All language subtitles for HistorysGreatestEscapeswithMorganFreemanS01E02NorthCountryBreakout

- Inside an
impenetrable fortress.

- Never in my life would I think

that anybody would be
able to get out of there.

- Two men's impossible dreams.

- You cannot tunnel
out of Dannemora

unless you have a jackhammer.

- Meet two unlikely
partners in crime.

- It was impossible for her
to stop once she started.

- Together, they
attempt the unthinkable.

Crazy.

Escape Dannemora.

Some of the greatest
stories ever told

start behind the bars.

Locked up in the most
notorious prisons in the world,

spied on by guards
and fellow prisoners.

It takes a devious
mind to find a way out.

It could lead you to freedom,

or it could cost you your life.

But wouldn't you try when you
have nothing left to lose?

When you're locked up in
Clinton Correctional Facility

in upstate New York,
this is your world.

A dark, dank
cockroach-infested 8x6 cell.

This place used to
be an insane asylum.

Sometimes...

sometimes it feels
like it still is.

Between the screams
of your fellow inmates

and the rock-hard cot,

it's hard to sleep at night.

But you better get used to it

because if you're
sentenced to life here,

the only way out
is in a body bag.

The prison's imposing
30-foot-high, 7-foot-thick

concrete perimeter wall looms
over the main thoroughfare

of the tiny village
of Dannemora.

It's a constant
reminder to its citizens

of the evil that
lurks behind it.

- The very first thing that
you're really struck with

is that massive perimeter wall
around this very old prison.

It looks ominous and
there's this feeling

that there's a lot
of history here.

A lot of dark history here.

- There's a shadow that
overcomes you and it's like,

it gives you a chill

and it just reminds you

of like a castle.

Never in my life would I think

that anybody would be
able to get out of there.

Never.

- When you look at
Dannemora, it's not flat,

and it's because the
wall has been poured

directly onto the
bedrock of the mountain.

So you cannot tunnel
out of Dannemora

unless you have a jackhammer.

The only way out is either
breaching those front doors

or going over.

- Who would even try to escape
this impregnable fortress?

A remorseless killer
named Richard Matt.

He's doing 25 years to life.

They called him Hacksaw because

that was how he dismembered
his victim's body.

All of his appeals have
failed, so in Matt's mind,

the only path to freedom no
matter the odds is escape.

- Richard Matt is a career
criminal and ruthless killer.

In 1997, Matt
kidnapped 76-year-old

William Rickerson,
his former employer,

threw him in the
back of his vehicle,

and proceeded to drive around

for approximately
the next 27 hours,

stopping repeatedly
to torture Rickerson

in an attempt to extort money.

When this failed,
out of frustration,

Matt simply broke
Mr. Rickerson's neck

and using a hacksaw
dismembered his body,

disposing off it in
the Niagara River.

- Matt fled to Mexico,

and he actually committed
a second murder.

Was incarcerated by
the Mexican authorities

and then nine years
later he ended up

at Clinton Correctional
Facility to be doing his time.

- Richard Matt, he could
sell water to a drowning man.

I mean, if you wanted anything
you could get it from him.

He was a hustler.

Richard Matt knew
how to manipulate

and move through
that environment.

- Richard "Hacksaw" Matt has
been trapped behind the walls

of Dannemora for the
last seven years,

and he desperately wants out.

- My dad, Richard Matt,

has mentioned escape

on numerous occasions,

as if escape is
a for sure thing.

He spoke of Mexico often,

that that's where
he wanted to be,

painting on a beach somewhere.

- Richard Matt believes that
he can pull off an escape.

Why?

Because he's sure he can
manipulate the right people

to get what he'll need.

But how will he escape?

His mind swirls with
the possibilities,

thinking through each one.

Searching for a fatal flaw.

Can he dismantle his cell door
and hide in a delivery truck?

Or maybe build a ladder
to get over the wall?

Can he threaten or
bribe the guards?

Dig a tunnel?
Something? Anything?

As long as it will get
him out of this hell hole.

This won't be Richard
Matt's first prison break.

He once jumped the
fence at a county jail

outside of Buffalo,

but that was child's play
compared to Dannemora.

He needs help, but
who can he trust?

