Frederick Woods was convicted in 1976 in the United States of kidnapping twenty-six children between the ages of 5 and 14 and their bus drivers. He could be released after forty years in prison and seventeen unsuccessful requests for parole.
The 70-year-old Californian who had spent the past four decades in prison for hijacking a school bus full of children and their driver was released in 1976. He writes for NBC News.
Frederick Newhall Woods and two of his associates, Richard and James Schoenefeld, carried out the largest hijacking in US history.
A 70-year-old California man who has spent the past four decades in prison for hijacking a school bus full of children and burying them and their driver alive has been approved to obtain the password. https://t.co/wZBwGmZxMN
– NBC News (NBCNews) March 30, 2022
Near Chuchilla, about 200 miles southeast of San Francisco, Ed Ray, a school bus driver, took 26 students from Dairyland Elementary School in 1976 from a summer trip when three armed men hijacked the bus. Woods and his friends then transferred the 26 children and the driver to a truck, and after a 12-hour journey, locked them in an underground boxer in a truck.
“I remember it just got dark…”
Some survivors of the 1976 Chouchilla kidnapping share their emotional stories @ 48 hours: https://t.co/CsN9FvmFKO pic.twitter.com/b2IXxuHQk4
– CBS News (CBSNews) October 13, 2019
The kidnappers, who had been plotting the crime for more than a year, demanded a ransom of $5 million for the children and the driver.
The children and the driver dug and ran away after a day in the basement for more than a day.
Although none of the kidnapping victims suffered life-threatening injuries, the spiritual consequences of the armed hostage and then the time many of them spend underground to this day.
“I am fifty years old and have an anxiety attack when I get in the car with my husband.” One survivor, Jennifer Brown-Hyde, told Fox News. One survivor, Darla Neal, told CNN in 2015 that she was experiencing such strong “disabling” anxiety that she almost had to quit her job there.
The three perpetrators were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment
Woods and others, Richard and James Schoenefeld, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, the court ruled that they should be given the opportunity for parole.
Richard Schoenefeld was paroled in 2012 and James Schoenefeld in 2015. Woods is the last of three criminals still in prison.
It’s been 40 years since the crime, and Frederick Newhall Woods was found fit for parole this year at a hearing at the San Luis Obispo County Jail on Friday. His application has been rejected seventeen times so far.
Woods has apologized for his actions and said he now fully understands the trauma inflicted on the kidnapped children and the bus driver. “I take full responsibility for this terrible act.“
The Board’s decision becomes final within 120 days before being reviewed by the Governor. If the governor supports parole, Woods will be released.
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