imagine that you are receiving a life sentence locked up in a huge fortified prison surrounded by a thick wall that is impossible to break through will you accept your fate and remain where you are or will you act out like the prisoners we are going to see their story today these prisoners were dangerous criminals who had been given life sentences and for this reason they were housed in a heavily guarded prison despite their failure several times and despite all the obstacles they faced they kept trying to put together the weirdest plans and smartest ideas to escape from this prison so let's discover their thrilling Story the events of today's story took place in a prison called Clinton Correctional Facility also called damura prison referring to where it is located damura is a mountainous area in the north of New York this damura prison is a Maximum Security Prison one of the most heavily guarded and fortified prisons meaning that its security is at its highest possible level according to American prison standards and such prisons only house the most hardened murderers and criminals damura prison is located in the middle of a small town where about 5,000 people live which is something unusual most prisons like this are located in isolated areas or on the outskirts of cities so it's strange that a prison like this is located in the middle of a town surrounded by residents anyway this damur prison is surrounded by a 9 M long wall it's so tall that no one can climb it it is almost impossible but the hardest part is that the thickness of this wall is up to 2 m and the wall is built with concrete reinforced by iron bars so no matter what was done it's impossible to be dug or penetrated besides watchtowers spread out along the wall where armed guards are monitoring the prison 24 hours a day and as I told you before this area is a mountainous area what makes this prison more secure is that its walls are built on Mountain rocks so it's impossible to dig an underground tunnel no matter what kind of tools you have literally this prison has no exit but its doors damura prison is a facility from which Escape is supposed to be impossible so who are these prisoners who will try to break out of the impossible the first prisoner is called Richard Matt Richard is murderer who was sentenced to life imprisonment and he was dubbed the saw because he once used a saw to cut off his victim's body in 1997 Richard kidnapped his boss put him in the car's trunk and then kept driving for 24 hours and from time to time he stopped opened the trunk hit him and tortured him in an attempt to get his money he used to force him to admit where he keeps his money but that poor man kept telling him that he didn't hide anything and didn't have money and the problem was that man was an old man in his 70s Richard kept driving around and the old man was in the trunk of the car until he died after the old man had died Richard took him to an isolated Hut in the middle of the forest cut off his body with a saw and threw him in the Niagara River after this crime he went to Mexico where he committed another crime as well he murdered another person but the Mexican authorities were able to arrest him and he remained imprisoned in Mexico for 9 years he was then extradited to America and eventually he was put in the damura prison until now 7 years have passed and he is still in this prison every year he becomes more and more determined to escape even his family and his daughter in particular says that whenever they visited him in prison he only talked about Escape he he wanted to escape by any means possible one of the things that Richard Matt excelled at was his ability to manipulate and persuade he was good at manipulating people and he was sure that he would find a way to manipulate the right people to escape throughout his time in prison escape was his only concern and he knew that in order to escape he would need a trusted partner to help him but who could this person be the partner was actually the prisoner in the next cell that was attached to his cell the criminal named David sweat and if Richard Matt was The Mastermind of the breakout operation we can consider David sweat to be the engineer David sweat from his younger years was going in and out of prison and his entire past was a purely criminal past since his teenage years but the biggest crime he committed was the murder of a police chief after this crime David was imprisoned in the damura prison with a life sentence and he has been in this prison for 12 years until now during these years David gained valuable skills through his work in various prison workshops and he was helping with the electricity work at the prison because the prison always used prisoners for repair and renovation work they would create workshops for them develop their skills and train them in aspects such as carpentry blacksmithing electricity and so on that's why we call David the engineer because he had many excellent skills in these aspects that would help them in the Escape anyway since Richard Matt and David sweat cells were next to each other they got to know each other and became friends and since Richard always thinks about escaping he told David about his intention and they started thinking about a plan that could get them out of this place after a while they came up with the next plan they would open the doors of their cells leave the building to the outer yard of the western side and they would reach the wall and climb out from that point because it's the furthest point from the watchtowers but this plan had many problems first how would they open their cells second how would they climb the wall ultimately they decided to deal with the problem step by step first they needed a way to open the cells whose locks were supported by screws that required a special screwdriver called Torx but of course they didn't have any tools and the screwdriver was not available in any prison Workshop the only solution was to find someone out of prison who could get them the screwdriver they needed Richard knew right away who he was going to Target he was going to Target the head of the sewing Workshop who was a lady called Joyce Mitchell Richard and David both used to go to the sewing Workshop in prison Joyce Mitchell was in her late 40s and she was in a bad relationship with her husband she was in an unhappy marriage so Richard started to get close to her and talk to her as we mentioned before Richard was good at manipulating people so Richard started to get close to Joyce and convince her that he loved her and they started to get into a relationship