Robert (Franklin) StroudDied 21 Nov 1963 (born 1890).American criminal, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, a convicted murderer who became a self-taught ornithologist during his 54 years in prison, 42 of them in solitary confinement. In Leavenworth he began raising canaries and other birds, collecting laboratory equipment, and studying the diseases of birds and their breeding and care. Some of his research writings were smuggled out of prison and published; his book, Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, published in 1943, was an important work in the field. In 1942, however, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where he was allowed to continue his research but denied further right of publication. He spent the last four years of his life at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Mo. |
