1. Robert Stroud gained a reputation as a dangerous inmate who frequently had confrontations with fellow inmates and staff.
50 Facts About Robert Stroud
1. 2.
Robert Stroud was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death by hanging, but after several trials, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in solitary confinement.
3.
In 1920, while in solitary confinement at the federal penitentiary of Leavenworth, Robert Stroud discovered a nest with three injured sparrows in the prison yard.
4.
Robert Stroud cared for them and within a few years had acquired a collection of about 300 canaries.
5.
Robert Stroud began extensive research into birds after being granted equipment by a prison-reforming warden.
6.
Robert Stroud wrote Diseases of Canaries, which was smuggled out of Leavenworth and published in 1933, as well as a later edition.
7.
Robert Stroud made important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases, gaining much respect and some level of sympathy among ornithologists and farmers.
8.
Robert Stroud ran a successful business from inside the prison, but his activities infuriated the prison staff.
9.
Robert Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 after it was discovered that he had been secretly making alcohol by using some of the equipment in his cell.
10.
Robert Stroud began serving a 17-year term at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary on December 19,1942, and became inmate No 594.
11.
In what came to be called The Battle of Alcatraz in May 1946, Robert Stroud made efforts to protect other inmates.
12.
Robert Stroud started closing the front solid steel doors of the six isolation cells to protect the helpless men.
13.
Robert Stroud yelled to the warden, explaining that there were no firearms in D Block and that those involved in violence had retreated to another section of the prison.
14.
Robert Stroud made it clear that many innocent men would die if the guards continued to fire into D Block.
15.
In 1959, Robert Stroud was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he remained until his death on November 21,1963.
16.
Robert Stroud was born in Seattle, the eldest child of Elizabeth Jane and Benjamin Franklin Robert Stroud.
17.
Robert Stroud's mother had two daughters from a previous marriage.
18.
Robert Stroud's father was an abusive alcoholic, and Stroud ran away from home at the age of 13.
19.
Robert Stroud confronted von Dahmer, and after a struggle shot him to death.
20.
Robert Stroud was one of the most violent prisoners at McNeil Island, frequently feuding with staff and other inmates, and was prone to illness.
21.
Robert Stroud reportedly stabbed a fellow prisoner who reported him for stealing food, assaulted a hospital orderly who had reported him to prison administration for attempting to obtain morphine through threats, and reportedly stabbed an inmate.
22.
In 1912, Robert Stroud was sentenced to an additional six months for the attacks and transferred from McNeil Island to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas.
23.
In 1918, after three trials, Robert Stroud was sentenced to be hanged.
24.
Robert Stroud's mother appealed to President Woodrow Wilson, who commuted his sentence to life imprisonment.
25.
Morgan persuaded the President to stipulate that since Robert Stroud was originally sentenced to await his death sentence in solitary confinement, those conditions should prevail until the halted execution could be carried out.
26.
President Wilson's Attorney General, Alexander Mitchell Palmer, saw to it that Robert Stroud would spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement.
27.
Prisoners were sometimes allowed to buy canaries, and Robert Stroud had started to add to his collection.
28.
Robert Stroud occupied his time raising and caring for his birds, which he could sell for supplies and to help support his mother.
29.
Robert Stroud wrote two books, the 60,000-word treatise Diseases of Canaries, which was smuggled out of Leavenworth, and a later edition, Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, with updated, specific information.
30.
Robert Stroud made several important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases.
31.
Robert Stroud gained respect and some level of sympathy in the bird-loving field.
32.
Robert Stroud was so involved in his business that this alone required a full-time prison secretary.
33.
In 1931, an attempt to force Robert Stroud to discontinue his business and get rid of his birds failed after Robert Stroud and one of his mail correspondents, a bird researcher from Indiana named Della Mae Jones, made his story known to newspapers and magazines.
34.
Jones and Robert Stroud grew so close that she moved to Kansas in 1931 and started a business with him, selling his avian medicines.
35.
Robert Stroud discovered a Kansas law that forbade the transfer of prisoners married in Kansas.
36.
In 1933, Robert Stroud advertised in a publication that he had not received any royalties from the sales of Diseases of Canaries.
37.
Robert Stroud mostly avoided trouble for several more years, until it came to light that some of the equipment Robert Stroud had requested for his lab was in fact being used as a home-made distillery to manufacture alcohol.
38.
On December 16,1942, Robert Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary and became inmate No 594.
39.
Robert Stroud reportedly was not informed in advance that he was to leave Leavenworth and his beloved birds, and was given just 10 minutes' notice of his departure.
40.
Robert Stroud spent six years in segregation and another 11 confined to the hospital wing at the penitentiary.
41.
In February 1963 Robert Stroud met and talked with actor Burt Lancaster, who portrayed him in The Birdman of Alcatraz.
42.
Robert Stroud began petitioning the government that his long prison term amounted to cruel and unusual punishment.
43.
In 1959, with his health failing, Robert Stroud was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, but he was never released.
44.
On November 21,1963, Robert Stroud died at the Springfield Medical Center at the age of 73, having been incarcerated for the last 54 years of his life, of which 42 were spent in solitary confinement.
45.
Robert Stroud is considered to be one of the most notorious criminals in American history.
46.
However, because Robert Stroud had killed a federal officer, his punishment in solitary confinement remained intact.
47.
Robert Stroud met with former President Harry S Truman to enlist support, but Truman declined.
48.
Robert Stroud met with senior Kennedy administration officials who were studying the subject.
49.
However, former inmates of Alcatraz say that the real Robert Stroud was far more sinister, dangerous and unpleasant than the fictionalized version portrayed in the book and film.
50.
In music, Robert Stroud has been the subject of the instrumental "Birdman of Alcatraz" from Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record, a concept album about criminality, and the song "The Birdman" by Our Lady Peace is about him.