without parole at clinton. his best friend there was his cell neighbor perhaps the most dangerous inmate inside clinton correctional facility. his name was richard matt a hefty man in his late 40 s. he also worked in the tailor shop, where joyce came to care about him too. reporter: when you started talking to richard matt, did you guys have anything in common? not really. no. reporter: so your conversations consisted of: what can i learn about your family? yeah, pretty much. he was a very outgoing person. reporter: unlike the reserved, cautious david sweat, joyce says without her even asking, richard matt bragged about the crimes he d committed. they were even more savage than sweat s. the richard matt that i knew manipulator, evil, cunning,
went to the superiors, i guess, if that s what you wanna call them. and i made the complaint that they were saying stuff that was untrue. you thought your reputation was being sullied. yes. and they they came, they investigated it, and they found nothing. reporter: yet that episode didn t seem to deter joyce from becoming close with another murderer sweat s buddy, richard matt. how long did it take, mrs. mitchell, for you to consider him to be a friend, as opposed to just another inmate? it took a little while, but he was in different shops with me, too. you know, he always had said, you know, you don t ever have to worry. if something happens, no one will ever hurt you. you know, we ll make sure that you re you re safe. what do you think he meant by that? explain that for me, within the context of life in a prison. you ve heard stories where inmates will take civillians
joyce s good nature. two others, prison buddies, both convicted of murder, saw it, too, but they saw it as a weakness to exploit. one was david sweat. dave s crime was probably at the top of the hierarchy inside the prison system for most respectable crimes. he killed a law enforcement officer. it s a sick and twisted mentality. the other was richard matt. the word on rick was that he liked to boil hot water with baby oil in and throw it on people s faces. that s what the word about rick was in clinton. sweat and matt were lifers with time on their hands. and it was in that tailor shop that they would hatch the prison break plot that would terrify upstate new york. and trance fsfix the nation. they would begin by working on joyce, trying to turn her by turning on the charm. -day think that she enjoyed the male attention. i think that she enjoyed coming to work and having you know, people compliment her. and soon joyce mitchell would find herself falling deeply and
and punched mr. rickerson in the face. reporter: matt and bates tied rickerson up with duct tape and bundled him into the trunk of bates s car. for nearly 30 hours, they drove around, matt occasionally stopping to beat his boss some more even breaking his fingers. mr. rickerson had told mister richard matt, i ll take you to the money. let me outta here. i ll take you to the money. reporter: bates says he protested when matt poked a knife sharpener like this one into rickerson s ear. and it was at that point that richard matt had wanted to kill me. and he told richard matt, leave the kid out of this. it s between you and me. richard matt in a more more than a fit of rage, walked to mr. rickerson with the trunk open in my car and snapped his neck. i couldn t stop him. reporter: but that wasn t the end of it. matt used a hacksaw to cut up
prison, joyce needed help. she says she relied on a 27-year veteran of the prison service officer gene palmer a so-called snitch officer who had extensive dealings with matt and sweat. inmate matt and inmate sweat were both snitches, and they would tell officer palmer who s doing what. you tell him who the gang leaders are, who the gang members are, who has you know, the weapons. reporter: and in exchange for that information, palmer did favors like getting matt s artwork out of the prison. so, when those two paintings ended up in your home, did lyle see them, and did he say, how did these end up in your possession? what kind of relationship do you have with richard matt? he didn t really question it. he didn t know that they were even coming in until after the fact. reporter: he didn t send up a red flag and say, wait a minute, if you re getting paintings from him, this could be trouble for you and for us? he did afterwards tell me, you know, you shouldn t be