ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Craig Gralley, a former CIA senior executive, served as an analyst, manager and chief speechwriter for three CIA directors. His debut novel, Hall of Mirrors—Virginia Hall: America’s Greatest Spy of WWII (Chrysalis 2019), is A Kirkus Reviews “Best Book of 2020,” a New York Post, “Best Book of the Week,” and has received accolades from The Historical Novel Society; Independent Book Review (top story), and SPYSCAPE, among others. Senior members of the Intelligence Community—including former CIA DirectorDavid Petraeus—have praised Hall of Mirrors for its accurate portrayal of wartime espionage … Read More
UPCOMING EVENTS
Recent Articles
The Greatest Secret of Western North Carolina
Written in the Stars: PARI Finally Gets the Biography It Deserves
Local Author Tells “America’s Story” through Rosman Station’s Past and Present
Book chronicles complex, colorful story of Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
Former CIA officer writes about PARI’s secret past
NASA/Rosman were at the forefront of weather forecasting
Remembering the day the Russians came to PARI
PARI today: providing hands-on science education
Virginia Hall’s Escape Across the Pyrenees Mountains
In the winter of 1942, the Allies’ first female resident spy in France, Virginia Hall, was discovered by Gestapo Chief Klaus Barbie–“The Butcher of Lyon.” Hall’s only avenue of escape was across the rugged Pyrenees mountains. For three days and over 50 miles Hall dragged her prosthetic limb, nicknamed “Cuthbert,” through deep snow and ice. My wife Janet and I discovered Virginia Hall’s Freedom Trail in September 2017 and took this video of the mountains Virginia scaled to reach freedom in Spain. The video was taken on the Spanish side looking northeast into the town Mantet, in France.