WEBVTT - Part One: Buford Pusser: The Worst Sheriff Ever 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:06.000 Also media, Harry everyone, Robert Evans here and on Thursday 0:00:06.040 --> 0:00:08.560 September twenty fifth at eight pm, Behind the Bastards is 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.639 doing a live show. The show itself is in Portland, Oregon, 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:13.840 but all of the in person seats have sold out. However, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.759 there are live stream tickets available if you go to 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:19.880 Alberta Rose Theater t h E A t r E 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:22.919 Behind the Bastards on just type that into Google or 0:00:22.960 --> 0:00:25.840 whatever search engine you use. Alberta Rose Theater Behind the 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:29.680 Bastards you can find a link to buy tickets for 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.400 the live show. This is to benefit the Portland Defense Fund, 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.120 which helps bail people out who don't have, you know, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.200 resources of their own, so it's a good cause. Tickets 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:42.320 are twenty five dollars for the live stream version of 0:00:42.360 --> 0:00:45.320 the show, So please go to Alberta Rose Theater Behind 0:00:45.360 --> 0:00:47.479 the Bastards and pick up a live stream show to 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:53.720 check it out. On Thursday September twenty fifth at eight pm. 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:56.560 Oh my god, what time is it is? It is 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.880 it's Behind the Bastards thirty or whatever. No, not my 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:03.280 best effort. This is the show about bad people, the 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.600 worst in all of history, and to distract everyone from honestly, 0:01:07.920 --> 0:01:12.880 just a disappointing introduction. I feel bad about it. The 0:01:12.920 --> 0:01:17.559 person that I feel worse when I'm incompetent in front 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.319 of my old boss, Dan O'Brien. Dan, welcome to the show. 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.600 I'm so sorry that's me. 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.480 Don't apologize. I was hoping this was one of the 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:30.600 episodes where we would shake things up and not do 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:32.120 a bastard? Do you not do those? 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:35.920 Just like psych you for Christmas? Okay, what's the year? 0:01:36.720 --> 0:01:37.039 Rats? 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:38.800 You want to come on for Christmas? Dan and hear 0:01:38.840 --> 0:01:39.720 about a nice person? 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:42.600 Just once? Just want to hear about one nice person. 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:46.280 Well, that's not this week. That's not what we're doing 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:48.560 this week, although we are going to be learning a 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.600 lot about what it was like to grow up in 0:01:50.960 --> 0:01:55.240 rural Tennessee in the nineteen forties, which, as a spoiler 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:59.840 bad it was a horrible time to be a person. Okay, Rats, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.240 So that's gonna be fun. So Dan, who I forgot 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:09.160 to introduce my former boss at Cracked, one of the 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:11.880 best writers and mentors that I've ever had in my 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.680 life and also writer for last week Tonight with John Oliver, 0:02:15.840 --> 0:02:19.400 where you have one uh not an oscar and not 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.920 a Tony, but the one the nimmy right you're at 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:23.919 Are you at two? Now? 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:29.000 I really hate that you're making me do this. I 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:30.440 am at six now. 0:02:30.520 --> 0:02:33.720 You're at six. Jesus Christ, So did I miss four? 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.560 It's so rude that you made me do that. It's 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:39.680 the worst thing in the world to correct someone on. 0:02:40.440 --> 0:02:41.560 I couldn't let it go. 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.160 No, Dan, you have to come on. We have my 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:46.400 friend patches on to celebrate his Grammy. We have to 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:50.000 celebrate my award winning friends. I love that episode. 0:02:50.720 --> 0:02:52.720 What a what a delightful person? 0:02:53.520 --> 0:02:57.720 Oh yeah, oh greasy yes, oh greasy will who will 0:02:57.720 --> 0:02:59.920 be listening to this? Well, Dan, I'm proud of you 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:06.280 and I'm really excited to take you through really a 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.799 dark and depressing story about one of the worst police 0:03:09.840 --> 0:03:20.840 officers that this country ever had. So do you know 0:03:20.880 --> 0:03:22.520 anything about Buford Pusser? 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.040 Great name. I love the name. Yeah. Apart from that, no. 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:30.840 It's incredible. It's an amazing name. Yeah, it's almost that 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:32.880 he has almost the name from the Cop as, the 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.800 same name as the cop from Smoking in the Bandit. 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:39.480 But no, this was a real cop. Have you seen 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:42.680 the movie Walking Tall the original like nineteen seventy three. 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:43.960 No, not the original. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:46.320 Yeah, I mean there was a reboot in like two 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.600 thousand and four with the Rock but like both Walking 0:03:49.640 --> 0:03:52.600 Talls and there's actually several Walking Tall movies. It became 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:56.000 like a whole franchise. They're all based on a real guy, 0:03:56.200 --> 0:03:59.200 a real cop who up until literally like a year ago, 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:02.160 was almost universally viewed to have been like a hero. 0:04:03.080 --> 0:04:05.800 And his name was Buford Pusser, And. 0:04:05.560 --> 0:04:09.200 It's a name that that were you writing a screenplay, 0:04:09.400 --> 0:04:12.000 someone would be like, Haha, this is a fine placeholder, 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.360 but like, no one's gonna buy it for your bad 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:15.000 guy character. 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:18.760 You gotta get a real name. Yeah, yeah, I don't 0:04:18.760 --> 0:04:21.480 even know if like Buford or Pusser is more ridiculous, 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:23.840 but like together, it just does not sound like a 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:24.560 real person. 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:27.200 Absolutely not no, but no, it was. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:30.120 A real man and his story came out on film. 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:32.919 The kind of like the the shorthand version of the 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.120 story is that he's this cop who this like Tennessee 0:04:36.160 --> 0:04:40.880 cop who declared war on this like local organized crime group, 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:43.880 the State Lion Gang, who were like doing running, gambling 0:04:43.920 --> 0:04:47.719 and prostitution and a legal liquor because McNairy County was 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.919 a dry County and he went to war. He smashed 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.440 up their stills with like a baseball bat or just 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.880 like a big Sometimes you'll just see him like wielding 0:04:55.880 --> 0:05:00.440 a log and like that's kind of Buford Pusser's like legend. 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:02.960 Is this cop who went head to head with the 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.799 mafia and like beat mafia guys to death with boards 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.640 basically right, Like that's the version of him from the movie. 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:15.760 Yes, this is Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Yes adjacent, Yes, Yes, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:16.400 very much so. 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:18.520 And he kind of became because the movie comes out 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:20.880 in seventy three and because it's supposed to be a 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:22.960 real guy. There were a lot of news stories about 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:27.040 this guy's actual exploits and he is personally like the 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.599 model that you get around the seventies and eighties of 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:34.400 like the gritty, hard boiled cop who he breaks the law, 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:37.000 he doesn't play by the rules, but he gets results. 0:05:37.080 --> 0:05:39.520 Like Bauford Pusser is the origin in a lot of 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.200 ways of a lot of that mythos, Like he's not 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.960 the only person it's based off of, but he's the 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.720 real guy that a lot of that stuff gets kind 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.440 of wrapped around, Like there's a lot of Buford Pusser 0:05:50.480 --> 0:05:53.640 and Dirty Harry, you know, like he's and it kind 0:05:53.680 --> 0:05:56.400 of makes sense that seventy three is when this guy 0:05:56.760 --> 0:06:00.520 in his movie get famous and blow up, because you know, 0:06:00.600 --> 0:06:03.960 seventy three is when Nixon resigns. It's this period in which, 0:06:04.040 --> 0:06:06.800 like crime is raising and Americans are there's just kind 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:10.479 of this general sense of exhaustion both at like crime 0:06:10.520 --> 0:06:12.719 in the streets and crime at like the top of 0:06:12.760 --> 0:06:15.800 the country. So people were kind of craving this like 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:21.800 just law paladined figure who didn't wait for you know, 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:24.160 the court system to catch up, didn't wait for the 0:06:24.279 --> 0:06:26.240 niceties of the galer, just went right after the bad 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:27.240 guys and took them down. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:29.920 You know, that makes a lot of sense. I do 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:31.400 have to say, and I don't want to note you 0:06:31.400 --> 0:06:33.359 to death. You've You've come a long way since you 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:35.919 were my intern, and the podcast is great and everyone 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:38.360 loves it. I will say, if you're going to say 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:41.000 a sentence like there was a lot of Buford Pusser 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.000 in Dirty Harry, you've got to leave some air. You've 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:46.560 got to give some space for someone to say something 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:48.520 you can't barrel on through after that. 