On November 28, 2012, Frederick was denied parole for the thirteenth time. He liked police, programs; among his favorites were The Rookies, and also Mod Squad, his former wife said. He said, they the blacksreally tore the place up. Matthew Medrano, son of Jodi Heffington Medrano, sobbed several times as he recounted watching his mother change from being a loving, outgoing survivor until she experienced darker, bitter thoughts and depression before her early death. But the sing-a-longs came to a sobering halt when the vans came to a stop at a quarry near Livermore, where the captors forced Ray and the children down into a buried trailer stocked with mattresses, a small amount of food and water, and ventilation fans. He came home and told me about it and was all excited. 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. No record of such an incident could be found in the records of appropriate police or medical officials, and a check of newspapers disclosed nothing involving Mr. Woods. When the day was about to come to a close, worried parents contacted the school, which initially assumed that the bus had broken down in the road. 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. REAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION His parole hearing in March of 2022 was held at the California Men's Colony, a state prison. While executing a search warrant at the Woods estate, investigators found a gun used in the abduction, a draft of a ransom note, and even a document titled plan. But Woods and his two suspected accomplices, brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld, were nowhere to be found. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. A local NBC affiliate reported at the time of James parole that he would join Richard in caring for their elderly mother at her home in Mountain View, California. Unlike his younger brother, who dated a different girl every night, James did not seem active socially, the mechanic said. On October 30, 2008, after being denied parole twenty times, Richard was deemed suitable for parole by the California Board on Parole Hearings and was released on June 20, 2012, presently living with his mother in a condominium in Mountain View, California. Once it did, they boarded the bus, wearing masks and armed with shotguns. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. An appeals court, however, overturned the decision and the kidnappers were allowed the possibility of parole. Miraculously, the driver and children managed to dig themselves out and escape relatively unharmed and the kidnappers were eventually caught. I was 24 years old, he said. An incredible survival story. On the evening of July 17, Frederick managed to enter Canada and settled himself in a Vancouver hotel. Email us atexclusive@the-sun.comor call212 416 4552. Jennifer Brown Hyde, another victim of the Chowchilla kidnapping, vividly remembered being ushered into the deep, dark hole at gunpoint: I felt like I was an animal going to the slaughterhouse.. When five members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police placed him under arrest, he remarked, I'm really sorry I'm going to miss this on the news tonight., When he was taken to his cheap hotel to pick up his single suitcase of belongings, he reintroduced himself to the desk clerk. The three masked men had hijacked the school bus, transferred the captives into prison vans, and buried them alive in a cargo truck at a quarry 100 miles away. Two victims who participated during Fridays hearing said they agreed that Woods should be paroled, according to NBC. Scrawled above it are the words, Our first baby. Currently, Frederick is 68 years old. They buried the children, who were between the ages of 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in a ventilated underground bunker east of San Francisco. He told me once he was ashamed of her, she said. Frederick Newhall Woods IVRichard SchoenfeldJames Schoenfeld After driving a short distance, the men brought the school bus to a stop in a dry riverbed surrounded by bamboo and tall brush, where another van was waiting. However, according to CBS News, their families appealed the conviction and in 1980, a panel of judges ruled that the kidnappers would eventually be eligible for parole instead of spending life in prison without said eligibility. He wasn't interested in anything. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and he had everything, and saved everything, said his former wife, 24yearold Songel Padgett, whose oneyear marriage to Mr. Woods ended in divorce in early 1972. If no action is taken, Woods parole would be granted within 120 days from Fridays hearing. Authorities issued an all-points bulletin for young Woods and his two friends, James Schoenfeld, 24 and his brother, Richard Schoenfeld, 22, sons of a wealthy podiatrist. James was the second one to get paroled in 2015. 