Richard Matt | I’m Related to a Killer | Forensic Files

[thoughtful music] BOB DICESARE: Richard Matt was talented. You have to be smart to orchestrate
an escape from prison. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: He was the most cunning, evil, sadistic person I ever investigated in 38 years.
BOB DICESARE: The idea of torturing another human being for $10,000, killing that person,
it's just evil. It's evil. JAMIE SCALISE: He dismembered the body with a hacksaw blade and disposed of it
in the Niagara River behind me here. [intriguing music] GABRIEL D. BERNADO: After all these years,
it's still a puzzle-- how a man can be that cruel. JAMIE SCALISE: I get a phone call saying,
your father has escaped from prison, and there's a helicopter over your house. This was a real-life "Shawshank Redemption."
SWAT teams combing back yards, looking for him. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: It just blows my mind how they did
this, how they pulled this off. JAMIE SCALISE: I spent my whole life trying to not
be Richard Matt's daughter. And you know what? I'm Richard Matt's daughter. I can't change that.
[title music] [thoughtful music] GABRIEL D. BERNADO: I can see it was just like it was yesterday.
It's still in my mind, and it will always be in my mind. My name is Gabriel D. Bernardo.
I was a police officer for 38 years. On January 5th, 1998, I remember I was on duty
at 2:45 in the afternoon. A fisherman had recovered a body-- or a body part. So I went down to the scene.
I came about here, and I actually walked through this area over here, on the rocks,
down by the rocks. I got right close to the water. And it was a human torso. And so I confirmed it.
I radioed back, and I said, send the dive team down here. NARRATOR: Police forensics identified the torso found
in the Niagara River as belonging to 76-year-old William Rickerson. He had been strangled to death, and his body
had been cut up using a saw. A disgruntled ex-employee was the prime suspect. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: Why a human being would
do this to another human being, I still don't understand it why. 28 years later, and that case is still with me.
I could not believe that my ex-husband was a brutal killer. [sentimental music] LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: My name is Lucy Longo.
I am the ex-wife of Richard Matt, and I was married to him for two years. I met Richard Matt in 1987.
I was 27, and he was 21. Richard and I met at my niece's house. I was introduced to him as Rick, so I called him Rick.
He was very handsome. He was funny. He just seemed like a real nice guy. NARRATOR: Lucy and Richard soon began a romantic relationship.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: It was a whirlwind romance, absolutely. Rick loved the outdoors, so we'd go to the park a lot.
We'd go camping. But it was a short period of time, like within maybe a six-month span,
if that, that he proposed to me, which was a shock, threw me by surprise. But I was pretty excited.
[thoughtful music] NARRATOR: Richard Matt was born on June 25th, 1966. He was the second eldest of his 12 siblings
who all grew up together in a foster family in North Tonawanda near Niagara Falls and the Canadian border.
Before he turned 18, Matt had already been in serious trouble with the law. BOB DICESARE: He was actually accused of an assault by a woman
that he had been living with at that time, and he did end up serving time for that.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I knew that he had gotten into some trouble in the past and that he was out on parole.
I just assumed it was minor things. It wasn't really discussed a whole lot. The way I saw things was, he has a past,
but everybody deserves a second chance. ANJULA MUTANDA: When we first meet someone new
who we are attracted to, what tends to happen between two people is, we look for things in common.
Even if they might have been things that she wasn't sure of, she might have just sort of selected them out and pushed
them to the side, which is pretty common when we first get together with someone.
NARRATOR: After a year of dating, the couple married at their local church on June 15th, 1988.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: It was a beautiful, sunny day, and this is one of the happiest days of my life.
[sentimental music] I remember how excited I was and how handsome he looked. And we were gonna start a new life together.
One year and five days later was the happiest day of my life-- --when I gave birth to my daughter, Jamie.
JAMIE SCALISE: My name is Jamie Scalise. I'm the daughter of Richard Matt. My mom being the youngest of four and the only girl
was a daddy's girl herself, so I think she wanted that opportunity, at least, for me, to say,
she tried to implement that relationship. And if he reciprocated, that would be his choice.
[thoughtful music] LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: My father was my knight in shining armor, and more than anything, that is what I wanted for my daughter.
