Escape from Dannemora: Richard Matt, David Sweat, and the Great Adirondack Manhunt

by Michael Benson

Overview

It was one of the biggest crime stories of the decade—two deadly killers, desperate and on the run. After months of planning, Ricky Matt and David Sweat cut, chopped, coerced, and connived their way out of a maximum-security prison in the wilderness of upstate New York and managed to elude police for three weeks, sending the region into lockdown and keeping the entire country on edge. The media called it “a bold escape for the ages,” and veteran true-crime writer Michael Benson leads us along the story’s every wild path to dig out a tale of adventure, psychology, sex, and brutality. Escape from Dannemora examines the strange case of Joyce Mitchell, the long-time prison employee who had a sexual relationship with at least one of the killers, and who smuggled them tools and aided in the escape, while they cooked up a plan to kill her husband. In the end, Benson looks closely at conditions at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY, a crumbling Gothic pile now under investigation for charges of drug trafficking and brutality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781611689761
Publisher:	University Press of New England
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	238,573
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

MICHAEL BENSON has written on music, sports, crime, film, the military, and politics for a range of national publications. He is the author of Why the Grateful Dead Matter, and of numerous books of true crime, including The Devil at Genesee Junction and Evil Season. He lives in Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Author’s Note • Introduction: Up North • Little Siberia • A Chemical Reaction • David Sweat: Born into Turmoil • Richard Matt: Twisted • Throwing Away the Key • The Blonde and the Burger • The Hunt • One Down • The Capture of Sweat • Back to Normal? • Autumn and Winter • Acknowledgments • Notes • Bibliography • Index

Editorial Reviews

04/01/2017
It was a media event in the spring of 2015. Richard Matt and David Sweat, two inmates at Clinton Correctional Facility, dug a tunnel through which they escaped into the wilderness of upstate New York and remained on the loose for three weeks. Benson, the author of numerous true crime books (e.g., Evil Season), tells the story in an easy-to-read style that will draw in a wide audience of readers. We learn about the frightful early lives of both men, their crimes, and prison employee Joyce Mitchell, who was supposed to aid the men in their escape. At times, although Benson documents his sources, the facts seem too bizarre to be authentic—it is truly a case of life being stranger than fiction. In the final chapters, Benson discusses the conditions at Clinton Correctional that led to the escape, which is still under investigation. VERDICT A solid read and informative text about prison management, this book will be of interest to students and staff involved in correctional facilities and general readers of true crime.—Frances O. Sandiford, formerly with Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, NY

Library Journal