Transcript of Episode Revisit: The Schoolbus Kidnapping of 1976

Hey, weirdos. My name is Ash.

And I'm Elaina.

And this is a Minimorbid. Minimorbit, minimorbit, minimorbid, minimorbid, minimorbid, minimorbid.

It's so little.

So little, tiny, small.

I can't even see it.

You can't see it? How are you going to read it?

I can see it. Just kidding.

This is what she's telling me, folks. She's telling me that it's a real mini. It really is. We'll find out.

Guys, I promise it's an actual mini, I swear, mainly because I'm tired this week. And this case just happens to be a mini.

Is it the little tiny small?

It's little tiny small.

I made a really gross mouth noise just then that you're going to die when you edit out later. Cool. Sorry.

Thanks.

What did everyone do for Halloween?

Yeah, I hope you guys all had a spooky, uky, spectacular Halloween. On the Facebook page, people have been posting photos of all their Halloween costumes, and you guys fucking kill it.

I'm just saying whoever dressed up as old Greg, you won everything because that's been my favorite video since... When did I even find that? It's true.

She found that way young.

I think I was probably like nine or 10. And me and my best friend Allison at the time used to literally watch it over and over again, yell about it to each other. Do you love me?

Do you love me?

Could you learn to love me?

And you know what's funny? The guy who plays Old Greg. So she used to tell me about this all the time, and I was like, Yeah, okay.

And she never thought it was funny, everybody.

Well, I never watched it.

Oh, you didn't watch it?

Yeah, I never watched it. I was always just like, Yeah, I know what it is. I've seen the screenshot of it.

I'm good. But she never laughed at my impersonations of Old Greg.

I didn't. And then Mama Loves the Great British Bake Off.

And by Mama, she means herself and not me.

Except Ash watches it literally every time I put it on.

I have no choice.

She can pretend, but she loves it. But I really love it.

Yeah, you get into it.

I love baking shows of all kinds and cooking shows, so that's just who I am as a person. But the Great British Bake Off is so soothing and so wonderful. And the guy who hosts it, what's his fucking name?

Old Greg.

His name is not Old Greg, but the comedian/ actor/whatever he is, he's one of the hosts now, and he's the guy who is Old Greg. And when he mentioned it on an episode, I was like, whoa, Ash, it's Old Greg hosting. So our worlds collided in the best way.

I just want to know why he hasn't said anything on the baking show about it.

He did. That's what I just said.

Oh, he said it? Oh, he said it on the show?

Yeah, on the show, he said, I used to play a merman named Old Greg.

I love that.

And somebody was like, that's cool.

And then somebody else was like, You have a drug, Bayly's from a shoe?

And now I've watched it and it's hilarious. So now I'm in.

I do water colors.

So you know what? Good job, Old Greg.

Mother liquor.

Good job, person who dressed up as Old Greg. You killed it.

I made my whole year.

So, yeah, honestly, everybody did an amazing job. There were a bunch of Beteljuices. There were a lot of Adam's family. There was just so many good ones. So you guys killed it, per-usage. This year, I just brought my kids out because it was actually warm outside, which was nice. And down the street from us, there's this house that in front of it, it has this weird, almost like a mausoleum-looking thing that sits on the sidewalk. It's very creepy. Yeah, you walk by the door to the mausoleum thing. And it's always spooky. It's always been this spooky thing. And then on Halloween, the owner of the house is brilliant, and they open it and they put a fog machine in there and lights, and they make it like a little haunted mausoleum that everybody can go into. And the owner is in there dressed up, like spooking you out. That's so cool. So we went by. Now, my kids are three and a half years old. We go by it, and I'm like, oh, yeah, it's fine. Let's just scoop by it because I didn't want them to get freaked out. And as we're going by, one of my kids was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, mom, wait a second.

I want to go in the cave. And I was like, what? I was like, well, it's a little spooky in there. Are you sure? And she was like, I want to go in the cave.

We went to six more houses. Say what she said.

The entire time, the entire time, she's getting free candy. And she's like, but I'd like to go in the cave. I don't want to trick or treat anymore. And I was like, okay, it's spooky. And she goes, I love spooky mama. And I was like, I've done it right.

And then Elaina melted into a puddle on the floor and died.

I have done it right.

And then she became resurrected.

Yes. And then I took my three and a half year old into this mausoleum room and she loved it. The other one, not so much. She gave it a try, but then she was like, no, no. And she had John pick her up. But one of them was into it.

I straight up fell asleep at 7: 30 on Halloween because it was the day after our live show and I hit a motherfucking wall from all the adrenaline. But don't worry, I woke up like an hour later and watched Texas Chainsaw by myself.

I love that for you. It was so soothing. We actually... Because that's one of my favorite parts of Halloween is that every single horror movie ever is on. Yes. And you just flick through the channels and hit all kinds of them. So I go through and Beetlejuice is on. So I'm like, oh, hell, yeah. So I go to Beetlejuice and John's like, yeah, I've never seen this movie.

I've never seen Beetlejuice the whole way through. I've only seen bits and pieces.

Who are both of you? Who are both of these people that are in my house right now?

I was hard- Get the fuck out of my house.

Luckily, because I was like, oh, no, this could change our relationship. If we watch this and he's like, this is dumb, I'm going to be like, what's happening, though? And we watched it and John was like, All right, that's a sick movie. He loved it.

The bits and pieces I've seen have been good pieces.

He loved it. And now I have to get him to watch the Adam's Family and Adam's Family values because he never saw those either.

Unpopular opinion. I don't love the original Adam's Family.

