This was back in 1976. I remember it being all over the news.

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Frederick Woods, 70, was approved during a parole hearing on Friday at California Men's Colony, a state prison, after previously being denied 17 times. He had the support of two survivors.

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I believe you have served enough time for the crime you committed," said survivor Larry Park, who supported Woods' release along with Rebecca Reynolds Dailey. But Park added "I'm concerned about the addiction you may have about money," urging Woods to consider getting treatment.

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Woods along with his accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver on July 15,1976 near Chowchilla, a town 125 miles southeast of San Francisco.

According to CNN, the group took the 27 hostages 100 miles away to Livermore where they were placed into a moving truck and buried alive. Woods and the brothers demanded $5 million from the state Board of Education.

The children, aged 5 to 14, and bus driver were able to dig their way out after 16 hours. It was considered the largest mass kidnapping in U.S. history, the outlet reported.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom's late father, state Judge William Newsom, reduced all three men's life sentences in 1980 so they could have a chance at parole.

Richard was released in 2012 after an appeals court order and James was paroled by then-Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015.

At his parole hearing on Friday, Woods read an apology for his crime.
"I've had empathy for the victims which I didn't have then," he said. "I've had a character change since then."
"I was 24 years old," he added. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act."

Because Woods committed the crime when he was young, he falls into a California law that requires parole commissioners to give greater weight to freeing inmates who were convicted in their youth, but are now elderly and have served long prison sentences.

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The approval from the parole hearing will become final within 120 days, then will be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom where he will have 30 days to review the decision, CNN reported. Because it's not a murder conviction, Newsom can not overrule it, but instead send it to the Board of Parole hearings for review.

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Link

Amazing.

I was only 10, but remember it being in the news. Super creepy, especially being elementary school age and riding a bus to school. But even so, I never thought it would happen to us. That disconnected thing when your kids and innocence. Also no 24-7 coverage or social media.

They made a TV movie about it too, I believe Karl Malden was the bus driver who kept the kids calm if this is the same incident, and I think it is.

I'm fine with him being paroled.


Into a buried moving truck.

This is BS!!



Frederick Newhall Woods IV (aged 24 during the kidnapping) was recommended for parole by a panel of two commissioners in 2022.
James Schoenfeld (aged 24 during the kidnapping) was paroled in 2015 at age 63.
Richard Schoenfeld (aged 22 during the kidnapping) was paroled in 2012 at age 57.


Where is Dirty Harry when you need him?

I get the whole sentencing them with what was available at the time, but it really sucks in many cases.

Just watched this 48 hours, or (dateline or 20/20, cold case, don't remember) about a guy who brutally raped and stabbed over 30 times a women he'd briefly dated while her four-year old daughter was in the house and came out the next morning and found her mommy dead.

The mom apparently knew something bad was going to happen because she came to the girls room and told her to stay inside her room no matter what, to NOT come out and she obeyed.

They finally brought him to justice, even though he was the main suspect at the time, in like 2019, but because the murder happened in 1970, he only got 15 years. He is in his early 80s now.

He barely had remorse. The recorded convos they had with him were chilling.

He even claimed that "since he hadn't done it again since then" it really should just be in the past. Daughter is my age now.

He "wanted sex" and although he claimed he "didn't rape her," he DID stab her before the rape. I mean, good grief. Then afterwards he stabbed her over 30 times and slit her neck.

Now he'll probably die in prison, but the jerk got to live 49 years free.

annie88 said:

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I was only 10, but remember it being in the news. Super creepy, especially being elementary school age and riding a bus to school. But even so, I never thought it would happen to us. That disconnected thing when your kids and innocence. Also no 24-7 coverage or social media.

They made a TV movie about it too, I believe Karl Malden was the bus driver who kept the kids calm if this is the same incident, and I think it is.

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Summer before I started at A&M so I had a different experience. I was pissed as hell that anyone would even think of terrorizing kids like that.

aggiehawg said:

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annie88 said:

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I was only 10, but remember it being in the news. Super creepy, especially being elementary school age and riding a bus to school. But even so, I never thought it would happen to us. That disconnected thing when your kids and innocence. Also no 24-7 coverage or social media.

They made a TV movie about it too, I believe Karl Malden was the bus driver who kept the kids calm if this is the same incident, and I think it is.

