The Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping

Suzanne: Warning. This episode may contain graphic and disturbing content. Listener discretion is advised.

June: Hi, y'all and welcome to Crime With My Coffee. I'm your fabulous hostess with the mostess, June.

S: And I'm Suzanne. We're gonna tell you some stories you've heard. 

J: Some you haven't.

S: And some you'll wish you hadn't. 

J: All with a Texas twang. 

S: Welcome back. 

J: Welcome back. You people are amazing to me. Oh my God. That's so cool. We were just checking our downloads. And apparently, you people either like us or you like to make fun of our accents. I'm not real sure. Whatever it is. I'm all for it. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

S: Oh, I wish you guys could see her face. It's so adorable.

J: Oh, speaking adorable. Your hair is so cute.

S: Oh, thanks. I put it in a braid so I could sit in the shower and soak a headache away.

J: It’s cute. So 

S: Well, what are you drinking tonight?

J: Well, I I'm just having the same old same old, as usual. Breakfast blend. French Vanilla creamer. I made it earlier. I've only had to heat it up twice because I've been busy. But you know, it's still good because it's coffee. What about you?

S: I’m drinking water tonight because I'm having to improvise where I record because we have this really blustery cold front coming through. And it's blowing like crazy outside. So I'm actually sitting in my floor on my husband's side of the bed. And I didn't want to drink coffee, because I would spill it because I'm a klutz. And my laptop has already had two cups of coffee to drink before. I don't think it could handle a third. So I'm drinking water out of a water bottle with a lid.

J: Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. 

S: Oh, I did want to do a little housekeeping before we start your episode today.

J: Absolutely.

S: So last week, we recorded and talked about the Amy Jones Christopher Rezos case. And we talked about townships and how I didn't know what the heck a township was because I'm a big goober. 

J: Mm hmm. 

S: I Googled it because I'm also a nerd.

J: Right. So townships are like within the city, though, if I'm just guesstimating or whatever, they're towns within a town in a city or something. Yeah, no?

S: Not exactly. 

J: Oh. Okay.

S: A township is actually a widely used unit of local government. It is subordinate to a county. And it is like, it's similar to a town but it's just slightly different from a town. If that makes sense. It doesn't make sense to me.

J: No, I'm. Well, I guess they're not fancy enough to be a town. So they're just a township, you know, kind of like being around eight o'clock, or eight o'clock ish?

S: Maybe. Maybe. It says...so, on Wikipedia, which is where I went, it says that townships are organized and operate under the authority of state statutes similar to counties. 

J: Oh, okay. 

S: Townships operate as municipal corporations.

J: Okay.

S: So, you know, there's that. There's that.

J: Okay. Ok, got it. 

S: So, you know. And I have one more thing that I want to do for you before you start on your case. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

J: Oh, you're not bothering me at all. I got all day long. Don't show me no more. My head will explode. Oh.

S: Okay. I won't show it to you. I will read it to you. How is that? 

J: Okay.

S: Okay, so we have our first review on iTunes.

J: Oh, sweet. I think. 

S: It is. It is a five star review.

J: Oh. That's a good thing, right? 

S: by David, and I'm gonna butcher his last name and I am so sorry, O'Laighin.

J: I think you nailed it. 

S: I hope so. Don't hate me too much, sorry. Anyway, the title of his of his review is My New True Crime Fix Go-To. And his episodes, er his episode, his review says, "Suzanne and June do an excellent job of delivering well researched true crime stories with quality audio and in convenient quick episodes. I find this handy, given I usually choose podcast episodes based on what I will be doing as I listen, and try to fit the content to that time. Give them a try."

J: Oh. Yay! Oh my God. Oh, my head is gonna explode. This is fucking amazing. Oh my God. Wow, I'm like a little kid at Christmas or something right now. Oh my God. My face is so hot.

S: Y’all should totally see her face.

J: My face feels so hot. Oh, wow. Oh, how cool. That's so awesome. You're so good.

S: Ah, I'm pretty sure he mentioned your name to, Madam.

