Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Aaron Manke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
(00:36):
If you're a fan of true crime documentaries, you know
a lot of stories follow a similar pattern. A killer
is caught, convicted, and carted off to prison to serve
a life sentence. Rarely do we hear stories about what
happens after someone goes to jail. But there's one man
who's famous for what he accomplished behind bars. His work,
which was all done while he lived in solitary confinement,
cemented him as one of history's most prolific self taught science,
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and it earned him the nickname the Birdman of Alcatraz.
His real name was Robert Stroud. He was born in Seattle, Washington,
in eighteen ninety, but he dropped out of school and
ran away to Alaska when he was just thirteen years old.
And well, he did not walk the Strait and Narrow.
In nineteen oh nine, eighteen year old Robert killed a
man in a bar fight. He pled guilty demandslaughter and
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was sentenced to twelve years in prison. He spent three
years at McNeil Island before being transferred to Levenworth, a
facility notorious for its poor living conditions and cruel treatment
of inmates. Robert hated Levenworth. He was known amongst the
staff as a problem, and he definitely was. In nineteen sixteen,
when he was twenty six years old, Robert stabb then
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killed a prison guard. As you might imagine, actions like
this were generally frowned upon, and in Robert's case, they
landed him on death row. But in a strange twist,
then President Woodrow Wilson commuted Robert's sentence to life, which
I'm sure seemed wonderful to Robert's at first. But the
problem was there was a huge catch. Robert would spend
the rest of his days in solitary confinement. He was
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only allowed to leave a cell once a day for
exercise in a private prison yard. It was during one
of these exercise breaks that Robert found a bird's nest.
Inside were three injured baby canaries. For whatever reason, maybe
sympathy maybe boredom, Robert smuggled the baby birds back to
his cell. He gave them water and food from his
own meager rations. Now these canaries didn't stay secret for long.
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The sound of their chirping filled the hall where Robert lived.
But the warden thought maybe these feathered friends could be
good company for the inmate, so he allowed Robert to
keep them. With nothing to do except sit in his
cell and care for his birds, Robert became really interested
in ornithology, which is a fancy word for bird science.
He asked the warden for some ornithology textbooks, and the warden,
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who noticed that Robert's behavior had become much better since
he got these pets, happily obliged. Now, even though Robert
only had a great school education, he read the books
front to back and learned everything he possibly could about birds,
biology and behavior. Over the next few years, he bred
his canaries, going from three birds to over three hundred.
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Solitary confinement all of a sudden, wasn't so solitary anymore.
As you might imagine, These many canaries posed a logistical problem.
Robert's cell was cramped with homemade bird cages. Not to
mention the smell which permeated the entire hallway. Still, the
warden continued to allow it. But then roberts encountered a problem.
One of his birds fell ill. Using his textbooks, he
(03:34):
diagnosed his pet with a bacterial infection known as avian
hemorrhagic septocemia. It was a contagious disease, and before long
it started spreading to his other birds. Avian hemorrhagic septocemia
had no known cure, but Robert, who'd been living in
solitary confinement for years with no friends except his canaries,
wasn't going to sit by and let his beloved birds die.
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He asked the warden for laboratory e quips and various chemicals,
and again the warden said yes. Robert turned his cell
into a science lab, and after much trial and error
and many canary funerals, he did it. He created a cure.
Robert later published his findings and wrote two full length
books on ornithology, and in the process he cemented himself
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as one of the world's foremost ornithological experts, all from
inside his prison cell. Obviously, Robert Stroud wasn't perfect. He
was later caught using that same lab equipment to distill alcohol.
The warden, who had placed so much trust in him,
felt betrayed. As a punishment, Robert was transferred to Alcatraz,
which is where he got his nickname. But despite being
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called the Birdman of Alcatraz, he wasn't actually allowed to
bring any of his canaries with him. Robert Stroud passed
away in nineteen sixty three. He spent a total of
fifty four years incarcerated, and forty two of those were
spent in solitary confinement. The Birdman of Alcatraz left behind
a complicated legacy, but still he's a testament to what
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you can accomplish when you have determination, a dream, and
a whole lot of free time on your hands. Everyone
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wants to leave their mark on the world, something that
stays behind long after you're gone. Most of us have
seen cave paintings, animals being hunted, and little handprints left
by people who are deep in the ground. But there
are other examples that really get to the hearts of
how weird and funny humanity is and how we have
fundamentally always been the same. The tombs of ancient Egyptian
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kings are littered with thousands of pieces of ancient graffiti
from ye old tourists, including one inscription from a disgruntled
Roman that read, I visited and I did not like
anything except the sarcophagus. In moments of stress, bored or
maybe both people get fidgety and they tend to doodle.
