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Buford Pusser Home and Museum, Adamsville, Tennessee A Heritage Development Plan Prepared by the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University Carroll Van West, Project Supervisor Heather Bailey, Project Coordinator Karen Hargrove, Jiin-Ling Lin, Betsy Snowden At the Request of the Buford Pusser Home and Museum May 2008 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Why this Historic Site Matters 3 II. How can you better manage your artifacts and furniture? 12 III. How can you preserve your papers and photographs? 15 IV. What is the best way to digitize your collections? 28 V. How can the furnishings and artifacts be best displayed? 36 VI. Are there preservation needs for the house and its grounds? 43 VII. What is the potential of heritage tourism and marketing? 48 VIII. What are recommended next steps? 51 IX. Appendices and Sources 54 3 I. Why this Historic Site Matters The Sheriff Buford Pusser House and Museum memorializes and interprets the story and contributions of Buford H. Pusser (1937-1974), a legendary late twentieth century McNairy County sheriff, whose life and career impacted not only his community, but also his state and his nation through the long popularity of the Walking Tall movies and television program. This humble one-story brick home and its furnishings reflect the lifestyle of the majority of Tennesseans, Southerners, and Americans during the turbulent decades of the 1960s and 1970s. What sets this place beyond the average is the story of Pusser, and the courageous steps he took to make his county and his state a better place to live. The property gains value as a place that reminds us of the background of many law enforcements officers across the country. They are unassuming, middle-class public servants who put their lives, and sometimes, like Pusser, their property and family, in the 4 the line of fire every day. It comes at no surprise that the Pusser Home and Museum has been, and continues to be, a shrine for law enforcement officers. Five significant themes should guide future interpretation and exhibits at the Pusser Home and Museum. 1. Making the Man The museum presently has an impressive collection of photographs and artifacts of Pusser’s childhood and early adult career. His dad, Carl Pusser, was a law enforcement officer in Adamsville and a dedicated Republican in a Democratic county. Buford attended local schools and played football and basketball at Adamsville high school. He had his first encounter with the “State Line Mob” in 1953 when he and high school buddies went to the White Iris Club for beer, and witnessed a brutal murder. Pusser joined the Marines in 1956, but his stay at boot camp on Parris Island was brief. The Marines discharged Pusser, who suffered from constant difficulties with asthma, in November 1956. After the beginning of the year, Pusser had his first documented run-in with the State Line Mob, when he went to the Plantation Club, operated by W. O. Hathcock, and got beat up, with his money stolen. He left Tennessee later in the year and made a new life in Chicago, where he took classes at a mortician school and worked in a local paper mill. He joined a local professional wrestling circuit and took the name “Buford the Bull.” In December 1959, he married Pauline Mullins, who had a son, Mike, from a previous marriage. One month later, the long arm of the State Line Mob touched Pusser in Chicago. Officers arrested Pusser on an extradition order from Corinth, Mississippi, charging Pusser 5 and two friends for the attempted murder of W. O. Hathcock. The charges were spurious— Pusser had his paper mill time card as evidence and eyewitnesses in Chicago who placed him in the Windy City at the time of the alleged crime—but serious due to the corruption then rampant in the Corinth area. A jury found Pusser not guilty, and he returned to his family in Chicago. Later, in 1960, the family moved back to McNairy County. Pauline and Buford’s daughter, Dwana, was born in 1961. By this time, Pusser had resumed his wrestling career on the local circuit. Pusser next followed his dad on the Adamsville police force, serving as the town police chief from 1962 to 1964. In 1962, he sought and won his first election, as a county constable. Two years later, Pusser successfully ran as a Republican for Sheriff of McNairy County; at the age of 26, Pusser was one of the youngest sheriffs in Tennessee history. 