Episode Revisit: The Schoolbus Kidnapping of 1976

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Speaker 14 Hey, weirdos. My name is Ash, and I'm Elena.

Speaker 2 And this is a mini more bed.

Speaker 16 Mini, mini, mini, mini, mini, more bed. Mini morbid, mini, more bed, mini more bird.

Speaker 17 It's so little.

Speaker 17 So little, tiny, small.

Speaker 18 I can't even see it.

Speaker 14 You can't see it. How are you going to read it?

Speaker 19 I can see it.

Speaker 2 Just kidding.

Speaker 14 This is what she's telling me, folks. She's telling me that it's a real mini.

Speaker 2 It really is.

Speaker 14 We'll find out.

Speaker 24 Guys, I promise it's an actual mini, I swear, mainly because I'm tired this week.

Speaker 27 And this case just happens to be a mini.

Speaker 14 Is it a little tiny small?

Speaker 29 It's little tiny small.

Speaker 14 Ooh, I made a really gross mouth noise just then that you're gonna die when you edit out later.

Speaker 2 Cool.

Speaker 2 Thanks.

Speaker 31 What did everyone do for Halloween?

Speaker 33 Yeah, I hope you guys all had a spooky, ooky, spectacular Halloween.

Speaker 37 On the Facebook page, people have been posting photos of all their Halloween costumes, and you guys fucking kill it.

Speaker 14 I'm just saying, whoever dressed up as old Greg, you won everything

Speaker 14 because that's been my favorite video since I... When did I even find that?

Speaker 41 It's true.

Speaker 2 She found that way young.

Speaker 14 I think I was probably like nine or ten. 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.

Speaker 2 Be like.

Speaker 39 Do you love me?

Speaker 2 Do you love me?

Speaker 14 Could you learn to love me?

Speaker 32 And you know what's funny?

Speaker 43 The guy who plays old Greg.

Speaker 32 So Ash used to tell me about this all the time.

Speaker 44 And I was like, yeah, okay.

Speaker 14 And she never thought it was funny, everybody.

Speaker 45 Well, I never watched it.

Speaker 42 Oh, you didn't watch it?

Speaker 32 Yeah, I never watched it.

Speaker 38 I was always just like, yeah, I've seen, like,

Speaker 46 I know what it is.

Speaker 47 I've seen like the screenshot of it. But she never

Speaker 14 laughed at my impersonations of old Greg.

Speaker 2 I didn't. And then

Speaker 48 Mama loves the Great British Bake Off.

Speaker 14 And by mama, she means herself and not me.

Speaker 49 Except Ash watches it literally every time I put it on.

Speaker 2 I have no choice.

Speaker 46 She can pretend, but she loves it.

Speaker 50 But I really love it.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you get into it.

Speaker 46 I love baking shows of all kinds and cooking shows.

Speaker 24 So that's just who I am as a person.

Speaker 52 But the Great British Bake Off is so soothing and so wonderful.

Speaker 55 And the guy who hosts it, what's his fucking name?

Speaker 2 Old Greg.

Speaker 38 His name is not old Greg, but the comedian slash actor slash whatever he is, he's one of the hosts now.

Speaker 43 And he's the guy who who is old Greg.

Speaker 2 And when he mentioned it on an episode, I was like, whoa, Ash, it's old Greg hosting So Our Worlds Collided. I just want to know.

Speaker 14 I want to know why he hasn't said anything on the baking show about it.

Speaker 17 He did. That's what I just said.

Speaker 2 Oh, he said it.

Speaker 14 Oh, he said it on the show.

Speaker 18 Yeah, on the show.

Speaker 2 He said, I used to play a merman named Old Greg.

Speaker 22 I love it. And somebody was like, that's cool.

Speaker 14 And then somebody else was like, you ever drunk Baileys from a shoe?

Speaker 41 And now I've watched it and it's hilarious so now i'm in i do watercolors so you know what good job old greg mother liquor good job person who dressed up as old greg you killed it i it made my whole year so yeah everybody honestly everybody did an amazing job there were a bunch of like beetle juices there were a lot of atoms family there was just so many good ones so you guys killed it per huge

Speaker 24 um this year i just brought my kids out because it was actually kind of warm outside, which was kind of nice.

Speaker 52 And down the street from us, there's this house that in front of it, it has this like weird, like, almost like a mausoleum-looking thing that sits on the sidewalk.

Speaker 2 So you walk creepy.

Speaker 44 Yeah, you walk by like the door to the mausoleum, kind of thing.

Speaker 22 And it's always spooky. It's always been this spooky thing.

Speaker 62 And then on Halloween, the owner of the house is brilliant and they open it up and they put a fog machine in there and lights and they make it like a little haunted mausoleum that everybody can go into.

Speaker 72 And the owner is in there dressed up, like spooking you out.

Speaker 73 That's so cool. So we went by.

Speaker 69 Now my kids are three and a half years old.

Speaker 59 We go by it and I'm like, oh yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 38 Let's just scoop by it because I didn't want them to get freaked out.

Speaker 75 And as we're going by, one of my kids was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, mom.

Speaker 76 Wait a second.

Speaker 15 I want to go in the cave.

Speaker 2 And I was like, what? I was like, well, it's a little spooky in there.

Speaker 45 Are you sure? And she was like, I want to go in the cave.

Speaker 52 We went to like six more.

Speaker 2 I was

Speaker 68 the entire time.

Speaker 35 The entire time time, she's getting free candy.

Speaker 30 And she's like, But I'd like to go in the cave.

Speaker 15 I don't want to trick-or-treat anymore.

Speaker 77 And I was like, Okay, it's spooky.

Speaker 22 And she goes, I love spooky mama.

Speaker 14 And I was like, And then Elena melted into a puddle on the floor and died.

Speaker 35 I have done it right.

Speaker 30 And then she became resurrected.

Speaker 2 Yes. And then I took my three and a half-year-old into this mausoleum room, and she loved it.

Speaker 45 The other one, not so much.

Speaker 44 She gave it a try, but then she was like, no, no.

Speaker 80 And she had John pick her up.

Speaker 74 But one of them was into it.

Speaker 14 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.

Speaker 14 But don't worry, I woke up like an hour later and watched Texas Chainsaw by myself.

Speaker 35 I love that for you.

Speaker 2 It was so soothing.

Speaker 29 We actually, because that's one of my favorite parts of Halloween, is that every single horror movie ever is on.

Speaker 2 Yes.

Speaker 24 And you can just flick through the channels and hit all kinds of them.

Speaker 52 So I go through and Betelgeuse is on.

Speaker 24 So I'm like, oh, hell yeah. So I go to Betelgeuse and John's like, yeah, I've never seen this movie.

Speaker 14 I've never seen Betelgeuse the whole way through. I've only seen bits and pieces.

Speaker 82 Who are both of you?

Speaker 43 Who are both of these people that are in my house right now?

Speaker 2 I was horrible. Fuck out of my house.