Only one man comes to mind.

David Sweat.

- David Sweat was incarcerated

at Clinton Correctional Facility

as a result of his involvement

with the murder of
a Deputy Sheriff.

- Sweat has been in
Clinton for 12 years,

but he's been in and out of
prison most of his adult life.

He's picked up some
valuable skills

in prison woodworking shops

and working as an
electrician's assistant.

He also happens to be
Richard Matt's neighbor

in the cell block.

- Richard Matt and David Sweat

really bonded from
doing art together.

The friendship had started

when David saw a painting
Richard Matt had done,

and David really admired it.

He thought it was great.

And they started to really
paint together a lot,

and that's when
they began planning,

- Sweat and Matt search for
any weakness in the prison,

and they come up with a
plan that might just work.

They will remove
their cell doors,

sneak out of the cellblock
to the industry yard

and climb over that portion
of the massive perimeter wall.

- The reason why they were going

to do this particular
plan is that the inmates

were fully aware that
there was no officer

stationed at that
particular wall tower.

- The first step of their plan

is to remove the lock
on the cell door.

To do that, they need
a specialized security

screwdriver bit,
known as a Torx,

but they don't have
access to any tools.

They must find someone who
can get them what they need.

Richard Matt, always scheming,
knows just who to exploit.

The civilian supervisor of the
tailor shop where he works,

Joyce Mitchell.

Joyce has a weakness,
his buddy David Sweat.

- I think Joyce
Mitchell was bored

and was tired of
living in this town

and in this marriage
for 20 years,

and I think she
found excitement.

I noticed many interactions
with Joyce and David Sweat.

They would go in the
backroom to count material.

- But Eric isn't the
only one who noticed

that David Sweat
and Joyce Mitchell

would disappear
from the workroom

for extended stretches.

Somebody wrote a note

stating that he was
having sexual relations

and disappearing into the
back material room with Joyce.

So with that, he was removed.

That's when Richard Matt,
"Hacksaw," moved in.

- Joyce knows Matt
is friends with Sweat

and uses him to pass messages.

Richard Matt now
sees his opening.

He doesn't risk asking for
the Torx bit right away.

He starts small.

He asks Mitchell for
two pairs of glasses

with LED lights built into them.

He says they are so he and
Sweat can paint at night.

- Slowly but surely Matt asks
for more and more and more.

- But to ask her for a Torx bit,

something that clearly has
nothing to do with painting,

Matt needs to leverage,

something he can
blackmail her with.

- The next thing he
asked for is some nudes.

And she does.

She sends pictures of herself.

- Matt now knows Mitchell
will get them the Torx bit,

but they will need to figure out

what size fits the
screws on the lock.

This is where David Sweat's
shop skills come into play.

- He takes a little
imprint of the screw.

He put some putty
on this Torx screw,

gets a mold of the
screw, get some ink

and a piece of paper and
uses the mold as a stamp

to draw out or map out
the size of the screw.

He hands that piece
of paper off to Matt

who then hands it over
to Joyce Mitchell.

- Joyce gets the
right-sized Torx bit

and gives it to Richard Matt.

Now he has to smuggle them
out of the tailor shop,

which requires passing
through a metal detector

on the way back
to the cell block.

If he gets caught, the
consequences will be severe.

- You walk through
that metal detector,

you feel like you're
in a spotlight

and it's just shining on
you as you walk through.

And it's one of the
most uncomfortable times

because you don't know if
you're gonna get picked off

and thrown on the wall.

You know, people get beat up.

People will disappear.

- But how will Richard Matt

get the Torx bit through
the metal detector?

- If you have something
like a set of headphones

that you know there's
a hollow spot in,

but they will also ring in the
metal in the metal detector,

well, that's a good place

to put something of
metal and contraband.

- Matt hides the Torx bit

in the hollow compartment
of his headphones.

When he returns to his cell,

he hands them over to Sweat,

who sets to work trying to
dismantle the cell door lock.

- David quickly finds
out this isn't working.

He's trying to fiddle with
it. It's not happening.

He can't get the cell door off.

- Richard Matt and David
Sweat have broken many rules

to get to this moment,
but it's a dead-end.

Without a better plan,
they'll both spend

the rest of their lives
wasting away behind bars.

Two Dannemora prisoners
are meticulously

and furiously attempting
to break out of their cells

at one of the most dangerous
prisons in New York State.

They've been at it for a
month, but there's a problem.

Richard Matt and David Sweat's

plan to escape the Clinton
Correctional Facility

has been thwarted by
a handful of screws.

No matter how hard they
try, they won't budge.

They can't get to the locking
mechanism behind the plate.

Time to come up with plan B.

- David is the one
that's thinking, okay,

how do I get from
point A to point B?

How do I get out of this cell?

So David sees that
there's a vent

at the back of his
cell behind his bed,

and he knows that if he
cuts around that vent

it leads to the catwalks.

- The area behind the cells
are what we call the catwalk.

And everything that
services the cells,

plumbing, electrical,
cable for the TVs,

all of that is contained
in those catwalks.

- David Sweat was allowed
into the catwalk areas

on a number of occasions
for electrical work

that he would do on
fellow inmate cells.

- To access the catwalks,

Sweat's going to need something

to cut out the vent
behind his bed.

David Sweat is a mastermind
at exploiting weaknesses

in the physical
structure of the prison,

but Richard Matt's genius,
knowing who to exploit,

is just as important.

- Joyce says in some
ways that Richard Matt

made it impossible for her
to stop once she started.

She knew that Richard
Matt was very vindictive

and that there would
be a price to pay

if she didn't continue
going down the road

that she already
started walking down.

- So they went to
plan number two,

which was the smuggling
in of hacksaw blades

that Joyce Mitchell
had purchased

at the local Walmart store.

- How is Richard Matt going
to get these big metal

hacksaw blades out
of the tailor shop

without being caught
by the metal detector?

Richard Matt, a
master manipulator,

sets to work on another
potential accomplice.

Someone he spent
years befriending.

Correctional
Officer Gene Palmer.

- Gene Palmer was
on the beat-up squad

and what the beat-up squad is,

it's a group of officers

that come and beat the hell

out of whoever's
doing what wrong.

- Gene Palmer,

he'd really gotten
to know Richard Matt.

The two had an understanding,
and Palmer knew Matt

could keep the peace
in the housing block,

and Palmer would give
him art supplies.

- Richard Matt doesn't tell
Palmer about the blades,

but he relies on
their friendship

as a part of his ruse to get
around the security checkpoint.

- So the hacksaw blades

would be at Richard
Matt's workstation.

He would go towards the men's
room, tape them to his torso,

and he had medical
conditions that he would fake

and he would have
the escort officer,

and in this case, that
was Officer Palmer.

- He is ushered out
of the tailor shop,

never put through
a metal detector,

gets back to his cell which
is next to David Sweat's cell.

- These hacksaw blades would
be split between inmate Matt

as well as inmate Sweat.

- David was very smart.

He took hacksaw blades and
he wrapped them in fabric

to make sure that he was
protecting his fingers.

So as he sawed away, his
hands would be protected.

- David Sweat was
very meticulous

about a lot of
things that he did.

Not only did he always
beat me at chess,

but when he was cutting
out of the back of his cell

he took four magnets
from inside of headphones

and he wrapped them
with masking tape

and as he cut through
the back of his cell,

the metal filings would
fall onto the magnets

that were wrapped
in a masking tape.

That way you can just
put them under water,

and it rinses right off.

- He even tapes
the feet of the bed

so he can slide the
bed back and forth

without anyone hearing.

- They would cut
approximately two inches

every evening during
the evening recreation.

- Nobody is going
to hear the sawing

of the back of the
cells in A Block

because in the evenings when
they were doing their work

you have one TV of movies.

So the noise from that,
then you have noise

from guys playing cards
and hooting and hollering.

You have showers going, you
have people on the phone,

you have all the kitchen noise.

It's just impossible.

- After three weeks of sawing,

David Sweat finishes cutting
his way out of his cell,

but before he can
explore the catwalks

and look for a way out,

he needs to disguise
his absence.

- He places in his
bedding sweatshirts,

sweatpants stuffed
with assorted clothing,

giving the appearance once
you threw a sheet over it

of a sleeping inmate.

