Accomplice of 'Shawshank' escapee Richard Matt, who was released from prison last summer, is living in fear as his graphic testimony helped convict deranged killer and sentence him to life

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Convicted murderer Richard Matt, 48, escaped from upstate New York correctional facility
Matt's accomplice in the murder of businessman William Rickerson was Lee Bates, 38, who was released from prison last August
Bates says he was forced to join Matt in the sadistic murder
He testified that Matt 'twisted on [Rickerson's] head. I heard a pop'
Matt later returned and lop off his arms and legs with a hacksaw and threw the dismembered body into the Niagara River
Bates' father tells Daily Mail Online that his son has reason to be afraid

By Martin Gould In Dannemora, New York For Dailymail.com

Published: 08:24 EST, 9 June 2015 | Updated: 15:51 EST, 9 June 2015

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Convicted murderer Lee Bates is now living in fear of his own life after the deranged killer he helped send to prison for life is on the run following the 'Shawshank Redemption' escape from a maximum-security prison.

Bates, 38, turned state's evidence against Richard Matt in 2008, telling a court of a 27-hour ride of terror as Matt searched for the perfect place to kill and dismember his former boss. Bates had been sentenced to 15 years to life a decade earlier and was released last August.

But now, as the manhunt for Matt and his fellow escapee David Sweat has spread to three countries with authorities admitting they have no idea where the men are, Bates is wondering if he did the right thing.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has put a $100,000 bounty on the heads of the two escaped men, who left a smiley-face note saying 'Have a Nice Day.'

Revenge? Lee Bates, Richard Matt's accomplice in the murder of North Tonawanda, NY, businessman William Rickerson, being escorted by officers in 1997. He is now living in fear now that Matt has escaped from the Clinton facility. Bates was released in August.

Dapper killer: Richard Matt, who arrived at court dressed as dapperly as John Gotti during his trial for robbery, kidnapping and murder, was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years to life. But he and fellow inmate David Sweat escaped from the maximum security prison overnight Friday

'Certainly anyone who heard Governor Cuomo would know this is a very dangerous individual.' Bates's father, also called Lee, told Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.

'We know he is capable of extreme action.'

Bates Sr. said he could not say what action is being taken to protect his son. 'I am not the right person to ask about that. But what is concerning is that my son has no control over the actions of another.'

Matt, 48, and Sweat, 34, broke out of their adjacent cells in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York overnight Friday. Authorities say they used contractors' power tools to tunnel into an elaborate system of underground pipes in the 171-year-old lock-up. The prison — nicknamed Siberia due to its remote location in the Adirondack State Park and its long, harsh winters — had never seen an escape before.

Authorities believe Matt and Sweat had help in their plan. Joyce Mitchell, 51, an industrial training supervisor who is responsible for inmate work assignments at the prison has been questioned by authorities, according to ABC News. Mitchell, whose husband Lyle also works at the prison, has not yet been charged. Mitchell is the former town tax collector in Dickinson, about an hour from the prison.

There was no-one at her two-story home, which backs on to a babbling brook, on Tuesday morning.

'A search revealed that there was a hole cut out of the back of the cell through which these inmates escaped,' said acting state corrections commissioner, Anthony Annuci.

'They went on to a catwalk which is about six stories high. We estimate they climbed down and had power tools and were able to get out to this facility through tunnels, cutting away at several spots.'

Danger: It was 17 years ago that Matt forced Bates to join him in the sadistic killing of Rickerson, according to Bates. 'Certainly anyone who heard Governor Cuomo would know this is a very dangerous individual.' Bates's father, also called Lee, told Daily Mail Online in an exclusive interview.

Despite the severity of their crimes — Sweat was serving a life term without the possibility of parole for gunning down a sheriff's deputy — the two men were trusted enough to be allowed to wear street clothes. One man who believes he saw them after they had crawled out of a manhole, did not think anything was suspicious about them.

Their escape wasn't discovered until seven hours after they were last seen. Authorities admit they could have gone virtually anywhere — even have outside the U.S. as the prison is only 25 miles from the Canadian border, and Matt has ties in Mexico.

However, there is a huge show of security around the prison just as the Adirondacks gear up for the summer tourist season.

In three hours, while driving some 30 miles around Dannemora, a Daily Mail Online reporter was stopped at eight different roadblocks, manned either by state troopers, wearing yellow slickers to protect from the persistent drizzle, or correction officers in bright red slickers.

It was 17 years ago that Matt forced Bates to join him in the sadistic killing of 76-year-old William Rickerson, a food broker who had fired Matt five weeks earlier.

