26 children buried alive. One of the largest kidnappings in US history. How in the world did a school bus full of
children simply disappear? It's summer school, Thursday, July 1976. James Schoenfeld, his brother Richard, and
Frederick Newhall Woods IV, watch a school bus load up with children. The three men all come from wealthy families,
but in their early to mid twenties, the men have already made a plethora of bad decisions. Now they're hurting for cash, and they need
to make a big score fast. The brothers, James and Richard, have already
been convicted of grand theft auto, but given their age and family connections, the judge
sentenced them to probation. These weren't violent offenders, their high-priced
lawyer had pleaded, they were just dumb kids who made a dumb choice. They'd never again pose a threat to the community. The judge believed it, and 26 children would
pay the price for it. The three men know well the route the bus
is going to take. The bus, being driven by Frank Edward Ray-
known affectionately as Ed by the local community- is preparing to bring the kids back home from
a summer class trip to the local fairgrounds. The kids had spent the day swimming in the
fairground pool and enjoying a very rare summer school field trip. The bus is cruising down a lonely back road,
there's barely any traffic here- and that's exactly what the kidnappers are counting on. They've already raced well ahead of the bus,
and are now prepared, waiting with a van just off the shoulder of the road. As the bus approaches, the van pulls out,
completely blocking the road. Ed honks the bus's horn as he slows to a stop. He can't imagine what kind of idiot would
just pull off the shoulder and block the road like that. He quickly glances back at the kids to make
sure they're ok, and when he looks back out the bus windows he's shocked by what he sees. Three men have exited the van, nylon stockings
over their heads and making their faces hard to see. The men have guns, which they're pointing
directly at Ed. One of the men warns him not to throw the
bus in reverse or make any dumb moves, as he signals for him to open the bus' door. Ed hesitates- if he lets this armed man into
the bus, there's no telling what might happen to the children. Then again, the men could simply shoot him
through the glass windows and force their way on anyways. There's no way to lock the bus door, and even
if there was, an emergency door in the back of the bus would make it easy to get inside
anyways. Ed decides it's better to simply cooperate,
and says a quick prayer as he opens the bus door. One of the masked men immediately climbs aboard. The children begin to scream in fear as they
see the man with a shotgun climb into the bus, but the man shouts at them and threatens
them into silence. There's a few scattered whimpers from the
children, but they comply. The man then tells them to put their heads
down and keep them down. To Ed, he tells him to get off the driver's
seat and sit down in one of the empty seats at the head of the rows of seats. The masked man sits across from Ed, pointing
his gun at him the whole time. A second masked man climbs onto the bus and
sits at the driver's seat. Outside, the third kidnapper hops into the
van and puts it in gear, then moves it out of the way of the bus. The whole operation has gone smoothly up until
now- no cars have driven by to catch them in the act, and the kidnapping has taken less
than a minute. The man in the driver's seat puts his foot
on the gas and the bus lurches forward, with the van falling in behind it. The man sitting across from Ed draws his attention
once more to the gun. No hero stuff, he warns him. Just sit there quietly and everything will
be fine. He repeats the last part once more out loud
to the children. They're too scared to even look up. The bus takes a right off the paved road and
onto a disused road. It bounces wildly as the driver accelerates,
anxious to leave the paved road behind and get the bus deep into the wilderness and away
from prying eyes. Finally, the bus arrives at the Berenda Slough,
a shallow branch of California's Chowchilla River. The driver pulls the bus into the surrounding
foliage as deep as he can, doing an adequate job of hiding the large school bus from view. The van pulls up behind the bus, and the men
signal at the children to get up and start unloading off the bus in single file. Ed is forced to go first, the masked gunman
never taking his eyes off the aging bus driver. Outside, the driver of the first van uncovers
a second van that's been hidden nearby in the brush. Both vans have had their rear windows painted
black, and the interiors are reinforced with paneling. The children and Ed are split into two groups,
and ushered into the two vans. Once loaded, the doors to the vans are slammed
shut. There is no light in the vans, and the blacked
out windows keeps even the fading sunlight outside from getting in. Children whimper in fear in the darkness,
some cry. Ed does his best to reassure the children,
but his words fall on deaf ears. The vans start moving. Eventually Ed can feel the vans leave the
gravel road behind and land on smooth pavement. The vans don't stop again. They just keep going, well into the night. The lack of circulation makes the vans stuffy,
and despite it being nighttime now the California weather is still warm. The children haven't eaten or drunk anything
in almost twelve hours, and heat stroke is a very serious concern in the blacked out
vans. But the kidnappers keep on driving. Ed tries to keep track of time but it's impossible. He has no idea that by the time the vans finally
come to a stop it's been almost 12 hours. The doors to one of the vans open up, and
