A spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Joe Orlando, has announced that a 70-year-old man who was imprisoned for the abduction of a bus full of children in 1976 has been granted parole.
45 years ago in Chowchilla, a small town located in Madera County, Northern California, Frederick Newhall Woods was one of three men who abducted 26 children along with their bus driver. Now 70 years old.
In what was the largest mass kidnapping in US history, all 27 individuals, including the bus driver, were transported over 100 miles away to Livermore and buried alive in a quarry that belonged to Woods’ father. The perpetrators then demanded a $5 million ransom from the victims while they remained underground. This technique was likely influenced by a plot element in the movie “Dirty Harry.”
After spending 16 hours underground, the bus driver and the children were able to dig their way out and escape while their captors were asleep.
Frederick Newhall Woods and his accomplices, Richard and James Schoenfeld, pleaded guilty to abduction and were sentenced to 27 life sentences each, without the possibility of parole. However, an appeals court later overturned this ruling and deemed them eligible for parole.
Richard Schoenfeld was granted parole in 2012, and James Schoenfeld was released in 2015. Woods is the only one of the three who remains in custody. He had his 18th parole hearing at California Men’s Colony, a state prison located in San Luis Obispo. Jail records indicate that he became eligible for release back in 1982.
Within 120 days, the parole decision recommended by the hearing panel will become official. After that, the governor has 30 days to review the decision. The governor can either uphold the decision or refer it back to the entire board for further consideration. The governor is only able to overturn parole decisions in cases where the offender was convicted of murder, but as Woods was not, he does not have that authority.
Some of the survivors of the kidnapping, who are now adults, revealed in 2015 that they still suffer from anxiety and nightmares as a result of the traumatic event. Darla Neal, who was 10 years old at the time of the kidnapping, shared that her “severe anxiety” made it challenging for her to lead a normal life.
She revealed that the anxiety was so overwhelming that she had to quit her job. Although she tries to tell herself that she should be able to move on, she still feels like a mess.