Off the Record:
Otto Wood the Bandit
by
Kinney Rorrer
 |
Otto Wood’s prison photo dominated the front page
of The Salisbury Evening Post, (Salisbury, NC) on Dec. 31, 1930.
The headline read “Otto Wood Is Killed Here.” Courtesy archives
of The Salisbury Post, Salisbury, NC. |
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| The Carolina
Buddies, shown in this 1931 photo are (l to r):
Odell Smith, Norman Woodlieff, and Walter Smith.Photo
courtesy Kinney Rorrer |
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He loved the women and
he hated the law
And he just wouldn’t take nobody’s
jaw.
So sang Walter “Kid” Smith in
his 1931 composition about a man who was known as North
Carolina’s “one man crime wave,” Otto
Wood. Also dubbed the “Houdini of Cell Block
A,” Wood had cemented a national reputation for
his crimes, but it was unquestionably his daring prison
escapes that most caught the public imagination. It
was his string of daredevil jail breaks—four
of which were from North Carolina’s Central Prison
in Raleigh—that gained Otto Wood such notoriety.
His escapes were all the more remarkable considering
that he had a crippled foot and was missing his left
hand! |
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