The 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora exclusively premiered on Showtime in 2018. The show is now available to stream on Netflix in the US and has already entered the Top 10 chart, standing at a tall No. 3.
The show is based on a real-life prison escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat at the Clinton Correctional Facility. The two prisoners who were convicted of murders developed a strong kinship with the prison staff and escaped by drilling holes in the wall.
Ben Stiller directed the show, which earned him a Directors Guild of America Award and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Limited Series and Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series.
Escape at Dannemora stars Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro, Patricia Arquette, two-time Emmy nominee Paul Dano, and Bonnie Hunt. The show was nominated for 12 Emmys in 2019 and was hugely successful after its release.
Here is everything about the real-life subjects who inspired Escape at Dannemora.
Who are the real-life subjects of Escape at Dannemora?
Richard Matt entered the world of crime from a young age in New York. During the 1980s and 1990s, he was involved in multiple cases involving theft, burglary, and assault. In 1997, Matt kidnapped his boss, William Rickerson, who he intended to beat and torture.
He later killed and dismembered Rickerson, which he threw in the Niagra River. He then flew to Mexico, where he murdered another person. He was deported back to the US, where he was sentenced to a 25-year life sentence for Rickerson's murder.
“It’s sociopathic behavior. He needs to stay in there.” a juror on Matt's sentencing
David Sweat burglarized a fireworks store in Great Bend and stole weapons. When Kevin Tarisa, a police officer, spotted him, Sweat opened fire on him and ran him by his car. Tarisa was also shot by Sweat's accomplice, which turned out to be fatal, and he died.
While Sweat pleaded guilty, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole.
How did Matt and Sweat escape in Escape at Dannemora?
As shown in Escape at Dannemora, Richard Matt, and David Sweat formed an intimate relationship with the prison's seamstress, Joyce Mitchell, who helped them escape by sneaking them supplies like blades, chisels, lighted glasses, and drill bits into frozen hamburger meats.
They both gained access to the utility catwalks behind their cells and used the heating pipe as a tunnel to escape, which opened about a block away from their cell. Sweat used to work 3-4 hours a night during winter to cut holes in the heating pipe.
Mitchell was also supposed to meet them one block away, but she couldn't make it as she was hospitalized due to chest pains. When Mitchell did not show up, the two decided to flee to Canada.
The jailbreak would remind one of a similar movie, Shawshank Redemption, Matt and Sweat were seemingly inspired by the movie and told the officers that they would joke about it while working-
“We were laughing and joking about how Andy [Dufresne] did it in 20 years,” he said. “I think we might be able to do it in 10.”
While Matt was killed by law enforcement on June 26, Sweat has been held at Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, New York, ever since.
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