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Summer before I started at A&M so I had a different experience. I was pissed as hell that anyone would even think of terrorizing kids like that.

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It is unfathomable. Pure evil and this guy, regardless of how he's changed, should never take a free breath again. Just sick.

And as weird as this sounds, I'm glad he at least left the bus driver with the kids. He really did calm them.
I can't imagine if they'd been alone.

Nobody died? Am I reading that right?

If I were a parent or a sibling of a kid that died in that bus I would personally make sure he never took a breath again. Damn the consequences.

SWC Ag said:

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Nobody died? Am I reading that right?

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Amazingly and thankfully no.

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Gov. Gavin Newsom's late father, state Judge William Newsom, reduced all three men's life sentences in 1980 so they could have a chance at parole.

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...of course.

I remember when this happened as well.

Then I read the book "Under the Beetles Cellar" which I think was loosely based on this-as well as the Branch Dividian stuff in Waco. It was a fictionalized account but horrible none the less.

I see no reason why any of them should have been paroled.

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If I were a parent or a sibling of a kid that died in that bus I would personally make sure he never took a breath again. Damn the consequences.

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Yeah!
Ummm...who died?


Just SMH....

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In 2016, a worker's compensation lawsuit filed against Woods also revealed that he had been running several businesses, including a gold mine and a car dealership, from behind bars without notifying prison authorities as required. The heir to two wealthy California families, the Newhalls and the Woodses, he inherited a trust fund from his parents that was described in one court filing as being worth $100 million (equivalent to $108 million in 2020), although Woods' lawyer disputed that amount. He has married three times while in prison and has purchased a mansion about 30 minutes away from the prison.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][6][/url]

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[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][/url]

I was 12 and living in A****er (my father was stationed at Castle AFB) when it happened. It was rather unsettling.

Correct, they all survived the kidnapping.

TxTarpon said:

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If I were a parent or a sibling of a kid that died in that bus I would personally make sure he never took a breath again. Damn the consequences.

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Yeah!
Ummm...who died?


Just SMH....

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In 2016, a worker's compensation lawsuit filed against Woods also revealed that he had been running several businesses, including a gold mine and a car dealership, from behind bars without notifying prison authorities as required. The heir to two wealthy California families, the Newhalls and the Woodses, he inherited a trust fund from his parents that was described in one court filing as being worth $100 million (equivalent to $108 million in 2020), although Woods' lawyer disputed that amount. He has married three times while in prison and has purchased a mansion about 30 minutes away from the prison.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][6][/url]

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[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][/url]

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I remember reading about this not too long ago when I was thinking about this event. Every dime he has should be taken and given to the victims.

annie88 said:

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They made a TV movie about it too, I believe Karl Malden was the bus driver who kept the kids calm if this is the same incident, and I think it is.

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I remember seeing that movie on TV. All I remember is a large fan that brought in fresh air that suddenly stopped working and they started to suffocate.

Should have executed all three.

Ehhh, I'm okay with it. The guy lost most of his life already. Either give him the death penalty or let him go. No need to keep wasting tax dollars on him. Although, he will probably be on some form of welfare as a free man.

Mr President Elect said:

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Ehhh, I'm okay with it. The guy lost most of his life already. Either give him the death penalty or let him go. No need to keep wasting tax dollars on him. Although, he will probably be on some form of welfare as a free man.

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He is worth millions

Should've shot all of them. We've pissed off millions on food and shelter when $1 worth of lead (in 1975) would've been true justice for this BS.

newsjunkie said:

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I remember when this happened as well.

Then I read the book "Under the Beetles Cellar" which I think was loosely based on this-as well as the Branch Dividian stuff in Waco. It was a fictionalized account but horrible none the less.

I see no reason why any of them should have been paroled.

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The fact that the other two are already out is messed up too.

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At around 4 p.m. PDT on Thursday, July 15, 1976, school bus driver Frank Edward "Ed" Ray was driving 26 pupils of Dairyland Elementary School home from a summer class trip to the Chowchilla fairgrounds swimming pool when a van blocked the road ahead of the bus. Ray stopped the bus and was confronted by three armed men with nylon stockings covering their faces. One of the men held a gun to Ray while another drove the bus; the third man followed in the van.

