The name Robert Stroud is not one commonly heard in ordinary conversation, but this man's contribution to humanity will live on in the minds of many under a different title, "The Birdman of Alcatraz." By nature, Robert Stroud was not a congenial man. As a youth he was always getting into fights, disagreements, and various altercations. When he was only nineteen he killed a man in a barroom brawl, was convicted of second-degree murder, and was sentenced to the Federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, since the crime was committed on Federal land.

One might think that incarceration in a federal prison would lead Robert Stroud to reform and get his life in order, but he continued his former ways, being even more disruptive and troublesome. One day, a fight broke out in the prison, among …