male narrator: They are brazen escapes...
- Two killers staged a daring and sophisticated breakout.
narrator: That captivate the country
and leave local communities in terror.
- We're asking for the help of the people
across the state today.
narrator: But from behind bars,
a rare few have shown they have the ingenuity...
- It was a very sophisticated escape attempt,
and they disappeared.
narrator: The patience...
- I'm sure that they were planning this escape
for months.
narrator: And the sheer nerve...
- I've often referred to him as an evil genius.
narrator: To achieve what's supposed to be impossible:
escape from America's most secure penitentiaries.
[sirens wailing]
June 5, 2015.
An hour after the nightly 10:30 p.m. bed check
at Clinton Correctional Prison in Dannemora, New York.
Prisoners Richard Matt and David Sweat
slip out of their cells through holes they began carving
five months earlier.
They descend a maze of pipes leading six stories down
into the bowels of the prison.
They've already cut and chiseled a path
that leads through a steam pipe to a manhole.
Using a sledgehammer left behind by construction workers,
they pound the cover off, emerging into the night.
They take their first breaths of freedom in nearly a decade.
Richard Matt and David Sweat have just engineered
one of the most intricate and devious
prison escapes in history.
America's maximum security prisons
house the worst of the worst.
They are armed fortresses, designed to be escape-proof.
[bars slam]
And keeping them that way means
every inmate's movement must be monitored
and every freedom restricted.
- They make phone calls, they're tape-recorded.
They have visitors,
they're talking through 3- to 6-inch glass
bulletproof windows.
Some people are locked down for 23 hours a day,
depending on the crime, depending on the individuals.
[keys jingle]
Surveillance cameras are shooting in every direction.
There's intense manpower, armed guards.
These places are fortresses.
narrator: These security features
have made breakouts exceedingly rare.
There are just 10.5 escapes per 10,000 prisoners,
half as many as 15 years ago.
In part, this decrease is a testament
to the building of new, state-of-the-art prisons,
as well as upgrades to older facilities,
like Richard Matt and David Sweat's former home,
Clinton Correctional.
Today, Clinton features cells
lined with 3/8-inch-thick reinforced steel.
The complex is surrounded by a 30-foot-high wall
overseen by 12 guard towers
and employs 929 correctional officers
to keep the inmate population in line.
As a matter of protocol,
the prison guard staff is rotated
so they don't get too friendly with the inmates,
and surprise cell inspections are frequent.
All of it is designed to keep prisoners in their cells
and prison staff on their toes.
But even elaborate high-tech systems
can occasionally be outwitted
by those who refuse to spend even one more day behind bars.
And for Matt and Sweat, that day has come.
June 6, 2015 starts
like any other day at Clinton Correctional
in upstate New York.
Guards conduct the daily 5:30 a.m. head count.
- When corrections officers are doing their morning head counts,
they're looking at everybody that, you know,
needs to be in that prison.
narrator: And on this morning,
corrections officers have accounted for everyone.
Everyone except convicted killers
Richard Matt and David Sweat.
- The moment it is discovered
that two convicted killers are missing,
there is a code red.
[alarms blaring]
The facility is locked down.
All activities are suspended.
- The first thing you try to do is
see if they're still inside of the prison.
Are they somewhere on the inside
hiding out in a room, a closet?
narrator: Beneath the mens' bunks,
investigators find square holes cut into the steel walls.
And behind, they trace a path of discarded tools and debris
down through a maze of pipes
running inside the prison's walls.
They encounter a 24-inch steam pipe
that runs beneath the prison's outer wall
with a hole cut into it.
Perched next to the opening is a souvenir,
left for them by Matt and Sweat:
a sticky note with a racially offensive caricature
that reads, "Have a nice day!"
- And that was the message that these two wanted to send
from the get-go.
"We are smarter than you are, and you won't catch us."
narrator: Further along the steam pipe,
investigators find another carefully cut hole,
and beyond that,
a ladder leading to an open manhole cover above,
located 500 feet south of the prison walls.
At 5:45 a.m.,
just 15 minutes after discovering the empty cells,
the call goes out to New York State Police.
Convicted killers David Sweat and Richard Matt have escaped.
[dispatch radio beeps]
- Be on the lookout for two escapees
from Clinton County Correctional facility.
- The alarms go off,
everybody's locked down in the prison,
a perimeter's set up, the corrections officers,
SWAT teams arrive, negotiators come in.
They start a full-court press.
narrator: By 9:30 a.m., more than 200 officers
from various agencies have mobilized
along with two New York State Police helicopters,
and they start scouring the area
around the Clinton Correctional Facility.
Reacting to a breakout
is new territory for local authorities.
The prison has not witnessed an escape
in its entire 150-year history.
Aptly nicknamed, "Little Siberia,"
the maximum security prison sits
high in the Adirondack Mountains,
just 25 miles from the Canadian border.
And its remote location is no accident.
To discourage escapes,
maximum security prisons are often built atop mountains,
like Virginia's Red Onion State Prison,
or in deserts, like Nevada's High Desert State Prison,
or perhaps most secluded of all, on their own island,
like New York's Riker's Island,
and like the site of
one of America's most notorious prison breaks:
Alcatraz.
June 11, 1962.
At 9:37 p.m., prisoners Frank Morris
and John and Clarence Anglin
slide through holes in the 6x9-inch vents
they've been chiseling out and widening for months.
They squeeze into a narrow utility corridor
and hoist themselves up a network of drainpipes
30 feet to the top of the cell block.
The raft they've constructed is already there,
and the trio squeeze themselves through a ceiling vent hole
no more than 12 inches in diameter.
Atop the prison,
the salty air carries the promise of freedom.
But they're not clear yet.
The dangerous tides of the San Francisco Bay loom below.
The fortress of Alcatraz was built in 1934,
here on an isolated 22-acre island
in the frigid water of the Bay.
- It was considered escape-proof
because it was surrounded by water.
And the tides are actually going to
the San Francisco Airport or they're going to Hawaii.
So they're not going to the city,
which is only a mile and a quarter away.
So it's very difficult to swim to the city.
narrator: But that didn't stop inmates from trying.
During Alcatraz's 29-year history,
there were 14 escape attempts involving 36 men.
All were either caught, drowned, or shot to death.
All, that is, except for three men.
- Come on, let's go. Everybody up.
6:30! Time to move.
narrator: 6:30 a.m.
Prison guard Bill Long notices an inmate isn't getting up
during his morning count.
- The officer reached in, hit the head
and it flew off on to the floor.
And there was a deathly silence for about two seconds.
And he blew his whistle
and Alcatraz history was sealed.
[upbeat music]
- It appears to be the first successful escape
in the history of the maximum security prison.
narrator: News of the prison break at Alcatraz
shocks the nation.
After all, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover himself
had labeled it "escape-proof."
- The flight is attributed by Warden Olin Blackwell
to the deteriorating condition of the prison.
narrator: Jolene Babyak lived on Alcatraz in 1962.
Her father was acting warden at the time.
[siren wailing]
- The siren was still sounding,
and I got out of bed and, you know,
you have that dissonance--
you immediately think, "This can't be an escape attempt,"
but of course it is.
And I put on my robe and I met my mother on the stairs
and she said, "Get dressed.
There's been an escape.
We've got to search the house."
narrator: Three inmates are missing:
Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin.
- Authorities believe that Morris,
who has a superior IQ, masterminded the escape.
narrator: As investigators start
piecing together what happened,
they discover a fourth conspirator
who didn't make it out:
Alan West.
