• Frederick Newhall Woods is being released after being granted parole in March 
  • His accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were freed years ago 
  • Parole commissioners decided Woods is no longer a danger to the public
  • The 70-year-old had previously been denied to be on parole 17 times before 1982
  • The schoolkids were returning from a trip to a local swimming pool when their bus was blocked on the road by three armed men and a white van on July 15, 1975
  • The three suspects then buried the kids, ages 5 to 14, along with their bus driver in an old moving van east of San Francisco
  • They had little-to-no ventilation, light, water, food or bathroom supplies, but still managed to dig their way out more than a day later
Man convicted for kidnapping a bus of 26 children and burying them alive in 1976 is being

Frederick Newhall Woods was found suitable for parole at a hearing in March and on Wednesday, the decision to release the 70-year-old was finalized after a 120-day time frame had expired. Woods is one of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children and holding them and their driver for $5 million ransom in 1976. Parole commissioners decided Woods no longer is a danger to the public. The convicted kidnapper became eligible for parole in 1982 but was previously denied release 17 times. His accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were respectively freed in 2012 and 2015.  

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