PJ's Power Brunch 09-06-16 (Buford Pusser Was a Republican)

NewsBusters ^ | September 6, 2016 | PJ-Comix

[PJ-Comix]

Buford Pusser Was a Republican

Over the Labor Day weekend I watched the original Walking Tall (1973) again. It was so long since I last watched it that it was like watching it anew. It is hard nowadays to recall the impact that movie made when it was first released. Many consider it the redneck's Billy Jack which was released a couple of years earlier which sounds like a good description. Like Billy Jack, the main character of Walking Tall, Buford Pusser, took vengeance upon the bad buys of the notorious State Line Mob of southwestern Tennessee. However, unlike Billy Jack, Pusser didn't bore us with a lot of New Age hippie psychobabble. He just took his big stick and went after the State Line Mob which was involved in illegal gambling, bootleg liquor, and prostitution just over the state line from Mississippi in McNairy County, Tennessee. One other big difference is that Walking Tall was based on a true story.

Therefore I decided to do some research on Buford Pusser as I often do with movies that interest me. Pusser himself claimed that Walking Tall  was about 80% true. Critics said it was more like 50% true. Well, in the movie Pusser appointed a black deputy sheriff. Okay, I figured this was probably a Hollywood embellishment to polish Pusser's image. After all in the South during the 1960s, such an appointment would be almost unheard of. Imagine my astonishment when it turned out to be absolutely true. Buford Pusser appointed the first black deputy sheriff in Tennessee. In the movie his name was Obra Eaker but in real life he was David Lipford.

[PJ-Comix]

Things I bet you didn't know about Buford Pusser. BTW, please click on the news article in the blog to better read about him being a Republican. This edition also has something about the MSM straining to report the obvious...Hillary's coughing fits.

[JBW1949]

Pusser was killed in a one car accident in his Corvette...It was questionable about the wreck....

[PJ-Comix]

Yes, there was a Swedish Buford Pusser, not to be confused with the Joe Don Baker Buford Pusser or with the original.

[yarddog]

That same gang was run out of Phenix City, Alabama back in the 1950s.

The original movie was very good. The later ones were just barely OK.

[PJ-Comix]

What I can’t understand is the bootleg liquor. Who would want to drink that dangerous rotgut? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just buy real whiskey in a dry county and then bring it over to the State Line Mob club in McNairy county?

[yarddog]

My Grandfather was an alcoholic. He was a successful farmer despite that. In fact he owned over a thousand acres in Florida.

For some reason, he preferred moonshine to regular whiskey. Of course he knew the guy making it.

I don’t think they made it poison on purpose, just quality control was not a priority with some of them.

[Dawgreg]

I don’t do remakes........the original is the only one I will watch.......great movie

[Boogieman]

“What I can’t understand is the bootleg liquor.”

It’s just as illegal to sell liquor with the wrong tax stamps as it is to sell liquor with no tax stamps, so you might as well make it yourself and keep all the profit. In for a penny, in for a pound.

[vetvetdoug]

Buford was a close friend of my family. At that time we were one of the few Republican families in McNairy County. While he was Sheriff it wasn’t uncommon to see him on a Saturday night at my Grandfather’s dance hall. Our family was one of the few that stood at his hospital with weapons in case the mob made another attempt at his life. Those were tumultuous times. Buford died on my birthday in 1974.

[PJ-Comix]

Well, I was think from the angle of the customers. Why would they prefer dangerous moonshine to the real deal which would be safe?

[yarddog]

The price of moonshine is way lower plus some people prefer it’s taste.

[PJ-Comix]

Um...I prefer to pay a bit more and know my liquor was NOT distilled while dead rats were part of the special ingredients. BTW, in the movie there was a scene where a bunch of people who drank that stuff died. Was that a true scene? It was when the sheriff of Corinth, MS showed Buford Pusser the dead bodies.

[yarddog]

Probably based on something similar. Even in historically accurate films they change enough so they can’t be sued.

[Boogieman]

Well, it’s a dry county. Any port in a storm?

[PJ-Comix]

Isn’t Jack Daniels distilled in a dry county? They can make it there but they can’t drink it there.

[60Gunner]

Bump

[Wneighbor]

Isn’t Jack Daniels distilled in a dry county? They can make it there but they can’t drink it there

That is a fact. Daughter and her family live near there. But, there are commemorative bottles one can buy in the gift shop after the tour. Tasty, but I've been known to find some family shine more palatable than what's common cheap whiskey at the liquor store.

[Albion Wilde]

Ping!

[vetvetdoug]

There were several unethical moonshiners in the area when Pusser began his destruction of the bad poisonous stills. The sheriff of Alcorn County did have several deaths due to poisonous alcohol (many adulterated with isoporpyl alcohol and ethylene glycol). In one month alone he destroyed 28 illegal stills. Untaxed liquor and beer was also common in McNairy County as bootleg joints were all over the county.