GA Focus - Pusser

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Welcome to Georgia Focus. I'm JohnClark on the Georgia and News Network.
What really happened to Pauline Mullins,the wife of Sheriff Bufford Pusser of Walking
Tall Fame. Her life an incredibledeath story has intrigued thousands since that dreadful
morning of August twelfth, nineteen sixtyseven. Circumstances and stories are contained in
the book Murder of Missus Bufford Pusserby Oakley Dean Balwin. Oakley Dean Balwin
is our guest today. So inthe book Murder of Missus Bufford Pusser,

(00:31):
you outline most of what Bufford Pusserdid. You outline that life. Talk
about that first of all, theirlife before we get into the actual murder
and where it's going now. Hewas born in Tennessee, and after high
school he moved up to Chicago andshe became a wrestler, and he went
by the name Duford the Bull,and he worked at a club called the
Buccaneer Club, And he'd actually metPauline Mullin's vant At the time, she

(00:55):
was divorced from her first husband,right Roman Vance, and she had three
children by him, and she metDaufort in early of nineteen fifty nine and
they got married on December fifth ofnineteen fifty nine. And he made a
go of it up there, wrestlingfor a year or two, and then

(01:17):
after they had their daughter together toWana, they moved to back down to
Tennessee, Okay. And that's whereit all began. When they moved to
Tennessee. His father was a policechief in Adamsville and he got injured in
a car wreck. He injured aship really bad and basically talked to the

(01:40):
town commissioners about giving his son hisposition. So Dufort basically took the position
of police chief in Tennessee first andthe death early sixties until he ran for
sheriff in nineteen sixty four. Sohe was the chief in the same place

(02:00):
that he ran for sheriff. Isthat he was a police chief, just
in the same county. Now,the sheriff only does two years. Back
then when he did two year terms, so he would have to run,
you know, sixty four when hegot elected in sixty six, sixty eight,
and then at seventy he had tostep out because you could only have
three consecutive terms, okay, Andso he he you you all. First

(02:25):
of all, you're related to missusPusser, right she yeah, she Pauline
was a distant relative of mine.My mother, my grandmother was Mullins from
the same area, Hayesy, Virginia. So I knew about this murder,
probably back in the seventies. Iwas young, Yeah, but I knew

(02:45):
about it. I knew about herbeing a distant relative, but I didn't
know anything about the particulars about hermurder. What do you think? And
do you too? You were fora police officer too, so you know
it probably look at it a littledifferently we do. I remember I can
remember about the murder, but Ithink maybe the movie probably is what I

(03:06):
remember about the murder. But totalk about the murder when it happened,
they were going out at night orwhat were they doing? Right On the
night of August the twelfth of nineteensixty seven, the sheriff came in at
his normal time. He usually gotoff round two am. He took his
uniform off, and shortly after thathis phone rang at home and he answered

(03:30):
it and said something to the effectof, whether there's trouble down at the
state line, and I need togo down there, and he says that
Pauline was worried about his safety becausehe had been threatened several times. She
wanted to ride with him. Yeah, and they got in the car about
between three point thirty and four o'clock. They would have left their home.

(03:53):
Should have been about a thirty minutedrive down to the state line, but
for unknown reasons, the sheriff tookroads and ended up his story as they
ended up being ambushed on New HopeRoads about between four point thirty and four
forty five am. Was it somebodythat followed them where they were being ambushed?

(04:15):
Do you know that? Well,it was still dark, and he
thinks that the car pulled out frombehind the local church before he gets to
a bridge, because his first noticedthat something was wrong was the car was
almost up on him and beside himwhen they pulled their headlights on, so
it still had to be dark andthe car had to come up behind him

(04:39):
with the headlights off. And thenat that point he said that the Afailians
fired at his car and one shothit Pauline in the head and he was
dazed a little bit. The carleft and then it came back and he

(05:00):
pulled off and he went up abouttwo miles to a wide open space near
the graveyard, and then he pulledover to check on Pauline. And then
a few minutes or a few secondslater, apparently the car pulled up beside
him again to try to finish thejob, and that's when he says he
was shot in the jaw area,and he said Pauline was shot again in

(05:26):
the head, and obviously she wasmurdered at that time from two high powered
rifle shots to her skull. Andthe Congress hit at least eleven times and
found fourteen shells on the ground.Now this did you hear this from him?
Did you read it? Or where'dyou get this from from him?