Little by Little Richard started to ask her for some simple things things that were not allowed to be given to him but at the same time things that were not dangerous the first thing he asked for was a pair of glasses with LED lights that helped with reading at night because the light turns off in the cells after 10:00 so Joyce brought him the glasses and Richard kept asking for simple things from time to time things that were not appealing to suspicions we can say that it was like he was pulling her little by little towards something bigger no matter how strong their relationship was and no matter how much Joyce fulfilled his requests it would be difficult for him to ask her for a screwdriver without the risk of her turning on him so Richard needed something that would assure him that she would never turn on him imagine that he asked her for obscene pictures of her of course you would say that it is impossible to accept something like this she would not be that stupid but once again let me remind you that Richard was malicious he knew how to manipulate people and persuade them eventually he managed to convince choyce that he loved her and in the end he was able to convince her to give him the pictures now after he had the pictures Richard knew that Joyce had become a toy in his hands and he could manipulate her as he pleased and ask her for anything even if she didn't obey him out of love she would definitely obey him out of fear of Scandal and indeed Richard asked her to bring him the Torx bit he needed with which he would be able to unscrew the lock screws on the cell door choyce brought the screwdriver bit and gave it to him in the workshop but now Richard's next task is to smuggle it from the workshop to the cell because when the prisoners leave the workshop they are thoroughly searched with metal detectors so how can Richard avoid the search without being discovered imagine that Richard had a headphone it was allowed for the prisoners to use such things in their lives inside the prison the headphone had metal inside and the metal detector would make a sound when it passed through it so Richard put the screwdriver bit in inside an empty place in the headphone Richard was able to go through the search and get out of the workshop without any problems and when he arrived at the cell he handed the screwdriver bit over to his neighbor David sweat David started trying to use the Torx bit to unscrew the lock screws for several days each one kept trying to unscrew the lock of his cell but it was not working here the two partners realized that their plan would not work the first attempt failed faed but this did not mean that Richard and David would surrender or give up the idea of the escape on the contrary they became more persistent and immediately started thinking of an alternative plan this time David started thinking saying that if we can't get out of the doors we must get another exit and the first thing that came to his mind was the vent every prison cell has a vent in the back wall and David knew that if he could open this vent he would ENT under the place known as the catwalks which is a term used to refer to the back area behind the prison cells which looks like a tunnel where the power lines and ventilation pipes are extended and all the extensions that the prison cells need David had actually entered the catwalk several times before he was allowed to enter to do some electrical repairs on some of the cells because as we said the prison uses prisoners for repairs manual work renovation and things like that David entered the catwalk several times so he knew the place and the kind of back extensions for David to enter that space he needs a tool to cut the cover of the vent opening so that he can remove it to go through here it was Richard's turn to get the right tools of course they needed a sharp tool to cut out the vent cover Richard immediately thought about Joyce he asked her to bring him hacksaw blades these blades were bigger than the screwdriver bit so he couldn't place them inside the headphones as he did the first time here came the turn of Richard's second Ally Joyce wasn't the only person Richard manipulated during the years that Richard spent in damura prison he got to know a guard named Jean Balmer Jean was the guard supervisor in the prison Ward where Richard was Richard and Jean had an unofficial agreement that Richard would maintain calm and stability in that prison Ward due to his strong personality Richard was like a leader and had control over the prisoners and in return the guard Jean will allow him to get some special privileges of course these privileges did not include the ability to smuggle dangerous items or tools that could help him Escape Richard didn't tell the guard Jean that he wanted to smuggle hacksaw blades but he took advantage of his friendship with Jean to leave the sewing Workshop without being searched when Richard entered the sewing Workshop he took the hacksaw blades from Joy went to the bathroom and stuck them on his chest he left the bathroom and pretended to be suffering from a stomach ache in such a situation the procedure is that a guard comes and accompanies The Prisoner to his cell after searching for him but in this case the accompanying guard was Jean Jean accompanied Richard and let him get out of the workshop and return to his cell without being searched with a metal detector because they were friends as we mentioned before for however Jean didn't know that Richard was smuggling hacksaw blades afterward Richard handed over some of the blades to David and each of them began to cut out the cover of the back vent opening of his cell of course they were Keen to cut at noisy times when there was more disturbance especially at night when some prisoners are watching television in the movie room while other prisoners are playing card games and others are still working in the kitchen the disturbance should be as loud as possible so that no one can hear the sound of the cutting after 3 weeks of cutting David managed to cut the opening cover of his cellb back vent completely while Richard was still working on it before David Goes Down to the back space or the catwalks he has to do a little trick as camouflage so that no one would discover his absence he takes clothes and puts them under the quilt and shapes them in a way that gives the appearance of someone sleeping on the bed and covers it with a blanket completely which was allowed and normal in New York prisons there was no law that forbids prisoners to cover their entire body while sleeping and of course at the same time Richard will