conniving, psychotic he beat loved ones. and he had no emotion towards anybody. reporter: like sweat, matt had been a troubled youth and grew up in foster homes near buffalo, new york. he had a history of violence graduating from juvenile facilities to prison and at just 19, he made his first prison break. lee bates was just 20 in 1997 when he got to know matt near buffalo occasionally driving him to local nightclubs. bates says one day matt known locally as rick asked for a ride to see his former boss, 76-year-old food wholesaler william rickerson. matt said rickerson owed him money. mr. rickerson came and let us into the house. rick had directed his voice at mr. rickerson. i m here to get my money. where s where s your money?
like that, and he would trade it with the other inmates for different foods to give to mr. sweat. reporter: kinda prison currency? yeah. reporter: and because she could apparently get through prison security unchecked the prison door became a revolving door. in addition to the affection she received joyce traded the baked treats for, of all things, artwork. it s widely known that richard matt was a talented artist. yes. reporter: which sounds strange for a guy with his criminal record. yes. reporter: matt painted portraits of celebrities marilyn monroe, julia roberts, bill and hillary clinton, president obama and others. when you were doing favors for him, was he repaying you with artwork? i did get two paintings from him. one was of my son and one was of our dogs. reporter: but to get richard matt s artwork out of
all i know is mr. matt came in and said, palmer s gonna come and get the hamburger. but whether mr. palmer actually knew, i have no idea. reporter: joyce, who says she was being threatened by richard matt, and lived under a cloud of intense fear didn t breathe a word of what was happening to anyone. reporter: i ve never been in prison, but i will tell you, if i were you, i think i would have said, i m gonna go home. i m gonna get my husband. i m gonna get him in a car, and we re gonna go to the police. and i m gonna tell the police with my husband next to me, so i know nobody can harm him, exactly what s going on here. i shoulda done that. but i was too scared. because mr. matt even asked where my mother lived, where my son lived. he could have beat me, he coulda done whatever he wanted to me, but i wasn t gonna let him hurt my husband or my family. reporter: whatever the truth, joyce continued to help the two killers.
and he knew david sweat and richard matt as well? yes. in some odd way, you were getting from these prisoners, in terms of a relationship, what you didn t feel you were getting from your husband at home? yes. reporter: and that spelled trouble. david sweat and richard matt now had their hooks into joyce, and were gently reeling her in. they had a dream of escaping the prison, and they were working on a plan to make it happen. all they needed was an accomplice on the inside, and joyce was it. it was time to put her to work. coming up. joyce starts smuggling in treats. i would bring cookies, brownies. and digging herself in ever deeper. did you ever tell your husband that you were doing any of this? he didn t know a lot of what i was doing. no.
reporter: but he never saw you leaving in the morning with a buncha brownies or cookies and said, why you taking those to work? no, because i would make his lunch just like i would make my own. reporter: and she simply took the cookies and brownies with her lunch to the tailor shop. how often did you do that, joyce? i did it a lot. reporter: were you ever nervous? were you afraid you d get caught doin it? i actually was, because they re supposed to check our bags every morning when we come in. and they re supposed to check em when you go out. but they never did. reporter: and then how would you get them to mr. sweat? mr. matt would take them. reporter: she says along with the cookies she passed racy notes and photos to sweat using matt as a go-between. so matt upped the ante. he next asked for a pair of sparring gloves. joyce delivered again; and also slipped him some treats of his own. i did get him some salts, like, season salts and stuff