On the other hand: I have a great deal of writing to do, that I would like to get finished, and, perchance, only a short time to do it in. Naturally I would like to make my work as neat as possible. Therefore, I beg that you reconsider this matter; and as time is short, let me know your decision at your earliest convenience.
Respectfully,
Robert F. Stroud
3-20-20
[Handwritten Note] Under the existing circumstances and on accounting certain things found in your possession I cannot see my way clear to grant you this request.
Warden
* * *
Leavenworth, Kansas Sept. 14, 1928
Warden Thomas B. White
Mr. T. B. White
Warden
Sir:
I am sorry that I was not in my cell the other day when you made your inspection. You were quoted to me as saying: “Tell Stroud that if I ever find his bed again as it is now I shall take away his birds. I wanted to speak of it when Mrs. Willebrandt was here but did not.” Is that a correct quotation, Warden? If it is, I beg you to peruse the following carefully,
The day of Mrs. Willebrandt’s visit I was expecting her and had that morning straightened up my whole cell. I was glad when you came in for I surely thought that my efforts to have the place looking neat would please you. I wanted to do that; I still want to do it if possible, but if it is impossible that is another question.
As to the condition the other morning, I will admit that it looked littered. There was a good reason for that. I had thrown my stool and some papers on the bed as I swept the floor. I had not had time to finish the straightening up before going to the yard. But the place was clean and so far as I could see, practically nothing wrong with it. I have tried hard to keep this cell clean and in a condition that would meet with your approval; I have even went so far as to wash my blankets myself so that the bed would always be looking clean and actually be clean. I deeply regret the fact, if I have fail, but, frankly, I don’t know what I can do about it.
There are some men who have the gift of speech. They can talk anytime, anywhere; there are others who could not make a public speech if their life depended upon it. You have no doubt noticed this fact many times in your life. I doubt if you would consider it either wise or just to force a career in public speaking on one not so gifted. In like manner there are men naturally neat in both habits and dress. The least disorder distressed them; but there are others who are not naturally neat and who are sorely distressed by extremes in that direction. I belong to the latter class. My idiosyncrasies in this respect are as much a part of my natural makeup as the colors of my hair and eyes, and just as much subject to alteration by act of will as the colors are. Were I forced to live in an environment of military spick-and-span-ness I know that I would go made in a very short time—I simply could not adapt myself to this. I have adapted myself to conditions that most people would fine even more distressful which would balance things up to some extent.
As to my birds, if you have any intention of using them as a sword of armor, I will be pleased to know it now. I certainly have no desire to keep them under those circumstances. They have given me much pleasure. They have meant hope, ambition, decency and self respect. They have provided an avenue through which I could exercise my best faculties and bring out my best qualities, and I believe that I have a just right to be proud of what I have done with them.
I have not made much of a financial success but I have added to human knowledge. I have learned the cause and cure for congenital baldness in line bred birds and the principle cause of unhatchable eggs, and I’ve discovered a specific for septic fever, a disease that has baffled bird keepers for two hundred years and which the German government has spent large sums trying to control. This is important for there are good reasons for believing that the same treatment would wipe out roop and white diarrhea in poultry.
You once said that you considered your task here as one of turning out better men. Do you think that the birds have helped make me better and more useful, or otherwise?
When Manuel figured that conditions and circumstances made it impossible for him to continue to keep his birds, I thought him too easily discouraged; but right now I am pretty well disgusted myself. You have been extremely kind in this matter and it has only been your innumerable favors that have enabled me to keep going at all—this and my faith in your fairness and open mindedness, which has given me confidence to surmount difficulties that would have otherwise made the conditions hopeless. For all this I am and shall always be deeply grateful. Conditions and circumstances now, however, continue to shape up in such a manner as to make further effort seem useless.
To illustrate: You were very kind to permit me special letters for business purposes. I appreciate this; but just when I have a couple of good sales lined up ready to close someone take a notion to tie a rock to me by returning the incoming letters to the senders, and me knowing nothing about it, of course, can make no protest. Result is that instead of my books showing a nice balance, I am compelled to borrow money for running expenses.
My merchandise order this week was returned to me because someone in the chief clerk’s office made a mistake in my account. When it was returned I noticed that someone had scratched the fresh eggs. I sent a note to the chief clerk about my account and sent my order to you, but I haven’t received it. I am sending you another with this, but even though I cannot get it before Tuesday, and I already owe the man in the guards mess five eggs.
These are little things; they are disheartening, though. The one about the letters is not so little either. I just this moment received a letter from a man stating that an order for $143.00 worth of birds with check for that amount enclosed in a registered letter was returned to him unopened with a statement that I am in prison and not permitted to receive it. And he still wants the birds. This with others losses that I have been able to trace — God know how many I have no knowledge of — of a similar nature amounts easily to $300.00 or more.
Can you now understand why I don’t feel like accepting any sword of Damocles status for the birds. If I can keep them with just half a reasonable show to care for and handle them, I will be deeply grateful, but if I cannot do so, it is sure the threat of taking them from me will have little weight. It is no loss to lose something that has already been destroyed.
I fully realize that you are only human, and like myself, have limitations. I try to keep this in mind, for I firmly believe that you sincerely want to be fair, and I know that the responsibilities of you position often force you to decisions the full affect of which it is impossible to forecast. I have written you thus frankly, though, so that you could see my point of view with equal clearness.
Always Gratefully Yours,
Robert F. Stroud
114B1
Isolation.
P.S. Please let me know about the birds. If they are in away an objection then I shall dispose of them at the earliest opportunity, though, at best it will be some months before the young are able to stand shipment.
R.F.S.
* * *
May 13, 1929
Mr. T. B. White,
Warden.
Sir:-
Concerning this green food problem, which confronts me every breeding season there is a very simple solution if you would dare to permit it.
A great deal of soil is washed down into the lower end of our yard. If I could retain this in a space about 10 x 20 it would grow all the green food my birds could eat during the growing season and it would always be available when needed. The only things necessary would be the placing of two 2” x 6” boards to form the plot and a little soil for a starter. I have talked to Mr. Edmonds, the guard in isolation (who by the way is one of the most efficient, conscientious and thoroughly reliable men it has been my pleasure to meet. Absolutely impersonal in his dealing with us – a quality that in the past has often been conspicuous by its absence) and the only difficulty in arranging this matter is a possible obj
ection from you.
If you have no objection, your approval on this note is all that will be necessary for me to accomplish what I wish in this respect.
And while addressing you, I wish to express my thanks and appreciation of your kind thoughtfulness in permitting us to attend the entertainment in chapel a week ago Sunday. That this was granted of your own volition shows a disposition on your part that is highly commendable and which I have and shall continue to try to merit by my conduct. For this as well as your other innumerable kindnesses, I most sincerely thank you.
Very Respectfully Yours,
Robert Stroud
17431 – Isolation.
* * *
Box 7, Leavenworth, Kansas,
October 6, 1931
This is the only I ever
rec’d from Stroud.
Miss Enona Watson,
Watson Sanitarium,
Paola, Kansas.
Dear Miss Watson:
I have your letter of the 4th. Thank you for the good wishes.
Most of the matter in your letter is familiar to me and I have practiced it for many years. In my view we are all here to learn and to work. When we have no more lessons to learn and no more work to do, or when have failed to do the work or learn the lessons at hand, it is time to pass on and we usually do that. My life may be a mystery to others but it has not been any mystery to me for many years. I recognized my job and have tried to do it the best that I could, and what I have suffered in the processes was only the necessary discipline to enable me to do the work that was cut out for me. It is not necessary that we find life easy for that is not what we are here for but to engage in the struggle to make it easier and better for others and thus develop our selves.
You will be glad to know that I have good and loyal friends among the officers of that Rosicrucian Society at Oceanside, Calif. I made a thorough study of Rosicrucian and related literature, many years ago. We are both Rosicrucian’s
There is one point on which you are wrong, however, though that is not your fault. My business of selling birds is only an incident to my real work. My real work is curing diseases that others have never been able to cure. Do you realize that for all the disease to which man is subject you can count those that the doctors of to-day can cure on the fingers of one hand and have some fingers leftover. There is no doctor in the world who can shorten an attack of typhoid, pneumonia, small-pox, typhus, measles, or whooping cough a single day. And this in to mention only a few. These diseases all have their counterpart among birds diseases. They all belong to that class of diseases known as contagious septicemias, and are due to a germ that is in the blood. And it is this class of diseases that I treat in birds, and I have cured every one that I have treated or had a chance to experiment on. And before my discovery was made none of these diseases were curable in either pet birds or poultry. That is my work, and the birds only furnish the grounds for my studies and the money to finance them. I shall carry on or be trying to just as long as I am breathing. There will be no new plans. If the work can’t be carried on here, there is plenty of room outside, and if it is my task to carry it on I will be out there to do it.
With the best of good wishes, and again thanking you, I am
Sincerely yours,
Robert Stroud.
Pittsburg, Kansas
October 5, 1931
Warden T.B. White
Leavenworth Federal Prison
Dear Sir:
I bought a Kansas City Star yesterday. I saw about Robert Stroud and his canary birds. There is a lot of publicity about it. All you can hear all over this town is “Did you read that about Robert Stroud,” “Isn’t it a low down dirty shame they way they are doing him, by taking his birds away from him?” The only way he has of supporting his old gray headed mother. The only thing he has in the world is his birds and his mother.
He is like any other son; he doesn’t want his mother to go to the poor farm. I know some men that wouldn’t care. I helped one man that was in solitary confinement for 2-years and 3-months. He would have been there the rest of his life. He was in a certain penitentiary in the U.S.A. Robert Stroud is not a bit worse than this fellow I am telling about. Furthermore this fellow is up for parole now.
Why is it any worse for Mr. Stroud to have his canary birds, and to sell them to take care of his aged mother? When Clarence Fisher was there he made pocket books and the prison sold them. My sister-in-law has one she bought. They have prison made garments in these stores for the citizens of the U.S.A. to buy and wear. I don’t think it is any more than right that he can’t have his birds to sell. His mother is old and can’t get a job to at now. What if you were in his place and had an old gray headed mother to take care of. You would want to do the same thing. You wouldn’t want your own mother to go to the poor house?
He did all his crimes in self-defense. I would do the same thing if a man started to kill me. You or any other man would be a damn fool to stand and let someone kill you, and not try to fight back. A man would be a fool to swear against another to get his parole and freedom.
Mr. Stroud’s picture doesn’t look half as bad as some of your noble guards. If you care to answer this you can. But do not write a hard letter like you did to Mr. Stroud’s mother. Listen White, this is man-to-man. You are not writing to a woman now. This Indian is not scared of any man White. If you have any questions about this letter I will be glad to answer. I may come up in the near future to see Mr. Stroud. I will have my attorney to look up and see if I can’t see him a few minutes. Also solitary confinement.
Yours truly,
K. Basley
* * *
An original hand drawing by Stroud indicating how to determine bird gender.
December 31, 1931.
Miss Mary B. Minor,
12 Minor St.,
Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
Dear Miss Minor:-
I am glad that you got the bird o.k. and that your sister likes him. I thought that she would. I told you that I would choose a nice one.
Now about the bathing. The reason that he will not bath is because he does not understand that kind of bath that you are using. I use outside bath houses and let my birds bath outdoors. Every noon when I go out into the yard for exercise I take the birds out. I run about a dozen of them into a breeding cage. I have bath houses three sides of which are closed in with caging and the other open. These hang over the door and the birds bathe and dry themselves in the sunshine. You can get an outside bird bath at any bird store. If the weather is real raw I would suggest that the bird be placed on the floor or table in the sun to bath, not in the window. There is always a draft in a window not matter how tight it is, due to the different temperatures on the inside and outside of the glass. If you have an open cage cover three sides of it with a towel before you take the bird outdoors in it. Never leave him in the sun till he pants. Never leave him out on cold days till he chills.
I hope that you have your seed by now. Mail has been pretty slow the last couple of weeks.
When your friends express their liking for that bird you can tell them that there are always a lot of good ones where he came from.
With sincere good wishes for the New Year, I am
Very Truly Yours,
Robert Stroud.
* * *
Box 7, Leavenworth, Kansas
December 31, 1931.
Dear Hilda:-
I was glad to get your note and to know that you got my card o.k. I will tell the world that you have not been forgotten. I have thought of you often and wondered why you did not write and many times Dell has asked me about you and if I had heard from you. Many times I would have written to find out what was the matter but I have been very busy, Honey, and when I say that you do not realize the half of it.
I am sure sorry that you did not have a nice Christmas, Honey and I do hope that the New Year brings you nothing but happiness, all the happiness that you have always craved, Darling. And you do not have to stop your letter
s because you might tell me things. You know that whatever interests or affects you is always interesting to me. Tell me what that article said, Honey, There have been a lot of them going all over the country and some are good some other not so good and I am wondering which it was. I wish you had sent it to Dell. I do not know what the New Year is going to bring for me. One thing sure it cannot bring much more in the way of work and this one that will be gone in a few moments now. But even if it has brought me lots of work and a lot to worry about this year just leaving has not been so bad for me, for it has brought me thousands of friends, too. It has failed to bring me the things that I want most but then the New Year may do that.
The whistles are blowing now, Honey, and 1931 is over and I will make a wish for you and call it a day. I sure hope that this finds everything going well with you.
Love and KISSES, Honey,
Bob.
* * *
Minneapolis, Minn.
Feb. 9, 1932
[Handwritten] Copy to Stroud
Dear Sir:-
Have you an inmate who raises and sells birds? Would it be too much trouble to find out, if he has any literature on the care and ailments of Canaries? If he has some is it for sale and for how much?
Waiting and hoping to hear from you by return mail. Thanking you, I remain,
Yours very truly,
Mr. A. M. Amundson
3046 – 18th Ave. So.
Mpls., Minn.
* * *
1353 East 10th Street
Kansas City Missouri
October 21st 1933.
Mr. Zerbst
Warden USP
Leavenworth, Kansas
Dear Sir,
I clipped this notice an item from this morning’s K.C. Times. Will you kindly inform me if such is correct?
If so will you be kind enough to tell me when and where such ceremony took place.
Letters from Alcatraz Page 25