keep an eye on the place and his mission is to distract any guard who may approach David's cell and suspect that something is happening so every night before bedtime the guards do the final check for the prisoners and every prisoner must be in his C after that they turn off the lights and every prisoner sleeps after the final check is done and the lights are turned off David immediately gets out of the cell through the opening of the back vent from the first night David went down to the catalks he was able to crawl until he reached the ladder that leads to the underground tunnels which are a large tunnel Network located under the prison through which huge pipes are extended such as Steam pipes that are used for heating during the winter as well as water heaters and other things that need to be extended in large spaces this tunnel network was a huge space to the point that David didn't know exactly where to go he was even surprised that there were no doors or partitions separating these tunnels all of them were open to each other and were extended under the entire area of the prison David began to go down every night from his cell and discover these underground tunnels looking for a way out but after several nights of exploration David realized why there were no doors or partitions to separate these tunnel networks it is true that the tunnels are open to each other but there is no way to get out of them all of them are a huge closed Network to each other without a way out after a week Richard finally managed to remove the cover of the vent opening of his cell but the two partners agreed that David would continue to discover the underground tunnels because of his agility and lightness unlike Richard who was fat but the problem now is that David has been going down to these tunnels every night for a week without a result so they needed a new plan after a while of thinking they got an idea next to the prison there was a power generation station that was about 200 M away from the prison wall this station extended the prison with energy and steam so if David could find the pipes that lead to the power station he could find a way out David kept exploring these pipes for several additional nights until he finally reached his goal David found two large steam pipes labeled in and out the pipe labeled in is the one that leads the steam from the Power Station to the prison and the pipe labeled out is the one that gets the steam from the prison to the power station David kept following these pipes for a long distance under the prison hoping that in the end it would lead to the power station he hoped that this this way would pass under the huge walls of the prison David kept following the pipes until he reached the end but the end was not as he hoped for David reached a wall through which the pipes passed the happy thing is that this was not the thick wall of the prison David concluded that when they built the prison they did not care about fortifying the walls of the underground tunnels it was a normal wall which is much easier to break through than the 2 m thick wall although David did not have any suitable digging tools except for the hacksaw blades he started working immediately and began digging in the wall with blades that were not designed for digging at all he knew that it would take time but at least it was possible so David kept digging every night he was digging in the cement that sticks the stones together the process was very slow but he was making progress the situation remained the same for about a month until one night David found a treasure when David came out of his cell that night while walking in the tunnel he saw a big red box he opened it and he was surprised by all the kinds of tools he hoped for in fact this box was the toolbx of workers who worked in the maintenance Works inside the prison tunnels this box was not supposed to be there but these workers were not prisoners and when they entered the prison they had to be searched so as to reduce the time of the search while entering the prison from the main gate the deputy chief of the prison allowed them to keep their tools in the tunnel away from the prisoners they had never expected that there would be prisoners who could reach this place without permission the most important tool that David got in the Box was a hammer the hammer would help him break through the wall much faster than he expected David kept digging for 2 weeks until he finally opened a wide opening in the wall that he could go through he was so happy that he could get out of the hole he had dug but this happiness was destroyed when David realized that this was not the last wall he saw another wall through which the pipes passed and when he approached the wall he realized that this was not an ordinary wall it was an extension of the huge outer wall that was 2 m thick David was standing in front of the wall in a State of Shock after all this work and effort is this the result in the end it is impossible to accept this David returned turned to the cell and told Richard about the wall the two partners decided to keep digging in this wall until they reached the other side no matter how long the process took even if it took 10 or 20 years it does not matter they will continue they even laughed when they remembered that the hero of the famous movie The Shashank Redemption took 20 years to dig a tunnel to escape from prison the two partners took turns every night digging in the huge wall each time one of them them went down and duck it was very difficult the slow progress demoralized them especially with the amount of effort expended imagine going down every night to dig with all your effort for hours and hours and only seeing a simple trivial result however Richard and David continued to dig every day until one night when David opened the red toolbox and found a digging drill he was happy finally they have a tool that can really help them dig the huge wall even with the use of the drill it would take a long time but at least now it has become more realistic and possible but the problem is that the drill did not have a drill bit David went back to his cell and told Richard about it Richard was happy with the news and immediately began to think about how he could find a drill bit of course the first person Richard thought about was Joyce Joyce would definitely get the drill bit because she is now considered a partner in the operation a she even agreed with them that when they escaped from the prison she would be waiting for them outside in her car to escape and in the end the three of them would go to Mexico and