The Underworld Podcast: The State Line Mob – Redneck Mafia

Episode Date: October 28, 2025
Hosts: Danny Gold & Sean Williams

Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Danny Gold and Sean Williams unravel the violent and chaotic history of the State Line Mob—a notorious criminal organization that ruled a stretch of Highway 45 between Tennessee and Mississippi from the 1940s to the late 1960s. The episode exposes the real-life "redneck mafia" that transformed a rural American borderland into a lawless zone of vice, corruption, and murder, exploring its roots, the twisted rise and fall of its leaders, and the legendary lawman who finally brought it down (or may have simply joined the list of villains).

1. Setting the Scene: An American Badlands

• Time & Place:
  • Highway 45, straddling the border between McNary County, Tennessee & Alcorn County, Mississippi, 1940s–1960s
  • One of the poorest, most rural stretches in America turned into "basically Deadwood over there."
• Atmosphere:
  • Honky tonks, jukebox joints, motels, and bars offering bootleg booze, gambling, drugs, and prostitution—even local police are complicit or terrified.
• "It all seems pretty wild for this sort of lawlessness to have existed around that time. Like it's basically Deadwood over there." —Danny Gold [07:47]

2. The Founders: Jack & Louise Hathcock

Early Lives

• Jack Hathcock:
  • Born 1920, crushing rural poverty, enters bootlegging as a child.
  • "By the time he's in middle school, he's transporting moonshine whiskey and selling it to classmates." —Danny [10:04]
• Louise:
  • Depression-era Mississippi, small-time cattle farm, vows to escape poverty by any means.

Building the Mob

• Marriage of convenience:
  • Jack: "motivated, can make things happen"
  • Louise: cold, calculating, organized (does the books because Jack is illiterate)
• Strategy:
  • Open bars (with names like "Jack's House of Suds"), use "home-cooking" signs to lure travelers, then scam, rob, or rip off anyone who passes through.
• Corruption & Violence:
  • Law enforcement is frequently on the take, or else intimidated: "If someone even had the fortitude to bring charges...witnesses would get scared to show up...witnesses who got talkative often disappear or turn up dead in shallow creeks." —Danny [22:58]
  • Louise reputedly uses a ball peen hammer to enforce discipline.

Notable Moment

• "Even Louise was famous for cracking people in the dome with a ball peen hammer that she carried on herself." —Danny [19:53]

3. Criminal Innovation: State Line Tactics

• Utilize the literal state line for quick getaways and avoiding prosecution.
• Constantly re-open, rebrand, or rebuild establishments after raids or closures.
• Cheat travelers and transient workers with rigged games, pickpocket schemes, and scams.
• Moral code? None. They target everyone, not just rivals or other criminals.
• “They just sound more like a bunch of psychopath murderers...it's so personal in the way they did it. You're like, what's wrong with these people?” —Danny [24:01]

4. Outlaws & Internal Betrayals

Carl "Towhead" White

• Joins as a young goon, aspiring to be the "Al Capone of the South."
• Violent, charming when useful, wants to take over.
• Starts affair with Louise, plots to murder Jack.

Mob Drama

• Louise steps out with both Towhead and Peewee Walker (Jack’s partner).
• Jack has Peewee killed to eliminate both a rival and a debt.
• Weak, increasingly paranoid Jack is eventually set up by Louise and Towhead—leading to Jack’s murder in a staged domestic dispute.
• “Towhead wastes no time and empties the gun into him, shooting him dead. Then Louise calls the sheriff, who they happen to have a good relationship with…everything is wrapped up neatly.” —Danny [02:18]

5. True Crime Americana: The Mob in Context

• Law enforcement either complicit or powerless.
• Endless cycle of minor charges, beatings, bribes, corrupt juries: "It's like a game of whack a mole."
• Period's backdrop—a rural South still shaped by Prohibition, Depression, and poverty.

6. Buford Pusser: Enter the Lawman—Or Another Villain?

Buford’s Background

• 6'6" ex-Marine, former pro wrestler, son of a cop.
• Personally brutalized by the Hathcocks—required 192 stitches after being beaten and robbed at their club; seeks revenge.
• Returns as sheriff in 1964, vowing to "put the State Line thugs out of business."
• “He actually ran on the slogan: ‘Elect me sheriff and I'll put the State Line thugs out of business.’” —Danny [37:58]

Escalating Violence

• Arrests, raids, intimidation—smashes illegal equipment with a cudgel.
• Famous psychological warfare: beats Towhead, threatens to dump his body in the river.
  • “He just started like, busting up the gambling equipment. Slot machines, car tables, roulette wheels. Played by his own rules.” —Danny [39:41]
• Mob retaliation: arson, intimidation, hit attempts—car bombs, a shootout at Buford's car that kills his wife.

