Skip to main content

Free UK delivery for orders £30

Bloomsbury Home

Ungrateful Bastard

The Shocking Journey of a Killer and Escape Artist

Ungrateful Bastard cover

Ungrateful Bastard

The Shocking Journey of a Killer and Escape Artist

Quantity
Pre-order. Available 05 Feb 2026
£22.50 RRP £25.00 Website price saving £2.50 (10%)

Payment for this pre-order will be taken when the item becomes available

Description

Gordon “Woody” Mower made worldwide news for his foiled attempt to escape a maximum-security prison in a getaway coffin. Now, behind the headlines is a story the notorious prisoner tells only to author Susan Ashline. Ungrateful Bastard unravels the making of a killer and escape artist, from a troubled upbringing on a rural farm to a descent into crime, fueled by abuse, addiction, and a thirst for vengeance. A haunting examination of the criminal mind, read some of the killer's tale through his own chilling words.

The murderer first rose to infamy in 1996 when, at eighteen years old, he shot his parents dead, forever silencing his mother's moniker for him: “Ungrateful bastard.” Mower fled, leading authorities on an international manhunt. When the fugitive was featured on the TV show America's Most Wanted, a tip led to his capture. The judge spared the teenager the death penalty, sending him to prison for life. The killer's relentless pursuit of freedom culminated in a daring scheme to escape prison buried alive under sawdust.

A gripping account, Ungrateful Bastard reveals the tragic events that shaped a killer's dark psyche, and the prison climate that allowed him to practice an escape repeatedly, without prison guards ever catching on. Ungrateful Bastard blows the roof off of the Mower case from the cradle to the (escape) coffin.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: I Am What I Am
Chapter 2: Friday
Chapter 3: Taurus the Bull
Chapter 4: Ungrateful Bastard
Chapter 5: A Sullen Young Man
Chapter 6: Nobody Was Supposed to Get Killed
Chapter 7: Got Away With It
Chapter 8: Oh, Shit
Chapter 9: I Grew Up in Attica
Chapter 10: College of Crime
Chapter 11: A Porcupine Tale
Chapter 12: The Farmer
Chapter 13: Riding Out in a Casket
Chapter 14: The Hearing
Chapter 15: Seven Hundred Days
Chapter 16: Meeting Woody
Chapter 17: Behind Bars and Bureaucracy: Unmasking the Department of Corrections
Author's Note
About the Author
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 05 Feb 2026
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 272
ISBN 9798765151723
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Illustrations 10 bw photos
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Susan Ashline

Susan Ashline is the author of A Jacket Off the Go…

Related Titles

Environment: Staging