LAST CHOWCHILLA BUS KIDNAPPER RELEASED ON PAROLE

By Bob Walsh

 

                      

        Frederick Newhall Woods, 70, is set to be released on parole after 46 years

 

I remember this well.  In 1976 the largest mass kidnapping in American history occurred when a bus load of school children were kidnapped near Chowchilla.  The reason I remember is that the gravel pit they were recovered from was three blocks from my house and the helicopters kept me awake all night.

The parole board decided last week to parole Frederick Woods, the last of the kidnappers still in custody.  Governor I HATE GUNS Newsom asked the parole board to reconsider.  They still decided to parole Woods.  He had been denied parole 17 times and is now 70 years old.  Since he is not a murderer the Governor can not overrule his parole.

 

                 Two ventilation pipes provided air to the children who were trapped 12 feet underground. The kidnappers also left containers filled with water for them to drink and boxes of cereal, peanut butter and loaves of bread. They also made toilets in the wheel wells of the tractor trailer

                  Workers unearth the buried kidnap van in Livermore quarry. The weight of dirt crushed the top.

Police discovered that the buried truck was registered to the quarry owner’s son, Frederick Woods

                   The inside of the old truck trailer the kidnappers had buried 12 feet underground. 

                  The kidnapped children and bus driver

                 Frederick Woods (L), James Schoenfeld (C) and Richard Schoenfeld all pleaded guilty to kidnapping   

 

Woods continued to commit criminal acts from prison by use of a cell phone.  This included acting as a "financial consultant" to several businesses including a gold mine and a car dealership.  

The phone system in Chowchilla was so primitive in 1976 that they could not call in their ransom demands.  After the kidnapping the phone lines were continually jammed.  There were only something like eight outside telephone lines into the city at the time.  After slightly more than 24 hours the bus driver was able to dig out of the buried moving van he and the children were kept in and summon help.

All three of the kidnappers were from wealthy families in the SF Bay Area.