Parents offer lives for son condemned to death

International News Photos (New York, N.Y.) · October 29, 1949

Dunn, N.C.......Mr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Wood, 69 and 59 respectively, of Dunn, N.C., read their bible and pray that Governor Kerr Scott of North Carolina will commute the death sentence of their son Tom Wood, Jr., who is scheduled to die in the gas chamber on November 4th. The bereaved parents of eight say they are willing to die for their son because "we haven't much longer here, anyway". Tom, Jr., 29, confessed to the stabbing of his wife, Mrs. Ruby Powers Wood, forty-eight times, then dumping her body into a creek where it was discovered three days later. On the wall in background is a picture of the condemned man, made when he served as an enlisted man in the air force.