The State - News from April 11, 1986

Two brothers convicted of kidnaping 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver claim that they have been denied parole unfairly because of the bizarre nature of the crime. James and Richard Schoenfeld argued in a legal brief that the California Board of Prison Terms has ignored good conduct reports from prison and a letter recommending release from the judge who presided over their trial. Harold Brown, the Schoenfelds’ attorney, says they are remorseful and acknowledge the callousness of the July, 1976, mass kidnaping. Richard Schoenfeld, 31, has been denied parole eight times, and his brother, James, 34, has been rejected four times. The brothers and a third man were convicted of abducting the children in Chowchilla and leaving them in a moving van buried at a rock quarry. The kidnapers planned to seek a $5-million ransom, but bus driver Ed Ray and the children dug their way out before the ransom demand was made.