James Schoenfeld, one of three men who kidnapped a busload of schoolchildren from Chowchilla, California, in 1976, received initial approval for parole Wednesday, state corrections officials said.
Schoenfeld, his brother and another man forced 26 children and the bus driver to climb into a moving van that had been buried in a rock quarry 100 miles away, and planned to demand $5 million in ransom.
The captives managed to escape after being entombed at the quarry for 16 hours.
Wednesday’s development “only begins a six-month process to determine whether or not he will go free,” said Bill Sessa, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
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