Speaker 38 Luckily, because I was like, oh no, this could change our relationship.

Speaker 47 If we watch this and he's like, this is dumb, I'm going to be like, what's happening though?

Speaker 68 And we watched it and John was like, all right, that's a sick movie.

Speaker 2 Like, he loved it.

Speaker 14 I The bits and pieces I've seen have been good pieces.

Speaker 37 He loved it.

Speaker 38 And now I have to get him to watch the Adams Family and Adams Family Values because he never saw those either.

Speaker 2 Unpopular opinion, I don't love the original Adams family.

Speaker 68 So Adams Family Values is way better.

Speaker 26 I like Adam's Family Values.

Speaker 51 I don't think that's an unpopular opinion.

Speaker 37 I like the original one.

Speaker 2 Yeah, me too.

Speaker 38 But the Adams Family Values is superior.

Speaker 14 I like when she's like, Wednesday's at the age where she only has one thing on her mind.

Speaker 1 And the mom is like, boys, and Wednesday's like, homicide.

Speaker 43 Because I feel as though that was you as a child.

Speaker 80 It's 100%.

Speaker 2 I think I related so hard to Wednesday Adams and that when I was little. I love that for you.

Speaker 47 But enough about all my spooky childhood shit.

Speaker 2 This is a mini-episode, so we've actually done more talking than we normally do.

Speaker 18 Let's shut the fuck up.

Speaker 20 Let's shut the fuck up and get to the case, shall we?

Speaker 30 We shalleth.

Speaker 2 All right.

Speaker 38 Let me preface this.

Speaker 34 I debated whether to preface this story with

Speaker 51 it having a happy ending or not ahead of time.

Speaker 83 I'm going to preface it with it has a happy ending because it

Speaker 45 kind of needs to be prefaced that way.

Speaker 59 Okay. I know I needed to hear that.

Speaker 49 And I have a lot of like quotes from the people involved in it.

Speaker 5 So it kind of gives that away.

Speaker 10 It's like seven o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 14 Are you going to really fuck me up?

Speaker 84 I mean, it's not like gruesome.

Speaker 14 it's more just like 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 gonna fuck up your no i'm gonna make it okay at the end okay

Speaker 86 so this was from july 15th 1976 oh vintage very vintage and actually i am going to um bring up the person who suggested this case right now because they suggested it to me like literally yesterday and when they did i just happened to like peek at it, and I was like, Oh, 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.

Speaker 45 And

Speaker 45 this person's name was Thomas, so thank you, Thomas.

Speaker 51 I'm not gonna say your last name because I don't know if you want me to, but um,

Speaker 69 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.

Speaker 40 You like threw your other mini out the window?

Speaker 52 I literally did, and I, and I couldn't believe I had never heard of this.

Speaker 2 Well, tell me what happened.

Speaker 58 It took place in Chowchilla, California, and it's known as the school bus kidnapping of 1976.

Speaker 73 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.

Speaker 24 The bus was driven by Edward Ray.

Speaker 58 He was known as Ed, but his name was Frank Edward Ray.

Speaker 23 He was previously a farmer, but he later became a bus driver.

Speaker 24 The kids absolutely loved him, and he was just one of those bus drivers that we all remember that we loved.

Speaker 43 You know, it was like, they were just nice, sweet.

Speaker 48 They clearly loved kids.

Speaker 23 They cared about you.

Speaker 24 Like, the total opposite of the bus driver that you remember that, like, hated kids and was the worst bus driver ever.

Speaker 14 I never had a bad bus driver. Really?

Speaker 62 And I thought everybody had like that warm, fuzzy bus driver and then that like.

Speaker 2 demon spot.

Speaker 88 Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Speaker 14 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, like you're supposed to stop there.

Speaker 14 And he was like, well, you missed it.

Speaker 2 And I was like, I'm five. Oh, my God.
Yeah. So you did have a terrible buster.
I did.

Speaker 14 I think you just resurrected a memory.

Speaker 18 Yeah, I was going to say that was a deeply buried memory.

Speaker 81 It was a deep cut.

Speaker 77 So Ed was great.

Speaker 60 Like, and Ed was legitimately great.

Speaker 89 Like, we, we love Ed.

Speaker 68 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.

Speaker 14 Shut up, that's so cute!

Speaker 2 Isn't that adorable?

Speaker 10 I would never have signed that petition. No, but apparently, it was all that like they have all these interviews with these kids now because, again, this has a happy ending.

Speaker 64 Uh, and they all talk about how like it was like so much fun, they loved it, they did it was almost like a summer camp.

Speaker 45 Um, so these were all just happy kids who were going home after a fun day at summer school while driving down a rural road.

Speaker 2 Rural is so hard to say, truly, a rural road. Rural.

Speaker 2 A rural road. A rural road.

Speaker 57 The rural juror.

Speaker 24 The bus came across a white creep van that had parked across the road and was blocking their way a bit.

Speaker 18 Yes.

Speaker 90 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

Speaker 34 in the van, so he stopped briefly and just called out the window, does anyone need any help?

Speaker 24 Because he thought this person had broken down.

Speaker 2 Don't ever offer help. Don't ever offer help.
What, what?

Speaker 33 I think I said this at the live show to somebody.

Speaker 85 I don't remember who, but like, my main

Speaker 40 affirmation that I use in life is: never help anyone.

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's just what? Just never help anyone.

Speaker 71 I just won't do it.

Speaker 75 So, as soon as he offered the help, three men with pantyhose over their heads jumped on the bus with guns.

Speaker 90 What? Sought-off shotguns.

Speaker 2 What?

Speaker 24 Pointed at this kind man and a bus full of essentially babies.

Speaker 2 What? Yeah.

Speaker 67 And I use the term men very loosely here.

Speaker 2 Let's say creatures.

Speaker 74 Because what man or human

Speaker 18 jumps on a bus full of children with a kindly older bus driver with a sawed-off shotgun?

Speaker 2 Not any man's trying to.

Speaker 41 No.

Speaker 77 This case made me s- I was so angry by the end of it at these points.

Speaker 2 Look at kids.

Speaker 18 And they're all alive and like literally Fuck all of you because like these guys are disgusting.

Speaker 14 I just want to know what the whole point of this thing is.

Speaker 20 Oh, it's ridiculous.

Speaker 48 There really is this is the worst part.

Speaker 19 Oh, is there hardly a point to this?

Speaker 2 Keep going.

Speaker 25 There is but this 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.

Speaker 14 I was expecting them to not be 22 and 24.

Speaker 22 That's wild. It's because I it's frustrating.

Speaker 86 All three of these guys had come from rich families and Fred had a trust fund of like over a hundred million dollars waiting for him.

Speaker 39 So Fred, what the fuck you be doing?

Speaker 59 So what are you doing?

Speaker 75 So you may be wondering why the fuck they did this.

Speaker 42 Well, I'll tell you in a bit.