The kidnappers hid the bus in the Berenda Slough, a shallow branch of the Chowchilla River,where a second van had been parked. Both vans' back windows were painted black; their interiors were reinforced with paneling.

Ray and the children were forced into the two vans at gunpoint and then driven around for 11 hours before being taken to a quarry (373948N 1214829W) in Livermore. There, in the early morning of July 16, the kidnappers forced the victims to climb down a ladder into a buried moving truck that they had stocked with a small amount of food and water and some mattresses.

Ray and the older children later stacked the mattresses so that some of them could reach the opening at the top of the truck, which had been covered with a heavy sheet of metal and weighed down with two 100 lb (45 kg) industrial batteries.

After hours of effort, Ray and the oldest boy, 14-year-old Michael Marshall, wedged the lid open with a piece of wood and moved the batteries; they then dug away the remainder of the debris blocking the entrance. Sixteen hours after they had entered the truck, the group emerged and walked to the quarry's guard shack, near Shadow Cliffs Regional Park.

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wiki

Martin Q. Blank said:

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annie88 said:

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They made a TV movie about it too, I believe Karl Malden was the bus driver who kept the kids calm if this is the same incident, and I think it is.

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I remember seeing that movie on TV. All I remember is a large fan that brought in fresh air that suddenly stopped working and they started to suffocate.

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Yes, they are lucky they didn't die of several things.

I think they did leave them some water, but not sure about food.

Just looked it up and the movie came out in 1993, but did release on DVD in 2006.

It was called Vanished without a Trace.

Tanya 93 said:

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Mr President Elect said:

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Ehhh, I'm okay with it. The guy lost most of his life already. Either give him the death penalty or let him go. No need to keep wasting tax dollars on him. Although, he will probably be on some form of welfare as a free man.

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He is worth millions

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This. He was a rich kid already. So why the kidnapping? Makes it much worse.

TxTarpon said:

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Quote:

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If I were a parent or a sibling of a kid that died in that bus I would personally make sure he never took a breath again. Damn the consequences.

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Yeah!
Ummm...who died?


Just SMH....

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In 2016, a worker's compensation lawsuit filed against Woods also revealed that he had been running several businesses, including a gold mine and a car dealership, from behind bars without notifying prison authorities as required. The heir to two wealthy California families, the Newhalls and the Woodses, he inherited a trust fund from his parents that was described in one court filing as being worth $100 million (equivalent to $108 million in 2020), although Woods' lawyer disputed that amount. He has married three times while in prison and has purchased a mansion about 30 minutes away from the prison.[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][6][/url]

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[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping#cite_note-:2-6][/url]

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Somebody got bribed.

As a condition of his parole he can only drive busses for Disney.

Link to the tv movie

I remember watching that

I was still in college


https://tubitv.com/movies/515350/vanished-without-a-trace?start=true&utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed

I picked this one instead of youtube in case people refuse to click youtube links

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Ray and the children were forced into the two vans at gunpoint and then driven around for 11 hours before being taken to a quarry (373948N 1214829W) in Livermore.

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That location is very close to the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

Nothing earth shattering, just an observation.

I learned about this story around 2005 when at A&M and on one of Dr. Howard Hesby's agricultural industry field trips.

We were somewhere in the valley in California standing inside of some old man's shop that contained an amazing collection of antiques and collectibles. We were standing there looking at a school bus thinking "Why is this bus so unique?" when he told us its backstory.

I need to find my pictures of that trip. I'll add a pic of the bus here if I get around ti it.

They should seize the millions and give it to the families of the victims. But hey newsom isnt about fair and just he just wants a kickback when the dude gets out.

Aggiehawg, why hasnt anyone started a civil suit on this jackass?

Anyone know when that new federal lynching law goes into effect?

Old_Ag_91 said:

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They should seize the millions and give it to the families of the victims. But hey newsom isnt about fair and just he just wants a kickback when the dude gets out.

Aggiehawg, why hasnt anyone started a civil suit on this jackass?

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From the wiki link I posted above.

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In 2016, the 25 surviving kidnapped children settled a lawsuit they had filed against their kidnappers. The money they received was paid out of Frederick Woods' trust fund, and although the exact settlement amount was not disclosed, one survivor stated that they had each received "enough to pay for some serious therapy but not enough for a house.

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Considering the date and that it is California, that would be less than a million each, I'd wager.

Nm