After his wife retired in 1906, Wood continued touring until his death in the Gulf of Mexico on January 20, 1908, which was explored unsuccessfully for foul play.

Following his death, Variety reported that he was born in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, and a Miami newspaper said he worked in coal mining as a boy.

Wood" appeared in the local paper of New Castle, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1883, describing him as "the wonderful boy ventriloquist and magician".

[17] In February 1896, Wood placed a notice in the same newspaper, mentioning that the group had performed in 20 countries including Nicaragua, Ecuador, Argentina (Santa Fe, Rosario, and Buenos Aires), and Brazil (Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco).

[21] Clawson's narrative mentioned stops in Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and Brazil, along with corrupt officials, encounters with revolutionaries, and travel at one point by mule train for a month.

In January 1908, Wood, then aged 46,[c] and his 20-year-old daughter were in Mexico on their way from Frontera, Tabasco, to Progreso, Yucatán, on a large tugboat called the Cuneto Bulnes,[1][d] when the ship foundered.

Reportedly, when the vessel foundered the captain and crew managed to save themselves while Wood and his daughter, the only passengers aboard, were lost.

[26] A follow-up article in The New York Times in April stated that the captain of the tug denied that any robbery had occurred, and that the U.S consulate was "satisfied that all was done that could be done to save the passengers.

"[27] Nonetheless, Wood's wife traveled to Vera Cruz to investigate the deaths,[25] arriving in June after passing through Tampa en route to Havana in late April.

Wood's trunk consisted of some large ventriloquist figures together with a number of lithographs depicting "Woodita" (a fantastic balance), "La Mariposa" (the human butterfly) "Edna" (the girl from the flames) and a stock portrait of Wood for his proposed Mexican tour (with the legend "The Real Devil" in Spanish beneath his picture).

[30] Vent Haven Museum in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, reportedly has four of Wood's prop dummies, recovered after washing ashore.