2. The Sheriff Who Made a Difference During his term as McNairy County Sheriff, from 1964 to 1970, Pusser proved to be a youthful, courageous reformer. He transformed law enforcement in McNairy County by integrating the force with its first African American deputies since Reconstruction. He began to bring law and order to the chaotic strip of businesses at the Mississippi-Tennessee border, operated by a group known as the State Line Mob, for its moonshining, drug trade, illegal gambling, and prostitution. William N. Grigg in The New American of July 12, 2004, points out: “In the late 1950s, circuit-riding mob hit men and thugs for hire for all varieties—including Lee Harvey Oswald—could be seen sampling the state line’s illicit 6 delights.” By taking on the State Line Mob, Pusser gained some powerful, and dangerous, enemies. In November 1964, a knife assault, assumed to be ordered by the State Line Mob, left Pusser near death. Once he recovered, Pusser struck back, raiding many moonshine stills and arresting some 75 citizens associated with the ‘shine trade. The fight for law and order was on in McNairy County. After Pusser won a second term of office, he attempted to arrest Louise Hathcock, who had taken over the Plantation Club and ran it and other businesses with the noted underworld figure “Towhead” White. Hathcock resisted arrest, pulled a gun, shot but missed, and Pusser returned fire, killing Hathcock. In retaliation, White and the State Line Mob attempted to kill Pusser. In January 1967 unknown assailants pumped four bullets into Pusser, but the sheriff soon recovered. On August 12, 1967, Pusser received a phone call about a domestic disturbance out on New Hope Road in the county. Pusser left immediately to investigate, accompanied by his wife Pauline. Before they ever reached the “disturbance,” the couple was ambushed; multiple shots left Pauline dead, and Buford, with most of his jaw shot away, was presumed dead. The killers left and were never prosecuted. This vicious attack caught the attention of the national media. For the first time, but not the last, Buford Pusser entered the national headlines. On August 13, 1967, the New York Times published an Associated Press account of the attack. Ben Pusser, Buford’s uncle, reported that “`They’ve been out to get him a long time.’ He said he meant `the bootlegging and criminal element along the state line.’” 7 3. A Murder Changes a Family The death of Pauline Pusser shattered the family. The funeral was a major community event at the Adamsville Church of Christ, and her murder led most community doubters to finally accept the danger posed by the State Line Mob. Buford Pusser rebuilt his home so that his quarters were in the basement, away from his family, and in a space that had no exterior windows. A bunker mentality became part of the family’s daily routine. Pusser’s mother Helen became the family’s matriarch and tried to create as much normal home life as possible for the children, Mike, one of Pauline’s children from her first marriage, and Dwana. Many neighbors and family members helped through the years. The present Pusser house has many items and rooms that document the impact Helen Pusser had on the family and the property. Once he recovered from the wounds, Pusser went through multiple surgeries to attempt to reconstruct his shattered jaw and regain a normal look to his face. He also resumed his duties as sheriff. With strong community support, Pusser stepped up the pressure on the state line businesses. Most closed, and moved their illegal enterprises elsewhere. In 1968, he was re-elected as sheriff. The following year, in 1969, “Towhead” White was killed, with no known involvement by Pusser. 4. A Legend in His Time In 1969, the Tennessee General Assembly praised Pusser for his accomplishments and made him a honorary sergeant at arms. With the power of the State Line Mob in McNairy County effectively crushed, and with the notoriety of Pusser’s surviving so many 8 attempts on his life, the legend of Buford Pusser began to grow across the state and region. At a time when President Richard Nixon and Vice-President Spiro Agnew were praising the virtues of a “silent majority” and calling for a real commitment to law and order, Pusser was viewed as a courageous embodiment of those national images. Law enforcement officers lionized him; local and state politicians sought a close association so they could be viewed as friends of this giant in law and order. 5. A Folk Hero for the Nation Attracted by the story, and banking on being able to sell the story to a regional southern audience, Hollywood came calling in 1972. Bing Crosby Productions, best recognized for its early work on Crosby’s “road” movies and its later work in television, approached Pusser about filming his life story. The producers wanted to film the story locally, but McNairy County officials wanted nothing to do with it—the movie eventually was shot mostly in neighboring Chester and Madison counties.

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