April 10, 2025

Joyce Mitchell | Hybristophilia #3

Show Notes
Transcript

This episode delves into Joyce Mitchell's role in the 2015 escape of inmates Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton Correctional Facility, examining her personal struggles, the escape plan, the manhunt, and the intrigue surrounding her case.

Timestamps
01:39 Meet Joyce Mitchell
14:21 The Affair and the Escape Plan
16:29 The Great Escape Unfolds
19:58 The Manhunt Begins
25:02 Joyce Mitchell's Arrest
25:55 Confessions and Consequences
34:09 Sentencing and Aftermath

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H a wall street line, shackle change, Oh we someome gird,

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it's calling my name. There is no mercy and it's

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been a tentery juice as the huge stream game Rango three.

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Come in by Meda dies.

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Inside these walls, inside the wild.

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Hadn't went no girls? I hey one, and welcome back

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to Bloody Angola, a podcast one hundred and forty two

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years in the making, the complete story of America's bloodiest prison.

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I'm Jim Chapman, and today I am continuing with another

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episode from the High Bristophilia series and the subject of

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today's episode is Joyce Mitchell, the Department of Corrections employee

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who in twenty fifteen was convicted of providing material support

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to Clinton Correctional Facility prisoners Richard Matt and David Sweat

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in the way of hacksaw blades, chisels and other tools

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during their escape of prison. And you will not believe

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how she got that contraband in there, which I will

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cover later on in the story. So let's get into

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it and I'll give you a little background on Joyce Mitchell, who,

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by the way, went by Tilly. She was fifty one

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years old when everything I'm about to tell you went down.

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She was married, she was a mother to three children.

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She was on her second marriage, and according to her

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first husband, she was a serial cheater. Now, her first

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husband worked in a stitching factory with her that was

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located inside of Clinton Correctional Facility in New York, and

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they didn't work directly for the prison. They were kind

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of contracted by the prison. So, according to him, she

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started having an affair with another worker in that factory.

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His name was Lyle Mitchell. Her first husband. He finds

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out about it because Lyle's girlfriend had caught the two

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having sex, and she told Tilly's first husband about it,

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and it wasn't long before they divorced, and eventually she

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ended up marrying Lyle Mitchell. So, on June sixth of

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twenty fifteen, two inmates, Richard Matt and David Sweat, they

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escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility and they remained on the

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run for nearly a month. Now, how did they manage

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to escape one of the toughest prisons in the United States?

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That in and of itself is pretty shocking. That's what

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we're going to talk about today, And we're going to

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start off telling you about Richard Matt, whose prison nickname

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was conveniently Hacksaw, so he was known as Rick on

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the outside. He was born in nineteen sixty six and

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he was raised in a suburb of Buffalo, New York.

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He had a daughter, but he abandoned her when she

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was still an infant, and at that time they didn't

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have any relationship. Now, in nineteen eighty six, while serving

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a one year sentence for assault, Matt climbed a fence

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and escaped Erie County Correctional Center. He was on the

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lamb for about four days. He actually hopped a train,

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made his way to his brother's house, and was eventually apprehended. Then,

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in nineteen ninety one, Matt convinced a fellow prisoner by

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the name of David Tesler to pay fifteen thousand dollars

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bailed to get him released while awaiting trial on a

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rape charge. Now, the way he taught this guy into

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paying that fifteen grand was upon his bail, he said

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he would kill the witnesses in Tesler's trial. Those witnesses

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included Tesler's then wife and her parents. So Tesler he

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bails Rick Matt out of jail, and rather than doing

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what he said he would do. Rick Matt actually goes

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to Tesler's wife, who incidentally was the grandfather of the

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founder of Warner Brothers Studio and heiress to an enormous fortune,

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and he tells her about the plan, the murder for

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higher plan that he had with that prisoner. The two

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of them then go to the police and he said

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in exchange for that information, he wanted a reduction in

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his prison sentence, which he actually got. So in nineteen

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ninety five he goes up for parole and he said,

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quote when I got out, I told his wife, Look,

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this guy bailed me out of jail and he has

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a hit out on you unquote. So he gets parole,

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but a piece of shit like this, you know, he

