"birdman of Alca' " Need Not Have Died

Robert Stroud, the "Birdman of Alcatraz" need not have died in the federal prison medical centre in Springfield, Missouri, last November, A fellow inmate, Paul Salstrom, has revealed that Streud, who died of a heart attack, had unsuccessfully begged for medical attention because, as he told a friend, he thought he was dying. At midnight November 20, 1963, guards coming on duty were informed by those going off that the doctoron-duty should be called for Stroud, Salstrom relates in an article in The Peacemaker, the pacifist journal published in Cincinnati. At 1 a me Stroud again called for medical help to no avail. Only after he was found dead in his cell next morning was the doctor called. The doctor's demand why he had not been called during the night was overheard by ea number of inmates. The man whose tragic but inspiring story of life imprisoni-cnt became knom to millions through the film, Birdman of Alcatraz, might not have died if he had been given medicel attention since heart failure can often be prevented by heart stimulation..