About this item
It was one of the biggest crime stories of the decade - two deadly killers, desperate and on the run. After months of planning, Ricky Matt and David Sweat cut, chopped, coerced, and connived their way out of a maximum-security prison in the wilderness of upstate New York and managed to elude police for three weeks, sending the region into lockdown and keeping the entire country on edge. The media called it "a bold escape for the ages," and veteran true-crime writer Michael Benson leads us along the story's every wild path to dig out a tale of adventure, psychology, sex, and brutality. Escape from Dannemora examines the strange case of Joyce Mitchell, the long-time prison employee who had a sexual relationship with at least one of the killers, and who smuggled them tools and aided in the escape, while they cooked up a plan to kill her husband.
About the Author
Michael Benson is one of today's most popular true-crime writers. His books--including Betrayal In Blood, Murder In Connecticut, Killer Twins, The Burn Farm, Mommy Deadliest, A Killer's Touch, Evil Season, and The Devil at Genesee Junction--tell vividly of today's most heinous criminals, and the clever and stalwart lawmen who bring them to justice. He is currently a regular commentator for two true-crime series, Evil Twins and Evil Kin, on the Investigation Discovery (I.D.) channel, and had also made guest appearances on that channel's Evil Stepmoms, Deadly Sins, Southern Fried Homicide, and On the Case with Paula Zahn. Benson's most recent crime book, The Devil at Genesee Junction, tells the story of his return to the scene of a childhood trauma. Two of his friends were murdered and mutilated near his rural home south of Rochester, N.Y. when he was nine. Those murders were never solved. As an adult and veteran true-crime writer, Benson teamed up with the mother of one of the victims and a local private investigator to heat up that cold case and propel it in a startling new direction. During his three decades as a professional writer, Benson has worked closely with a retired Army Intelligence agent during the tense days after 9/11 for a book about the CIA, and with a retired FBI agent for a book about National Security; co-written two books with a former New York Police Department "Cop of the Year"; explored the Grassy Knoll in Dallas with a former KGB agent while researching his much-acclaimed Who's Who in the JFK Assassination; collaborated efficiently with an astronaut; and covered the Stephen Hayes triple-murder trial in New Haven, Ct., for the New York Post. Benson has a B.A. with honors in Communication Arts from Hofstra University, and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. He is the winner of an Academy of American Poets award.Early reviews for THE DEVIL AT GENESEE JUNCTION:Kathleen P. MunleyTrue crime author Michael Benson has written a deeply thoughtful and intriguing work of the horrific and unsolved murders of two young women from upstate New York that occurred some forty-nine years ago. A youngster at the time of the murders, the victims were neighbors of the author and their deaths deeply impacted his and the lives of the entire community. Written over an extended period of time, beginning in his youth, then in the 1980s and 1990s, and, finally, from 2011 to 2015, the author, in effect, reopens the case taking his readers on a protracted investigation into the crimes that includes consideration of "likely suspects" who got away with the murders. Along the route, readers are introduced to the people, places, and events that were the setting for the murders. The book is made even more interesting for the reader by the author's consideration of possible connections between the murders and those of others that occurred in various places in the United States around the same time. A really goo
