Sheriff Buford Pusser: The Other Story Featuring Guest Mike Elam

Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum

iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline

True Crime

4.4 • 696 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Pauline Pusser was shot and killed in an ambush believed to be meant for her husband, Sheriff Buford Pusser, in August of 1967 in McNairy County. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, an autopsy was never performed on Pauline's body.

Mike Elam is an author, former law enforcement officer, and historian with a focus on Sheriff Buford Pusser's life and the unsolved murder of Pauline Pusser. His book, "Buford Pusser: The Other Story," dives into the complexities of the Pusser legend and presents evidence that questions the accepted narrative.

Listeners can learn more about Mike's work on Pauline’s case at his YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@bufordpusser1122/videos

Resources:

Walking Tall (1973)

BUFORD PUSSER: The Other Story

In this episode of "Zone 7," Crime Scene Investigator Sheryl McCollum discusses the unsolved murder of Pauline Pusser with Former Officer, Mike Elam. Mike shares his extensive research into the 1967 ambush and murder of Pauline Pusser, wife of legendary Sheriff Buford Pusser.

Elam's findings directly contradict the official story portrayed in Walking Tall. Most recently, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has exhumed Pauline's body in a renewed effort to bring her justice over 50 years later.

Show Notes:

[0:00] Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum.
[1:00] Sheryl recounts her childhood memory of seeing the movie, Walking Tall (1973)
[5:00] Sheryl introduces guest, Mike Elam to the listeners
[7:00] Mike Elam's Background
[10:00] Discrepancies in the ambush story
[14:30] The role of the TBI in reopening the case
[18:00] Potential new evidence leading to TBI's involvement
[22:00] Pusser's aggressive style of policing
[26:30] New TBI actions and exhuming Pauline's body
[30:00] Insights on Pauline and Buford’s relationship
[34:00] BUFORD PUSSER: The Other Story
[36:00] ‘Tearing down the legend’ of Sheriff Buford Pusser
[36:30] Reflections on the importance of seeking the truth
[39:00] “It's just too bad that it takes such a tragic event to make folks willing to take a stand.” -S.B.P
Thanks for listening to another episode! If you love the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to iTunes and leave a rating and review!

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Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award-winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, a Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.

You can connect and learn more about Sheryl’s work by visiting the CCIRI website https://coldcasecrimes.org

Social Links:

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @ColdCaseTips

Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	It was in 1973.
0:12.3	I was eight years old when I sat in a dark movie theater with my good friend and his mama who had taken us to the movies because she knew
0:24.0	I loved police work and thought, oh, this will be a fun movie to take the children to.
0:29.6	I had only seen movies like 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, or Swiss Family Robinson.
0:39.0	So when Joe Don Baker came on that screen as Walking Doll, I was teleported to another place.
0:48.4	I had never seen such action, Sodom and Gomorrah in my life.
0:57.9	And I loved every minute of it.
1:00.6	This movie had hookers, hillbilly gangsters, killers.
1:05.8	I mean, there was so much coming at me.
1:08.3	People getting stabbed, people getting ambushed, moon shatters back in the
1:12.9	woods with steals. I mean, I just couldn't even hardly comprehend everything that I was
1:18.7	seeing, but I soaked it up. I memorized lines in that movie. This movie also filled in some gats.
1:28.1	I didn't know until this movie, there was such a thing called a madam.
1:33.1	So now I learned that these hookers, they had a safe place to come and have their dates, so to speak,
1:39.9	and this lady provided a place and protection, and she got a cut.
1:45.0	Then bootleggers.
1:46.5	I didn't know how things got from the steel in the woods out into the public.
1:52.6	Well, I learned about bootlegging.
1:53.8	I learned that criminals didn't drink at a bar or a tavern.
1:59.8	They drank at a roadhouse.
2:01.9	And then there was the ambush, where the sheriff and his wife were going down the road
2:08.1	and some people pulled up beside him and opened fire, killing his wife, Pauline, and leaving him for dad.
	...

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