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STABBED TWO MEN TO DEATH.

twice sentenced to be hanged. bKABLE LIFE HISTORY OF AMERICAN MURDERER — FOUND REM/ wp£oN IN SOLITARY CELL—BREEDING CANARIES BROUGHT RED uoRBY OF "VICIOUS AND DANGEROUS MAN"—POIGNANT J O Y-H STORY OF DEEP HUMAN INTEREST. &

- KANSAS CITY, October 23. , white-haired woman opened *} S r g «i s this Mrs. Elizabeth Stroud?" t he door- «yes, s ir," and she hallway, with one hand on Stroud, who stabbed +a death, and tried to kill a rrSio was twice senteaced to be "» the Federal prison 601 wnrth To this mother's plea for XS t Parole, on. of the ',j" e °did not get . chance to hang 5 he »o richly deserved. la.hng 2 we shall see that he remains m U - mi for the balance of his life. He H vicious and dangerous man/' Telling .f i o f+pr Mrs. Stroud said: How o! K vicious and dangerous man have t, love for birds that he raises Hands of them in his cell, and is known bird lovers throughout the whole world I one of the greatest experts and writers doing a profitable business gfcrona was prison board passed which provided among ffifc the following: "The con- ? 2de business affairs by inmates acept to the extent specifically approved ®the warden, is prohibited. Business Stopped By Law. SSeSjewfe? SfXdlSalS Stopping of his outside business. Since rtt. the prison officials here have sought Id some way by which .the prisoner could continue his canary raising without disking with the penitentiary rules. "He has been born again," Mrs. Stroud went on. "His birds have given him a new outlook. In his eel he h aa bird Spment worth 500 dollars. From his «11 with me as his outside agent, he has built np a business in raising and selling birds that supports me. The prison authorities allowed him to do this; they let him build up this business; they even encouraged him in it. The money be made at it enabled me to quit work in a factory, and that put his mind at ease, for one of his deepest troubles was that I had spent 10 000 dollars, all I had in the world, m fighting to save him from being hanged. What right have they to do this cruel thing now; to take all the sunshine and happiness and song out of his life, and to fill it with drab despair?" she sobbed. "What reason do they give?" her interviewer asked. "They say; a prison is a (prison, not a place in which a prisoner may carry on 6 business with the outside world. If that is so they should not have let him start it and carry it on to this point. Or they should parole him and let him carry on his business outside. Surely he has proved himself worthy of it." "They say he would be a dangerous man on the outside," the interviewer suggested; Love and Murder in Alaska. "It is not so," she retorted quickly. "Robbie was never a bad boy. He worked and gave me what he earned. They say he ran away from home. It is not so. He got a contract to work in Alaska. I went to the boat to see him off. In Juneau, when he was only a boy of eighteen, a bad woman of the dance halls got him in her clutches. She had another lover, a bartender, a tough, bad man. He was jealous of Robbie, and tried to kill him. Robbie Hlled_ him, in self defence. There were no witnesses. The woman was fjested for _ the killing. My poor boy, lniatnated with her, under her influence, but chivalrous and brave, pleaded guilty to rave her, and he was sentenced to serve "ml? eara ia McNeill's Island prison. Wmle working in the prison kitchen murderer in for life, tried to beat Robbie up, and he cut the'bully with M waa in self defence again. They transferred him to Leaven«T<r came with him, to be near him. JNow, I want you to see what a wonderSflW? son is._ He had been only hw rUt grade in school. Now was ws chance to get an education. He took J.L. tb e extension department of the Kansas State Agricultural College and Tee , di Pl°mas in difficult mathematical and engineering branches. ■ Cruel Prison Guard Slain. of fitter- tragedy for all so i?w.™ r kim was a guard, a man, man IT S^°rn k\ ater . beat an old SZJftJPZ***- He took an fiTi son * He taunted him' ' threatened to kill Jum names that are known words. One day umkj my boy and my son SIS, m Belf . defence " He was tried and sentenced to he but there was a flaw in it and and sentprwj 4s aill be was tried fWDoaWI ? imprisonment. We the thirj J? a r ® versa l a nd he was tried a a ° d convicted and sentenced han K e d. I sold If 1 ' borrowed all I could, and trro r ever y dollar possible for hT Washington to plead fluenw ir everyone with inbegged, 666 ? me * 1 pleaded ' «o?&d^ fe k'®<&bed, President Wil--911 se the paper that nnprisoi't a /Mutation to life be near HV C3me back fcere 1738 ®P are d. Prison guards cheated Jt •+ ga^ows that had been into ihk ln fl pre - v ; ai) d Stroud was put cell " fOT the balance of ttotL i' ll6B ' anxiety was how to help his He thought he might do eolounf got a child's box of ■Be mado rru°?VL s b ee ts of Bristol board, of prppt;„ cards and all kinds mother c t an d sent them to his "sS/jd she sold them. ftat pal J become such a good prisoner Mt W O ,! an hour ' the y lefc bim Pen," a-strip of God's 3ffi by^l7ffc in size - high little bt • Un ' anc l there he took the Narrows e i CISe • ai,owe(l bim. Young that W leal ? lng to fl y. often fell within e.non?li an 4 were unable to fly high picks*° over the wall. He would Eo J cast them into the air % ? v er. He took two of them E chicks to his cell and reared meals'. them crumbs from his own