After Jamie was born, I recall clearly that Rick came up to the hospital with one of his buddies.
I was so excited when they first walked in. The nurse brought Jamie in, and they stayed
for less than 15 minutes. I was crushed. I'm just looking over at my baby. It was heartbreaking.
NARRATOR: By 1990, just two years into the marriage, Matt had become an absent figure in the lives of his family,
spending time away from the home and not being there for his baby daughter. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: His personality
kind of changed a little bit. He would go out late at night. He told me that he was meeting one of his old buddies
that he was a cell mate with. Don't worry about it. Everything is fine. NARRATOR: Matt was also back on the wrong side of the law.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: Richard got into some trouble. He was sent to Attica prison, and I
don't even remember exactly what he did that he's in Attica. But we had communication again, trying to still make
the marriage work, even though my whole heart was telling me otherwise. NARRATOR: That same year, Lucy and Richard
divorced, and he disappeared from their lives completely. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: My main goal was to protect Jamie.
We got to change her last name. I had no money, so my father ended up paying a lawyer to legally change
her name to my maiden name. JAMIE SCALISE: I don't think I knew for a while that I was born a Matt.
I really didn't know much of him. He wasn't spoke of. I just knew he was somebody that wasn't in my life,
that I really wasn't overly invited to talk about it. My mom was a single parent for a while,
for all of my adolescence, really, growing up. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: My job is to protect
my daughter from this point on. I am now her mother. I am now her father. I am now her provider, and I am now her protector.
[thoughtful music] NARRATOR: For the next seven years, Jamie grew up with her mom at their home in Tonawanda.
In 1997, Richard Matt would dramatically reappear as part of a murder investigation.
GABRIEL D. BERNADO: On December 5th, 1997, we got a report of a missing person--
Mr. William Rickerson. He was what they call a food broker. He used to sell food wholesale to local restaurants.
He was missing for a couple of days. NARRATOR: Gabe brought his detectives to William Richardson's empty property to investigate.
We had checked the upper part of the house. Nothing seemed to be really disturbed.
One of my detectives, he goes down the cellar and finds one drop of blood at the bottom of the stairs.
So something bad had happened here. Something bad. NARRATOR: A month later, a human torso washed up on the shores
of the Niagara River. I'll never forget it because I went down there, and sure enough, right there, there was a lower portion of the human body
floating in the water. I brought my dive team in there, and it's cold as hell. The dive team worked in terrible conditions.
They recovered legs, pajamas. NARRATOR: DNA testing on the blood spot in the house,
as well as body parts, confirmed both belonged to the missing William Rickerson.
A missing person inquiry had turned into a homicide. Police began their investigation by talking to William
Rickerson's employees. They quickly learned that a worker who had been fired by Rickerson held a grudge
against his former employer. [intriguing music] BOB DICESARE: Richard Matt felt that he
was owed money after being fired when he worked for Rickerson. Also, he had heard that Rickerson
had $10,000 in that house. That's probably was his real motivation. He wants the money.
NARRATOR: Richard Matt had a plan on how to get it. [music intensifies] On the evening of December 4th, Matt called an acquaintance,
Lee Bates, and then asked for a favor. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: He didn't have a car,
so Richard Matt calls Lee Bates. Lee Bates picks him up. NARRATOR: Matt instructed Bates to drive
him to the house of his former employer, William Rickerson. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: He knocks on the door,
and Rickerson opens the door. Richard Matt wants money and demands money. And Mr. Rickerson replies, he doesn't have any money.
At that point, Richard Matt hit him, knocks him down several times. And at one point, according to Lee Bates,
he actually put a knife sharpener into his ear and pushes it into his brain. That was his goal--
get him to talk. But Mr. Rickerson wouldn't talk. He wouldn't tell him where the money was.
[suspenseful music] They end up taking him, putting him in the trunk of their car, and going on a long drive
to Ohio and back, covering 300 miles. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: Every once in a while,
he would cry out in pain. I believe three ribs were broken, so that had to be painful, bouncing around in the trunk.
And no water, no food. BOB DICESARE: I'm sure at that point, Richard Matt's thought
was, we can't just let him go. If we let him go, we're doomed. We're gonna be fingered for this.
