The Chowchilla Kidnapping

On July 15th, 1976, a school bus driven by 55-year-old Frank Edward Ray, for Dairyland Elementary, in the school district of Chowchilla, California, was hijacked by three armed men. Ed Ray was driving 26 children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, home from a summer class trip to the Chowchilla Fairgrounds swimming pool. Join Mike and Gibby as they discuss the Chowchilla Kidnapping case. 24-year-old Fred Woods and brothers 22-year-old Richard and 24-year-old James Schoenfeld were the kidnappers. They all came from wealthy families, but all had run into money difficulties. Their plan was to abduct a bus full of kids and ransom them for five million dollars. But, their plan went awry when Ed and the kids were able to escape from a makeshift bunker.