Posted on 03/29/2022 7:11:53 PM PDT by Morgana
A 70-year-old man convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them and their driver for $5 million ransom in 1976 has been approved for parole.
Frederick Newhall Woods was found suitable for parole at a hearing Friday, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Joe Orlando confirmed to CNN on Tuesday.
Parole commissioners reportedly decided Woods no longer is a danger to the public.
Woods masterminded the kidnapping plot after being inspired by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. His accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were freed years ago. An appeals court ordered Richard Schoenfeld released in 2012, and former Gov. Jerry Brown paroled James Schoenfeld in 2015.
All three were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near Chowchilla.
They buried the children, who were between the ages of 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in a ventilated underground bunker east of San Francisco. After 16 hours, the victims were able to dig their way out and escape as the kidnappers were asleep.
Woods became eligible for parole in 1982 but was previously denied release 17 times.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The answer is in the story:
" wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families"
Maybe he’s sorry?
What could possibly go wrong?
Kidnapping used to carry the death penalty long ago.
“Woods and the Schoenfelds planned their crime for more than a year and, in 1976, all pleaded guilty to kidnapping. They were each given 27 life sentences WITHOUT the possibility of parole.”
An appellate panel, which included the governor’s late father, state Judge William Newsom, REDUCED the kidnappers’ sentences in 1980, giving them the chance at parole.”
Read the above again. That’s why I support the Death Penalty. There is simply NO SUCH THING as ‘throwing away the key’, as a future judge can do whatever he pleases (or whatever Soros asks of him). This is a PERFECT example, although I’m glad he did a decent amount of time, this time.
We have no death penalty. They put them in the can and let them out at best. This guy should be dead with his head on somebody’s fence.
San Francisco’s next mayor.
Absolute ghoul. Doesn’t even look human.
Oh dear God.
CA govs already freed the others.
I wasn’t even expecting any living perps for this. They must’ve only been around 25 or so.
Insane.
<< Woods masterminded the kidnapping plot after being inspired by the 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry. >>
Right, because things worked out so well for Scorpio.
I remember that. Complete horror show. I could not imagine what those kids went through then and still can’t imagine now. He deserves no parole.
“Kidnapping used to carry the death penalty long ago.”
—
Problem with that is kidnappers figuring they have nothing to lose if they offed the witness - the kidnap victim - since either they get the death penalty.
I remember this story. Had no idea the guy was still alive.
Not sure what this had to do with Dirty Harry...but there was a movie about it, starring Karl Malden.
Heh.
He shouldn’t have ever been let go IMHO.
"In 2016, a worker's compensation lawsuit filed against Woods also revealed that he had been running several businesses, including a gold mine and a car dealership, from behind bars without notifying prison authorities as required. The heir to two wealthy California families, the Newhalls and the Woodses, he inherited a trust fund from his parents that was described in one court filing as being worth $100 million (equivalent to $108 million in 2020), although Woods' lawyer disputed that amount. He has married three times while in prison and has purchased a mansion about 30 minutes away from the prison."...
"In 2016, the 25 surviving kidnapped children settled a lawsuit they had filed against their kidnappers. The money they received was paid out of Frederick Woods' trust fund, and although the exact settlement amount was not disclosed, one survivor stated that they had each received "enough to pay for some serious therapy — but not enough for a house."
Woods lived behind bars like a millionaire, on the state dollar, for the last forty years. Cases like this are why the late, great Seattle PI and Times columnist Emmett Watson loved hating California.
Woods needs a dirt nap!
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