He knows who I am. Richard Matt, after punching Mr. Rickerson, strangled him somehow.
He dies in the trunk of the car. NARRATOR: Richard Matt and Lee Bates drove William Rickerson's body back to North Tonawanda,
to an island in the Niagara River. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: We're on Tonawanda island.
The island is used for boating and fishing. [thoughtful music] The day of the killing, he drove here with the body.
He hid the body by the trees and then came back two days later with a hacksaw, cut off the head, the arm, the legs,
and threw the body parts into the Niagara River. BOB DICESARE: River has a pretty good current to it.
Certain parts of that river, if I get that in there, they'll wash. They'll ultimately end up down Niagara Falls.
They'll end up in the lower Niagara. No one is gonna find this. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: If there's no body, there's no evidence.
He wanted to destroy the evidence. What better way? Cut him up and just throw him in the river.
[intriguing music] Then the fish will eat them, eat the body parts. NARRATOR: Within days of the torso being found,
21-year-old Lee Bates gave himself up to the police and confessed to being part of the murder of William Rickerson.
GABRIEL D. BERNADO: Richard Matt told him while we were doing all this, you open your mouth,
and I will kill you. He actually threatened Lee Bates. Oh god, yes. And Lee Bates knew Richard Matt meant it.
Oh god, yes. Lee Bates was fearful. But he still came forward, still give us all the facts.
He still did the right thing. BOB DICESARE: Lee Bates is granted a less harsh sentence
if he's willing to testify about Richard Matt and what actually took place then.
And he accepted that offer and testified that Matt had basically orchestrated everything.
NARRATOR: The hunt for Richard Matt was on. 31-year-old Richard Matt was on the run in Mexico after becoming
the prime suspect in the murder of his former boss, William Rickerson. [intriguing music]
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I was in disbelief, disgust. I was glad that I was no longer in his life or my daughter.
Like, you've got to be kidding me. Murder? Murder, really? NARRATOR: With her ex-husband on the news,
Lucy decided she had to tell their nine-year-old daughter, Jamie, about her father before she heard it from someone else.
JAMIE SCALISE: She told me the truth. She told me that he had murdered somebody,
that he had fled to Mexico right around that time. And that's why the officers were around,
people were coming to the house. She asked if I had any questions. I said no. It really wasn't a topic of open conversation.
So it was just something that was kept private, kind of that skeleton in the closet.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I said, so do you understand this? His name is never to be mentioned in this house, ever.
She says, OK, Mom. OK, Mom. And that was it. ANJULA MUTANDA: Lucy wants to protect her child
from any further distress. Jamie may have learnt in that moment that if she asks any more questions,
that might upset her mum. So they've both now gone into protection mode, one as a parent
and one as a child. And that can be a very difficult place to find yourself as a kid.
Jamie learns at that point to suppress any questioning about her dad. NARRATOR: Two months after Richard Matt had killed
his former boss, and as the police tried to track him down in Mexico, Matt killed again.
GABRIEL D. BERNADO: He had gone into a bar and gotten into a fight. For some reason, he had a knife, and he kills the man,
stabs him several times. BOB DICESARE: The man he killed was an American-- wrong place,
wrong time. A desperate man. Again, I need money. I need to survive. I'll do anything, at this point, right?
He'd already killed once. Does that surprise me? No, it doesn't. It doesn't surprise me one bit.
I'm surprised he didn't cut his head off after stabbing him nine times. He's such a-- [sighs] an evil person.
God. NARRATOR: Matt was arrested by the Mexican authorities and immediately placed into prison without trial.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: After I found out that he was arrested, I felt peaceful because if he did this,
he doesn't belong on the streets. With him in custody, I felt safe. [thoughtful music]
Richard didn't know where Jamie and I lived, so he would send letters to a mutual friend.
And they'd give me the letter and say, you decide what you want to do. Me being protective over her and wanting a good life for her,
I didn't want to give her these letters. I just wanted nothing to do with any of it.
I wanted to be as far away as possible. My main focus was to keep this little girl safe.
NARRATOR: In 2003, another letter arrived from Mexico. This time, Lucy handed it to Jamie.
LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: She's older now. Jamie's 14 years old. I'm not 100% sure why I decided to give her that letter.
