This July 24, 1976 file photo shows the inside of the van that was used as a prison for the 26 kidnapped Chowchilla school children and their bus driver in Livermore, Calif.
SACRAMENTO — The last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of California children for an attempted $5 million ransom in 1976 in what a prosecutor called “the largest mass kidnapping in U.S. history” is being released by the state’s 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 affirmed that decision.
Woods and his two accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near Chowchilla, about 125 miles (201 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco.
California Department of Corrections photos of, from left, Fredrick Woods, James Schoenfeld and Richard Schoenfeld. All three men were convicted in the kidnapping of 26 children and their school bus driver nearly 40 years ago in Chowchilla, Calif. All are now on parole. (California Department of Corrections via AP)
The three buried the children, ages 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in an old moving van in Livermore 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 related-misconduct in prison,” using a contraband cellphone to offer advice on running a Christmas tree farm, a gold mining business and a car dealership. The governor couldn’t block Woods’ release because he’s not convicted of murder, and could only urge the parole board to take a closer look.
Woods’ behavior “continues to demonstrate that he is about the money,” Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno said in opposing his parole.
Moreno said after the decision that she was angry and frustrated “because justice has been mocked in Madera County” and she fears for the state of society “if you can kidnap a busload of school children, abandon them buried alive and still get out of prison after committing that crime and spending your time in prison flouting the law.”
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Alameda County Superior Court Judge Leo Deegan, convicted from left, James Schoenfeld, Fred Woods IV, and Richard Schoenfeld on Thursday, December 15, 1977, in Oakland, Calif., on charges of injuring three of the victims in the kidnapping of a busload of Chowchilla, Calif., school children and their bus driver in July 1976. (UPI)
FILE - In this Friday, July 23, 1976, photo, the inside of the moving van in which 26 Chowchilla, Calif., school children and their bus driver were held captive is seen in a Livermore, Calif., quarry. Fredrick Woods, the last of three men convicted in the kidnapping for an attempted $5 million ransom in 1976, is being released by the state's parole board. Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the board to to reconsider paroling the 70-year-old Woods on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, after two commissioners recommended his release in March. (AP Photo/James Palmer, file)
FILE - In this July 20, 1976, photo, officials remove a moving van buried at a rock quarry in Livermore, Calif., in which 26 Chowchilla school children and their bus driver, Ed Ray were held captive. Fredrick Woods, the last of three men convicted in the kidnapping for an attempted $5 million ransom in 1976, is being released by the state's parole board. Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the board to to reconsider paroling the 70-year-old Woods on Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, after two commissioners recommended his release in March. (AP Photo/James Palmer, File)
FILE - In this July 17, 1976 file photo members of the Alameda County Crime Lab and FBI are pictured working around the opening to the van where 26 Chowchilla school children and their bus driver were held captive at a rock quarry near Livermore, Calif. California Gov. (AP Photo, File)
FILE -- In this July 20, 1976 file photo, officials remove a truck buried at a rock quarry in Livermore, Calif., in which 26 Chowchilla school children and their bus driver were held captive. Nearly 40 years later the final convicted kidnapper, Fredrick Woods, is awaiting a parole hearing Nov. 19, 2015. Woods accomplices, brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld have already been paroled.(AP Photo/file)
Frederick Newhall Woods IV, left, is escorted out of a Canadian immigration department office in Vancouver on Thursday, July 29, 1976, for deportation to the United States. Woods, 24, the last of three men wanted in the Chowchilla, California school bus kidnapping, was arrested by RCMP at the main Post Office in downtown. (Tribune News Photo)
August 2, 1976, Frederick N. Woods IV, center, one of three men held for questioning in connection with the kidnapping of 26 children and a driver from a Chowchilla, Calif., school bus, was taken from the Sacramento County jail by U.S. Marshals to appear before a U.S. Magistrate. (AP PHOTO)
Richard Schoenfeld, 33, left, and his brother James Schoenfeld, 36, pose for a photo in 1988 during an interview at the California Men's Colony in San Luis Obispo, Calif,. The brothers were convicted of kidnapping 26 children and their school bus driver in Chowchilla, Calif. The repentant kidnappers, admitting they were rash at their acts, want their freedom now. ( AP Photo/San Francisco Examiner- Craig Lee)
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 1976 file photo, James Schoenfeld, right, is shown with Sgt. Splan of the Alameda County Sheriff's Department as Schoenfeld leaves the Alameda County Jail in Oakland, Calif. California Gov. (AP Photo, file)
FILE - In this July 29, 1976 file photo, Richard Schoenfeld leaves the Alameda County Jail in Oakland, Calif. Schoenfeld, and two others were convicted of abducting 26 children and their bus driver and hiding them underground in a rock quarry. The victims managed to escape after 36 hours, and none were seriously injured. (AP Photo)
FILE -- In this July 17, 1976 file photo, Dairyland school bus driver Frank "Ed" Ray Jr. steps from the bus that brought him and 26 school children home to Chowchilla, Calif., after they were found unharmed on Friday night. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer, file)
