WEBVTT - Part Two: 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 --> 0:00:11.640 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 --> 0:00:40.240 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 --> 0:00:53.120 check it out. On Thursday September twenty fifth at eight pm, 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.200 and we're back to Behind the Bastards, a podcast about 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:00.320 bad people, the worst ones in all of history. This 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.600 is tart two of our series on Buford Pusser, the 0:01:04.720 --> 0:01:07.840 man whose family could not give their kids normal names. 0:01:07.880 --> 0:01:10.840 To save their lives. Also, he committed a bunch of 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:14.040 horrible crimes and killed people. Back as my guest. 0:01:14.160 --> 0:01:19.920 Dan O'Brien, Hello, thank you for having me. There's there's 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:25.280 no depths to my appetite for Pusser. 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:32.760 That's that's right, I just love Pusser. Beauford. I'm agnostic 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:35.240 on Have you ever met a Buford? Do you know 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:36.120 a single Buford? 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:38.600 The only this is not a person that I know, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.640 the only time I've ever heard that name was Benjamin 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:46.000 Buford Blue, the full name of Bubba from Forrest Gump. 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:49.080 I know that I didn't remember that was Bubba's. 0:01:48.840 --> 0:01:52.880 Person, I know, but yeah, that's the only other instance 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:54.960 of that name I've ever heard anywhere. 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:58.520 Huh. Yeah, I know that. I'm actually looking up the 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:00.360 name of the shaf from Smoking the Band Yeah, Buford 0:02:00.400 --> 0:02:04.440 t Justice is the sheriff of Smokey and the bandit Yeah, 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:06.480 which I think is probably the first time I heard 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.079 that name and did not realize that it was. Yeah. 0:02:09.120 --> 0:02:11.040 That was came out in seventy seven, so he was 0:02:11.080 --> 0:02:14.000 definitely named after Buford. Pusser because Walking Doll came out 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:18.200 in seventy three, kind of a more accurate parody of 0:02:18.680 --> 0:02:22.320 Buford Pusser as opposed to the version in Walking TLL 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:23.560 that's basically a hero. 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:25.200 The cool sheriff guy. 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.520 Yeah. Yeah, speaking of those movies, if you've watched any 0:02:28.560 --> 0:02:31.560 of the Walking Tall movies, you're probably aware as I've 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:34.560 mentioned that he was. Buford was mostly famous for using 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.040 a large stick or a bat or piece of wood 0:02:37.040 --> 0:02:40.440 to beat up gangsters. The original poster, which Sophie's going 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:42.560 the show, for those of you watching the video version, 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.239 is just it looks like he's just holding like a log, 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.399 but like a trimmed log, like a log someone has 0:02:50.440 --> 0:02:52.960 processed to be nice firewood, like it's had the bark 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.840 shaved off at everything. But it does just look like 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:56.320 a log. 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.880 Like he kind of looks like if Javier Bardem was 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:01.440 also a zombie. 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:06.200 Yeah, that's that's how the illustrated Yeah, Buford and Walking 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.160 in the poster looks. And then, of course the tagline 0:03:09.160 --> 0:03:11.400 of the original movie, the measure of a man is 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:14.880 how tall he walks? What does that mean? I mean 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:16.919 you mean that like, the taller you are, the better 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.359 you are. What is what is that? 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:26.720 It's somewhere between literal and poetic, right where like you 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:27.440 would measure. 0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:32.600 I mean, I guess the measure of a man, yes, is. 0:03:32.720 --> 0:03:35.560 How you literally, Yes, you can measure a man by 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:39.680 how tally is. But I don't think like you're saying 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:43.240 a lot about the man necessarily, especially since like the 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.440 fact that a man can walk tall, being six foot six, like, 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.720 it's that's less impressive. Like if he was a short 0:03:48.800 --> 0:03:52.600 man who had like his personality, you know, or whatever 0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.640 you're saying, Like he walked tall, that's something. But just 0:03:55.680 --> 0:03:59.160 being like, yeah, you know, this giant guy, he sure was. 0:03:59.120 --> 0:04:03.320 Tall, that's just Napoleon Robert, right. 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.680 If they're going literal, it's very boring and there's nothing 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.280 more to say about it. You're saying that the tallness 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.320 is the tallness. If they're going poetic. They also don't 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.040 do a good enough job defining what walking tall means, 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:16.400 Like what. 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:18.800 Is it means you beat in a man half to 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:19.599 death with lumber? 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.520 He walks the most tall? 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.080 Yeah, I mean, I guess so, But that's not really 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.000 a point in his favor. He just happened to be big. 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:30.839 Now. 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.680 The more recent reboot featuring The Rock, which was a 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.960 loose adaptation of the original movie that was not explicitly 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:40.039 based on the life of Buford. Pusster shows the rock carrying. 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.840 It's interesting the differences between these. Instead of carrying like 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.360 a trimmed log, he's carrying what looks just like a 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:51.800 piece of like construction timber. Yes, yeah, yeah, he's just 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.920 he's just gotten his hand there. And the tagline there 0:04:55.000 --> 0:04:58.160 is one man will stand up for What's right, which 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.960 is at least a better tagline than the first movie had, 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:05.200 and it notes that it's inspired by a true story, 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:16.200 which it wasn't. Yeah, as we'll discuss today, it's the 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:20.119 whole myth. As I noted about him using a large 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.040 piece of wood to fight crime, started when Buford hit 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.080 Wo Hathcock Junior in the school with a fence post. 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.640 Buford's daughter noted in her book Walking On, there was 0:05:29.680 --> 0:05:32.000 a handful of other times when Daddy would find use 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:34.279 for a sizeable piece of lumber when going up against 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:36.480 bad guys, but as often as not he went in 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:39.120 bare handed, or maybe would grab something more like a switch. 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.280 That's usually all that was necessary. But his first retaliation 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:44.480 against the State Line mob was personal and it did 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:46.120 indeed require a fence post. 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:54.080 Yeah, yeah, it's okay, that's so interesting. To describe a 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:55.840 mob fight as personal. 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:57.159 They're all personal. 0:05:57.360 --> 0:06:00.680 Yeah, people are trying to kill you. It feels very personal. Yeah, 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:03.560 it is funny to me that she's like, there were 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:05.640 a handful of times where he'd find a big piece 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:07.919 of lumber to fight people with. That was like a 0:06:07.960 --> 0:06:12.839 thing he did so Normally, the State Line Gang was 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:14.760 not the kind of group who would settle a problem 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.880 by calling in the police because they were a mafia. 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.520 But in this case, Buford and his friends had committed 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:25.279 straight up felony assault against somebody. So Hathcock Junior pressed charges, 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:29.000 and Buford was arrested with his buddies and extradited to Mississippi. 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.640 They were charged with assault with a tent to commit 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.039 murder and armed robbery, both of which are probably accurate 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:38.120 descriptions of what they'd done. Bufert's daughter doesn't write that 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.000 he robbed Hathcock Junior, but it sounds like he did. 0:06:42.440 --> 0:06:44.680 And I wouldn't be surprised if, well, they took my 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:47.520 money that I gambled away, so I'm going to take 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:49.800 whatever's in his wallet, right like I really did. It 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:52.640 does sound like he actually also just robbed the guy again, 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:54.840 rather than this being he was so upset at all 0:06:54.880 --> 0:06:57.400 the crime he had to fight against these gangsters. He 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.800 was like, no, he beat a man after death and 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:00.599 took his money. 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.320 He lost money at a casino and got beat up 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:07.400 and then wanted to rectify that specific situation for himself 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:09.159 ten days after his wedding. 0:07:09.440 --> 0:07:11.280 It needs to be repeated. 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:14.880 Yeah, right after the wedding. Yeah. So Buford and his 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:17.720 friends they get extradited, but they don't wind up getting 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:20.720 convicted because again, he's got that, like you said, he's 0:07:20.720 --> 0:07:24.040 got that cop brain for when he's committing violent crimes. 