Part of me just wanted her to know that as crazy as all the stuff that he's done,
she's still on his mind somewheres. He asked in that letter for me to possibly put aside
what I had heard about him and that it would have meant everything in the world to him
to have a relationship with me. And he knew what it was like at 14 to not have a father.
[somber music] I think for him, at that point, that guilt was setting in as to the repercussion of his actions.
And I kind of looked at it like, you're not around. You're not here anyways. Now you're gonna try and be a part of my life
through some measly letter? And I said-- I dismissed it, really. I have a father who has done bad things.
I have a father who is in a Mexican prison after fleeing from a murder. ANJULA MUTANDA: That speaks to someone who is struggling
to make sense of her father and his motives and his relationship to her. And at that point in time, it sounds like it's harmful,
but she doesn't know. [intriguing music] JAMIE SCALISE: My curiosity kicked in, but at that point,
I didn't want my mom to know I had questions. So my best friend and I went to the library,
and I started researching what came up about Richard Matt. I found out that my father was a monster.
I think that was the first time that I took in what he did. I must have looked in shock because I remember my girlfriend
saying, are you OK? So I must have lost color, looked frightened. And I just shook my head yes and kept reading.
I knew a murder happened. I didn't know that he was viewed by law enforcement like he was the most evil person that they had come across.
So I did not say anything to my mom. I kind of kept it a secret, and I was satisfied
with that at the time. I still didn't feel like I needed to contact my father. [intriguing music]
NARRATOR: In January, 2007, when Jamie was 17, Richard Matt was extradited back to the US
after serving nine years in the Mexican prison. GABRIEL D. BERNADO: The Mexican authorities
turned him over to us, then we could triumph our murder. He was back in the news.
There was that name again-- Richard Matt, the evil, manipulative person. This person to be feared is being brought back.
[thoughtful music] NARRATOR: The trial for the murder of William Rickerson began on March 10th, 2008-- over a decade
after the crime was committed. BOB DICESARE: The trial began in Niagara County court.
Three charges of second degree murder, three charges of first degree kidnapping, and a couple
charges of first degree robbery. And if I remember right, the trial lasted about one month.
The jury finds him guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. JAMIE SCALISE: He was a double murderer.
That sets a tone for how you feel about this person, about what happened, and about yourself, too.
You can't help but have that person's reflection and shame be projected onto you as a person
being a product of your blood. You're that person's relative. I'm that person's daughter.
[thoughtful music] NARRATOR: Matt's accomplice, Lee Bates, was already serving 15 years for second degree murder.
Richard Matt was sent to Clinton Correctional Facility, located in Dannemora, New York.
BOB DICESARE: Clinton Correctional is like this fortress that towers over everything.
Intimidating to look at that, to think, oh my gosh, what's it like to be inside there?
JAMIE SCALISE: I had no contact with him, but I thought about it more than I ever had in my life.
If I were to ever contact him, I wanted it to be on my own terms. [sentimental music]
NARRATOR: Three years later, in 2011, Jaime received another letter from her father, now aged 44.
JAMIE SCALISE: I was 21. I was married at the time, getting ready to buy my first home.
I was a young adult. I was on my own, and I was at a different point in life. And I remember I didn't open it in front of anybody.
This letter finally tugged at the heartstrings. He describes his treatment in Mexico.
I was tortured many times by the guards because I was an American. I was beaten until I passed out.
I was cut, stabbed, shot, starved, without food for days. I was placed 20 feet below the floor
in a hole for 27 months in darkness with cockroaches crawling all over me. As much as I wished for death down there,
I never gave up, and never let them break me. My will to live came from you. You were and are the most important thing to me in life.
That line really did captivate me and hit home, I think, like he intended the first letter to when I was 14.
Something about him saying that was just so special to me. [thoughtful music] And I felt like it was genuine and sincere
and that he truly wanted to meet me. He wanted to right the wrong of him not being a father.
And I knew it was time. I knew it was time to finally-- [music intensifies] --dive into this part of my life that I had put off for so long.
[intriguing music] NARRATOR: Richard Matt was a double murderer and serving a life sentence in Clinton Correctional
Facility in New York. He had reached out by letter to his estranged daughter, Jamie, who he hadn't seen since she was a baby.
