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| Special Agent Charles Archibold (Arch) Wood
United States Department of the Treasury - Prohibition Service
U.S. Government
End of Watch: Monday, March 21, 1921 Biographical Info
Age: 35
Tour of Duty: 12 years
Badge Number: Not available Incident Details
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Monday, March 21, 1921
Incident Location: Texas
Weapon Used: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect Info: acquitted Federal officers received a tip that a load of 23 cases of liquor was to be sent across the border to the Neil Shearman hog ranch in the lower valley about 5 miles from El Paso. On the night of March 21, 1921, Prohibition Agents Stafford E. Beckett, Charles A. “Arch” Wood, J.F. Parker and W.C. Guinn approached the ranch and stopped a car driven by C.P. Shearman, his father, but found no liquor. The lawmen and Shearman went to the ranch house in their cars. Shearman started for the house, but came back for his gun. The officers let him get his gun, a shotgun, out of his car. They started towards the house with Shearman in the lead when a volley of shots rang out. Agents Beckett and Wood were mortally wounded. The remaining officers returned fire. When the agents were able to enter the house, the gunmen were gone in the darkness.
C.P. Shearman, 63, and sons, Neil, 40, John, 25, and Allen, 22 (an invalid), were indicted and charged with the murders. The Shearman’s alleged the federal officers fired first. There was a mistrial in June 1921. In September 1921, C.P., Neil and John Shearman were re-indicted for having resisted federal officers, but they were found not guilty. On April 24, 1922, U.S. District Court Judge Duval West dismissed the indictment against the Shearman’s who were charged with resisting a federal officer on the ground that it failed to state on what authority prohibition agents invaded the Shearman Ranch.
Wood, 35, was survived by his wife Mabel Gray Wood, 29; daughter, Elizabeth Vray Wood, 16, of San Antonio; his mother, Mrs. J.W. Wood of Abilene; and three sisters and four brothers. He was buried in Abilene, Texas. He had been in the federal service for 12 years. Wood was reported to have been the first federal narcotics inspector stationed in Dallas after enactment of the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act in 1914. A brother, Will S. Wood, was also a federal narcotics inspector. Related Line of Duty Deaths | |
