Narcotics Inspector Charles Archibold, also known as "Arch" Wood, was a 35-year-old male of Caucasian ethnicity who served with the United States Department of the Treasury - Prohibition Service. On the night of March 21, 1921, Inspector Wood and Federal Prohibition Agent Stafford Beckett were shot and killed near El Paso, Texas, while raiding a still with seven other agents.
Federal officers had received a tip that a load of 23 cases of liquor was to be sent across the border to a hog ranch in the lower valley about five miles from El Paso.
As the agents approached the ranch, they stopped a car driven by the ranch owner's father, but found no liquor. The agents and the driver went to the ranch house in their cars. The father started for the house, but came back for his gun. The officers let him get his shotgun out of his car. They started towards the house with the father 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.
The ranch owner and three of his sons were indicted and charged with the murders. The family alleged that the federal officers fired first. There was a mistrial in June 1921. In September 1921, three of the men were re-indicted for having resisted federal officers, but they were found not guilty. On April 24, 1922, a U.S. District Court judge dismissed the indictment against the family on the grounds that it failed to state on what authority prohibition agents raided the ranch.
Inspector Wood was survived by his wife, daughter, mother, and seven siblings. He was buried in Abilene, Texas. He had been in the federal service for 12 years and was reported to have been the first federal narcotics inspector stationed in Dallas after the enactment of the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act in 1914. A brother was also a federal narcotics inspector.
Inspector Wood's death remains a poignant reminder of the dangers faced by law enforcement officers in the line of duty. His sacrifice is honored and remembered by his family, friends, and fellow officers.
