The Wild True Story Behind New Crime Series ‘Escape At Dannemora’

The study of true crime has become something of a phenomenon in popular culture with loads of crime-related movies, TV shows and podcasts popping up here there and everywhere.

But while a detailed look into the minds of criminals and how they operate on the streets is absolutely fascinating, another intriguing aspect is how they function once they’re incarcerated and especially when they manage to escape.

With this in mind, Stan‘s upcoming exclusive series Escape at Dannemora, directed by Ben Stiller, tells the story of the real-life 2015 prison break at the Clinton Correctional Facility, New York which spawned a massive manhunt and media frenzy.

In 2015, two inmates serving life sentences for murder hatched an incredibly detailed plan to bust out of prison by tunnelling through a catwalk beneath their cells to a manhole.

To do this, Richard Matt (played by Benicio del Toro) and David Sweat (Paul Dano) befriended Joyce “Tilly” Mitchell (Patricia Arquette), an employee in the prison’s tailor shop.

The married mother first got it on with Sweat, a convicted cop-killer who was later transferred away from Mitchell after an inmate tipped off authorities to their relationship.

She then went on to hook up with murderer Richard Matt who happened to be Sweat’s inmate.

Matt is said to have persuaded the lonely 51-year-old to smuggle in hacksaw blades, chisels, and other tools that he and Sweat could use to bust out of the maximum-security slammer.

Mitchell had reportedly plotted with the inmates to kill her husband, prison maintenance worker Lyle Mitchell, then the trio would flee to a cabin in Vermont together.

del Toro as Sweat (left) and Dano as Matt (right)

“They both played her,” a source told the New York Post, with Clinton County Sheriff David Favro speculating that she most likely would have been killed if she had met up with them on the outside.

“Joyce Mitchell, in my mind, would have just been luggage and would have slowed them down,” the Sheriff adds.

“If she went with them, I believe she would have been killed. I mean, why keep her? It makes no sense.”

Arquette as Mitchell

Favro said the men had essentially “played on her emotions.”

“They looked at her characteristics and they took advantage of her. They knew they could get something out of her,” he said.

“In reality, she was the fallout that was going to take the heat off.”

Matt (left) and Sweat (right), Credit: Getty Images

The successful escapees were on the run for three weeks as they headed to the nearby Canadian border.

In that time, a massive manhunt ensued which, according Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie, was costing taxpayers “upwards of a million dollars a day.”

The manhunt involved more than 800 local, state and federal law enforcement personnel who were focusing on a stretch of Route 374 that runs from the prison through Cadyville.

Mitchell at her trial

In the meantime, Mitchell was arrested, blaming her role in the escape on “depression.” She said she “got in over my head” and claimed that convicted murderer Richard Matt had “complete control” over her.

“He was good at that,” she later told Matt Lauer on TODAY in her first TV interview. “And I just got in over my head. And I couldn’t get out. And I couldn’t tell anybody. I couldn’t tell my husband. Couldn’t tell my family. I couldn’t tell my co-workers.”

Mitchell plead guilty to helping the prisoners escape, admitting to having sexual relationships with both of them and having smuggled tools into the prison to help them escape. She was sentenced to two-and-a-third to seven years in prison.

Del Toro as Matt

Matt was eventually spotted in Franklin County, New York and killed while Sweat was later caught near Constable, New York and transported back to prison.

David Sweat pled guilty to two felony counts of first-degree escape and an additional count of promoting prison contraband AKA the tools that he had delivered to him by Mitchell. He was sentenced to three-and-a-half to seven years, to be served consecutively with his previous life sentence.

Dano as Sweat

Escape at Dannemora tells the story of one of the most notorious prison breaks in American history including how the inmates plotted their escape, coerced Tilly, escaped and were ultimately captured.

The highly-anticipated series is now streaming only on Stan, with new episodes weekly, same day as the U.S.

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