Birdman of Alcatraz

It was “The Rock.” Thirteen acres in the middle of San Francisco Bay, home to the most dangerous men of their time. There was no gas chamber, no gallows, no quick way out. Sealed off and separate, it brooded over its inmates.Robert Stroud, grandson of a judge, was one. Sentenced to life in solitary confinement, he found solace in the birds that landed outside his cell window. For years he studied them, trained them and eventually wrote several books on their behavior. Remarkably, Stroud spent nearly 40 years in solitary before he died — he never knew “alcatraz” means “pelican,” or that early settlers called it “Bird Island.”