New Review Finds Buford Pusser Killed Pauline in 1967 Ambush

Tennessee investigators announced Friday that newly reviewed evidence indicates former McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser, long celebrated as a crime-fighting folk hero, killed his wife Pauline in a 1967 ambush that he had said was carried out by his enemies. The finding, announced at a news conference by the 25th Judicial District attorney, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the University of Tennessee at Martin, concluded there is enough evidence that if Pusser were alive today prosecutors could seek an indictment in Pauline Pusser's death on Aug. 12, 1967, along a rural road near the Tennessee-Mississippi line.

The reexamination of the decades-old file began as a routine cold-case review in 2022 and produced a lead in 2023 that, with the family's permission, led investigators to exhume Pauline's body in 2024 for a fresh autopsy. Investigators said the remains were reburied in 2025 after the new examination, the results of which had been sealed until the announcement. The TBI completed a file exceeding 1,000 pages that was reviewed by the district attorney's office, officials said.

District Attorney Mark Davidson said the review uncovered major inconsistencies between...