But she had rebuffed his attempts until now. JAMIE SCALISE: I didn't tell my mom that I
received the letter at all. I think I was just almost kind of bred to keep this topic a secret in all different aspects.
I think that part of me said, I'm gonna do this on my own. And I think I wanted to have control of the situation.
I didn't want anybody's input. ANJULA MUTANDA: As she gets older, she feels more like she has a right to do what she wants
as an adult in her own life. She has agency, and she wants to take full control back.
She does not want to be told by anybody what she can and cannot do. This is her choice and her choice alone.
NARRATOR: Jamie responded to the letter. JAMIE SCALISE: He had asked me in the letter to set aside
what I knew of him, the monster that I knew that he was, and if I would just give him a chance to get to know him.
I said, I will set these things aside. I said, but I want the truth at some point.
And he agreed. We wrote letters weekly, back and forth, for at least a good six months.
I remember feeling like a kid on Christmas shortly after that, going to the mailbox every day to see if I
had a letter from my father. And that's how he referred to himself, was in our writing, your father, Rick.
[sentimental music] And shortly after that, the verbiage started changing to, love, Dad.
We covered a lot of ground very fast. NARRATOR: In June, 2011, without telling her mom,
Jamie made the decision to visit her father for the first time. JAMIE SCALISE: It was about a seven-hour drive.
I was calm. I felt a sense of peace, but I was nervous. I was nervous, I think, more about the process
of entering a maximum security prison than meeting my father. I do think it's funny that we spent
so much time smiling at each other during that visit. And then we get the opportunity to have a photo,
and he isn't doing much smiling. [laughs] This was such a big moment, a monumental moment,
in both of our lives, and we knew that. I'm not a crier. In most situations, the normal thing to do probably
would have to gone in and cry and hug. And we did that, minus the crying. [sentimental music]
He felt like my father, and I don't remember feeling fearful of him whatsoever. And that first visit, it felt very natural.
It felt like seeing your long lost father, who wasn't a murderer at that point in time.
ANJULA MUTANDA: She needed answers for herself. What I see here is somebody empowering themselves
to complete the picture for herself, rather than, I've been told this by my mum, and then I've been told not
to talk about it ever again. And that suggests to me that all that time in her past,
she has been suppressing those questions, and she's not going to lose that opportunity again.
NARRATOR: Jamie and her father spent the visit catching up on life with no mention of his crimes.
JAMIE SCALISE: Seeing my father as a convicted killer, it brought out a lot of emotion.
Even looking back at these photos, knowing I'm standing next to a killer. I'm standing next to somebody.
His arm is around me. This person is touching me, whose same hands did such evil, horrible things to other people.
[thoughtful music] That is something that it's very striking. It doesn't sit with you well.
But I never went back to being fearful of him. I felt secure for him where he was at that point in time.
I was there for probably about four hours. I knew we were absolutely gonna continue our relationship.
I was already excited to go back for the next visit. I think I felt a sense of pride in myself,
that I had made that trip-- --that I had finally met my father. [intriguing music]
NARRATOR: Richard Matt revealed more about himself to his daughter as she paid further visits to him
over the next couple of years. Jamie's mom, Lucy, still had no idea that her daughter was in contact with her father,
and her ex-husband. JAMIE SCALISE: It was probably two years into this relationship
that I was going out of town, and my mom was looking after my house for me. I cleaned up everything, mopped the floors,
and set the table, and just wanted everything to look nice when she came home. And I went out to grab the mail, and I
saw Rick's name and Clinton Correctional Facility, and then a big package. I was like, [gasps] oh my gosh, he found her.
JAMIE SCALISE: He had sent me a painting in the mail. I had come to learn that my father was a brilliant oil
painter in prison, and he wanted to do some paintings for me. When I came back into town, she said, there's
something on your bed for you. And I went in there and saw what it was, and it was like,
oh, I'm in trouble. [laughs] NARRATOR: Jamie came clean to her mom about the new relationship with her father.
JAMIE SCALISE: And I didn't know what to expect. I think part of me was afraid. I was afraid to tell my mom.
I was afraid that she would be disappointed in me. And it was the exact opposite.
