January 1890
November 21, 1963

AKA: Birdman of Alcatraz

Murderer

Robert Stroud grew up poor and uneducated. In 1909, while living in Alaska, he committed his first murder, for which he was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He was a model inmate until he stabbed another prisoner and later killed a guard. After standing trial, he was sentenced to die by hanging. Gallows were built in preparation, but his mother’s pleading won a stay of execution from President Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924), on the condition Stroud be separated from the rest of the prisoners. To pass time, he took up ornithology (the study of birds) and wrote books. But neither of these activities was permitted after he was transferred to Alcatraz, a former maximum-security federal penitentiary in San Francisco Bay. His biography, titled The Birdman of Alcatraz (1955) and a movie (1962) by the same title made a legend of...