10-07-2025
Mystery surrounds inmate's 11th and final escape 95 years ago, NC historians say
Mystery surrounds an inmate's escape nearly 100 years after he broke free from a North Carolina prison, historians said.
'On July 10, 1930, Otto Wood made his final escape from Central Prison,' the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources wrote in a blog post. 'To this day, no one knows how he did it.'
Wood, accused of murder and other crimes, was a 'serial prison escapee' before his death at age 35, historians said.
Here's what we know on the 95-year anniversary of his 11th and final stay behind bars.
The start to a 'life of crime'
Wood was born in 1895 in Wilkes County, west of Winston-Salem. He reportedly ran away to West Virginia at age 7, starting his 'life of crime.' As a teenager, he was accused of stealing a bicycle and breaking into a hardware store, according to a state encyclopedia called NCpedia.
'Involved in criminal activity from an early age, Wood learned to gamble, fight, and make bootleg whiskey from his famed McCoy-Hatfield relations in West Virginia,' East Carolina University wrote on its website.
Over time, Wood came to be considered a 'legend' due to his alleged crimes and escapes. The exploits were even more intriguing given he 'had a lame foot and lost a hand in a hunting accident as a teenager,' according to the N.C. Arts Council and state historians.
One time in Tennessee, he reportedly left a prison yard in a box. He was chased by bloodhounds, 'knocked out a 250-pound guard' and then posed as someone joining the search, according to NCpedia.
The final prison escape
At the time of his final escape from Central Prison in Raleigh, he was serving 30 years for the killing of A.W. Kaplan. The man, a Greensboro pawnbroker, reportedly wouldn't give a watch back to Wood before he was shot to death.
'From 1923, when he began his sentence for murder, he escaped about once per year until, in 1926, he was placed in solitary confinement,' state historians wrote. 'Wood's autobiography convinced many of his sympathizers that he was a reformed man. Removed from solitary, he escaped again.'
Wood became known across the country as his cases received news coverage. Despite Wood being accused of killing Kaplan, some Western North Carolina residents adored him.
'In a time of severe economic hardship, he was a Robin Hood character, a generous man who robbed only the rich and was kind to all who remembered him,' the arts council wrote on its website.
But it turns out, 'his notoriety was his undoing.' Wood escaped from Central Prison for the final time in 1930, starting a six-month period on the run, state officials said.
'He was finally recognized by Salisbury police as he walked through town on December 31,' historians wrote. 'In a bold move, Wood drew a gun on the officers and got into their car, demanding that they drive out of town. When the officers drew their guns, a shootout ensued and Otto Wood was killed on the street.'
After the shooting, people in Salisbury — a roughly 45-mile drive northeast from Charlotte — collected money so his body could be buried in West Virginia. Two songs were made about Wood the year after he died.
