Marshall also struggled with addiction for a while as a young adult, but he too is sober now and has a therapy dog named Blue. District Attorney Warren Haas said, It was a minor matter. When the last of the children was inside, Woods and the Schoenfelds began shoveling dirt over the roof, weighing down the hatch-door by placing two 100-pound industrial batteries on top of it. One of the perpetrators, Frederick Newhall Woods, was approved for parole in March of 2022. In 1976, Frederick Newhall Woods IV and brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld kidnapped a school bus driver and 26 children, then buried them alive in a moving van trailer in a quarry. I was doing acid. The authorities only discovered the businesses when a workers compensation lawsuit was filed against him. Inspiring the frightened cohort into action, under the instructions of Ray the group stacked the mattresses inside the truck on top of one another and used wooden slats to dislodge a steel plate on the roof of the van that was covering the hatch through which they'd entered. We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because children are precious, Schoenfeld said. 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 eight days later, Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in to the authorities, according to the San Francisco Gate. Twenty of the children feared of being abducted again, and twenty-one were afraid of "cars, the dark, the wind, the kitchen, mice, dogs, and hippies". He wanted to really control. There were two bright spotstwo trips to Baja California, she said, one with her husbanil's parents. 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. Frederick Newhall Woods IV and Richard and James Schoenfeld were soon . Dogdog.. The state would be willing to pay ransom for them. Ray and Michael Marshall, aged 14 at the time, managed to find an escape for the group, which finally led to the apprehension of the three kidnappers, Frederick Newhall Woods IV, the quarry owner's son, and his two friends, James, and Richard Schoenfeld. Woods will next be eligible for parole in 2024. His parents, Fred and Harriet. Frederick Woods was among three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of California children for an attempted $5 million ransom in 1976. . But opposing Woods's release were survivors Jennifer Brown Hyde and Laura Yazzi Fanning; Matthew Medrano, son of survivor Jodi Heffington Medrano who has since died; and Carol Marshall, mother of survivor Michael Marshall, and Lynda Carrejo. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Anyone can read what you share. At the time of the hostages' captivity, Frederick, Richard, and James had previously tried to call in their ransom, but without success due to, ironically, the flooding calls from reporters, law enforcement agencies, and tipsters. So he and 14-year-old Michael Marshall got to work. Woods and two other gunmen, Richard and James Schoenfeld, stopped bus driver Ed Ray as he was transporting the children back home from Dairyland Elementary School, which is about 150 miles southeast of San Francisco. He decided to dig beneath it. When Frederick Newhall Woods and two other gunmen hijacked the school bus in Chowchilla, California, it was considered the biggest kidnapping in US history. Fred Woods's favorite was a 1952 Chevrolet, restored to perfection, but any car was likely to strike his fancy. I said we didn't come with any idea of trespassing and he said he had problems with trespassers. A third man followed the bus in the van that had barricaded the road. ', And I'd say he was tinliberated about women. The interior of the moving truck in which Ed Ray and 26 children were buried alive. Mr. Woods also met Songel Nichols, who was to become his wife. The three men were arrested in the weeks following the kidnapping and were initially sentenced to life in prison without parole, but an appeals court later changed the sentences to make the trio eligible for parole. A Puzzling Portrait of Key Coast Kidnapping Suspect, https://www.nytimes.com/1976/08/05/archives/a-puzzling-portrait-of-key-coast-kidnapping-suspect.html. Woods and the Schoenfelds planned their crime for more than a year and, in 1976, all pleaded guilty to kidnapping. . One of them took over the wheel while the other held Ray at gunpoint. Public DomainFrederick Newhall Woods IV, James Schoenfeld, and Richard Schoenfeld planned the Chowchilla kidnapping for over a year. 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. On the morning of July 17, they learned that their hostages had escaped the buried van. Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. 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. Over the course of her studies, she noted that numerous traits and facts about the children, including that a majority of the children, upon recollection, did not name the time they spent in the vans or the hours they spent being buried underground as the worst of their experiences; they also remembered that the highest degree of terror occurred at any time whenever their location was changed: from the school bus and into the small vans, from those vans and into the hole at the top of the buried van, and even from their placement onto the buses taking them home after their ordeal ended. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing. 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. But man, you're in the weird people capital of the world, so I didn't think much.. Over the years, there have been other troubling reports about Woods. They kept their captives by stuffing them into a van buried under a pile of dirt. And he's just letting those trucks, beautiful fire engines, turn into junkers. Frederick Newhall Woods IV, James Schoenfeld, and Richard Schoenfeld planned the Chowchilla kidnapping for over a year. The guilty plea was controversial, with the prosecution arguing that bodily harm was indeed inflicted upon the hostages, but only psychologically. He said it was really beautiful, and you could really be out there solitary, I mean, alone. IN 1976 a group of men kidnapped a school bus full of 26 children and a driver, burying them alive. The panels decision will now be reviewed by the California Board of Parole Hearings legal division. Browse 1 frederick newhall woods stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. Frederick purchased an ocean-view mansion at Nipomo appraised at nearly $1.5 million. He'd go out and get a job for a few months, and that would apparently appease his father. 'I believe you have served enough time for the crime you committed,' Park said Friday, before adding: 'I'm concerned about the addiction you may have about money.'. The couple had a $50aweek allowance from the family, adequate because they oaid no rent or utilities, but the young husband would never buy things for the home. There, they were transferred to a buried moving truck, with mattresses and a little bit of food. Everybodys crying. Miraculously, the driver and children managed to dig themselves out and escape relatively unharmed and the kidnappers were eventually caught. Mr. After 17 unsuccessful attempts, a California man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 has been recommended for parole. 'He's ruined the lives of dozens of these kids - they still struggle, a lot of them, with the aftereffects of this. Once the decision becomes final, California Gov. It was not that he couldn't keep a job, as much as he didn't want to work, the former girl friend said. Regarding their married life. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. He liked police, programs; among his favorites were The Rookies, and also Mod Squad, his former wife said. Though none of the victims of the kidnapping sustained life-threatening physical injuries, the psychological effects of being taken hostage at gunpoint and then kept underground for nearly 20 hours have been harrowing for many. He too served time at the same facility as Newhall and Richard. We had no reason to expect to see them again. At the time of the abduction, Frank "Ed" Ray - the bus driver - was bringing students from Dairyland Elementary School home from a summer trip to the local fairgrounds. It was a man identified from photographs as Frederick Newhall Woods who allegedly purchased, using a false name, the vans used in the kidnapping. The shotgun thing concerns accounts that Mr. Woods on one or two occasions fired over the heads of teenagers who attempted to enter the long drive up the hill at 800 Los Tancos Road where the Woods estate is situated. At the timehe wasn't really workinghe told me from time to time his father would lean on him. After the children managed to free themselves, the kidnappers fled. He did not, in thcse days, hunt, camp, fish, watch or participate in sports, although he enjoyed watching automobile races on television. However, they found that there was a metal lid on top of the hole, which was heavy and immovable. 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. Alias The kidnappers then drove the two vans around for 11 hours, finally stopping at a quarry 100 miles away in the town of Livermore. Now Woods, who was 24 when he committed the kidnapping, has moved one step closer to leaving prison. Theyre vulnerable. Fred (Frederick)Rick (Richard)Jim (James) They hid the bus in the Berenda Slough, where a second van had been stashed. "48 Hours: Live to Tell": Twenty-six school children abducted and buried alive in a truck trailer by three young men. Though he has been recommended for parole, Gov Gavin Newsom will have the opportunity to refer the case to the full parole board for their review if he so chooses. By 7:30 p.m., an all-points bulletin was broadcast while numerous people, including the parents of the missing children, initiated a widespread search. Now Frederick Newhall Woods IV, the "mastermind" of the trio, could be paroled next month and walk out of state prison as a multimillionaire. Scrawled above it are the words, Our first baby. Frederick Newhall Woods first became eligible for parole in 1982 and has had 18 parole hearings since. Victims of the kidnapping, now adults, spoke to CNN in 2015 about their remaining fears relating to the tragic event. Under hypnosis, Ray was also able to remember one of the license plates of the vans that had taken them to the quarry, which was tied to Woods and both of his accomplices. At a parole hearing held online last week due to Covid-19 safety precautions that featured testimony from multiple survivors, Woods said that he is a changed man. His mother took a lot of home movies of us.. You can check out his prison record here. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Frederick and James panicked and fled northward in a car, while Richard decided to return home to confess to committing the mass abduction to his parents. Woods was arrested weeks later after fleeing to Vancouver, British Columbia. Most of her short marriage with Mr. Woods was not happy, Mrs. Padgett said. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. He'd buy a shirt he didn't need.. As a youngster, little is known of Fred Woods. In response, James drove back to the Bay Area, unsure of what to do, while Frederick wrote a letter to a friend, but the friend turned the letter in to the FBI. Of course, we all sympathize with the victims who suffered. According to reports, hes directing at least three enterprises from behind bars, including Ambria Acres Christmas tree farm, the Little Bear Creek gold mine near Lake Tahoe, and another used car business. There was no quit in him, said Park of Marshall, adding that eventually Marshall broke the surface and brave person that he is, crawled out of the hole first.. It was discovered he was running a gold mining business and a car dealership from behind bars without telling the prison. Frederick Newhall Woods IV, 24, and brothers James Schoenfeld, 24, and Richard Schoenfeld, 22, held them captive in box truck in a rock quarry up north near Livermore. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 4 When 24yearold Fred Woods, the last to be arrested of the three young men charged with the kidnapping and entombment of 26 schoolchildren, was taken into custody in Canada a week ago, he was dressed, as a Canadian official put it, like an amateur cowboyhighheeled boots, faded brown denim suit and a rancher's hat saucily curled over long brown sideburns. 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. I just remember the kids got a hold of me and were holding onto me. As per Woods's wife, he was a loner. The three suspects were arrested two weeks after the kidnapping and were initially sentenced to life in prison without parole. Officials said they . The state would be willing to pay ransom for them. Within two weeks, though, all three men had been captured. Frederick "Fred" Newhall Woods IV, Richard "Rick" Schoenfeld, and James "Jim" Schoenfeld were a trio of abductors infamous for hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them for ransom. Woods had also inherited a trust fund reportedly worth $100 million, as he came from two very wealthy families, and he bought a mansion a short distance away from the prison. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. They forced Ray and all of the children down a ladder and into a moving truck they had buried 12 feet underground. We enjoyed ourselves, she said. , updated While James and Richard Schoenfeld had success with the parole board last decade, Woods despite his many attempts had not had success until this year. About Us; Staff; Camps; Scuba. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. He immediately forced Ray to get up from his seat and moved him to the back of the bus while the other two jumped out of their van and boarded the bus as well, taking control of the schoolchildren riding inside. He was bitter about it, about the way his marriage had broken up, said a 20yearold woman who was Fred Woods's girlfriend until about 10 months ago, when she broke off her relationship with him. 1950s[1] Lynda Carrejo Labendeira, who was 10 years old at the time, told the Associated Press in 2015 that the battery-operated blowers that circulated the air in the bunker began to fail. Psychiatrist Lenore Terr told CBS News, There are a number of these kids who have gone to prison for doing something controlling to somebody else., As Heffington-Medrano explained, The emotional scars that they put on all of us, theyre countless.. 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. Ray and some of the older boys stacked in a pile a total of fourteen mattresses that were in the van, reaching the hole where they all managed to go through when forced inside. 'The sides of the van were bowing in I knew that I was going to die. He had been denied release 17 other times. Despite the significant wealth of their families, James Schoenfeld told CBS that he and Woods were in serious debt at the time of the kidnapping and that the crime was financially motivated. She said that she had begun dating Fred Woods in late 1974he said his mother put him up to calling meand that the relationship had been an intimate, if unsatisfactory one. United States. CBS Fred Woods and James and Richard Schoenfeld, the men who kidnapped 26 children in 1976. The ones he sold he made a lot ontwo or three hundred dollars for a junker, up into the thousands..
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