For most of his life, Sheriff Buford Pusser dedicated himself to public service.

His life took a tragic turn on Aug. 12, 1967, when his wife, Pauline, joined him on a routine investigation of a roadside disturbance.

In a sudden and shocking attack, their car was ambushed, and gunfire erupted. Pusser suffered a severe jaw injury but survived.

Tragically, Pauline was killed. Haunted by guilt over her death, which was likely a mob hit targeting him, Pusser intensified his war on crime.

He publicly identified four individuals as his wife's assassins and named Kirksey McCord Nix Jr., a notorious Dixie Mafia leader, as the orchestrator of the attack.

Although Nix evaded justice for Pauline’s murder — though he was later imprisoned for life for another crime — the other four suspects in Pauline's murder met mysterious ends, dying one after the other.

Speculation arose that Pusser might have orchestrated retribution against the mafia members responsible for his wife's death.

However, lacking concrete evidence linking him directly to these deaths, and perhaps influenced by a sense of poetic justice, authorities never pursued charges against Pusser for these incidents.

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