NRV Magazine Mar-Apr 2022

Page 32

Wally Thrasher: NRV’s Elusive Treetop Flyer

Thrasher made millions of dollars flying plane loads of pot into Virginia and had several neardeath experiences in the process. Text by Emily K. Alberts Born on June 27, 1940, Pulaski native Wallace “Wally” Thrasher had Hollywood good looks and the charisma to match. The blue-eyed bandit stood a sinewy six-foot-two inches tall and was elusive on the Pulaski Cougars football field. That earned him the nickname “Squirrel” for his ability to cut back and juke out the opposing team. Thrasher was also elusive off the football field, when he found his way into a notorious marijuana smuggling operation. He flew planes out of Colombia, Mexico and the Caribbean while keeping the sagging belly of the overstuffed aircrafts just barely above the tops of trees. He maneuvered planes with the same darting energy he displayed on the gridiron, and thus his moniker received an upgrade to “The Flying Squirrel.” 32

NRV MAGAZINE

Thrasher made millions of dollars flying plane loads of pot into Virginia and had several near-death experiences in the process. Ron Peterson, Jr., the best-selling author of Under the Trestle, the 1980 Disappearance of Gina Renee Hall & Virginia’s First “No Body” Murder Trial, has recently written a book about the New River Valley’s own Wally Thrasher, entitled Chasing the Squirrel: The Pursuit of Notorious Drug Smuggler Wally Thrasher. The book tells of Wally’s many daredevil escapades, including surviving two years in a deplorable Mexican prison and the time he wrestled a gorilla! The book has now inspired a documentary series, “Where’s Wally?” that will feature on-camera interviews with Thrasher’s wife and son, some of his old drug smuggling associates, and even the law enforcement and Drug March/Apri l

2022


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