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can't stay on the straight and narrow for law. In

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nineteen ninety seven, Rack Matt in an accomplice named Lee Bates,

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they kidnapped a seventy six year old man by the

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name of William Rickerson, who was Matt's former boss. Now,

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Matt believed that Rickerson had a large sum of money

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hidden and at gunpoint, he demanded to know where that

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money was. And this is a seventy six year old

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man y'all. The two ended up driving this seventy six

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year old man to Ohio and back. It was a

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total of twenty seven hours, and the whole time they

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had this seventy six year old in the trunk of

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the car. They would even stop periodically several times back

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and forth on this trip just to open the trunk

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and beat the shit out of this guy. So Matt

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eventually kills the man by breaking his neck before dismembering

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him with a hacksaw and throwing his body parts into

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the Niagara River. That's how he got the nickname in

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prison Hacksaw. The entire robbery netted less than one hundred

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dollars cash, a wedding ring, in some credit cards. That's it.

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And it was at this point that Matt committed this

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crime that he flees and he goes to Mexico, and

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it's when he's in Mexico on February twentieth of nineteen

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ninety eight, that Rick Matt isn't done killing people. He

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kills a second man in the border town of Mattamorro.

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The man known as Charles Perrault was an engineer working

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in that area, and Matt attempted to rob him. He

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follows into a bathroom, he pulls a knife on him,

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but he couldn't resist ends up stabbing this guy to

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death in the restroom of a local bar. And he

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was soon arrested and he was sentenced to twenty three

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years in a Mexican prison for that martyr. Now, even

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being in a Mexican prison did not stop Matt from

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trying to escape, and he nearly accomplishes that when he

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climbs the roof of the prison in Mexico before being

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shot by guards. Now he wasn't shot one time or

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even six times. He was shot nine times. However, he

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would still survive, and in two thousand and seven he

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found his way back into the United States to face

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trial for the murder of that seventy six year old

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I told you about. William Rickerson, his accomplice that murder,

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ended up testifying against him and Rick Matt received a

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sentence of twenty five to life for a second degree murder,

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with no chance of parole until twenty thirty two. Now,

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the interesting thing about all of this is that when

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he was released from that Mexican prison and extradited to

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the United States, it wasn't because the United States asked

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for Matt. It was because he was such a difficult prisoner.

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That the Mexican government was extraditing a drug kingpin to

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the United States who had some charges, and they kind

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of threw Rick Matt on that same plane because he

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had been such a difficult prisoner to control. That tells

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you how bad this guy is. The Mexican prisons didn't

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want him. So he shows up in the United States

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and US authorities they hold that trial, and during that

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trial for the ricor murder, authority suspected he was hatching

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a plan to escape from the Niagara County jail where

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he was being held. He had at this point a

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major escape reputation, so in order to avoid this, they

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started making him where a stun belt and snipers were

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actually posted outside the courtroom at all times to prevent

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an escape should he try to do so. A former

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police officer actually said of Matt during that time that

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he has quote the most vicious, evil person I've ever

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come across in my thirty eight years as a police officer.

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So he gets convicted, as I told you, and it's

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off to Clinton Correctional Center for Rick Matt. Now he's

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one of the two escapees that you're going to learn

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about today. The other one was a guy by the

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name of David Sweat. And David Sweat was born in

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nineteen eighty and raised in New York by a single

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mother named Pamela, and he also had two sisters. And

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Sweat had a troubled childhood. As a matter of fact,

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he was so bad that by the time he was

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a teenager, his mother sent him to Florida to be

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raised by his uncle. However, he couldn't even act right

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then and stole and wrecked his aunt's car, which gave

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him a one way ticket into teenage foster care. Now,

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by the time he was in his late teens, Sweat

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was homeless and he began selling drugs, and much like

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Rick Matt, he was in and out of prison often

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in the nineties, and it was two thousand and two

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that he would make a mistake that would land him

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in prison for the rest of his life. In the

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early morning hours of July fourth of two thousand and two,

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Sweat and two accomplices burglarized a fireworks store in Pennsylvania,

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and upon returning to New York, they were spotted by

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a sheriff's deputy who had noticed them transporting fireworks from

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one car to another, and he attempted to intervene and

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see what was going on. Immediately, upon seeing that sheriff's deputy,

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Sweat opened fire, shooting the officer fifteen times before running

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over him with a car. Now, this officer, miraculously at

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this point was still alive, and one of the accomplices

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with Matt shoots him two more times in the face,

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killing him. A few days later, the three men involved

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were arrested. So during the trial, Sweat in one of

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the accomplices, they plead guilty to first degree murder and

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they receive life without barral, and they did this to

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avoid the death penalty. The third accomplice he cooperated with authorities.

