Whose Birthday Is It? January 28, 2019

Robert Franklin Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz (1890)

Stroud was a convicted murderer serving time in prison when he came across some injured sparrows in the Leavenworth prison yard. He kept the birds and soon began raising canaries, which he could sell for supplies and to help support his mother. Using equipment furnished by a new warden, Stroud created an aviary and became an expert in avian pathology, writing 2 books on the subject and even developing a cure for hemorrhagic septicemia. How much of his sentence was spent in solitary confinement? More…

 

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