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| Animals behind bars |
| By officer.com - Carole Moore |
| Published: 04/16/2013 |
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There’s a long and storied history of blending animals into the world’s prison populations. Possibly the best known U.S. prisoner to interact with other species while behind bars was portrayed in the movies by the late actor Burt Lancaster: Robert Franklin Stroud. Known as The Birdman of Alcatraz, Stroud was a killer incarcerated in his early days at Leavenworth, although he eventually moved to Alcatraz. Originally imprisoned following the slaying of a nonpaying client in 1909, Stroud worked as a pimp and was known for his violent temper. While in prison he murdered a security guard and had a well-deserved reputation as one of the most vicious of inmates. Stroud spent much of his life sentence (commuted from death) in solitary confinement but moved to a prison hospital for his final years. Stroud’s nickname came from his prison-acquired reputation as an ornithologist and expert at raising birds. According to his biographers, the inmate began keeping birds after stumbling upon some injured sparrows on prison grounds. The story—which some scholars dispute—is that he nursed them to health and started a profitable business buying, raising and selling canaries, but those birds were housed at Leavenworth, not Alcatraz. Stroud became famous for his knowledge as a birder, but left them behind when relocated. He died in 1963, still in prison. Read More. |
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