Decades ago, Gordon ‘Woody’ Mower devised a daring plan to escape prison by hiding in a coffin, hoping to flee a life sentence without parole for the murder of his parents. Now, after 30 years, the notorious double-murderer is seeking a different escape—this time through the legal system.

In his first public appearance since the tragic events at his family’s secluded farm in upstate New York, Mower, now 48, made a heavily guarded appearance at Otsego County Court in the picturesque town of Cooperstown on Wednesday.

Wearing a green prison uniform, ankle shackles, and handcuffs secured to a waist chain, Mower shuffled into the courtroom through a side entrance. His arrival was closely monitored by a group of law enforcement officers.

Seated at the defense table, Mower was joined by his attorney, Swartz, while three officers from the New York Department of Corrections stood watch. He briefly surveyed the room with a quick glance before leaning in to quietly confer with his lawyer.

Three New York Department of Corrections officers flanked him and stood guard while he sat at a table and was joined by his attorney Swartz.

His eyes momentarily darted around as he took in his surroundings before he whispered to his lawyer.

But as he faced the former state appointed attorney who represented him in 1996, his expression gave nothing away.

Mower remained implacable as first witness Randel Scharf was quizzed about his role advising him over the plea.

Heavily restrained and surrounded by a phalanx of law, Gordon ‘Woody’ Mower walked into the Ostego County Courthouse for a bid to get out of his life-without-parole sentence for slaying his parents 30 years ago

True crime author Susan Ashline who wrote a book on Mower’s crime was one of the few present in court on Wednesday for day one of his two-day hearing 

But his emotions burst when aunt Marcia Mower, who poured out her grief at his sentencing 30 years ago under the last name Gigliotti, was next up.

She revealed that despite her harsh words in 1996, she has been visiting Mower in prison regularly. Asked why, she said simply: ‘He’s my nephew and I love him.’

At this point Mower briefly burst into sobs.

After other witnesses, the killer was called to give evidence in the afternoon session and battled with state Attorney General prosecuting attorney Mike Sharpe.

He responded sharply to accusations that he’s an habitual liar and also that he had sworn to tell the truth when he accepted his guilty plea nearly three decades ago.

‘I answered as instructed by my state appointed attorneys. I was 18 and had no experience with the court,’ he declared. ‘I trust their counsel.’

There to witness his walk into the courtroom was, true crime author Susan Ashline, who last came face-to-face with the hulking killer across a table at maximum-security Shawangunk Correctional Facility, New York, amid research for her book on Mower, out in February.

‘Meeting him was absolutely terrifying,’ Ashline told the Daily Mail. ‘This man came out and he was big.

‘He didn’t look angry, but he just looked miserable like I’d pulled him out of the lunch line or something and that he was hungry. I was terrified.

‘He had this blank look, and I didn’t know if he was going to punch me. I couldn’t read him; he had no expression whatsoever.’

Mower claims his attorneys bungled his case and violated his rights in an attempt to evade his life-without parole sentence slapped on him 30 years ago

Mower was 18 when he slaughtered his father Gordon Sr, 52, and his mother Susan, 50, with a .22 rifle after a family argument.

He fled with his 14-year-old girlfriend. But the pair were snared three weeks later in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, moments after Mower was featured on TV show America’s Most Wanted.

Even then, he laid the foundation for his escape-bid reputation. While handcuffed, he smashed one of the cops holding him to the ground and took off before being quickly recaptured.

Mower accepted a guilty deal to avoid the possibility of the death penalty. And his legal team convinced him that his life sentence would be reduced when New York’s capital punishment law was declared unconstitutional.

Now, he claims his attorneys mishandled his case, his rights were violated and that his sentence should be vacated.

One allegation is that the state-appointed lawyers urged him to accept $10,000 from his parents’ estates for the plea and told him to keep quiet about it when he was sentenced for first degree murder.

‘Here’s a guy who has spent his whole prison life trying to escape. Now he stands a solid chance of actually getting out, period,’ said former TV reporter Ashline, 59. ‘He has attempted to escape from just about every facility that has housed him.

‘His allegation is that he was offered a $10,000 bribe to plead guilty and in exchange waive all his rights to any inheritance from his parents.’

Ashline interviewed Mower at Shawangunk Correctional Facility for her book, describing the encounter as ‘terrifying’

Mower was 18 when he slaughtered his father Gordon Sr, 52, and his mother Susan, 50, with a .22 rifle after a family argument at his family’s isolated farm in upstate New York

The red Chrysler LeBaron convertible belonging to his parents that he drove to the airport following their murders 

Ashline said authorities are so anxious about security for the planned two-day hearing that Mower will be ferried to the court from his prison and back each day, a round trip of some 260 miles.

‘There’s no question, security will be heavy. They won’t even allow him to stay overnight anywhere because they can’t take that risk,’ she said. ‘And I’m expecting him to be heavily, heavily restrained in the courtroom.

‘I’m not sure what my reaction will be when I see him there. I don’t think I’m going to have that terrified feeling I had in the visiting room. But it will definitely be a chill.

‘I’ve got to know him better as we’ve subsequently talked. But there’s something about his presence.’

The author said she became involved in the case in 2019 after Mower ‘had some someone reach out’ to write his story and help ‘get the attention of an attorney’.

Ashline initially worked from recorded interviews for the book, titled Ungrateful Bastard: The Shocking Journey of a Killer and Escape Artist, which is scheduled to be published on February 5 by Bloomsbury.

‘I continued to research over the years and then the year before last I did go to meet him in prison,’ she said. ‘It was unannounced. And it was a hell of an experience.

‘I’m seated at the table alone in what looked like a school cafeteria. I’m five foot two, very petite. And he’s very big. And you hear a big clang, and they release him into the room alone.

Ashline said authorities are so anxious about security for the planned two-day hearing, due to his history of attempting to escape prison, that the plan is to haul him back and forth from prison to court each day – a total of 260 miles

Ashline initially relied on recorded interviews for her book, Ungrateful Bastard: The Shocking Journey of a Killer and Escape Artist, which Bloomsbury is set to publish on February 5. But in 2024 she met Mower face to face in prison

Ashline said Mower remained chillingly calm during the prison interview, even responding coolly that Ungrateful Bastard – the chosen title – was his mother’s nickname for him

‘They don’t walk him to the table. They don’t even stay in the room. They just literally unlock the door; it shuts behind him and then it locks. He’s wearing his prison issued green uniform and without any restraints.’

Ashline continued: ‘And I thought, if this guy jumped the table and strangled me, they wouldn’t even make it in time.

‘The reason I had that fear is because in our initial letters and phone calls, Mower kept saying he was going to lure his former defense attorney to a visit, jump the visiting room table and beat him to death on the visiting room floor.

‘He had a lot of anger against this guy who’s accused of pushing him to accept the bribe. So, I didn’t know if he had a beef with me. I didn’t know how he would respond with me being there.’

At that point, Ashline directly confronted the tense atmosphere, asking Mower: ‘Are you mad that I’m here?

‘And he says, ‘no, do I look mad?’ I said, ‘yes, you do.’ Then I told him I’d come up with a great title for the book. And he doesn’t say anything.

‘Excitedly I said, Ungrateful Bastard. Nothing, no response. And now I’m sweating, thinking I’ve really offended him.

‘He says ‘that’s the nickname my mother gave me’. And he’s still not changing his expression. There’s this dead silence. I’m sweating bullets now.

Ashline also wrote Without a Prayer about a killing inside a cult’s church in New York state.

The double-killer’s most audacious escape bid came in 2015, when he built a coffin-like box at Auburn Correctional Facility to hide in. He planned to be hauled away under a pile of sawdust, but the plan was foiled after an inmate tipped off authorities

‘And all of a sudden, he throws his head back, laughs. and says, ‘That’s a really great title’.’

The atmosphere softened and ‘he was at the time very, very respectful to me and he remains respectful. We have respect for each other.’

Mower will be represented by high-profile defense attorney Melissa Swartz, who overturned the manslaughter conviction of Kaitlyn Conley, 31 in 2025. She was convicted of fatally poisoning the mother of former boyfriend Adam Yoder in Whitesboro, New York.

The double-killer’s most audacious escape bid was in 2015 and involved a coffin-like box he managed to build while in Auburn another maximum security New York prison.

His plan was to secrete himself in the box, which would end up buried under tons of sawdust regularly hauled away in a local farmer’s trailer from the prison workshop. But the bid was thwarted after an inmate’s tip off.

That didn’t stop Mower bragging to local media that he and another prisoner had practiced the plan roughly 50 times.

Three weeks before the bid was rumbled, one guard saw Mower walking around with sawdust on him, according to prison records. He was given 564 days in solitary confinement for the plot.

Bearded Mower was sentenced in October 1996. He described his mother as dominating and manipulative in a statement to the court. He added he had been drinking and injecting steroids.

Mower will be represented by high-profile defense attorney Melissa Swartz, who overturned the manslaughter conviction of Kaitlyn Conley (pictured) in 2025 after she was convicted of fatally poisoning the mother of her former boyfriend in Whitesboro, New York 

Dennis Vacco, state Attorney General at the time, described Mower as a ‘remorseless killer’ who killed the two people who ‘loved him most’

He had planned to run away with girlfriend Melanie Bray on the night of the slayings in March that year. He put a packed suitcase in his Jeep before going to see the movie Broken Arrow, starring John Travolta.

But his parents were by his car when he came out. He said they screamed at him while his father hit him in the face and head – and said he couldn’t leave.

Once they got back to the farmhouse, his mother continued yelling at him, he said. It was then that he took his .22 rifle out of his bedroom.

‘I know I was out of my mind when this happened. I went into the bedroom and shot my father. Then I came back out and shot my mother,’ he chillingly added.

The couple’s bodies were discovered by a horrified nephew who had arrived at 7am to help milk the cows. Mower had already fled.

Dennis Vacco, state Attorney General at the time, said: ‘Woody Mower is a remorseless killer who brutally murdered the two people who loved him most.’

Mower appeared for sentencing in black jeans and a green plaid shirt. But his statement had to be read out by deputy capital defender Randel Scharf because he froze and was unable to lift his head or move out of his chair.

This happened after his aunt Marcia Gigliotti talked emotionally of losing her brother. ‘I will never be able to forgive you for taking Gordon away from me and my family,’ she told him.