1976 Chowchilla kidnapping

The 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping occurred in Chowchilla, California on July 15, 1976, when kidnappers abducted 26 children and their adult driver from their school bus and imprisoned them in a buried truck. The driver, Frank Edward "Ed" Ray, was able to free the children, and the kidnappers were caught and convicted.

Kidnapping and escape

Chowchilla was launched into national headlines on July 15, 1976 when an entire school bus of children was kidnapped. Twenty-six children and the adult bus driver were taken from the bus, which the kidnappers concealed in a drainage slough, and driven around in two vans for 11 hours before being forced, one by one, to climb into a hole in the ground. After passing through the hole the children and their driver found themselves trapped in the interior of a buried moving van. Although they did not know it, their place of confinement was in a quarry located in Livermore, California.

By stacking the 14 mattresses that were in the van, local farmer and part-time bus driver Ed Ray and some of the older children were able to reach the opening at the top of the truck, which had been covered with a metal lid and weighed down. They were able to wedge the lid open with a stick, and Ray was able to move the two 100-pound industrial batteries atop the lid. Ray and the boys were able to remove the remainder of the debris blocking the entrance. After 16 hours underground they emerged and walked to the guard shack at the entrance to the quarry. The guard alerted the authorities and all the victims were pronounced in good condition, and returned home to find that mass media had descended on the town.

Investigation and arrests

Ray was able to remember the license plate number of one vehicle under hypnosis, which led to the capture of the kidnappers as they attempted to flee to Canada. A rough draft of a ransom note was found at the house of the owner of the quarry. The owner's son, Frederick Woods, and two friends, Richard and James Schoenfeld, were found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

After the children were recovered, it was observed that some circumstances of the abduction corresponded to details in "The Day the Children Vanished", a story written by Hugh Pentecost that had been published in the 1969 fiction anthology Alfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives. A copy of this book was in the Chowchilla public library; police theorized that this was the source of the real-life kidnappers' inspiration.

Trial, convictions, and later events

After being denied parole 20 times, one of the three kidnappers, Richard Schoenfeld, was deemed suitable for parole by the California Board on Parole Hearings on October 30, 2008. He was denied parole in August 2009. He was granted parole on April 5, 2011, and was not scheduled to be released from prison until November 13, 2021. However, in June, 2012, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that he would be released that month.

James Schoenfeld has been denied parole 16 times. Frederick Woods was denied parole for the 12th time on January 5, 2009 and will be eligible again in 2012.

Frank Edward "Ed" Ray (February 26, 1921 – May 17, 2012) was a farmer after graduating from Chowchilla High School in 1940. After working on a small farm, Ray began driving a bus in the early 1950s. After the kidnapping, the town celebrated Ed Ray and Children’s Day with a parade, and governor Jerry Brown awarded Ray a 1976 California School Employees Association citation for outstanding community service. Ray died at a Chowchilla nursing home of cirrhosis of the liver, having been visited by many of the schoolchildren he helped save in the days before he died.

Media coverage

The ordeal was dramatized in the 1993 ABC-TV movie They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping (shown in the UK as Vanished Without a Trace) starring Karl Malden, which is sometimes shown on the Biography Channel. Interviews with many of the children, now adults, including Mike and bus driver Ray were broadcast on MSNBC.

External links

• The Chowchilla kidnapping via Tru TV
• Chowchilla's History: 1976 Bus Kidnapping via City of Chowchilla website