According to West, the planning started nearly a year ago
around a table in the prison mess hall.
- I always like to say
the reason why this was so sophisticated,
relies on one small policy change.
Throughout all of the years
Alcatraz had always had ten-man dining tables,
and in 1961, they threw those away
and brought in four-man dining tables
It meant that they could sit together,
three times a day, every day,
for as long as a year and plan.
narrator: The inmates agree
that the only way out of their cells
is to dig through the 6 1/2 inch walls.
The men steal spoons from the mess hall,
break off the ends,
and sharpen the points until they can pierce the concrete,
softened by the salty air from the Bay.
The digging takes months.
To enlarge the air vent,
they chisel a series of small holes around the opening,
perforating the concrete
until the holes are large enough to slide through.
On April 25th,
John Anglin is the first to finish his hole.
And behind it, he finds a 3 1/2 foot wide utility corridor
filled with pipes and beams.
The next step will be finding a path to freedom
through the maze.
If this plan sounds familiar,
it's because it's basically the same one
Richard Matt and David Sweat will use
53 years later for their escape.
Carve a hole through the cell wall,
then navigate the inner workings of the prison
until you find a way out.
But the inhabitants of Alcatraz
will need time to make their route,
and spending time outside their cells
without arousing suspicion
will require an absolutely brilliant scheme.
narrator: The first step in escaping
from any maximum security prison
is breaking out of your cell.
For Clinton Correctional inmates
David Sweat and Richard Matt,
that meant cutting a square hole in the metal wall
behind their bunks.
But for the inmates of Alcatraz,
John and Clarence Anglin
along with Frank Morris and Alan West,
it required months of chiseling away
with nothing more than sharpened spoons.
In the spring of 1962,
after making holes big enough to squeeze through,
the group now needed to find a way to explore
the utility corridor on the other side undetected,
a plan that would require as much art as skill.
From his maintenance job,
John Anglin secures some 12-gauge ground wire.
Alan West, while repainting the prison's ceilings,
steals cement powder and paint.
And Clarence Anglin pockets locks of hair
from his job in the prison barbershop.
Pooling their materials, they craft four heads
realistic enough to fool the guards.
- In the middle of the night
with no lights on inside the cells,
it was fairly easy for the correctional officers
to walk by and count these as sleeping prisoners.
narrator: Now at night, with the dummy heads in place,
the men can explore inside the prison's walls.
They make their way up three stories to an open area
atop the cell block, right below the prison's roof.
Allen West knows this part of the prison,
thanks to his day job painting the dusty prison ceiling,
and he comes up with an ingenious plan.
- By a rather clever ruse,
he had managed to get the lieutenant to allow him
to hang blankets up there
just so the officer in the gun gallery
would not have a line of sight into what they were doing.
narrator: There, atop the cell block and out of sight,
the men create their workshop.
And there, every night for weeks,
they work on the final phase of their escape:
a way off "the rock."
Because of the damp and cold conditions,
most prisoners on Alcatraz have access to raincoats.
- They started collecting raincoats
and they likely had help from other inmates
because they collected approximately 40 raincoats.
narrator: The plan:
to assemble the raincoats into an inflatable raft
durable enough to make the journey.
For months, Frank has been playing
an accordion-like concertina in his cell,
and he realizes that by removing a few reeds,
it could serve as an improvised pump
to help inflate their raft on the night of the escape.
He also carves makeshift wooden paddles.
Now only one obstacle remains on their path to freedom:
a barred air shaft leading to the prison's roof.
They create an electric drill using a small motor
stolen from a broken vacuum cleaner.
But it's too noisy and not powerful enough.
Instead, Morris uses old saw blades
they found in the utility corridor
and spends weeks cutting his way through each rivet
holding the grill in place.
After nearly a year of digging, exploring,
building, and cutting, the time has come.
Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers
shimmy through the holes in their cell walls
and make their way atop the cell block
where they've stowed their supplies.
But their fourth conspirator, Allen West, is a no-show.
- West had claimed that
he partially got out of his cell
but he re-cemented some of the cell back in
to hide, you know, the hole
and he couldn't get out in time to get out with the escapees.
It's maybe more likely,
and even the warden and FBI thought at the time,
he just chickened out.
narrator: Loaded down with their raft,
life vests, and crudely-carved paddles,
Morris and the Anglin brothers hoist themselves
through the ceiling air shaft
out onto the roof of the prison.
Once there, they sprint 300 feet to a smokestack.
- Up there at the top
where there is a single pole jutting out,
there was a vertical black smokestack.
And they grabbed on to it,
slid all the way down to the ground.
narrator: The three men scale a small fence
and then make their way along this retaining wall
to a spot where they can drop down
out of the tower guards' field of view
behind some oil tanks.
- They slid down this hillside,
dropped down right about here,
and then had to make their way around
towards the warehouse building to the final drop.
narrator: The sheer cliff face makes a tough descent
for the men lugging their supplies.
But from various pieces of raincoat that later washed up,
investigators believe they make it to the water's edge.
What happens next remains a mystery.
- Agents of the FBI, coastguardsmen,
highway patrol, sheriff's deputies,
and local police join in the search.
narrator: None of the three is ever found,
alive or dead.
They vanish into thin air.
Even today, more than 50 years after the escape,
the U.S. marshals consider it an open investigation.
- The Marshals Service will keep the case open
until we prove that any of the escapees are deceased
or they reach the age of 99.
- Maybe they just went on to live regular lives.
You know, it's kind of a really good story
to imagine these people getting off a maximum security prison
that was deemed inescapable.
narrator: The daring escape from Alcatraz
has inspired more books, films,
and even video games
than any other prison break.
But according to inmates at Clinton Correctional,
it also served as an inspiration
for Richard Matt and David Sweat
in their escape from prison in upstate New York.
- Two killers staged a daring and sophisticated breakout
from a maximum security New York prison.
narrator: Within an hour after discovering
the open manhole cover,
corrections officers and police have set up a perimeter
around the prison and the town of Dannemora.
- All set, thank you.
narrator: 60% of escapees are caught within the first day
and 80% are caught within the first week.
But David Sweat and Richard Matt have something
they hope will keep them from becoming another statistic:
a six-hour head start.
By noon that same day, New York governor Andrew Cuomo
shows up at the escape scene,
and he is given a tour of the prisoners' route.
In the escape tunnel, investigators show the governor
tools left behind by civilian workers.
Tools that Matt and Sweat may have used
to cut and chisel their way out of prison.
- This is an old facility. 1865 it opened.
There's a lot of ongoing construction.
Many of the contractors would use these types of tools.
We're not drawing a connection, but that is a fact.
- Contractors were doing
millions of dollars of renovations at this facility
and the contractors left their tools there overnight
when they weren't working,
and that gave these two guys access to the tools.
narrator: Police outside can only guess
which direction the two escapees took
after they left the manhole,
because as it turns out, unlike newer prisons,
Clinton Correctional never installed surveillance cameras
outside the prison walls.
Troopers use bloodhounds and set up roadblocks.
Hundreds of officers scour the streets of Dannemora.
- Car checks were being done.
Dogs were deployed.
People knocking on doors, interviewing folks,
"What did you see? What did you hear?"
narrator: What concerns authorities
is that the two escapees are both convicted killers.
Richard Matt was serving 25 years to life
for the brutal torture and murder
of his former boss back in 1997.
