Someone who immediately comes to mind is Robert Stroud, also known as the “Birdman of Alcatraz.”
(Robert Stroud after his arrival in the US. Alcatraz in December 1942)
He was kept away from the other prisoners – not for his safety, but for theirs .
In 1911, Stroud was convicted of manslaughter.
He was scheduled to serve his sentence at McNeil Island, a federal prison in Washington state.
His prison record shows that he was extremely violent and difficult to control.
On one occasion, Stroud attacked a nurse because he firmly believed she had reported him to management.
Stroud attempted to obtain drugs through intimidation and threats.
On another occasion, he stabbed a fellow prisoner.
Shortly after receiving an additional six months, Stroud was transferred to the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas.
The other prisoners complained about his constant threats against them — and the prison was overcrowded.
In 1916, after Stroud was denied visitation by his brother, he stabbed a guard to death in the prison cafeteria in front of 1,100 other inmates.
He was sentenced to death by hanging for “first-degree murder” and would spend the time until the death sentence was carried out in solitary confinement.
His mother pleaded desperately for his life, and finally, in 1920, President Woodrow Wilson commuted his death sentence to life in prison without parole.
However, as a result of Stroud’s unpredictable and violent outbursts, prison warden T. W. Morgan ordered that Stroud be placed permanently in solitary confinement. There he would serve out his sentence in complete solitude.
In 1942, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where he spent the next seventeen years—six years in solitary confinement in D Block and another eleven years in the prison hospital.
( Former Alcatraz prison guard George DeVincenzi stood outside Stroud’s cell on the Alcatraz wing in 2011. George was guarding Stroud, and to pass the time, the two played checkers through the bars.)
In 1959, he was transferred to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.
There, he was found on November 21, 1963, by convicted spy, close friend, and fellow prisoner Morton Sobell.
He died of natural causes.
I didn’t write anything about why he was called the “Birdman of Alcatraz” – because that’s not what I was asked.
But in the article I cited you will find more information about it.
Robert Stroud, at Alcatraz, in 1951
(Note Luise: Here’s why Stroud was called Birdman:
During Stroud’s thirty-year incarceration at Leavenworth, he developed a keen interest in canaries after finding an injured bird in the recreation yard.
Initially, Stroud was allowed to breed birds and maintain a laboratory in two adjacent segregation cells, as it was believed that this activity would allow for a productive use of his time.
This privilege allowed Stoud to write two books on canaries and their diseases after raising nearly 300 birds in his cages, carefully studying their habits and physiology, and even developing and marketing drugs for several avian diseases.
Although there is much debate about the effectiveness of the remedies he developed, Stroud was able to make scientific observations that would later benefit research on canary species.
However, after several years of informal research by Stroud, prison officials discovered that some of the equipment he had requested was actually being used to build a still to produce an alcoholic beverage.)