Deseret News archives: California mass kidnapping ordeal in 1976 amazingly ends without harm

A look back at local, national and world events through Deseret News archives.

On July 15, 1976, a 36-hour kidnap ordeal began for 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver as they were abducted near Chowchilla, California, by three gunmen and imprisoned in an underground cell.

It sounds like a horrible plot to a movie. But it happened.

And before the world audience could grasp what had occurred, the driver of the bus appeared and led authorities to the bus. All 27 victims were recovered unharmed.

The kidnappers were soon behind bars.

Per news reports of the time, a trio of young men, in need of some quick funds, began working on a plan to kidnap a bus full of children on their way to Dairyland Elementary School. On July 15, 1976, they pretended their van had engine problems, prompting bus driver Ed Ray to pull over and park his bus full of summer school students as it traveled on Avenue 21 about 35 miles south of Fresno.

The men moved in, forcing the victims into two vans and hiding the bus in a creek bed. They drove about 100 miles north to Livermore to a quarry owned by Frederick Woods’ father and sealed the children and Ray in a trailer in a cave and left to make their $5 million ransom demand.

The Chowchilla Police Department was swamped with so many calls that the kidnappers decided to take a nap before calling in their demand.

When they awoke, Ray and the two oldest children had managed to stack mattresses high enough to escape through the roof of the trailer. It wasn’t long before all the abductees staggered to safety.

Richard Schoenfeld turned himself in eight days later. His brother and Woods were arrested the next week. The men — all in their mid-20s — were sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

The convicts had their original sentences overturned in 1980, suggesting that they caused no serious bodily injury. They got the chance for parole. Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012, followed by his brother James Schoenfeld’s 2015 release. In August 2022, Woods, the alleged mastermind of the kidnapping, also walked out of prison.

Here are some stories from Deseret News archives about the incident:

After bus full of kids vanished, spotlight shone on dusty town”

“ Retired LDS FBI agent recalls experiences in new autobiography ”

“ AP photos: Hero driver in California bus kidnap dies ”

“ Judge, lawyers urge parole in 1970s bus kidnap ”