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.. I think he was not hostileyou really couldn't put it as hostile, the youth said. of 1. The old vehicles, collected originally as a hobby by both the young Mr. Woods and by his father, Frederick Nickerson Woods 3d, were in the last two years a business asset. He'd mention the trips they'd taken to Baja, California. Psychiatrist Lenore Terr told CBS News, There are a number of these kids who have gone to prison for doing something controlling to somebody else., As Heffington-Medrano explained, The emotional scars that they put on all of us, theyre countless.. When Frederick Newhall Woods and two other gunmen hijacked the school bus in Chowchilla, California, it was considered the biggest kidnapping in US history. 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. Frederick was paroled in August 2022. 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. We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because children are precious, Schoenfeld said. The company reported gross sales of $1.5 million last year, and the young Mr. Woods is reported to hold stock in the company. Woods masterminded the kidnapping plot after being inspired by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. In July 1976, dozens of parents in rural Chowchilla, California, faced their worst nightmare when their children went missing.
The older brother, James, was generally described as less outgoing but not unfriendly. The portrait that emerges from interviews with Mrs. Padgett and others who knew 24yearold Fred Woods, most of them casually because he had very few friends, is one of a longersome say a loserwho got along poorly with people, and who perhaps as a result, cloaked himself in his possessions, carrying with him as a high school student not pictures of girls but pictures of his automobiles. a 1938 graduate of Stanford University and a native of Massachusetts, is owner of the California Rock and Gravel Company, and of the gravel quarry where the bus and children were. At the timehe wasn't really workinghe told me from time to time his father would lean on him. Now that youve read about the Chowchilla kidnapping, go inside the bizarre and terribly executed kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr. Then, learn about the tragic abduction of the Lindbergh baby. He immediately forced Ray to get up from his seat and moved him to the back of the bus while the other two jumped out of their van and boarded the bus as well, taking control of the schoolchildren riding inside. Frederick Newhall Woods and accomplice brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld kidapped the bus full of children from Chowchilla, California in 1976; . Frederick Newhall Woods was born 24 years ago, the son of Harriet Wright and Frederick Nickerson Woods 3d. 01:30 GMT 30 Mar 2022 He was bitter about it, about the way his marriage had broken up, said a 20yearold woman who was Fred Woods's girlfriend until about 10 months ago, when she broke off her relationship with him. We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because they are precious, James Schoenfeld said at a 2015 parole hearing. "I'm overwhelmed to the point that I had to leave work," said Darla Neal, who was a 10-year-old student at the time of the kidnapping. Hes incarcerated at the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo. And possess., See the article in its original context from. Powered by. Stopping over at a drainage slough, half of the passengers were forced into the van, which drove off before a second white van arrived sometime later, taking the remainder of the hostages. Frederick Newhall Woods was found suitable for parole at a hearing Friday at California Men's Colony, a state prison in San Luis Obispo County. 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. A panel of two commissioners with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation on Friday recommended parole for Frederick Newhall Woods, one of three men who hijacked a school. The middle name, Newhall, is one of prominence and wealth. Woods and the Schoenfelds wanted a $5m ransom for the safe return of the children to their families, but their plan quickly went awry. He had boyish charm that enabled him, when he could overcome his shyness, to enter into intimate relationships with women, but the relationships seemed to end quickly, and over these relationships there was the same quick, jealous guarding that caused him to ward off intruders on the family estate with a shotgun, and, on at least one occasion, with gunfire. she said, I would have friends. I knew it.'. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. Frederick Newhall Woods was approved for parole on Friday, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has confirmed Woods, 70, is one of three men. 'I remember children just screaming and crying,' Park recounted forCBS. PLEASE NOTE ORDERS MAY TAKE LONGER TO SHIP AT THIS TIME. A school bus carrying 26 students mysteriously vanished on the way back from a summer field trip, and three wealthy young men were the top suspects. He just seemed the normal kind of guy, the former classmate said. I full take responsibility for this heinous act.. Park said he turned into an angry child and his parents eventually sent him to a facility for youth offenders. He too served time at the same facility as Newhall and Richard. Alive (all released). Mr. Woods also met Songel Nichols, who was to become his wife. He was wealthy and lavished money on the things he wanted, his possessions, but stingy in all else. He kept the newspaper clips, because his name was in the papers for finding the body.. According to his attorney, however, he has not faced any disciplinary action since his last parole hearing in 2019. 