Episode 131 Otto Wood The Hillbilly Houdini

Southern Mysteries Podcast

Shannon Ballard

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 918 Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Otto Wood was a self–proclaimed one armed-bandit from North Carolina. He made a name for himself as a bootlegger who loved stealing from the rich. Being sent to jail only heightened his fame. He escaped prison so many times he was nicknamed the Hillbilly Houdini. Want more Southern Mysteries? Hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries Connect Website: southernmysteries.comFacebook: Southern Mysteries PodcastTwitter: @southernpod_Instagram: @shannonballard_Email: [email protected] Episode Sources ‘They started popping bullets’: Eyewitness recalls the day Otto Wood died. Salisbury Post. January 2015. Accessed August 1, 2023. https://www.salisburypost.com/2015/07/30/they-started-popping-bullets-eyewitness-recalls-the-day-otto-wood-died/ Wood, Otto. Life history of Otto Wood: inmate, State Prison. Raleigh, N.C.: 1926. Otto Wood: North Carolina’s One Man Crime Wave. Old Hat Records. Accessed August 3, 2023. http://www.oldhatrecords.com/ResearchOttoWood.html The not too well-known desperado. Accessed August 3, 2023. http://kronsell.net/woodenglish.htm McKenzie, T. (2021). Otto Wood, the Bandit: The Freighthopping Thief, Bootlegger, and Convicted Murderer behind the Appalachian Ballads. University of North Carolina Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9781469665672_mckenzie Episode Music The Colonel by Zachariah Hickman. Licensed under Creative Commons; Otto Wood: The Bandit by The Carolina Buddies, Columbia Phonograph Recordings, 1931. Theme Song “Dark & Troubled” by Pantherburn. Special thanks to Phillip St Ours for permission for use.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's Shannon Ballard.
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1:06.3	stories you haven't heard yet at Patreon.com slash Southern Mysteries.
1:19.0	Otto Wood was an Appalachian legend. The self-proclaimed one-armed bandit from North Carolina made a name for himself as a bootlegger who loves stealing from the rich.
1:28.0	Being sent to jail only heightened Otto's fame in Appalachia because he was so good at prison escapes. He was nicknamed
1:35.8	Hudini. Otto Wood was just 36 years old in 1930 when he was killed in a shootout in Salisbury, North Carolina.
1:45.0	It's said more than 10,000 people attended the outlaws funeral
1:50.0	and he would later be immortalized in song by the Carolina buddies and Doc Watson.
1:56.2	The ballad called Otto Wood the Bandit tells the story of Otto's crimes and his downfall.
2:03.0	Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring the history and mysteries of the American South.
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