Dannemora : two escaped killers, three weeks of terror, and the largest manhunt ever in New York State

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Title:

Dannemora : two escaped killers, three weeks of terror, and the largest manhunt ever in New York State

Author:

Gardner, Charles A., author.

ISBN:

9780806539249

Edition:

First Citadel hardcover printing.

Physical Description:

viii, 280 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

General Note:

Includes index.

Contents:

Prologue: Inside honor block -- I. The setting. Day one ; Iron mines and iron bars ; Little Siberia ; Amenities and accommodations ; Right-sizing -- II. The inmates. Two hard cases ; Broken boy, broken toys ; Sweat's road to Clinton ; Deputy Tarsia's last tour ; Boy bully to teenage thug ; Catch and release ; Murder for hire ; Gladiator school ; Rickerson's murder ; Matt takes a ride -- III. The plans, the schemes. The complacent guard ; Lonely, undisciplined, corruptible ; Corcraft's tailor shops ; Tailor shop troubles ; Romancing and contraband ; Laying the foundation -- IV: The breakout. Breaching their cells ; A subterranean struggles ; Mitchell goes deep ; Subterranean struggles ; "Time to go, kid!" -- V: The search. Discovery ; Lockdown, overtime, and media blitz ; Shelter in place ; Clinton strong ; The pursuit and the pursued ; The power of politics -- VI: The chase. Twisted horn ; Timing is everything ; Bounty hunters and media follies ; Escape route ; The chase is on ; The bromance ends -- VII: The reckoning. Gin and potshots at Humbug Mountain ; Closing the box ; Matt's final stand ; Press conference, the law, and the locals ; Sweat runs for the border ; Sweat goes down -- VIII: The aftermath. Assigning the blame ; Final accounting.

Personal Subject:

Matt, Richard.

Sweat, David.

Corporate Subject:

Clinton Prison (Dannemora, N.Y.)

Subject Term:

Escapes -- New York (State) -- Dannemora.

Escaped prisoners -- New York (State) -- Dannemora.

Summary:

In June 2015, two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York's North Country, launching the most extensive manhunt in state history. Aided by prison employee Joyce Mitchell, double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the thirty-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, the residents of local communities were virtual prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement from across the nation swept the rural wilderness near the Canadian border. The manhunt made front-page headlines, as did the prison sex scandal involving both inmates and Joyce Mitchell, and culminated in a dramatic and bloody standoff. Dannemora is a gripping account of the circumstances that led to the bold breakout and the twenty-three-day search that culminated in one man dead, and one man back in custody, and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Bayport Public Library	365.641 GAR	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	365.641 GAR	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In June 2015 two vicious convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York state, launching the most extensive manhunt in the state's history. Aided by a prison employee, Richard Matt and David Sweat slipped out of their cells and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. Now Charles A. Gardner - a lifelong resident of the community and a former prison guard - tells the whole story from an insider's point of view.

Author Notes

Charles A. Gardner is a municipal court judge and retired correction training lieutenant in Malone, New York, the far-upstate town where he was born and raised. His twenty-five-year career in New York State Department of Corrections included working as a correction officer, sergeant, and lieutenant. He had experience working in medium- and maximum-security facilities including stints at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora and the maximum-security prisons of Sing Sing, Bedford Hills, Great Meadow, and Upstate. Gardner served on the Department of Corrections' emergency response team (CERT), which played a critical role in the search for the 2015 prison escapees. He lives with his wife, Penny, and their Samoyeds, in the North Country. Visit him at www.charlesagardner.com.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Municipal court judge Gardner makes his debut with a gripping account of the daring prison break that was recently the subject of a Showtime miniseries, though the absence of sourcing will be a concern to some readers. In June 2015, convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat escaped their cells at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., through holes they cut in steel walls and the catwalk behind them that led to an underground pipe and the outside world. From there, they were to be driven to safety by Joyce Mitchell, an unhappily married Corrections Department employee responsible for overseeing inmates working in the prison's tailor shop. Mitchell cultivated relationships with both convicts, and began smuggling contraband to them. But on the night of the breakout, Mitchell was admitted to a hospital for a panic attack, leaving Matt and Sweat to fend for themselves. Eventually, Matt was fatally shot by a border patrol officer in self-defense, and Sweat was apprehended. Gardner's own background as a former corrections officer in the New York State prison system enables him to focus on root causes that made the escape possible, such as politicians' cost-cutting decisions that dramatically reduced the amount of staff overseeing the dangerous inmates. True crime fans will be more than satisfied. Agent: Kevin O'Connor, O'Connor Literary. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

This latest true-crime account of the 2015 Dannemora prison break is told by a former New York State Department of Corrections officer. The first half of the book outlines the protagonists' backgrounds: career criminals Richard Matt and David Sweat, corrupt guard Gene Palmer, and tailor-shop contract employee Joyce Mitchell. Gardner lionizes rank-and-file officers, who he felt were overburdened with excess duties which opened the door to Matt and Sweat's escape then charged with tirelessly combing the countryside for the escapees. Also examined is the tailor shop where Matt and Sweat fraternized with Mitchell, a major money-maker for the Department of Corrections where daily supervision of inmates was farmed out to private contractors rather than trained officers. This dramatic story will be of keen interest to those following the Showtime series Escape at Dannemora, and book clubs might pair this with New York Daily News reporter Chelsia Marcius' Wild Escape (2018) for the first-person interviews with sole-survivor Sweat. A true community insider's perspective on a legendary manhunt.--Erin Downey Howerton Copyright 2019 Booklist

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Publisher's Weekly Review

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