New York State, along with many people across the U.S. and the world, spent the month of June, 2015 following news of the search for two prisoners who had escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in the town of Dannemora, in the far northern part of the state. The names of the prisoners was Richard Matt and David Sweat.
Their escape can only be described as brilliant, certainly matching the legendary escape from Alcatraz. With help from a prison employee, who was supposed to pick them up in a car but changed her mind at the last minute, the two made use of tools used by contractors who were working on the prison.
The two would exit their cell at night, through an opening they had made in the wall, and work on their escape route. They found a sledgehammer the contractors had brought and used it to break through a wall. They found their way to a wide steam pipe that brought steam to the prison from a steam plant some distance away. The steam was for heating but the pipe wouldn't be in use in the month of June.
The steam pipe passed under the manholes on the street and the two had found their escape route. They emerged from a manhole at night carrying supplies that they had stored up in a guitar case. The prison was in a rural area just north of the vast Adirondack State Park and, with their driver not showing up, made their way into the woods.
A vast search effort began the following morning, as soon as it was discovered that they were missing. The search turned up nothing, all reported possible sightings of the prisoners led nowhere. The prisoners had clearly planned every detail of the escape carefully and at least one of them, David Sweat, was an experienced outdoorsman. Both were skilled at burglary, to break into cabins.
According to one news report the search was costing about a million dollars a day. The governor of New York State, Andrew Cuomo, made a statement one day to the effect of the two escapees "might be in Mexico by now. Richard Matt had earlier fled to Mexico after committing a murder in western New York State.
At the time I wondered why the governor would say such a thing publicly, which would only be discouraging to those who were putting so much effort into searching. But now I think I know.
After the eventual capture of the escapees it was revealed that they had been listening to news of the search for them on a portable radio that they had brought from the prison. I think it was known all along about their radio and the governor said that, knowing that they would be listening, in the hope it would make them get careless.
The two escapees separated at some point. David Sweat would later say that Richard Matt was slowing him down, as well as drinking heavily after finding an alcoholic drink in a cabin. After Richard Matt had been shot and killed a news announcement was made that some large lights were being brought in to search for David Sweat at night.
I cannot see that any such lights ever materialized. My conclusion is that there never was any such lights. This was a bluff made in an effort to get David Sweat to move during the day, when he would be more visible, knowing that he was listening on the radio.
It seems to have worked because, shortly afterwards, David Sweat was shot and captured while moving during the day. Their radio was only briefly mentioned in the news reports that I saw but I believe it to have been a vital part of the search effort.
If my conclusion here is correct then I am truly surprised that David Sweat, after so carefully planning the escape, didn't see this as a bluff.
During the search there was news of a possible sighting of the two far on the opposite side of the state, in the southern tier of western New York State around the village of Friendship. Much was made on the news about the shifting of search personnel and resources to that distant area.
Maybe there was a genuine report of a possible sighting but I am sure that this was mostly a bluff made in the hope that they might get careless if they heard on the radio that the main focus of the search was being moved elsewhere.
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