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He cut some kind of deal and he was only

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sentenced to five years in prison for his role in

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that murder. And it's off to the Clinton Correctional Facility

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for Sweat to serve the rest of his life. And

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let me tell you a little bit about Clinton Correctional

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It was built in eighteen forty five. It occupies just

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over one square mile in New York and it has

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a white perimeter wall that scans the entire length and

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width of the prison, and that wall is topped with

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a ton of guard towers. The facility is actually named

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Little Siberia because it stays cold below freezing actually one

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hundred and fifty five days per year on average. The

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prison also houses mostly inmates that have been convicted of

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very serious violent felonies. That makes up about ninety percent

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of the three thousand inmates, and Clinton Correctional has about

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one thousand guards, so a guard for every three inmates,

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which isn't too bad in the prison world. So with

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what is seemingly aca cure prison by all accounts, how

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do two lifers not only manage to escape but also

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manage to escape with assistance? Let's get into it. So

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in April of twenty fifteen, Rick Matt and Joyce Mitchell

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were alone together in the tailor shop and Rick Matt

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grabs Joyce and kisses her for the first time. Now,

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Mitchell says, quote, it startled me. He kissed me with

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an open mouth. I didn't say anything because I was

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scared for my husband, who also works at the facility. Unquote.

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In May of twenty fifteen, Rick Matt asked Mitchell to

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perform oral sex on him. And she did so, in

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her words, out of fear. On two or three other occasions,

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Rick Matt would come to her desk wearing a large

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coat in which he had cut a hole in it

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so that Mitchell could fondle him. Now, it was during

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this time she was also having a sexual relationship with Sweat,

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and Mitchell said she took photos of her breast and

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her genitals and gave them to both Rick Matt and Sweat.

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This goes on for a while, and she's in a

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love triangle with these two guys, right, and she's got

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some serious high bristophilia going on by this point. And

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in June of twenty fifteen, actually June fifth, Matt approaches

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Mitchell and he tells her they plan to escape that night.

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So what I didn't tell you about was in between

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these few moss that they were having this affair, the

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three of them, they were hatching an escape plan. Of course,

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she's getting totally manipulated, right. These guys ain't interested in her,

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They're just wanting to get the hell out of prison. Look,

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one of them dismembered somebody. I mean, she knows how

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to pick them. Now, keep in mind, her husband still

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works at the prison with her. So she's trying to

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be slick. But people noticed. They always do, and this

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situation was no different. Of course, prisoners talk and they notice,

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and they're very nosy, and they would ask swet and

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they would ask mad about it. They wouldn't admit to it,

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but the prisoners and even the staff knew something wasn't right.

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So on June sixth, twenty fifteen, two inmates, Richard Matt

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and David Sweat, they escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility.

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Now they were discovered missing during a five seventeen am bedcheck.

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The two inmates have been seen at the ten thirty

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pm count the night before and they filled their bed

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with clothes to make it appear as if someone was

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sleeping in the bed and the guards would make their

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overnight rounds. So how did they escape, Well, the two

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prisoners cut a hole in their cell walls which gained

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access to the utility areas behind and above their cells.

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Eventually they cut holes in a steam pipe and they

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use that steam pipe to escape the prison by shimming

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down six floors of those pipes. Picture them just sliding

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down these pipes from one catwalk to another catwalk, all

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the way down to the ground level. There they were

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able to find a main steam pipe and they followed

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that through some subterranean tunnels. In New York, there's a

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lot of things underground, and they had a lot of

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tunnels under that prison, and so they start following it.