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:50.880 Really, I mean, you know, I kind of just thought 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.400 maybe maybe we just maybe we just let that lie. Okay, 0:06:54.600 --> 0:06:56.760 I didn't know, I didn't I don't know, Dan, this 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:00.000 is These are the kind of life and death choice 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:04.560 people in our field have to make. I'm ready for 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:09.120 all your Pusser jokes and Buford jokes. He was played 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:11.880 in nineteen seventy three by Joe Don Baker, which is 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:18.480 actually sounds more like a real sheriff's name than Buford Pusser. Yeah, 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.560 so before we get into this guy's story, I want 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:23.760 to give you a little bit of like how he's 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:27.080 known in pop culture before the myth gets busted, which 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:29.720 really has just happened, like in the last year or so, 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:34.000 there's been a lot of crimes that have been reinvestigated 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.000 that Buford was involved in that has kind of tarnished 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.000 his legacy. But prior to that point, here's how the 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:43.400 La Times described Walking Tall, which went on to make 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:45.360 more than forty million dollars off of a half a 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:48.640 million dollar budget during his six years in office. Pusser, 0:07:48.720 --> 0:07:51.120 known for carrying a big hickory stick he used as 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.720 a weapon, fought a gang of bootleggers and conmen who 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.920 are operating along the Mississippi Tennessee state line. He was 0:07:56.960 --> 0:07:59.640 shot and stabbed on several occasions, killed a thieving meat 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:03.000 FEMA motel owner who ambushed him, and in nineteen sixty seven, 0:08:03.120 --> 0:08:04.800 was way laid in his car by the criminals who 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.960 shot him and murdered his wife, Pauline. Almost none of 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:11.560 that's true, with the exceptional fact that he did get 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.120 shot and stabbed on several occasions. Everything else kind of 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:21.000 open for reevaluation given the more recent facts that we've got. 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:26.560 So I'm assuming that means like murdered thieving woman. The 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:29.720 parts of that that are are false. It's gonna bum 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:30.720 me out right right. 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:34.400 Yes, the murder part is true, the other parts maybe 0:08:34.440 --> 0:08:36.960 a little less clear. His wife getting killed in an 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:40.280 assassination may not have been exactly how it went down, 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.240 it is worth noting. At the time, one New York 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:50.520 Times reviewer called Walking Tall a fascist movie, and it 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.840 kind of there's you can see that right, Like it 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.680 is fundamentally about how some people should just be allowed 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.600 to do whatever to enforce the law, even if they 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.679 have to break the law to it, and that's not 0:09:01.840 --> 0:09:05.840 a great message. Joe Don Baker, who played Buford, describes 0:09:05.880 --> 0:09:08.480 the film's appeal, as quote, a response to people being 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:10.960 sick of crime and politicians like Richard Nixon. They just 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.200 wanted to take a stick and beat up on the government. 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.439 And I think we can all identify with that urge. 0:09:17.679 --> 0:09:21.080 I just but is it the government that Pusser is 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:21.920 going after in. 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:25.840 The moment the government he fought is that thieving female 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:28.040 motel owner Richard Nixon. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.400 I'm just so goddamn mad about Nixon. I'm gonna go 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:34.559 in this bar and beat up some people that I've 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:35.760 decided our criminals. 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.839 Yeah, I do. That's a very American thing, Like I'm 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.240 angry at the government. I need to see a huge 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:43.080 man beat the shit out of poor people. 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:44.040 Yeah. 0:09:46.000 --> 0:09:48.240 So, as I stated, over the last few years, a 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:50.720 growing body of experts that started to question the official 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.600 story of Buford's life, and particularly the story of the 0:09:53.679 --> 0:09:56.679 night his wife was murdered and he was grievously injured. 0:09:57.520 --> 0:09:59.360 And so we're going to talk as much as we 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.400 can about but the real Buford Pusser this week. He 0:10:03.520 --> 0:10:07.760 was born Buford Hayes Pusser, and Hayes is spelled just wrong, 0:10:08.240 --> 0:10:11.280 hys e. That's not how Hayes is supposed to be spelled. 0:10:11.400 --> 0:10:12.280 I'm incorrect. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:15.480 I'm not happy about that. Really took me a long 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.280 time to get over. On December twelfth, nineteen thirty seven, 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:23.440 Tokarl and Helen Pusser at a farm in McNairy County, Tennessee. 