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. An appeals court later overturned the sentences, ruling the men should have a chance for parole at some point in their time behind bars. The mechanic, who asked not to be identified, and who has been questioned intensively by local police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that he had last seen Fred Woods in the early afternoon of July 15, the day of the kidnapping. Frederick Newhall Woods was born 24 years ago, the son of Harriet Wright and Frederick Nickerson Woods 3d. There are snapshots of the young bride with her wedding gifts, listed in red ink on a separate pagetowels, Pyrex bowls, blankets, place mats, kitchen canisters, Tupperware, an electric iron, card and check $25.. Status One of the three drove the bus, another watched Ray and the children, and the third followed behind in their van. The ones he sold he made a lot ontwo or three hundred dollars for a junker, up into the thousands.. ", Woods added: "I've had empathy for the victims which I didn't have then.". The authorities only discovered the businesses when a workers compensation lawsuit was filed against him. He had obtained the job through an employment agency after the marriage, she said, and after losing it went to work in his father's stone quarry. She concluded, about three years later, that they were traumatized by the ordeal, resulting in panic attacks, nightmares of abductions that led to their deaths, and personality changes. 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. ', She added:'He's not someone who should be released. 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. And now, more than 40 years later, all three will soon be walking free once again. Would love your thoughts, please comment. But when they woke up and turned on the news, they saw that the children had already escaped. Woods and the Schoenfelds planned their crime for more than a year and, in 1976, all pleaded guilty to kidnapping. Mr. Woods also met Songel Nichols, who was to become his wife. He decided to dig beneath it. Mrs. Woods had her friends by the cottage on the big estate where they lived; her new husband had none. Six months after the mass abduction, Bay Area psychiatrist Lenore Terr had gone to Chowchilla to help with a noted rise in nightmares and phobias that were being experienced by the children; Terr conducted interviews with all but one of the children, also performing follow-up interviews three to four years afterward. So he and 14-year-old Michael Marshall got to work. So, where are they now? His younger brother, Richard Allen, 22 years old, is already in custody and is held in bail of $1 million on 27 counts of kidnapping of the schoolchildren and their bus driver. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Frederick Newhall Woods was 24 years old at the time of the 1976 Chowchilla school bus kidnapping. He cannot unilaterally reverse the parole decision, because Woods was not convicted of murder. Public DomainEd Ray and the children escaped from the buried moving truck after 16 hours. 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. Home. Woods and the Schoenfelds wanted a $5m ransom for the safe return of the children to their families, but their plan quickly went awry. Here's what you need to know about what happened to Fred Woods and James & Richard Schoenfeld, the 1976 Chowchilla kidnappers who abducted a school bus full of children and buried them alive in a quarry. 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. In 1976, Frederick Newhall Woods IV and brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld kidnapped a. Once all 27 members of the group were inside, the kidnappers put a heavy piece of metal and two 100-pound industrial batteries on top of the entry theyd cut into the roof of the truck, filled in the rest of the hole with dirt, and left the scene. Richard was 22 at the time of the kidnapping. We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because they are precious, James Schoenfeld said at a 2015 parole hearing. Other photos show the couple at Disneyland where they went on their honeymoon, Mr. Woods gawky, gangling, white socked, his suit illfitting on a skinny frame, vestiges of acne still on his face. A van blocked the road ahead of the bus; one man held a gun to the driver while the other drove the bus. synergy rv transport pay rate; stephen randolph todd. The kidnappers made each of the children give their names and hand over a piece of clothing, and then climb down a ladder into the van, buried more than 12-feet below the ground. Nevertheless, the three were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, although the prevention of parole was later overturned in 1981. 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. Many of the children continued to report symptoms of trauma for at least twenty-five years after the hijacking, including substance abuse and depression. During Friday's hearing, Woods apologized for his actions, telling the parole panel that he 'had empathy for the victims which I didn't have then. 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.. '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.'. He was left with relatives every year for at least a month or two all his life when his parents traveled. After knocking down another battery from the lid, Ray and the boys cleared out dirt and debris until they made a hole large enough for one of the smaller boys to fit through. 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. They will mind.. 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. His father. During the same interview, Brown saidshe 'felt like an animal going to the slaughterhouse'. I think I only saw a few pictures of him and his parents together in the family pictures. The older brother, James, was generally described as less outgoing but not unfriendly. 