Kidnapper who was inspired by 'Do you feel lucky, punk' Dirty Harry villain and kept schoolkids 'buried alive' after hijacking their bus could be freed after 39 years

• James Schoenfeld who kidnapped 26 children and their school bus driver in Chowchilla nearly 40 years ago was granted parole on Wednesday
• Schoenfeld, 24 at the time, his brother, Richard, and a friend, Fred Woods, were convicted of the 1976 caper 
• The kidnappers were inspired by the 1971 film Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry in which the antagonist kidnaps a school bus for ransom 
• They kept the children 'buried alive' in trailer that had been buried into a hillside while they negotiated a ransom
• Parole date has not yet been set and the decision could take months  

By Associated Press and Alexandra Klausner For Dailymail.com

Published: 23:21 EST, 1 April 2015 | Updated: 13:26 EST, 2 April 2015

One of three kidnappers was granted parole 39 years after hijacking a school bus full of children and burying them alive in infamous caper inspired by the film Dirty Harry.

The state Board of Parole Hearings granted parole to 63-year-old James Schoenfeld on the 20th time it considered the possibility of releasing the California man, the Fresno Bee reported.

Details of the decision to release Schoenfeld were not immediately available.

Schoenfield abducted the children and then kept them 'buried alive' in an underground trailer while he and his co-conspirators negotiated a $5million ransom.  

A state parole board granted parole for James Schoenfeld today, 39 years after he kidnapped 26 children on a school bus along with the driver in the hopes of asking for $5 million ransom 

Granted parole: James Schoenfeld is escorted by Sgt. Splan of the Alameda County Sheriffs organization as Schoenfeld is removed from the Alameda County Jail in Oakland, California on August 4, 1976

Dirty Harry: The kidnappers were inspired by the 1971 film Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry in which the antagonist kidnaps a school bus for ransom

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Bill Sessa said the ruling will now go through an internal review that could take up to four months before a recommended parole date is sent to Governor Jerry Brown.

The kidnappers were influenced by the iconic 1971 Clint Eastwood film Dirty Harry in which the antagonist kidnaps a school bus of children in exchange for ransom.

'You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?' Eastwood as cop Harry Callahan famously says to an injured criminal at the end of the flick.. 

Schoenfeld, 24 at the time of the notorious crime,  his brother, Richard, and a friend, Fred Woods, were convicted of kidnapping 26 school students aged 5-14 and their bus driver Ed Ray in 1976.

The driver stopped to see if men in a white van needed help.  

But three masked men, later identified as brothers Richard and James Schoenfeld and Frederick Woods, stormed onto the vehicle brandishing guns and forced Ray to the back of the bus.

The children and Ray were loaded onto two vans and driven around for 11 hours, during which time the hungry, petrified children soiled themselves and held each other in fear. 

They then drove the vans to a quarry near Livermore and forced their captives into a buried trailer stocked with mattresses, food and water and equipped with fans and ventilation.

Free: Young victims of the Chowchilla kidnaping huddle together under happier circumstances for celebration honoring them and bus driver Ed Ray on Sunday, August 22, 1976 after they were able to escape

Changed: Victims of the Chowchilla bus kidnapping, pictured a few years ago, have recounted their lifelong struggle after the traumatic kidnapping 

The kidnappers, all from wealthy Bay Area families, planned to ask for a $5 million ransom for their hostages.

Their plot, which they had worked on for 18 months, unraveled when they took a nap, and students and bus driver were able to escape through the hole in the ground unhurt.

The driver and older boys were able to stack mattresses to a hole in the top of the van. They pushed open a weighted-down metal lid and freed the children who had spent 16 hours underground.

'He was a courageous man,' Medrano said of Ray, the driver. 'He kept 26 scared children in line and made us feel safe.'

But even when they started to escape, they feared the men were waiting outside for them, she said. 

All three men received life sentences after pleaded guilty to kidnapping charges.

Richard Schoenfeld was paroled in 2012. 

Woods remains in prison after he was denied parole in November 2012 and could be up for a parole hearing this fall. 

The victims of the kidnapping described the suffering they felt 39 years later in a heartfelt letter to the parole board. They expressed the desire for their captors to remain in jail.

Jennifer Brown Hyde who was 9-years-old when she was kidnapped along with her 10-year-old brother described the chilling memory and life long trauma she has endured.

'I was honestly brutal,' said Brown Hyde. Hyde is now 48 and lives in Tennessee.

The hero: Ed Ray Jr. the school bus driver was hailed as a hero for helping 26 students escape after three men kidnapped the group died in 2012 

Frank Edward Ray, pictured in 1992, stands in Chowchilla, California  by the bus from which he and 26 students were kidnapped years before 

'I wrote that they buried me alive, they stole my childhood and caused me immense emotional pain over the years. It affected my life, my parents’ lives and my children’s lives.'

'For me, it’s having to deal with hatred and anger toward other human beings, and that’s a struggle that almost 40 years later I still have to deal with,' she added. 

'Until recently I slept with a night light. I have anxiety attacks when I’m in a confined space, and it’s a problem living in the South when we have tornado warnings and we have to take cover in storm shelters. … They took away my ability to be free.'

The Fresno Bee reports that the kidnapping affected Hyde's ability to be a mother to two children since she did not have what she considers a normal childhood.

'You don’t go from being buried alive and thinking you’re going to die to having a normal childhood,' she said. 

'I’m fortunate I’m not incarcerated or hooked on drugs, which is how some of the kids dealt with it. I’m as OK as a broken person can be.'

Kidnapping victims Lynda Carrejo Lavendeira and Jodi Heffington-Medrano attended Wednesday's hearing.

Madera County District Attorney David Linn said he was disappointed, but said he was not surprised that the men were granted parole.

'We’re very much opposed to releasing him,' Linn said on Wednesday. 

'We sent our senior prosecutor there to argue in person, rather than a letter, because we felt it is important enough for the people of Chowchilla to make sure he stay in prison for as long as possible.'

Buried alive: This is the trailer where the children escape from their armed captors - thanks to the bravery of the bus driver

The van: This is how it looked on Friday, July 23, 1976 inside the van in which 26 Chowchilla school children and their bus driver were held captive after being abducted

LInn attributed parole to the prison system's overcrowding.

'The word has been on the street within government circles for the past couple of months that they were going to go ahead and grant it,' he said. 

'Considering what’s been happening throughout the whole California prison system, I’m not surprised,' Linn added. 

Linn said that his main focus is helping the victims come to terms with the news and to help them recover from their irreversible trauma.

'I did everything I could to resist it. Even his current attorneys wanted to meet with me and I refused to do that,' he said. 

'What I want to do now is reach out to the victims, let them know we’re here for them.'

Survivors: The Chowchilla victims kidnapped in 1976 recount the horrors they faced later in life as a result of their childhood trauma  

Brown Hyde is no longer afraid of her captors but feels as though they should be serving life in prison and said that she could never forgive them.

'But for me it’s a feeling of injustice because we were told they would never get out,' she said. 

'They got life in prison. It feels like a betrayal because the legal team that put them there, the DA and the judge, later came out on their side and said they never should have served this long. That’s what I have a hard time with. … Money can obviously buy you freedom.'

'I have to deal with the fact that I still struggle with forgiveness,' Brown Hyde said. 

'I will never forget, but it was such a traumatic ordeal that even as a Christian it’s difficult for me to forgive. That’s how bad it was.'

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