(05:49):
I've read many statements, newspaper articles, things that he had reported to law
enforcement officers, and things that hereported to other newspapers, interviews and those
types of things. Kind of putit all together was real difficult because his
story changed a little bit over time. And one of my issues is the

(06:12):
timing of his story. Like,for instance, when he was first shot
upon, you know, he neverpulled his weapon and he never called for
assistance on his radio. And thenhe drove another two miles and he still
didn't call for assistance on his radio, and he didn't pull his weapon,
and they shot, you know,they had the second ambush site. And

(06:34):
then from four forty five a mhe only drove five miles until six twenty
when he was reported trying to talkon the radio. And that's a lot
of time in there just for afive mile drive. Right. Well,
then the fact that they, asyou mentioned earlier, he went back on

(06:56):
back roads and all of a sudden, there they are, you know,
Yeah, and that's another part ofthe timing. You know, if he'd
left at three o'clock or if youknow, you could see him being down
there by around three thirty ish.And but why would he take the back
rows. He was known for hisfast driving and he had a heavy foot,
and the taking the main highway wouldhave been much quicker for them to

(07:20):
go to that call. So justtaking the back rows, well, first
of all, taking your spouse withyou on a disturbance cause is a red
flag to me as a thirty fouryear sworn law for now, and then
not calling in I'm not attempting tocall him. And he had five opportunities
to pull his weapons, and henever said he pulled his weapon and returned

(07:42):
fire at any of those opportunities,which is real confusing to me as a
police officer. There's a lot ofI have a lot of questions in my
book. I list a lot ofthose questions. I've got a couple YouTube
videos that I've done where I'm listingI try to break it down a list
more questions. Yeah, what whatdo you think happened? And have they

(08:03):
investigated since then? Like with youhere, with you writing a book about
this, has has somebody investigated?Are they investigating it now? Well?
The TBI did investigate it back insixty seven, but it lingered and there
was there wasn't anybody arrested or evencharged with the crime of murder on Pauline

(08:24):
or the assault charges against the sheriff. And I started looking into this story
real heavy and researching it back intwenty nineteen. In twenty and twenty,
I released my book, Murder ofMister Duffer Puster. In twenty twenty one,
and about five months ago I receiveda phone call from the TBI Tennessee

(08:48):
Girls Investigation and spoke to an agent. He actually said that he had my
book and he was enjoying reading it. And had some of the same concerns
that I had, And he infumedme that time that they had reopened her
murder investigation. Okay, do youknow if they're Well, that's the first
time. That was the first timethat I knew that they were actually serious

(09:11):
about reopening the investigation. And thenon February the eighth, they actually exhumed
Pauline's body for an autopsy. Ohdid that show them anything? Oh,
it's still ongoing currently right now.This is a breaking news story. Oh
wow, they still have they stillhave her body and they're still doing the
autopsy a month later, over amonth later. Wow, this takes that

(09:33):
they take that much time to doit. Huh. So it's going on
right now, they can take it. Sometimes it can take several months as
court house in depth they do theautopsy. Oh man, it so it
could come out that it could comeout that something, something's there. And
are the two guys I assume twoguys that were shooting are they still living?

