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 they called 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 a clerk, they say
He pulled out his pistol and struck him fatal blows
And 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
Jury said, “Murder in the second degree”
And the judge passed sentence to the penitentiary

They put him in the pen, but it done no good
'Cause it wouldn't hold a man they call Otto Wood
It wasn't very long till he slipped outside
Drawed a gun on the guard, 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 that could not run
For he always totted 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
Till he met two sheriffs in a southern town
They said, 'Otto, step to the way
But 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?