J: Oh, well, I know. But, but you're good. But you're keeping up on top of all that. So yeah, give us more reviews. We'll take the bad with the good. We need some criticism. If we get it, you know of maybe something we could do better.

S: Like having your husband fix the humming.

J: Yes, that would be nice. Or fix anything. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry. You know that's funny.

S: It’s funny, and I won't lie. If he's like my husband, he doesn't listen to this. So he'll never know that you said that.

J: I’ll tell him that. I don't, I'm not shy. So, um, in fact, we were talking tonight. And he's like, he's like, you know, just just, he just remind me or he's like, Don't remind me every six months on something I need to do bah, bah, bah. And I'm like, how about every year and he's like, what needs to be done? And I'm like, Well, I do have truck parts. Oh, dammit, I forgot. I'm like, oh, but you don't want me to remind you. It was funny. It was funny. So yeah, this coffee is all the better now. All the better. So you know what? I can honestly say, I feel so good about this case now. Do you want to know why? 

S: Why? 

J: Lemme tell you. Spoiler alert. Nobody dies. 

S: *gasps* 

J: I know. Nobody dies.

S: Well, whatcha got for us then?

J: So I you know, it's it's gonna be a good day. Nobody died. So I'm going to take you in the Wayback Machine because that's what I do. And it's not that far back, but it's pretty far back. On July 15, 1976, in Chowchilla, and I did look that up to see how you say it, exactly. It is Chowchilla not chinchilla.

S: The kids want a chinchilla. 

J: I, they're awful cute. 

S: They are cute, but it's another mouth to feed.

J: Oh, true. Oh yeah. Don't want to do it. Alright, in Chowchilla, California, which is in Madera County, California. In 2010, according to the census, the population was like 18,720. Well, it just so happens that returning from a school field trip to a swimming pool 26 children, ranging from the age of five to 14, and one bus driver, who was 55, they were from Dairyland Union School, came across a roadblock. Well in this roadblock, there were three armed, with nylon stockings over their heads, in a van blocking their way. These three ass wipes, and that's being nice because of what they do, um, were Richard, who was 24. 

S: Dick. Got it. 

J: There you go, uh and his brother James, who was 22,

S: Jim, another dick.

J: Shoenfeld, who were sons of a wealthy podiatrist. And also, in their company was their friend 24 year old, Frederick, Dick, Woods, who was the son of a quer- a quarry owner in Livermore, California. So these guys come from money. Now, if you don't know what a quarry is, I didn't look this up, but I can kind of explain it because I kind of know. It's like a big open place where they dig for specific minerals or rock or dirt or something like that for other projects and everything. So this place was in Livermore, California, which is in Alameda County, which happens to be the most most populous city in the tri vel- Valley area. The population, around 2019, was little over 90,000. And this, this place is uh on the eastern edge of the San San Francisco Bay Area, which is like 100 miles from Chowchilla. It's also - Livermore, California is also formerly known as Livermores, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham. Oh how fancy that sounds. Fancy. I'm from Nottingham.

S: Robin Hood lives there.

J: Yes, yes. So anyway, like I said, these little ass wipes - 

S: Dicks. 

J: All dicks, they're all dicks. We'll go with that. Absolutely. So one of the kidnappers, right, take over the van. They took the school bus over, they drove it to a remote location where they had another van parked and they transfer- transferred into these two vans that they had blacked out all painted black all the windows, so nobody could see in. And they reinforced it with like paneling, you know, so nobody could see anything. They transferred all these kids and this bus driver into these two vans. But they didn't just like here, hop out of the bus and jump into this van. They did it in such a way that nobody touched the ground. They made all the kids and the bus driver transfer from the bus to the vans without touching the ground. I don't know if they backed the vans up to the back of the bus that has an emergency exit. I mean, that would be a way to do it. I guess. I don't know for sure how they did it. Then than in you know, this way that I'm picturing.

S: I’m picturing a wooden plank going from one to the other and they're making them walk the plank.