(09:56):
Oh? They never They never haveactually accused anybody officially of the shooters
who they were. He said thathe thought there were three men in a
black Carr callow, but they neverhe named a couple of people over the
You know, he died in nineteenseventy four on a car accident. But

(10:18):
he named a few people that hefought with suspects, but they never could
connect them to the crime. Whatwould be his reason for and speculation,
I know, but what would behis reason for killing her? Well,
some people believe that if he didkill her, she was going to divorce
him and go to the TBI.With some activities that he was doing,

(10:41):
possibly you know, selling moonshine himselfand those types of things. Some other
people say that he was involved withsome other women. I never came across
that. The one thing that hedid do is and a lot of sheriffs
did this back in the fifties andsixties, Back in the day when they
would confiscate shine or illegal liquor,they would actually store it and hand it

(11:03):
out at some of these voting priestinctsas gifts and kind of offerings to get
people to vote their way. Iknow that sounds terrible now, but that
actually wasn't uncommon back in the latefifties and early nineteen sixties. Yeah,
yeah, that is something now youwouldn't hear you see it now? Weird.

(11:24):
Yeah, yeah, that happened thisday, you would probably be removing
from office. Yeah. I wasgoing to say that the men that he
accused was Kursey Nicks and Gary McDanieland George mcgainn. But like I said,
he had no proof. They werenever charged with anything. And actually
Kursey Nix is still in prison.He had a life sentence for killing a

(11:48):
man in his home and he's beeninterviewed several times when he's not admitting to
anything. Oh really, he doesn'tnothing at all, not even that he
was there. Huh nothing. Noware the other two gentlemen still alive?
Actually both of those men were murdered. Oh and some people believe that,
you know, you port token retributionagainst those people. I had other people

(12:15):
on his behalf murdered these man.But one man was murdered playing an illegal
betting card game and the other manwas found murdered floating in the river down
in I want to stay down inTexas. On top hand, you know,
it's amazing and growing up, Isaw the movies, and I looked
at the movies, and they remadethe movie with Rock and all these people

(12:37):
like that. But seeing the movie, you know, you're thinking, wow,
this is this is great, ButI guess the movie they sensationalized something
in the movie. Sensationalize a lotof it in the movie. Of course,
the movie, it really brought outthat that era. It's kind of
brought out that that the place thatthey lived in, and it does all

(13:00):
all have places like that, Andit brought out a certain area, a
certain place that we are living andwe look our sheriff and everybody else.
We don't know what's going on themurder of missus Buford Pusser your book.
What are you hoping that they willdo? Now? Does an investigation going
on? Well being from being relatedyou know, to Pauline. The Mullen

(13:22):
family have always wondered what happened toher and why her homicide was never falld.
So this was good news that theyuh that they used some of the
information of my book and another gentleman'sbook and some other information that they've been
getting over the years to reopen thecase. So finding justice for Pauline and

(13:48):
the family. She actually still hasone brother of one sister living. She
has many nieces and cousins that I'vespoken with during the time I did the
resource of the book. They're veryconcerned. Now none of them really suspects
Beaufort of any foul play, butthis autopsy will put that to rest one

(14:09):
way or the other. Well,that's right, that's true. What is
he going to do in his lifeafter the murder? Well he actually a
lot of people don't realize this,but when he sat out in nineteen seventy
he became a constable. Oh andyeah, he did that. But then
in nineteen seventy two he ran forsheriff again in McNairy County and he got

(14:33):
defeated. So things had already souredbetween seventy and seventy two for him.
And then in nineteen seventy four hesigned a contract. That day, or
the twenty four hour period before hedied, he signed a contract with Hollywood
to play himself in an upcoming WalkingTall movie. And then he went to

(14:56):
a county fair and some people saidthat he was consuming alcohol and he left
his daughter rode home with a friendand they left before him and the daughter
and the girlfriend and Stephen Juana saidthat Rufford went flying by them so fast.

(15:16):
You know, they were concerned forhis safety. So he had a
corvette and he was driving so fastit was almost like a blur, and
the highway was posted at fifty fivemiles an hour. And he hit an
area down the road called Thrill Hill, and he actually went airborne, and
when he landed, he went sofar, skidding across the highway, across

(15:41):
gravel parking lots. He hit anembankment. He rolled over. The car
flipped several times, and it ejectedhim and it actually broke his neck and
he died from the car wreck.Oh man, So he never got to
see the fruits of labor with themovie or anything like that. Right,
I'm sure he got royalties from thefirst three movies that they did in the

