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SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY
Parole denied for man who kidnapped a school bus full of children
Posted: Nov 28, 2012 5:28 PM by Cameron Polom, KSBY News
Updated: Nov 28, 2012 6:43 PM
One of three men convicted of kidnapping a bus full of children back in the 70s has just been denied parole.
Fredrick Woods and brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld kidnapped the children from the town of Chowchilla and buried them alive in a quarry near Livermore in 1976.
The children escaped with the help of their bus driver.
The three kidnappers were sentenced to life in prison.
For many of the victims who were there Wednesday, it's the first time they've seen the face of the man who kidnapped them in 1976.
The children would spend 16 terrifying hours buried alive in a moving van.
Investigators say the men planned to demand $5 million in ransom money, but before they could, bus driver Ed Ray and all of the children managed to claw their way to freedom through several feet of dirt.
After their plan fell apart, Fred Woods and James Schoenfeld attempted to run to Canada. Both men were apprehended 14 days after the kidnappings,
Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in a week earlier.
Fred Woods and his accomplices were originally sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That was overturned by a judge in 1981 granting them life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Richard Schoenfeld, the youngest of the group, was let out of prison earlier this year. Both James Schoenfeld and Fred Woods have been denied parole, Schoenfeld 16 times and Woods now 13 times. Woods will not be eligible again until 2015.
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