Infamous Chowchilla school bus kidnapper to walk free after 40 years of receiving life sentence for the largest mass abduction in US history. James Schoenfeld, who was one of the three kidnappers is to complete his sentence serving in California prison.
Schoenfeld, now 63 years old, was granted freedom by the California Parole in April, at his 20th parole hearing since 1977 conviction on 27 counts of kidnapping, confirms California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Luis Patino.
When 26 Dairyland Elementary School students were returning home after a day of summer school in Chowchilla, an inland farming community some 40 miles north of Fresno on July 15 of1976, their bus was commandeered by Schoenfeld, his younger brother Richard, and a friend, Fred Woods.
The armed gunmen, who wore nylon stocking masks, didn’t just make ransom demands, but made the entire bus and all of their hostages disappear for days.
In early evening of the day, the trio stormed the bus and took it to a nearby drainage ditch and hid it in a thicket of bamboo, according to archived reports. The 27 hostages, bus driver Ed Ray and 26 students were then divided into two vans and driven for more than 11 hours to a sand and gravel quarry owned by Woods’ family. The three kidnappers then forced the hostage to descend below the rocks and gravel into an underground bunker fashioned out of the trailer of a moving truck that the kidnappers then entombed in dirt, according to the Fresno Bee.
The kidnapping itself was executed with terrifying precision. The plan however was never fully executed as Ray and the children managed to find their way out before ransom demands were even made. The captives stacked mattresses that enabled them to access the roof of the truck. Once there, they were able to tunnel their way above ground. The lucky escape was possible as Schoenfelds and Woods were taking a nap, unaware of the venture.
“You couldn’t just go on and have a normal childhood when you faced a life-threatening situation like that. You just can’t go on and be carefree,” explained Jennifer Hyde, one of the students who was then 9 years old.
The students eventually returned to their families on July 17,1976 along with Ray, who enjoyed a hero’s welcome.
Gov. Jerry Brown who had 120 days to decide whether he’d intervene by sending the case back to the parole board, believed Schoenfeld’s release seemed fitting.
James Schoenfeld will join his brother Richard, who was paroled in 2012, in freedom no later than Wednesday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Steve Smith
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