Disliked by Other Convicts
One of the many true facts this movie doesn't address is the fact that Stroud was generally disliked by other convicts who served time with him.
Alvin Karpis -formerly Public Enemy #1- served time with Stroud briefly at Leavenworth (where Karpis was initially sent and held in the segregation unit before being sent to Alcatraz) and later at Alcatraz when Karpis was in D-Block for having taken part in an inmate strike.
Karpis later had this to say about Stroud:
I shall myself struggle for years with the parole board as (J. Edgar) Hoover resists all my efforts to obtain a parole out of McNeil Island. Although I hate say anything bad about another prisoner or anything good about the parole board, I consider it a credit to them that they didn't give to public pressure to release 'The Birdman'.
He had a definite mental quirk. His behaviour and statements in isolation convinced me he was dangerous. I have vivid memories of his lanky form and his unusually long arms hanging low in apelike fashion and the profanities and threats he uttered against guards and their families come to mind. He hated Fatso Mitchell and would rave about how he would 'eat up' the guard's little daughter before he tore her apart, giving half to each parent. His wild exclamations dwelt on how, if he were released, he would grab little boys or girls off the street, 'eat them up' and then kill them. I believed him. They weren't just idle threats; he would have killed or mutilated a child. He bragged of how he would show society that they really owed him something. If I had the responsibility of deciding whether or not to release Robert Stroud, I would have reached the same conclusion as the parole board.
James Quillen (who was on Alcatraz from 1942-52 and spent several months in D-Block in 1946 for attempting to tunnel out under the kitchen) also had less than fond memories of Stroud. In April of 1946, Stroud complained of stomach pains and demanded to see a doctor. The doctor had already left the island for the night, so the medical technician came instead and found nothing wrong with him. Stroud insisted he was seriously ill and they were denying him care. He got many of the other convicts in D-Block to start a (contained) riot in their cells. They tore up bedding, broke their toilets, etc. After it had settled down, Quillen was lead past Stroud's cell for a disciplinary hearing and saw that Stroud's cell was in perfect order. He'd gotten others to riot just because he was bored and wanted to cause some chaos without directly doing anything himself. Quillen realized he (and others in D-Block) had been used and lost seven and a half years worth of his statuatory "good time" as a result. (Quillen later turned himself around. A few months later he was returned to the general population. He began to behave himself and started taking correspondence courses to earn a high school diploma. He got his "good time" restored and was transferred to McNeil Island in 1952. He was paroled in 1958 and found lucrative work as an X-Ray technician at a hospital-a skill he'd first learned when working in the hospital on Alcatraz. He eventually married, raised a family, bought his own home and earned a pardon for his crimes. However, decades later, when interviewed, he STILL was bitter about the way Stroud had used him and the other convicts in D-Block. share