- He actually had the nickname, "Hacksaw,"
because he sawed up his boss into little pieces
after the murder.
narrator: David Sweat was convicted of killing a cop
during a robbery.
- He killed a sheriff deputy.
Shot him and killed him and ran him over with his car.
- Overnight and into the morning,
the desperate around-the-clock manhunt for two killers.
- We're leaving no stone unturned.
They could be literally anywhere.
- We're asking for the help of the people
across the state today.
These are two dangerous individuals.
If you see them, please contact the state police
or your local police as soon as possible.
narrator: As the search reaches the 48-hour mark,
investigators start to worry that the two escapees
may have already slipped through their dragnet,
and the operation begins to escalate
into what will become the largest manhunt
in New York State's history.
narrator: In upstate New York, U.S. marshals,
FBI agents, forest rangers, and local police
are on a massive manhunt for escaped killers
Richard Matt and David Sweat.
- There are all sorts of complicating factors
in this search.
We're in the middle of the Adirondack mountains,
thick forests around,
just to the west is an Indian reservation
with its own sovereignty,
25 miles north, the Canadian border.
narrator: More than 250 searchers
are soon supported by aircraft
from state and federal agencies.
- The question was, "Where would they go?"
Would this wind up in a car hijacking,
a hostage situation?
Would they kill again to get a vehicle or a place to hide?
narrator: The residents of Dannemora
and surrounding towns, like Plattsburgh and Saranac,
are on high alert.
- I've been in the north country my whole life,
and for someone to get out of that prison is just insane.
narrator: Just north of the prison,
Dannemora State Forest stretches for 6 miles.
The town itself is surrounded by rugged terrain,
with steep inclines, deep ravines, and woods.
- The men and women involved in this search
had one of the toughest jobs you could imagine.
Every step that the searchers took,
they could have run into a fugitive with a gun.
narrator: New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo
takes to the airwaves to enlist the public's help.
- We're offering a reward, a $100,000 reward.
We have a new tip line, 1-800-GIVE TIP.
We'll get them back.
narrator: More than 300 tips come flooding in,
and one in particular
grabs the attention of the authorities.
In Willsboro, New York, 40 miles south of the prison,
a driver reports spotting two suspicious men
hiking along a rural route late at night.
- Those suspects were reported walking along this road
and then darting into the woods
when somebody put their headlights on them.
- We're all sitting around with rifles.
It's scary, you know.
But we have kids, and we don't want nobody hurt.
narrator: Authorities blanket the area,
but it seems that if Matt and Sweat
did come through Willsboro, they're long gone now.
- Out of due caution, we deployed
and did a pretty thorough search which continues,
but no confirmation that they were our escapees.
- The only way to pursue this type of investigation
is to follow every lead as if
this is the one that's gonna break the case.
narrator: But despite a number of promising leads
and a tireless police force, Matt and Sweat
have still managed to evade capture for four days,
a feat that's particularly difficult
considering that while inmates spent years
planning how to break out,
they spend almost no time on how to stay out.
- We see this many times with prison escapes.
All of the effort is put into the escape part,
and no effort is put into the
"What do we do once we're out" part.
narrator: If inmates like Matt and Sweat
can beat the odds with seemingly little help,
imagine trying to recapture an escaped criminal
with a well organized support system
and nearly infinite means,
a ruthless drug lord
who's made a career out of living life on the run.
July 11, 2015.
Altiplano, Mexico's maximum security prison
just 54 miles west of Mexico City.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman,
the head of one of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels,
is pacing his cell.
He's only one year into a life sentence
for his role in what officials say
are tens of thousands of drug-related murders.
He's escaped once before from a Mexican federal prison.
Now he's at it again.
He drops behind the waist-high wall of his shower stall
and vanishes.
- When I first heard about the escape,
I was really shocked but not surprised.
I was shocked that he was able to actually escape
such a heavy-duty and fortified prison
but not surprised that if anybody was gonna do it,
El Chapo was the one that would figure out a way to get out.
narrator: El Chapo, as he's known,
is the head of the Sinaloa Cartel,
one of Mexico's most violent and profitable drug cartels.
- El Chapo grew up on the streets.
And over time, he became a member
and really a founding member of the Sinaloa Cartel.
And they are involved in drug smuggling of
all sort of drugs from cocaine to marijuana
to methamphetamine.
narrator: His multi-billion dollar drug empire
supplies much of the heroin sold on the streets in the U.S.
So much so that in 2013,
Chicago tagged him as the city's
public enemy number one,
a designation not used since Al Capone.
And the way he usually smuggles drugs into the country
is by using an elaborate underground tunnel system.
- El Chapo himself,
his trademark is building sophisticated
subterranean tunnels underneath our border security systems
down on the Southwest border.
I've often referred to him as an evil genius.
narrator: U.S. Intelligence estimates
that El Chapo is responsible for no fewer
than 90 elaborately constructed tunnels
beneath the U.S./Mexican border.
Mexican authorities want him as badly as the Americans do.
- He's responsible for thousands of innocent murders
really around the world, but primarily in Mexico.
narrator: El Chapo is first arrested in 1993
and sentenced to serve 20 years at a maximum security prison.
But seven years in,
he bribes his guard to open his cell door
and climbs inside a laundry basket.
- In that escape, allegedly he was wheeled out
right in front of the guards,
and put with the dirty laundry in a truck,
and down the road he went.
narrator: El Chapo remains free for another 13 years,
despite constant efforts by DEA agents to pinpoint his location
for the Mexican authorities.
The problem is,
he's a popular figure in the Sinaloa region.
- He's a vicious drug cartel leader,
but to a lot of people in Mexico, he's Robin Hood.
narrator: In January of 2014, Mexican commandoes
close in on his ex-wife's home in the town of Sinaloa,
where he's believed to have been hiding.
- And as they went inside,
they found out that he had actually built a tunnel,
and had already escaped through that tunnel.
narrator: El Chapo has built a trapdoor-bathtub
leading to a tunnel connecting six nearby houses
to the town's sewer system,
and he's long gone.
But the next month, Mexican and U.S. authorities
finally track him down at a seaside resort.
- Tonight's the world's top drug lord
is in custody after decades on the run.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman
is accused of smuggling billions of dollars
worth of cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs
into the U.S.
narrator: Once again, El Chapo finds himself
in a maximum security Mexican prison.
Here at Altiplano,
El Chapo is kept under 24-hour surveillance.
But what the cameras don't pick up
is the engineering marvel being constructed
underneath the prison:
a mile-long tunnel dug out by a gas-powered boring machine
and reinforced by wooden beams.
El Chapo's accomplices are digging their way to him.
narrator: In 2015, one of America's most wanted criminals
pulls off perhaps the most remarkable prison break
in history.
Notorious drug cartel kingpin "El Chapo" Guzman
is just six months into a life sentence
at Mexico's maximum security Altiplano prison
when suddenly at 8:52 p.m.,
he disappears from his cell.
According to the video's time code,
guards don't sound the alarm for 28 minutes,
and it takes 37 minutes
before they enter the cell to investigate.
There they find a trapdoor hidden behind his shower stall
and a ladder leading down to a true marvel of engineering:
a mile-long tunnel winding to an exist shaft
inside this partially-built house
on a rural farm nearby.
Shortly after the breakout,
NBC news reporter Mark Potter
manages to get inside the farmhouse to take a look.
- Where we are now is in an anteroom
right at the entrance of the tunnel at the house level.
You walk down here; you can see the generator.
And then if you come to this point right here,
you see that there is a big, steep drop off
that goes down to the main tunnel
that connects to the prison.
narrator: EL Chapo's engineers used a boring machine
to dig out the tunnel and wooden beams to support it.
There are lights powered by a generator
and this winch to move heavy equipment, dirt, and rocks.
- Down here in the tunnel itself,
you can see that it's quite large.
You have this PVC pipe here, ventilation, a lighting system,
but this is one of the most intriguing things that you see.
This is a cart-- and we move back here--
that's powered by a motorcycle.
narrator: It's a modified motorbike
fitted with carts to remove dirt from the tunnel
and maybe even El Chapo himself.
It's a remarkable feat of engineering.
- I think that many people in America
or around the world will say,
"Well, how could anybody have not saw some type of
suspicious activity goin' on at that construction site
and dump trucks and dump trucks of dirt
being pulled out of that tunnel?"
But this isn't, you know, something that they're doing
with heavy-duty construction equipment.
So it's being brought out in small amounts over time
and in some cases just in bags of dirt
that would be thrown in the back
of different pickup trucks.
narrator: Mexican authorities deploy
up to 10,000 police officers in the ensuing manhunt
and set up more than 100 road checkpoints.
Airports are put on alert to look for El Chapo
on all private flights
and the Mexican government offers
a nearly $3.8 million reward
for information leading to his recapture.
- You know, at this point, El Chapo
is probably the most wanted man in the world.
I mean, everybody's got their sights on this guy.
narrator: But El Chapo reportedly
has millions of dollars at his disposal.
- His ability to corrupt and to convince is probably boundless.
"Forbes" magazine several years ago said he was a billionaire.
He clearly has the resources to be forewarned
when law enforcement moves close.
He also has the resources to move around the country
at the drop of a hat.
narrator: Authorities believe he's hiding
in the mountains near Sinaloa, his hometown,
where it's unlikely that anyone will be willing
to tip off law enforcement.
- A tip from law enforcement, if ever disclosed,
could result in not only them being killed,
but their entire family, possibly.
- I've been dealing with Chapo and his organization
for probably over 15 years now.
For me personally, when I was on the border
he put a bounty on my head.
I hate this guy.
And I delayed my retirement to continue to chase this guy.
So if I was Chapo, I'd be looking over my shoulder,
because we're coming.
narrator: It's clear that whether
it's hunting down El Chapo
or finding the only men ever to escape from Alcatraz,
members of law enforcement won't rest
until those who've broken out of prison are apprehended.
And in the case of Richard Matt and David Sweat,
that also means sparing no expense.
The search for the only men to ever escape
from Clinton Correctional is entering day four,
and it will end up being the costliest manhunt
in American history: nearly $1 million a day.
- Good Morning. Where are they?
The search expanding for two convicted killers
who cut through steel walls
to escape a maximum security prison in upstate New York.
narrator: The two escapees were housed
in the prison's honor block,
where well behaved inmates enjoy special privileges
and a less secure environment.
- When you work your way into the honor block,
you get access to a variety of different things.
narrator: Richard Matt was a prolific painter
and he requested small tools like screwdrivers and chisels,
claiming he needed them to build frames.
And both men were allowed into restricted areas
where they found more tools
left behind by construction workers.
But even access to these tools doesn't fully account
for their successful escape.
- Who had they had inappropriate contact with on the inside?
What guards were working their floors?
And what other employees of the prison
did they have contact with?
narrator: Four days into the escape,
investigators reveal that they have identified someone
on the inside who might have helped them.
- She works in the prison.
She's being called a person of interest,
being questioned by police.
What does she know about all of this?
narrator: Today's maximum security prisons
aren't just engineered to keep prisoners locked up.
They're also designed to keep unwanted contraband out.
Metal detectors, surveillance cameras, and bag checks
are used to prevent visitors from smuggling in
illegal drugs, cell phones, or weapons.
So when contraband does make it inside a prison,
it's usually with the help of someone on the inside,
as would prove the case at Clinton Correctional.
Four days into their manhunt for escaped killers
Richard Matt and David Sweat,
news breaks that the two convicts may have had
inside help from a married instructor at the tailor shop:
51-year-old Joyce Mitchell.
- Investigators are questioning a person of interest
Joyce Mitchell, who works in the prison tailor shop
where Sweat and Matt also had jobs.
- The media has reported on one woman in particular
who is a subject who's being interviewed.
And that's correct.
narrator: As investigators question her,
the story emerges.
- I'm sure that they were planning this escape for months,
and they knew by being in the honor block they had access
to a variety of things, to include Joyce Mitchell.
- Corrections officers are told time and time again
how manipulative prisoners can be.
Whether you're a man or a woman,
how the inmates will ask seemingly little favors of you
and then increase it more and more.
And then all of a sudden you owe them.
narrator: Joyce Mitchell has been working at the prison
for more than eight years alongside her husband,
corrections officer Lyle Mitchell.
But according to her personnel file,
Joyce was reprimanded early this year
for getting too close to David Sweat,
a red flag for investigators.
Richard Matt then struck up his own
inappropriately familiar relationship with Joyce.
- He's a conniving and cunning guy,
but he's also very charming guy.
narrator: Inmates call it "grooming,"
getting the sympathy of a civilian employee
until they start to do you favors.
- It was, at her age, in her early 50s,
tell her she's attractive.
Tell her she's special.
Tell her everything she wants to hear that sounds good about her.
And then ask little favors.
You know, "Bring me a piece of chalk.
"Bring me some colored pencil.
Bring me some special food."
narrator: But as Joyce will later confess,
the special favors she provided were far less innocent.
Of course, charming prison staff into smuggling contraband
is just one method prisoners use to aid in their escape.
Sometimes it can just be a matter of gaining access
to a place they're not supposed to be,
like in the case of one of the most audacious prison breaks
in American history.
It's lunch hour on December 13, 2000
in the large maintenance shop
at the John B. Connally unit in Kenedy, Texas.
Left with just one staff member to watch over them,
a gang of seven prisoners lures the worker
into a secluded back room
and savagely attacks.
But it's not a random act of prison violence.
It's the first step of a carefully-hatched scheme.
Within hours, all seven will be driving a Chevy pickup
through the prison's back gate to freedom.
- On one to ten scale of prison escapes,
this would be a ten.
It was...you know,
it's everybody's worst nightmare.
narrator: The John B. Connally unit
is a maximum security prison
named for the former Texas governor
65 miles southeast of San Antonio.
Now closed, the prison used to hold up to 2,800 inmates.
But in 2000, it becomes the site
of one of the largest mass prison escapes in U.S. history
by a group known as "The Texas Seven."
- They had all been convicted of everything from murder
to aggravated assault, armed robbery,
sexual assault and other crimes.
narrator: The ringleader: 30-year-old George Rivas.
The El Paso native is serving multiple life sentences
for armed robberies and kidnapping.
He works in the prison's maintenance department
where he begins recruiting other inmates
to stage a daring escape.
- They knew the entire prison
because they traveled around inside the prison
with the maintenance employees for years.
And they knew every facet of the security operations.
narrator: After a year of planning,
Rivas finds six men he can trust.
And on December 13th,
they set their elaborate scheme in motion.
- The employees all went to lunch
and allowed them to stay there with one employee.
They took that individual
and brought him to the back room under a ruse
and overpowered them.
narrator: Over the next 90 minutes,
the seven prisoners assault
and tie up ten prison employees,
two correctional officers, and three other inmates.
The seven steal their hostages' clothes.
Rivas and one of his conspirators
phone the back gate tower guard,
claiming they're maintenance workers
here to install new security cameras.
- They then have the guard unlock the door to the tower.
When that occurs,
Rivas goes up into the tower
and overpowers the officer
and takes his firearms from him.
narrator: The five other inmates
head to the maintenance building's garage
and use a guard's keys to steal
one of the prison's work trucks.
Once he sees them from up in the tower,
Rivas opens the gate on cue.
- They loaded the vehicle up with the one rifle,
which was an AR-15 rifle, and 14 pistols,
and then made their getaway.
narrator: The escape isn't discovered
until the daily 3:00 p.m. head count,
when guards realize the seven inmates are missing,
and find the hostages tied up in the maintenance area,
their uniforms stolen.
- I received a phone call,
and I was en route within an hour.
But it was evident that they were outside
the immediate perimeter that was set up.
narrator: That first day, the Texas Seven swap vehicles.
- One huge problem involved in this search
is the tremendous head start the inmates enjoy.
The prison vehicle they abandoned was found
at this Wal-Mart almost three hours after the breakout.
narrator: In Pearland, Texas, 200 miles east of the prison,
the gang robs a Radio Shack,
making off with cash and police scanners.
- Since December 13th,
we have processed more than 2,500 leads
from various sources.
narrator: 11 days after the breakout,
at 6:30 p.m. on December 24th, Christmas Eve,
police in Irving, Texas, get a call,
There's suspicious activity
at a local sporting goods store.
- Got a call that there's suspicious circumstance
here at the Oshman's.
Officers were en route, headed to it,
arrived about the same time.
One at the front and one at the back of the store.
narrator: Responding to the back of the store
is Irving police officer Aubrey Hawkins.
He has no idea that he's about to encounter
one of the deadliest gangs of prison escapees in history.
narrator: Prison breaks are rare,
and those few who attempt it are a rare breed.
Of the roughly 1.5 million Americans behind bars,
a mere 0.1% attempt a breakout in an average year.
And of those who do succeed,
most are recaptured within 48 hours,
which makes the nearly six-week-long brazen escape
of the Texas Seven back in 2000
as rare as it was violent.
The escape began with the brutal assault
of 16 prison staff.
Seven inmates drove a prison truck
right out the back gate
of a maximum security Texas prison.
- They made their escape outside the gate.
They obtained a number of weapons:
14 handguns, an AR-15 rifle,
and a shotgun and ammunition to go with it.
narrator: Using stolen police scanners,
the escaped convicts avoided the authorities
for 11 days
until Christmas Eve.
At 6:30 p.m. in Irving, Texas,
29-year-old officer Aubrey Hawkins
responds to a possible burglary at a sporting goods store.
Inside, the seven fugitives have the staff at gunpoint,
demanding cash and weapons.
When Hawkins' squad car arrives,
they grab their loot and launch an attack.
[gunfire]
- They instantly opened fire on him,
striking him many times.
They then pulled his body out of the cruiser
and proceeded to run over that body
three separate times.
It was the cold-blooded murder of Aubrey Hawkins
that made us realize this was a particularly vicious
group of fugitives.
- We did get confirmation that he's dead from his injuries
on the gunshots.
- The situation has gotten worse,
and quite frankly, it's our worst nightmare.
- I don't know anybody who could be more dangerous
than a convicted murderer who's on the loose
with automatic weapons.
narrator: Local, state, and now federal authorities
swarm the town of Irving.
But the gang has vanished,
along with $70,000 in cash
and 44 stolen firearms.
The manhunt expands.
Photos are circulated across the United States
and at the Mexican border.
- We've had sightings.
Colorado, Texas, South Texas-- just all over.
At this point, keep them coming in.
narrator: Word of the spectacular breakout
hits the airwaves nationally,
triggering an avalanche of tips,
even as far away as New York City.
- We put out information to every roll call
in the entire New York City police department,
in addition to notifying other agencies
around New York City
that these men could be in New York City.
narrator: In mid-January,
five weeks after the daring breakout
from the John B. Connally unit in Texas,
the FBI gets a credible tip.
The Texas Seven have been spotted
living at an RV park in Woodland, Colorado
and posing as Christian missionaries.
- The lead we received early yesterday morning
was one of those leads that we felt had quite a bit of promise.
- It was certainly the most dramatic tactical operation
I've been involved in directing.
narrator: Mark Mershon was the lead FBI agent
in charge of the operation.
On January 22nd, a massive SWAT team
descends on the trailer park.
But before they can get into position,
three of the fugitives,
including ringleader George Rivas,
leave the compound in a car.
Agent Mershon dispatches a mobile assault team
to follow them.
The rest surround the RV in a show of overwhelming force.
One of the fugitives inside surrenders,
while another takes his own life.
- There were 35 weapons in there.
They were loaded.
They were cocked
and ready for action, as we say.
narrator: Meanwhile, the mobile assault team
trails the gang's car to a local convenience store.
They surround the vehicle,
yanking the three out at gunpoint,
and throw them to the ground.
Five of the Texas Seven are now accounted for.
- There's 20-some guns still out there
that we believe could be in the possession
of the two offenders that are still wanted:
Newbury and Murphy.
- They're very violent.
They do have several hours' head start.
- The story is by no means over.
narrator: The next day brings another tip
from the daughter of the police chief
in Colorado Springs.
She spotted a van matching the description
of one often used by the fugitives
parked outside a local Holiday Inn.
Inside are wigs and hair dye.
Within hours, police have the motel surrounded.
And after a tense negotiation,
the two remaining fugitives surrender.
Inside their motel room
are 12 loaded firearms.
- Finally, early this morning,
the 42-day search ends peacefully
as the last of the Texas Seven give up without a fight.
narrator: All six surviving members
are convicted of capital murder.
- Three, as of this date, have been executed,
and the remaining three are on death row.
To this day, I've never had anybody elude us for 40 days.
You know, it was just incredible to me
that these seven guys could fly below the radar
for as many days as they could with as much press
as we were putting out there,
and as much heat we were putting on them.
narrator: The breakout of the Texas Seven
is also remarkable for another reason:
they did it without any inside help.
Up in Dannemora, New York,
investigators are beginning to suspect
that was not the case with escaped prisoners
Richard Matt and David Sweat.
- Good evening-- day five,
and a lot has happened in the hunt for those two killers
who escaped from a New York state prison.
And interest continues to ramp up
on a female prison employee still answering questions
from investigators.
narrator: 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell
is an instructor at the prison tailor shop.
According to her personnel file,
she was investigated for having inappropriate relations
with David Sweat.
- For investigators, they looked at Joyce Mitchell,
and that's where they drove the tack in the map.
They say, "That's where it starts.
"It starts with her.
"She had that contact before.
She's likely the person who facilitated this."
narrator: Those closest to her still have their doubts.
When asked about his mother's possible role,
Joyce's son defends her.
- She is not the kind of person who's gonna risk her life
or other people's lives to let these guys escape from prison.
narrator: But under questioning,
Joyce admits to investigators
that in fact she did help the two men.
- Richard Matt convinced her to bring in some equipment--
some tools, some saws, and whatnot--
so he could use them.
- She was able to smuggle tools into them.
And she did it in a pretty ingenious way.
narrator: On the honor block,
both Matt and Sweat have the privilege
of cooking meals inside their cells.
So Joyce hides a hacksaw blade,
a chisel, and a tool punch inside some ground meat.
She then asks a favor of a security guard
named Gene Palmer.
On May 1st, Palmer hand-delivers the meat
containing the tools to the inmates' cells,
though later he will deny knowing about the tools
hidden inside.
- She arranged through Palmer
to take the frozen hamburger to the inmates,
ostensibly that they were going to cook it
and have hamburgers.
narrator: That's not all Joyce agrees to do
for the two men.
She also promises to meet them on the outside
and drive them to freedom.
- They told her, "Listen, there's a manhole cover there.
We're going to come up. We need you to pick us up."
narrator: Their first stop, according to Joyce,
was going to be her home,
so the men could kill her husband Lyle.
Then the three of them would head for Mexico.
Later, Joyce publicly reveals her side of the story.
- Mr. Matt said he was going to kill my husband,
and that's when I got really, really afraid.
And it's like, now I knew I was in way over my head.
So I had to keep going with whatever they were saying.
- And this is where it defies imagination.
Somehow the three of them would then hop in the car
and head south toward the Mexican Riviera,
where somehow they were going to wind up
sitting on a beach sipping mint juleps
or something like that.
narrator: Long before the trio finds themselves
relaxing on the beach,
the plan falls apart.
- I was supposed to bring clothes for them.
I was supposed to bring a tent.
I was supposed to bring a shotgun.
I had no intentions of ever showing up.
narrator: The night of the escape,
Mitchell says she has a panic attack
and checks herself in to a local hospital.
- I couldn't get out.
And I couldn't tell anybody.
I couldn't tell my husband.
I couldn't tell my family.
I couldn't tell my coworkers.
I couldn't tell anybody.
- She complained of chest pains;
checked herself into the hospital
without telling the two inmates,
leaving them to pop out of the hole
with nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide.
narrator: One week into the search
for the missing inmates,
Joyce Mitchell is arrested.
- Today we've arrested 51-year-old Joyce Mitchell
for her role in providing material support
to David Sweat and Richard Matt with their escape
from the Clinton Correctional Facility.
- Once she told the truth,
police were already a week or so behind
these two escapees, and that was a real obstacle.
narrator: Even without Joyce Mitchell's help,
Matt and Sweat have still had nearly eight days
to get as far away from Dannemora as possible.
Now it's on investigators to figure out where.
narrator: When a convict manages to defy the odds--
and the authorities--
and escape from prison,
the general public is captivated.
But for those near Dannemora,
having two murderers at large in their backyard
is far less fascinating
and far more frightening.
- I look outside, and I see helicopters buzzing by.
I see cops driving by.
- The one night when they searched the property
was terrifying.
- They checked the garage.
They checked the boys' playhouse.
narrator: Prison escapees pose a very real danger.
- Their human instincts turn to animal instincts.
And they'll do whatever it takes to stay on the run.
narrator: It's not the first time
U.S. marshals have combed the forests of upstate New York
for an escaped fugitive.
Nine years earlier,
another prison breakout over in western New York
led to one of the longest-lasting manhunts
in U.S. history.
April 2, 2006:
at upstate New York's Erie Correctional Facility
20 miles east of Buffalo,
44-year-old career criminal Ralph "Bucky" Phillips
is serving a 90-day sentence for violating his parole.
Just past dawn, he slips into the prison's kitchen
where he works mopping floors,
a rope made of bed sheets tucked beneath his clothes.
He scales a refrigerator
and rips out a hole in the ceiling tiles
using a can opener.
Up in the ductwork, he finds a hatch
leading out to the prison's roof.
And just like that, he's gone.
Within hours,
his escape is discovered.
Prison officials sound the alarm.
Local police set up roadblocks and checkpoints
along the route to Buffalo,
as well as further down Lake Erie
in Chautauqua County.
- We're adjoining county to where he escaped from,
but we're also the home county where Phillips lives.
And we were notified and asked for assistance,
which we would obviously provide.
Anytime you have an escape like this,
it's all hands on deck.
narrator: The problem for police
is that Bucky is an outdoorsman,
a survivalist who knows the dense woods
that surround his home town,
blanketing the border of New York and Pennsylvania.
- Bucky Phillips is 6'2", 220 pounds.
Not only was he in amazing shape,
but he knew the terrain around this area
better than anybody.
narrator: Days turn into weeks.
Bucky appears to know exactly where police are looking
and how to avoid them.
And he seems to have an uncanny ability
to survive in the wild.
Investigators soon discover Bucky's secret:
some of his longtime friends are actually helping him
stay two steps ahead of the law.
- Bucky's image was, he was one of them,
and he wasn't violent, so what is all this fuss about?
- There's people out there that are supporting him.
- Oh, he had communications.
People gave him cell phones,
food, shelter, advice.
They were listening to police radios
and getting information to him.
They were actually obstructing law enforcement at times.
- People supported him. They fed him.
He was going cabin to cabin.
And he was being cheered on by the locals,
which puts law enforcement in pretty much of a bind.
- Bucky Phillips became a folk hero.
People thought, you know,
that Bucky had been railroaded.
- It was kind of a joke to people in the county.
They were making light of it.
There were signs and T-shirts that say, "Run, Bucky, run."
A local restaurant even had a Bucky burger on the menu.
narrator: For two months, Bucky lives on the lam,
in the backwoods he's roamed all his life,
getting help from his friends and family.
But on June 10th, 61 days into his escape,
police receive of a report of a stolen Mustang.
- Trooper Sean Brown actually saw the Mustang.
He pulled it over.
He didn't know who the occupant was.
narrator: The driver opens fire,
seriously wounding officer Brown,
and speeds off.
Police later learn the shooter's identity--
Bucky Phillips.
- That was the moment that changed this investigation
from looking for a petty criminal
who had pulled off an escape
to looking for a violent criminal.
♪ ♪
narrator: Nearly four months into Bucky's escape,
two officers are staking out Bucky's ex-girlfriend's house.
- And Bucky Phillips opened up on them
with a .308 sniper rifle.
[gunshots]
narrator: Both officers are hit.
And three days later,
Trooper Joseph Longobardo dies of his wounds.
- At that point, he elevated to a cold-blooded murderer.
- This guy is not a hero at all, in any sense on the word.
The heroes are the people who got shot.
narrator: On September 7th,
Bucky is placed on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list
and on the U.S. Marshals Service's Top 15 list.
- Hundreds of state troopers from around the state
came into the picture.
And this became, at the time,
the largest manhunt in the history of New York State.
- People were scared after the shooting.
They didn't know where he was.
We didn't know where he was.
They were concerned that he might be
breaking into their house,
stealing their car, or injuring them.
- We've had one trooper shot,
second trooper shot last Thursday night,
a third one shot and died.
This is the ultimate danger to our people.
narrator: On September 8, 2006,
Pennsylvania state police get a report
that Bucky's been spotted in the woods
near the New York border.
- Police say in the early morning hours
they tracked Phillips to a stolen car.
Then came face to face with him in this remote area.
narrator Bucky escapes into the woods,
but this time, authorities are determined
not to let him get away again.
- So you feel you've got him cornered?
- Yes, we do.
narrator: After five months on the run,
murdering a police officer, and wounding two others,
Bucky surrenders.
- He looked horrible. He was thin.
He threw his hands up in the air and said,
"Okay, it's over. I give up."
- I'm glad.
I'm so thankful for these officers.
And I hope this is some comfort to that officer's wife
who was killed.
But we're very glad this is over with.
narrator: Bucky's crimes earn him a life sentence
at Clinton correctional prison,
the very same maximum security facility
that Richard Matt and David Sweat will break out of
nearly a decade later.
It's now 11 days into the manhunt for escaped prisoners
Richard Matt and David Sweat,
and despite Joyce Mitchell's arrest
for her role in smuggling in tools to the inmates,
investigators still have no idea
where the fugitives are now.
- Did these guys hitch a ride
before their picture was put out publicly
and were they on the other side of the country?
narrator: Searchers have now scoured
16 square miles around the prison,
more than 10,000 acres,
and chased more than 1,400 leads
all over upstate New York, Vermont,
Canada, and even Mexico.
- Leads continue to come in,
but we haven't received anything as far as break-ins in the area,
stolen cars in the area.
narrator: If the men are still in the area,
they'll be looking for food and shelter.
- After they've been on the run for a couple of weeks,
they're gonna be tired, exhausted, hungry.
narrator: 16 days into the manhunt,
police get a report of a cabin that's been burglarized
in Franklin County,
20 miles west of Clinton Correctional.
- This morning some of the most intense activity yet
in the thick forests of the Adirondack Mountains
after a break-in was reported at a remote cabin.
narrator: A response team is immediately dispatched
to the scene, but no one knows what awaits them.
Is this just a run-of-the-mill break-in
or are there two desperate and armed escaped murderers
waiting to confront them?
narrator: In upstate New York, the massive operation
to hunt down escaped killers Richard Matt and David Sweat
is at the end of its second week,
and still no confirmed sightings.
- Some of this was a waiting game.
My sources said from the beginning.
These guys are close by, they're in the woods,
we just have to wait until they rear their ugly heads.
- We're gonna start with our top story.
It's a fresh lead in the manhunt for the two men who escaped
from a maximum security prison here in New York State.
Officials are now focusing on a hunting cabin
not far from where that search began
more than two weeks ago.
narrator: Police get word of a break-in at a cabin
in the woods near Owl's Head, New York,
20 miles west of the prison.
- There was an individual that drove up to a cabin
and saw somebody running out the back.
There were some bloodstains,
I believe a peanut butter jar
that they had got some DNA off of too.
So they did confirm that at least
Richard Matt was in that first cabin.
narrator: The next day, another report comes in
about a burglarized cabin in nearby Mountain View.
This time, they find boots inside
left behind by Richard Matt.
- They had broken into the cabin,
they'd found weapons, a shotgun, and booze.
Booze and weapons and Richard Matt
are a bad combination.
narrator: Though the escape from Alcatraz
is notable for its ingenuity
and the Texas Seven's getaway is notorious for its violence,
one prison break has become famous
for its sheer creativity.
The one attempted by Richard Lee McNair:
the man who mailed himself out of prison.
April 5, 2006.
It's 9:00 a.m. inside an industrial storage area
at the federal prison in Pollock, Louisiana.
48-year-old inmate Richard McNair is at work
repairing old mail bags.
He shifts a specific pallet of bags,
one he's been working on for months,
next to an old desk.
And then he ducks beneath the desk,
out of sight of the security cameras,
and squeezes his 6-foot frame into a hollow
right in the middle of the pile.
He pulls more mailbags in after him to hide the hole.
But before the pallet is transported,
it will be shrink-wrapped.
He pokes a small breathing tube through the pile
to keep himself from suffocating
and he's smuggled in food for the trip.
Now all he can do is wait.
If he can just survive the forklift journey
outside the prison walls to a nearby warehouse,
he'll be free at last.
- Richard Lee McNair
is one of the greatest escape artists of our time.
He is the only fugitive that I know of
that's escaped from a local jail, a state lockup,
and a federal penitentiary.
narrator: Back in 1988, while being held
for questioning about a murder,
the 30-year-old McNair rubbed lip balm on his wrists,
squeezed out of his handcuffs,
and busted out of the station house.
And in 1992, after being convicted
of the murder of a truck driver,
he managed an acrobatic escape
from the state pen in Bismarck, North Dakota.
- He successfully escaped by manipulating someone
into trusting him and gaining access to an area
in the facility he shouldn't have been in.
He then cut a hole in an air duct.
narrator: After his recapture, authorities sent him here
to the high-security U.S. federal penitentiary
in Pollock, Louisiana.
- They put him in there and he was known as an escape artist.
Everybody knew it.
All the cons knew it.
The guards knew it.
narrator: And it is here,
13 years after his incarceration,
that he pulls off one of the most ingenious
prison breaks in history.
- He got a job in the industrial area
repairing old mail bags for the U.S. Postal Service.
- These mail bags were nylon and fabric,
and they would repair 'em
and stack 'em on top of each other, on top of pallets.
McNair created a void in this pallet of mail bags,
if you will, one that he could get in himself
and hide and be undetected as he was shipped out.
- And eventually, they came with the forklift
to move all of these pallets of mail bags out to the warehouse.
narrator: McNair can hear the forklift
pass through a series of checkpoints.
- But he didn't know where he was going.
He thought he might be put in a holding area,
which is procedure.
You put in there for 24 hours to prevent escapes.
But, in fact, he ended up in a warehouse,
just beyond the tall prison fence.
He could hear guys talking and he could hear vehicles running.
narrator: McNair waits until the workers are off to lunch.
Then, at noon, he climbs out of his escape pod
and hightails it to a nearby swamp.
- He hid his prison uniform under a trestle
above a swampy area where the train line went.
narrator: When the workers return to the warehouse,
they notice the hollowed-out pile of mailbags,
the inside drenched with sweat.
- So they called everyone to their cells to do a count.
They couldn't locate McNair,
the escape artist, that was ominous.
But that's not to mean he had escaped.
He could be in the library or could be working out.
He could be in the yard.
- Officials started notifying local law enforcement
and state law enforcement at around 2:00.
And I was notified around 3:25 p.m.
narrator: Meanwhile, in an undershirt and shorts,
McNair jogs down the tracks
toward the nearby town of Ball, Louisiana,
which is where Officer Carl Bordelon detains him
in a scene captured on his dashboard camera.
narrator: If officer Bordelon figures out who he is,
all of McNair's months of planning will be for nothing.
narrator: There are just 17 high security
U.S. penitentiaries in America,
scattered across 12 states.
Pennsylvania has the most, with three of their own.
It's where the government sends those
who have violated federal laws,
but they're also used to lock up inmates
who have a history of attempting escape.
Still, that doesn't stop convicted murderer
and escape artist Richard Lee McNair.
In 2006, after hiding inside a pile of mail bags,
in a daring escape
from the U.S. penitentiary in Pollock,
McNair is stopped by a suspicious
Louisiana police officer.
- McNair used two different names during that interview.
narrator: For ten minutes, the officer detains McNair,
checking to see if he matches the description
of the escaped convict.
- They use an old photograph of McNair
that showed him with a full beard and a full head of hair.
So it didn't quite add up for Bordelon.
narrator: Richard Lee McNair has narrowly escaped recapture.
- He couldn't believe his luck,
but he realized that the officer
would recognize his mistake later,
so he headed down as fast as he could
and then turned to the right into the trees.
And just vanished.
narrator: McNair manages to elude the authorities
for the next 18 months.
He uses dozens of fake IDs and disguises,
staying one step ahead of U.S. marshal Glen Belgard,
who's put in charge of the manhunt.