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:26.840 Where he made sure to set up an alibi for 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:29.680 himself and his buddies before they went out to attack 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.040 Hathcock Junior, and their defense hinged on the fact that 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:35.800 they worked at a factory together in Chicago, and they'd 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.440 all filled out time cards and there were time cards 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:40.480 for all three men that showed them working on the 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.720 day of the assault, and then they just had like 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.000 a friend fake the time cards so they could go 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:49.000 out and beat that guy. And Duanna Pusser writes about 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.520 this in her book About Her Dad and again describes 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:54.560 it as like a lighthearted prank as opposed to somebody 0:07:54.920 --> 0:08:01.679 like consciously trying to evade the law while committing felonies. Quotemeditated, Yeah, 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.440 very premeditated. Yes. As it turns out, having a friend 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:07.520 clock their time cards for them while they were gone 0:08:07.560 --> 0:08:09.880 proved to be a stroke of really smart planning by 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:13.480 Daddy and his friends. That's one way to describe a 0:08:13.480 --> 0:08:16.480 criminal conspiracy. Yeah, a stroke of really smart planning. 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.080 God, it's like one of my favorite planners, the Zodiac Killer. 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:24.320 Yeah, great at planning. In a stroke of very smart planning, 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:26.600 he cut the body up into forty pieces and threw 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:31.280 it in a river. So once the trial ended, Beauford 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.000 and his new wife, Pauline, returned to Chicago, where he 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.280 started attending a mortuary school to get a proper degree. 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:40.560 So he decides to try to make this a career still, 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.480 and he's kind of like working at a factory. He's 0:08:43.480 --> 0:08:45.840 going to mortuary school at night, and then on the 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:49.120 weekends he starts wrestling. He becomes a pro wrestler as 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:52.520 a way to pick up extra money. Now, Buford was 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:55.240 good enough that he caught the eye of Jerry Lawler, 0:08:55.600 --> 0:08:58.520 the wrestling icon who later helped The Rock get started, 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:01.400 which is a weird direct an action between the two men. 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.040 Jerry the King Lawler, Yeah, yeah, Lawler was reportedly a 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.240 friend of Buford Puster, or like a fan of his 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:08.160 when he was a wrestler. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.079 That's I mean, there you go. 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:12.679 He was. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.040 If there's a behind the Bastards on Jerry the King Lawler, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:18.959 that'll be the one episode that I skiw because I 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:21.160 love him too much. 0:09:21.559 --> 0:09:24.120 I don't have any evidence of him doing anything bad, 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:26.120 and we don't. I don't actually have proof that he 0:09:26.280 --> 0:09:29.440 actually was a fan of Buford. He's reported reputed to 0:09:29.480 --> 0:09:31.840 have been a fan of Buford, but there's a lot 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:33.560 like maybe that was a lie. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:34.080 I don't know. 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:39.199 Yeah, it's also not entirely like he was a huge dude. 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:39.440 You know. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.640 I could see him being decent at wrestling. 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:43.680 Yeah. 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:46.360 So that said, he's not wildly successful and he does 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:48.079 not become a national name. This is never going to 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:51.160 be anything that makes becomes a career for him, but 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:53.560 it does teach him some lessons that will be useful 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.200 in his later crimes. As of nineteen fifty eight, it 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.400 was still mostly a weekend gig. He does do some 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:04.240 pretty good size performances, his largest being he wrestles at 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:07.120 an event at Comiski Park in Chicago, in front of 0:10:07.160 --> 0:10:10.920 thirty seven thousand people. So, like, you know, he's not 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.560 a nobody here. You know, that's not nothing. We don't 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:17.680 there's just not a I wish there was more detail 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:20.640 about his wrestling career. Basically, the only real documentation we 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.480 have of it is a nineteen seventy article that Buford 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:26.680 wrote after he got famous, for an issue of the 0:10:26.720 --> 0:10:32.400 men's adventure magazine True Detective. So again not great journalistic 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.560 reputation True Detective Magazine. But in that article he claims 0:10:37.559 --> 0:10:39.840 that the hardest match of his wrestling career was in 0:10:39.960 --> 0:10:43.119 Union City, Tennessee, against a guy named Big Bill Crockett. 