How to Escape from Prison
And a maximum security prison at that!
Mystery Mob!
This week we’re chatting about an all-time escape in 2015, worthy of Shawshank itself.
A maximum security prison. A 23-day manhunt. 1,300 officers. Over $20 million in police overtime pay. Two shootings. Two convicts. One death.
But first, let’s answer that riddle:
A man was shot to death while in his car. There were no powder marks on his clothing, which indicated that the killer was outside the car.
However all the windows were up and the doors locked. After a close inspection was made, the only bullet hole discovered was on the victim’s body. (note: no, it’s not suicide.)
How was he murdered?
Answer: The car was a convertible of course. Hope you solved it!
And now, back to the main event. Grab your spoons for carving a hole in the wall. It’s time to escape from prison.
The Escapees
So a few weeks ago we told you about an escaped convict who wrote a letter to the New York Times that turned a 1994 murder case upside down. Well, that convict was one of the two escapees in this week’s post. (Note: the other escapee was the man he accused of the 1994 murder…go back and read that previous Nibble if you haven’t. It’s nuts.)
Richard W. Matt, age 49, and David Sweat, age 35 were both serving sentences for murder at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. They had adjoining cells in Cellblock A – Cell 23 and Cell 24. They also worked together in the prison’s tailor shop.
As the two men became close over time, they eventually hatched a plan for escape.
Who says you can’t make friends in prison, am I right?
The Escape
Most of these details were pieced together by officer’s retracing steps, some conjecture, and some from Sweat himself.
The inmates first spent time cutting a rectangular hole in the steel at the back of Cells 23 and 24, respectively.
Once finished, they waited until June (reasoning here to be revealed later!) to leave. They fashioned dummies from sweatshirts and stuffed their beds to thwart discovery during regular cell checks by guards. (That work in the tailor shop together was put to use!)
Their cellblock sat four stories above ground. The hole (see pictures above) led to a catwalk near the piping system - and this catwalk had not been patrolled by guards for years.
The two men climbed down five stories between the wall and the catwalk. They stopped exactly 1 level underground.
Since it was June, the heating system was turned off…which meant they could crawl through the pipes.
The escapees had a set of tools (provided by a prison employee allegedly romantically involved with both inmates…) and some more clothes from their workshop in a soft guitar case. This allowed the two men to cut a hole in a 24-inch steam pipe. They crawled through until they reached a manhole about 400 feet beyond the prison walls.
The Man(men?) hunt
As you can see above, the prison had two watchtowers set up at Post 1 and Post 2, 30-feet above ground. However, these towers were unguarded between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am during the night the escape occurred. (I mean…sensing a bad theme here, first no patrolling the catwalk and now this?…maybe post some people there?!)
Here’s a map and a bulleted list on how the whole hunt unfolded (courtesy of the New York Times):
June 6 (A): Search dogs, helicopters and hundreds of police and corrections officers searched the wilderness and rural communities, going house to house in neighborhoods around Dannemora
June 7 (A): Police officers in bulletproof vests and armed with rifles were stationed at roadblocks on routes leading to and from Dannemora
June 9 (B): The search expanded to Willsboro, N.Y., after a sighting of two men on foot late Monday or early Tuesday near Middle Road, a rural road at the southern end of the town
June 11 (C): The manhunt concentrated in and around Cadyville, N.Y., after search dogs picked up a strong scent in the area. Route 374 was closed between Dannemora and West Plattsburgh, N.Y.
June 12 (C): As Joyce Mitchell, the prison worker who befriended the escapees, was arraigned on charges of allegedly providing tools, the search continued in a five-square-mile area east of Dannemora that had been pinpointed by the search dogs.
June 13 (C): The search shifted to an area south of the prison, along Cringle Road as far as the Saranac River. Some 800 officers have been involved in the effort.
June 14 (C): A fruitless search near Trudeau Road to the east of the previous day’s effort was followed by an expansion of the search area south of the Saranac River near Hardscrabble Road.
June 17 (A): With 16 square miles covered and no escapees found, officials abandoned grid searching near the prison in favor of allocating resources based on tips. The number of searchers dropped from 800 to 600. Roads that had been closed for several days were reopened.
June 19 (D/E): The State Police revealed that two men matching the description of the escaped inmates had been spotted the previous week in Erwin, N.Y., and Lindley, N.Y.
June 20 (F): State troopers, as well as aviation and K-9 units, searched in the area of Friendship, N.Y., after a woman saw two men emerge from the woods near a railroad track. One of the men dived back into the woods, while the other pulled a hooded sweatshirt up over his head.
June 22 (G): DNA matching that of both escapees was found in a cabin near Mountain View and Owls Head, along with some prison-issued underwear, an official said. Other evidence indicated the men had been there in the previous 48 hours.
The violent ending
Unfortunately for both of these men, there was no sandy beach and relaxation at the end of this tale. In fact, they never made it farther than 30 miles from the prison itself.
On June 26, Richard Matt was caught and killed by an officer. He was shot near the northern end of Lake Titus at the intersection of Routes 30 and 41.
David Sweat, was captured (and shot in the process) two days later on June 28, about 15 miles north of where Matt was killed. He is now spending his days in solitary confinement, owes $80,000 in restitution, and added a few years to his prison term. (Turns out you can add years to a lifetime without parole, who knew!)
The official manhunt lasted 23 days.
Climb deeper into the piping system
There are a lot of other details that have come out in this one since the original manhunt. It’s been Sweat providing a lot of these details. One of the most interesting additions from the escapee is that a portion of the two inmates’ plan was put into place due to their romantic relationship with a prison employee.
Between retelling this tale and his letter to the NY Times upending an old murder, the guy’s been busy!
“Shawshank ain’t got shit on me,” he would say (ironically…after being captured).
You can read more of Sweat’s extra details in this New York Magazine article: The Strangest Details From That Report on the Dannemora Prison Escape - NY Mag.
As always,
Stay ‘spicious
-Andy & Mark
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