Incredible ALS signed “Robert Stroud, Reg. No. 594, Alcatraz, California,” ten pages, lightly-lined, 8 x 11, July 16, 1956. Lengthy letter addressed to “The Presiding Judge of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of California, Southern Division,” regarding “Stroud v. Madigan et al. No. 35494 Civil on the docket of the above entitled Court.” After listing 10 documents originally enclosed with the letter, one mentioning a letter to warden Paul J. Madigan, Stroud writes, in part: “Mr. Marcus, like all men of his class, who are mentally lazy, has the convenient habit of stating his charges in broad, sweeping generalities charged with self-righteous contempt, which may look convincing until they are broken down into specific incidences and compared with recorded facts, while I, on the other hand, because of my scientific training, have a passion for well documented and detailed facts that anyone can prove or disprove for himself; now to examine a few of his words…In the 16 years, June, 1940 to June, 1956, during which time Mr. Marcus has been handling my affairs, not once has one of my hairbrained ideas been carried through by Mr. Marcus, but have always been wrecked or abandoned for the grand idea of his chisler friends like Hobner. In 1948, Harry Truman was making an uphill fight for the presidency in a campaign where all the cards seemed to be stacked against him. Now Harry Truman knows all about me. He had at that time been reading about me for almost 40 years, and Harry Truman is not squeamish when it comes to politics…
I said to Mr. Marcus ‘Jump on a plane, go to Washington, see anyone of Harry’s secretaries and say ‘There are several million bird lovers in America. If you will send over to the Department of Justice for the file of Robert Stroud you will find that one half million of them have at various times signed petitions for his release.’ ‘That’s no good! Dewy [sic] is in; so why help the democrats? This deal of mine is a honey. The picture will be made and they will have to turn you out. I have six senators lined up. You will be free by the first of February’…but he did not have the senators. The ideal opportunity was missed. He sold the picture rights to my story to Richard Palomar an independent producer…How much Mr. Marcus was paid by Richard Palomar I do not know, but that he was paid is obvious.” Stroud goes on to introduce an old female friend and supporter, Mrs. Maud Foote, and continues “Mr. Marcus was at that time in Hollywood attempting to sell the movie rights to my story through Agent George Landi…I wrote to my brother, Mr. Marcus, and told him that if he wanted to help me and also sell the story, to take Mrs. Foote, go to Washington, and assist in telling her story to Truman.” Stroud continues to tell a story about his attempt to give an exclusive story to the Kansas City Star and Marcus’s inability to carry through with his expressed wishes, and the involvement of a police chief, who Stroud compares to a politician.
He also refers to his 1951 suicide attempt recalling, “I went back to my cell in the hospital. I put my papers in order, I wrote a will in which I told Mr. Marcus just what I thought of him…And what Mr. Marcus does not know to this day, I got a letter to Roy Roberts President of the Kansas City Star and told him that I did not want either him or myself to be the victim of a cheap swindler. Then, I tried to destroy myself by taking all the narcotics and sedatives available which I had saved up for several weeks. With my knowledge of such things, how I missed is a mystery not yet clear to me. Just one of my hairbrained ideas.” Continuing on, Stroud writes of being cheated out of royalties on his book by Marcus, and the legal pursuits taken to recoup the money owed, as well as seeking new legal representation. In the final paragraphs, he writes about his attempts to reach Dwight D. Eisenhower in his attempt for release. He writes, “It should not be difficult to get me out if the matter were carried to Mr. Eisenhower, for strange as it may seem I once knew rather well at a time when he, not I was the one seeking favors. That was while he was at the staff school at Leavenworth, during which period he visited my cell almost every week and told me that the fight to rebuild my life from nothing was the most inspiring things he had ever witnessed, and that any time he could do anything for me I could count on him…That was Major Dwight David Eisenhower, but under President Dwight David Eisenhower, I have suffered more than in all of my previous 43 years in prison. So, I don’t know but I do not believe my plight has escaped his attention.” Stroud’s signature appears again at the top of first page. In fine condition, with staple and punch holes to top edge, and several pencil marks to pages.
Stroud spent almost all of his incarceration in solitary confinement. While in Alcatraz he had access to the library and its legal books, and began petitioning the government that his long prison term and isolation amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. He wrote countless letters and writs outlining his case in very specific detail, all of which would be quickly dismissed. This letter, with the specific mentions of Truman and Eisenhower, is an excellent example of how far he took these petitions, and offers incredible firsthand insight into the business dealings with his writing and the eventual biographical film of his life, made in 1962, which he was never allowed to see. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RR Auction COA.
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