• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content

NC Folk

Helping communities across the state connect their heritage arts and traditions to local development, education, and active citizenship

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Home
  • Explore
    • So You’re New Here: A Guide
    • Shop NC
    • NC Food Blog
    • NC Field Blog
  • Resources
    • Exhibits
    • Folk Artist Directory
    • Publications & Reports
    • Handbook for North Carolina Folk and Traditional Artists
  • Connect
    • Inside NC: The NC Folklife Podcast Series
    • Press
  • About
    • What We Do
    • History
    • Staff
    • Board of Directors
  • Contact
  • Donate

Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads

$18.00

Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads

by Trevor McKenzie

3 in stock

Category: Books
  • Description
  • Reviews (0)

Description

Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads

by Trevor McKenzie

UNC Press

Publisher’s description:

Legions of bluegrass fans know the name Otto Wood (1893–1930) from a ballad made popular by Doc Watson, telling the story of Wood’s crimes and violent death. However, few know the history of this Appalachian figure beyond the larger-than-life version heard in song. Trevor McKenzie reconstructs Wood’s life, tracing how a Wilkes County juvenile delinquent became a celebrated folk hero. Throughout his short life, Wood was jailed for numerous offenses, stole countless automobiles, lost his left hand, and made eleven escapes from five state penitentiaries, including four from the North Carolina State Prison after a 1923 murder conviction. An early master of controlling his own narrative in the media, Wood appealed to the North Carolina public as a misunderstood, clever antihero. In 1930, after a final jailbreak, police killed Wood in a shootout. The ballad bearing his name first appeared less than a year later.

Using reports of Wood’s exploits from contemporary newspapers, his self-published autobiography, prison records, and other primary sources, Trevor McKenzie uses this colorful story to offer a new way to understand North Carolina—and arguably the South as a whole—during this era of American history.

Trevor McKenzie is an archivist and musician living in Boone, North Carolina.

Related

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads” Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related products

  • Herbal Remedies of the Lumbee Indians

    $19.99
    Add to cart
  • African American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina

    $19.95
    Add to cart
  • Cherokee Heritage Trails

    $19.95
    Add to cart
  • Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music, from Blind Boy Fuller and Doc Watson to Nina Simone and Superchunk

    $20.00
    Add to cart

Copyright © 2023 NC Folk · All Rights Reserved · Website by Tomatillo Design