No, Adam's Family values is way better.

I like Adam's Family values.

I don't think that's an unpopular opinion. I like the original one.

Yeah, me too.

But the Adam's Family values is superior.

I like when she's like, When Wednesday's at the age where she only has one thing on her mind, and the mom is like, Boys. And Wednesday's like, Homicide. Because I feel as though that was you as a child.

It's 100 %. I think I related so hard to Wednesday Adams in that when I was little.

I love that for you.

But enough about all my spooky childhood shit. This is a mini episode, so we've actually done more talking than we normally do.

Let's shut the fuck up.

Let's shut the fuck up and get to the case, shall we? We shalleth. All right. Let me preface this. I debated whether to preface this story with it having a happy ending or not. Ahead of time. I'm going to preface it with it has a happy ending because it needs to be prefaced that way. Okay. I know I needed to hear that, and I have a lot of quotes from the people involved in it, so it gives that away.

It's seven o'clock in the morning. Are you going to really fuck me I mean, it's not gruesome.

It's more just slightly disturbing. But it has a happy ending.

I have to do seven blow dries later, so don't be fucking up my day.

I'm going to fuck up your... No, I'm going to make it okay at the end. Okay. So this was from July 15th, 1976. Oh, vintage. Very vintage. Actually, I am going to bring up the person who suggested this case right now because they suggested it to me literally yesterday. And when they did, I just happened to peek at it. And I was like, I'll take a look at it real quick because I take a look at the cases you give me that I don't know. And this person's name was Thomas. So thank you, Thomas. I'm not going to say your last name because I don't know if you want me to. But I looked this up and when I looked it up, I was like, oh, this is perfect for a mini and I have to do it now because I was just so fascinated by it.

You threw your other mini out the window.

I literally did. And I couldn't believe I had never heard this.

Well, tell me what happened.

So it took place in Chowchilla, California, and it's known as the School Bus Kidnapping of 1976. So the day before the final day of summer school at Dairyland Elementary School, 26 children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, were on a bus to be brought back to their homes. The bus was driven by Edward Ray. He was known as Ed, but his name was Frank Edward Ray. He was previously a farmer, but he later became a bus driver. The kids absolutely loved him, and he was just one of those bus drivers that we all remember that we loved. They were just nice, sweet. They clearly loved kids. They cared about you. The total opposite of the bus driver that you remember that hated kids and was the worst bus driver ever.

I never had a bad bus driver. Really? No.

I thought everybody had that warm, fuzzy bus driver and then that demon spot bus driver.

Oh, wait, wait, wait. I had a bus driver one time, and I was little and I forgot to get off at my stop. And then he kept going. And I was like, no, no, no. You're supposed to stop there. And he was like, well, you missed it. And I was like, I'm five.

Oh my God. Yeah.

So you did have a terrible bus driver. I did. I think he just resurrected a memory.

Yeah, I was going to say that was a deeply buried memory that you had. That was a deep cut. So Ed was great. And Ed was legitimately great. We love Ed. Now, according to a CNN report on the case, the kids all loved this summer school so much as well that they all signed a petition that day to have it last two more weeks.

Shut up. That's so cute.

Isn't that adorable?

I would never have signed that petition.

No. But apparently, they have all these interviews with these kids now because, again, this has a happy ending. And they all talk about how it was so much fun. They loved it. It was almost like a summer camp. So these were all just happy kids who were going home after a fun day at summer school. While driving down a rural road Rural is so hard to say.

Truly.

A rural road. Rural road. Rural road.

The rural Jora.

The bus came across a white creep van that had parked across the road and was blocking their way a bit. No. Yes. The bus had to maneuver around it to get by, and as they went by, Ed, being the kind man he was, noticed the hood was up in the van, so he stopped briefly and just called out the window, Does anyone need any help? Because he thought this person had broken down.

Don't ever offer help. Don't ever offer help. What?

What? I think I said this at the live show to somebody, I don't remember who, but my main affirmation that I use in life is never help anyone. That's just what? Just never help anyone. I just won't do it. So as soon as he offered the help, three men with pantyhose over their heads jumped on the bus with What? Sought off shotgun.

What?

Pointed at this kind man in a bus full of essentially babies. What? Yeah. And I use the term men very loosely here.

Let's say creatures.

Because what man or human jumps on a bus full of children with a kindly older bus driver with a sought off shotgun.

Are you fucking kidding me? Not any mans? I'm trying to...

No. This case made me I was so angry by the end of it at these guys. Because you have kids. And they're all alive and literally, fuck all of you. Because these guys are disgusting.

I just want to know what the whole point of this thing is.

Oh, it's ridiculous. There really is. This is the worst part. Oh, is there no point? There's hardly a point to them. Keep going. There is, but it's a stupid point. The men were 24-year-old Fred Woods, 24-year-old James Schoenfeld, and his younger brother, 22-year-old Richard Schoenfeld.

I was expecting them to not be 22 and 24. That's wild.

It's because... It's frustrating. All three of these guys had come from rich families, and Fred had a trust fund of over $100 million waiting for him.

So, Fred, what the fuck you be doing?

So what are you doing? So you may be wondering why the fuck they did this. Well, I'll tell you in a bit. They demanded Ed to go to the back of the bus, and they screamed at the kids to shut up and follow orders. Of course, the kids are freaking out, and Ed was just trying to calm them all down. One of One of the survivors, Jennifer Brown Hyde, as an adult, said in an interview, quote, Edward kept telling his kids, just be quiet, sit down, do what they say. Edward was speaking in a harsh tone, and that normally was not Edward. That normally was not the Edward that we knew and loved. So poor Ed is trying to be like, Guys, sit the fuck down. You know what I mean? He's trying to be a little more firm with them to make them listen because he knows if they don't listen- We're fucked. This could get really bad, really fast.

