Breakout
Title
Breakout
Creator
Description
On June 6, 2015, two convicted murderers, Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. The carefully orchestrated jailbreak led to massive manhunt, with billboards put up in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania and along the Canada-U.S. border.
On June 16, during the search, prison employee Joyce Mitchell confessed to providing Matt and Sweat with hacksaw blades, chisels, and other tools used for the escape.
WIVB-TV Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg presents a video profile of Matt and Sweat, followed by a WIVB-TV television special, "Breakout."
(Background)
Richard Matt, from Tonawanda, New York, had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life for beating, torturing, and ultimately killing his former boss, William Rickerson. After breaking his neck, Matt dismembered Rickerson's body, discarding the remains in the Niagara River.
Matt and an accomplice had kidnapped Rickerson from his North Tonawanda home with the intent to rob him. Matt then fled to Mexico, where he stabbed a man to death after trying to rob him. Matt was arrested and convicted of the stabbing death in Mexico. He was then extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for the murder of William Dickerson.
David Sweat, raised in Binghamton area of New York, shot a Broome County sheriff's deputy multiple times before running him over with a car. He and an accomplice had been spotted by Deputy Kevin Tarsia in a parking lot while in possession of stolen firearms. After Sweat ran over Deputy Tarsia, the accomplice, Jeffrey Nabinger Jr., shot the severely wounded deputy in the face, killing him. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole.
Matt was hunted down in Malone, New York on June 26, 2015 and killed during a confrontation with a U.S border patrol agent and a former Army Ranger. Two days later, Sweat was spotted near Constable, New York by a New York State Trooper who wanted to question him. After Sweat took off running across a hay field, Trooper Jay Cook shot him in the shoulder and arm. Sweat survived.
On June 16, during the search, prison employee Joyce Mitchell confessed to providing Matt and Sweat with hacksaw blades, chisels, and other tools used for the escape.
WIVB-TV Senior Correspondent Rich Newberg presents a video profile of Matt and Sweat, followed by a WIVB-TV television special, "Breakout."
(Background)
Richard Matt, from Tonawanda, New York, had been serving a sentence of 25 years to life for beating, torturing, and ultimately killing his former boss, William Rickerson. After breaking his neck, Matt dismembered Rickerson's body, discarding the remains in the Niagara River.
Matt and an accomplice had kidnapped Rickerson from his North Tonawanda home with the intent to rob him. Matt then fled to Mexico, where he stabbed a man to death after trying to rob him. Matt was arrested and convicted of the stabbing death in Mexico. He was then extradited to the U.S. to stand trial for the murder of William Dickerson.
David Sweat, raised in Binghamton area of New York, shot a Broome County sheriff's deputy multiple times before running him over with a car. He and an accomplice had been spotted by Deputy Kevin Tarsia in a parking lot while in possession of stolen firearms. After Sweat ran over Deputy Tarsia, the accomplice, Jeffrey Nabinger Jr., shot the severely wounded deputy in the face, killing him. Sweat was serving a sentence of life without parole.
Matt was hunted down in Malone, New York on June 26, 2015 and killed during a confrontation with a U.S border patrol agent and a former Army Ranger. Two days later, Sweat was spotted near Constable, New York by a New York State Trooper who wanted to question him. After Sweat took off running across a hay field, Trooper Jay Cook shot him in the shoulder and arm. Sweat survived.
Date
2015-07-28
Publisher
Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (publisher of digital)
WIVB (Television Station : Buffalo, N.Y.)
Rights
Copyright held by WIVB-TV. Access to this digital version provided by the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Videos or images in this collection are not to be used for any commercial purposes without the expressed written permission of WIVB-TV and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. Users of this website are free to utilize material from this collection for non-commercial and educational purposes.
Type
Moving Image
Format
video/mp4
Language
Collection
Citation
Newberg, Rich, “Breakout,” B&ECPL Digital Collections, accessed June 22, 2025, https://digital.buffalolib.org/document/17420.