Speaker 59 They demanded Ed to go to the back of the bus and they screamed at the kids to shut up and follow orders.

Speaker 76 Of course the kids are freaking out and Ed was just trying to calm them all down.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 58 Edward was speaking in a harsh tone, and that normally was not Edward.

Speaker 36 That normally was not the Edward that we knew and loved.

Speaker 70 So poor Ed is trying to be like, guys, like, sit the fuck down.

Speaker 74 You know, like, trying really, and he's like getting, he's trying to be like a little more firm with them to make them listen because he knows if they don't listen, we're fucked.

Speaker 32 This could get really bad really fast.

Speaker 10 I have one of those lumps. I'm going to start crying.

Speaker 2 Oh,

Speaker 49 while I was reading it, there was a couple of times times I was like, oh no, what if I cry on the podcast for the first time?

Speaker 2 Oh, God.

Speaker 10 So that means I'm definitely going to be a bad person.

Speaker 2 Yeah, you might cry.

Speaker 70 The youngest baby on the bus was a little girl named Monica, and she was only five years old.

Speaker 33 No.

Speaker 75 And there's three men with sawed-off shotguns yelling at them.

Speaker 83 Now, apparently, like I said, the kidnappers were wearing pantyhose over their heads, but they wore them so that the legs dangled down like next to their heads.

Speaker 22 Which is stupid.

Speaker 70 So like bunny ears.

Speaker 24 So Monica asked one of them if he was the easter bunny

Speaker 2 and here i go sobbing i mean that when i heard that this little five-year-old is like are you the easter bunny and this guy has like a sawed-off shotgun in her face and she's like are you the easter bunny oh my god like this poor little baby oh my god she's like what the fuck is easter bunny what are you and that must have been oh so one of the men was pointing the shotgun at these children while another one drove the bus he drove the bus through uh straight through a bamboo field and um, all of these kids in the bus were jolting around.

Speaker 18 They said they were being thrown around in the bus, like it was really aggressive and awful.

Speaker 68 When it finally came to a stop in the bamboo field, there was another van waiting for them.

Speaker 91 No.

Speaker 35 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.

Speaker 74 The vans were outfitted with wood paneling and blacked out windows.

Speaker 24 They had made the kids jump from the bus to the vans so they wouldn't leave any footprints.

Speaker 81 So, this was very planned. Wow.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 22 Now, one of the survivors, Larry Park, who is amazing, I'll tell you why later, told CBS News,

Speaker 88 as a six-year-old,

Speaker 2 six-year-old,

Speaker 24 the only way that I can describe this darkness in the van is that it was trying to get me.

Speaker 55 Like, these poor kids are in pitch black in these vans.

Speaker 15 My god, and they're all crammed in there.

Speaker 69 The kidnapper drove these kids in two in two vans, blacked out vans in a hundred 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 like dehydrated they're peeing they're like nowhere to go to the bathroom some of them are vomiting like there's and they're stuck in these tiny little vans oh my god, and yeah, 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?

Speaker 64 And he's sitting there thinking, I don't know what's gonna happen, and I'm having to tell these kids everything's gonna be all right, and I don't know that everything's gonna be all right.

Speaker 14 And if you're sitting in that position, you're like, Everything is surely not going to be all right.

Speaker 22 He's responsible for these 26 babies, and he's and he's instead of like just cowering and being like, I don't know what's gonna happen, and crying himself, which I probably would.

Speaker 77 He's like stepping up and being like, I need to be,

Speaker 61 I might die, but I need to pretend that I'm not scared of that for these kids.

Speaker 48 Like, this guy's amazing. Like, we love Ed.

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Speaker 74 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.

Speaker 22 Well, this is like all day at this point 11 hours.

Speaker 36 And they are all calling the police and then they

Speaker 24 and then they all started helping the police look for the bus because that was the first thing.

Speaker 48 They were like, we got to find this.

Speaker 52 Where could this bus have gone? Right.

Speaker 69 It's a huge fucking school bus.

Speaker 2 They're probably like, uh, Ed?

Speaker 37 Yeah.

Speaker 24 And I think that's probably people are like, what the fuck?

Speaker 2 Like, where are you cracked?

Speaker 24 The FBI was called in to help. It was mayhem.

Speaker 45 And finally, they found the bus via an air via an air search because it was so well hidden in the bamboo field.

Speaker 42 Wow.

Speaker 53 That they just found.

Speaker 15 So the parents just found this abandoned school bus and they found tire tracks moving away from the school bus, but again, no footprints.

Speaker 22 So they, it was clear, and the police said it's clear that somebody has pulled another vehicle up to this bus and driven away.

Speaker 67 Oh my gosh.

Speaker 51 Can you imagine being a parent?

Speaker 36 Like, I can't imagine any my child's being on that bus and just seeing like they've been kidnapped off a bus.

Speaker 91 Right. Like,

Speaker 2 how do you wrap your brain around that? I don't even.

Speaker 32 So children are screaming, crying, like I said, like vomiting.

Speaker 24 It was a nightmare situation.

Speaker 69 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 like

Speaker 48 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 like stepped right up and just became an adult for these kids like you know and meanwhile these are children the 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 um 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.

Speaker 2 Oh my God. While they're in the van.

Speaker 14 I'd be like, I'm not happy and I know it.

Speaker 23 Well, I guess they changed the words to if you're sad and you know it, clap your hands.

Speaker 2 Oh my God.

Speaker 2 It's so sad. Isn't this just like...

Speaker 67 Sadden, you know it.

Speaker 50 And literally everyone in the van is like, clap, clap.

Speaker 2 Like, what?

Speaker 15 After almost 12 hours in that van, they were driven off the road and were again thrown all around the vans because they were like off-roading at this point.

Speaker 45 Then they stopped the vans.

Speaker 24 So first the kidnappers reached in the van and took Ed out and shut the door.

Speaker 14 No.

Speaker 24 So these kids said they just saw the van door open, Ed be dragged out, and the door shut.

Speaker 93 Does Ed die?

Speaker 36 No.

Speaker 2 Oh, good.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 58 So they were doing this one at a time.

Speaker 59 So they would do it again and again and again to every kid.

Speaker 43 So these kids all had no idea what was happening.

Speaker 86 Right.

Speaker 36 As far as they knew, knew, they were being taken out one by one and killed.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 77 I mean, that's what it looks like.

Speaker 41 Right.

Speaker 65 One takes out, you don't hear anything, you don't see anything.

Speaker 72 Next one gets taken out.

Speaker 15 Like, I'd be like, yeah, they're taking them out and shooting them in the woods and leaving them for dead.

Speaker 70 So as they were pulled from the van, one man asked their name, the other asked their age, and the third asked their address.

Speaker 22 They also took a little piece of clothing from each of them.

Speaker 44 So the oldest boy named Michael Marshall, the one that was 14,

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 48 And he was just trying to be there for them, 14 years old.