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.160 His dad's side of the family had come over from 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.000 England in the sixteen thirties, and his grandpa had settled 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:32.640 in Tennessee in eighteen seventy nine after leaving Georgia, where 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:36.280 he had served in the Confederate military. Probably we don't 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:38.719 know exactly, but we know that his brother died in 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.520 a Union prisoner of war camp, so pretty likely. Now, 0:10:43.520 --> 0:10:45.840 these guys would not have been We're not talking like 0:10:45.920 --> 0:10:48.600 the slave owning class. These people don't have money, but 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.440 you know that, we're talking like the class of poor 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.360 whites who made up the bulk of the Confederate military. 0:10:54.400 --> 0:10:57.199 You know, like that's that's Beauford's relatives. 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.320 Sure fair enough to say that they were still like 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:02.200 broadly supporters of the cause. 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:06.880 Oh yeah, oh yeah yeah. Although although Buford is that's 0:11:06.960 --> 0:11:08.719 really not a thing he has an issue with. He's 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:10.640 actually gonna be one of the first sheriffs to appoint 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:13.760 a black deputy, I think the first in Tennessee, and 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.800 he has a reputation for being like pretty good on 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.800 race stuff, and in fact, none of his crimes involve 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:22.720 him being racist, so he might actually get a pass 0:11:22.760 --> 0:11:27.880 on that. Just a murderer. Hey, there we go, small 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:32.439 victories man, Yeah, you love to see it. So Carl 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:35.559 and Helen. His parents had three children, and Buford Hayes 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.760 Pusser was the youngest. He was delivered by his nanny 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:41.320 because the doctor was late getting to their farm house. 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.440 He was delivered right as the doctor was walking away. 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:46.640 Question, what are is it? 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.839 Did the doctor still Bill? Because I'm guessing. 0:11:48.640 --> 0:11:51.760 Yes, well the doctor definitely still build. But no, what 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:53.360 what are his siblings names? 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:54.839 Fantastic question? 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.720 So his brothers? His brother was John Howard and his 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:01.840 sister was Gallia A y l A. I. Again not 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:04.360 a real name, so just. 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.400 One normal had They come up with John. 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:10.000 John Howard that one of the kids they figured had 0:12:10.000 --> 0:12:12.439 to have like a real person name, and the rest 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:15.560 the rest you can just go for broke. I don't 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.080 understand how they're spelling things. The only answer I have 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:20.839 is that nobody knew how to spell words properly because 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:24.600 you just don't. Hayes doesn't need an E anyway. Galeen 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.920 Gayla Pusser gay g A y l i A Pusser, 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:30.520 Gayla Pusser, Gallia. 0:12:30.240 --> 0:12:35.120 Pusser, Gallia Pusser, Gallia Pusser. I'm so sorry elementary school 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:35.600 was tough. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.200 Yeah, right, at least at least she didn't come up 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.800 in like the nineties. That would have really been rough. 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.400 That's actually an amazing stage name. 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.719 Gallia Pusser. Yes, it would be a stage name for 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.640 a very specific kind of performer today, but not maybe 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.120 the easiest name to grow up in Tennessee in the 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.840 forties with. Also true, So, uh, Beuford was huge. She's 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.720 going to be six foot six as an adult, and 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.559 he's noted as being a very big baby. He's got 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:05.480 a full head of hair by the time of his 0:13:05.520 --> 0:13:08.880 first birthday, so this is a big kid. He's immediately 0:13:08.920 --> 0:13:11.960 eating everything he can get his hands on. He just 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:16.600 turns out massive. He's just a monster from the jump now. 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:19.640 Most of our details on Buford's early life come from 0:13:19.640 --> 0:13:22.439 a book written after his death by his daughter, Dwana 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:26.040 Pusser a d w Ana. This family cannot spell people's 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:28.800 names normally or give them more leaves. I don't know 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:34.360 what's going on. And this book is fantastic. It's so funny, Likedana. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:38.000 It's not intentionally funny, because Duanna is clearly very proud 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:40.559 of her dad and buys into the whole hero myth 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:43.040 of him. She barely got to know him because, as 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.000 a spoiler, he dies pretty early. So the book is 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:49.720 all her talking about the different family lore that she got, 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.280 both from what she remembers from her dad telling her 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.600 and from what other relatives told her about like her family. 