These days with my writing, I’m focusing more on romantic
suspense and very often things that happen in the media pique my curiosity
enough for me to research the subject for a possible inclusion in future
stories. One in particular that caught my eye, is the recent news release
about Joyce E. Mitchell, an employee of the Clinton Correctional Facility in
Dannemora, New York who helped two convicted killers escape to their freedom.
After the break out, investigators found that the two
inmates used makeshift dummies to fool guards into believing they were asleep
in their bunks. These men then cut through the walls of their adjoining cells using
the tools provided to them by Mitchell, and managed to escape through a
steam pipe in the bowels of the prison where they cut an entrance and crawled
to freedom.
Here’s what confuses me about this story. Mitchell was
a fifty-one year old woman who was obviously bamboozled by their attentiveness,
but to fall for two known convicted killers and help them escape just boggles
my mind. The Plan, as reported by the local media, says she ultimately backed
out of that plan which involved killing her husband and serving as the getaway
driver because she possibly “feared for her life.” I think that fear is very real at this point,
but I don’t think it will be these two inmates who’ll be doing it.
Further investigation revealed she’d been romantically
involved with these two men, and at one time, was being investigated by the
prison officials for getting too close with an inmate.
So, here’s what I want to know. Where were the prison
guards? Were they making rounds each night the way they were supposed to? If
she was physically involved, where could they go to be alone without being
noticed or heard? We’re talking too different sections of the prison here. Was
she the only one involved, or did she have an accomplice? How did the inmates
hide their progress? And lastly, how did the noise of the power tools go
unnoticed by the guards?
Well, I just heard the news: One of the escapees, 51
year old, Richard Matt, has been shot and killed. Campers in the wooded area near
an abandoned cabin reported hearing shots fired and called police who searched
the area by foot with K-9s, and overhead aircraft. After a three-week search,
they finally found him with a 20-guage shotgun. The defiant Matt refusing to
put his gun down after several warnings, police took matters into their own
hands. Matt had to know he’d never get out alive so took the easy way out. Is this considered, “suicide by cop”?