[thoughtful music] LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I was very accepting because I knew, she's a human being.
It's her natural instincts that want to know. She was protecting me, doing it out of respect
because she knew where I stood, that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him.
NARRATOR: Matt and Jamie did eventually discuss the murders he'd committed. JAMIE SCALISE: When my father decided to open up
about the crime that had happened with Mr. Rickerson, I think he told me the truth, but I
think he gave me the version that he thought appropriate for his daughter to hear.
There was something about it that I know wasn't the full story. He had remorse for what he did, but the most remorse
that he had in context was the fact that his actions caused him to not be able to be in my life.
These photos here are four of the six visits that I had with my father at Clinton Correctional.
Each one of these visits were from 2011, '12, '13, and I believe we did get to see each other end of '14.
[intriguing music] In June, in 2015, I was at one of my best friend's weddings, and my phone was buzzing, buzzing, buzzing, buzzing.
My mom was calling. Before I could even do anything, I answered the phone. I'm like, what?
I'm working this wedding. You know this is a big day. What is going on? She goes, Rick escaped.
He's out. I panicked, instantly knowing, they're coming here. They're coming for me.
And authorities are now searching in the US, Canada, and Mexico. This prison break right out of a Hollywood script.
[intriguing music] LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: It was June 6 of 2015, and I turned the TV on.
Richard Matt and David Sweat had escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility. My mouth hit the floor.
Right after that was banging on my door. The sheriffs, the SWAT team, the FBI, Border Patrol
lined up all down my street. JAMIE SCALISE: I talked to my husband, and he said, well, just pulled up home.
He goes, and the SWAT team is here. He goes, and so is Border Patrol, and so is local PD.
So my house was surrounded. There was a helicopter over my house. She had an agent outside her house at all times.
Any time she left that house, they'd follow her. JAMIE SCALISE: Word had gotten out, whether I liked it or not,
that I was related to one of these people. I had spent in my whole life trying not
to be Richard Matt's daughter. And now it was right in front of me, and I had no choice.
[somber music] This was left behind in my father's cell. Time to go, kid. With the date on it.
That is directly to me. He would joke often and call me kid. This here was left by my father as well.
That said, you left me no choice but to grow old and die in here. I had to do something.
That's more directed towards some type of law enforcement. Immediately after leaving these messages
was when my father made his way to freedom. [intriguing music] BOB DICESARE: I would stand at the front window
during this escape and wonder, is this guy around here somewhere? Is he back? Is there unfinished business?
I had loaded guns on every floor in my house. Didn't know when he would show up, if he would show up.
With a killer like that loose, anything is possible. BOB DICESARE: Richard Matt and David Sweat
have both committed murder, are out there somewhere, and you don't know where they are.
JAMIE SCALISE: It was a three-week manhunt. They became the most wanted men in America.
There was sightings throughout the Adirondack Mountains. The dogs were starting to pick up on certain things, where
they said they can confirm there was DNA found at certain sites. They had started finding empty bottles of liquor.
Once that became publicized, I was fearful. I was fearful for my father, if he was under the influence
of something. And I was fearful for others. You're desperate. You're hungry. You're probably hurt.
Who knows? You've been living in the woods for three weeks. I can't imagine what that does to your mindset,
and my biggest fear was him hurting somebody and negating everything that we had
discussed in our conversations. NARRATOR: It took the police nearly three weeks to track down the killer.
Matt was finally found in the town of Malone, only 10 miles away from the prison he'd escaped from.
He had found a gun in one of the hunting cabins in the Adirondack Mountains. [music intensifies]
And when they got close enough, he raised the gun. NARRATOR: When asked by a Customs
and Border Protection SWAT team to put down the gun, he refused. The officer shot him in the head and shot him three times.
And that was the end of Richard Matt. [somber music] LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: My oldest brother called me and says,
are you by a TV? I said, no. And he says, I just wanted to let you know that Rick was shot,
and, he's killed. I was somber, quiet. What are you gonna do? I felt bad for Jamie because she was just starting kind
of this relationship with him. It was a calm, but it was the most upsetting thing
I'd ever heard in my life. I don't know who the officer was that shot him, but I would not only shake his hand
and give him the biggest hug, but thank him for ending an evil life. Thank you. Our community thanks you.