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.920 And she's clearly really proud of it and doesn't realize 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:02.880 how horrifying everything that she's saying is. And so it's 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.520 this like unintentionally terrifying narrative, and there's a lot of 0:14:06.600 --> 0:14:09.440 humor and like her describing these awful things that are 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:12.520 happening to him and that he's doing as like, ah, 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.160 boys being boys, that's just how kids were back in 0:14:15.240 --> 0:14:16.480 the day. 0:14:17.360 --> 0:14:19.840 Was this the only book that she wrote or was 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.240 she an author or biographer by trade or anything. 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:25.920 I don't believe Duana Pusser wrote any other books. 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.320 Okay, it's it's very sweet to do that for your father. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.200 Do you wanna pusr I appreciate that. I yeah, understand 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.000 that impulse very much, but I also it puts me 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.160 in the right headspace to understand how accurate this is 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:40.680 going to be. 0:14:41.280 --> 0:14:45.520 Right right, And I would not view this as like 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:48.880 a very good work of history. I think it's more. 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:51.920 But it is fascinating in terms of the shit that 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:54.560 she is willing to admit that he did that she 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:56.840 doesn't see as bad. But like, I think we can 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:58.400 look in and be like, oh, this is obviously like 0:14:58.400 --> 0:15:01.640 a fucking psychopath. Like this kid is is deeply, deeply 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.720 damaged and dangerous. That's going to be That's going to 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.960 be a where the sweetness in this first episode comes out. 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.480 So Dwana describes her father. She gives kind of scarce 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:15.920 details of his first six years of life, other than 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:18.360 to say he was a mama's boy who fought against 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.080 going to school at first. She describes him kind of 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.040 conflictingly as both a natural leader and someone who was 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.640 bullied from an early age, which quote is one of 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:31.360 the ways he learned to sympathize with the underdog. Now again, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.640 this kid is like famously large and famously violent. I 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.280 don't know how much I believe he was like ever 0:15:36.360 --> 0:15:39.400 the underdog at his school. He's also like a basketball 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:42.280 star at a local at his school. I don't know 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.640 how much bullying I think he actually endured, but maybe 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:48.040 Duada was convinced of it. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.360 As someone who was famously real life bullied in middle 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:54.440 and high school. I don't think it was much to 0:15:54.480 --> 0:15:57.000 do with how giant I was. That didn't make me 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.720 a target. I don't think. In fact, No, there was 0:15:59.720 --> 0:16:01.000 an verse relationship. 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:04.200 Yeah, the six the kid who is a foot and 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.640 a half taller than everyone and the best at sports 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.280 is usually not the underdog, right, like, usually not the 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:11.000 bullied kid. 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.080 That guy so huge, I bet he could throw me 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:15.160 over the fence. Well, I suppose we'll find out. 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:20.080 Yeah, let's make fun of him. Hey, basketball guy, you 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:25.720 like being good at sports. So family law about somebody 0:16:25.720 --> 0:16:28.480 whose legacy became the subject of a successful series of 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:32.600 movies and several books is notoriously inaccurate. But the family 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.200 law of that Dwana gives is that as a kid, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:40.440 Buford mostly socialized with women. Right, he writes, girl or 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:43.280 she writes, girls were drawn to my father. He liked 0:16:43.280 --> 0:16:46.680 them too. As a child, growing up in the forties, 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:49.600 he encountered the kind of traumas you'd expect. At age eight, 0:16:49.720 --> 0:16:52.240 he was walking with his siblings and their dog after 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.040 a rainstorm and they found the corpse of a neighbor 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.760 girl his age, who lived nearby and had drowned in 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.600 a ditch. Like this is just like a cash Like, yeah, 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:02.520 he's on a walk one day after a rainstorm and 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:04.359 they find the dead body of one of their neighbors 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.160 by me. Yeah, it's a real stand by me kind 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.960 of moment. And Duana does describe this as upsetting to 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.760 her father, but most of her stories of Daddy are 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.520 related as light hearted humor, even when the text of 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:22.119 what's happening is like fucked up, to say the least. 