Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Associate Warden's Record Card for Robert Stroud with an identification photograph and typed and stamped entries on a yellow card.
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Robert Stroud, Leavenworth inmate file, No. 17431-L (National Archives)

Leavenworth inmate file of Robert F. Stroud, 97 digitized pages. Page 2, stored here, is an Associate Warden's Record Card giving offense murder, a life sentence imposed 10 May 1920, and receipt on 28 February 1922.

Date
1922-02-28
Kind
case-file
Source
National Archives Catalog
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
24731415
Rights
A Bureau of Prisons record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Series "Inmate Case Files" (NAID 571125), U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth, Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129), held by the National Archives at Kansas City. The catalog marks the file use "Unrestricted" and access "Restricted - Possibly" for privacy. The copy stored here is a 1,600-pixel downsample of page 2.

The catalog title is “Inmate File of Robert Stroud” and gives 97 digitized pages; it has no scope note and no date. Page 1 is a front-and-profile identification photograph on a card numbered 17431 and headed “Robert F. Stroud.” Page 2, stored here, is an Associate Warden’s Record Card (form revision October 1940) with a photograph and typed entries.

The card, as printed: offense “Murder”; sentence “Life”; date imposed 5-10-1920 “At D Kansas”; date received 2-28-1922 and sentence begins 2-28-1922; parole eligibility 2-27-1937; custody “Maximum”; crimes involved “1 Previous term for Murder”; avocational interests “Scientific Study of Birds”; test scores printed as MA 18-6 and IQ 116; name and number at the foot, “STROUD, Robert” and “17431-L.” The card does not give a birth date; the 1890 printed in the age box is the year only.

The Bureau of Prisons’ account of his Leavenworth years is on its Alcatraz history page; his later register at Alcatraz is on the warden’s notebook page. Only the first pages of this file were read for this archive.

itemAlcatraz warden's notebook page for Robert F. Stroud, No. 594Bureau of Prisons notebook page with the identification photograph of Robert F. Stroud, No. 594-AZ, received at Alcatraz from Leavenworth on 19 December 1942 under a life sentence for murder (District of Kansas). The catalog title adds "aka The Birdman of Alcatraz." A copy is stored here.itemRobert Stroud's Alcatraz inmate case file, No. 594 (National Archives catalog entry)Catalog entry for the Alcatraz case file of register no. 594, about 16,500 pages, not digitized. The description gives receipt from Leavenworth on 19 December 1942 and a 1959 transfer whose destination conflicts with the Bureau of Prisons' account.itemInmate Case Files, U.S. Penitentiary, Leavenworth (National Archives series)National Archives series description of 26,283 Leavenworth inmate case file units, 1895 to 1957, held at the National Archives at Kansas City. Only a sampled subset is digitized.itemAlcatraz (Federal Bureau of Prisons history page)The Bureau of Prisons' history page on Alcatraz names Al Capone among the well-known criminals who did time there, and says most of its prisoners were not well-known gangsters.