Speaker 53 He said finally, it was just he and the youngest, the girl named Monica, who's five years old in the van, and she was just clinging to him for dear life.

Speaker 15 The kidnapper came and he went to grab Monica, but Michael said he couldn't bear to hand her over to him.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 72 Because again, he had no idea what was happening.

Speaker 49 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.

Speaker 14 And poor Monica's just like sitting in the van alone.

Speaker 15 Well, and he said to CBS News, quote, 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.

Speaker 49 That was so hard.

Speaker 55 God. So this 14-year-old

Speaker 58 understands.

Speaker 14 I need to know why this is happening.

Speaker 74 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.

Speaker 87 Why?

Speaker 82 They had each child and Ed climb down a ladder into this van that they had buried.

Speaker 24 In the van, they had put mattresses, water, peanut butter, bread, and cereal enough for one meal.

Speaker 68 Not enough for anymore.

Speaker 24 Stocked on one side and holes cut into boxes for makeshift toilets.

Speaker 72 They put put all 26 kids and Ed in this little moving van that was buried under the earth in a rock quarry.

Speaker 74 Then they took up the ladder and told them all, we'll be back for you.

Speaker 50 And then they shut the top.

Speaker 2 No.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 68 Before leaving, the kidnappers put a manhole cover on the entrance that they had put the kids in, like on top.

Speaker 63 This is my absolute worst nightmare.

Speaker 39 Yeah.

Speaker 62 And then they put two truck batteries over that manhole so they couldn't move the cover.

Speaker 17 And then you're like, you're just sitting there, like, are they going to fucking come back?

Speaker 41 and then they buried the top of the van they were buried under like between six and twelve feet of of earth nope yeah and they could they said they could all hear dirt and gravel being thrown on top of the van so they were literally in my mind i'd be like this is like this is how we're gonna 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.

Speaker 41 Why is this happening?

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 2 I'll get to it.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 35 One survivor, Karejo Labandira, was 10 at the time.

Speaker 68 And she said, quote, there were times we all thought we were dying.

Speaker 24 I promised God if I survived this, I would be the best little girl.

Speaker 15 I'd be the best little girl my whole entire life.

Speaker 2 Oh my God.

Speaker 89 That part, I just got like a little lump in my throat.

Speaker 91 Because thinking about this 10-year-old being like, I won't ever do anything bad again.

Speaker 26 Like, please just get me out of here.

Speaker 49 They were in this hole for 12 hours together.

Speaker 2 Okay.

Speaker 22 They said it was awful.

Speaker 81 I mean, the bathrooms were literally holes cut in two boxes.

Speaker 70 There's 26 kids.

Speaker 22 So these are just holes filling up with everything.

Speaker 81 So the whole place is smelling of urine and feces.

Speaker 70 And kids are vomiting because, one, they're... in about a billion degree weather.

Speaker 2 They have a heat stroke.

Speaker 55 They probably have heat stroke.

Speaker 34 They're also just just hysterical.

Speaker 86 So of course.

Speaker 18 So this whole place is filled with urine, feces.

Speaker 14 I'm never putting my children on a bus.

Speaker 2 Oh, I'm literally.

Speaker 24 I never was anyways.

Speaker 22 Like I already told Ed John, I was like, no, they're never going to go on.

Speaker 2 I already told Ed.

Speaker 48 I already told Ed.

Speaker 74 They're never going on a bus.

Speaker 72 Like my kids aren't going on.

Speaker 14 Because I don't, I don't know any.

Speaker 2 It's just not happening.

Speaker 36 I don't trust anybody.

Speaker 48 I know there are beautiful bus drivers like Ed.

Speaker 48 Many of, most of them are wonderful, amazing humans.

Speaker 14 I'm not trying to chance it.

Speaker 2 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 pretty i meant to say bubble wrap not plastic wrap that's i'm just gonna dexter up my kids and drive them places it's gonna be it'll be awesome it'll be fine and it's true it's like you can't i don't trust anybody

Speaker 2 it's awful um

Speaker 48 so the kids were crying for their parents like ed said there was a lot of crying for mama like which just destroys my heart.

Speaker 56 Why are you doing this to me right now?

Speaker 2 Because there is a good, yeah, can we get to it? Like, and Michael,

Speaker 2 Michael the Brave, the 14-year-old.

Speaker 24 I want to, like, he should legally change his name to that.

Speaker 22 Um, he said that it would just be quiet, like, dead silent in there all of a sudden.

Speaker 24 And then one kid would start crying, and the whole place would erupt into, like, screaming and crying.

Speaker 82 It was just a fucking nightmare.

Speaker 59 Uh, they all ate the food, and then the fit because again, this was like, you know, they're going on what?

Speaker 14 Almost 24 hours.

Speaker 86 Almost 24 hours of just insanity.

Speaker 25 So all the food was gone because it was only enough for one meal.

Speaker 24 And then they had put a ventilation, like a makeshift ventilation system in there because they would have just suffocated right away.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 23 And obviously, these guys are looking to keep them alive for some period of time because they is this what all this

Speaker 2 have to do with like ransom or something? Yes.

Speaker 36 Okay.

Speaker 15 And the ventilation system they put in were just fans that were like put into this thing and they the batteries all died.

Speaker 65 So the ventilation system failed.

Speaker 75 So now they're all literally dying.

Speaker 49 Like suffocation, heat stroke, just all of this.

Speaker 59 And then the roof began to literally cave in under the weight.

Speaker 45 It was starting to bow in.

Speaker 22 And like they could hear the creaking, like pieces of dirt were falling in.

Speaker 24 So all the kids were like, oh, we're going to die here after being literally buried alive.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 32 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 of here.

Speaker 34 Yeah.

Speaker 24 So this is when Ed and Michael and a couple of other of the other bigger boys took the mattresses.

Speaker 89 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, you know.

Speaker 24 So Michael said the kids were all cheering him on.

Speaker 2 Like they were all literally like, come on, Michael, you can do it.

Speaker 83 Like it started turning into this like, I just got full-blood chills.

Speaker 62 Right, I still get chills.

Speaker 15 Um, at last, after like, we're, I mean, Ed and Michael and these other kids were mo, they were trying for, they said, like, hours they were trying to get this thing together.

Speaker 2 They got it.

Speaker 22 They were sweating.

Speaker 55 They're like dying of heat stroke.

Speaker 77 And all of a sudden, another kid looks and says, it's moving. I see it moving.
Oh, my God.

Speaker 14 I'm going to cry right now.

Speaker 2 Right?

Speaker 34 So they were all able to collectively push the cover out of the way.

Speaker 5 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.

Speaker 60 You know what I mean? Like there was a wooden box over the hole.

Speaker 67 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.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 73 So

Speaker 34 when he got up there, he realized that outside of the box was just earth.

Speaker 48 It was just dirt.

Speaker 67 So he had to dig.

Speaker 22 So he and Ed,

Speaker 47 they just dug and dug and dug for another hour or so until they reached sunlight.