(16:03):
early seventies, But I don't,you know, there's a lot of speculations.
Some people believed that he was beingchased by the Tennessee Mob or the
State Line mob, but there's noevidence of that. You know, no
one saw anybody leave behind him whenhe left the fair. No one saw
even his own daughter, you know, would have seen somebody chasing them because

(16:26):
he went by them so fast.One of the witnesses that heard the wreck
said the car was going so fastit sounded like a jet engine. Went
by his house colleyge. Wow.He just he went fast all the time,
didn't he. He was. Heactually had another car wreck right before
he left office in October sixty ninewhere he flipped his cruiser over and flattened

(16:52):
the top and was pinned in thecar and they had to he was.
He actually was pinned in the carfor several hours and fracture to his eye
pockets in his upper cheek area.That surgery was actually from the car accident
right before he left office in nineteen. He just the way he lived and

(17:14):
the way he policed. He hewas always up for trouble and got trouble
a lot of times. I guess. Yeah, there's a lot of things
that people Obviously, the movie didnot betray his life. It was all
fiction and it wasn't It really didn'thave anything to do with the true sheriff

(17:37):
view for Puss or six years thathe was sharing. Did he in real
life? Did he have an axehandle like he carried accentally and beat people
with it and beat beat up thingsand hit things with Did he have an
axe handle? Well? What Ican figure out. You know, of
course, the stills that he brokeup he would use an ax handles,
okay, to break up the steel. And the only time that he carried
a stick that I have found,commented was he was called to a man's

(18:02):
house that was drinking and beating hiswife, and Duford grabbed him and pulled
him outside and took a switch froma tree, and he whipped him with
a switch like he would do achild. And he told him that,
he said, this time, I'mwhipping you like a child. He said,
but next time I come here,if you beat your wife, I'm
going to whip you like a man. And that's the only time he actually

(18:25):
used a stick or in this caseto be a switch to beat somebody.
All those things you saw in themovie never happened, you see that.
I'm glad you cleared that up,because that's what we remember him as the
guy carrying the stick, you know, yeah, yeah, And he got
a lot of fame for that.So of course he's got a lot of
pictures in the museum. They'll sellan autographed stick of his, you know,

(18:49):
if you want to purchase that.But he never carried a stick.
In the first year or so,he never even carried a pistol, So
you know, there was very LittlePrime and all that was ninety nine percent
of that was Hollywood drama. Now, is there a museum you can go
to down there? It shows someof his things, the car. Yes,

(19:11):
his house was turned into a museumbefore his daughter, the Wanna passed
away, and she actually would givepresentations. But there are several full time
employees that work there currently and eachyear they have a bus tour where they
go to the ambush size and thattype of thing. And they actually have

(19:33):
his his corvette that when it flippedover, it also caught on fire and
burned up pretty bad, but theyhave that at the house. They have
a lot of his his badges andhis weapons and those types of things.
Wow, man, it's he was. He was a legend, I guess
the legend. Did you tell thetruth about him? In the book The
Murdered Musus Prefect Pusser you you talkabout him, and you know, I

(19:57):
read the book and I noticed whathe didn't like that and that he acted
certain ways in different ways, anda lot of it is is hollywood,
but it comes across. You comeacross. You portray him the right way
in this book, right, Yeah, I went by actual records, documents,
police records and newspaper articles. Butwhat the reader needs to keep in

(20:19):
mind is they didn't have public affairsofficers back then like they do now,
So the sheriff was the public affairsperson and press media person, so he
would have told the stories and thereporters would have reported it exactly the way
he told us. They didn't havethe same type of investigative reporters that they
have now on newspapers and TV channelsand things, so it was a different

(20:45):
role back in the sixth Did youever meet him? No, I never
met him, and he, likeI said, he died in seventy four.
I was in high school un tillseventy five. Okay, Okay,
so he didn't know that you werea law enforcement officer who was related to
him. But you met missus butmet his wife? I know, Actually
I didn't really. My family movedaway from Virginia and moved to West Virginia.