Ed is greeted once more by a man wielding a sawed-off shotgun. He's told to get out and follow, and the doors
are slammed shut as he exits the van. A few feet away, Ed is led to a dark hole
in the ground with a ladder sticking out of it. He's told to climb down, but Ed hesitates. He has no idea what's down there, there is
no light- but the shotgun pressing against his back encourages him to move. Reluctantly, he climbs up onto the ladder
and then makes his way down into the dark. To Ed's relief there's a small flickering
light once he reaches the bottom. As his eyes adjust he can look around, and
realizes he's inside a truck trailer that's been buried twelve feet into the ground. Above him is a hole the kidnappers cut in
the roof, and as he looks around he spots a table at the head of the trailer. On the table are some jugs of water and some
food- a few boxes of cereal, peanut butter and several loaves of bread, as well as some
other odds and ends. Seeing the water and food, Ed finally realizes
they've been kidnapped. That's actually a relief- for half a day now
Ed has been wondering if he and the children were simply going to be killed. One by one the children are brought out of
the van. As the kidnappers drag one child out of the
van, they slam the doors shut again, then lead the child to the hole in the ground and
tell them to climb. Down in the buried trailer, Ed does his best
to encourage the children, not wanting the kidnappers to lose their patience and hurt
one of them. Or worse. Some of the children try to hide all the way
in the back of the vans, away from the doors. But it's of no use, the kidnappers simply
climb into the vehicles and angrily drag the children out, then push them towards the hole. Consigning themselves to their fate, the last
of the children finally climb down the stairs and into the trailer. Suddenly, the kidnappers toss a roll of toilet
paper down into the hole and say, “We'll be back for you.” Then, the children can hear the sound of something
heavy being dragged. To their horror, they realize that the kidnappers
are dragging a large manhole cover over the hole leading to the outside world. Ed and 26 children have been buried alive. The only sound is the whirring of fans in
the trailer, which is another bit of good news for Ed. This means that the kidnappers have at least
thought of the possibility of asphyxiation and installed some sort of ventilation system. Where the wheel wells of the trailer are the
kidnappers have cut holes, clearly intending for these to serve as makeshift bathrooms. Ed and one of the older boys stick their heads
into the holes, hoping to see a way to escape their predicament. But the holes lead only to a small depression
in the soil around the trailer, enough to serve as a toilet and nothing more. Pushing on the rear door of the trailer, they
realize their worst fears- they are fully and completely buried alive, and the only
way out is through the hole in the ceiling that's now been completely covered up. Frederick Woods and brothers James and Richard
Shoenfeld can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The three kidnappers have driven the children
to Wood's family quarry, where before the kidnapping they had buried a full-sized truck
trailer. For several days the men had worked to secure
the trailer and install a makeshift ventilation system. The trailer was all but impossible to find
unless you knew where to look, and the quarry was remote enough. Half a day's drive away from the kidnapping
site, the men are confident they've pulled off as nearly a perfect crime as possible. The only thing left to do is phone in their
demands. They dial in the number to the Chowchilla
Police Department- and are met with a busy signal. The men dial again, and once more receive
a busy signal. They wait a few minutes, and yet again, another
busy signal. Woods and the Shoenfeld brothers realize that
they can't get through to the police department to place their ransom demands, figuring that
the police are probably extremely busy as news of the kidnapping has spread. They have no idea just how right they are,
as distraught parents and national media tie up every line to the small police department. The kidnappers try again and again, but fail
to get through each time. Finally, they give up. They've been driving for half a day, and were
up long before that. The men are exhausted, and with the children
securely under twelve feet of dirt, the three kidnappers decide to get some rest. The police meanwhile have already found the
abandoned school bus, and can tell by tire tracks on the scene that two other vehicles
had departed the scene. For the terrified parents, this is mixed news. On the one hand, their children are still
missing. On the other, there is every indication that
the children are still alive. Police try to reassure the parents, telling
them that this has likely become a kidnapping- they should be receiving a ransom demand soon
and that means a chance to bring the children back home alive. The Chowchilla police chief, overwhelmed and
out of his depth, places a call to the governor and requests help. Within an hour thirty FBI agents have arrived,
and the hunt for the kidnappers is on. But for the children who've been buried alive,
things are very quickly becoming lethal. They've been underground for half a day now. The food and water have run out, and the temperature
inside the buried trailer is sweltering. Then, suddenly, one of the two fans pumping
fresh air into the trailer dies. Ed and the oldest boy, 14 year old Mike Marshall
are only too aware of what'll happen if the second fan fails, but they don't tell the
rest of the children to keep them from panicking. Then, just a few minutes later, the second
