Buford Pusser was once his hero. Now, this ex-sheriff has a new view of the famed lawman

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct information about the death of Dennis Hathcock's aunt.

He drove the murder route.

Mike Elam scanned the bushes along the sides of the road where killers could have laid in wait.

Something didn't seem right to him.

It's about 20 miles from former McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser's house to the spot, or spots, where his wife, Pauline was shot in rural West Tennessee. Past the New Hope United Methodist Church. Under the bridge. Elam zipped along New Hope Road, which hasn't changed much since 1967. Elam took the same route at the same speed and stopped in the same places Pusser, the iconic Southern lawman, took on the night he and his wife were reportedly ambushed.

After his reenactment, Elam, 72, himself a former Southern lawman, had so many questions. Elam thought Pusser's account of the ambush was full of discrepancies. The blood splatter on the hood of the car didn't make sense. And, how did four assailants (as Pusser described) know where to set up for an ambush on a random rural road?

"I just want justice for Pauline," Elam said in a recent interview.

For almost three decades, checking the narrative about Buford Pusser has become an obsession for Elam.

He's self-published a book ("Buford Pusser: The Other Story"), operates a Facebook group for more than 17,000 Pusser skeptics and enthusiasts and even leads an occasional bus tour of the McNairy County sites made famous by two "Walking Tall" movies (1973 and 2004). Elam was a Benton County, Arkansas, sheriff for six years in the 1970s, and he said the 6-foot-6 Buford Pusser was a hero because his story inspired so many people to pursue law enforcement careers.

Then, in 1995, he saw a few internet articles suggesting Pusser may not have been the upstanding lawman he had been portrayed to be.

He was hooked.

"He did good things, but that doesn't outweigh the bad things he did," Elam said.

And there was this: Elam discovered Pusser didn't regularly carry a big stick, like the movies depicted.

"Hollywood myth," is the way Elam described the Buford Pusser story many people think they know.

What to know: Buford Pusser and the exhumation of Pauline Pusser's body. What to know

'He Walked Tall'

In the late 1990s, Elam began recording interviews, collecting evidence and, over the years, offering tips to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

On Feb. 8, 2024, the TBI took the extraordinary step of exhuming Pauline Pusser's body from the burial plot she shares with Buford, with a headstone chiseled with both their names and the words, "He Walked Tall."

"Pauline was fatally shot on August 12, 1967, in McNairy County, and the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification was called in to investigate," a TBI statement read.  "As we have evolved to become the independent agency that we are today, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, this case has remained an active investigation.  As with any unresolved case, agents have continued to reexamine files and follow any and all leads.

"A recent tip prompted a new review of the case file and the discovery was made that an autopsy was never performed on Mrs. Pusser’s body.  With the support of Pauline’s family and in consultation with 25^th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI requested the exhumation in an attempt to answer critical questions and provide crucial information that may assist in identifying the person or persons responsible for Pauline Pusser’s death."

Elam said he doesn't know if he was the person who made the tip that led to the exhumation, but he said he has made lots of tips to the TBI over the years. In his book, Elam theorizes Pusser was secretly part of the same illegal moonshine black market that he famously (chronicled in newspapers, books and movies) tried to stop. Elam said he believes Pauline Pusser knew of her husband's corruption.

Elam said he believes Buford Pusser killed her to prevent her from speaking to authorities.

"If he (Buford Pusser) took someone's life to keep his secret, what kind of hero was he?" Elam said.

Elam's theories have not been embraced by all his Facebook followers.

Ronald Pusser, who said he is Buford Pusser's fourth cousin, called Elam's theories "a joke." Pusser said his nickname during his school days was "Buford" after the legendary sheriff.

"He (Elam) is an (expletive) in my book," said Ronald Pusser, 60. "I don't understand his motivation."

Ronald Pusser said Elam is the reason for the renewed interest in the case.

"This (the exhumation) is a witch hunt started by Mike Elam's tip," he said. "I was flabbergasted. Let her (Pauline) rest in peace."

War on moonshiners

Buford Pusser was a basketball star at Adamsville High School in the mid-1950s. At 6-foot-6, he played center, and averaged a tick under 20 points per game. He left McNairy County for the U.S. Marine Corps, but recurring asthma eruptions in basic training ended his military career.

He moved to Chicago, became a professional wrestler (known as Buford The Bull) and married Pauline Mullins. Pusser and his new wife moved to Adamsville in 1962, and he got his first job in law enforcement as a constable in his hometown, serving for two years. In 1964, he decided to run for McNairy County Sheriff, and his opponent, James Dickey, died in a car accident just before the election.

