Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021 - 39

took the liberty of writing his autobiography,
titled " Life History of Otto Wood, "
while behind the walls of the North Carolina
State Prison in 1926. While the book
contains some solid stretches of narrative
on Wood's life, the numerous half-truths
and embellishments padded around the
facts make the work well short of anything
that could be considered a true
history. For example, in one passage,
Wood and " his girl " -there is always a
female companion in Wood's stories-
travel through the Colorado River area
of Arizona, where they are surrounded
one night by a " hundred or more angry
wolves. " A few pages later, a Texas lawman
tells Wood to " reach for the clouds. "
Wood obliges, telling his readers that he
remembered " the Western rule not to
shoot a man so long as his hands were in
the air. " If these passages sound like dime
novel scenes or straight out of an early
1900s Saturday cowboy serial, it's because
they likely are. Wood, while he did commit
real crimes in the American Southwest,
consumed and indulged in cowboy
and Old West outlaw stories. Descriptions
of his crimes in newspapers bear out that
Wood frequently and consciously playacted
the role of the man with-to quote
country music legend Marty Robbins-a
" big iron on his hip. " As further evidence,
a 1913 photo sent to his mother from
Texas shows Wood leveling an antiquated
Colt pistol at the camera, wearing the
10-gallon hat and fur chaps of a typical
silver screen desperado.
Even with this intermittent Tom Mix-
style bravado, Wood could not obscure
the fact he was a product of a modernizing
Appalachian South. He was a car
thief, a bootlegger, a train robber and an
escape artist who had all the latest technologies
available at the fingertips of his
remaining hand. He also made sure to
place his one good foot into the criminal
networks around illegal alcohol and
the trafficking of stolen cars. Although
Wood had all the hallmarks of a criminal
genius-his miraculous escapes, even
when undertaken with accomplices,
were mostly accomplished through his
own ingenuity-his long stints of avoiding
the law were aided by a highly organized
community surrounding the
production and distribution of illegal
liquor. This connection to " moonshine "
made his home community in Wilkes
County the epicenter for Wood's crimes.
The people in the criminal networks
surrounding illegal liquor, as production
ramped up under the conditions of
Prohibition, needed Wood's talents as a
driver and were ultimately Wood's safety
net. Nevertheless, Wood's " Life History "
is how he wanted his story told, and this
version of his life must be given some respect
and consideration. Truth was, no
doubt in Wood's mind, just another cell
with a lock to pick.
This work is intended to provide
compelling biography of a criminal who
emerged from the modernizing Appalachian
South of the early 20th century.
Through a combination of prison records,
newspapers accounts, oral histories
and myriad other sources, I have
constructed, to the best of my ability, a
narrative history of the life and crimes of
Otto Wood. At certain points, I defer to
Wood's own account and words in his
" Life History. " These points of deferral,
however, often juxtapose Wood's stories
with prison records or newspaper
reports. Throughout the book, narrative
gaps of several months appear as Wood
travels the highways and back roads
from point A to point B, or languishes
behind prison bars. I hope readers will
excuse these gaps, as I have focused on
the events and velocity of a fast-pace
narrative suitable to the life Otto Wood
lived. Countless family stories and many
small facets of Wood's life are no doubt
absent. I look forward to hearing more
stories about Otto Wood, and I see this
work as a starting point for a renewed
conversation about Wood's significance
as a criminal and as a folk hero. When
it comes to Otto Wood, just as the ballad
reminds us, I " can't tell you all, but I
wish could. "
May 20, 1919 Returned
to West Virginia State
Penitentiary
January 17, 1920 Returned to
Tennessee Penitentiary after
mass pardons in West Virginia
February 16, 1921 Third and
final escape from Tennessee
Penitentiary
September 23, 1921 Captured
in a stolen car in Portsmouth,
Ohio
November 1921 Sent to Ohio
State Penitentiary, booked
under the alias " Charles
Jones "
June 21, 1923 Escapes from
road gang in Ohio
November 3, 1923 Kills
Abraham W. Kaplan, a
Greensboro, North Carolina,
pawnbroker
November 10, 1923 Captured
in Mercer County, West
Virginia, returned to Guilford
County, North Carolina
December 1923 Convicted of
second-degree murder and
sent to North Carolina State
Prison
May 10, 1924 Escapes from
North Carolina State Prison
with John Starnes
May 12, 1924 Wood and
Starnes captured in Roanoke,
Virginia, and returned to
North Carolina State Prison
November 23, 1925 Second
escape from North Carolina
State Prison
December 7, 1925 Captured
in Iredell County, North
Carolina and returned to
North Carolina State Prison
July 1926 Life History of Otto
Wood published
November 22, 1926 Third
escape from North Carolina
State Prison
January 25, 1927 Shot and
captured in Terre Haute,
Indiana
February 18, 1927 Returned to
North Carolina State Prison,
sent to death row for solitary
confinement
July 1929 Released from
death row
July 10, 1930 Fourth and final
escape from North Carolina
State Prison
December 31, 1930 Killed in
shootout on the streets of
Salisbury, North Carolina
-TMc
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 39
Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Blue Ridge Country November/December 2021