I have one of those lumps. I'm going to crying.

Oh, while I was reading it, there was a couple of times I was like, oh, no, what if I cry on the podcast for the first time?

Oh, God. So that means I'm definitely going to cry.

Yeah, you might cry. The youngest baby on the bus was a little girl named Monica, and she was only five years old. No. And there's three men with sought off shotguns yelling at them. Now, apparently, like I said, the kidnappers were wearing pantyhose over their heads, but they wore them so that the legs dangled down next to their heads. Which is stupid. So like bunny ears. So Monica asked one of them if he was the Easter Bunny.

And here I go, sobbing.

I mean, that when I heard that this little five year old was like, Are you the Easter Bunny? And this guy has a sought off shotgun in her face. And she's like, Are you the Easter Bunny?

Oh, my God.

This poor little baby. Oh, my God. She's like, what the fuck is Easter Bunny doing right now?

She's like, what are you?

So one of the men was pointing the shotgun at these children while another one drove the bus. He drove the bus straight through a bamboo field, and all of these kids in the bus were jolting around. They said they were being thrown around in the bus. It was really aggressive and awful. When it finally came to a stop in the bamboo field, there was another van waiting for them. No. The men pulled the bus up to the back of that van and forced half the kids in there, and the other half with Ed, the driver, into the white van that they initially used. The vans were outfitted with wood paneling and blacked windows. They had made the kids jump from the bus to the vans so they wouldn't leave any footprints. So this was very planned. Wow. Yeah. Now, one of the survivors, Larry Park, who is amazing, I'll tell you why later, told CBS News, quote, as a six year old, he was only six years old, the only way that I can describe this darkness in the van is that it was trying to get me. These poor kids are in pitch black in these vans.

My God. And they're all crammed in there. The kid Napper drove these kids in two vans, blacked out vans in 100 degree weather. They were 100 degrees in those vans. Oh, my God. Want to know how long they drove them for?

Like, hours.

11 hours.

11 hours?

11 hours straight with no water, no bathroom breaks. So these poor children are not drinking water. They're all screaming and crying. Some of them are as young as five years old.

They're probably getting dehydrated.

They're peeing. They're nowhere to go to the bathroom. Some of them are vomiting. And they're stuck in these tiny little vans. Oh, my God. And poor Ed is in one of the vans with one of them just trying to keep them all like...

I'm probably like, what the fuck is happening in the other van?

And he's sitting there thinking, I don't know what's going to happen. And I'm having to tell these kids everything's going to be all right. And I don't know that everything's going to be all right.

If you're sitting in that position, you're like, everything is surely not going to be all right.

He's responsible for these 26 babies. And instead of just cowering and being I don't know what's going to happen in crying himself, which I probably would. He's stepping up and being like, I need to be... I might die. I need to pretend that I'm not scared of that with these kids. This guy's amazing. We love Ed. So as this is happening, parents are obviously freaking out because their very young children are nowhere to be found after supposedly getting on a bus at school.

Well, this is all day at this point, 11 hours.

And they are all calling the police, and then they And then they all started helping the police look for the bus because that was the first thing. They were like, We got to find this. Where could this bus have gone? It's a huge fucking school bus.

Probably like, Ed.

Yeah. And I think that's probably people are like, What the fuck? Where did it go? The FBI I was called in to help. It was mayhem. And finally, they found the bus via an air search because it was so well hidden in the bamboo field. So the parents just found this abandoned school bus, and they found tire tracks moving away from the school bus. But again, no footprint. So it was clear, and the police said it's clear that somebody has pulled another vehicle up to this bus and driven away. Oh, my God. Can you imagine being a parent? Nope. I can't I don't imagine my child being on that bus and just seeing they've been kidnapped off the bus. How do you wrap your brain around that? I don't even... So children are screaming, crying. Like I said, vomiting. It was a nightmare situation. The older kids, as well as Ed, the driver, were just trying to console them. Even the older kids were stepping up just trying to... These kids are amazing, and this bus driver is amazing because these older kids were like... There was some that were like, the oldest one was 14.

His name was Michael. And he stepped right up and just became an adult for these kids. And meanwhile, these are children, 14 years old. You're a child. You're having to be an adult for these little kids trying to be like, it's okay. They said that Ed was trying to keep them calm by singing them songs like Boogie Nights, Love Will Keep Us Together, and If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands.

Oh my God. Well, they're in the- I'd be like, I'm not happy and I know it.

Well, I guess they changed the words to, If you're sad and You Know It, Clap your hands. Oh my God. It's so sad.

Isn't this just like- If you're sad and you know it.

And literally everyone in the van is like, clap, clap.

What?

After almost 12 hours in that van, they were driven off the road and were again thrown all around the vans because they were off roading at this point. Then they stopped the vans. So first the kidnappers reached in the van and took Ed out and shut the door. No. So these kids said they just saw the van door open, Ed be dragged out, and the door shut. Does Ed die? No.

Oh, good.

Then the kids said they would open the door and just grab the nearest kid to the door, take them out of the van, and shut the door. So they were doing this one at a time. So they would do it again and again and again to every kid. So these kids all had no idea what was happening. As far as they knew, they were being taken out one by one and killed. I mean, that's what it looks like. And one takes out, you don't hear anything, you don't see anything. Next one gets taken out. I'd be like, yeah, they're taking taking them out and shooting them in the woods and leaving them for dead. So as they were pulled from the van, one man asked their name, the other asked their age, and the third asked their address. They also took a little piece of clothing from each of them. So the oldest boy named Michael Marshall, the one that was 14, he said that the kids were just clinging to him in the van that he was in, like all the younger kids, they were just clung to him. And he was just trying to be there for them, 14 years He said, finally, it was just he and the youngest, the girl named Monica, who was five years old in the van, and she was just clinging to him for dear life.

The kidnapper came and he went to grab Monica, but Michael said he couldn't bear to hand her over to him. No. Because, again, he had no idea what was happening. Right. And so he said he pushed her behind him and went ahead of her like a brave fucking man at 14 years old, like a brave ass adult.

For me, it's just sitting in the van alone.

Well, and he said to CBS News, I had to take her hands from mine and rip and tear them apart. Say it would be okay and go with them and leave her. That was so hard. God. So this 14 year old understands.

I need to know why this is happening.

Well, what happened was the kidnappers, months before the kidnapping, had buried a moving van in a ditch in the California Rock and Gravel quarry.

Why?

They had Each child and Ed climbed down a ladder into this van that they had buried. In the van, they had put mattresses, water, peanut butter, bread, and cereal, enough for one meal. Not enough for any more. Stocked on one side and holes cut into boxes for makeshift toilets. They put all 26 kids and Ed in this little moving van that was buried under the Earth in a rock quarry. Then they took up the ladder and told them all, We'll be back for you. And then they shut the top. No. Yep. Before leaving, the kidnappers put a manhole cover on the entrance that they had put the kids in on top.

This is my absolute worst nightmare. Yeah.

And then they put two truck batteries over that manhole so they couldn't move the cover.

And then you're just sitting there like, Are they going to fucking come back?

Yeah. And then they buried the top of the van. They were buried between 6 and 12 feet of Earth.

Nope.

Yeah. And they said they could all hear dirt and gravel being thrown on top of the van. So they were literally all sitting there.

In my mind, I'd be like, this is how we're going to die.

Oh, they all said that. They said, we all sat there and we're like, we are being buried alive. Like, we're buried alive. And some of them were like, as soon as I got down there, I was like, This is our coffin. This is our giant coffin that they're putting us in.

Why is this happening? Yeah.

I'll get to it, I promise. Yeah. One survivor, Carejo Labandera, was 10 at the time. And she said, quote, There were times we all thought we were dying. I promised God, if I survived this, I would be the best little girl. I'd be the best little girl my whole entire life.

Oh, my God.

That part, I just got a little lump in my throat. Because thinking about this 10-year-old being like, I won't ever do anything bad again. I'll do anything. Please just get me out of here. They were in this hole for 12 hours together.

Okay.

They said it was awful. I mean, the bathrooms were literally holes, cutting two boxes. There's 26 kids. So these are just holes filling up with everything. So the whole place is smelling of urine and feces. And kids are vomiting because one, they're in about a billion degree weather. They have heat stroke. They probably have heat stroke. They're also just hysterical. So this whole place is filled with urine, feces, vomit.

I'm never putting my children on a bus.

I never was anyways. I already told Ed, John. I was like, no, they're never going on.

I already told Ed.

I already told Ed, they're never going on a bus. My kids aren't going. Because I don't know any. It's just not happening. I don't trust anybody. I know there are beautiful bus drivers like Ed. Most of them are wonderful, amazing human beings.

I'm not trying to chance it.

But I don't know you. And I don't- Now that I know this story, I'm just like, I think I'll drive my kid everywhere while they're wrapped in plastic wrap.

I meant to say bubble wrap, not plastic wrap.

That's fucked. I'm just going to dexter up my kids and drive them places.

It'll be awesome.

It'll be fine. It is true. It's like, you can't. I don't trust anybody. It's awful. So the kids were crying for their parents. Like, Ed said, there was a lot of crying from Mama, which just destroys my heart.

Why are you doing this to me right now?

Because there is a good- Yeah.

Can we get to it real fast?

In Michael, Michael the brave, 14 year old. I want to... He should legally change his name to that. He said that it would just be quiet, dead silent in there all of a sudden, and then one kid would start crying, and the whole place would erupt into screaming crying. It was just a fucking nightmare. They all ate the food, and then the... Because, again, this was like, they're going on what?

Almost 24 hours of that, over 24 hours.

Yes, almost 24 hours of just insanity. So all the food was gone because it was only enough for one meal. And then they had put a ventilation, like a makeshift ventilation system in there because they would have just suffocated right away. And obviously, these guys are looking to keep them alive for some period of time because they put all this stuff in.

Does this all have to do with ransom or something? Yes.

And the ventilation system they put in were just fans that were put into this thing, and the batteries all died. So the ventilation system failed. So now they're all literally suffocating. Suffocation, heat stroke, just all of this. And then the roof began literally cave in under the weight. It was starting to bow in. And they could hear the creaking, like pieces of dirt were falling in. So all the kids were like, oh, we're going to die here after being literally buried alive. So Jennifer, the survivor that I mentioned earlier, told CBS News that once this started happening, they were in full panic mode thinking, this is it. Then she says, quote, we thought and they said, the older kids and Ed, If we're going to die, we're going to die trying to get out here. So this is when Ed and Michael and a couple of the other bigger boys took the mattresses. They stacked them all up under the hole that they were placed in, and they attempted to move the cover, but it wouldn't budge because it was... So Michael said the kids were all cheering him on. They were all literally like, Come on, Michael, you could do it.

It started turning into this- I just got full bod. Right? I still get chills. At last, after... I mean, Ed and Michael and these other kids- Did they move the They were trying for... They said like hours. They were trying to get this thing to move. They got it? They were sweating. They're dying of heat stroke. And all of a sudden another kid looks and says, It's moving. I see it moving. Oh, my God.

I'm going to cry right now.

Right? So they were all able to collectively push the cover out of the way. Once it was moved, the kidnappers had made a wooden box that was placed around the entrance, so it didn't go directly into the Earth. You know what I mean? Like there was a wooden box over the hole. So Michael, Ed had Michael squeeze through the hole to get into that box and try to see what they were working with outside of the box. Right. So When he got up there, he realized that outside of the box was just earth. It was just dirt. So he had to dig. So he and Ed, they just dug and dug and dug for another hour or so until they reached sunlight. And then when they We saw sunlight, all the kids are freaking out. The sunlight's pouring into the place. They're all like, holy shit, we're going to get out of here. But then all of a sudden, all the kids are like, one, where are we? And two, what if they're waiting up there? Because all of a sudden, they're like, we don't fucking know what they want. We have no idea what's happening.

We don't know if they've been sitting outside of this thing the whole time just watching us try to escape. We don't know. But they were like, what else can we do? We have to get out of here. Yes. So one by one, they hoisted each other up out of the hole. Luckily, the kidnappers were not outside there. The kidnappers, where were they? They were all taking a nap. Where? Yeah, they were taking a nap at home. They had tried to call the police Department to demand ransom of five million dollars for these children's lives. But the lines were jammed because the kids' families and the media were calling nonstop.

So they couldn't- You have a trust fund? Yeah.

So they couldn't get through to the police station to demand the ransom. So they were like, you know what? We're really tired. Let's just go to sleep. Oh, my God. Let's take a fucking nap while these kids die beneath the Earth.

We buried children alive. But let's take a nice nap. But it was tiring work.

Yeah. We buried children in a kindly old bus driver, alive in the Earth. But we are so much of a sociopath that we can lay our head down on the fucking pillow and go to sleep.

What I need to know is how did three people, this evil, meet each other?

I have no idea.

How does the world bring that much evil together?

It drives me nuts. But what kills me is while they're all fucking sleeping, their quote unquote victims are just pushing through, just committing acts of badassery, getting the fuck out of that thing against all odds.

This is like a straight up movie.

It really is. And it's like, I love the idea of them just snoozing away, thinking they buried these fucking babies in the Earth. And the babies are like, Fuck you. And these babies and this older guy are like, Fuck off. We're getting out of here. And I love that they were like, We are not dying just sitting passively in here waiting for them. We are going to die getting out of here. If we're going to die. Like, Yeah, babies. So once they escaped out of the hole, they saw a man in the rock quarry. He was apparently... Because this was a rock quarry, so it's a working place. People are working on machines and stuff. And the man looks over and sees them all coming out of here.

Sees 26 children coming out of the fucking ground.

Well, you know what he says? He looks at them and he goes, The world's been looking for you.

I'm clutching my damn world.

When I read that, I was like, Holy shit.

Oh, my God. I just had chills for five whole minutes.

What the fuck? Yeah, literally, the world's been looking for you. Because the world had been looking for them.

It was just these are- I was waiting for you to be like, he was going to say, The world is ending. Like, this is Satan's undead army. That's what the fuck I would think. You see all these kids climbing out of the Earth.

Probably just covered in all kinds of- Muck.

I'd be like, This is Satan's work. This is the work of the devil.

Something bad's afoot.

And I would run.

But this man turns around and says the most movie-worthy line I have ever heard in just the world's been looking for you.

This whole shit is a movie, and they're like, Yeah, can you bring me back to the civilization of the world, sir?

Will you help me? They were more than 100 miles from Chowchilla. More than 100 miles, they were driven away from where they were. The police came, obviously, because the guy called. Yeah, that's what they do. And Ed led all these kids... And Ed had led all these kids out to safety.

Oh, my God, Ed. Did he get the biggest heroism award? Oh, yeah.

Just wait.

Heroism, I said.

Heroism? Correct.

Close.

So the police had to take them the only place that was safe for all of them to go, which was the local jail. They weren't putting cells or anything. They were putting these things, these rooms. But I guess the kids, when they pulled up, they were all like, We're going to jail? Why are we going to jail? They were all photographed. They were checked by doctors. They had interviews.

You kept saying the survivors, and I was like, Does somebody die?

No, that's why I didn't want to give too much away. That's why I wanted to say, no, they were all relatively unharmed. There was some heat stroke. There was obviously shock and trauma, but physically, they were all relatively all right.

Oh, my God. I I hope this kid, when he gets caught, I hope his trust fund paid for their therapy.

Seriously. Well, they were all given soda and apples at the police station. Oh my God, stop it. That is so pure. And then they were freed to go with their families, which all of them said... I think the guy, Larry Park, I I mentioned, he said that he literally just went... His mom picked him up in her arms and he said, I just said, Hi, Mom, and put my head on her shoulder and fell asleep. Because he was six. He was six.

He's this little sick. He's just like, Hi, Mom. I just keep picturing your kids.

Oh, that's all I kept picturing.

I don't even know what I would do. No, to these people when they got caught, I would go jail.

Oh, I would 100 %.

I would just start ripping them apart with my teeth.

I could not... The thought of it is unfathomable. It really is. I'm trying to articulate any thought when it has to putting myself in the situation.

And none are coming. I would turn into a creature and just rip them to shots.

I would literally turn into my true form, and I would just tear them apart.

I would call upon Satan after Satan's work and just be like, Yo, sir.

I need your help.

Give me the power.

Give me the power. I would call upon the power of Meno.

I was literally going to say that after you said whatever you were saying.

We would call the corners craft style.

So hit me up with how these motherfuckers get caught.

So unfortunately, none of the kids could say a lot about what they looked like because they were wearing pantyhose over their heads. Except they looked like the Easter Bunny. Except they looked like the Easter Bunny. But a team went back to the quarry to search the buried van for clues, and they figured out that the only person who would have access via a key to this rock quarry was Fred Ed Woods, who was the son of the owner of the rock quarry.

You fucking straight up idiot.

Fucking idiot. Thank God, you're an idiot. Of course, he became the chief suspect. And once they put it together, the other pieces, they were led to the other two fucking pools. Ed was also able to give one of their license plate numbers under hypnosis. Shit. Yes. They put him under hypnosis, and he read aloud their license plate numbers.

I don't want to know what I would remember under hypnosis.

Here's Ed just helping Even in a subconscious state. That's just a big old help.

Ed. Ed.

Ed. So he's a hero. Heroism. Two years before this kidnapping, Fred and his... Fred Woods and his two friends, James and Richard, show and Duchenfeld, the three kidnappers. Duchenfeld. They had been arrested for grand theft auto, so they already had arrest warrants on them.

You're rich. Why are you stealing things?

That's what kills me. And that's what nobody truly understands about this. They were three rich fuckers.

Right. They're fucking bored.

Investigators served and executed a search warrant at Fred's father's mansion, and they found one of the guns used in the kidnapping, so they were able to tie him. They also found a literal document labeled Plan that detailed the entire thing, along with a ransom note. Apparently, they have been meticulously planning this for over a year.

I believe it. I mean, that was so... I hate to say I was going to say, I hate to say well-orchestrated, but it was.

And I mean, months before they were caught, this whole thing happened. That's when they started burying this van. So they were already getting this all together.

Well, that's the thing. To put that whole place together?

Actually, they were able to gather witnesses that said they had noticed people digging in there months earlier, but they didn't know why. So Richard Schoenfeld was the one who turned himself in. And as we'll see, Richard seemed He's the youngest one of the kidnappers. He seems to be the one that was along for the ride, and he shows the most remorse. He turned himself in.

So he's somewhat of a human?

He acknowledges that it's horrific in That he acknowledges it. I'm not saying he's a good person. I'm just saying he's the only one out of the three that seems to truly have full remorse and to truly grip what he did and what he did to these kids for the rest of their lives.

I just like...

And what we'll see is later, one of these kids actually went and met him and talked to him. So James and Fred left, fled, California. So Richard turned himself in immediately. James and Fred fled California. Fred went to Vancouver and was caught by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Because they're awesome.

Yeah, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I want to be a royal. The police put the three of them in, and James was also caught, I think, just somewhere outside of California. They put the three of them in a video lineup and told them to say phrases that the kids said they used during the kidnapping. And the children were all able to identify them.

They were like, it was that motherfucker, that motherfucker, and that other motherfucker.

They literally had them say things like, shut up and sit down, get to the back of the bus, listen to what I say. All these things that the kids were like, yeah, they said all this. And then they had the kids come in and they all recognize them, which it's More badassery because talk about trauma. To be able to do that? Yeah. All three pled guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom and robbery. They were all charged with eight counts of bodily harm as well, but they refused to plea to it because all of them said that was going to carry a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole, so none of them would plea guilty to it.

Even though they were guilty as fuck?

Well, the kids all testified at their trials. Right. So they were like, badasses again. February 17th, 17th, 1978, all three were charged with mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Because if you sat here and told me they got 25 years, I would lose my noodle.

Well, unfortunately- What? Their lawyers appealed the charges of bodily harm because they said, Although dramatic, real bodily harm as definition by law did not occur.

Eat my shorts.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Oh, my God. This This is what I just thought. How do you defense lawyers? The defense lawyers- I don't know how you defend these guys. Of these people? What? How do you lay your head on the pillow?

The ones that defended these guys should be ashamed of themselves.

How do you put your head on the pillow?

I don't know how you go to sleep at night defending someone like this.

When you know they're straight up guilty.

It's bodily harm. I don't give a shit if physically they're all together. They are ruined.

Your brain is in your body.

Well, and as I read a ton about these kids later in adulthood.

How do you function? They were fucked.

They were fucked. I mean, most of them had phobias well into life of the dark claustrophobia. They wouldn't let their kids- Humans alone. They all have kids. A lot of them have kids now, and they won't let their kids anywhere. They're like, I am the most overprotective parent ever, and it's affecting- I'd be like, Well, let me tell you about the time I was buried alive, child.

Yeah.

Well, and so these sentences were gotten rid of, and they were sentenced again to life with the possibility of parole.

Okay. I mean, I'm still pissed, but as long as it's life.

Well.

Did they get let on on fucking parole?

Richard, who was the one who turned himself in, the one I said, seems to have the most remorse for it. He was granted parole in June 2012.

Why?

Thirty-six years after the crimes. Three years after that, his brother James was paroled.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Fred is still in prison. Fred seems to be the ringleader. He was always labeled as the ringleader. And the sheriff actually, at the time, said that James and Richard were just two dumbasses that just did stupid shit. Fred, they said, was a true psychopath. He was a sociopath.

I mean, clearly, who fucking devises this plan in their mind?

He's still a piece of shit to this day. He's in his 70s or something. What is he doing? He's still a piece of shit. He breaks all kinds of rules in prison, which is why he's not getting parole. Good.

Keep breaking those He's got rules, Fred.

Exactly. Because they always say an indicator of how you will be on the outside is if you can follow rules on the inside, and he can't follow rules on the inside. He constantly gets caught with like, porn and cell phones in his cell. He's trying to run his businesses from inside prison, and he's actually doing it. What business is? I guess he has businesses that are already in his name because he's a little rich bitch, and they just got put in his name. So he's able to run some businesses from inside.

What is the point? You're not getting the money.

It's the thing. He's still getting richer in prison because I assume he thinks he's going to get out at some point. That's so fucking. Because he's such a idiot, he's never going to get out. So why did they do this?

Why?

Apparently, James and Fred were in debt from being dumbasses. They were just in debt. But you have a trust fund. But that trust fund wasn't going to kick in until he was a certain age, so he couldn't have access to it yet. So he was like, Oh, instead of working, I'll just kidnap a bunch of kids. And James- What? And again, I said, Richard just seems like he was the younger brother taken along for the ride. James told a parole board in 2015 when he was paroled, quote, We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions. And we picked children because children are precious. The state would be willing to pay ransom for them, and they don't fight back. They're vulnerable, and they will mind you.

That is the most fucked up sentence ever said.

And it's like, I understand that they're saying they paroled the two of them because they showed remorse. They've been good in prison. I guess that was the first time in 2015, that was the first time that any of the three of them had given Any motive. They had no idea before this why they did this. But what's bothering me is it's like, okay, so in 2015, this dude standing before a parole board being like, this is why we did it. And it's the most fucked up reason ever that children are vulnerable and precious and will mind you.

Also, can you let me out of jail?

And you parole him? I'd be like, what? I understand you're looking at it like he's telling you the truth and he's giving you the insight.

Yeah, but the truth is horrifying.

But how do you know he doesn't still think this way? Right. Maybe he doesn't. I hope he doesn't. I do believe in rehabilitation. Yeah. Not for everybody. But I do believe in rehabilitation. So God, I'm hoping these guys did come out of here and I was 24 years old. I was 22. That's not who I am. Like, holy shit. But that's scary to me.

It's so crazy because I'm thinking of my friends. I am 23 years old and I could- Can you imagine them thinking this way?

No. Well, in Larry Park, the one I've mentioned a few times, the six-year-old who was like, I fell asleep on my mom. He met all three of these men and he forgave them.

Wow. That's the thing, though. It's almost like you would have to because if you don't, how do you go on with your life?

I think that's what it was, too. He said he was laying in bed one night, and he said he looked up and was like, God, help me forgive them.

I'm never going to be able to move on.

I need to move past this. And so Richard, in particular, has been cited as being the one that showed the most remorse. And there's a picture of Larry and Richard smiling with each other. It's so wild. It's so bizarre. But you look at it and you're like, holy shit.

I think it must help, too. It's meeting a monster. It's like somebody taking their mask off.

Exactly. Yeah.

It wasn't real. It was real, but- But you can shrink them down to size instead of them being this larger than life thing.

Entity. Because Because, again, they were all like, five, six, seven, 10, 12, all that. They were little. And these men were these big, scary monsters. And in their mind, they're probably always been this big, scary Monsters. And to meet them as adults and be like, oh, You're just a little bitch. That's what you are. A little piece of shit. It's shrinking them down to a size you can just flick them away at. All right.

Keep going.

So the children, after the whole experience, the children were granted a trip to Disneyland with Ed.

Oh, my God. Amazing.

With Ed? I got to go? And Ed, the California School Employees Association in Sacramento, presented Ed with the Association's Citation for Outstanding Community Service, quote, Particularly to 26 precious Chau Chilla school children. The award was given by the governor, and he got many more heroism awards after that. And then five weeks after the kidnapping, the entire town of Chau Chilla created and celebrated Ed Ray and Children's Day. Stop. With a huge celebration and parade where Ed and the kids were on float.

Stop it. Stop it right now.

There's like, video. There's like, pictures of this and everything.

I can't believe I've never heard of this case. Me, too.

It blew my... Thomas, thank you for bringing this to my attention.

You would think that this should be a well-known case. A huge one. Yeah.

And then I just found out these kids did have tons of issues.

Of course they did.

A woman named Dr. Lenore Terre, who is a San Francisco psychiatrist, actually wrote a book called Too Scared to Cry. She wrote about their trauma in this book, and she said, quote, In 1976, we didn't know much about childhood trauma, much less how to treat it. Despite their varied backgrounds, every chau-chilla kid I interviewed suffered from PTSD symptoms for years after the kidnapping and burial alive.

Oh, yeah.

Many of them were well into adulthood, having to sleep with nightlights because the dark was just so much that they were just traumatized by it. They suffered from constant nightmares, phobias. A lot of them had substance abuse and legal issues for a little while. But most of them turned their shit around. That's good. They recognized what was happening and what this was coming from, and they were able to turn it around. And their stories are amazing to read now. But a lot of them would say they still have these nightmares where they will be buried alive, or that they're lined up and shot by these guys and stuff. They just have these awful nightmares. And a lot of the parents of these kids said that when they first came back, it was years of them screaming in the middle of the night, running in their bedroom in the middle of the night, thinking they were being chased. For a little while, they didn't know who the kidnappers were. It took a little while to find them. The time between then and when they were caught, they said was unbearable.

