Program Description
Event Details
On June 6, 2015, two murderers escaped from the Clinton Correctional Institute; the subsequent manhunt was the largest in New York State History. The escapees, David Sweat and Richard Matt, coursed a twenty-minute labyrinth of corridors and tunnels until they emerged into freedom on the outside. Now they were killers on the loose, deadly and desperate. The story that unfolded was one of adventure and brutality and became the subject of a popular book and a Showtime limited series. This program will feature author Michael Benson with special guest Ivy Gocker, former Adirondack Experience Library Director who was also an extra in the Showtime production.
Speaker bio:
Michael Benson is the author of Escape from Dannemora (University Press of New England, 2017). Benson is also the author of Gangsters vs. Nazis, Moguls (with Craig Singer), a biography of Hollywood forefathers Joseph and Nicholas Schenck, and several books about the mafia including; Red Hook (with Frank DiMatteo), The Cigar, Mafia Hit Man, Carmine the Snake, and Lord High Executioner. His Why the Grateful Dead Matter remains a bible of hippie-dom.
He has appeared on Murder in the Family with Geraldo Rivera, Inside Evil with Chris Cuomo, People Magazine Investigates, Deadly Sins, Deadly Affair, Southern Fried Homicide, Evil Twins, Evil Kin, Evil Stepmothers, Snapped: Killer Couples and Someone You Thought You Knew.
Benson was born in Rochester and raised in Chili, NY. He lives in Brooklyn.