The Louise Hathcock Showdown

• Buford shoots and kills Louise during a raid—circumstances remain murky and contested.
• "She pulls a gun on him and fires...they get into a shootout...her pistol actually misfires and he's able to kill her and save himself..." —Danny [44:39]

The Legend—and Doubt

• A local mythos grows: Buford as a Southern folk hero, immortalized in Walking Tall (1973) and later a Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson remake.
• Recent investigation, however, alleges Buford himself might have killed his wife and staged his own wounds:
  • “TBI concludes that Buford should have been charged with the murder, that his wife was likely killed by him and his wounds were self-inflicted. So yes, that complicates things…” —Danny [49:40]

7. The Fall: Mob Disintegration & Federal Crackdown

• After Louise’s death, Towhead briefly leads but loses power as Pusser's aggressive crackdown crumbles the organization.
• Towhead goes on the run but is hunted down—eventually lured to a motel and killed, likely in a setup involving Pusser.
  • “A single gunman from the roof who'd been waiting shoots him clean in the dome with a .30-30 rifle. Just one shot. Dead.” —Danny [53:33]
• With major players dead or jailed, the Mob is over: law returns, the roadside dives are closed, and the region becomes another piece of quiet rural America.

8. Reflections & Final Thoughts

• The criminal world in the US South was more brutal and less "honor among thieves" than mythologized.
• The Mob’s demise was as much an inside job (betrayals, power struggles) as brought by outside law enforcement.
• Truth remains muddy; the celebrated lawman, iconized in pop culture, may not have been so different from his quarry.
• “You would never know what happened there unless someone told you or you listened to this fantastic podcast from your friends Danny and Sean.” —Danny [54:05]

9. Notable Quotes and Timestamps

• Danny [02:18]: "Towhead wastes no time and empties the gun into him, shooting him dead. Then Louise calls the sheriff...everything is wrapped up neatly."
• Danny [10:04]: "By the time he's in middle school, he's transporting moonshine whiskey and selling it to classmates."
• Danny [19:53]: "Even Luis was famous for cracking people in the dome with a ball peen hammer that she carried on herself."
• Danny [22:58]: "If someone even had the fortitude to bring charges...witnesses would get scared to show up...they often disappear or turn up dead in shallow creeks."
• Danny [24:01]: "They just sound more like a bunch of psychopath murderers...it's so personal in the way they did it. You're like, what's wrong with these people?"
• Danny [37:58]: "He actually ran on the slogan: ‘Elect me sheriff and I'll put the State Line thugs out of business.’"
• Danny [39:41]: "He just started like, busting up the gambling equipment. Slot machines, car tables, roulette wheels. Played by his own rules."
• Danny [44:39]: "She pulls a gun on him and fires...they get into a shootout...her pistol actually misfires and he's able to kill her and save himself."
• Danny [49:40]: "TBI concludes that Buford should have been charged with the murder, that his wife was likely killed by him and his wounds were self-inflicted. So yes, that complicates things…"
• Danny [53:33]: "A single gunman from the roof who'd been waiting shoots him clean in the dome with a .30-30 rifle. Just one shot. Dead."
• Danny [54:05]: "You would never know what happened there unless someone told you or you listened to this fantastic podcast from your friends Danny and Sean."

10. Key Segments & Timestamps

• Origins and Setting: [03:00–07:45]
• Rise of Jack & Louise: [07:45–19:00]
• State Line Tactics and Lawless Economy: [19:00–27:00]
• Towhead’s Arrival and Internal Decay: [27:00–36:00]
• Buford Pusser Enters: [36:00–41:30]
• Final Showdowns—Louise’s Death & Mob’s Demise: [44:00–54:00]

11. Memorable Banter & Tone

• The episode is laced with gallows humor and pop culture references (Justified, The Simpsons, 80s movies), but never loses sight of the real-world brutality.
• The hosts frequently break the fourth wall, mock their own true-crime storytelling, and lean into both fascination and revulsion at the petty, almost soap-opera-like details of small-town mob life.

This detailed summary captures the wild, violent, and conspiratorial history of the State Line Mob from the Underworld Podcast's October 28, 2025, episode. Whether you're a true crime aficionado or love Southern noir, this is a tale where the line between hero and villain is forever blurred.