(By A. B. MacDONALD. —Copyright)

Studied Bird Books. an y p . ay ' Pkyinß with his pet sparrows, havegn^™ 6 -° ® troud - he could caDariw 'j 8 T_ ln 13 not have aoth gr ■them and have his Varies fr got books about Etndipfj ji m the prison library and Ci®' For one whole year Upon tho f r ant * schemed and worked Rot Tjermi • n ? a .°f the warden until he At thaf 6 !' 11 to have a pair of canaries. 38 tip rmLt- j e Stroud was looked upon of +},„ desperate and dangerous man Would bSW? the prison. They Hot eve _ , him ihave any metal thing, Hv cantr? 1 Pen t ? write wi th- When |Krif • n «,- Cam f he had to have a tools n °thmg to make it of and no ■ • t even a table knife. At last

he begged a wooden soap box from a guard. Once a week he was allowed to shave with a safety razor. He managed to hide a razor blade in his cell. He took the wooden box apart, concealed the nails, and then with the thin razor blade he fashioned a bird cage from it. As money canie in from the sale of his birds Stroud bought, books about canaries and subscribed for bird journals. Mrs. Cora Peek Finney, of Pittsburgh, Pa., a bird fancier, offered a prize for the best written story about a mother bird. Hundreds of stories were sent in from all parts of the world. Stroud's story won the prize. The prize was one of Mrs. Finney's roller canaries, famous among canary fanciers throughout the world. Stroud got a male bird to mate with it and began breeding and raising "roller canaries."

He often had as many as 500 canaries in his cell. Disease would Ret among them and scores would die. He studied those diseases, and discovered a cure for the most fatal of all bird diseases. Those years of study and close contact with canaries, day and night, with nothing else to occupy his mind, gave him an expert knowledge of canaries and their breeding, care and ailments. He began writing for the, bird journals. In. Kansas City is published one of the leading bird magazines in the world. _ It goes to bird fanciers in many countries. Stroud has been writing leading articles for this journal for several years. Mrs. Stroud told of a woman in Trinidad, Colorado, Mrs. Grace Mariams, a widow 70 yeqrs old, who for a long time had corresponded with Stroud and had given him lessons in painting. Last year she was overtaken by misfortune and was to be put out of her home. If she only had I<X) dollars she might get to some l relatives in Texas who would care for her. Stroud had been two years saving up 70 dollars with which to buy a microscope to aid him in studying bird diseases, but when he learned of the troubles of his old friend he sent her the money, and with it she went to her friends in Texas.

"A man in prison who has the heart to do such things, who loves his mother as Robbie does, cannot be a bad man," his mother concluded. "What is a prison for, anyway, to punish a man or to tryto reform him? If for reformation, could there be better proof of reformation than for a man to raise himself above his own suffering and devote himself to a life of,service to others?" —(N.A.N.A.)

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19311128.2.174.15

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

Word Count
1,627

STABBED TWO MEN TO DEATH. Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

STABBED TWO MEN TO DEATH. Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 282, 28 November 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

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