Robert Stroud

Robert Franklin Stroud (January 28, 1890 – November 21, 1963), popularly known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz", was an American murderer and federal prisoner who became an ornithologist and author while imprisoned at Leavenworth. He was one of the most notorious criminals in American history. Born in Seattle, Washington, Stroud ran away from his abusive father as a teenager and later worked as a pimp in the Alaska Territory. In 1909, he killed a bartender and was convicted of manslaughter, receiving a 12-year sentence at McNeil Island. While imprisoned, he developed a reputation for violence, culminating in the fatal stabbing of a prison guard at Leavenworth in 1916. Convicted of first-degree murder and initially sentenced to death, he was granted presidential clemency, and his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. At Leavenworth, he became known for raising canaries, published two books on avian diseases, and made several important contributions to avian pathology. In 1942 he was transferred to Alcatraz after prison officials discovered he had been using equipment supplied for his bird research to manufacture alcohol. There he was no longer permitted to keep birds and spent the rest of his life in federal custody. In 1959, with his health failing, he was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, where he died in 1963. The 1955 biography Birdman of Alcatraz by Thomas E. Gaddis and its 1962 film adaptation portrayed Stroud sympathetically. Former inmates described him as far more dangerous and unpleasant than the fictionalized portrayal.