Episode Summary
On a warm summer day in 1976, 26 children went missing from the town of Chowchilla, California, setting off one of the most bizarre kidnapping cases in U.S. history.
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Episode Info
Be sure to check out the Max documentary, Chowchilla.
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The victims of the Chowchilla kidnapping.
Bus driver Ed Ray with children.
The moving trailer that was buried in a rock quarry around 100 miles away from where the bus was last seen.
The inside of the moving trailer was ‘equipped’ with beds, some snacks, and makeshift toilets for the victims.
Fred Woods (left), James Schoenfeld (middle), and Richard Schoenfeld (right).
James Schoenfeld (left), Fred Woods (middle), and Richard Schoenfeld (right).
Episode Source Material
- The Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, CA): 26 children, bus driver disappear, by Associated Press via Newspapers.com.
- The Sun-Telegram (San Bernadino, CA): Missing students found unharmed, by Associated Press via Newspapers.com.
- The Sun-Telegram (San Bernadino, CA): Reward offered for kidnappers, by Associated Press via Newspapers.com.
- Merced Sun-Star (Merced, CA): Tip may have begun unraveling kidnap mystery, by Jess Chambers via Newspapers.com.
- The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA): Chowchilla kidnap hunt spreads over 4 counties, by Jack Jones via Newspapers.com.
- The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, CA): Suspect in kidnapping surrenders in Oakland, by Richard West via Newspapers.com.
- The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA): Arrest of 7 peninsula scions looms in Chowchilla kidnap, by McClatchy Newspapers Service via Newspapers.com.
- The Fresno Bee (Fresno, CA): Armed officers enter Portola estate, find Chowchilla kidnap evidence, by Jim Boren and Larry Carroll via Newspapers.com.
- The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, CA): Bus kidnap suspects Woods, Schoenfeld brother arrested, by Herb Michelson and Wayne Wilson via Newspapers.com.
- SFGate (San Francisco, CA): Chowchilla nightmares / 25 years later, kidnap victims still struggling to forget past, by Michael Taylor.
- CNN: He kidnapped 27 people from a school bus and helped bury them alive. Now a victim is stunned that he may soon walk free, by Holly Yan.
- CNN: Man who kidnapped a bus full of children in 1976 officially granted parole, by Amir Vera and Taylor Romine.
- The Independent (UK): He kidnapped 26 kids on a school bus and buried them alive. Now he’s free, by Sheila Flynn.
- Cbs News: “48 Hours” Live to Tell: The Chowchilla Kidnapping.
- Fox News: Nightmare in Chowchilla; The school bus kidnapping (Podcast). Episodes 1-7 and Bonus.
- The New York Times (New York, NY): Ed Ray, Bus Driver During Kidnapping, Dies at 91, by Dennis Hevesi.
- NBC Bay Area (San Jose, CA): Parole Denied Again for Frederick Woods, Last of 3 Men Convicted in 1976 Chowchilla Kidnapping to Remain in Prison, by Associated Press.
- CBS News: Notorious Chowchilla bus kidnapper ran a gold mine and Christmas tree farm from prison, by George Osterkemp.
- CBS News: Frederick Woods recommended for parole over 1976 Chowchilla bus hijacking and kidnapping of 26 kids, by CBS News.
- CBS Bay Area (San Francisco, CA): Frederick Woods, convicted in 1976 Chowchilla school bus kidnapping, to be released on parole, by Associated Press.
- Vox: The ballad of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping, by Kaleb Horton.
- Max: Chowchilla (documentary). Directed by Paul Solet.
- The Fresno Bee (Fresno, California) Chowchilla bus kidnapper James Schoenfeld’s own words add insight to crime by Gail Marshall via Fresnobee.com.
- Highways Today (Altrincham, Cheshire, UK) How Truckers use 10m and Citizen’s Band (CB) Radios by Anthony Davis via highways.today.