0:10:43.480 --> 0:10:46.600 They both wrestled the night before in Jackson, and Buford 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:49.720 had gotten a nashty gash on his forehead during that fight, 0:10:50.120 --> 0:10:51.679 and so when they fight again the next fight, I'm 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.840 gonna continue here from Buford's article. When the referee called 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:57.079 us out to shake hands in Union City, he hauled 0:10:57.120 --> 0:10:59.480 off and hit me with his fist, busted open the 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:01.640 cut in the night before. When he hit me the 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:04.600 second night, that's when the fight come off. We didn't wrestle, 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:06.960 we just fought. It was a little makeshift ring and 0:11:07.000 --> 0:11:09.560 we tore it down. The referee stopped us, got some 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:11.720 canvas and lumber and patched it up. Then we fought 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.880 some more and tore it down again. I don't know 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:15.680 how I'd got home that night if I hadn't had 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:18.320 a wrestler named Billy Daniels to drive for me. Both 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:20.800 eyes were swollen shut, my hands were so sore, my 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.160 fingers got stiff like claws. I was stiff as a 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.600 board for days. It was along then that I decided 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:30.040 to give up wrestling, So that'll be basically his only 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.800 rational decision in life. 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.400 I would argue that makes him a bad professional wrestler. 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:42.440 I think that's probably fair, Okay, good, Yeah, yeah, I 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:44.840 think when you lose your temper enough that you have 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.319 an actual fight and destroy the ring twice. Although I 0:11:47.400 --> 0:11:49.720 do want to see that fight, Like I bet that 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.400 was a hell of a thing to watch. 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:55.480 And like, gosh, whether this is an embellishment or not, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.520 it's a really good, legitimate pro wrestling bit. It to 0:12:00.600 --> 0:12:03.319 fight so bad that the ring breaks and then they 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:04.439 rebuild the ring, and. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:07.319 That's excellent. 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:12.439 Yeah, that is a good wrestling bit. So one of 0:12:12.480 --> 0:12:14.679 the last things that Bufford and Pauline would do in 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:17.559 Chicago before they moved back to Adamsville was have their 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.800 first child, Dwana, On's January ninth of nineteen sixty one. 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:25.320 And it almost immediately after that happens they moved back 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:27.520 to Adamsville. And I want to quote now from an 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:32.240 article by the McNairy Historical Society. His dad, Carl was 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.199 chief of police in Adamsville. He was retiring and encouraged 0:12:35.240 --> 0:12:37.679 Bufford to apply for his job. After a vote from 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.400 the city board, Buford was made chief of police. Thus 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.000 began his law enforcement career. Now that's a that seems 0:12:45.040 --> 0:12:46.080 like it's leaving out a lot. 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:48.319 He was made chief of police. 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:51.320 He was made chief of police right and the way 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:53.400 Dwana describes it, they had to beg him to be 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:55.400 the chief of police, Like he really didn't want it 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.160 and they had to force it on him. There's a 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.959 lot that we just don't have here, the little bitty 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.680 details around the edges that get left out that I 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:05.560 have been able to find paint to kind of a 0:13:05.679 --> 0:13:08.600 darker picture. So, among other things, this is back during 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.280 a time when small town law enforcement was less of 0:13:11.400 --> 0:13:14.400 like a career track and more like a gig you 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:17.679 could fall into by accident, right, Like, if you're in 0:13:17.720 --> 0:13:20.040 a county and like the sheriff is like an elected 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:22.880 position and you're just a popular guy, you might wind 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.680 up being the sheriff, even if like that wasn't your ambition, 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.720 you know. But also there's a lot of money being 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:33.400 the sheriff in a town that has organized crime in it, 0:13:33.920 --> 0:13:38.280 And that's kind of this. I can't say this for certain, 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:41.920 but I really heavily suspect based on a couple of 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:45.640 things I've read that his dad, Carl was crooked and 0:13:45.960 --> 0:13:48.440 wanted to pass on the job as police chief to 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.720 his son so that the money from being crooked cops 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:55.760 in this mafia town could continue to stay in the family. Right. 