Actors - Birdman of Alcatraz

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Birdman of Alcatraz

	Actors - Birdman of Alcatraz

Robert Franklin Stroud (January 28 1890–November 21 1963), known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, was a prisoner in Alcatraz who supposedly found solace from segregation in raising and selling birds. Despite his nickname, he never kept birds in Alcatraz, running his business until transfer to Alcatraz from Leavenworth.

His life

Stroud was born in Seattle, Washington, on January 28 1890, to Elizabeth and Ben Stroud. He was the couple's first child, although Elizabeth had two daughters from a previous marriage. Stroud left home at a young age, and by 1908 was in Cordova, Alaska, where he met and began a relationship with 36-year old Kitty O'Brien, a dance-hall entertainer and prostitute. In November 1908 they moved to Juneau, Alaska.

On January 18 1909, while Robert was away at work, an acquaintance of theirs, F. K. "Charlie" Von Dahmer, raped and viciously beat Kitty. On his return, Robert confronted Charlie and a struggle ensued resulting in Charlie being shot dead. Although Stroud's mother Elizabeth retained a lawyer for her son, he was sentenced to twelve years in the federal penitentiary on Puget Sound's McNeil Island on August 23 1909.

On September 5 1912, Stroud was transferred from McNeil Island to the federal penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. While at Leavenworth, Stroud was reprimanded by a guard in the cafeteria for a minor rule violation. Although minor, this violation could have annulled his visitation privilege to meet his younger brother, whom he had not seen in eight years. Stroud stabbed and killed the guard and was sentenced to execution by hanging on May 27 1916, but the trial was later invalidated. In a later trial he was given a life sentence. This trial was invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court and a new trial was ordered and set for May 1918. On June 28 1918 he was again sentenced to die by hanging. The Supreme Court intervened, but only to uphold the death sentence, which was scheduled to be carried out April 23 1920.

At this point Stroud's mother appealed to President Wilson, who ordered a halt to the execution, reportedly gaining this privilege with the help of the president’s wife. His sentence was altered to life imprisonment. Leavenworth’s warden did not approve the presidential decision and ruled in retaliation that Stroud was to be held in segregation for the complete duration of his imprisonment.

While at Leavenworth, Stroud found three injured sparrows in the prison yard and kept them. He started to occupy his time raising and caring for his birds, soon switching from sparrows to canaries, which he could sell for supplies and to help support his mother. Soon thereafter, Leavenworth’s management changed and the prison was now directed by a new warden. Admiring the possibility to present Leavenworth as a progressive rehabilitation penitentiary, the new warden furnished Stroud with cages, chemicals and stationeries to conduct his avian activities. Visitors were shown Stroud's aviary and many purchased his canaries. Over the years, he raised nearly 300 canaries in his cells and wrote two books, Diseases of Canaries and Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds. He made several important contributions to avian pathology, most notably a cure for the hemorrhagic septicemia family of diseases. He gained respect and also some level of sympathy in the bird-loving field.

Stroud had initially a close relationship with his mother. She helped him with legal proceedings many times, going so far as to have some presidential help or sympathy for her son’s execution punishment. While Stroud kept busy with his bird enterprise, he had numerous bird-loving correspondents whom he exchanged with. He started a regular correspondence with a woman named Della Mae Jones, and in 1931, she moved to Kansas and they started a business to sell Stroud's medicines. Stroud’s mother forcedly condemned that relationship and moved away from the Leavenworth area. She also voiced negative arguments toward her son’s desires to be paroled which became a major obstacle in his attempts to be released from the prison system.

Soon, Stroud’s activities created problems for the prison management. Under regulation each letter sent or received at the prison had to be read, copied and approved. He was so involved in his business that this alone required a full-time prison secretary. Also, most of the time, his birds were let free to fly in his cells. With the very high number of birds he kept, his cell was allegedly dirty and Stroud’s personal hygiene was reported to be gruesome. In 1931, an attempt to force Stroud to discontinue his business and get rid of his birds failed after Stroud and Jones publicised his efforts and undertook a massive letter- and petition-writing campaign that climaxed in a 50,000-signature petition being mailed to the president. The resultant outcry from the public allowed Stroud to keep his birds and he was even given a second cell to house them, but his letter-writing privileges were greatly curtailed.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Birdman of Alcatraz ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Birdman of Alcatraz; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay