Enduring The Nightmare: The Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping

The FOX True Crime Podcast w/ Emily Compagno

Fox News

True Crime

4.8 • 708 Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2023

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On July 15th, 1976, in Chowchilla, CA, the largest kidnapping for ransom in United States history took place. Kidnappers Fred Woods IV, James Schoenfeld, and Richard Schoenfeld took bus driver Ed Ray and 26 children hostage, later driving them to a quarry and burying them alive inside a box truck. After spending hours underground, the driver and children were able to escape captivity and return to safety. FOX News Senior Correspondent and Host of the Nightmare In Chowchilla podcast Claudia Cowan discusses the timeline of events and breaks down the prosecution and aftermath of the case. Jennifer Brown Hyde lived the nightmare. At 9 years old, she and her older brother, Jeff were two of the children taken hostage on that very bus. Jennifer provides a first-hand account of what it was like to survive the kidnapping and opens up about the impact the events had on her life to this day. Follow Emily on Instagram: @realemilycompagno If you have a story or topic we should feature on the FOX True Crime Podcast, send us an email at: [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.8	During the dark hours just before dawn, on a hot summer morning, reporters, friends, and families stood still with anticipation as headlights
0:41.1	approached the crowd.
0:49.7	On July 17, 1976, the nation led out a sigh of relief as a large greyhound bus pulled up to the city of Chowchilla, California.
1:00.0	It was an unusual sight to see as one man and 26 children wearing white prison coveralls were escorted off the vehicle.
1:09.3	Parents rushed to hold the children tightly.
1:12.5	It was the moment they'd hoped for
1:14.1	since the afternoon of July 15th,
1:17.1	the day the yellow school bus never returned home,
1:20.1	and 26 children and one man were buried alive.
1:24.4	I'm Emily Campano, and this is the Fox kidnapping for ransom in United States history.
2:04.8	It was the second to last day of summer school for the kids at Dairyland School.
2:11.6	Bus driver Edward Ray was bringing the bus of 26 children, ages ranging from 5 to 14,
2:15.3	back home from a long day at the Chowchilla Fairgrounds Pool.
2:20.2	The trip was suddenly halted by a van blocking the road. When driver Edward slowed the bus to help, all of a sudden, two armed men took the entire
2:26.4	school bus hostage.
2:31.4	They drove the school bus to a slew miles away, where another van and a third kidnapper was waiting.
2:38.2	The three kidnappers were 24-year-old Fred Woods and brothers James and Richard Schoenfeld, aged 24 and 22.
	...

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