Show Tin J C ShcriiT Buford Purser: aking of a SVmAiiierican Hero Norman Lobsenz writes the real story behind the hero of “Walking Tall” weekend this summer of people will drive of miles to visit a farmhouse in the small town of Adamsville in the southwestern corner of Tennessee They are making a pilgrimage to the home of Buford Pusser a man they see as an American folk hero in the Every classic mold Pusser won fame as a young sheriff who would not be bought or beaten by criminals With fists club gun raw courage and steadfast determination he smashed a vicious vice and gambling ring that was terrorizing and corrupting his McNairy County Pusser’s crusade -accomplished at the terrible cost of his own disfiguring wounds and the murder of his wife-- is dramatized in “Walking Tall” a movie that has become a national phenomenon The film has already earned more than $35 million Audiences literally stand and applaud when it is over But beyond its sucemotional appeal and cess it has stirred up a moral debate To most of those who see it the picture reaffirms basic values that seem in short supply these days: honesty guts devotion to duty "I don’t want to sound like a braggart” says Pusser “but people nowadays are hungry for a hero And there aren't many around The folks who come to visit me who box-offi- 4 ce fAMILY WEEKLY July 14 1974 “if I could have foreseen what would happen to Pauline i would have moved away As for what it cost me physically— well I can’t say ft was worth it bu' I couldn’t have done otherwise without hating myself the rest of my life”— Sheriff Buford Pusser write and call me do so because I gave them something to believe in— a strong and incorruptible leader” But others who see the film come away disquieted They are concerned at the image it presents of a lawman who fights violence with violence who breaks the law in order to enforce it Pusser can understand this reaction but he is horestly puzzled by it “Some people treat me as if I am the criminal” he says perplexedly “Sometimes I think our society is getting too complicated-seei- ng right things in what’s wrong and wrong things in what’s right” A few weeks ago I talked with Buford Pusser to find out how the making of “Walking Tall” has affected his life and his thinking At 36 Pusser is a gentle giant of a man He is tall weighs 250 pounds and his hand enfolds yours like a catchers mitt His voice is Sou them drawl soft Although he has needed 15 plastic-surger- y operations to correct facial gunshot wounds and his shot-awa- y jaw is rebuilt out of metal mesh he is still ruggedly handsome -- Buford (you just naturally call him by his first name) spends most of his time these days on the lecture circuit speaking to college audiences civic dubs business groups Though he’s told his story hundreds of times he does not seem bored at repeating it once more Born in Adamsville Buford was raised by hard 'working churchgoing strict parents “I had to do what I was told or else” he says “If I got a whipping at school I wouldn’t dare tell my pa He'd want to knew why and then give me another one!” After high school graduation Buford joined the Marines but was discharged within a few months because he suffered severe asthmatic attacks Alter he recovered from a broken back (suffered in a car wreck) Buford went to Chicago to visit his brother and look for work He drove an ambulance went to morticians' school and became a professional wrestler When he could no lorger stomach “being told when to lose and when to win” he and his w fe Pauline decided to go back home and buy a farm “I went down myself the first time to look for some land” Buford says With a friend he went to one of the illegal gambling roadhouses that clustered around the state line where Tennessee Mississippi and Alabama meet Out $300 at the dice table Buford noticed the dice were loaded When he asked for his money back he was brutally beaten knifed and thrown in a ditch to die Somehow he managed to crawl back to the highway where: a trucker picked him up Buford needed 200 stitches This incident opens the “Walking Tall” movie “The county sheriff wouldn’t do a thing about it” Buford recalls “I didn’t realize then that he was on the syndicate’s payroll” But Buford’s pride-a- nd inner hurt-w- ere too great for him simply to walk away Armed only with a huge hickory stick (“It’s w'hat loggers call a ‘sho'-- standard’ that holds the logs in place on a truck”) Buford returned to the roadhouse beat the daylights out of his tormentors and got his $300 back He was charged with assault and armed robbery tried and acquitted But from then on he was literally and figuratively a marked man And a driven one “I saw wide-ope- n corruption people being beaten and ruined the law violated and laughed at No one else Continued t |