Robert Stroud, The ‘Birdman Of Alcatraz’
Public DomainA mugshot of Robert Stroud from the late 1930s.
Robert Stroud was unlike most of the other Alcatraz prisoners on this list. He was not a gangster, nor was he involved in racketeering of any kind. Instead, Stroud was simply a cold-blooded killer.
Stroud was born in Seattle in 1890. At 13, he ran away from home, and by 18, he had become a pimp in Alaska.
In 1909, Stroud committed his first murder when he shot a bartender dead. While incarcerated for the crime, Stroud gained a reputation for being a heartless and violent man. In 1916, Stroud earned himself a death sentence after fatally stabbing a prison guard.
While incarcerated at Leavenworth in Kansas, Stroud developed an unexpected hobby: bird rearing. He was allowed to take care of several sparrows and canaries. In the 1930s, Stroud wrote two books on ornithology and was granted special privileges that included the use of equipment to run his bird operation.
However, prison staff soon discovered that Stroud had used the equipment to make illegal alcohol. For this crime, he was transferred to Alcatraz. He would go on to serve 17 years at the island prison.
Public DomainRobert Stroud’s file at Alcatraz.
Despite several efforts to free Stroud from bird breeders and public figures who thought his case would be a shining example of successful rehabilitation, those who knew him in Alcatraz referred to him as a violent and evil man.
In 1959, Stroud went to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, in light of increasing health problems. He died there in 1963 at 73 years old.
Stroud’s story would go on to inspire the film Birdman of Alcatraz. Due to prison rules, he was never allowed to watch the movie.