- We knew that McNair would be using all of his assets,
his abilities,
and we knew he researched and planned
for this escape for a while.
narrator: By the fall of 2007,
McNair has made it into Canada,
later claiming he had no issues crossing the U.S./Canada border
whenever he wanted,
even making a video showing how easy it was.
- No cameras. It's hidden.
I could drive this over that, there's no doubt about it.
- It was almost as if he was playing cat and mouse
with investigators because he was literally moving freely
between two countries.
narrator: In October of 2007,
just 100 miles north of the U.S. border,
a local police officer tries to pull over a van,
thinking that its tinted windows look suspicious
and the van takes off.
After a brief chase, the van comes to a stop at a dead end.
Inside is Richard Lee McNair.
The Mounties have no idea that they've just captured
one of America's preeminent escape artists.
- He said, "You caught a big fish.
"I'm an escaped prisoner, an escaped murderer
from a penitentiary in Pollock, Louisiana."
And he was eventually sent back to the United States,
and he was handed over at that point
to U.S. marshal Glenn Belgard.
narrator: Today, McNair is being held in a prison
known as the "Alcatraz of the Rockies:"
ADX Florence.
It's where authorities house inmates who are too dangerous,
too high-profile, or too great a security risk
for a regular maximum security prison.
It's currently home to Unabomber Ted Kaczynski,
shoe bomber Richard Reid,
Soviet spy Robert Hanssen,
and those involved in the 1993 and 2001
World Trade Center attacks,
and now Richard Lee McNair.
Still, some believe McNair is planning his next escape.
- Beyond a shadow of a doubt,
this is the most secure prison in the United States.
And beyond a shadow of a doubt,
I know this time McNair is thinking about
how he could defeat the security measures there and escape.
- Tonight, 17 days since two convicted murderers
broke free from a maximum security prison.
Investigators have their first major clue:
DNA found inside a cabin deep in the woods
matches the killer's.
- We at least had one of them or had their DNA in a cabin.
And we set up a pretty tight perimeter at that point.
narrator: Richard Matt's DNA confirms
he was inside the cabin,
and the owner confirms there's a shotgun missing.
- Matt had gotten a hold of alcohol, booze,
in one or more cabins,
had been drinking heavily.
We also know that he found a 20-gauge shotgun.
- We want to encourage residents to continue to call 911
if they see anything, and I repeat, anything suspicious.
Please continue to check seasonal camps and trail cameras
for anything out of place.
narrator: On June 26th at 1:30 p.m.,
police get an odd tip.
A man driving up near Malone, New York
says he just heard gunshots.
He calls 911 again moments later
when he finds bullet holes in the side of his truck.
- Either out of frustration
or the ingestion of alcohol
or just rage, whatever,
Richard Matt fired that shotgun at least once or more
at a camper--at a vehicle that was passing the road
narrator: A tactical search team
is immediately choppered to the scene.
They wear bulletproof vests and helmets
and search the area.
- By and large, when an inmate escapes from prison today,
most are caught.
The question is,
what are they willing to do not to get caught?
narrator: At 3:45 p.m., one of the troopers
searching a hunting cabin in the area
spots a man hiding in the woods,
and he's holding a shotgun.
narrator: It's been nearly three weeks since inmates
Richard Matt and David Sweat followed the route
they so carefully crafted
beneath Clinton Correctional Prison
and emerged from a manhole
into the town of Dannemora, New York.
The manhunt to track them down has been
the largest and most expensive in American history to date.
But now Richard Matt has been spotted hiding in the woods
near a cabin outside Malone.
He is armed and most definitely dangerous.
- It's not up to police, to tactical teams
to understand the motive
for somebody pointing a gun at them.
It's their job to protect themselves,
protect everybody around.
narrator: Seeing the weapon in his hands,
the troopers open fire.
[gunshots]
Richard Matt is shot three times In the head.
- Richard Matt, one of the two escaped killers,
has been shot and killed
by a customs and border patrol tactical unit.
[sirens wailing]
- I think Matt had made a decision
he was not going to go back to prison alive,
and that's the way he was able to facilitate it.
He brought about his own demise
by the threat he presented to law enforcement.
narrator: The squad searches the area for David Sweat,
but it seems the two have separated.
- Richard Matt and David Sweat
were two completely different individuals.
Matt didn't take care of himself.
I mean, he was overweight. He was out of shape.
Every cabin they broke into,
Richard Matt found a bottle of alcohol
and he drank the whole thing.
David Sweat was a little bit-- sort of a type A personality.
He certainly had a mindset where, you know,
he thought he could survive in the woods.
- I think Sweat felt the only way he was going to get away
was to get away from Matt.
narrator: David Sweat can't be far away.
The U.S. marshals running the manhunt
believe he's heading north to the Canadian border,
just 17 miles from Malone,
and the search intensifies.
- When's the last time you been in it?
- Just a few minutes ago.
- Okay. Okay.
- And he locked up everything.
- All right, well I'll just wander around back
just to make sure, okay?
- Okay. You go right ahead.
narrator: The very next day, Sergeant Jay Cook,
a 21-year veteran of the New York State Police,
is alone in his vehicle just about 2 miles
from the Canadian border
when he spots a lone figure walking down the road.
He calls out at the man to stop
but instead, the man breaks into a run.
- At that point, he was identified by the trooper
as David Sweat.
He looked horrible. He had been out for three weeks.
The trooper didn't know if he was armed or not.
He ended up shooting him and hitting him in the torso,
and he went down.
narrator: 22 days after Matt and Sweat's brazen breakout
from Clinton Correctional,
the nightmare is finally over.
- Mr. Sweat, was the escape worth it, sir?
- David Sweat, how easy was it to get out of prison?
- The fugitive David Sweat is in custody
after being shot by police near the Canadian border.
- We are here with good news.
Mr. Matt is deceased, and the other escapee,
Mr. Sweat, is in custody.
He's in stable condition.
narrator: Two days later,
12 Clinton Correctional staff members,
including Warden Steven Racette,
are placed on indefinite leave.
- And I'm sure there's probably more heads
that are going to roll inside that prison
as they realize who helped
and who facilitated this escape.
narrator: On July 28th,
the woman at the center of the escape,
Joyce Mitchell, agrees to plead guilty
to promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation.
She avoids the more serious charge
of conspiracy to murder her husband Lyle.
- I'm a loving and caring wife and mother,
and I was protecting my husband and my family.
I know I messed up.
But I am a loving mother and wife
and I was protecting my family
and I was protecting my husband.
narrator: She's sentenced to seven years
and sent to Bedford Hill Prison,
a maximum security facility in Westchester County,
New York.
David Sweat is charged with two counts of escape
in the first degree
and one count of promoting prison contraband
in the first degree.
He is sent to Five Points Correction Facility
in upstate New York
and placed in solitary confinement,
spending 23 hours a day in his windowless cell.
The Clinton Correctional breakout
has already led to new procedures,
and not just there.
- I think this is something too
that's going to reverberate through all prisons
in the United States.
- If you look at the plan that they had
to get out of that prison,
it was brilliant.
It was well conceived.
They were patient.
They were meticulous in their planning.
narrator: But escaped killers like Matt and Sweat,
Joaquin Guzman,
the Texas Seven,
Bucky Phillips,
and Richard Lee McNair
are no heroes.
- If you ever can think of good versus evil,
this is evil.
There's just no question in my mind.
narrator: Every prison break leads to better security
and better procedures to prevent the next one.
Still, so long as we have prisons,
there will always be those
who try to break out.
- If you build it, they will try to escape from it.