J: You know, that very well could have been the way they did it. All I know is they transferred them so not to leave any footprints or anything. Well, previous to this, these three asshats had taken a moving truck to the quarry that Fred's father owned and buried it, buried it completely. They stocked it with a few small things to eat - jars of peanut butter, bread, some gallons of water, they made like little makeshift toilets over the wheel wells.

S: Okay.

J: But they buried it all except for a hatch that they had in the top. So, and they did make, do some ish is ish stuff for air vents, you know, by hoses, going from above the ground line down to the truck that they had buried. Excuse me. So they drove these people around for 11 hours. These children, not letting them go to the restroom, they're hungry. They're crying. They're five year as young as five years old. So that, you know, these kids are freaking out.

S: And I hope these dicks the headaches of their lives.

J: Yeah. Because you know, they can't see anything because the windows are blacked out and everything like this, but they drove them around, I'm sure just to get them very disoriented on how far away they went or whatever. So they drove these two vans to the quarry. They pulled up to this truck that they had buried, and they made everybody climb into the truck. These 26 kids and this bus driver. I'm sure there was a lot of crying and screaming and everything else but they did it in the dead of night. So nobody knew anything. So as these people are just freaking out and trying to free themselves. These three asshats go home. Just leave them there. They had placed a couple of batteries on top of the little hatch that they had put in this moving truck that they had buried. They weighed about 100 pounds apiece, so nobody's getting out. Nobody's going anywhere. So anyway, parents notice that their children are not home and start calling the police. The police are like what the hell? They start searching. Everybody, everybody is going around looking for these children, the bus, you know, to make sure that they didn't get in a wreck or anything like that. They find the bus. But like I said there wasn't really any clues around there. No footsteps, no nothing. So people are really freaking out. So with all the calls going on to the police station, the the three buttmunches, 

S: Dicks.

J: try to call. Yes. Try to call the police station. So to put in a ransom demand for these children and this bus driver, but they can't get through because everybody else is calling. The phone lines are tied up to the max. 

S: Well, that because all these kids are missing. 

J: Exactly, exactly. So since they couldn't get through and it was late, they went to sleep. Yes. Yes. Well, the bus driver, um, his name was Frank Edward, he went by Ed, Ray. He was born February 26, 1921, to Frank and Marie Ray. He graduated from Chowchilla High School in 1940. He started driving a school bus in the 1950s. And he retired in 1988. He was married to a wonderful woman, they had two sons. So Ed, and the oldest of the boys, which in the children, there were nineteen girls, and seven boys. Well, the oldest one of the boys who was 14, and Ed are trying to find a way out of this place. It's dark, it's dingy, it's dusty, it's hot. The kids are crying. There's basically no more food or water left because there wasn't much to start with. And they had drove around for 11 hours before they ever got there. But they kind of remember where and it was really dark. They kind of remember where the trap door was that they got in. So they started piling up everything that they could find inside of this moving truck to try to get to that door to open it. They tried for hours and hours and hours and eventually and they never gave up and eventually after 18 hours, and I think that 18 actually is 16. It didn't change on my paper on the computer, but it's actually 16, 16 hours later, they eventually did get out. They were all it was the next day by this time. They're walking around in the quarry. And some of the people working there in the quarry spot spotted them. They're like, Oh, my God, what's going on? Ray told them what had happened, what was going on. So the workers called the police, of course the police and everybody else came, found out, you know, they took them all to a place to get them all checked out. All that. And after doing some investigation and interviewing the kids, interviewing the bus driver, they kind of narrowed it down to who they thought might have something to do with it. Because they figured out that Fred had keys to this quarry. So as they're doing their investigation and everything like this, well, after about eight days, Richard 

S: Dick.

J: turned himself in, Dick turned himself in. And I guess talking to him and doing their investigation, a search warrant was issued and executed at the Woods estate, where they lived, because like I said, Fred had keys to the quarry. As they're looking through everything, the police find the gun, one of the guns that were used to take over this school bus, and drafts of the ransom notes.