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. Frederick Woods pictured in 2021 (AP) After 17 unsuccessful attempts, a California man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 has been recommended for parole. His parole stirred great controversy from the hostages. The third followed in the truck. Mr. When they were married, Mr. Wood was a salesman at a paint store, but lost the job. PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif., July 25 Frederick Newhall Woods 4th, subject of a nationwide hunt as the key suspect in the bizarre kidnapping of 26 school children near Chowchilla, Calif., was the. But though the first part of their plan went off without a hitch, everything went awry when they tried to phone in the ransom. And I was just angry, said Park. James Schoenfeld once told parole officials that he envied friends who had 'his-and-hers Ferraris.' They pleaded guilty, were fined $125 each and placed on a year's probation. 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. Frederick Newhall Woods was a child of his wealthy parents. Police executed a search warrant on the 100-acre family estate in Portola. He then can allow the decision to stand, or send it to a full board for further review. That, plus the fact that Frederick's father owned the rock quarry where the hostages were discovered, placed suspicion on him. His trust fund helped settle the civil lawsuit brought by the kidnapping victims. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. We were just incompatible, she said. He just said he preferred not to be around children, she said. Woods is related to California's wealthy Newhall family The Newhall Land and Farming Co. holds enormous investments in commercial and recreational ventures, agriculture, cattle, oil. 'He's ruined the lives of dozens of these kids - they still struggle, a lot of them, with the aftereffects of this. CBS Fred Woods and James and Richard Schoenfeld, the men who kidnapped 26 children in 1976. He was 57 at the time. Additionally, several of the survivors have alleged they suffered from anxiety and nightmares as a result of the incident. Gavin Newsom has 30 days to review the decision and wither allow it to stand or refer it to the full Board of Parole Hearings for a review. He's demonstrated the capacity to do this kind of a crimeto mastermind and carry out something like this. Woods was arrested weeks later after fleeing to Vancouver, British Columbia. The young man wanted no one near the estate, his former wife said, and once he fired a shotgun over the heads of some youngsters who played in an old caboose on the estate, she said. He has married three times during the period of his incarceration, and he has also purchased a mansion nearby. First, jammed phone lines meant that the kidnappers couldnt communicate their ransom demand. The bravura performance was another illfitting piece in the puzzling portrait of a wealthy, privileged young man who, evidence indicates, is the central figure in a crime that is bizarre even by Catifornia standards. Darla Neal, who was 10 at the time of the hijacking, told CNN in 2015 her 'extreme anxiety' made it impossible to live normally. Governor Jerry Brown, who was in his first year during the kidnappings, had 120 days to decide whether he wanted to send the case back to the parole board, but once the time elapsed, James release became imminent. 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. Ive had a character change since then. Natasha Anderson For Dailymail.Com He too served time at the same facility as Newhall and Richard. By If we had anyone at our house that he invited, it was always his family or relatives, she said. (1) Frederick Newhall Woods IV, son of the quarry owner, 25 years old, 6 foot, 145 pounds, brown hair and blue eyes; (2) James Schoenfeld, son of a podiatrist in Atherton, 25 years old, 6 foot, 170 pounds, red hair and blue eyes; (3) James' brother Richard Schoenfeld, 22 years old, 5 foot 11 inches, 150 pounds, blonde hair and blue eyes. Frederick Newhall Woods did not have the same success with the parole board. He dug until he was exhausted, and then he kept on digging. He says the nightmares have finally stopped and that healing continues if you allow it., Park also said he met his kidnappers, shook their hands, and forgave them, which changed [his] life.. Frantic parents, school officials and police . 1950s[1] 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. The young man constantly sought to please his father, she said, but always felt inadequate. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Once the trial ended, Chowchilla fell out of the media spotlight, save for the visit by reporters on the anniversary of the mass abduction. Woods is an unusual prisoner in another way: he is believed to have inherited a massive amount of money from his wealthy parents, claimed in one court filing to be around $100m. After 17 unsuccessful attempts, a California man who kidnapped 26 children on a school bus in 1976 has been recommended for parole.. There was no quit in him.. Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012, and James Schoenfeld was released in 2015. I was 24 years old. Frederick Newhall Woods IV, son of the quarry owner, 25 years old, 6 foot, 145 pounds, brown hair and blue eyes; . Once the allotted time is up, the governor has 30 days to review their decision. Finally, on July 25, 1977, the three pleaded guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom without inflicting injury. What is lynching and what is the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Bill? According to the Associated Press, the men had kidnapped the children because they were deeply in debt and planned to ask for a hefty ransom. Another survivor, Darla Neal, told CNN in 2015 that she deals with crippling anxiety to the point that she had to leave work. she said. The three eventually formulated a scheme to hijack a school bus, hide all of the passengers somewhere safe, demand a $5 million ransom from the state of California, retrieve the money, and then release the hostages unharmed, all within twenty-four hours. The 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping is brought back to memory in CBS 48 Hours. On July 15, 1976, a school bus driver and 26 children aged between 5 and 14 were kidnapped by three armed men. Fridays hearing was Woods 18th attempt for parole. Frederick Newhall Woods IV and Richard and James Schoenfeld were soon . Thankfully, all the children and their bus driver returned home 36 hours after they were abducted, safe but traumatized. 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. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing. The state would be willing to pay ransom for them. He really didn't want people around here. Eighteen months after the mass abduction, one of the older male victims shot a Japanese tourist with a BB gun when the tourist's car broke down in front of his home. Meanwhile, in the buried van, after spending about twelve hours inside, the hostages decided to try and make an escape after feelings of claustrophobia began to take reign. 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. Birth Date Frederick, Richard, and James targeted a school bus full of children, all aged 5 to 14, whom they got to stop by pretending that their van broke down in the middle of the road. 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. Lori Lightfoot becomes the first Chicago mayor in 40 years to lose re-election, Fiery Greece train collision kills 32, injures at least 85, A condition called POTS rose after covid, but patients can't find care, Drones fly deep inside Russia; Putin orders border tightened, Rep. Lauren Boebert Gets Absolutely Schooled By Jamie Raskin Using Trump's Own Words, Snow plow drivers prepare for another round of winter weather, FSU women's basketball: Ta'Niya Latson and Makayla Timpson earn ACC postseason honors, Calls for more protection after cashier attacked, beaten at Bronx grocery store, Sublime menace and sonic enormity: 50 years of Pink Floyds The Dark Side of the Moon. July 15-17, 1976: The school bus hijacking. Woods became eligible for parole in 1982 but was previously denied release 17 times. The middle name, Newhall, is one of prominence and wealth. PLEASE NOTE ORDERS MAY TAKE LONGER TO SHIP AT THIS TIME. Fighting heat exhaustion, they poured water over their heads and kept pushing until they were able to knock the batteries off of the top of the hatch. Eventually, they moved the cover and Marshall scrambled into a box the kidnappers had put on top. I was smoking crack. ony, but the charges were later reduced to petty theft and finally to auto tampering, a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, investigators determined that the buried van, which they managed to bring up from the ground, belonged to Frederick. Born sometime in the 1952 and 1954, respectively, Frederick, James, and Richard all came from privileged backgrounds, having lived in wealthy neighborhoods in the San Francisco area. The interior of the moving truck in which Ed Ray and 26 children were buried alive. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. I fully take responsibility for this heinous act.. In 1993, a made-for-TV movie based on a book written about the crime was made, and Frederick sued the filmmakers, feeling that the character portrayed in the movie was extremely biased, but the lawsuit was eventually dismissed. There was just miles and miles of scenery., One major point of her incompatibility with Mr. Woods, the young woman said, were his racial views. 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. Our childhood was completely turned upside down., Many of the children went on to suffer from depression and substance abuse. We would have suffocated to death in there, Labendeira said. Woods' son, Fred Newhall Woods IV, 24, was missing. The three men pleaded guilty to kidnapping in July 1977 and received life in prison. After about 12 hours on the road, the group was taken down into a ventilated bunker that contained mattresses and snacks on property owned by Woods father, prosecutors said. On August 4, Frederick, Richard, and James went to court in Chowchilla, where Frederick, Richard, and James pleaded innocent to more than 40 felony charges. The men planned to. 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. 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. He said he was afraid people would make fun of him., One other incident struck his former wife as unusual. of Mutual Victims 27 abducted Status Alive (all released) Woods, Wealthy Kidnap Suspect, Described as a Loner and a Loser, https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/26/archives/woods-wealthy-kidnap-suspect-described-as-a-loner-and-a-loser.html. Woods said during an earlier parole hearing that he just 'got greedy.'. The trial was then delayed as it was relayed from Chowchilla's Madera County to Alameda County. 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