Otto Wood, the Bandit

“This simple and efficient book is a linear timeline of one man who was praised for his misguided ingenuity, vilified and eventually killed for his crimes, and cemented his legacy as a part of North Carolina’s zeitgeist.”—North Carolina Literary Review

“ A deeply researched account that strives to establish the true story behind a crime spree that has been immortalized in a much-played and much-recorded bluegrass ballad . . . engaging [and] thoughtful.”—Southern Review of Books

“Otto Wood, the Bandit is an entertaining and valuable contribution to the histories of Appalachia and the American South and to ballad scholarship, and a timely reminder of the puzzling and alarming human propensity for admiring, openly or in secret, and from a safe distance of time or space, people who offer perhaps some measure of vicarious catharsis for our own darker impulses, people we enjoy talking, reading, or singing about, but would not much care to meet at a family reunion or on a dark country road.”—North Carolina Historical Review

“McKenzie brings a unique, musician’s perspective to the book . . . [and] deftly threads the needle between fact and fancy, telling the story of the man behind the song.”—New York Journal of Books

“Suitable for inclusion in any academic or special library with a focus on North Carolina folklore or popular history in the early twentieth century.”—North Carolina Libraries

“Trevor McKenzie has crafted a fascinating history of Otto Wood, a complex and outlandish North Carolinian. Not only is this an engrossing tale of Wood’s short yet eventful life; it also provides a great window into early twentieth-century North Carolina.” — Daniel Pierce, author of Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France

“An exciting and deeply absorbing saga of the charismatic and complex outlaw Otto Wood — a self-styled Appalachian Jesse James. Who better than insightful historian, killer storyteller, and native son of the Blue Ridge Trevor McKenzie to tackle a question that has bedeviled southerners for almost a century: 'Otto, why didn’t you run?'” — Sarah Bryan, director of the North Carolina Folklife Institute and editor of the Old-Time Herald