- It's very plausible that
an officer would mistake them

for an inmate because
the state allowed them

to put the blankets right
up over their heads.

- Inmate Matt would
also keep watch

for any potential
security rounds

and provide distractions needed.

- After standing count, which
is when the guards make sure

everyone is in their cells,

the lights go out
and David leaves.

- Sweat's excursions

into the catwalks
become a nightly event.

- Inmate Sweat would be
able to wiggle his way

between the catwalk

and the cell walls
from the third floor

down to the subterranean tunnels

where he would start
his exploration.

- It's very dark in the
subterranean tunnels,

but luckily David has the light

from the illuminated
glasses Joyce gave him

to help him find his way in.

- David is surprised that there
aren't a lot of locked doors

and gates as he would have
thought there would have been.

So he is free to move about.

- Each night, David Sweat

spends several hours
exploring the tunnels.

He has to make sure
he's back in his cell

before someone
notices he's missing.

- So at the standing count,

the officers of the cell
block they ring a bell.

That's their wake-up bell.

And then the officers will check

to make sure that
everybody is up.

They have to turn their
light on and so then we know

that the inmate
is alive and well.

- When he does come back,

he makes sure he's got
water on the hot plate.

He gets it warm and he
washes off his hands.

He washes off his face.
He changes his shirt.

He makes sure that
there's no evidence

that he is doing
this every night.

- Richard Matt breaches his cell

a week after David
Sweat, but the two decide

that Matt should be
the one to keep watch

while the fitter,
more agile Sweat

scours the tunnels,
searching for the way out.

- From the windows
in the tailor shop,

you can actually look out
and see the power plant.

- The power plant
is on the other side

of the prison's perimeter wall.

If sweat can find some pipes
that lead to the power plant,

he could be one step closer
to an underground route

that will take him
beyond the prison walls.

But on one night of exploring,
he discovers he isn't alone.

- A staff member was in
the catwalk area smoking,

and then discarded
that cigarette butt.

Which ended up at
David Sweat's feet.

- It crosses his mind that
oh, man, this is real,

and I might be found out.

- A guard has just thrown
a lit cigarette down

where David Sweat is hiding.

Luckily, the guard hasn't
noticed David as he explores

the bowels of the prison
looking for a way out.

Without a map, Sweat's
just rat in a maze

testing each pathway
night after night.

Sweat searched high and low

through the prison substructure

for conduit or piping
that would indicate

that it would lead out
to the power plant,

which is outside the wall.

The big turning point

was when they came
across a steam pipe

that basically told them
one was the incoming steam,

one was the outgoing steam.

- David Sweat follows the
pipe through the dark,

bug-infested basement

underneath three housing blocks,

hoping it will take him
under the prison wall

to the power plant.

- David hits a brick wall,

and he realizes that he needs
to get through this wall.

- David knows this
pipe leads to freedom,

but all he has to remove the
brick surrounding the pipe

is his dull hacksaw.

It's slow, tedious work.

He removes only three
or four bricks a night.

- On a nightly basis, he
would replace those bricks

just in case any of
the correction officers

might be conducting a
routine search of the prison

would notice something
out of place.

- It seems as if he's
never going to finish

making a hole big
enough for himself,

let alone his larger partner
in crime, Richard Matt.

It's been a month of
relentless, back-breaking work,

but one night David
Sweat gets a big break.

Down in the tunnels,

he stumbles on a large
contractor's toolbox.

- A gang box.

It's an all-metal box,
and inside the gang box

are all the outside
work crew tools.

They're not supposed
to be in there at all,

but in order to save
time at the front gate,

the deputy superintendent
gave them the okay

to put their tools

in a gang box in the
bottom of A Block.

- And the most useful
item is sitting next

to that gang box:

A sledgehammer.

- It was a phenomenal finding.

It gave them that extra
power that they needed.

- But that's not all Sweat
finds down in the tunnels.

David Sweat find items

that would later
prove very valuable.

An extension cord
with a light on it

that he would utilize
for a working light

as well as a power source.

He would find a piece of rebar

that he would fashion
into a crude chisel

and the list goes on.

- Armed with his chisel
and the sledgehammer,

David works for two weeks

making enough room to squeeze
through the brick wall,

but on the other side,

he realizes that this was not
the perimeter wall after all.

