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By Root 606 0

interesting of all the prisoners in the annals of American penology. He remains a historical icon and his legend is woven into the fabric of Alcatraz and its colorful past. However, despite his worldwide fame and notoriety, the public never came to know the real Stroud. His soft image as a gentle bird doctor was the romanticized product of a Hollywood Motion Picture, which largely fictionalized his life story. The true face of Stroud was violent, intricate, mysterious and multi-layered. He was far more complex than the handsome and humbled character that actor Burt Lancaster portrayed in the film chronicling Stroud’s life. The movie blended gentle images of small frail canaries tangling their feet in Lancaster’s hair into a caring and tender portrait. His real life Alcatraz guardians failed to see or understand the Hollywood parallels. Many of the officers who guarded Stroud depicted him as a genius whose personality was “composed, manipulative, and calculated with vicious, predatory and murderous ideals.” By the time Stroud had arrived on Alcatraz in 1942, he was fifty-two years old and had already served thirty-three years in prison.

Robert Franklin Stroud was born on January 28, 1890, in Seattle, Washington, to Elizabeth McCartney Schaefer and Benjamin Franklin Stroud. Elizabeth was much older than Benjamin and was a widow with two daughters from a previous turbulent marriage. Robert was the third of four children and he was born into an extremely quarrelsome and tense household. His father had apparently despised the very idea of Elizabeth’s pregnancy and some sources indicate that he beat his son frequently from a very young age. Stroud developed a deep-rooted hatred for his father which progressively grew worse as he transitioned into adulthood. His mother, however, had a special protective bond with her young son and favored him over her other children. The scenario was further complicated in 1898 with the birth of Marcus McCartney Stroud, Robert’s new baby brother. Robert’s father was pleased with the birth of Marcus. Benjamin Stroud had been steadily employed for some time and the family’s financial future was much brighter at the time of Marcus’s birth.

At age eleven Robert contracted a serious case of typhoid fever and was confined to his bed for several months. Throughout his repeated bouts of retching illness, his mother always stayed by his bedside. Her loyalty further cemented the bond between them and this sealed their already close relationship.

By the age of thirteen, Stroud had become a desperately troubled youth and left home without a penny to his name. Young Bob set out for the small fishing town of Anacortes, Washington, begging for food and money. He would later claim it was here that he first started having sexual relations with prostitutes and venturing into the red light districts. Bob also learned to ride the romanticized train rails and lived by evening campfires with hobos and other runaways. At sixteen Bob finally returned home and offered fabulous stories of his adventurous escapades to his worshiping younger brother Marcus. At this time, Bob attempted to put his life back on track by working at a series of menial jobs. But despite his best intentions, this would prove to be a barren attempt.

In 1908, at eighteen years of age, Stroud drifted up to Juneau, Alaska, where he fell in love with saloon prostitute and cabaret dancer named Kitty O’Brien. Kitty was thirty-six, and she acted as a somewhat motherly figure to Stroud. One article derived from early Alaska oral histories described O’Brien as a “faded, wrinkled, blonde who was a wild-living drug addict, alcoholic and whore.” The Daily Record in January of 1909 wrote “Her face is badly marred with sores at the present.” She was known by locals for robbing drunks and disorderly conduct, but she had somehow developed a close bond with Stroud. The Record wrote, “They were both degenerates and criminally inclined.”

When Robert developed a severe case of pneumonia, Kitty took care of him and helped nurse him back to health, but dark clouds