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They have no idea where it leads. They're hoping it

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leads to the outside of those walls, right, And at

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one point they reach a wall and they were able

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to pass through after knocking out a few bricks. Now,

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the next wall they hit was a massive prison wall,

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which they couldn't knock the bricks out of that thing,

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so they tried to drill through it. They couldn't do that,

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so they moved on to a plan beat. Now, in

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the summer, the steam pipes weren't used, and they knew that,

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so they cut one opening into a twenty four inch

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diameter steel pipe at the base of the wall. Then

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they cut another opening from inside the pipe on the

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other side of the wall. And get this, they actually

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left a yellow sticky note with a Asian smiley face

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on it wearing a triangle hat, and it said have

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a nice day, and they stuck that to the pipe.

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So once they got beyond that wall. They followed the

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pipe through the public sewer system until they found a

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man hole that was well beyond the prison. The man

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hole was locked and chained from the inside. So Sweat

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and Matt used some tools they had stashed in a

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guitar case that they brought with them to get past

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the barrier, and they cut those chains, pushed the man

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hole aside, and it's just like on Shawshank right. Freedom

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for these two.

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Now.

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It was not clear how long the escape had been planned,

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but officials at this time said it appeared to have

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taken a lot of labor to power the tools that

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actually hot wired the electrical junction boxes that were in

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that tunnel, and then strong extension cord. It's just crazy

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they were able to get all this equipment down there,

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but they were. Governor Andrew Quomo declared Matt in Sweat quote,

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definitely had help. I don't believe they could have acquired

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the equipment to do this without the help. If alreadyes

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believe Matt used his con man ways to convince some

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civilian to help him escape, and they already thought that

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that civilian maybe Joyce Mitchell. So the prison goes on lockdown,

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and of course one of the first things that occurs

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is employee interviews and one of the first people that

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they interview is Joyce Mitchell. Now, at the time they

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were interviewing Mitchell, they were also going through her trash

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at her house, and the neighbors saw this and they

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all knew something was up, and a lot of them

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were featured on the news at that time. And it

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was also interesting that police found out when they interviewed

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her that the same day of the escape, she checked

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herself into the hospital and when they looked at the records,

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it was for a quote case of nerves. I bet

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she was nervous. So they talked to her and initially

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it's just a scare tactic. They're trying to figure out

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if they can get to confess to anything. That initial

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conversation didn't go anywhere. On day two, nothing really happens

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day two of the escape. Then on day three, June

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eighth of twenty fifteen, Matt's daughter receives a letter in

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the mail from her father saying that he had quote

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always promised you I would see you from the outside.

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I'm a man of my word unquote, And later on

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police would find out that months before, Joyce Mitchell contacted

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Matt's daughter at his urging, and even a couple times

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after that she would contact her via text just to

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update her on her father's medical condition. So on June

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ninth and tenth, which would be day's four and five

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of that escape, authority search the farms and fields around

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New York after receiving a tip that Matt and Sweat

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may have been spotted there. Around two am, police get

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a report from a man who said he saw the

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escapees walking on a highway road and then officer said, quote,

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a resident was driving down the road. He sees two

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suspicious residents walking up the road. The second is car

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lights hit them. They ran off into the woods. Atf

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even the Canadian Royal Minor police were called in that

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obviously New York being close to the border of Canada,

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they wanted to alert them. You may have a couple

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of inmates crossing the border. And the Governor of New

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York comes out with a fifty thousand dollars bounty for

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each inmate. If you give us information as to their capture,

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you get fifty thousand dollars. They then increased that to

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seventy five thousand dollars when the US Marshals said, hey,

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we'll kick in another twenty five grand per inmate. Then

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on June eleventh of twenty fifteen, this is day six

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photo of Matt surface wearing a correctional officer's uniform shirt

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and holding a nightstick. Matt had written on the bottom

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of the picture quote who said, I can't escape this place.

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Unbelievable Now. The picture itself was taken in nineteen eighty

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six when Matt was imprisoned at Elmira Correctional Facility, and

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Matt mailed the picture to a retired detective David Bentley,

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who knew Matt as a kid. And although the picture

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was taken in nineteen eighty six, it was mailed after

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they escaped this New York prison to that detective. Pretty

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fucked up, shows you this guy's mine process, right, Matt

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wrote to Bentley and said, I know what you did

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and I'm not gonna forget it. So Bentley was the

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lead detective who got Matt convicted in two thousand and

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eight for killing and dismembering that former boss of his,

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and so he's threatening him. Right, I'm out now, I've

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escaped and I'm coming for you, And it wasn't uncommon

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for Matt to send Bentley letters. In two thousand, he

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sent him a letter fifteen years before the escape when

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he predicted he would one day get the death penalty,

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and he wrote, I'm not scared to die anymore. I'm

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the most going to welcome death. So pretty bold stuff.

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Here and everywhere around this prison was on lockdown. There

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were no schools going on, the highways were closed until

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they caught these guys. They didn't feel comfortable with anyone

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being anywhere outside of their home, and rightfully so, very

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dangerous individuals on the run here. So on the seventh

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day of the search, still no confirmed sightings of the escapees.

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It's like they disappeared into thin air. This whole time.

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They've been gathering evidence against it's Joyce Mitchell since that

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first discussion. And later that day Joyce Mitchell gets arrested

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and she's charged with aiding the escapees. Police had discovered

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she'd allegedly supplied Matt in sweat with hacks, all blades, chisels,

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two pairs of special lighted glasses, and screwdriver bits more

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than a month before the escape. And she gets held

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on ae hundred thousand dollars bond. June thirteenth of twenty fifteen,

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on day eight, two men fitting matt in sweats descriptions

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were seen walking near rail yard. And look, they've got

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all the search vehicles out there, helicopters, all terrain vehicles,

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search dogs. They can't find these guys. They've only had

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a couple of sightings. And also during this time, they're

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applying more and more pressure to Joyce Mitchell to get

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her to confess. And on June sixteenth of twenty fifteen,

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the eleventh day of the search, Joyce Mitchell confesses to

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her involvement with the prisoners that escaped that prison. She

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confirmed she supplied him with hacks, all blades, chisels, and

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00:26:13.519 --> 00:26:17.839
other tools. And according to the district attorney whoever saw

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00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:22.200
the prosecution of Mitchell, he said that she had agreed

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to be the getaway driver, but backed out because she

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still loved her husband and felt guilty about participating. He

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went on to say, basically, when it was go time,

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it was the actual day of the event, I think

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she got cold feet and realized what am I doing?

375
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Reality struck She realized that really the grass wasn't greener

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00:26:43.720 --> 00:26:47.680
on the other side, and it was revealed that Mitchell

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had discussed having her husband Lyle killed in a potential

378
00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:58.559
murder for hire deal with Matt. According to Joyce Mitchell's confession,

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00:26:58.839 --> 00:27:03.440
Matt referred to her husband Lyle as the quote glitch

380
00:27:04.079 --> 00:27:08.119
in his plan and planning to kill him after the escape.

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The DA also went on to say Joyce Mitchell tells

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00:27:11.799 --> 00:27:15.160
us there was a discussion between her and Matt that

383
00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:18.279
upon the escape, they were going to return back to

384
00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:22.599
Joyce Mitchell's home, at which time Matt and Sweat were

385
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:25.559
gonna kill her husband. And police asked her, you know,

386
00:27:25.640 --> 00:27:28.759
why did you get tied in with these guys? You

387
00:27:28.799 --> 00:27:32.039
got a guy that dismembered somebody, you got another guy

388
00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:34.920
that killed a police officer. Why did you get what's

389
00:27:34.920 --> 00:27:37.680
the attraction here? And she just said they showered her

390
00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:40.960
with attention, and she didn't get attention at home and

391
00:27:41.039 --> 00:27:43.599
all those sorts of things, and just kind of fell

392
00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:46.640
in love and short order with both of them. So

393
00:27:46.680 --> 00:27:50.960
on the thirteenth day of this man hunt, Matt and

394
00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:55.359
Sweat they get added to the US Marshall Services fifteen

395
00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:59.720
most Wanted Fugitives. Lest A twenty five thousand dollars reward

396
00:27:59.720 --> 00:28:03.599