Richard William Matt (June 25, 1966 – June 26, 2015) was an American convicted felon known for several prison escapes, most notably the 2015 Clinton Correctional Facility escape.

Murders

On December 3, 1997, Richard Matt attacked his 72-year-old boss, William Rickerson, in his North Tonawanda home. After attacking him, Matt forced Rickerson into his trunk and drove to New York. Matt believed Rickerson had large sums of money in his possession and demanded to know its location. Later, Matt broke Rickerson's neck with his bare hands. He then dismembered the body and fled to Mexico to avoid capture. While in Mexico, Matt served nine years for murdering a man outside a bar. In 2007, he was returned to the U.S., where he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder.

Prison escapes

When approximately 13 years old, Matt escaped from a group home, hiding in Allegany State Park and taking food and other supplies from vacation homes. He had been remanded to the home for stealing a houseboat.

In June 1986, he climbed a fence to escape from the Erie County Correctional Facility. He had been serving a one-year sentence for assault. According to retired Tonawanda policeman David Bently, Matt evaded police for four days, hopping a freight train to his brother's house in Tonawanda where he was ultimately apprehended.

In 1991, Matt convinced fellow prisoner David Telstar to pay $15,000 bail to get him released while awaiting trial for rape and assault. Matt then informed on Telstar, who pleaded guilty to promising Matt an additional $100,000 in a murder-for-hire scheme. Matt did not receive a reduced sentence for informing.

Prior to 2007, Matt nearly escaped from a prison in Mexico, climbing to the roof before being shot by guards. According to his son, "He's been shot like nine times. It's like they can't kill him." Though not convicted of a crime, he had been sent to the prison by Mexican authorities for beating or stabbing an American man to death outside a bar, while staying in Mexico as a fugitive from charges stemming from Rickerson's murder in the United States. He was extradited to the United States in 2007. According to court reporter Rick Pfeiffer, the Mexican government placed him without explanation on a plane with a drug kingpin they had agreed to extradite because he had 'been such a difficult prisoner.'

During his trial for the murder of Rickerson, authorities suspected he had a plan to escape from Niagara County Jail. Matt was made to wear a stun belt and snipers were posted outside the courtroom to prevent his escape.

Clinton Correctional escape

On June 6, 2015, while serving a life sentence for Rickerson's murder, then 48-year-old Matt and 34-year-old David Sweat made an elaborate escape from the maximum security Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York and became the objects of a trans-national manhunt. The escape, which has been compared to Stephen King's The Shawshank Redemption and brought out New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to survey their escape route, involved the use of power tools to tunnel out of the facility to an "external breach" approximately 500 feet (150 m) south of the prison wall. The two men had first won privileged housing in Honor Block, a unit with larger cells available only to prisoners with years without a disciplinary infraction.

Prior to the escape, he traded skilled artwork of famous people with a prison guard.

Death

On June 26, 2015, the two were spotted by law enforcement in Franklin County, New York, after Matt shot at the driver of a passing RV. In the subsequent encounter with responding police, Matt was shot and killed. He died a day after his 49th birthday.

On the same day Reuters spoke with Joseph D'Amico, superintendent of the New York State Police who, according to Reuters' summary, indicated that officers "confronted Matt in the woods outside..and warned the convict to drop the firearm he was holding. When Matt failed to comply, the Border Patrol agents shot and killed him, even though the escapee fired no shots of his own." Reuters added that D'Amico "declined to elaborate further."