In war zones, there are significantly fewer notebook margins available,
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but docks, chunks of destroyed buildings, and bar countertops are
still open for one or two little pieces of scribbling.
For soldiers in the Atlantic and Pacific theaters during World
War II, there was a shocking amount of time between pushes,
so they started to play a game. There's some debate
over how and where it started. Some think that it
was a shipyard in Massachusetts that was churning out ships
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for the war effort. According to that story, there was
an inspector in the yard who had the check that
the rivets were functioning properly, often climbing down into tight
spaces and leaving check marks as he went. One day,
the inspector realized that someone was tampering with his check marks.
Workers knew that if inspectors had to come back a
second time, their pay would be increased. After thinking for
a while, he devised a new system, something a little
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more personal and permanent. The inspector began marking his completed
checks with a spray can, leaving his own name be Soon,
Kilroy was Here was stamped on hundreds of pieces of machinery.
Soldiers across the Atlantic and Pacific were getting introduced to Kilroy, and,
without knowing the original meaning, decided to make it their
own inside joke. Kilroy was here, complete with the little
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doodle that began appearing anywhere and everywhere. This is only
one version of Kilroy's origins. Other accounts, though, point to
a man named Francis J. Kilroy Junior from Florida who
was very sick. According to the story, he wrote, Kilroy
will be here next week on the wall of his barracks.
But what's more interesting is that other countries had their
own versions of Kilroy. Australian soldiers had fo during World
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War One, also a big nose cartoon peeking over a wall.
Mister Chad appeared in England with his own nose coming
from the Greek symbol for omega. Wherever he really came from.
Kilroy became an integral part of World War Two, A
meme that spread from soldier to soldier and country to country.
In moments of lonely isolation, a little joke from home
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could go a long way. It's hard to believe such
an innocent, little drawing would draw the attention of Hitler
or Stalin. When I say Kilroy was everywhere, I mean it.
The ruins of cities, the insides and outsides of tanks,
painted on airplanes, and the ordinance fired. Yes, that's right.
Some manufacturers with a sense of humors started slapping Kilroy
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on Air Force missiles that were being launched against the Nazis. Now,
the rest of the story might be more fiction than fact,
but I think you'll agree that it's too good a
story not to pass up. Over the course of the war,
Kilroy became a sign of hope for Allied forces, especially
after they started making breakthroughs further into Axis territory. The
more Kilroys were there, the more Americans were there. For
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the Nazis, However, Kilroy became something more sinister. Apparently, Hitler
and several other high ranking Nazis wondered if Kilroy was
some kind of an American spy A lah James Bond.
His signature seemed to be everywhere, discovered right before or
right after a massive Allied attack, it seemed reasonable to
assume he was a super soldier or a master spy
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who had infiltrated Axis territory. According to one story, which
may or may not be exaggerated, Hitler even ordered a
contingent of soldiers to track down the American, but shockingly,
no one ever found Kilroy. Stalin shared their paranoia too. Apparently,
at the Potsdam Conference in Germany, American forces had to
use the bathroom and, in the time honored tradition, doodled
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on the wall of the stall. When the Great Man
himself had to use the head, he was unamused to
discover Kilroy had already made it their first. Allegedly, he
told his officials to find whoever it was responsible and
do away with them. Kilroy is still everywhere if you
know where to look. Stories place him at the Arc
de Triomphan Paris, on Mount Everest, at the Great Wall
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of China, and even on the Moon. Now those are
all unconfirmed tall tales, of course, but there's one place
I know you'll find him if you look. See if
you visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC.
You'll find monuments to those that served in the Atlantic
and Pacific, and in two different spots you can see
a little bald head peering over a wall, reminding everyone
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that Kilroy was there. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided
tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on
Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting
Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me
Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make
(10:37):
another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast,
book series, and television show, and you can learn all
about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until
next time, stay curious.