Alcatraz_ A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years - Michael Esslinger [96]
A personal invitation from Actor Burt Lancaster, inviting Bureau of Prisons Director James Bennett to a screening of Birdman of Alcatraz in 1962.
Critics declared Birdman of Alcatraz a masterpiece and Lancaster reined an Academy AwardÒ nomination for his portrayal of Stroud. Meanwhile, Stroud himself continued his legal battle for his own release. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy had earlier issued a statement based on prior petitions and appeals, stating that he could not “in good conscience recommend to the President that it would be in the public interest that Mr. Stroud’s sentence be commuted.” But Stroud refused to give up, and by coincidence, his return to court coincided with the film’s release in Kansas City. Thomas Gaddis and Burt Lancaster attended the Kansas City hearing and for the first time, Stroud and Gaddis were able to briefly shake hands without exchanging words. This would be the only time the two would ever meet.
Stroud being led to court in Topeka, Kansas in 1959, to appeal his sentence.
Fellow prisoner Morton Sobell became a close friend of Stroud’s at Springfield. Sobell would later write that several of the other inmates hated Stroud because of his eccentric behavior. Stroud himself would never see the classic film that had shaped his character in the public eye. However, it was rumored that he was able to watch Lancaster receive his Academy Award® nomination on TV, as well as a short clip of Lancaster’s performance as the Birdman.
On the morning of November 21, 1963, Morton Sobell went to check on Stroud, who had failed to show up for their regular breakfast meeting in the small dining hall. Upon entering his cell, Morton discovered that Stroud had died peacefully in his sleep.
Stroud’s burial site at the Masonic Cemetery in Metropolis, Illinois. He is buried between his mother and his sister.
Stroud’s death was overshadowed in the national consciousness by the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the local Metropolis Illinois newspaper contained only a brief editorial, reading in part:
Stroud, 73, was discovered dead at 5:45 a.m., at the center where Stroud had been confined for the past four years. Stroud was a former resident of Metropolis, and his sister, Mrs. Mamie Schaffer, still lives here. A brother, Lawrence Marcus of Honolulu, is the only other immediate survivor. Several cousins, nieces and nephews also survive him. Arrangements for the funeral are incomplete. The body will be brought to the Aikins Funeral home, and the services will be private. Prison officials said his death was due to natural causes.
At the time of his death Robert Stroud had spent over fifty-four years in prison, until then the longest federal prison sentence ever served. Throughout his prison term, he never once expressed any remorse for his killings and was said to have bragged to other inmates about the crimes he would commit if he were ever released back into society. Despite his external associations with affluent celebrities who believed he was no longer a threat, it is clear today that even some of his own peers looked upon Stroud as dangerous and unfit to return to society. One insight into Stroud’s character was buried deep in his inmate case file, in a letter he wrote March 1942, impounded by the mail room at USP Leavenworth. Stroud wrote:
"Regardless of what we think of Hitler, and I had his number, completely, back in the 20's, before he gained power even in Germany, he is the best possible illustration of the effectiveness of a fix purpose. For, regardless of his personal qualities, he has a very effective single-mindedness. And if I have one good quality, it is the same kind of single-mindedness."
During an interview conducted for this book, I asked former Alcatraz inmate Jim Quillen if he had any final opinions on Stroud and passed him an original copy of Stroud’s Digest on Bird Diseases. He asked me if I’d like him to sign it and rather than offer any spoken opinion, Quillen pulled out a pen and wrote a small inscription on the inside cover, which read: