Stroud, Robert (1890-1963). Historically Interesting Original Autograph Manuscript Letter Written by Robert Stroud, the Lonely “Birdman of Alcatraz,” During His Solitary Confinement, Addressed to His Long-time Friend and Fellow Bird-lover Fred E. Daw in Florida, Confessing To Suffering From an Unresolved Oedipus Complex, Revealing His Early Attempt To Assassinate His Father, and Explicitly Tracing His First Sexual Experiences From the Age of Five to Eleven; Also Including Never-before-Shared Excerpts From His Prohibited Multi-volume Autobiography, Eagerly Calculating Approximate Incomes From His Forthcoming Biopic, Challenging Darwin’s Theory on the Limited Olfactory Capability of Birds, and Recommending Effective Sulfa Medicine Usage for Birds. Alcatraz Prison, California: 24 May 1949.

Quarto ca. 26x20.2 cm (10 ¼ х 8 in). 2 pp. Blue ink on laid paper. Fold marks, but overall a very good letter, written in a legible hand.

Dated 24 May 1949, this rare private letter offers an uncensored insight into the mind of one of the most notorious criminals in the United States. The lonely “Birdman,” Robert Stroud, wrote this letter the seventh year into his solitary confinement in Alcatraz and shortly after the maximum security prison stripped him both of his birds and his wings.

One of the most famous inmates of Alcatraz, a federal prisoner and two-time murderer, Robert Stroud spent most of his seventy years behind bars in solitary confinement. At nineteen, Stroud murdered a bartender in Alaska in a quarrel over a dance hall queen and was sentenced to Leavenworth penitentiary for twelve years. In 1916, he stabbed a guard to death with an ice pack and was sentenced to life imprisonment in solitary confinement. During his time at Leavenworth, Robert, clinically diagnosed as a psychopath, started to study birds and was even allowed to maintain a lab. The murderer made important contributions to avian pathology and emerged as a prominent figure in American ornithology, authoring two books on birds: “Diseases of Canaries” (1933) and “Stroud’s Digest on the Diseases of Birds” (1943). In 1942, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where he was prohibited from experimenting on birds. The lonely “birdman” died in the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, in 1963, going down in history as one of the most notorious murderers in the United States.

This letter is addressed to Stroud’s long-time friend and a former President of the Chicago Bird Club, Fred E. Daw (1907-1982). In the text, written from Alcatraz prison cell #594, the author agonizingly confesses that he suffers from an unresolved Oedipus complex and explicitly traces his first sexual experiences from the age of five to eleven. Further in the text, Stroud reveals a lesser-known fact from his biography and admits to trying to kill his father shortly after becoming sexually active.

In the other parts of the letter, the lonely “Birdman of Alcatraz” speaks of his “leisure time” in solitary confinement and enthusiastically describes his projected multi-volume autobiography “Bobbie.” Importantly, the letter includes interesting, never-before-shared excerpts from the book, offering an intimate insight into Stroud’s relationship with his mother. Despite the author’s explicit excitement over the book, “Bobbie” was prohibited from publication for decades and first became available to the public only in 2014.
In the text, the author also mentions his forthcoming biopic (later known as "The Birdman of Alcatraz;” 1962) and eagerly calculates approximate incomes from the movie. Directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Burt Lancaster, the film proved a widespread success and was nominated for four Academy Awards.

In the rest of the letter, the “Birdman of Alcatraz” talks about his previous experiments on birds’ organs, dismisses Darwin’s theory on the limited olfactory capability of birds, and provides precise recommendations to his fellow bird-lover on the effective sulfa drug doses for birds.

Overall, a historically interesting original autograph manuscript letter by the lonely “Birdman of Alcatraz,” offering an uncensored insight into the mind of one of the most notorious criminals in the United States.

The text of the letter (original spelling and punctuation preserved):

“Dear Fred: Yours of the 16th just arrived and I am glad that you are no longer worried. I had a rough time for a month, but am now feeling fine. I can still feel this old gallbladder occasionally, but my general health is improving so rapidly that I do not expect to have any more serious trouble for the present. Now to questions.
Sulfanilamide is an obsolete drug - no longer used.

All sulfa drugs are given in 1/10 gram doses to canaries into the crop, but the new drugs can also be given in 0,01 to 0,05 percent solution as drinking water. The best of the - for this purpose is sodium sulfamelbazine - one 1.2 gram tablet to a quart of water or to five quarts as the case may be. The latter solution can be use as drinking water for weeks at a time, if need be. If the stronger solution is used it should not be given for more than two or three days per week. As much as three tablets to a quant can be used for one day, but must not be repeated more than once each week.

Now, about the keets. I know nothing in particular about their breeding. Sex-linked means that the character is carried in the sex chromosome, of which the female bird has one and the male bird two. In mammals, including man, it is the other way around. In hemophilia (bleeding disease) the female is the carrier, and the male the bleeder, Split as used in those rules means carrier as applied to discussion of cinnamon birds or to Hemophilia in man. In birds the male is always the carrier, in man, the female. In such cases, the bird that has the character is alway pure for that character and will breed true.

Smell: Darwin credited birds with having no sense of smell. Many biologists agree. I do not. The organs are not as well developed as in mammals, but I have examined them in microscopic sections and they are undoubtedly functional. Also, blind bird can find food and water, but normally birds have such wonderful eyes and ears that they do not make much use of their sense of smell. I probably could get permission to use an extra sheet if I asked for it. I prefer not to right now, Fred.

Going back to those rules for breeding - , I do not see anything in them that is not made excessively clear. They tell just exactly what can be expected from every possible moting. The novice who can’t follow that, can’t follow anything and should learn to read.

About the business, I know nothing. There are a number of things that were promised that have not been done. Why, I don’t know. One published report I saw said that the story had been written and would be shot in July. I am to get ten Gs with the start of production and ten percent of the net on the picture. If it is a hit, that will run into - money. The book I am working on right now is called Bobbie. It is the first volume of a projected eight volume autobiography. In it I devote several chapters to family history and the circumstance surround the meeting of my parents, their wedding and my birth. It treats of my childhood from birth to a few day after my 14th birthday. It is not a pretty book, Fred. In it I have treated all circumstances that had any influence on the development of my character. I have shown, the origin, growth, and development of edipus complex and have traced step by step its development from my earlier sexual experience of the age of five, through the subjective speculations of the child between five and nine. The earliest objective experience at nine, the first bilateral experience at eleven, complete physical development at the age of twelve, up to an attempt to kill my father a few day after my 14th birthday. I have shown the steps by which I developed from a child of five, so dominated that I dare not walk across the room, get a drink of water, or got to the toilet without asking permissions and saying please, to the boy of fourteen who finally achieved complete emancipation from parental domination at the point of a gun.

Ninety percent of the book is written in dialogue. A sample: At 14 a certain hophead, called Frankie, was teaching me to sing.

My mother asked me why he was called Frankie and I told her that he had introduced the song Frankie and Johny to the Seattle Red Light district and every one had at once started calling him Frankie. For her enlightenment, I sang the song.

“Verse after verse, Bobbie sang the complete, original, unexpergated version of the song, just for the fun of seeing Lizzie blush.

“I guess the song is appropriate enough for some occasions down there, but I still don’t see why they call your friend Frankie. That is the name of the female character of the song.”

“Yes! I know Mom! As you have so often said: ‘I takes a lot of people to make a wold,’ so you can figure that one out for your self. It don’t much matter just how you figure it ‘cause, I can tell you for a fact, that it is not humanly possible for you to be wrong,” and both Bobbie and Lizzie blushed.”

Each chapter begins with an original verse or saying. One in which I tell my mother some uncomplimentry history of which she did not know I was aware, has this heading:

“That little boy behind the store or beside the kitchen sink
Has eyes to see, ears to hear, and a brain that will learn to think.
While he may never say a word, remember, this is true:
Of all the things you know of him, he knows as much of you.”

It runs 300000 words, Fred. All was hand printed twice and some sections as much as for times. If it ever sees print, Fred, it will be the most controversial book every printed. You know how I love to trod on conventional toes. Well, I have not missed any. It is written on long-form legal paper and runs to 428 pages. The book will run twice that many. In the writing I used two and one half boxes of paper. I must stop, Fred. Best of luck.”