Was the movie the Birdman of Alcatraz based on an actual human?
http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud-1.jpg Robert Stroud is easily one of the most famous of the prisoners of Alcatraz. While working as a pimp Stroud killed a man who failed to pay one of his girls for her services. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. While incarcerated in other prisons for his crime he proved very difficult to handle. He assaulted guards, stabbed another inmate, and tried to force orderlies in the hospital to give him drugs. Stroud ended up in Leavenworth where he developed an interest in canaries. He was allowed to raise them and study them and he eventually wrote two books about them detailing their species and the diseases they were prone to. He developed and marketed a number of cures for their ailments but it is doubted whether they were effective. Still, his research into the species itself advanced the understanding of these birds significantly. The Birdman was then transferred to Alcatraz in 1942 after it was discovered that he was using some of the equip
