Doc Watson, Merle Watson - Otto Wood The Bandit Lyrics

Step up, buddies, and listen to my song
I'll sing it to you right, but you might sing it wrong
A song about a man named Otto Wood
I can't tell you all, but I wish I could

He stepped in a pawn shop a rainy day
And then he had a quarrel with the clerk, they say
He pulled out his pistol and struck in fatal blows
This is the way the story goes

Otto, why didn't you run?
Otto's done dead and gone
Otto Wood, why didn't you run
When the sheriff pulled out that .44 gun?

They spread the news as fast as they could
The sheriff served a warrant on Otto Wood
The jury said murder in the second degree
And the judge passed the sentence to the penitentiary

They put him in the pen, but it done no good
'Cause it wouldn't hold the man they call Otto Wood
It wasn't very long till he slipped outside
Pulled a gun on the guard and said, "Take me for a ride"

Otto, why didn't you run?
Otto's done dead and gone
Otto Wood, why didn't you run
When the sheriff pulled out that .44 gun?

The second time they caught him was away out west
In a holdup game, he got shot through the breast
They brought him back and when he got well
They locked him down in a dungeon cell

He was a man they could not run
For he always toted a .44 gun
He loved the women and he hated the law
And he just didn't take nobody's jaw

Otto, why didn't you run?
Otto's done dead and gone
Otto Wood, why didn't you run
When the sheriff pulled out that .44 gun?

He rambled out west and he rambled all around,
'Til he met two sheriffs in a southern town
They said, "Otto, step to the way
For we've been expecting you every day"

He pulled out his gun and then he said
"Make a crooked move, and you both fall dead
You better crank up your car and take me out of town"
But a few minutes later, he was graveyard bound

Otto, why didn't you run?
Otto's done dead and gone
Otto Wood, why didn't you run
When the sheriff pulled out that .44 gun?