Speaker 65 And when they saw sunlight, all the kids are freaking out.

Speaker 70 The sunlight's pouring into the place.

Speaker 49 They're all like, holy shit, we're going to get out of here.

Speaker 32 But then all of a sudden, all the kids are like, one, where are we?

Speaker 64 And two, what if they're waiting up there?

Speaker 20 Right.

Speaker 68 Because all of a sudden they're like, we don't fucking know what they want.

Speaker 2 We don't know any idea what's happening.

Speaker 38 We don't know if they've been sitting outside of this thing the whole time just watching us try to escape.

Speaker 71 Like, we don't know.

Speaker 22 But they were like, what else do we have?

Speaker 37 We have to.

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 65 So one by one, they hoisted each other up out of the hole.

Speaker 24 Luckily, the kidnappers were not outside there.

Speaker 68 The kidnappers, where were they?

Speaker 83 They were all taking a nap.

Speaker 67 Where?

Speaker 36 Yeah, they were taking a nap at home.

Speaker 57 They had tried to call the police department to demand ransom of $5 million for these children's lives, but the lines were jammed because the kids' families and the media were calling non-stop.

Speaker 2 So they have like a trust fund. Yeah.

Speaker 27 So they couldn't get through to the police station to demand the ransom.

Speaker 69 So they were like, you know what?

Speaker 2 We're real tired.

Speaker 81 Let's just go to sleep.

Speaker 64 Oh my God.

Speaker 36 Let's take a fucking nap while these kids die beneath the earth.

Speaker 64 We buried children alive.

Speaker 22 But let's take a nap.

Speaker 56 It was tiring work.

Speaker 37 Yeah, we buried children in a kindly old bus driver alive in the earth.

Speaker 46 But we are so much of a sociopath that we can lay our head down on the fucking pillow and go to sleep.

Speaker 30 What I need to know is how did three people this evil meet each other?

Speaker 2 I have no idea.

Speaker 14 How does the world bring that much evil together?

Speaker 58 That it it drives me nuts.

Speaker 15 But what kills me is while they're all fucking sleeping, their quote-unquote victims are just pushing through

Speaker 57 just committing acts of badassery getting the fuck out of that thing against all odds.

Speaker 38 This is like a straight-up movie.

Speaker 22 It really is.

Speaker 22 And it's like i love the the idea of them just snoozing away thinking they've buried these babies in the earth and this older guy like just and these babies and this older guy are like fuck off and i love here that they were like we are not dying just sitting passively in here waiting for them we are gonna die getting out of here

Speaker 48 like yeah babies so once they escaped out of the hole they saw a man in the rock quarry he was apparently because it was 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 sees 26 children coming out of the

Speaker 65 well you know what he says he looks at them and he goes the world's been looking for you oh

Speaker 2 right

Speaker 2 like i'm clutching my damn

Speaker 2 that's just like whoo when i read that i was like holy oh my god i just had chills for five whole minutes yeah literally

Speaker 26 the world's been looking for you oh 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, like, the world is ending.

Speaker 39 Like, this is Satan's undead army.

Speaker 63 Like, that's what the fuck I would think.

Speaker 43 You see all these kids climbing out of the earth.

Speaker 37 Probably just covered in, like, all.

Speaker 2 Muck.

Speaker 43 I'd be like, this is Satan's work.

Speaker 21 Yeah.

Speaker 39 This is the work of the devil.

Speaker 2 Something bad's afoot.

Speaker 14 And I would run.

Speaker 2 Run.

Speaker 48 But this man turns around and says the most movie-worthy line I have ever heard.

Speaker 80 And just

Speaker 67 the world's been looking for you.

Speaker 39 This whole shit is a movie. And they're like, Yeah, can you bring me back to the civilization of the world?

Speaker 2 You told me.

Speaker 15 They were more than a hundred miles from Chow Chilla.

Speaker 92 More than 100 miles they were driven away from where they were.

Speaker 70 The police came, obviously, because the guy called them.

Speaker 2 That's what they do.

Speaker 21 And Ed led all these kids.

Speaker 48 And Ed had led all these kids out, like to safety.

Speaker 2 Oh my god, Ed.

Speaker 21 Did he get like the biggest heroism award?

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah, just wait.

Speaker 65 Heroism, I said.

Speaker 26 Heroism. Correct.

Speaker 2 Close.

Speaker 48 So the police had to take them the only place that was like safe for all of them to go, which was the local jail.

Speaker 26 Oh, no. They weren't putting like cells or anything.

Speaker 65 They were putting these things, like these rooms.

Speaker 35 But I guess the kids, when they pulled up, they were all like, we're going to jail.

Speaker 2 Like, why are we going to jail?

Speaker 25 They were all photographed.

Speaker 34 They were checked by doctors.

Speaker 45 They had interviews.

Speaker 14 You kept saying like the survivors.

Speaker 56 And I was like, does somebody die?

Speaker 46 No, that's why I didn't want to give too much away.

Speaker 37 That's why I want to say, no, they were all relatively unharmed.

Speaker 23 There was some heat stroke.

Speaker 34 There was obviously shock and trauma.

Speaker 40 But physically, they were all relatively out.

Speaker 56 Oh my God.

Speaker 14 I hope this kid, when he gets caught, I hope his trust fund paid for their therapy.

Speaker 5 Seriously.

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Speaker 70 Well, they were all given soda and apples at the police station.

Speaker 56 Oh my god, stop it.

Speaker 2 That was so pure.

Speaker 92 And then they were freed to go with their families, which all of them said, like, I think the guy, Larry Park, I mentioned,

Speaker 93 he said that he literally just like 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.

Speaker 2 Because he was six.

Speaker 17 Like he was six.

Speaker 2 He's this little sick. He's just like, hi, mom.

Speaker 14 I just keep picturing your kids.

Speaker 80 Oh, that's all I kept picturing.

Speaker 91 Oh, I

Speaker 2 I

Speaker 41 don't even know

Speaker 2 what I would do

Speaker 39 to these people when they got caught.

Speaker 2 I would go to jail.

Speaker 45 Oh, I would 100%.

Speaker 24 I would just start ripping them apart with my teeth.

Speaker 2 I could not.

Speaker 32 The thought of it is unfathomable.

Speaker 91 It really is.

Speaker 38 I would to articulate any kind of thought when it has to putting myself in this situation.

Speaker 79 None are coming.

Speaker 7 I would turn into a creature and just rip them to shit.

Speaker 70 I would literally turn into my true form and I would just

Speaker 56 call upon Satan after Satan's work and just be like, yo, sir, I need your help.

Speaker 2 Give me the power. Give me the power.

Speaker 37 I would call upon the power of Meno.

Speaker 14 I was literally going to say that after you said what I was calling you.

Speaker 2 We would call the corners craft style.

Speaker 39 So hit me up with how these motherfuckers get caught.