It must have felt like years.

Because they felt like they were going to come back and get them.

Also, I feel like if I was a parent, I'd be like, no, you're not sleeping in your room tonight. You're sleeping in my room forever.

I was going to say I'm pretty sure I would ruin my kids even further because I would be like, you're never leaving my site.

No, I'd be like, you're never. You don't have a room anymore. We're sharing. Yeah.

And these poor parents were just like, after this hugely traumatizing experience that they lived in, now they're living through the trauma once again with their kids. It's like, holy shit. Ed was hailed as a hero, like we said, his whole life. He was hailed as a hero.

He was hailed as a hero.

He deserves it. But he was super humble and would never acknowledge that.

I know he was.

I knew it. And he's just adorable. His own kids said he just loved kids his whole life. They were like, he was an amazing father. He's amazing father, an amazing great grandfather. Stop it. Because he had great grandchildren. Hell, yeah. Thank goodness. Ed got to live to have great grandchildren. And they said he was just one of those guys who just kids were his world, and he felt like he had a duty to protect kids. Yeah. And he said about that day, he was like, all I knew was that I had to protect these kids. I had to make them feel like everything was going to be okay, because even if they were dying that day, he was like, I wanted them to die thinking that everything was okay. And he was like, and I wanted to make sure these kids... His main goal, he was like, we weren't dying that day. My main goal was to get these kids back to their parents. And he did. And he did.

He moved a manhole cover with two truck batteries on it. And he kept his shit together throughout this whole thing and maintained.

I would not be able to sing songs. I would be bawling my eyes out in a ball.

He'd be like, Don't touch me. I'm terrified. Seriously.

And Ed lived to be 91 years old. Oh, my God. That's amazing. Which it's like, yes. Yes. I wanted that. I was like, Don't tell me he lived to be 70. Tell me he's got a long life. 91 years old, he passed away in May 2012. And according to an article in the New York Times. His entire life, those children were by his side.

Oh my God, yes.

They all maintained best friendships with him. They all talked to him all the time. They visited him. They said a lot of those children that he saved were there by his side when he passed away. Oh my God. And they had visited him consistently through his entire life. They were with him throughout it all. I love that. Family members said Ray collected newspaper clippings about the kidnapping, but he wouldn't talk about it. He just silently have this stuff. And he also bought the school bus from it for $500 because he said he didn't want it to go to Scrape Iron because he was like, I feel like this is an important thing.

Wow.

We survived. I want this to stay. Wow. Where did he put it? His son said, quote, he parked it in the barn and he'd go out and start it every once in a while. He kept it for many years, but then he ended up giving it to an old equipment museum in Legrand, where it's still there for public viewing today.

If I was him, I wouldn't want to go in it ever again. I give him a lot of credit.

That's what embarrassed he is. He goes in there and he starts it just to make sure it's still working.

I wouldn't.

And the van is there in the museum today in Legrand And a lot of the kids came back after he passed away, and they wrote messages to him on the outside of the bus. And you can look at it online. They all wrote like, Ed, you'll always be my hero, and stuff like that. Oh, my God. I know. I choked up.

I just got another lump.

I just got a little lump that came rocking him through. But that's the tale of the 1976 Chow Chilla School Bus Kidnapping.

Thank you, Thomas, for sending that to us. I can't believe I'd never heard of that this case before.

I'm shocked. I'm ruined.

But I can't believe I never heard of that case before.

Yeah. It's one of those that you read it and you just think of all these what these kids went through. But then you're like, thank goodness. I mean, from what I read, I didn't see any stories of them really going down into a dark place forever. That's good. I'm glad. Most of them were able to... And a lot of them say, I want people to know these kids grew up to have wonderful lives. We didn't let these men take that from us. Some of them stumbled a bit, obviously.

Of course.

Because I couldn't imagine living through that. I probably would have. Most of them came out of it and we're like, Fuck that. I'm going to I'm going to forgive them. I'm going to move past this.

Just even forgiving them is wild.

And as far as what I read, James and Richard have not been back to prison. They've not been in trouble again. I hope people heckle them like Lizzie Borden. Oh, yeah. I hope they get heckled with some fucking nursery rimes and shit. Fred, I don't know if he'll ever get out of prison. He better not. He rots in there because he sounds like a fucking asshole.

He truly does.

So, yeah.

So pointless.

So pointless. It's so pointless. That's the part that kills me the most.

Like, I'm in debt?

So pointless. Everybody's in debt. Who's not in debt?

Yeah, that's like the whole- Raise your hand if you're not in debt.

See, nobody's raising their hands.

No one in this room- Nobody in this room. No one in this world ways to hurt. Nobody in this world would raise their hands. Am I okay? Wow. Well, thanks for that.

You're welcome.

Can't wait to live my life now again.

I can't wait to hug my babies.

I'm not bringing them to school with you anymore. I am.

That's why I bring them. I will forever bring my kids to school. What is that word?

I renounced that.

I renounced that.

I renounced them going to school.

I listened to that.

So, yeah, we hope you keep listening.

And we hope you... Keep. It.

We're weird. But not so weird that you go to the store and you buy some Nylons and you put them over your head and you're like, why? I look like the Easter Bunny. I bet I should kidnap some kids because that's really fucked up. And guess what? You already have a trust fund. So why don't you stop being a fucking douche nozel and just maybe wait until your trust fund hits and stop fucking kidnapping people. And also, how fucked up are you to dig the earth into the earth and put people in there and just go fuck yourself, red and poop. Those are your names. Bye.

Those are your names. Bye.

That was a good one.