Alcatraz warden's notebook page for Robert F. Stroud, No. 594
Bureau 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.
- Date
- 1942-12-19
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- NAID
- 296722
- Rights
- A Bureau of Prisons record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Series "Warden's Notebook Pages" (NAID 296686), Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129), National Archives at San Francisco. The National Archives catalog marks the item "Use Restriction: Unrestricted." The series note says that some information on the pages is incorrect when compared with the fuller inmate files, and that clippings in the series may be copyrighted; this page is a prison form. The copy stored here is a downsample of the first digitized image.
The National Archives catalog titles this page “Warden’s notebook page, with “mug shot,” of Robert Stroud, 594-AZ, aka “The Birdman of Alcatraz.”.” It is a Bureau of Prisons notebook form with an identification photograph at the upper right; the placard in the photograph reads “594” (the caption beneath the photograph reads “594-AZ, STROUD, Robert F.”). It belongs to the series Warden’s Notebook Pages (NAID 296686). The catalog lists four digitized images; the stored copy is the first.
The typed entries, as printed: name “STROUD, Robert F.,” No. “594-AZ,” received Dec. 19, 1942 from “USP. Leavenworth,” age 52, date of birth Jan. 28, 1890. Offense “Murder”; date of sentence May 10, 1920; sentence “Life”; sentence began Feb. 28, 1922; parole date “Feb. 27, 1937 (denied)”; district sentenced “D-Kansas-Topeka”; partners or co-defendants “None”; escape record “Has no escape record.” The occupation line lists, among other work, “Bird breeder and bird doctor over 20 years.” The “Reason for Transfer” box quotes a Leavenworth classification committee, a staff opinion that this page does not repeat as fact. The criminal-history column is a long staff summary of an earlier homicide that names a private person; it is not reproduced.
Catalog data, labelled as such: this item has no scope note. The Alcatraz case-file description (NAID 117696972) gives receipt at Alcatraz 12/19/1942 from Leavenworth, transfer 07/15/1959 to “US PENITENTIARY, HAZELTON” as printed, birth date 01/28/1890, and death 11/21/1963 at Springfield, Missouri. The Bureau of Prisons’ Alcatraz page gives a different destination: it says he was transferred in 1959 to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Missouri, where he died on 21 November 1963, and that he never had birds at Alcatraz. This archive records both destinations and does not choose. The earlier Leavenworth file is a separate record.
