Parole recommended for 1976 California school bus hijacker

By DON THOMPSON
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Parole has been recommended for the last of three men convicted of hijacking a school bus full of children for $5 million ransom in 1976. Two parole commissioners acted Friday in the case of 70-year-old Frederick Woods. Gov. Gavin Newsom can send the decision to the full parole board for review, but he can’t block it. Woods’ accomplices, brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld, were paroled years ago. All three were from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families when they kidnapped 26 children and their bus driver near the Central California community of Chowchilla. They held the children and bus driver in a ventilated underground bunker east of San Francisco. The victims dug their way out more than a day later.