Hitman’s rap sheet only scratches the surface
In two earlier installments, we reviewed the early criminal history of the accused Dixie Mafia hitman killed in St. Tammany Parish in 1980. Readers responded to those reports, wanting to know more and asking for evidence of Charlie Thrash’s misdeeds. What follows is the complete Louisiana State Police rap sheet of Charles Olan Thrash.
Did Covington hitman kill New Orleans hairstylist?
On August 11, 1980, Roy L. Cooper, 51, brother of Covington Mayor Ernest Cooper, shot and killed his daughter’s former boyfriend, Charles Olan Thrash, 52, a career criminal and reputed Dixie Mafia hitman.
When Thrash died, investigators lost their prime suspect in two notable murder cases. In May 1983, Mobile, Alabama District Attorney Chris Galanos closed the 1973 unsolved murder of newspaper editor Arch McKay, telling associates he felt convinced the late hitman killed him. “We don’t know who hired him killed or why,” he told reporters that same week, “But we’re certain we ...
New Orleans serial shootings unsolved, unhindered
Last Summer, Bayou Justice identified sixty potentially related shootings on two New Orleans interstate highways. Today, every news outlet in the state reports nightly on the attacks, making the highways around Crescent City a shooting gallery. However, New Orleans officials remain tight-lipped, refusing to admit they may have a serial sniper in their city.
On Valentine’s Day, The New Orleans Police Department found a man shot multiple times in a vehicle on the Pontchartrain Expressway near Slidell exit on I-10. Wednesday evening, February 2, around eleven, an unidentified sniper shot ...
Two mothers fear missing sons murdered
Two mothers in South Louisiana contacted Bayou Justice last week with the same problem. Their adult sons are missing, and police suspect both are dead.