Speaker 23 So unfortunately, none of the kids could say a lot about what they looked like because they were wearing pantyhoses.

Speaker 17 They were like the Easter bunny.

Speaker 77 Except they look like the Easter bunny.

Speaker 76 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 woods who was the son of the owner of the rock quarry fucking straight up idiot fucking idiot thank god of course he became the chief suspect and once they put it together the other pieces they were led to the other two fucking fools

Speaker 70 Ed was also able to give one of their license plate numbers under hypnosis.

Speaker 27 Shit. Yes, they put him under hypnosis and he read aloud their license plate number.

Speaker 2 I don't want to know what I would remember under hypnosis.

Speaker 76 So here's Ed just helping even in like a subconscious state.

Speaker 80 Ed's just a big old help.

Speaker 2 Ed.

Speaker 78 Ed.

Speaker 2 Ed.

Speaker 48 So he's a hero.

Speaker 2 Heroism.

Speaker 24 Two years before this kidnapping, Fred and his Fred Woods and his two friends, James and Richard Schoenfeld, the three kidnappers.

Speaker 15 Duschenfeld.

Speaker 75 They had been arrested for grand theft auto.

Speaker 49 So they were already had arrest warrants on them.

Speaker 79 You're rich.

Speaker 39 Why are you stealing things?

Speaker 76 That's what kills me.

Speaker 88 And that's what nobody truly understands about this.

Speaker 38 They were three rich fuckers.

Speaker 2 Right. They're fucking bored.

Speaker 69 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.

Speaker 57 They also found a literal document labeled Plan.

Speaker 80 that detailed the entire thing

Speaker 74 along with a ransom note.

Speaker 22 Apparently, they have been meticulously planning this for over a year.

Speaker 40 I believe it.

Speaker 56 I mean that was so yeah. It was

Speaker 14 going to say I hate to say well orchestrated, but it was.

Speaker 86 And I mean months before they were caught, this whole thing happened.

Speaker 77 That's when they started burying this van.

Speaker 48 So they were already like putting this all together.

Speaker 10 To put that whole

Speaker 2 place together.

Speaker 20 And they and actually they were able to gather witnesses that said they had noticed people digging in there there like months earlier, but they didn't know why.

Speaker 83 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.

Speaker 15 He seems to be the one that was along for the ride.

Speaker 68 And he shows the most remorse.

Speaker 24 He turned himself in.

Speaker 46 So he's somewhat of a human.

Speaker 72 He acknowledges that it's horrific and that like he's...

Speaker 59 He acknowledges it.

Speaker 83 I'm not saying he's a good person.

Speaker 24 I'm just saying he's the only one out of the three that seems to

Speaker 37 truly have full remorse and to truly grip what he did and what he did to these kids for the rest of their lives.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I just like.

Speaker 70 And what we'll see is later one of these kids actually like went and met him and like talked to him.

Speaker 86 Yeah.

Speaker 73 So James and Fred left fled California.

Speaker 83 So Richard turned himself in immediately.

Speaker 73 James and Fred fled California.

Speaker 74 Fred went to Vancouver and was caught by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Speaker 2 Because they're awesome.

Speaker 70 Yeah, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Speaker 2 I want to be a Royal.

Speaker 24 The police put the three of them in, and James was also caught, I think, just like somewhere outside of California.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 84 Oh, God. And the children were all able to identify them.

Speaker 2 They were like, it was that motherfucker, that motherfucker, that other motherfucker.

Speaker 62 They literally had them say things like, shut up and sit down, get to the back of the bus, listen to what i say like 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 like more badassery because like to be to even be able to do that yeah uh 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 plead to it because all of them said they that was going to carry a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole so none of them would plead guilty to it.

Speaker 14 Even though they were guilty as fuck.

Speaker 83 Well, the kids all testified at their trials.

Speaker 80 Right.

Speaker 49 So they were like badasses again.

Speaker 69 February 17th, 1978, all three were charged with mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Speaker 2 Because if you sat here and told me they got like 25 years,

Speaker 81 I would lose my noodle.

Speaker 53 Well, unfortunately.

Speaker 14 What?

Speaker 71 Their lawyers appealed the charges of bodily harm because they say it said, although traumatic, real bodily harm, as definition by law did not occur eat my shorts so like are you kidding me i oh my god this is what i just thought how do you

Speaker 31 uh defense lawyers how did like the defense lawyers

Speaker 39 of these people how what oh they should

Speaker 51 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 that and it's like bodily harm I don't give a shit if physically they're all like together.

Speaker 79 They are ruined.

Speaker 2 Your brain is in your body.

Speaker 45 Well, and as I read a ton about these kids later in adulthood, how do you function?

Speaker 48 Fucked. They were fucked.

Speaker 24 I mean, most of them had phobias well into life of like the dark.

Speaker 5 Yeah.

Speaker 2 Claustophobia.

Speaker 40 Yeah. They wouldn't let their kids.

Speaker 2 Humans alone. They all have kids.

Speaker 70 A lot of them have kids now and they won't let their kids anywhere.

Speaker 93 Like they're like, I am the most overprotective parent ever and it's like affecting my kids.

Speaker 14 I'd be like, well, let me tell you about the time I was buried alive, child.

Speaker 18 Yeah.

Speaker 73 Well, and so the sentences were

Speaker 24 gotten rid of, and they were sentenced again to life with the possibility of parole.

Speaker 14 Okay, I mean, I'm still pissed, but as long as it's life.

Speaker 20 Well, did they get let on on fucking parole?

Speaker 27 Richard, who was the one who turned himself in, the one I said, seems to have the most remorse for it.

Speaker 74 He was granted parole in June 2012.

Speaker 91 Why?

Speaker 5 36 years after the crimes.

Speaker 48 Three years after that, his brother James was paroled.

Speaker 14 Are you fucking kidding me?

Speaker 38 Fred is still in prison.

Speaker 58 Fred seems to be the ringleader.

Speaker 31 Yeah.

Speaker 74 He was always labeled as the ringleader.

Speaker 68 And the sheriff actually at the time said that James and Richard were just two kind of like dumbasses that just like did stupid shit.

Speaker 22 Fred, they said, was a true psychopath.

Speaker 5 Like he was a social.

Speaker 63 Clearly, who fucking devises this plan in your mind?

Speaker 17 He's still a piece of shit to this day.

Speaker 48 Like, he's in his like 70s or something.

Speaker 2 And he's still a piece of shit.

Speaker 70 He breaks all kinds of rules in prison, which is why he's not getting parole.

Speaker 2 Good.

Speaker 56 Keep breaking those rules, Fred.

Speaker 22 Exactly, because they always say an indicator of how you will be on the outside

Speaker 86 if you can follow rules on the inside.

Speaker 59 And he can't follow rules on the inside.

Speaker 29 He constantly gets caught with like porn and cell phones in his cell.

Speaker 70 He's trying to run his businesses from inside prison.

