SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The last man convicted of kidnapping a bus full of California schoolchildren is seeking release after nearly four decades in prison.
Frederick Newhall Woods is now 64 years old. The two men convicted with him — brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld — have already been paroled.
Woods is set for a parole hearing Thursday to gauge whether he, too, has served enough time behind bars.
Some victims say he remains too dangerous to be freed.
The three men were given life terms after kidnapping the 26 children and their school bus driver near Chowchilla in 1976. They buried them in an underground bunker about 45 miles east of San Francisco until the victims were able to dig their way out more than a day later.
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