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. Almost alone among those who knew Fred Woods well, the young woman said she did not find the cowboy image unsurprising. He wasn't interested in anything. But he was lonely, and it was lonely living with him.. Unlike his younger brother, who dated a different girl every night, James did not seem active socially, the mechanic said. I just remember the kids got a hold of me and were holding onto me. I said to myself as soon as the bus stopped: 'What have I got myself into?' So he and 14-year-old Michael Marshall got to work. The kidnapping, which was the subject of massive media attention when it happened, has resurfaced in popular culture in recent years through CBS and Fox television specials. 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. The young woman, who asked not to be identified, lives with her parents in a welltodo section of a town near Portola Valley. Frederick "Fred" Newhall Woods IV, Richard "Rick" Schoenfeld, and James "Jim" Schoenfeld were a trio of abductors infamous for hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them for ransom. District Attorney Warren Haas said, It was a minor matter. CBS reported that in previous parole hearings he was evasive, unable or unwilling to follow prison rules and fail[ed] to acknowledge the severity of his crime. Frederick Newhall Woods did not have the same success with the parole board. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. XD;Frederick Newhall Woods accused of kidnapping and robbery in the abduction of 26 Chowchilla area youngsters and their bus driver. The escape took place before the kidnappers had even been able to call in their ransom demands. His parents, Fred and Harriet. By Wayne King Special to The New York Times. A grammar school classmate said that he was a little different, shy, awkwardpeople made fun of him.. 13:36 GMT 30 Mar 2022. 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. At the time, memories of the Patty Hearst abduction and the October 1969 threat by the Zodiac Killer to target a school bus for a massacre were still fresh on people's minds. His father. Exposure to and discussions of crime and action films such as Dirty Harry and The French Connection allegedly led to the three musing over the prospect of "perfect crimes" and whether or not it was possible they could be committed. They were each given 27 life sentences without the possibility of parole. A relative said that the family can trace its ancestry to six Mayflower pilgrims, including John Alden and William Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth. We would not have lived much longer. Inside The 1976 Chowchilla Kidnapping That Left 26 Schoolchildren Buried Alive. At the time of the abduction, Frank "Ed" Ray - the bus driver - was bringing students from Dairyland Elementary School home from a summer trip to the local fairgrounds. "Now I fully understand the terror and trauma I caused. gas and land His friends say Woods never hurt for money. 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. Hyde, during Friday's hearing, said Woods has yet to fully make amends for his crime and 'is still a millionaire. He came home and told me about it and was all excited. Despite this,Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno still argued against Woods' release. However, he was merely denied entry again, and James went back to Idaho, where he abandoned the car in Coeur d'Alene the next day and purchased a truck that he drove back to Washington. Frederick Newhall Woods was 24 years old at the time of the 1976 Chowchilla school bus kidnapping. For a grueling 16 hours, the bus driver and one of the oldest students worked tirelessly to free themselves and the other children from the makeshift prison before they ran out of air or the roof of the truck collapsed in on them from the weight of the dirt above. Woods's parole has also previously been backed by some prominent supporters, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo of Palo Alto in 2015. Two victims who participated during Fridays hearing said they agreed that Woods should be paroled, according to NBC. 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 is the son of Fred Nickerson Woods 3d, who owns the California Rock and Gravel Company, based here, and the quarry in Livermore where the schoolchildren and their driver, Franklin Edward Ray,. A copper penny is taped to a page, date 1971, and the inscription reads our lucky penny., On a final page is a snapshot of a puppy. 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. Once retired, William Newsom advocated for their release in 2011, noting that no one was seriously physically injured during the kidnapping. Fearing of embarrassment from asking their parents for financial support, they agreed to get themselves some money. Over the years, there have been other troubling reports about Woods. ', 'I've had a character change since then,' he said at his hearing. But man, you're in the weird people capital of the world, so I didn't think much.. We were friends, but we didn't hang around together. 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. Inside the prison bunker, Ray and Marshall worked quickly to find a way out. He wanted to really control. 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