Speaker 48 And he's like actually doing it.

Speaker 14 What businesses?

Speaker 24 I guess he has businesses that are already in his name because he's a little rich bitch.

Speaker 71 And they just got put in his name.

Speaker 93 So he's able to run some businesses from inside.

Speaker 14 What is the point?

Speaker 64 You're not getting the fucking money.

Speaker 24 It's the thing.

Speaker 70 He's still getting like richer in prison because I assume he thinks he's going to get out at some point.

Speaker 69 Because he's such a fucking idiot.

Speaker 15 He's never going to get out.

Speaker 57 So why did they do this?

Speaker 2 Why?

Speaker 70 Apparently James and Fred were in debt from being dumbasses.

Speaker 2 They were just like, you have a trust fund.

Speaker 72 But that trust fund wasn't going to kick in until he was was like a certain age.

Speaker 23 So he couldn't have access to it yet.

Speaker 45 So he was like, oh, instead of working, I'll just kidnap a bunch of kids.

Speaker 24 And James, and again, I said, like, you know, Richard just seems like he was the younger brother taken along for the ride.

Speaker 38 James told a parole board in 2015 when he was paroled, quote,

Speaker 69 We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because children are precious.

Speaker 59 The state would be willing to pay ransom for them and they don't fight back.

Speaker 15 They're vulnerable and they will mind you.

Speaker 23 That is the most fucked up sentence ever said.

Speaker 70 And it's like, I understand that they're saying like they paroled the two of them because they showed remorse.

Speaker 61 They've been good in prison.

Speaker 75 And 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.

Speaker 72 They had no idea before this why they did this.

Speaker 48 And so, but what's bothering me is it's like, okay, so in 2015, this dude's 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.

Speaker 24 Also, can you let me know?

Speaker 2 Can you parole him?

Speaker 46 I'd be like,

Speaker 88 What?

Speaker 73 Like, I understand you're looking at it like he's telling you the truth and he's giving you the insight.

Speaker 14 Yeah, but the truth is horrifying.

Speaker 52 But, like, how do you know he doesn't still think this way?

Speaker 26 Right.

Speaker 36 Like,

Speaker 88 maybe he doesn't.

Speaker 62 I'm, I hope he doesn't.

Speaker 35 I do believe in rehabilitation.

Speaker 67 Yeah.

Speaker 14 Not for everybody but I do believe in rehabilitation so God I'm hoping these guys did come out of here and be like I was 24 years old I was 22 that's not who I am like holy shit but like that's scary to me it's so crazy because I'm thinking of like my friends like I am 24 years old and I could I can you imagine some like them thinking this way no well in Larry Park the one I've mentioned a few times the like six-year-old who was like I fell asleep on my mom He met all three of these men and he forgave them.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 14 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?

Speaker 22 I think that's what it was, too.

Speaker 60 He said he was like laying bed one night and he was like, he said he, like, looked up and was like, God, help me forgive them.

Speaker 2 Like, I'm never going to be able to.

Speaker 48 I need to move past this.

Speaker 24 And so Richard, in particular, has been cited as being, you know, the one that showed the most remorse.

Speaker 70 And there's a picture of Larry and Richard like smiling with each other.

Speaker 10 So wild. It's so bizarre, but you look at it and you're like, holy shit.

Speaker 14 Like, I think it must help too. Like, it's like meeting a monster.

Speaker 2 It's like somebody taking their mask off.

Speaker 80 Exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 63 Like,

Speaker 63 it wasn't real.

Speaker 21 Like, it was real, but like.

Speaker 70 But, like, they, you, you can shrink them down to size instead of them being this, like, larger than life.

Speaker 7 Entity.

Speaker 46 Because, again, he was, they were all like, you know, five, six, seven, ten, right. Twelve, all that.

Speaker 54 Like, they were little, and these men were these big, scary monsters.

Speaker 45 And in their mind, they've probably always been this big, scary monsters.

Speaker 2 And to meet them as adults and be like, oh, you're just a little bitch, and I can look at you.

Speaker 24 It's shrinking them down to like a size you can just flick them away at.

Speaker 91 All right, keep going.

Speaker 61 So the children, after

Speaker 64 the whole like experience, the children were granted a trip to Disneyland with

Speaker 2 them.

Speaker 42 I've got to go. And Ed,

Speaker 24 the California School Employees Association in Sacramento, presented Ed with the

Speaker 24 Association's Citation for Outstanding Community Service.

Speaker 34 Quote, particularly to 26 precious Chow Chilla school children.

Speaker 71 The award was given by the governor, and he got many more heroism awards after that.

Speaker 76 And then five weeks after the kidnapping, the entire town of Chow Chilla created and celebrated Ed Ray and Children's Day.

Speaker 2 Stop.

Speaker 36 With a huge celebration and parade where Ed and the kids were on floats.

Speaker 7 Stop it.

Speaker 10 Stop it right now.

Speaker 21 There's like video, there's like pictures of this and everything.

Speaker 2 I can't believe I've never heard of this case. These two.

Speaker 76 It blew my mind.

Speaker 38 Like, Thomas, thank you for bringing this to me.

Speaker 39 You would think that this should be a well-known case.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 75 And then I just found out, like, these kids did have tons of issues.

Speaker 2 Of course, they did.

Speaker 68 A woman named Dr.

Speaker 34 Lenore Terror, who is a San Francisco psychiatrist, actually wrote a book called Too Scared to Cry.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 24 Despite their varied backgrounds, every Chow Chilla kid I interviewed suffered from PTSD symptoms for years after the kidnapping and burial alive.

Speaker 2 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 25 Many of them were well into adulthood.

Speaker 24 Having to sleep with night lights because of the dark was just so much that like they were just traumatized by it.

Speaker 88 They suffered from constant nightmares, phobias.

Speaker 38 A lot of them had substance abuse and legal issues for a little while.

Speaker 64 But most of them turned their shit around.

Speaker 2 Like

Speaker 42 recognized what was happening and what this was coming from and they were able to turn it around and their stories are like amazing to read now.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 24 a lot of them would say they still have these nightmares where they will be buried alive or that like they're lined up and shot by these guys and stuff.

Speaker 51 Like they just have these awful nightmares.

Speaker 42 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, like thinking they were being chased for a little while.

Speaker 24 They didn't know who the kidnappers were.

Speaker 48 It took a little while to find them.

Speaker 2 Right.

Speaker 38 Those the time between then and when they were caught, they said was unbearable.

Speaker 71 It must have felt like years because they felt like they were going to come back and get them.

Speaker 14 Like, also, I feel like if I was a parent, I'd be like, No, you're not sleeping in your room tonight.

Speaker 41 Like, you're sleeping in my room forever.

Speaker 70 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 sex.

Speaker 2 Yeah.

Speaker 14 No, I'd be like, you're never, you don't have a room anymore.

Speaker 2 We're sharing.

Speaker 28 Yeah.