S: Okay, so there's stupid dicks. 

J: Yes, yes. And they were asking for $5 million ransom. 

S: What? 

J: And they, yeah. Yeah. And they come from wealthy families. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't even know. So Fred Wood was captured in Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada. And on the same day he was captured, James was captured in Menlo Park, California, which is in the San Francisco Bay area, where all this pretty much happened. All three of them did plead guilty to kidnapping for ransom and robbery. They refused to plead guilty to infliction of bodily harm. But they were tried on that anyway. And found guilty. 

S: Good. 

J: So yeah, well, because of this, they were given a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, this was overturned, because the injuries - luckily, there was no serious injuries to anyone - but the injuries that were sustained by these children and stuff were you know, just from being tousled around and stuff like that. But in the dark, falling over stuff, I'm sure. It didn't really meet the standard for the bodily harm. So they were resentenced to life without or I'm sorry, life with the possibility of parole. These three 

S: Dicks.

J: Dicks Yeah, became inmates at the California Men's Colony where they spent almost 40 years. 37 years later, Richard, the first dick, was paroled in 2012. Yes. 

S: Why would they be what I? 

J: Oh, I mean, yeah. I don't know. Well, his brother James, was paroled in 2015. But a little bit of good news, Fred is still in jail.

S: Well, at least one of them is although they all three should be. They should have all been sent to the cellar and left there.

J: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, like I said, the good thing is nobody died. 

S: There is that.

J: Anyway, like I said, Fred continues to be an asshat even in jail, and that's why he's still there. He keeps being denied parole. In October of 2019, he was denied for the 19th time. And now his next hearing is not until 2024. So.

S: Well, at least my kids won't be in school anymore by then.

J: Yeah. Well, because of Ed, February 26, being his birthday, has now been declared Ed Ray Day in Chowchilla. 

S: Oh, yay! 

J: I know, it's awesome isn't it? 

S: That is so awesome. Yay.

J: I know a lot of the students did come come out, you know, come visit him and stuff like that. And so he, I guess, continued to be part of their lives because they had a connection that luckily, I guess a lot of none of us, none of us know. You know, but they had this connection, but unfortunately, he did pass away in May of 2012. Okay, so -

S: You told me nobody died. You lied.

J: No, but nobody died when this happened. I mean, he, he, he went back to bus driving after all of this and didn't retire 'til 1988. So I mean, he got to live a good retirement and everything like that. Unfortunately, a lot of the kids suffered like, PTSD symptoms. 

S: Well, yeah. 

J: Yeah. Being you know, hearing cars go by or, you know, being afraid of the dark, things like that, which I understand. 

S: Oh, I didn't even think about that. The whole afraid of a dark thing.

J: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm sure a lot of them are working, you know, their issues out and everything. But some might not ever fully recover. May not ever, which I get. I cannot imagine being put through that. I just, I can't.

S: That’s insane. 

J: Yeah. 

S: Dick and his stupid dick cronies.

J: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I could not the only what pissed me off about this case. I mean, all of it pissed me off. But I couldn't. I couldn't find how these three, uh... 

S: Dicks? 

J: Dicks knew each other. I mean, I can't, I could never find anything on how they became friends. 

S: Probably from the country club that their parents belong to because they were all rich dicks with money. 

J: Maybe.

S: And they were bored and needed their jollies. So they like terrorized all these families and all these little kids because they're fucking dicks.

J: Yep. Yeah, I agree. I agree. They're dicks. If you want to see more on this, in 1993, there was a two hour made for TV movie on ABC. And it's called, uh - I know I haven't seen it yet. But I want to. It's called "They've Taking Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping." I want to see it. I haven't seen it yet. I am going to make sure that I watch it. So on ID, which I know we we both watch - 

S: Absolutely. 

J: Season Two, Episode Seven of House of Horrors., did a House of Horrors: Kidnapped I think is the name of the thing, in 2015 did an episode of it's called Buried Alive. 

S: Okay. 

J: And then in 2019 48 Hours, uh, did a show on this. It's called Live to Tell: The Chowchilla Kidnapping and apparently, oh I can't remember if it's this one or the Buried Alive- I think it's the the House of Horrors Buried Alive thing, is made from the - Let me see. I want to make sure I get this right. Yes, it is. Yes. The Episode Seven Season Two, The Chowchilla Kidnapping, the Buried Alive that I was talking about in 2015. Right? It would, it was actually told from the point of view of the 14 year old who actually helped Ray escape, you know, helped them all escape. It's told from his point of view. I was thinking that's what it was, but I wasn't positive. But then like I said, the television news magazine 48 Hours did Live to Tell: The Chowchilla Kidnapping. So I want to watch all of them. I cannot believe, as far as I know, I cannot believe I've never seen any of these. 

S: I don't think I have either because I don't think I've ever heard any of these details. I kind of knew, you know, like I've heard you know, the school bus kidnapping, and you know, stuff like that. But never really any details, I guess would be the word I'm looking for here. But I've never seen any of this stuff, either. And that's crazy. Because I love to watch 48 Hours. I love made for TV movies, especially when they're based on true stories. So. 

J: Yes. yeah. I know.

S: It’s crazy. 

J: And I watch ID all the time. My TV, if, if I'm watching TV, and I turn it on, it's going on the ID channel. So I don't understand why I've never seen this.

S: Yeah, that'll my. So my husband doesn't know it yet. Of course, he doesn't listen to this. So he won't know unless I tell him anyway. Um, but did you know, on Amazon Prime, of course, if you have Amazon Prime, you get the Prime Video, on Prime Video for $4 a month, you can get over 400 episodes or not episodes, seasons and such of different TV shows from the ID channel.

J: Nice. ID where we're not endorsed by ID But hey, I mean, if you want to.

S: She’s right, you know,

J: We’re not sponsored yet, but if you want to you can. So.

S: I was I was super excited about it. And I went ahead and did it because we cut our cable a long time ago, like over it's been over three years since we've had any television service other than the over the air channels and streaming stuff. So you know, I come across that and I was like, oh, give me that. Give me that. Give me that. So you know now I can watch it now too. 

J: Yeah. Am I my be something I? Oh, you just kind of did it to get ID. I already have ID and everything too. So.

S: Yeah, it's from I think it's called From the Files of ID or something like that is what it's a it's a Prime Video channel.

J: Yeah. Okay. Okay. So anyway, so yeah, that's my case. And nobody died when this was going on. Okay. I mean, people die, but only one person. And that's because he was old. He lived a wonderful, good life. He was a town hero.

S: Yes.

J: Kudos to him, kudos to- not just to him. Okay. Because, I mean, it took an effort. 

S: Yes, yes. It was a team effort.

J: Absolutely. I'm glad they all got out. I'm glad they were not seriously injured in all this. And I'm definitely going to have to go watch that movie.

S: Yeah, me too. I'm gonna have to go find it. If you find where to find it or find where to watch it, let me know. If I find it first, I'll let you know.

J: Okay. All right. Yeah, sounds good to me. Okay. Thanks for joining us. 

S: Until next week, guys. 

J: See ya.

S: Thanks for listening today. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of Crime With My Coffee.

J: And don't forget to subscribe to wherever you get your podcasts so we will automatically download. And if you get us on Apple, go ahead and give us a rating and a review.

S: And look us up on social media to stay up to date on everything Crime With My Coffee. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter, @cwmcpod 

J: Check us out on Facebook at Crime With My Coffee.

S: Check out our website at www.crimewithmycoffee.com. You can read full transcripts of our episodes there, and you can even give us case suggestions there.  And please think about giving us support on Patreon at www.patreon.com/crimewithmycoffee. 

J: And if you'd like to send us an email or suggestion, you can send it to crimewithmycoffee@gmail.com.  And don't forget, all hate mail goes to crimewithmycoffee@gmail.com Attention, Trevor. 

S: And remember, if you don't need two hands to hold your mug, it ain't big enough.