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.119 And I'll give an example here. By the time Daddy 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:26.959 got to be a big boy, he was seeing the 0:17:26.960 --> 0:17:30.080 fun of playing practical jokes. I remember hearing about when 0:17:30.119 --> 0:17:32.600 he played on his granddaddy Bliss Harris, who had come 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:34.719 to stay with the family. Again, not a normal name 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:37.200 among these people. They had an outhouse and my great 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:40.000 grandfather Harris went outside to use it. Daddy knew he 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.560 was in there. He fired a shotgun and rained a 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.399 storm of pellets against the side of the outhouse. When 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:47.720 his grandpa came running out with his pants hanging down 0:17:47.720 --> 0:17:50.120 below his knees, Daddy thought it was the funniest thing 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.280 he'd ever seen. Holy shit, that's not a prank. That's 0:17:54.400 --> 0:17:57.360 just shooting it at your grandpa with a shotgun. Right, 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.239 that's not a prank. That's shooting it someone. 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:04.720 And it's such a it's such a rich area that like, oh, 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.400 he went into the outhouse and pranks are in the air. 0:18:07.560 --> 0:18:09.440 I think, I bet I know where this is going. 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:11.280 I bet he's gonna like shake it or do something 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:15.040 like maybe tip over the outhouse, something with poop involved. 0:18:15.119 --> 0:18:18.920 But it's like, no, it's just standard pedestrian gun violence. 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:21.160 He just fires a twelve gag. 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:25.320 Yet his grandfather the toilet is a non factor. Really, Yeah, 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:27.399 that prank works in any setting. 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.359 Yeah, he could have shot him anywhere, and he will. 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.240 He repeatedly throughout his life, will you will you shooting 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.840 at people with guns? As the punchline of a joke 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.280 like this, that's one of buford Buster's favorite gags is haha, 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:42.480 I shot you and you got scared. 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.760 Gosh, comedy was so easy back then. 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.840 It really was. I mean, you could just get up 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:51.119 in front of an audience fire off a shotgun and 0:18:51.160 --> 0:18:54.640 then you know, walk off the thunderous applause and probably 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:56.000 some screaming Yeah. 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:59.119 Yeah, you get a Comedy Central present special off that. 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:04.320 Yeah, I will say that if that's what like Joe 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:06.679 Rogan and company were angry about. As opposed to not 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:08.960 being able to say slurs. Man, you can't even fire 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:12.119 a twelve gage shotgun at your grandfather anymore and get labs. 0:19:12.160 --> 0:19:15.240 People just get angry. It's this fucking new woke bullshit, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.440 not allowed to shoot at people as a joke anymore. Tragic. 0:19:20.840 --> 0:19:25.679 So Dwana tells another story about Buford's childhood church. It 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:29.199 had no outhouse, no bathroom facilities of any kind. So 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.159 I'm number one. It just sounds like a nightmare, like 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:36.000 going to church doing one of these long services. Churchgoers 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.000 just had to go in the woods nearby if the 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:40.240 need took them. And there was a side for men 0:19:40.320 --> 0:19:43.600 and another side for women. And Dwana goes on to 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.959 relate this story. Daddy and his friend came across two 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:48.960 little boys who were fighting, and one of the youths 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.439 had just pulled a pocket knife from his pocket. Daddy 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.560 calmly approached the kid and took it away from him, 0:19:53.640 --> 0:19:55.800 but not before the boy cut Daddy on the wrist. 0:19:56.160 --> 0:19:59.159 Daddy's friend ran and told Papa what had happened. Papa 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.240 told the boy, why son, he'll be all right. Sure enough. 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.639 When he came back, Daddy had simply tied a handkerchief 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.760 around his wrist and acted as though nothing had happened. So, 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.399 just like a casual knife fight at church, you know, 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:14.320 that's the that's this the attitude towards violence. This guy 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:15.160 grows up with. 0:20:15.840 --> 0:20:19.720 A church knife fight that he was trying to break end. 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:24.040 Okay, yes, and wound up getting stabbed. And yeah, when 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:27.080 his friend freaks out, his dad is like, yeah, don't 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:29.160 worry about it, you know, like it's just a little 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:31.840