Story of Wally Thrasher seen on the big screen to debut at Millwald Theatre in Wytheville

By WILLIAM PAINE

Patriot Publishing

On October 17, 1984, a twin-engine Beechcraft Bonanza slammed into the side of Fancy Gap Mountain killing the pilot. The plane belonged to Pulaski native Wally Thrasher and this crash brought a definitive end to Thrasher’s lucrative and lengthy career as a drug smuggler; whether the crash led to Thrasher’s death, is a matter of some dispute.

The exploits and likely demise of Thrasher are chronicled by author Ron Peterson in his 2020 book entitled, “Chasing the Squirrel.” Peterson’s book is now being turned into a five-part series dubbed, “Where’s Wally?” The first installment of “Where’s Wally” is set to premier at 6 p.m. on Saturday, May 3 at the Millwald Theatre in Wytheville – but don’t bother buying tickets, the show sold out two days after it was announced.

In his book “Chasing the Squirrel,” Peterson offers glimpses into Thrasher’s life from his early years growing up in Pulaski to his sudden disappearance after the crash. Through his extensive research, Peterson learned much about the Pulaski High School graduate who turned his talents towards crime. Peterson finds that Wallace Thrasher was a born risk taker and natural athlete who came by his nickname, “Squirrel” through his tricky moves on the gridiron. Notably, Thrasher attained the rank of Eagle Scout by age 15.

“Wally is a guy who could have been successful at anything he put his mind to,” said Peterson.  “He would have been an awesome attorney, businessman, business owner … he was a quick thinker, level-headed when things got crazy. Most of all, he was a charismatic guy. He wasn’t a phony. He had a real interest in people. Despite his illegal activities, he didn’t really want to harm anybody with what he was doing.”

Peterson pauses, then adds, “When you get right down to it, it’s a shame that he chose to focus his efforts on something illegal because he could have been successful at anything he tried. But he wanted to take the quick route that made the most of his ability to skillfully fly a small airplane.”

Starting in the early 1970’s, Wally Thrasher used his prodigious skills as an aviator to transport large amounts of marijuana in small passenger planes from central America to the United States. In the eighties Thrasher often landed with his payload at the New River Valley Airport, where he unloaded and brought the pot to a storage facility on State Park Road.

Peterson is also known for his book, “Under the Trestle,” which told the story of the murder of Gina Renee Hall in 1980. “Under the Trestle” focuses on the case against Stephen Epperly, who was convicted of the murder, even though Hall’s body was never found.

It was during his extensive interview process in researching “Under the Trestle” that Peterson first heard of Wally Thrasher and his fiery demise.

After “Under the Trestle” was published in 2018, Peterson began working on “Chasing the Squirrel.” For that, he needed to talk to Wally’s wife, Olga Thrasher, who would go on to play a prominent role in “Chasing the Squirrel” and the “Where’s Wally” streaming series. Wally married Olga in December of 1977.

“Olga is very willing to talk about this,” said Peterson. “She was not the kind of person to end up on the wrong end of the law but she obviously fell for Wally and once she learned what he was doing, she became deeply involved.”

After the crash, the extent of Wally’s smuggling activities became clear and Olga was faced with federal charges and a lengthy jail sentence.

“Olga actually became an informant and went undercover,” said Peterson. “Her information really got the ball rolling with the DEA and helped the federal government bring down this huge international drug trafficking ring that brought in $140 million in cocaine and that was a direct result of Olga’s information. I think it’s admirable because in the end, she did the right thing. Judge Turk praised her for her cooperation. From there, she went on to work a regular job and lived her life on the straight and narrow.”

Olga and Wally had two children. Their son, Montana was 6 and daughter, Maya was 4 when Thrasher disappeared. Even at that young age, Montana knew something was different about his dad.

“When they’d go to a restaurant, everybody treated Wally like he was Burt Reynolds or something,” said Peterson. “Everybody knew him. He was this good-looking guy with all this money paying cash for a house and for a fleet of vehicles. There were some questions obviously. A lot of people knew he was smuggling and looked the other way because he was such a nice guy. He portrayed himself as a cargo pilot who owned several businesses related to aviation, which he did, but he was just laundering money through those aviation operations.”

“Montana Thrasher became a police officer and Maya became a psychologist,” Peterson added.  “They’re great kids making wonderful contributions to society.  So, in that way, this story really has a happy ending.”

As Montana’s interest in his father grew, his law enforcement background helped Peterson get in contact with some of the pilots who used to fly with Wally. Apparently, near crashes weren’t uncommon in Wally’s line of work.

So how is it that “Chasing the Squirrel,” a book, is turning into a streaming TV show?

The transformation from paper to the screen leads back to Pulaski resident Donia Eley, who is friends with the author. Peterson gave Eley a copy of “Chasing the Squirrel” and she, in turn, gave the book to her son, Hunter Eley.

According to Peterson, Hunter, who he describes as “a big-time attorney in the entertainment industry,” showed the book to his friend and neighbor, Doug Tower.

“Doug runs the Urban Legends film company,” said Peterson. “They produce a lot of episodes on Investigation Discovery, Discovery Channel, Food Network and HGTV. Tower and his producer read “Chasing the Squirrel” and they said, ‘Wow, this is one of the best untold stories we’ve ever heard.’ That was four years ago. Doug’s been working on it ever since.”

Peterson, who is the Executive Producer of “Where’s Wally,” has been working with Tower all along.

But why change the name?

“When we were interviewing all the people in it, several mentioned this plane crash and they said, ‘Where’s Wally,’ as in, what ever happened to Wally?”  Peterson answered.  “So, ‘Where’s Wally’ might be the final title or maybe a working title.”

The “Where’s Wally” premier at the Millwald Theater is sponsored by the Ruritan Club and is meant to generate buzz and some good reviews before being taken to film festivals in hopes of winning some awards. Montana Thrasher will be at the premier, as will Peterson, Tower and various others who were somehow involved in Thrasher’s life.

But this isn’t the only premier Peterson has planned. He’s been working with Scott McTavish of McTavish Pictures to produce the “Under the Trestle” movie.

“We’ve done all the shooting for that and have interviewed all the attorneys involved,” said Peterson of the “Under the Trestle” movie. “We’ve interviewed about 25 people for that story. I’ve been very grateful of the support of my books from the people in Pulaski County and the New River Valley. I remember when “Under the Trestle” came out. When you’re an author, and you write your first book, and you have no idea how it’s going to go, you hope it goes well and you’re going to sell books – but you really just don’t know. The first time that I came out there, which would have been in early 2019, everybody in Pulaski were just so nice and grateful for me telling the story.  I really enjoyed all the book talks and book signings we did.”

Peterson hopes to have the movie version of “Under the Trestle” out in theaters by the end of this year. Unlike “Where’s Wally,” this production will be a standard 90-minute to 2-hour movie and Peterson will again take the role of Executive Producer.

The “Where’s Wally” mini-series is in its final stages of production as well, but Peterson has yet to reveal which streaming service will air the show.  Even so, he can’t hide his enthusiasm for the project.

“Doug has covered new ground that I didn’t even touch on in the book,” said Peterson. “He’s met people and interviewed people who have pieces to the story that I never even knew about.  They’ve taken the documentary series to a whole new level, even past my book and I’m happy to see that.”

One question still remains. Did Wally Thrasher die in that plane crash and if not, where is Wally?

“I can’t tell you the ending, but I can say that we did turn up a lot of things that we didn’t in the book,” Peterson answered. “Whereas the book ended with a question mark, the movie will be more of an exclamation point. The last episode will answer the question of what happened to Wally.”