SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of California children for a $5 million ransom attempt in 1976 in what a prosecutor called “the mass kidnapping largest in the history of the United States” is being released by the Public Ministry. the state parole board.
Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the board to reconsider its decision to parole Frederick Woods, 70, on Tuesday after two commissioners recommended his release in March when previous panels had denied him parole 17 times. But the board upheld that decision.
Woods and his two accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were from wealthy families in the San Francisco Bay Area when they kidnapped 26 children and the bus driver near Chowchilla, about 125 miles (201 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
The three buried the children, ages 5 to 14, along with the bus driver in an old moving van east of San Francisco with little ventilation, light, water, food or bathroom supplies. The victims were able to dig their way out more than a day later.
Newsom said Woods “continued to engage in financial misconduct in prison,” using a contraband cell phone to offer advice on running a Christmas tree farm, a gold mining business and a car dealership. The governor could not block Woods’ release because he is not convicted of murder, and could only urge the parole board to take a closer look at him.
Woods’ behavior “continues to show that it’s about money,” said Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno, in opposing his parole.
Moreno said after the decision that she was angry and frustrated “because it has flouted justice in Madera County” and fears for the state of society “if you can hijack a bus full of schoolchildren, leave them buried alive and still get out of prison”. her after she commit that crime and spend her time in prison breaking the law.”
Woods was not eligible to attend in person Tuesday, but said during his parole hearing in March that he felt he needed money for his parents to accept him and “was selfish and immature at the time,” while his most recent violations they were to benefit the trust fund left to him by his late parents.
“I didn’t need the money. He wanted the money,” Woods said of the rescue attempt.
His attorney, Dominique Banos, said Wednesday that the parole board recognized that Woods “has shown a change of character for the better” and “remains low risk, and once released from prison he poses no danger or threat to the community.” ”.
Three former inmates who served time with Woods urged parole officials to release him, while four victims or their family members said Woods’ misbehavior in prison shows he still considers himself privileged. Several of Woods’ victims have previously supported his release.
Lynda Carrejo Labendeira, who was 10 at the time, recalled how the children struggled to escape as a lantern and candles went out as “the dungeon and makeshift coffin was collapsing.”
“I can’t pick the random flashbacks every time I see a van similar to the one that transported us,” he told the board.
“Insomnia keeps me awake all hours of the night,” she said. “I don’t sleep so I don’t have nightmares.”
Jennifer Brown Hyde, who was 9 years old at the time, recalled “the lifelong effects of being buried alive and being driven around in a van for 11 hours without food, water, or a bathroom in 100+ degree weather.”
“His mind is still evil and he wants to get what he wants,” he told the board. “I want him to serve life in prison, just like I’ve served my entire life dealing with PTSD because of his sense of entitlement.”
She said Wednesday that her family is disappointed, but that it is “time to close this chapter and continue to live the blessed life that I have been given.” She praised her fellow hostages as “true survivors and not victims.”
An appeals court ordered Richard’s release in 2012 and the then-governor. Jerry Brown put James on parole in 2015.
Newsom acknowledged that Woods is eligible for consideration because he was only 24 years old when he committed the crime and because he is now an elderly man. He said Woods, who once studied police at a community college, has also taken steps to improve himself in prison.
The governor’s late father, state Judge William Newsom, served on an appeal panel in 1980 that reduced the men’s life sentences to give them a chance at parole. He pushed for his release in 2011, after he retired, noting that no one was seriously physically injured during the kidnapping.
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