Bates told the court in Lockport, New York, how he had driven Matt from the Buffalo suburb of North Tonawanda all the way to Ohio and back as they searched for the perfect killing spot.

He said that Matt had gone to Rickerson's home on a snowy December night and attacked him with a knife sharpener, even sticking the tool deep into his ear. While there, Matt drunk Rickerson's wine — pouring some of it on his victim as he stole his hairpiece.

Matt was convinced his ex-employer had hidden large sums of money and he demanded to know where it was.

Manhunt for escaped murderers in New York intensifies

Twisted: Bates said that Matt had gone to Rickerson's home on a snowy December night and attacked him with a knife sharpener, even sticking the tool deep into his ear. While there, Matt drank Rickerson's wine - pouring some of it on his victim as he stole his hairpiece.

New life: Bates is living in upstate New York and is in a relationship with Sherri Walker, according to his Facebook

Murder suspect Richard Matt is escorted by U.S. Marshals at Buffalo Airport in 2007

After an hour-long torture session in his own home, Rickerson, wearing only pajamas, was bound in duct tape by Matt and thrown into the trunk of Bates' 1990 Chevrolet. As the long odyssey dragged on, Matt kept yelling 'Where's the money?' to his captive.

'Sometimes there was a reply, sometimes there was a grunt, sometimes there wasn't anything,' Bates testified, according to a Buffalo News report of the court hearing.

At a stop in Pennsylvania, Matt opened the trunk and hit the elderly man with The Club, a steering wheel lock device. They then returned, through a blizzard, to the Buffalo area, with Matt threatening Rickerson further. 'Do you remember where the money is?' Bates quoted him as saying. 'Make this easy on yourself.'

He then said Matt broke four of Rickerson's fingers and hit him again with The Club, before forcing Bates to turn into a cul-de-sac where he said: 'You know, I've had enough of this,'

'He reached in and twisted on [Rickerson's] head. I heard a pop. [Rickerson] just dropped back in the trunk,' Bates told the court.

The two men then dumped the body on Tonawanda Island and Matt later returned and lop off his arms and legs with a hacksaw and threw the dismembered body into the Niagara River.

Matt fled to Mexico and lived there for 10 years before he stabbed and killed an American man in a bar fight in Matamoros across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, and was extradited to face trial for Rickerson's murder.

Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza gave him the maximum possible sentence — 25 years to life — after a jury found him guilty of three charges of second-degree murder, two of first-degree robbery and three of first-degree kidnapping. She told him 'That wasn't difficult,' when explaining his punishment.

Prison worker Joyce Mitchell has been questioned by investigators in their probe into the dramatic escape of two convicted murderers at an upstate New York penitentiary. According to state records Mitchell works as an industrial training supervisor at the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, where the two convicted murderers escaped Saturday morning

Convicted killers: David Sweat (left), 34, and Richard Matt (right), 48, escaped the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York sometime between 10.30pm on Friday and 5.30am on Saturday. Authorities are convinced they must have had help

Prosecutor Joseph Mordino, who had tried some 250 homicide cases told Sperrazza: 'Of all the cases I've tried this would top my list for the death penalty.'

New York abolished the death penalty for all but the murderers of police in 1965, and its courts declared all capital punishment unconstitutional in 2004.

The victim's son, William Rickerson Jr. told the court: 'Myself, I’m not a terribly vindictive man. But we all have to benefit from this and the only way to benefit is for this person, Matt, to never do this again. He should never see the light of day.'

Matt also escaped from the Erie County Jail in 1986 by scaling a fence. He was on the lam for five days on that occasion. His rap sheet includes a 1989 rape and a 1991 stabbing. He killed Rickerson shortly after being released for those crimes.

Fears about what Matt would do if he were ever to get out of prison again were even expressed at the time of his trial. One juror told the Buffalo News: 'There's no doubt that if he got out, he'd do something,'

And Gabe DiBernardo, now retired as chief of detectives in North Tonawanda told the Buffalo News that the escaped killer is capable of anything.

'It’s not a good feeling to know he’s out there,' said DiBernardo. 'Anything is possible with Rick Matt.

'I keep watching the news, and I hope they stop him before he does something violent again, because he is full of violence. That’s his life.'

When asked if Matt's daring escape surprised him, DiBernardo replied: 'Heck no. He is one cunning individual. But how he did it, with power tools? That’s mind-boggling to me, I don’t understand that.'

Sweat, the other escapee, was sentenced to life without parole for the July 4 2002 shotgun murder of Sheriff's Deputy Kevin Tarsia in Kirkwood, New York.