this point, yeah, what do you think? What's it going to be?

Yeah. What are we going to get out of reopening it? Like clearing the name of Luis Hathcock,

the gangster who also murdered people. Um, I don't know. Dan, you got anything to plug here at the end of the episode? How you feeling?

Uh, I feel good. I I liked the story. It's always It's uh, you know, murder is bad. Hold for applause. But uh I like those those bastards more than like uh endangering children bastards and and like creating uh systemic wrongs that still plague our society today. Uh so I appreciate that it was like kind of a standalone bastard. That's pretty fun.

Yeah, that's always enjoyable. Thanks for giving me that. Uh otherwise, pluggables I read for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. could find that uh on HBO Max, the one to watch, or on YouTube. We release our episodes there. Podcast that I do is Quick Question. We answer writer questions and talk about [ __ ] And you can find me on Blue Sky, the uh it's it's probably Daniel O'Brien on Blue Sky. I'm not really sure.

Yeah, seems I hate I hate to ask you to Google it, but look him up. But yeah. Um well, everybody, this has been Behind the Bastards. Please check out Dan's podcast, Quick Question, and Last Week Tonight. And more than anything, you know, go shoot your grandfather with a shotgun if he's in the Okay. No, we don't. We shouldn't do that. Can't do that. Don't shoot anybody with a shotgun as a prank.

From Robert Evans. Don't do pranks. Can we Maybe we can just come come down on that. Bad idea. Pranks. Pranks bad.

Unless it's like really funny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously.

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS"?

Robert Evans (Host), Dan O'Brien (Guest).

What is "Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS" about?

The discussion delves into the controversial legacy of Buford Pusser, a sheriff known for his brutal tactics while combating crime, often depicted in films like "Walking Tall." It explores his infamous reputation, the violent nature of his enforcement methods, and the cultural references that stemmed from his life and actions, including the impact on popular media.

What is mentioned in this Behind the Bastards episode?

15 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Buford Pusser, Pauline Pusser, Dixie Mafia, Stateline Gang, Walking Tall, Adamsville. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Part Two: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever | BEHIND THE BASTARDS"?

The episode runs 1 h 6 min; the transcript is about 12,671 words in 199 timestamped sections.

More from Behind the Bastards

About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated January 24, 2026.