A bus full of summer school children from Dairyland, near Chowchilla, California were abducted in 1976 by three men who planned the detailed hijack kidnap for eighteen months. They drove their captives to Livermore, first wandering for hours, then sealed them in a moving van buried in a cave at a rock quarry. All three men were sentenced to life in prison. Today, more than thirty years later, they want to be set free.
News archives confirm that Richard (Rick) Schoenfeld and his brother James (Jim) were sons of a wealthy Atherton podiatrist. The third abductor, Fred Woods, was from a wealthy Woodside family. These three men, all in their twenties, planned the imprisonment of twenty-six innocent children and an adult bus driver for the purpose of demanding five million dollars ransom for safe exchange. Case files mention the bravery of bus driver Ed Ray who helped students escape.
Would there have been fatalities without that escape? We don’t know. We do know that July 15, 1976 is indelibly stamped in the minds of these children, their parents, guardians and other relatives, school mates and staff, and the community. The sentencing judge and Dale Fore, former chief investigator, say these prisoners should be released after serving more than thirty years of a life-time sentence. Thirty years confinement is a long time, but is it long enough to compensate for emotional damage to the children? Yes, say the imprisoned men and supporters. For the children and their families, what do they say?
No! No! No! A thousand times NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Related articles:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_17463289?source=rss
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/notorious-76-chowchilla-kidnappers-up-for-parole/
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2011/02/23/judge-lawyers-urge-parole-in-chowchilla-school-bus-kidnap/
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110224/ap_on_re_us/us_chowchilla_busnapping_parole_2
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/outlaws/chowchilla_kidnap/9.html
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