10. Despite being known as “The Birdman of Alcatraz”, Robert Stroud did not keep any birds during his seventeen-year residence at the federal penitentiary
Robert Franklin Stroud (1890-1963) was a convicted murderer and one of the most notorious men in the United States. Sentenced to twelve years in prison at the age of 19 for the murder of a bartender, Stroud quickly developed a reputation for violence inside as well as out. Frequently engaging in attacks upon other inmates as well as staff, in 1916 Stroud stabbed to death a guard at McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary. Sentenced to death, later commuted to life in solitary confinement, Stroud was incarcerated at Leavenworth. During this time, Stroud began caring for local birds and with his collection grew to more than 300 canaries.
Infuriating the staff, with Stroud sending constant letters concerning ornithology that required staff screening, he was transferred to Alcatraz in 1942. Allegedly provided with just ten minutes warning of his transition, Stroud, under Alcatraz’s strict policies, was not permitted to keep birds during his stay on the island. Rarely permitted to interact with the general inmate population, Stroud spent his seventeen years at Alcatraz in near-total isolation. Despite this blatant inaccuracy, Thomas E. Gaddis, author of The Birdman of Alcatraz, allegedly chose to call Stroud by his now-famous moniker rather than Leavenworth because of the greater attention his pro-prison reform novel would garner by association to infamous “The Rock”.