Huge Update in Cold Case Around Real-Life Sheriff Turned to Legend in ‘Walking Tall’ Films – Wife’s Body Exhumed

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Authorities have exhumed the body of the wife of a famed former Tennessee sheriff more than a half-century after she was fatally shot in a still-unsolved killing.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation confirmed that it oversaw the exhumation of the body of Pauline Pusser on Thursday at Adamsville Cemetery. She was killed by incoming gunfire while in a car driven by her husband, McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser, a figure whose legend was captured in the 1973 film “Walking Tall” starring Joe Don Baker and a 2004 remake starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Various sites in Adamsville continue to attract tourists interested in the sheriff’s legacy in west Tennessee.

A TBI statement said the agency received a new tip that led agents to find that there was never an autopsy performed on Pauline Pusser’s body.

“With the support of Pauline’s family and in consultation with 25th 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,” TBI spokesperson Keli McAlister said.

Pauline Pusser was killed in McNairy County on Aug. 12, 1967, and a previous iteration of the TBI, then named the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification, was called in to investigate. The investigation into her killing has remained active, McAlister said.

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