[sentimental music] JAMIE SCALISE: I do believe my father wanted to die, and I believe he wanted to die on his terms.
And I think he got the wish that he wanted because I know he wasn't going back to prison.
NARRATOR: David sweat was captured three days later and returned to prison to a life of solitary confinement.
In July, 2015, Jamie gave her father, Richard Matt, a funeral. JAMIE SCALISE: He was cremated, and we did a very small service,
almost in hopes that he made it somewhere-- that he made it. The suffering was done.
The mind games were done. Nobody else got hurt, and it was almost a way to put everything to rest.
Sadness did overcome me, and I let it out. I cried like a baby, which was probably
the first time in 20 years. [laughs] So the emotion took over. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I hope he's at peace.
I truly hope that he made his peace with his maker. I hope he asked, most important, for forgiveness,
and that he is resting, truly resting, in peace. [intriguing music] GABRIEL D. BERNADO: So is there a place for Richard Matt?
Certainly [laughs] not in heaven. So full of evil. NARRATOR: Jamie has found it difficult separating herself
from the murder of William Rickerson at the hands of her father. JAMIE SCALISE: What my father did to that family
is just unforgivably horrific. The guilt and the shame that you feel over that, it's never gonna fully go away.
[thoughtful music] It's something I finally had to separate myself from and, again,
know that I didn't do those things, and there's nothing that I could ever do to bring peace to that family in the way
that they would truly deserve. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: I feel absolutely horrible about the Richardson family.
I can't even imagine or begin to imagine what that family was put through. That's heartbreaking, beyond heartbreaking.
My heart goes out to them. JAMIE SCALISE: I feel like I've been able to process my father's death and the crimes that he
committed in a healthy way. It's taken a lot of time. I've learned a lot about myself.
I wish that I did have a longer relationship with him. I do feel like this happened so quick.
It's like we just got started, and then as fast as it started, it ended. I feel like there was so much more that I could have
gotten to know about my father. ANJULA MUTANDA: She has found a sense of relief and release
at discovering who her dad was from her point of view, and that is the person that she loves.
She can gain some form of closure for herself. It's like, I knew him. We had a connection.
It was deep for me, and I can close that mystery now. LUCY CIFFA-LONGO: Now that my daughter is a young lady
and a mother herself, she really, completely understands where I was coming from,
that I wasn't the big, bad wolf. She knows that I protected her, and I could not be more proud.
She's a great mom, and she's a great friend. JAMIE SCALISE: My father ultimately
wanted to be in Mexico. That was his happy place. That was freedom for him. I ended up taking a trip myself to Mexico
with a vial of his ashes, and I sprinkled his ashes into the ocean down there. So I felt like I brought him home,
and he could finally rest in peace, and that I could have closure knowing that he's
right where he wanted to be. I think my lack of emotion is not because I don't care,
not because I'm insensitive. I think it's because I was raised to be strong for everyone
around me. And every now and then, it'll get me. The tears will come out. I'll reread an old letter, and it reminds me
that I miss you, Dad. I do. [closing music]

Richard Matt kidnapped, strangled and dismembered his former boss. His daughter Jamie tells their story.

Relatives of murderers tell their stories, discussing how the crimes affected their families and whether there were any signs on murderous intentions beforehand.

Brief Summary

Richard Matt's brutal crimes and prison escape deeply affect his daughter Jamie and ex-wife Lucy, revealing complex family dynamics.

Key points

Richard Matt's Evil Nature. Investigators describe Richard Matt as cunning and sadistic, revealing the depths of his cruelty.
A Shocking Escape. Jamie's life is turned upside down when she learns her father has escaped from prison.
The Horrific Murder. The investigation reveals the brutal murder of William Rickerson, orchestrated by Richard Matt.
Jamie's Discovery. Jamie learns the shocking truth about her father's violent past and his crimes.
A Father's Regret. Richard Matt writes to Jamie from prison, expressing his desire to reconnect.
Jamie Reaches Out to Her Father. After years of estrangement, Jamie decides to respond to her father's letter.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's just evil.

BOB DICESARE reflects on Richard Matt's actions.

0:28WatchDec 6, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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