0:13:57.120 --> 0:14:00.440 He becomes the police chief after he's horribly injured in 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:03.120 a car accident. There's a lot of car accidents in 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.600 this story. In a second car no no, no, this 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:09.800 is his dad totally separate car. So his dad becomes 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.360 the chief of police after he gets too hurt to 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.040 work in a pipeline, which is also weird, and yeah, 0:14:15.080 --> 0:14:16.720 does the job for just a few years and then 0:14:16.760 --> 0:14:19.680 decides he's too hurt, and he pushes for his son 0:14:19.720 --> 0:14:24.640 to take the job. Now, given the reality of crime 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:27.480 at the time in McNairy County, this was not an 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:31.400 easy job enforcing the law near the state line, and 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.760 it was made harder by the fact that everyone whose 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.240 job was to enforce the law in the area was, 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:39.280 as best as I can tell, also incredibly corrupt, right, Like, 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:43.280 no one was really all that interested in enforcing the law, 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:47.240 including Buford. The McNairy County sheriff worked with the state 0:14:47.280 --> 0:14:50.320 Line Gang to ensure that alcohol kept getting smuggled into 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.360 the county. And as soon as he became the police chief, Buford, 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:57.760 the way he would describe things as like he set 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.000 himself against these corrupt cops to like fight for justice 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.720 and fight against the mafia. The way I interpret it 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.240 and what I think the body of evidence suggests now 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:12.080 is he was just kind of trying to edge these 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.520 other law enforcement guys out of the racket, right because 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.680 they were all getting cuts and he wanted more money 0:15:18.680 --> 0:15:21.880 for himself. Because as soon as he becomes the police chief, 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:24.600 he runs for constable, and he wins a narrow victory's 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:28.640 constable in nineteen sixty two, and after that he's going 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.240 to immediately like set his sights on becoming the sheriff. So, like, 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:33.760 what he's doing here is he's getting rid of the competition. 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:36.160 He's trying to make himself the only lawman in town, 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.960 in part because then the cut only gets split one way. 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:44.880 Right now, kind of laying out exactly what happened here 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.320 is hard because most of what was written during this 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.400 time period was written from the perspective that, like Buford, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.960 Pusser was a hero who was going on a crusade 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.480 against the whiskey trade. That's how Michael Birdwell describes what 0:15:58.520 --> 0:16:01.160 he does for the Tennessee Encyclopedia as like a crusade, 0:16:01.200 --> 0:16:03.440 Like this was a like a almost like a holy 0:16:03.520 --> 0:16:05.800 war that he was waging against bootleggers. 0:16:06.160 --> 0:16:07.920 Yeah. Those are always good, right. 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:10.600 Yeah, we love a good holy war. Yeah. No one's 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:14.240 ever done one of those with an ulterior motive. 0:16:14.640 --> 0:16:14.920 Yeah. 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:18.000 Anytime someone has committed to something that they've described as 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.360 a crusade, my immediate thought was like, well, that sounds 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:22.360 like they're clear ride and level headed about it. 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.240 Yeah, it sounds like you're saying and reasonable and pursuing 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:26.080 this reasonably. 0:16:27.800 --> 0:16:27.960 Now. 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:32.080 Again, modern evidence suggests that he was perfectly happy taking 0:16:32.120 --> 0:16:35.960 money from bootlegging and that his issue was both specifically 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:39.160 with the State Lion Gang because they had beef, and 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:42.160 with the fact that like he wanted more of the 0:16:42.200 --> 0:16:45.160 money that was coming in from these illegal businesses, right, 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:46.920 rather than he had an issue with the businesses in 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:49.760 the first place. So that's why he would go after people, right, 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:54.680 He was effectively starting to make people pay protection. Yeah, 0:16:54.680 --> 0:16:56.680 first as the police chief and then is the sheriff. 