One evening coming home from work [from his father's rock quarry], he went by the field to count the horses, because one was stolen the week before. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. The SF Gate reported in 2001 that the brothers had been in contact with some of the kidnapping victims over the years, repeatedly apologizing for what they had done. Then, after some 16 hours, bus driver Ed Ray and some of the older children in the group dug their way out of the trailer while the kidnappers slept and led the group to safety. He's demonstrated the capacity to do this kind of a crimeto mastermind and carry out something like this. They all walked to the security shack at the quarry and told employees what had happened. However, he was merely denied entry again, and James went back to Idaho, where he abandoned the car in Coeur d'Alene the next day and purchased a truck that he drove back to Washington. Sometime after 8:00 p.m., the school bus was discovered in the drainage slough, covered in bamboo and brush, but with no sign of Ray or the children. Fearing of embarrassment from asking their parents for financial support, they agreed to get themselves some money. A school bus carrying 26 students mysteriously vanished on the way back from a summer field trip, and three wealthy young men were the top suspects. 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Frederick Newhall Woods IV Richard Schoenfeld James Schoenfeld Alias Fred (Frederick) Rick (Richard) Jim (James) Gender Male (all three) Birth Date 1950s [1] Pathology Mass Abductors Modus Operandi Abduction No. And possess., See the article in its original context from. Browse 1 frederick newhall woods stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. To his young bride, Mr. Woods seemed inordinantly possessive, a collector, he hoarded things. Scattered across the aging estate were scores of automobiles, fire engines, buses, vans, a hundred or more. Frederick Newhall Woods IV, left, is escorted . Victims of the kidnapping, now adults, spoke to CNN in 2015 about their remaining fears relating to the tragic event. Over the years, there have been other troubling reports about Woods. There was no quit in him.. There were two bright spotstwo trips to Baja California, she said, one with her husbanil's parents. The story soon began to unfold. AP Photo/California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, Vermont kidnapping victim drives off with hands still tied together, Volkswagen reportedly refused to help cops track stolen car with toddler inside, Chinas secret police are actively hunting people on US soil, Dances With Wolves actor hit with disturbing new charges. He came home and told me about it and was all excited. Frederick, Richard, and James, drawing from their discussions over perfect crimes, decided to get the money they needed by holding hostages for ransom. He wasn't interested in anything. Woods masterminded the kidnapping plot after being inspired by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. The interior of the moving truck in which Ed Ray and 26 children were buried alive. If he did a good job, he'd brag about it to his father, but when he lost his job as A salesman, he didn't want to tell it to his father or me, his former wife recalled. Public DomainFrederick Newhall Woods IV, James Schoenfeld, and Richard Schoenfeld planned the Chowchilla kidnapping for over a year. Park remembered Marshalls determination at that moment. Many of the children continued to report symptoms of trauma for at least twenty-five years after the hijacking, including substance abuse and depression. An appeals court ordered Richard Schoenfeld released in 2012, and former Gov. Alive (all released). We went [on dates] over there, to the estate, and most of the time it was chores, feeding horses, moving cars.. Mr. I think I only saw a few pictures of him and his parents together in the family pictures. Now, after nearly a half-century behind bars, he is on the brink of freedom. But there were no children, and that set the stage in part for the young couple's breakup. The men planned to. CBS News' David Begnaud reports Saturday, July 11 at 10/9c on CBS. According to James, they initially weren't serious about actually committing such a crime, but as time passed by, they began to consider it. The ones he sold he made a lot ontwo or three hundred dollars for a junker, up into the thousands.. but he didn't tell me until he got mad at me when we broke up., The young woman said that they seldom went out on dates, and that Fred Woods was very thrifty, but in odd ways. He'd buy things he didn't needflashlight batteries, maybebecause they were cheap. Woods - with pantyhose pulled over his head and a gun drawn - was first to board the bus, ordering Ray to 'Shut up and get to the back', as victim Larry Park recalled for CBS. Gavin Newsom approves his parole. Once the trial ended, Chowchilla fell out of the media spotlight, save for the visit by reporters on the anniversary of the mass abduction. Similarly, Larry Park remembers sitting in the darkness wondering 'how it was going to feel to die'. Frederick Newhall Woods IV was 24 when he and two brothers, James and Richard Schoenfeld, held up a school bus in Chowchilla, Calif., on July 15, 1976. However, once this was proven to be wrong, local police and the county sheriff was called in to investigate, determining that the bus disappeared after successfully making its first three stops. Woods has spent the vast majority of his life in prison, where his disciplinary record reportedly includes citations for running an unauthorised gold mine, a car dealership, and a Christmas tree farm. Police soon realized that only someone with unlimited access to the quarry would have been able to bury the truck and bring in 27 prisoners in the middle of the night without being seen. Frederick was paroled in August 2022. These include two people who, arguably, knew him besta woman whose yearlong marriage to him ended in divorce, and a young woman who was his girlfriend after his marriage. But as of the 48 Hours episode, Park is nine years sober and volunteers as a pastor at a local church. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing. It was back in July 1976, when three young men from. Stopping their white van in the middle of the lonely, rural Avenue 21 in Chowchilla, California, under the pretense that it had broken down, they waited until a school bus they set their sights on, which was driven by 55-year-old Frank Edward "Ed" Ray, stopped to investigate. It would really surprise me if he had anything to do with this thing. Hes incarcerated at the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. He and two others hijack a school bus with 26 children and a driver in 1976 in Chauchilla. At the time, they were given 27 life sentences without the possibility of parole. Now Woods, who was 24 when he committed the kidnapping, has moved one step closer to leaving prison. It was at the gravel quarry owned by Mr. Woods's father, Frederick Nickerson Woods 3d, that the children were held in a buried moving van for 18 sweltering hours before they managed to dig their way out. He'd drive by the school [Woodside High] and he'd say, I went there when it was new, and he had a really funny view of integration. It is possible that the money has helped finance some of Woods prison activities. And just scared out of their you know, we were all just scared out of our wits, Marshall told CBS News, adding, It would be silent and then somebody would bust out crying and the hole would just erupt. He had a girlfriend while he was seeing me. Woods's parole has also previously been backed by some prominent supporters, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto in 2015. He had boyish charm that enabled him, when he could overcome his shyness, to enter into intimate relationships with women, but the relationships seemed to end quickly, and over these relationships there was the same quick, jealous guarding that caused him to ward off intruders on the family estate with a shotgun, and, on at least one occasion, with gunfire. 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 $113 million in 2021), although Woods' lawyer disputed that amount. Officials said they . Sixteen hours after they were buried, the group escaped physically unscathed. And now he rescues me every day, said Marshall. Frantic parents, school officials and police . Ive had empathy for the victims, which I didnt have then. Woods said. He said, Oh, yeah, I've cracked down on a couple of trespassers with a shotgun. I thought, well, what's with this guy. Chowchilla bus kidnapper Fred Woods, 70, has been approved for parole - CNN. We were friends, but we didn't hang around together. While the frightened children and the bus driver were entombed for hours, the roof began to collapse from the weight of the dirt, according to court records. Under immediate suspicion was Frederick Newhall Woods IV, the 24-year-old son of the quarry's millionaire owner. At about 4:00 a.m. on July 17, approximately 36 hours after Frederick, Richard, and James hijacked their school bus, Ray and the children reunited with their families. After 17 unsuccessful attempts, a California man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 has been recommended for parole.. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing. 01:30 GMT 30 Mar 2022 Woods (the father) expected too much of him and he couldn't live up to it, she said. We've received your submission. Frederick Newhall Woods hijacked a school bus full of 26 children at gunpoint, kidnapped them, and then attempted to murder . Hes been married three times while behind bars. I was smoking crack. The next evening, James arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border in Idaho and tried to get in, using a false story, but was denied entry, and he instead went to Spokane, Washington. However, Newhall has kept applying for parole 17 times, and his most recent rejection came in October 2019. Ahead of the 48 Hours episode about this infamous Chowchilla Kidnapping, heres what you need to know about where the kidnappers are today. of 1. According to his attorney, however, he has not faced any disciplinary action since his last parole hearing in 2019. Frederick purchased an ocean-view mansion at Nipomo appraised at nearly $1.5 million. At some point in their early lives, Richard and James became acquainted with Frederick, working on cars and talking about movies with another friend. Two victims who participated during Fridays hearing said they agreed that Woods should be paroled, according to NBC. One of them took over the wheel while the other held Ray at gunpoint. However, they found that there was a metal lid on top of the hole, which was heavy and immovable. As a youngster, little is known of Fred Woods. They were eventually able to slide the metal cover and the batteries out of the way but then Marshall saw there was a wooden box placed atop the exit as well.
But though the first part of their plan went off without a hitch, everything went awry when they tried to phone in the ransom. Frederick Newhall Woods was 24 years old at the time of the 1976 Chowchilla school bus kidnapping. It was later observed that elements of the abduction seem similar to a scenario depicted inThe Day the Children Vanished, a story written by Hugh Pentecost that was published in the 1969 fiction anthologyAlfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives; since there was a copy of the book in the Chowchilla library, it was assumed that the Pentecost story was the inspiration for the mass abduction. Mr. The group was loaded into the two vans and driven around for 11 hours, during which time the hungry, petrified children soiled themselves and clung onto each other in fear. Fred (Frederick)Rick (Richard)Jim (James) Gender He'd mention the trips they'd taken to Baja, California. The young man constantly sought to please his father, she said, but always felt inadequate. After discovering that they could reach the top of the truck if they stacked the mattresses, Ray and Marshall worked for hours trying to wedge a piece of wood into the opening in the roof. After 17 unsuccessful attempts, a California man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 has been recommended for parole. Cars were his hobby and his income too, said an 18yearold youth who worked for the two men in the car restoration venture, and who was one of the last persons known to have seen Mr. Woods before his disappearance. The fans had stopped working, and the roof of the moving truck was beginning to cave in. The three suspects were arrested two weeks after the kidnapping and were initially sentenced to life in prison without parole. TruTV states that they were in their early- to mid-20s at the time of the mass abduction, which would place their approximate time of birth at around that decade, Real Criminals Referenced in Season Eight, Wikipedia's article on the mass abduction, TruTV Crime Library articles on the mass abduction, Section on the Chowchilla city website that describes the mass abduction. Frederick Newhall Woods is ready to go free - Wikipedia Frederick Newhall Woods was 24 years old when he committed the crime. A 70-year-old man convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them and their driver for $5 million ransom in 1976 has been approved for parole. And they dont fight back. For about eleven hours, the hostages were all driven approximately 100 miles from Chowchilla to Livermore, where they were forced into a van that they buried deep in dirt back in December 1975. Possessive, a California man who kidnapped 26 children were buried, the 24-year-old son of children! 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