live there Richard was sure that Joyce would get the drill bit but he did not know how he could smuggle it to the cell after a while of thinking he got the right idea the prisoners could buy food from the prison cafeteria but everything in this cafeteria was cooked it was not allowed for the prison to take something uncooked with them although this was against the rules it was common for guards to allow the smuggling of raw meat for prisoners who have a good relationship with them and of course Richard had an excellent friendship with the guard Jean Balmer whom we mentioned before Richard told Joyce to bring drill bits put them inside raw meat and then freeze the meat and give it to the guard Jean to deliver it to him indeed this is what happened Joyce followed Richard's instructions put the drill bits inside the meat and handed over the meat to the guard Jean who took it from her and delivered it to Richard of course Jean did not know that this meat had drill bits inside he knew that what he did was against the rules and that smuggling such things to the prisoners was forbidden but he did not know that he was helping Richard Escape that night David went down to the tunnels with the drillbits he was excited that the real digging operation would finally begin but his excitement evaporated in a moment when he found out that the red tool locks was not in place the Box disappeared David was disappointed he felt like the world was against him once again he went back to the starting point the only thing that was left for him was the hammer because it was not inside the toolbox but was next to it the situation was very tense but Richard and David decided to continue they had to get out of this place no matter how they continued the same way hitting the wall and digging and using the hammer this lasted for several days specifically until May 4 2015 on this date a great transformation happened and an unexpected exit was opened for them during the past period that they were working on digging this wall there were hot steam pipes next to them and they were feeling the heat but that night David did not feel any heat coming from the pites he realized that the prison had stopped the hot steam that was used to heat up because the winter was over and it was summer this pipe in front of David was a large pipe with a 60 cm diameter which would be large enough to enter through it may be a bit tight for his friend Richard but this pipe is the exit so immediately David informed Richard about the situation and he was very happy but he knew that at the same time he would need to lose weight to be able to get out through this pipe from that moment on he began a very severe diet he almost didn't need anything except when he was forced to he was only living with water at the same time David started to go down every night to the steam pipe and cut it out with the hacksaw blades he had the process was slow but he was trying to make big progress little by little within a week he was able to cut out an opening in this pipe David entered the pipe and it was clear that this pipe went through the outer wall of the prison the two meter thick wall that they were unable to dig this pipe was really their way out finally they got the exit that they had been looking for all these past months but there was still one problem now they had to open another opening in the pipe after the wall meaning that he had to enter the pipe crawl until he crossed the wall and then cut out another opening from inside the pipe however cutting out the pipe from the inside was a thousand times harder than cutting it from the outside the pipe from the inside was narrow and David could barely move let alone cut the pipe from the inside nevertheless David was determined to finish this job he kept working on this operation and kept coming down every night and cutting until he finally managed to open a hole from the inside after 3 weeks of work David got out of the hole and found himself in a new tunnel he was sure that he had crossed the huge wall of the prison but he didn't know exactly where he was he kept walking a bit inside the tunnel and he immediately realized where he was through the smell that he smelled David had never in his life been so glad to smell such an unpleasant smell as he was this time when he realized he had reached the town's sewage system as he walked a bit along the tunnel he found a ladder that led to the sewer system opening he went up using the ladder opened the manhole cover and found himself in the streets of the Town David was over the moon to the point that he thought about escaping and leaving Richard behind but after a while he decided to calm down close the cover go back to the tunnel and then to his cell when Richard heard the news he was so happy and the two partners started preparing themselves for the big escape the next morning Richard told Joyce that they were going to escape that night at 11:30 p. m. and told her where the tunnel LED so she could wait for them there in her car that night on June 6 2015 Richard and David left their cells after putting their clothes under their bellies they went through the tunnels until they reached the pipe David passed through the pipe easily followed by Richard but the latter despite losing a lot of weight in the past month got stuck and couldn't quit crawl he panicked and started yelling at David who asked him to be quiet otherwise they were going to be exposed David tried to calm him down and threw him a bed sheet that they had taken from the prison trying to pull him after suffering they finally managed to get to the second opening and get out of the pipe fortunately for them apparently no one had heard Richard screaming anyway David and Richard arrived at the ladder and David went up to the manhole cover and took a look to make sure that Joyce was there and waiting for them in her car however he turned his head in all directions and there was no trace of Joyce or her car then he went down again and told Richard about it Richard asked him to wait a few more minutes what they didn't know was that Joyce in fact was afraid of this operation and was in a state of panic to the point that she went to the hospital the two partners waited for her for about a quarter of an hour hour until midnight David went out again to see if she had come but she wasn't there David and Richard realized that they had to leave this place right away because it was 12 a.
m. and there were only 5 hours left for the morning check for the prisoners so they didn't have time to waste they had to leave this area as soon as possible at 5:00 a. m.
