THE STATE LINE MOB By W. R. Morris

        Millions read of Buford Pusser and the State-Line Mob in THE
TWELFTH OF AUGUST, and millions more watched them at war in the
WALKING TALL movies. Now after more than twenty years-of research - W.
R. Morris tells part of the story that could not be told until this
time.

        In the mid-1950s a cast of dangerous characters migrated to
the Tennessee - Mississippi border after being run out of Phenix City,
Alabama, where they had run the gambling halls and whorehouses that
thrived on the army paychecks from nearby Fort Benning, Georgla.

        Once settled at the state line, they began a twenty-year run
of rigged gambling, robbery, bootlegging, prostitution, murder,
bribery, and payoffs that far exceeded their earlier activities. It
was into the clutches of this group that young Buford Pusser stumbled
In February 1957 when he was robbed of his mustering-out pay from the
Marine Corps and severely beaten, requiring 192 stitches to close his
wounds.

        In the early 1960s a new face appeared at the Tennessee -
Mississippi state line, that of Carl "Towhead" White. Fresh out of
prison, White's ambition was to become the "Al Capone of the South."
As a professional hit-man, he robbed banks, gambling joints, and
various businesses across the South and throughout the Midwest and
became the mastermind behind the state-line mob's evil empire.

        It was this mob that Buford Pusser confronted when he pinned
on the McNairy County sheriff's badge In 1964, and it was White who
masterminded the ambush murder of Pusser's wife, Pauline, in August
1967. From that day on Pusser was obsessed with avenging his wife's
murder, for which no one ever stood trial.

        During the twenty years it has taken to write The State-Line
Mob, gang "Insiders" - some on their deathbeds - told W. R. Morris the
stories of what happened: who did what to whom, when, how, why, and
for how much money. In the end, the criminals put themselves out of
business, cleansing the border by murdering one another. Today the
state line is a tranquil stretch of highway, its terror existing only
In the memories of its victims and their families.

--------------------------------------

W. R. Morris is a veteran Journalist who has written on the subject of
crime for more than twenty years. The author of THE TWELFTH OF AUGUST,
which sold more than 1,500,000 copies, he also is author of BUFORD: A
BIOGRAPHY, MEN BEHIND THE GUNS, and ALIAS OSWALD. He lives In Shiloh,
Tennessee.

      W.R.Morris.  THE STATE LINE MOB: A True Story of Murder and
             Intrigue.  Nashville, TN: Rutledge Hill Press, 1990.
             ISBN 1-55853-082-7

       Available locally at:

             Spice of Life Book Store
             1801 S. Harper Rd.
             Corinth, MS 38835

             601-287-9471


       Also, by the same author:

       W.R. M

orris.  THE TWELFTH OF AUGUST (Authorized biography of
             Buford Pusser).   ______:  Cherokee Press, ____.
             National Booksellers, Box 63, Reagan, TN 38368.
             (901) 967-1341.



cht02