(21:10):
So I graduated high school in Beckley, West Virginia, and then went
in the state place in seventy eight, Okay, and just picked this up
and decided to write a book.But the book is fantastic, it really
is. It's a great book.It's a small book, so folks,
you can get it and read it, and it's really worth reading. So
right now we're waiting to n theresults of the autopsy of HER's that's really

(21:32):
where we are at right now,right Courect. And you know, of
course, if the autopsy comes backto where there's no concern or anything,
there'll be just a minor update tomy current book. But if it comes
back to where they find other injuriesthat could have possibly caused her to be

(21:52):
incapacitated, or actually even where shecould have died from a knife wound or
shot with a smaller caliber weapon inthe different part of her body, or
any way other than what sheriff youfocuss said happened to her, then you
know that changes everything. Yeah,yeah, it really does. It really
does. When do you expect thatto happen or do you know? Well,

(22:15):
of course, you know, minewould just be speculation. I would
normally think that another month we shouldhear something from the TV, I would
hope, and maybe sooner because it'sbeen already what February the eighth till now
it's been what over six weeks?Yeah, And do you stay in touch
with the officers of TBI. They'reworking on it. I do reach back

(22:37):
out to them, but they can'ttell me anything, of course, and
I know they can't because of mylaw enforcement background, but you know,
if I do want to stay ontop of the breaking news when it does
break. And another thing is,even though he's passed away, they could
impandle a grand jury to try toget an indictment for murder and to close

(23:02):
the cave. The autopsy reporter showsthat she was murdered, possibly before she
was shot in the head. Youknow, yeah, Oh, there's a
lot of possibilities. And then there'sstill always that possibility that you know,
he was still involved with setting itup and that type of thing. So
it doesn't really go away. It'sjust more clarification. Yeah, it really

(23:26):
is. It will be interesting tosee, and it's coming up pretty soon.
We're gonna we're gonna stand on thetop of it because I want to
update on the light last of that. That's going to be interesting to know.
It really is. Uh, TheMurder of the Murder of Missus Bufford
Pusser. That is a book byOakley, Dean Baldwin and Dean. You've
been with us today and it's fascinatingto talk to you about this. Anything

(23:47):
anything you would like to remain Wouldyou like to anything else to say?
Well, you can go to YouTubeand type in my full name, Oakley
Dean Baldwin or the Baldwin Stories andmy videos will come up. Or they
can go to Amazon and type inhopefully Dean Baldwin and all of our books.
My wife and I actually have twentyseven books, and most of them
are thrillers and food crimes and familymystery. Do you have any book signings

(24:12):
coming up? Just did a booksign in Durham, North Carolina last week.
Okay, so I'm pretty much caughtup for this month pretty much.
Do you ever do you get downto the museum in the Beautford Pushure Museum.
No, but I hope to inthe near future, depending on how
this goes, we definitely make atrip down. There are his kids all

(24:32):
alive? Now? I know she'sgot a daughter, that's just it's passed
away. But are they alive now? Now? All the children, Mike
and Diana and Karen have all passedaway, and then do Wanna passed away
in twenty eighteen, so there aresome grandchildren still living and I actually interviewed
one of the granddaughters and she's stillliving. She doesn't want, you know,

(24:59):
to be contact right right, Well, thank you so much. It's
a pleasure meeting you, pleasure talkingto you, and very interesting. I
love this story and I want peopleto get the book, The Murder of
Missus Beauford Puffer a Pusser. It'sdefinitely worth it. Thank you so much.
The appreciate it. Thank you,sir, have a great day.
Our guest today has been Oakley DanBaldwin. He's the author of the book

(25:21):
Murder of Missus Buford Pusser, andsince recording this interview, her body has
now been reinterred in the cemetery inwhich it was removed from. Now we'll
wait the autopsy results, which couldcome in any day. Find out more
in the Murder of Missus Buford Pusser. If you have questions of comments about
today's program, you can email meJohn Clark at Georgianewsnetwork dot com. Thanks
for listening. I'll talk to younext week right here on your local radio
station on Georgia Focus. This isGeorgia Focus Extra. Kelly Young Silverman has

