Robert Stroud, alias 'The Birdman of Alcatraz,' called Metropolis, Illinois home in his childhood. (Metropolis is right across the river from Paducah.) Stroud ran away from home at the tender age of thirteen, and ended up in Alaska before starting his life of crime, resulting in his lifelong incarceration. Oddly, he kept sparrows at Leavenworth, but never Alcatraz. Burt Lancaster played the benevolent Birdman in the popular movie. It has been stated that the real Birdman was nicer to the sparrows in his care than to his fellow man. He became a recognized expert on ornitholigical diseases, however, and was buried in Metropolis after his death.