Chowchilla kidnapper released on parole 35 years after he captured 26 schoolchildren and bus driver now living with his mother

By Daily Mail Reporters

Published: 21:23 EST, 23 June 2012 | Updated: 21:52 EST, 23 June 2012

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Released on parole: Richard Schoenfeld has been freed after serving 36 years

One of three men who kidnapped a busload of California school children in 1976 is now living with his mother in a San Francisco suburb after being released from prison.

Richard Schoenfeld, 57, was freed on Wednesday and taken to Mountain View, California the home of his mother, Merry, after serving time for his role in the 1976 abduction of 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver, Frank Edward Ray, in Chowchilla, about two hours away.

Schoenfeld will be required to wear a GPS monitoring device 24 hours a day, and will be monitored by police, authorities said.

Mountain View police were in communication with parole agents for the past week in preparation for Schoenfeld's release, acting Police Chief Mike Hamlin said in a statement.

'The MVPD will continue to work closely with parole in monitoring Schoenfeld to ensure the safety of our community members,' Hamlin said.

His older brother, John Schoenfeld, apologized for the man's actions, it has been revealed.

He told CBS5: 'My mother, and the whole family . would like to say we're sorry to the victims.'

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The brother went on to say: 'Unfortunately, my brothers didn't understand. It wasn't only the kids, they thought the kids were going to be home in a couple of days, but it was a kid, it was a family, it was a whole community they affected.'

Richard Schoenfeld was 22 years old at the time of the crime.

His two accomplices, Schoenfeld's older brother James, 60, and Frederick Woods, 60, were denied parole and remain in jail.

Escaped: The 26 children were aged between five and 14 years old. Pictured here with the driver Edward Ray, who was hailed a hero for helping them escape

Convicted: [left to right] James Schoenfeld, Fred Woods and Richard Schoenfeld were sentenced to life in prison for the kidnapping

Earlier this year, an appeals court ordered Schoenfeld's immediate release, stating that the Board of Parole had unfairly set his release date for 2021 even though he was not a threat to society.

Chowchilla Mayor Janan Herbert issued a statement ahead of the release saying her town was unhappy that Schoenfeld would be freed and that the emotional legacy of the crime still lingered.

She said that the kidnapping victims may not have suffered physical harm, but they were 'psychologically harmed' and that 'we are acutely aware of the enduring pain Mr Schoenfeld has caused them by his actions'.

All three men, who were in their twenties at the time of the crime, came from affluent families and hatched the scheme to get $5million in ransom to help recoup losses from a bad real estate deal.

The bus driver, Mr Ray, who died last month at the age of 91, was hailed a hero for helping the children escape safely by stacking mattresses and climbing up to dislodge the roof, with the help of some of the older children.

Under hypnosis, he also remembered the license plate of one of the vehicles used by the men, which led to their capture and imprisonment.

A number of the children who he saved visited him in his nursing home in the days leading up to his death.

Hero: Bus driver Frank Edward Ray, pictured here in 1992 by the actual bus in which the children and he were kidnapped, was hailed a hero for his part in the escape. He died last year at the age of 91

Relief: Relatives of of the missing children hug each other and weep with joy at the announcement that the busload of children had just been located and rescued

Lucky escape: Barbara Parker, 8, gets off the bus that brought the children back home to their families after their horrendous ordeal

Ditched: Schoenfeld and his two co-conspirators took the 26 children and the driver from this school bus and drove them around in two vans before putting them in a buried moving van

The bizarre crime occurred on July 16 1976 when the children, 19 girls and seven boys aged five to 14, were abducted on a country road as they returned from a swimming trip in the late afternoon.

The kids and the driver were herded from the bus into two vans and driven for 11 hours to a rock quarry 100 miles away in Livermore, California.

They were then entombed inside a removal van that had been sunk into the ground in a cave, sealed with a metal plate and topped with two heavy tractor batteries and dirt.

After 16 hours of captivity, Mr Ray and some of the older children managed to dig their way out.

The quarry was owned by Wood's father.

The Schoenfeld brothers were sons of a wealthy podiatrist and lived in the affluent suburb of Atherton along with Woods.

Bizarre plan: The kidnappers buried a moving van in a quarry owned by one of their fathers. The children and the bus driver were entombed for 16 hours before they escaped

Escape: Police examine the crime scene, where Mr Ray was able to stack up the mattresses [right] inside the moving van and push open a metal door on the roof of the truck [left]

Richard Schoenfeld surrendered to authorities in Oakland. His brother was arrested in Menlo Park and Woods was captured in Canada.

In 1977, all three pleaded guilty to 27 counts of kidnapping for ransom.

The case of Schoenfeld and his accomplises became something of a cause celebre among lawyers, judges and others lobbying for reforms in the California parole system they view as too harsh.

All three have good prison records and became eligible for release years ago, which has been opposed by many of the victims and some residents of Chowchilla.

Gary Dubcoff, John Schoenfeld's attorney, claimed the men should have been released long ago.

'After some 36 years, Richard Schoenfeld's parole release is long, long overdue,' said Mr Dubcoff

'He worked extremely hard to rehabilitate himself, and my great hope is that his two codefendants, his older brother James Schoenfeld and Fred Woods, will soon follow him as they have worked equally hard and are equally worthy.'

The case was turned into a 1993 made-for-television movie titled They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping, starring Karl Malden as Mr Ray.

Harsh punishment? [left] Schoenfeld's supporters believe that his sentence was too harsh as none of the children were physically injured. Mr Ray went straight back to work afterwards [right, in September 1976]

Appalling conditions: Bus driver Edward Ray took pictures of the inside of the truck in which they were trapped [left and right], which show how distressing it must have been for the children to have been trapped

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