That wall is still ahead of him

and it's made of solid concrete.

- David hits the
subterranean wall,

and it's the perimeter wall.

It's the wall that
surrounds the prison.

He's looking at this wall
and he's thinking to himself

how am I gonna possibly
be able to get through?

- Chipping away at this
seven-foot-thick slab

of concrete is going to
take years, maybe decades.

It looks like David
Sweat and Richard Matt

will be stuck in this dark,
depressing prison forever.

- Three months into their
plan to escape from Dannemora,

convicts Richard
Matt and David Sweat

are staring at their
final obstacle.

Seven feet of solid concrete

poured straight
into the bedrock.

Clinton Correctional Facility's
infamous parameter wall.

The two men joke how in
"The Shawshank Redemption"

Andy Dufrenese tunneled
out of prison in 20 years.

They think they
can do it in ten.

- Sweat then began the
arduous task of chiseling away

at the bottom of the wall

with the sledgehammer
that he had found

and a crude chisel that
he formed from a pry bar.

- Matt joins Sweat
for a few nights

as they try to
make some headway.

- They're chipping away
at it ever so slowly.

I mean, they're gaining,

but it's gonna be
a labor of love

and it's gonna be
a long time coming.

- Most nights Matt keeps watch
for guards in the cellblock

as Sweat returns to the
same gang box to check

if workers have
left any new tools.

- On this one
particular occasion,

it was a treasure chest
full of power drills,

grinders all sorts
of power tools,

but they don't have the
needed bits to drill

into the base of
the perimeter wall.

- Once again, the master
manipulator, Richard Matt,

knows exactly who
to go to for help.

By this point, Joyce Mitchell

is a willing participant
in the escape.

She's even planning on
providing the escape vehicle

once the men find their way
outside of the prison walls.

- I think Joyce was
living in this fantasy

that she was going to go
off with Sweat and Matt,

ride in the sunset,
go to Mexico.

- Richard Matt asked
Joyce for cement bits

and a steel punch,

and he comes up with
an ingenious way

to get these tools
into his cellblock.

- Anything that you
buy from the commissary

in any correctional facility

in New York State is cooked.

Raw meat is not allowed.

- While it's against the rules,

it's not uncommon for
corrections officers

to give raw meat to
inmates they like

because there's nothing
worse than prison food.

- Richard Matt
tells Joyce Mitchell

that the best way to
smuggle the needed materials

was to place it in a hamburger
and freeze the hamburger

and smuggled the bits
inside the hamburger

back into the facility

- At the tailor shop,

Joyce Mitchell hands the
meat to Matt's other mark,

Corrections Officer Gene Palmer,

then delivers it to his cell.

- Palmer knew nothing
about these two escaping.

He didn't realize that the
items that he was giving Matt

allowed these two to break out.

- For the last 50 days,
Sweat has toiled away

in the claustrophobic
bowels of the prison.

Armed with the concrete
drill bits and a new punch,

he finally has a way

to breach the prison's
infamous perimeter wall.

He's hopeful he will leave
this hell hole behind

as he heads to the gang
box with the power tools.

- Unfortunately, by the time
that the bits were delivered

the gang box is gone.

They're back to square one.

- It's looking pretty hopeless,

but all of a sudden
everything changes.

All this time they've
been working away

next to a steaming hot pipe,

but today for the first
time, the pipe is cold.

The prison heating system
is off for the summer.

This could be their way through.

- Sweat would later tell
investigators this is it.

I knew now that I had a route.

- They knew that if they're
able to breach into that pipe

then they would simply
breach on the other side

of the perimeter
wall to freedom.

- David goes back
to using his hacksaw

and he devises a clever way
to make the difficult cut.

- They had also found
a Mountain Dew bottle.

They would fill the Mountain
Dew bottle full of water

and use it as a lubricant
as they cut through the pipe

to save the blades and
to keep the metal cool

so it would be easier to
cut through that pipe.

- Cutting ten inches a night,
David finishes the first hole.

- So when David's cutting
into the steam pipe,

he has to then crawl through
that hole and pop out

another part of the steam pipe

which means he has
to cut his way out

once he is inside the pipe

- But the pipe's cramped.

