> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Escaped Convicts Swapped Celebrity Portrait Paintings for Tools - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/escaped-convicts-swapped-celebrity-portrait-paintings-for-tools/ - Published: 2015-06-27T03:51:17.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T16:43:16.000Z - Description: Art may calm disturbed minds, but Richard Matt's knack for drawing didn't keep him from snapping his 72-year-old boss's neck in 1997. - Author: Laura C. Mallonee - Tags: News, Art Crime, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:08 (2014, 2015, part 2) ![A painting of Angelina Jolie by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/angelina-jolie.jpg) Artwork depicting Angelina Jolie by prison escapee Richard Matt (image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) Art may calm disturbed minds, but Richard Matt’s knack for drawing didn’t keep him from snapping his 72-year-old boss’s neck in 1997\. It did, however, help him bust out of prison. According to the [*New York Times*](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/nyregion/corrections-officer-new-york-prison-escape.html?smid=nytcore-iphone-share&smprod=nytcore-iphone&%5Fr=0&ref=hyperallergic.com), prison guard Gene Palmer gave Matt and his fellow jailbird David Sweat a screwdriver and pliers, among other favors, in exchange for a dozen amateurish drawings and paintings Palmer later described as being “elaborate.” The two inmates used the screwdriver and pliers (along with other tools) to escape from the [Clinton Correctional Facility](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton%5FCorrectional%5FFacility?ref=hyperallergic.com) in northern New York on June 6. Though images of the artwork have not been released — and reports suggest that Palmer subsequently [burned and buried](http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1222316&ref=hyperallergic.com#.VY4bIKbPknU) them — a friend who owns several of Matt’s creations allowed [CNYCentral](http://www.cnycentral.com/news/story.aspx?id=1217760&ref=hyperallergic.com#.VY4bHKbPknV) to photograph them. They reveal a talent for cheesy, fan-boy drawings and paintings of the kind you find at Central Park, with everyone from Julia Roberts to Hillary Clinton rendered in painstakingly blended pencils and charcoal. They’re hardly the type of pictures you’d expect a convicted murderer to create, and they feel strangely melancholic in light of Matt’s capture and [death](http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/26/us/new-york-prison-break/?ref=hyperallergic.com). One picture of Oprah Winfrey includes gushing, cursive text that reads, “She changed so many lives.” Another shows President Barack Obama shadowed by Martin Luther King Jr. — an apparent homage to the civil rights movement and a glimmer of the humanity Matt so sadly squandered. ![A painting of Julia Roberts by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/julia-roberts1.jpg) Artwork depicting Julia Roberts by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of Julia Roberts by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/julia-roberts.jpg) A drawing of Julia Roberts by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of Marilyn Monroe by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/marilyn-monroe.jpg) A drawing of Marilyn Monroe by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of Bill Clinton by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/bill-clinton.jpg) Drawings of Bill Clinton and Martin Luther King Jr. by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of Oprah by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/oprah.jpg) A drawing of Oprah by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of Hillary Clinton (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/hillary-clinton.jpg) A drawing of Hillary Clinton by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter) ![A drawing of President Barack Obama by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via Twitter) ](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/06/barack-obama.jpg) A drawing of President Barack Obama by prison escapee Richard Matt (Image via @AlexDunbarNews/Twitter)