This Entitled Rich Guy Kidnapped 26 Kids // The Chowchilla Kidnapping
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
What kind of dummy would kidnap 26 kids? Now, the story all starts with this guy. His name's Frederick. And Frederick's about 24 during this time, and he's living in Portola Valley, California.
Who was Frederick and what motivated him to plan the Chowchilla kidnapping?
Here's the thing about him. He comes from a very wealthy family. His dad owns a big-ass rock quarry, and his family used to own Six Flags Magic Mountain, so they got money. And Frederick himself owns his own car restoration business. however around nineteen seventy six that business starts to fall apart and it puts him in massive debt and suddenly he needs some money fast But he can't ask his wealthy dad for the money. That would mean admitting that he failed as a businessman, and he can't allow his dad to think that he failed. So one night, he's with two of his friends, and they're watching this Dirty Harry movie from around that time. And in the movie, the gunman hijacks a school bus full of kids, and he demands a ransom.
And they're like, oh, shit, we could do that, and we could make some money. So they map out this plan. To kidnap a bus full of school kids, hide them somewhere, and then demand a ransom from the government. Now, like I said, Frederick's dad owns a rock quarry, and Frederick has access to it. So they're gonna hide the kids there. So they get to work on this terrible plan. They go to that rock quarry and they use the equipment to dig a massive trench. Then they buy a large moving tractor trailer, lower it into the hole, and bury it, turning it into a makeshift underground bunker. After that, they begin monitoring schools in the region. looking for the perfect one to strike. And that is when they learn about this school 150 miles away in a town called Chowchilla.
And this school plans on taking its students to the county fairground swimming pool to celebrate the end of summer school. And Frederick and the goons, they decide that those are the students they'll target. So after 18 months of planning, they're finally ready to execute this kidnapping. Then the day of the school trip arrives, and the school bus full of kids is coming back from the fairground swimming pool, and that bus is being driven by this guy, Ed Ray. And Ed Ray, he's a local farmer and a longtime school bus driver. So Ed Ray is driving along this sort of isolated road. And that is when he sees a van stopped across the road blocking his path. So Ed Ray slows down. And suddenly, boom, Frederick and his goons appear.
And they're all armed and they're all wearing pantyhose on their heads. And they storm onto the bus, and they're like, everyone outside! And so Ed Ray and the kids, and there are about 26 of them, they're all forced outside and into the van blocking the road, and also a second van parked along the roadside. After that, one of the goons drives the empty school bus into a nearby ditch and covers it with bamboo so no passing drivers will notice it. Once that's done, they begin driving the vans toward the rock quarry. 11 hours later, they get there, and Ed Ray and the kids are led into that makeshift underground bunker that they made. Then, Frederick and the goons close the hatch above them, and they leave.
Meanwhile, back in Chowchilla, the parents, they've been waiting for their kids to get back to the school so they can pick them up, and the whole school bus is somehow missing. So these parents start panicking, and some of them start calling the police. And so immediately, police begin an investigation. And pretty quickly, they discover the abandoned school bus in the wooded ditch area. Here's actually a photograph of it. And that is when police realize the entire group of kids has been abducted. Around the same time, Frederick and the goons, they get back to Portola Valley, where they live. And they use public pay phones to call police and demand the ransom. However, they can't get through. Because by this point, all kinds of worried parents and reporters are calling the sheriff's office, blowing up their phones, so the phone lines are completely jammed.
So they try calling, over.
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Chapters
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