'Escape at Dannemora' Reminded Us of Hollywood Script 10 Years Ago

Convicted killers David Sweat (left) and Richard Matt were the first inmates to escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate NY on June 6, 2015. Only one of them was alive when the 23-day manhunt was over.

Ten years ago, on June 6, 2015, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo had to helicopter back to upstate New York and miss the Belmont Stakes on Long Island. He had just learned about the great escape from Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.

Two convicted murderers, one of them a cop killer, had pulled off the first-ever prison break from the maximum-security lockup, located about thirty miles from the Canadian border. They didn't even have to scale the 30-foot-high concrete walls surrounding the facility.

30 foot concrete walls surround maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY but two, killer inmates escaped in June 2015 using underground pipes.

Richard Matt and David Sweat got away by cutting holes in their cells and accessing the prison's underground catwalk and steam pipe system, popping out of a manhole on the street one block from state grounds.

They got a little help from the prison seamstress.

Convicted killers carved hole in their cell walls to escape, using prison catwalk and underground pipe system.

The 23 day manhunt that followed cost New York State $23 million dollars in manpower and overtime and involved about 1,300 law enforcement partners. It captivated New Yorkers and the nation.

Matt and Sweat had plotted their escape from adjacent cells on the "honor block" at Clinton. Sweat was doing life in prison for killing Broome County Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia in 2002 during a robbery at a fireworks supply store--and then running over him. Matt was convicted of dismembering his former boss.

Their prison escape came after hacksaw blades were smuggled to them in hamburger meat by the prison tailor, Joyce Mitchell. A state investigation later concluded that the married Mitchell was intimate with at least one of the inmates, Richard Matt, and harbored romantic feelings for David Sweat. She later denied this, although she'd made statements about the relationships during police questioning.

Hacksaw blades smuggled to the inmates in hamburger meat, by the prison seamstress, allowed them to cut open walls in their cells.

Mitchell confessed she was supposed to drug her husband and serve as a getaway driver, with a plan to meet the inmates by the manhole on Bouck Street. They had plans to drive to Mexico.

During a visit to Clinton Correctional facility in 2020, I pointed out the manhole cover the 2 inmates pushed open, a block from the prison, after their underground escape.

But on the night of June 5th, before the 11 p.m. escape began, Mitchell had a panic attack at a local Chinese restaurant and went to the hospital. Richard Matt and David Sweat would have to fend for themselves by running into the thick woods of Dannemora. Sweat had created a dummy to slip under the blankets in his cell. Prison guards didn't discover the inmates were missing until 5:17 a.m. on Saturday, June 6th.

The street corner in Dannemora, NY where two, escaped killers found temporary freedom, after using a manhole cover to access the outside world.

Almost immediately, the daring escape drew comparisons to the hit film, "Shawshank Redemption," which starred Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. In the movie, Robbins spent years cutting a hole in the wall of his prison cell, covering the widening shaft with a poster of film goddess Rita Hayworth.

The state report found that David Sweat had managed to leave his prison cell 85 times to test escape options in the weeks before he and Matt carried out their plan. Sweat knew the prison's steam pipe system had been shut down for the summer. He was able to cut a clean hole in one of the pipes to escape. He left a taunting, yellow 'post-it' for prison officials that said "Have a nice day."

The killers taunted corrections officials with a post-it on one of the underground pipes that said “Have a nice day.”

At one point, investigators found DNA in a trailer used by hunters in the woods, west of Dannemora, that matched one of the killers.

On Day 21, they cornered Richard Matt in Malone, New York and shot him dead, when it appeared like he was raising a weapon to use on them.

Trailer where escaped killer Richard Matt was hiding out, before he was fatally shot on Day 21 of upstate NY manhunt.

Two days later, David Sweat was located jogging in a field toward the Canadian border.

He had marked his 35th birthday on the run on June 14, 2015. He was only one and a half miles away from the border. Sweat was shot by New York State Police Sergeant Jay Cook in Constable, New York. He survived his injuries and spent six years in solitary confinement as punishment for the escape at Five Points Correctional Center.

After pleading guilty, Joyce Mitchell was sentenced to 2 1/3 to 7 years for aiding the inmates in their daring escape. Her loyal husband, Lyle, visited her every other weekend at Bedford Hills Correctional Center in Westchester County, New York--quite a drive from their home in the North Country.

Joyce “Tillie” Mitchell provided hacksaw blades in hamburger meat to help the killer inmates escape. But she backed out of being getaway driver on the street.

Mitchell was released for good behavior when she completed two-thirds of her sentence, nearly four and a half years. She returned to her husband in upstate New York and we saw them leaving their home one morning in February 2020 to go for a drive. Mitchell is now 60 years old.

Shortly before Mitchell's release, she was annoyed to hear her story was getting the Hollywood treatment by director Ben Stiller, who produced the series "Escape from Dannemora." Patricia Arquette portrayed Joyce Mitchell in the program.

Benecio del Toro played Richard Matt and Paul Dano was cast as David Sweat.

The real Sweat will mark another birthday in prison this year at Midstate Correctional Center in Marcy, New York. He's turning 45 years old.