The dramatic prison break from an isolated steel-and-concrete fortress in the wilderness of northern New York actually began more than four months before two killers slipped from a manhole outside the prison walls and dashed to freedom.
So says David Sweat, the notorious survivor who was nabbed just a few miles from the Canadian border three days ago – and more than three weeks after the spectacular escape from maximum security at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora.
Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie says Sweat, hospitalized in fair condition, has been revealing details of the escape – although authorities can't be sure what to believe.
Sweat, who claims to be the mastermind of the plan, told investigators the effort was so well-orchestrated that he and Richard Matt actually performed a "dry run" the night before they actually fled. They used the opportunity to select a manhole on a relatively quiet street.
"To make a dry run and ... have the ability to escape, and then go back in, it is a little baffling," Wylie told NBC News.
Sweat told investigators that he and Matt, who was fatally shot by U.S. Border Patrol agents Friday, were almost nabbed more than once. Sweat said that at one point he was in a tree stand undetected as agents swarmed around him.
Investigators had theorized that the men must have used power tools to cut through cell walls and steam pipes, but Sweat said they used simple hacksaws.
"He's a convicted felon, obviously convicted of a serious murder, and he escaped from state prison, so those are his statements and that's all I can go on," Wylie said.
It was just about the time that Sweat began talking that the state Corrections Department announced that the prison superintendent and 11 other officials at Clinton Correctional were being placed on administrative leave.
Source; USATODAY