Cutting it from the inside
is incredibly difficult.

- Being in that steam
pipe, it's very narrow.

It's not huge.

And so he is working in
extremely close quarters

- Night after night,

David Sweat toils
away at the cuts.

David makes his last cut.

For the first time
since he arrived

at Clinton Correctional
Facility in 2003,

he's about to venture
outside its perimeter wall.

- David gets out
of the steam pipe.

He walks down a long tunnel

that he realizes is underneath

the streets above of Dannemora.

At different points
in the tunnel,

he sees that there are
different manholes.

- He located a manhole cover,

and he was able to go up

the ladder from the
sewer, prop the lid open.

- He goes out of the
manhole, he looks around,

and he says to himself,
"This is perfect."

- David has made it
outside the prison walls.

He has successfully
completed the escape route.

He could leave right
now if he wanted to,

but Richard Matt isn't with him.

- Friends is a very
loosely used word

because in prison friends
really don't exist.

I've seen people get
stabbed in the neck

by somebody they call friends

- Will David betray
his fellow inmate

and leave him to rot on the
inside while he goes free?

- After 109 nights
of backbreaking work,

David Sweat's made his
way to the intersection

of Barker Street
and Bouck Street,

130 yards outside the walls
of the Dannemora prison.

He wants to run and
never look back,

but his partner in this
daring escape, Richard Matt,

is still locked in his cell.

Clock is ticking.

- David could have escaped,

but he didn't wanna
leave Matt behind.

They were in this together.

- Dave and Richard
Matt planned, plotted,

and they kept their mouth shut.

It was teamwork. That
doesn't happen a lot.

Doesn't happen a lot in prison.

Not at all.

- But it's not just Richard Matt

that David Sweat is missing.

He's also without
his getaway driver,

Joyce Mitchell.

The only way to
get her to show up

is to rush back to his
cell before the 5:30 count,

tell Richard Matt that
they are ready to go

so they can tell Mitchell
to be there the next night.

- And he says, "Matt,
Matt," you know, "wake up."

And David takes a single
stogey that he has.

He has a mirror and he puts
his mirror outside of the cell

so that Matt on the
other side can see him.

He can see his reflection.

And Matt looks at
David and he goes,

"Oh, man, you did it?

It's really here. It's
really happening."

And David said,
"Yeah, we're ready.

- Tonight will be the night.

- From what Joyce tells me,
that day he looked at her

and he raised his
fist in the air

as if to say, "We've done it."

And she knew in her heart
that this was the signal.

- Mitchell is to meet them
at midnight with her SUV.

Meanwhile, David prepares
their getaway bags.

- Civilian clothing, it's
allowed by the state.

So they could have a... like,
a red hoodie or sweatpants.

- They had granola bars,
they had pepperoni,

they had high-energy and
low-weight food items.

- The escape plan is all set.

Now they just have
to wait for go time.

- Midnight staff will
come into the block,

they'll do their last
master count for the day,

and then shortly
thereafter it's lights out.

They went into action.

They put the mannequins
in their beds.

They wrote their goodbye
notes in their cells.

- It's time.

They exit the back
of their cells,

shimmy down the pipes,

make it through the brick wall,

and get to the cut steam pipe.

David Sweat goes through just
as he did the previous night.

Now, for the first time,

Richard Matt crawls
into the pipe.

- Matt starts his way through,

but Matt is very claustrophobic.

He is not someone that
likes small spaces.

So as he's getting through
he's already panicked,

and then he gets stuck

and he starts screaming
for David to help,

and David's trying
to pull him up.

It's not working.

- Inmate Sweat would throw
a bedsheet back to him

and utilize the bed sheet to
help pull him through the pipe

because it was a pretty
tight fit for inmate Matt

- After a long struggle, Matt
finally makes it through.

- David popped his head
out of the manhole,

looked around, and didn't
see her black Jeep.

He goes back down and he
says, "She's not here yet.

Let's give her a few
more minutes maybe."

And Matt says, "Yeah,
oh, she'll be here."

So they wait.

And then at midnight, David
looks out of the hole again,

No sign of Joyce.

- So once inmates Matt and Sweat

get out of the manhole,
the question is

where is Joyce?