In this July 17, 1976 file photo, two Dairyland Union School District students, who were among the 26 school children, and their bus driver who were abducted and buried in a truck underground, walk to the family car clad in blankets after release and early morning arrival in Chowchilla, Calif. (AP Photo, File)
In this July 17, 1976 file photo, Darla Sue Daniels, 10, is carried by her father from the police department after being reunited with her family in Chowchilla, Calif. Daniels was one of 26 school children, and their bus driver who were abducted and buried in a truck underground in 1976. (AP Photo,file)
Frances Williams, left, whose daughter Lisa Barletta, 12, was among the children abducted from their school bus is embraced by a friend Barbara Kjostad after learning the children and driver were found unharmed in Chowchilla July 17, 1976. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer)
In this July 17, 1976 file photo parents and families of the Dairyland Union School District children and their bus driver who were kidnapped, wait anxiously inside the Chowchilla police station as the students unload from the chartered bus that returned them from Livermore where they were found. (AP Photo)
Families of the 26 children who were abducted from their school bus along with the bus driver await word of their fate outside police headquarters in Chowchilla, July 16, 1976. All were found unharmed. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer)
Sam Barletta embraces his daughter Pam, 13, in Chowchilla, July 16, 1976 as they await word on the 26 missing students and their bus driver that disappeared on Thursday. Barletta's younger daughter Lisa, 12, is among the missing children. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer)
One youngster snoozes while another looks right at the camera at Santa Rita correctional facility in California, July 17, 1976, after the 26 school children and their bus driver from Chowchilla, Calif., were found unharmed. The children and driver were found in a quarry in Livermore, Calif., and taken to Santa Rita to await transport to their homes in Chowchilla. (AP Photo/Robert H. Houston)
One of the 26 school children who disappeared from Chowchilla, Calif., and were found in Livermore, Calif., tries to hide under the jacket of one of the medical personnel at the Santa Rita correctional facility before being transported to their homes in Chowchilla, July 17, 1976. (AP Photo/Robert H. Houston)
Darla Daniels, 10, of Chowchilla relays the ordeal to reporters at police headquarters in Chowchilla, Calif., July 17, 1976. The 26 school children and their bus driver were returned safely early Saturday from Livermore where they were found unharmed. (AP Photo)
Dairyland bus driver Ed Ray Jr. gets into his car and leaves for home in Chowchilla, Calif., July 18, 1976, after a day of questioning at the Chowchilla police department about how he was kidnapped along with 26 school children. Ray and the children were found in Livermore, Calif., late Friday night after Ray help dig the children out of the hole in which the kidnappers were keeping them. For his actions people are setting up a scholarship fund in his name. (AP Photo/John Storey)
In this July 18, 1976 file photo, Chowchilla church-goers give a prayer of thanks for the safe return of their 26 school children and bus driver, during a service at the Chowchilla Baptist Church, July 18, 1976. The children and driver were returned from their ordeal on Saturday morning from Livermore where they were found in a rock quarry. (AP Photo/Jim Palmer, file)
California Rock and Gravel Co. in Livermore, Calif. The Chowchilla school children were found in an area to the left of the rock crusher (center, under crane), July 17, 1976. (AP Photo)
Ariel view of Livermore, Calif., July 17, 1976, showing the rock quarry where 26 school children from Chowchilla, Calif., and their bus driver were found unharmed. (AP Photo)
Woods wasn’t eligible to attend in person on Tuesday, but said during his parole hearing in March that he felt he needed money to have acceptance from his parents and “was selfish and immature at that time,” while his more recent violations were to benefit the trust fund left him by his late parents.
“I didn’t need the money. I wanted the money,” Woods said of the ransom attempt.
His attorney, Dominique Banos, said Wednesday that the parole board recognized that Woods “has shown a change in character for the good” and “remains a 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 free him, while four victims or their relatives said Woods’ misbehavior in prison shows he still views himself as 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 flashlight and candles flickered out while “the makeshift, dungeonous coffin was caving in.”
“I don’t get to choose the random flashbacks every time I see a van similar to the one that we were transported in,” she told the board.
“Insomnia keeps me up all hours of the night,” she said. “I don’t sleep so that I don’t have to have any nightmares at all.”
Jennifer Brown Hyde, who was 9 at the time, recalled “the lifetime effects of being buried alive and being driven around in a van for 11 hours with no food, water or a bathroom in over 100-degree weather.”
“His mind is still evil and he is out to get what he wants,” she told the board. “I want him to serve life in prison, just as I served a lifetime of dealing with the PTSD due to his sense of entitlement.”
She said Wednesday that her family is disappointed, but it is “time to close this chapter and continue living the blessed life I have been given.” She praised her fellow hostages as “true survivors and not victims.”
An appeals court ordered Richard released in 2012 and then-Gov. Jerry Brown paroled James in 2015.
Newsom acknowledged that Woods is eligible for consideration both because he was just 24 when he committed the crime and because he is elderly now. He said Woods, who once studied policing at a community college, has also taken steps to improve himself in prison.
The governor’s late father, state Judge William Newsom, was on an appellate panel in 1980 that reduced the men’s life sentences to give them a chance at parole. He pushed for their release in 2011, after he retired, noting that no one was seriously physically injured during the kidnapping.
