Confirming what every West Tennessee grandmother I’ve ever met or heard about has long suspected, authorities recently determined that famed McNairy County Sheriff Buford Pusser likely killed his wife Pauline — instead of losing her in an ambush — in 1967.
WKRN has a really good story about the whole thing, with heartbreaking quotes from both Pauline Pusser’s brother and her granddaughter, who have divergent opinions on whether reinvestigating this old case is worth it.
I will say this: If your line of work has caused people to try to kill you multiple times, it is careless to the point of stupid to bring your wife out on the job with you. I have never heard anyone say Sheriff Pusser was stupid. I side with the West Tennessee grandmas.
But there’s a bit in that WKRN story that stopped me dead in my tracks:
[TBI Director] Rausch encouraged those interested in the case to read the case file in its entirety, which has been entered into the public record. Chancellor Yancey Freeman with the University of Tennessee at Martin added that the university will house the collection of files and evidence. Anyone who wants to view the case file in its entirety is advised to contact UT-Martin.
I bolded the part that might as well be written in hieroglyphs for how much my brain refused to read and comprehend it.
When I was little, I thought there was only one cuss word — goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitchinkids — and that was so bad that parents broke it into less powerful, less bad chunks to use when they were angry, but not insane with rage. (If you are a poet or a songwriter, I apologize for just how satisfying the rhythm of that word is. It will be stuck in your head. Also, go ahead and steal it. My dad’s out here in his old age claiming I’m the one with the potty mouth, and he’d have to admit it was his word to complain about you using it.)
Anyway, I don’t think I have ever been so angry and astonished at the same time, and I let out a loud “goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitchinTBI” at this point in the article.
Author Betsy Phillips’ Dynamite Nashville: The KKK, the FBI, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control is scheduled for release via Third Man Books…
Here’s a quick recap for those of you not hanging on my every word. In 1960, someone tried to assassinate Nashville councilmember and civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby by blowing up his house. The Nashville police response was essentially, “Um, is that the mayor investigating this case? Weird. Let’s pretend we don’t notice anything.” The FBI response was pretty much, “What an unfortunate case of mild vandalism that happened to that poor Negro’s porch. Let’s not trouble ourselves further with that.”
And the TBI’s response? Well, they didn’t exist yet, but their precursor organization did — the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification. We don’t know what their response was, because every time I asked for the file, I was told no, that TBI/TBCI files never become public, and no member of the public is allowed to see them — not even the governor.
Multiple times I was told this. Forget getting TBI/TBCI files. It can’t be done. And here’s the TBI director inviting anyone with a passing curiosity to take a look at some TBI/TBCI files.
So there is a way for TBI/TBCI files to become public. But I just didn’t get to know it. No one bothered to mention it to me.
Many things were hard about writing my book on this, Dynamite Nashville, but one of the hardest parts was having to approach people and organizations who had ways of doing things I didn’t know anything about; I’d have to ask them for stuff, knowing that I wasn’t asking the right way, because I didn’t know what the right way was. I just had to be willing to look like and feel like a dumbass, and flounder around hoping that whoever I was asking would see me as a fellow human being who doesn’t know but who means well.
Most people I encountered told me when I was asking for something the wrong way, or told me when I was asking the wrong questions. Not the FBI, though. Or now I learn, the TBI.
I emailed the TBI on Friday asking how the Buford Pusser files were being made public, when I had been told that can’t happen. Josh DeVine emailed me back:
Hi, Betsy.
Hope you’re well.
I’m sure our denials have referenced 10-7-504, but I’ve attached TCA 10-7-510, which may give you some context on the process that unfolded in recent days leading to today’s announcement.
Hope that helps and hope you have a great weekend.
Best,
Josh DeVine
Josh DeVine is the first person at the TBI who has been helpful. There's more, but here’s the gist of the statute:
(a) The district attorney general of a judicial district, after giving written notice of the proposed transfer prior to such transfer to the presiding officer of the legislative body in which such record, document or evidence is located, may permanently transfer custody and ownership of all original records, documents and physical evidence in the district attorney general's possession that was collected, compiled and maintained in a particular criminal case or investigation to a university or other institution of higher education, museum, library or other not-for-profit corporation organized for the primary purpose of preserving and displaying items of historical significance, if:
(1) The university, museum, library or not-for-profit corporation has formally requested transfer of the records, documents and evidence in a particular case or investigation;
(2) The documents, records and evidence requested are, in the opinion of such district attorney general, of historical significance and their display would enhance public understanding, education or appreciation of a particular time or event in history;
(3) The documents, records and evidence requested have by operation of law become public records ...
OK, so if I’m understanding this correctly, someone — say, a library with an internationally renowned Civil Rights Room — should formally request the records. The DA has to believe having them available would be of historical significance. And the records need to have somehow become public records.
After announcing a renewed investigation into three integration-era bombings, Nashville police find no culprits
I think we can manage the first two, but I’m really worried we screwed up the possibility of the third one by reopening the case — because records of open investigations aren’t normally public records, and the last word we have from MNPD is: “These cases will remain open but classified as inactive unless and until any new information is discovered.”
I don’t know, y’all. I really don’t. Someone smarter than me, who understands how these things are done, is going to have to take these next steps — if they can be taken. Meanwhile, I’m going to work on switching from feeling sad that we’re not able to do for Looby what Pauline Pusser’s loved ones did for her, to feeling some slim optimism that we might someday get the answers Looby and Nashville deserve.
