In 1976, a man kidnapped a bus full of children and buried them alive. In addition, with the support of two other people, he demanded from the United States State Board of Education about $ 5 million for the ransom. After applying for release, Frederick Woods, the man who buried these children, was granted parole. Understand more about the case.
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On July 15, 1976, Frederick Woods and his accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfield, kidnapped 26 children and the driver of the bus they were on, near the town of Chochera, 200 kilometers southeast of São Francis. The group then took the hostages to Livermore, 100 miles away, where they were loaded onto a moving truck and buried alive. Woods and the brothers even asked the state board of education for US$ 5 million in ransom.
The children, who ranged in age from 5 to 14, and the bus driver managed to dig their way out after 16 hours. Thus, this is considered the largest mass kidnapping in American history. The kidnappers were arrested and sentenced to life in prison.
However, Governor Gavin Newsom's late father, State Judge William Newsom, reduced the sentences life imprisonment of the three men in 1980, so they could have a chance at freedom conditional. Richard was released by an appeals court order in 2012, and James was paroled by decree of the then governor. The other accomplice, Jerry Brown, was released in 2015.
Frederick Woods, now 70, received 17 parole hearings at the California State Penitentiary for the California Men's Colony. He had support from two survivors.
One of them, Larry Park, who supported Woods' freedom, claimed that he had already served enough time for the crimes he committed. Additionally, another young woman who survived the attack, Rebecca Reynolds Daley, joined Park in support of Woods' release.