- What David Sweat and
Richard Matt don't know

is that Joyce Mitchell
has cold feet.

In fact, she has checked
herself into the hospital

for a panic attack.

- Matt is baffled.

He cannot believe
Joyce has not shown up.

And Matt says, "There's no
way I'm going back to my cell.

Let's get out of here."

- Without a plan B and
without a getaway car,

they head for the
surrounding mountains.

Where they are
headed is unknown.

- There's no doubt in my
mind that they were headed

to Joyce Mitchell's house.

Inmate Matt was quick
to tell the people

you don't wanna ever rat me out

because I will not only get
you but I'll get your family,

I'll get your dog, and I'll get
anything that you care about.

And you will pay a hell of
a price for doing me wrong.

There's no doubt in my
mind that inmate Matt

had a score to settle
with Joyce Mitchell.

- They've escaped Dannemora.

They have a
five-hour head start,

and now they have
to escape a manhunt.

- Just before midnight
on June 5th, 2015,

Richard Matt and David Sweat

escaped Clinton
Correctional Facility

in Dannemora, New York.

Inmates Matt and Sweat

were found missing at
the standing headcount.

- There's two holes in
the cells in A Block.

There are two inmates gone.

Holy.

And then when they
found the hole

that went out through the pipe

and then the manhole
cover that was moved,

they knew those guys are gone.

Crazy.

Crazy.

- I automatically became the
incident commander responsible

for all operational search
efforts in the area.

They had quite a significant
six-hour head start.

Our plan was a massive

immediate deployment
of personnel,

hundreds of troopers
from around the state,

mobile units from
multiple agencies.

- Hundreds of police, forest
rangers and federal agents

have been searching
for the pair.

- We're looking down
on the Adirondacks.

That's 6 million acres
of trees and heavy woods.

- They're out there
miserable. They're hungry.

And desperate people
do desperate things.

- The entire upstate
region of New York State

is in a panic

that two dangerous
murderers are on the loose.

As the authorities search for
David Sweat and Richard Matt,

they are hiding
out in the woods,

breaking into unoccupied
hunting cabins along the way.

At some point, David
Sweat and Richard Matt

decide to split up.

- I think David and my dad split

because my father found alcohol.

My dad definitely becomes
a different person

when he's drinking or
under the influence.

That is when one of his
more vicious personalities

come out, absolutely.

- On June 26th, 21 days
since their escape,

the authorities finally
catch up with Richard Matt

near a hunting cabin.

- My father knew he was
either going to get captured

or that they were
going to kill him.

He knew this was the end,
and he had a gun on him

and he raised that gun

and naturally the
officers, doing their job,

they had to fire,

and come to find out
that gun was empty.

So my father knew that
if he raised a gun,

it was almost
choosing death by cop.

So it was almost his
invitation for them to shoot.

- Two days later, on June 28th,

David Sweat is found

by an officer near
the Canadian border.

David refuses to stop

when the officer yells
for him to surrender.

- So he took careful aim
and squeezed off one round.

A bullet struck sweat
in the upper torso.

Sweat stumbled, but did
not fall and kept running.

Sergeant Cook squeezed
off another round.

The second round also hits
Sweat in the upper torso.

Backup was nearby and
immediately entered the field,

applying first aid
and effectively saving

David Sweat's life,
ending the 23-day manhunt.

- Through cunning,
coercion, ingenuity,

and hours of tedious work,
Richard Matt and David sweat

managed to do what no
one believed possible.

They escaped the
confines of these walls,

but the chain of events that
made their escape possible

was only as strong
as its weakest link.

When Joyce Mitchell failed
to pick them up on the night

of June 6th, 2015,
their fate was sealed.

The 23-day manhunt that ensued

cost New York State
over $23 million.

Joyce pleaded guilty to
promoting prison contraband

and criminal facilitation.

She was fined $86,000

and served more than
four years in prison.

Corrections officer Gene Palmer

pleaded guilty to
promoting prison contraband

was sentenced to
six months in jail

and fined $5,000.

Richard Matt's determination
not to die in jail

cost him his life,

and David Sweat,

he's still serving
his life sentence,

but now he's moved from prison
to prison every few years

as they often find him
planning his next escape.