fan fails. There is no more fresh air being pumped into
the buried trailer. But there was still room for things to get
worse. The roof of the trailer has been reinforced
with metal wire, but it has long ago started to fail. The roof is now buckling from the weight of
the soil on top of it. Each torturous scream of metal sets the children
into crying fits as dust rains down on them. Ed does his best to keep the children calm,
knowing that their hysterics are sucking up precious oxygen. The kidnappers said they would be back for
them, but with the fans out and the roof caving in, Ed knows that escape is the only option. Even if the kidnappers return, when they discover
the collapsing roof and failed ventilation system, it's unlikely they'll have a backup
plan for keeping Ed and all 26 children hidden from the authorities. That means only two things- either they'll
let them go, or more likely, simply kill them all to avoid being caught. Ed hatches a plan. He enlists the aid of 14 year old Mike and
begins to stack the old mattresses left inside the trailer on top of each other. Eventually they manage to create a high enough
stack that Ed and Mike can reach the hole at the top of the trailer. But there isn't enough room for both to push
on the heavy manhole cover blocking their escape route, so Ed and Mike must take turns
pushing on the lid. Ed and Mike both know that they're fighting
to survive a triple threat. The oxygen will soon run out, asphyxiating
all of the children. The roof will cave in at any moment, burying
all of them in thousands of pounds of dirt. And once the kidnappers return to discover
their hiding hole for the children is compromised, they'll likely kill all of them in order to
avoid being discovered. Mike pushes against the manhole cover with
all his strength, fighting for all 27 lives buried in that trailer. Suddenly, the cover shifts a bit. Mike pushes even harder, widening a tiny little
gap. The children below explode into cheers. But the manhole cover is barely nudging. Mike sticks a hand through the small opening
he's created and feels around on top of the cover. He realizes that the kidnappers have stuck
two heavy truck batteries on top of the cover. He works at the batteries for minutes, nudging
them inch by inch and sliding them towards the edge of the manhole cover. Finally, he's pushed them off, and the cover
becomes much easier to slide out of the way. And then Mike discovers that they're a far
cry from freedom. Expecting to see the night sky above, Mike
realizes that the kidnappers have built a wooden box around the entrance to the buried
trailer. The box is just large enough for Mike to pull
himself up into- far too small for Ed to help. If they're all going to survive, it's up to
Mike now. Mike begins pounding on the walls of the box. He's terrified that he'll break through only
to discover the kidnappers outside, waiting with guns. But he knows if they stay in the trailer they're
as good as dead anyways, so he continues pounding on the wooden sides. Finally, he manages to crack the tough wood,
finding dirt past it. The box itself has also been buried, and Mike
rips the wood away and starts digging through soil. The going is tough at first, but as he pushes
through into looser soil Mike knows he's near freedom. Then, suddenly, he bursts out of the ground
and into daylight. Blinking against the sun, Mike quickly scans
their surroundings, expecting to see the kidnappers rushing at him. But there's nobody around. Instead he sees hills and large trees, and
as he pulls himself out of the hole he realizes that he's on top of a massive sand dune. The buried trailer is perfectly camouflaged,
there was no chance anybody would've found them if they'd stayed put. One by one the children climb out of their
would-be tomb and greedily suck up the fresh air. By the time the group is out it's already
8pm- Ed and the children have been buried alive for nearly 16 hours. Off in the distance they can hear the sounds
of heavy equipment and machinery, and the children become fearful- what if it's the
kidnappers? But Ed knows they have no other choice, they
have to find someone that can help them. The group makes its way towards the sounds
of machinery, and they spot a large group of men operating heavy equipment. Ed and the 26 children rush out of the tree
line, to the absolute amazement of the working men. They did it- against all odds, they've found
their way to freedom. The children had been buried 100 miles from
their kidnapping site, and as Frederick Newhall Woods IV, and James and Richard Shoenfeld
woke up from their exhausted sleep, they would turn on the news to discover that the group
had set themselves free and been rescued. It wouldn't take long for the police to narrow
in on Woods, and after executing a search warrant on Woods' father's estate, they found
a draft of the ransom note and one of the guns used in the kidnapping. The three kidnappers had already fled, but
Woods would eventually be caught two weeks later in Vancouver, Canada. James Schoenfeld was captured on the very
same day in Menio Park, California, while Richard Schoenfeld had turned himself in voluntarily
six days prior. The three men were given life in prison with
the possibility of parole. Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012, at
the age of 77. His brother James was paroled three years
later, aged 82. Frederick Woods, wealthy heir to a fortune
estimated at $100 million, would be denied parole 19 times, and if he lives to see it,
his next hearing will be in 2024. Now go check out, If You Are Kidnapped, Do
This To Survive! Advice From Experts! Or click this other video instead!