Pusser served as the McNairy County Sheriff from 1964-69. As sheriff, Pusser declared war against moonshiners (McNairy County was dry), prostitution and the "State Line Mob," a criminal group that owned bars, restaurants and hotels on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi.

Elam said Pusser may have used a hickory stick to break up backyard stills in a few instances, but he did not carry one with him constantly like he did in the movies.

Pusser survived several assassination attempts as he took aim at the State Line Mob. His life story was chronicled in the book "The Twelfth of August" by W.R. Morris. The book got its name from the date of the reported ambush on Pusser and his wife. Pusser, himself, was shot in the chin during that incident. The book and several newspaper articles speculated that the ambush was carried out by a team of assassins led by a Dixie Mafia member named Kirksey Nix, who was never charged.

Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward Humes, who wrote "Mississippi Mud" (the Simon and Schuster published book is about the assassination of a judge and his wife), touched on the Pusser case through his research of Nix.

"There was a great deal of circumstantial evidence suggesting Kirksey Nix was in the right place at the right time to have been involved," Humes said in a Facebook direct message. "Pusser later claimed Nix had been hired to make the hit as revenge for the killing of a close Dixie Mafia friend’s wife, who had been shot by Pusser during a bust.

"Jailhouse snitches over the years have claimed Nix boasted of his involvement, but the career criminal and convicted killer was never charged in the case. Nix adamantly denied involvement when I interviewed him."

Pauline Pusser's case has never been solved.

"The Twelfth of August" was the inspiration for the first "Walking Tall" movie in 1973. The film starred Joe Don Baker as an aggressive sheriff who would bash people with a stick if he thought they were running moonshine. The second film starred Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as a military veteran who tried to clean up his hometown. The second movie strayed even further from Pusser's real-life story.

Buford Pusser died in a single car accident at age 36 in 1974. His Corvette hit an embankment on Highway 64 at a high-rate of speed.

Questions about blood splatter

Elam knows his theories about the case aren't always popular.

A few times, he has hired a bus to take Pusser enthusiasts to see the McNairy County sites made famous by the Pusser story. Once, he was met with resistance in front of the Buford Pusser Museum, located at 342 Pusser St. in Adamsville.

"We were greeted by the police department," Elam said.

Elam said he talked his way out of any trouble, and his guests got to tour the museum.

The Tennessean talked to the person who answered the phone at the museum. The person declined to give their name. He said he is not allowed to comment because the case is under investigation and hung up on a reporter.

Oakley Dean Baldwin, who wrote the self-published book "The Murder of Mrs. Buford Pusser," said he is a cousin of Pauline. He is a former crime scene investigator in North Carolina and an intelligence officer in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Baldwin said he and Elam are mostly in agreement about their theories of the Pusser ambush.

"I had a lot of concerns about the blood splatter on the vehicle," Baldwin said. "I also had concerns about a sheriff receiving a disturbance call at 2 a.m. and taking his wife.

"A lot of red flags were popping up for me."

Dennis Hathcock was one of the witnesses at the crime scene just more than an hour after Pauline Pusser was killed. He said he saw part of Pauline's skull in a nearby ditch. He said he has been questioned over the years by the TBI.

Hathcock, now 74, was 16 at the time. He raced to the scene on his motorcycle after hearing about an ambush. Hathcock had followed Pusser's life closely because he believed the sheriff had shot his aunt, Louise Hathcock, in the back. Louise had a reputation as being a member of the State Line Mob.

Louise Hathcock's death (the official report said she shot at Pusser and he returned fire) is popular among the anti-Pusser crowd because they claim her shooting was not in self-defense.

Dennis Hathcock said he's happy with Elam's work.

"Thank God that somebody had enough sense to not fall for the B.S. about Pusser," he said.

A 30 caliber clue?

The most important piece of evidence Elam has found is now in possession of the TBI.

An anonymous follower of Elam's Facebook page contacted him in July of 2023. The follower said he had a 30 caliber carbine that once belonged to Buford Pusser.

Elam met the follower, called the TBI and the gun was put into evidence.

Elam doesn't know what TBI has done with the gun.

"I've been told Pauline was shot with a 30 caliber gun," Elam said. "I think it was the gun that may have been used to kill Pauline Pusser."

So far the TBI has said nothing about the gun, the results of tests on Pauline Pusser's corpse or how they may handle information changes the narrative about Buford Pusser.

Mike Elam, and everybody else, has to wait.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Buford Pusser case: Ex-sheriff has new views, sends tips to TBI