Speaker 50 And these poor, these poor parents were just like,

Speaker 69 after this hugely traumatizing experience that they lived through, now they're living through

Speaker 69 trauma once again with their kids.

Speaker 47 It's like, holy shit.

Speaker 22 Ed was hailed as a hero, like we said, like his whole life.

Speaker 10 He was heroic.

Speaker 17 He deserves it.

Speaker 25 But he was super humble.

Speaker 40 and like would never again

Speaker 43 do it and like he's just adorable His own kids said he just loved kids his whole life.

Speaker 65 Like, they were like, he was an amazing father.

Speaker 92 He's amazing grandfather and amazing great-grandfather.

Speaker 15 Stop it.

Speaker 74 Because he had great-grandchildren.

Speaker 2 Thank goodness.

Speaker 37 Ed got to live to have great grandchildren.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 27 Yeah.

Speaker 32 And he said about that day, he was like, all I knew was that I had to protect these kids.

Speaker 27 I had to make them feel like everything was going to be okay.

Speaker 24 Cause even if they were dying that day, he was like, I wanted them to die thinking that everything was okay.

Speaker 24 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.

Speaker 34 And he did.

Speaker 84 And he did.

Speaker 88 He moved a manhole cover

Speaker 2 with two truck batteries on it.

Speaker 67 And he kept his shit together throughout this whole thing and like maintained, I would not be able to sing songs.

Speaker 26 I would be bawling my eyes out in a

Speaker 14 like, don't touch me, I'm terrible.

Speaker 2 Seriously, and

Speaker 77 Ed lived to be 91 years old.

Speaker 2 Oh my god, that's amazing!

Speaker 5 Which it's like, yes,

Speaker 51 yes, like I wanted that.

Speaker 5 I was like, Don't tell me he lived to be like 70, like, tell me he's got a long life.

Speaker 88 91 years old.

Speaker 24 He passed away in May 2012.

Speaker 5 And according to an article in the New York Times, his entire life, those children were by his side.

Speaker 41 Oh my god, yes.

Speaker 61 They all maintained like best friendships with him.

Speaker 86 Like, they all talked to him all the time.

Speaker 18 They visited him.

Speaker 32 They said a lot of those children that he saved were there by his side when he passed away.

Speaker 2 My god.

Speaker 93 And they had visited him consistently through his entire life.

Speaker 7 Like they were with him throughout it all.

Speaker 2 I love that.

Speaker 29 Family members said Ray collected newspaper clippings about the kidnapping, but like he wouldn't talk about it.

Speaker 5 He'd just like silently have this stuff.

Speaker 34 And he also bought the school bus from it for $500 because he said he didn't want it to go to scrap iron because he was like, I feel like this is an important thing.

Speaker 2 Wow. Like, we

Speaker 24 survived.

Speaker 5 Like, I want this to stay.

Speaker 93 Wow.

Speaker 2 Where did he put it?

Speaker 93 His son said, quote, he parked it in the barn and he'd go out and start it every once in a while.

Speaker 15 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.

Speaker 78 If I was him, I wouldn't want to go in it ever again.

Speaker 80 That's what a bad odyssey is.

Speaker 23 He goes in there and he starts it just to make sure it's like still working.

Speaker 64 I wouldn't.

Speaker 70 And the van is there in the museum today in Le Grande. And a lot of the kids came back after he passed away and they wrote messages to him on the outside of the bus.

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 42 And you can look at it online.

Speaker 5 They all wrote, like, Ed, you'll always be my hero and stuff like that.

Speaker 19 Oh, my God.

Speaker 68 I know. I like choked up.

Speaker 2 I just, I got a lot of stuff that came

Speaker 67 rocking him through.

Speaker 23 But that's the tale of the 1976 Chow Chilla school bus kidnapping.

Speaker 14 Thank you, Thomas, for sending that to us. I can't believe I'd never heard of that case before.

Speaker 90 I'm shocked.

Speaker 14 I'm ruined, but I can't believe I never heard of that case before.

Speaker 24 Yeah, it's one of those that like you read it and you just think of all these, what these kids went through, but then you're like, thank goodness.

Speaker 5 I mean, from what I read, I didn't see any like stories of, you know.

Speaker 15 them really going down into like a dark place forever.

Speaker 22 You know, most of them were able to, and a lot of them say, like, I want people to know these kids grew up to have wonderful lives.

Speaker 70 We didn't let these men take that from us.

Speaker 24 Some of them stumbled a bit

Speaker 32 because I couldn't imagine living through that.

Speaker 2 I probably would have.

Speaker 70 Most of them came out of it and were like, fuck that.

Speaker 74 I'm going to forgive them.

Speaker 70 I'm going to move past this.

Speaker 14 Just even forgiving them is

Speaker 2 wild.

Speaker 24 And as far as what I read, James and Richard have not been back to prison.

Speaker 15 They've not been in trouble again.

Speaker 41 I hope they're like, I heckle them, like Lizzie Borden.

Speaker 89 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 15 I hope they get heckled with some fucking nursery rhymes and shit.

Speaker 15 Uh, Fred, I don't know if he'll ever get out of prison.

Speaker 70 You better know if he fucking rots in there because he sounds like a fucking asshole.

Speaker 89 He truly does.

Speaker 42 So, yeah, so pointless.

Speaker 30 So, point. It's so pointless.

Speaker 89 That's the part that kills me the most.

Speaker 41 Like, I'm in debt.

Speaker 52 So pointless. Everybody's in debt.
Who's not in debt?

Speaker 14 Yeah, that's like the whole thing. Raise your hand.

Speaker 2 That's American.

Speaker 88 That's in debt. See, nobody's raising their hands.

Speaker 14 No one in this room.

Speaker 2 Nobody. No one in this room was their hood.
Nobody in this womb raised a a hood. Am I okay?

Speaker 2 Wow. Well, thanks for that.
You're welcome. Can't wait to live my life now again.

Speaker 45 Can't wait to hug my babies.

Speaker 56 I'm not bringing them to school with you anymore.

Speaker 26 That's why I bring them.

Speaker 2 I will forever

Speaker 81 bring my kids to school. I renounce that.

Speaker 2 I renounce that.

Speaker 41 I renounce them going to school.

Speaker 2 I listen to that.

Speaker 25 So yeah, we hope you keep listening.

Speaker 52 And we hope you keep it

Speaker 2 weird.

Speaker 14 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, wow, I look like these.

Speaker 14 So, Rennie, I bet I should kidnap some kids because that's really fucked up. And guess what? You already have a trust fund.

Speaker 14 So, why don't you stop being a fucking douche nozzle and just maybe wait until your trust fund hits and stop fucking kidnapping people?

Speaker 39 And also, how fucked up are you to dig the earth into the earth and put people in there and just like go fuck yourself, Fred, Red and poop?

Speaker 2 Those are your names. Bye.
Those are your names.

Speaker 2 Bye. That was a good one.

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