GENIUS AND MURDERER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19811, 1 December 1919, Page 6

GENIUS AND MURDERER.

LIFE I'RJSONEirS AMAZING DUAL CAREKII. An amazing Jokyll nnd Hyde career has been led by Kobert I<\ Stroud who is about to appeal to the United Mates Supreme Court for, a now trial, idiot, genius and murderer in one, Stroud is nt present serving a lil o W tenre iij Leavenworth Penitentiary. I• e has killed two men, and has made, c torts to kill others. Cue would say that a tigoi- loose on a city street could lie hardly a greater menace to society than Stroud. Looking on the other side oi tins remarkable murderer one "ould be equally inclined to believe that, properly developed, he mHit Have been proved a mathematical \>r musical »emiis. Stroud's first criminal venture was made when he was nt school in Seattlo where lie was born. He was arrestee! or stealing opera glasses, and was reloaded on account of his vouth At seventeen he went to Juneau, Alaska ami became cook in a restaurant' Shortly afterwards there was a food famine in Juneau, and Stroud got puv sesMou of the restaurant. u„ was S,;" "j 1 fo "d "hen it was almost unobtainable elsewhere, and did a tremendous business, until the police, investigating Ins source of supplv, discovered that he was getting bj' 0 _ visions l iv. ;n a . ganK ()[ U)i T , iollouod , gaol .sentence. On Jin ivlease | lO f(l „ ;„ , . hj hat she had another lover he went to the man'• cottago and killed !„„,. Ho d dared hat the killing was the result of .1 fw;t and escaped will, a twelve>ear sentence. While in mA , l(J ' mstitutio. in company with another «"ivic.The alter had made a bunder which led to detection Stroud attompled t„ kifl the man and w removed io Leavenworth ' ''* Arrived there, one of the first act;, u..s to make a saw o„L 0 f a case knife wlii«-li he used to dig his way in the Alter this a dose watc!, was Icent nnnn «m, !,.,t U.isdi.l no, prcST ccrefing a spoon which he Jasbined into a dagger. W,lh ibis weapon ho sprang upon and stabbed to death Andrew I'. 1 inner, a prison guard, at the noonday meat, and in the prince r-f lW,d convicts .jtroud said that Tur nor had called him a vile name llns is- the crinw lor which Stroud was given a life sentence, against which be is appealing, and it was while the trial was in progress that criminologists everywhere wore interested in the pronh'iii presented bv St mud. That ho was u man of dual personality was clearly established by his lei tors 'to hi, mother. One would refer to the crime in terms o the greatest horror and loathing. 'ih (> Iloxt W0I|!(I ..,, casually and jocularly as thong], ,ho murderer were in the custom of killinsomebody evoiy other dav. In Leavenworth Strand has continned to oaflle Ids warders and the experts who have come to examine him Knowing no music, but getting hold of a violin and a guitar, he became „'„ expert perlormer in Ibrce weeks through a correspondence'course | K , earned two degrees imm the Kansas State Agricultural College, one requiring a profound knowledge of mathematics, the other of engineering. Vet nobody saw him reading exeeot at odd moments. As a mathematician he is sam to ho remarkable as a lichtning calculator, and m solving problems ( ,f mental arithmetic. Stroud's own explanation is that these gifts of mathcmat.es and music just " come to him on waves. He liik studied theosophy and claims to be able to release bis'astral bmlv at v.-, I That is one side of him. the other, the idiot side, is in his fnior juice of what is due others. When a little kindness is shown, he is in doubt whether to say thanks or to prostrate himself before bis benefactor and burst into tears. Vor nnv slight or injnrv, on the other hand, he immediately begins to plot murder, a man's life blood, in his opinion, heins necessary to wip<j out the memory of the most genial insuit. As a final illustration of Stroud's gifts may he mentioned the fact that through correspondence, limited as it is to two letters a week, strictly censored, he has heen able to interest outsiders who have furnished the several thonsnnd dollars necessary to have his case brought heforo the Supreme Court.