0:16:56.800 --> 0:17:01.280 Right now, we do know that the ever corruption between 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.520 area law enforcement and the State Line Gang is certainly 0:17:04.560 --> 0:17:07.359 a lot broader than even just the stories Bufford would tell. Like, 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.439 there is out He's not the only guy saying that, 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.640 like the sheriff when he became police chief was crooked. 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.040 There's evidence for this outside of Beauford. The book Mississippi 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.440 Moonshine Politics is a great anecdote about Louise Hathcock that 0:17:19.560 --> 0:17:22.560 really sells how locked down the State Line Gang had 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.560 things with the cops before Buford got into the mix. 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:26.520 Quote. 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.119 After one particular raid on the forty five grill, a 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:31.760 deputy sheriff arrived early one morning at the Halfcock home 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.840 in Corinth to arrest Luis on liquor charges. Since Louise 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:36.600 was still in her bathrobe, she asked the deputy to 0:17:36.600 --> 0:17:38.800 wait well, she changed into her work clothes, fixed her hair, 0:17:38.800 --> 0:17:41.879 and applied some makeup. Oddly, the deputy agreed. Once she 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.960 was dressed for work at the roadhouse, the deputy allowed 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.280 Luis to drive to the sheriff's office in her own vehicle. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.880 Once Louis arrived, she quickly posted a five hundred dollars 0:17:48.880 --> 0:17:51.080 bail and made it to work before the lunch crowd arrived. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.000 And that's that's just you're paying a bribe on your 0:17:54.000 --> 0:17:55.159 way to work to the cops. 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:55.480 Right. 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.639 I love this woman so so much. 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.200 It's a shame what happens to her, because she's very 0:18:05.560 --> 0:18:10.439 speaking of things that depress me, not going to ads. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.359 Every moment of my life is agony, outside of the 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.800 brief periods of time in which products and services are 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:26.200 being advertised. On this podcast, we're back and my long 0:18:26.280 --> 0:18:27.360 nightmare continues. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:28.200 Tragic. 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:32.720 So Pusser is going to run for sheriff. You know, 0:18:32.760 --> 0:18:37.000 he becomes the police chief, he becomes the constable, and 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:38.639 the next thing he's going to do is he's going 0:18:38.720 --> 0:18:41.560 to get that crooked McNairy County Sheriff out so that 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.239 he can continue his crusade against Moonshine slash take all 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.080 of the money for himself. Now, he made some interesting 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.280 decisions when he started this run, the weirdest of which 0:18:51.320 --> 0:18:53.119 is that he chose to run as a Republican in 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:56.520 what was then a Democratic stronghold. This should have been 0:18:56.600 --> 0:18:58.760 more of a problem for him, but he got lucky 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:02.320 because his rival, the incumbent Sheriff James Dickie, died in 0:19:02.359 --> 0:19:05.040 a horrible car accident part way through the election, clearing 0:19:05.080 --> 0:19:08.800 Bufford an easy path to victory. Now, man, did Bufford 0:19:08.840 --> 0:19:10.400 have anything to do with that car accident? 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.919 And I can I just just on behalf of the 0:19:14.960 --> 0:19:18.679 audience without any jokes or frills, just say that, yes, 0:19:18.800 --> 0:19:19.840 you're Dicky and Pusser. 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:21.840 Dickie is the name. It was Dicky v. 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:26.560 Pusser, and Dickie was pulverized and cleared a path or 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:29.720 Pusser to snatch this victory. 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:36.159 All right, Yeah, that's that's the story of Dicky v. Pusser. Yeah, proceed, 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:41.440 And again we know Buford is willing to kill people 0:19:41.560 --> 0:19:44.639 in stage assassinations to get what he wanted. Like this 0:19:44.800 --> 0:19:47.639 is me speculating. I just wouldn't be shocked if he 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.520 had something to do with Dickie's death. That said, this 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.680 is like the fourth car accident that we've talked about 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.879 in these episodes, So you also have to acknowledge it 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.680 was the sixties. Everyone was drunk and nobody had c else, right, 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:02.840 So people just die in cars a lot back then. 0:20:04.560 --> 0:20:06.800 So as soon as he gets elected Sheriff, Pusser began 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.080 an immediate spree of high profile raids against State Line 0:20:10.119 --> 0:20:13.760 Gang properties. Local papers reported that he bust into gambling 0:20:13.800 --> 0:20:16.600 dens carrying a pickaxe and use it to destroy tables 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.160 and roulette wheels. In his first year on the job, 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:21.480 he is said to have rated forty two stills and 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.800 arrested almost twice as many moonshiners. So he's going on 0:20:25.920 --> 0:20:28.399 like a rampage here, right, Like as soon as he 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:30.399