Otto Wood

Who was Otto Wood?

Otto Wood was a Depression-era desperado, born in Wilkes County, N.C. in 1894. He began a life of crime at an early age, stealing a bicycle from a boy in North Wilkesboro, N.C. He was quickly caught and spent time in the Wilkes County Jail. He was subsequently sentenced to serve on a chain gain, but the foreman, because of the boy’s age, sent him home to his mother.

Wood hopped his first train when he was 7, and traveled to stay with relatives in West Virginia. There, his kinfolk taught him how to gamble, make illegal whiskey and fight.

He suffered from a foot ailment and lost his left hand when he was a teenager. According to some reports he lost his hand in an accident while working for the railroad in West Virginia. Another story, told by relatives, is that the injury occurred while Wood was hunting.

After repeated scrapes with the law, mostly involving thefts and bootlegging, Wood was incarcerated numerous times in jails in North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. He is credited with a total of 10 jail breaks throughout his criminal career. In 1923, Wood was charged with the murder of A.W. Kaplan, a Greensboro, N.C. pawnbroker. He was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to serve 30 years in N.C. Central Prison in Raleigh. After that conviction, Wood made four escapes from the state prison. Also, during his time in that prison, Wood wrote an autobiography.