Murderer in N.Y. prison break on third escape attempt

NEW YORK – A daring weekend escape from a New York state maximum-security penitentiary, the facility’s first prison break, marked at least the third time convicted murderer Richard Matt had moved to bust out from behind bars.

As authorities searched for a fourth day for Matt, 48, and his fellow convicted killer David Sweat, 34, details emerged showing that the older inmate had twice tried to escape prison, once successfully.

Large numbers of officers converged on Tuesday on the town of Willsboro, N.Y., about 64 km south of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, N.Y., from which they had escaped, following a reported sighting of the pair.

“We are continuing to pursue that lead down in Willsboro but it would be inaccurate to say they are cornered,” said Beau Duffy, spokesman for New York State Police.

Duffy declined to comment on whether anyone was being questioned.

Matt’s son, Nicholas Harris, 23, of Angola, N.Y., told the Buffalo News his father had a history of prison escapes.

“He has escaped before,” he was quoted as saying.

Matt fled upstate New York’s Erie County Correctional Facility in 1986. He scaled a wall and gate topped with razor wire that slashed his forearms and remained on the loose for five days before he was caught at a family apartment in Tonawanda, N.Y., near Buffalo, his son told the newspaper.