(26:07):
written a new book, Hot BoiledPeanuts, a Georgia Food Tour. The
book is called Hot Boiled Peanuts aGeorgia Food Tour. Where do you start
out in the book and then yougo through various other places in the book
in Georgia. Yeah, so I'lltell you a little bit about the book.
So the story starts off in PlainsGeorgia, where a little girl's going
to visit her grandparents in Plains Georgia, and she tries hot boiled peanuts for

(26:30):
the very first time. She thinksare the greatest thing that she's ever tried.
And so her grandparents say, wait, I want you to try all
of Georgia, all the food Georgiahas to offer. So they go on
a Georgia Food Tour all through allfive of the regions, and it actually
hits the Georgia Standards of Excellence andSocial Studies standards of Excellence. So here
we learn all this history of Georgia, all the while, you know,
enjoying the different foods of Georgia,the different sites of Georgia, obviously,

(26:53):
the different tastes of Georgia, andyou know, and it really is about
this the relationship between the little girlon her grandparents. It's supposed to be
a book that parents read to theirkids, or school schools used the book
as well. You know, it'sfor both. I mean, it is
about family, so there is thatelement that parents can read with their kids
and grandparents can read with their kids. But then of course it also you

(27:14):
know, in second grade they studythe school study Georgia, and so this
is a great kind of segue intostudying the state of Georgia. It really
is, because you do cover allof Georgia. You start out on planes,
but then you cover the entire stateand a number of products as well.
Did you do this yourself? Didyou Did you go on that tour
yourself? No? I wish Ihave been to some of those places,

(27:36):
but I did a lot of researchfrom my computer for my seat. But
I definitely want to visit these placesnow that I've researched them, and since
I've written the book, I havevisited several of these places, and hopefully
on the book tour, I'll bevisiting all of these places. Oh yeah,
Oh that'd be great. Then.Now it was a reason you started
out with boiled Peanuts? Did youstart out with that for some reason?
No? I actually have two otherchildren's books that are published through Warcraft Press,

(28:00):
which is up in Tennessee, andthat's called what. The first book
I ever wrote was called Man inthe Moon. It's the story of a
little girl who wants to become friendswith the moon. And then this one
is called Where's Wilson? About whathappens when a sheep goes missing right before
bedtime? Oh okay, and nowthese are illustrated too. You have an
illustrator, Courtney Strickland is was yourillustrator, and another illustrator named Aaron she

(28:22):
illustrated the previous two books. Okay, okay, how how is it working
with your illustrator? Why you writeyour book? So that is very funny.
A lot of times in just traditionallypublished you don't really have a relationship.
The author and the illustrator don't reallyalways have a relationship together because you
know, there's two separate things,right. But I actually knew the illustrator.
I work at the Loved School inAtlanta, and years or not years,

(28:48):
last year Courtney Strickland, she usedto she was the art teacher here
and she I was looking for anillustrator. The publisher asked after I sent
the book in, and they acceptedthe manuscript. They said, do you
know any illustration and I said,I just happened to know a few.
So I sent them a list ofillustrators and she was selected and she took
the job. So I did actuallyknow the illustrator, which is really nice.

(29:10):
So we were able to have thatrelationship. I didn't actually have anything
to any say in how the illustrationscame out, but I will tell you
after I saw the book, Iabsolutely fell in love with the illustrations and
it really you know, she capturedthe heart of the story, which is
what made me so happy. Shereally does. And it's a great book.
I read it today. It's agreat book. It's it's very easy
to read. It is a it'swide open and very easy to read.

(29:33):
It's a great book. It's calledHot Boiled Peanuts a Georgia food tour,
and it is a Georgia food tour. It's a great it's a book,
great book. So thank you somuch. Where's it available? Thank you
so much, John Well. Youcan buy it in local bookstores all over
Georgia. You can also buy itonline at Arcadia Publishing. You can buy
it at Barnes Andnoble Dot com andon Amazon dot com of course, but

(29:55):
it should be in local bookstores alsoall through the state. John Clark,
Georgia News Network. Yeah,