Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping

Hey, everyone, I'm Nicole and I'm Ben and you're listening to Wicked and Grim, a.

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Okay that is actually so true because this so this is a me episode if anyone didn't matter already. But I was just like, okay, so Ben and I are like busy, like we're kind of just busy right now, and I was working tired, and I was like, holy shit, I have to do this. And then I came across Linda's review and I was like, fuck, yeah, I'm doing this.

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So yeah, that motivated the shit out of me. Yeah, anyway, we might have to take little breaks because our backs are like eighty year old people right now.

Well, it's the long weekend officially still the long weekend up here in Canada. It is Victoria Day, So happy Victoria to day, Victoria Day all the Canadians out there. And yeah, so it's May Long weekend and we spent the not majority of the day, all day literally working in our backyard greenhouse, building, raking, shoveling, all that, like a good ten hours of manual labor. We're fucked. We're fucked right now.

Well I was actually a bit prior to that too, because I've had like a lot of photo shoots this weekend and I don't know why that would hurt my back, but anyway, it hurt my back.

We're old.

Yeah, and so I've if you hear us like uncomfortably moaning, it's because our backs are. Sure.

I'm literally drinking coffee here at like nine thirty pm just to kind of keep my energy levels up for.

You guys, so well, and you have to stay up, blakes, you're going on.

Nights that too, I would be like staying up to like what three am. So the caffeine is going to help me.

That's going to help you. I need to start drinking coffee.

Yeah you do.

It's delicious. It's not delicious, that's the problem.

But all this aside, we're running on like five minutes of an intro here. That's like a long intro for us. We have so much to say, So what have we got to say about it?

My goodness, it's a why It's wild episode, babe.

Okay, let's hear it.

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Okay, let's go. So this story takes place in Chachilla, California, Chowchilla. I like saying that, Chile.

This is your first non Canadian episode.

Okay, actually, yeah, we do need to just address that really quickly. I ventured off from the Canadian crime For you guys, I'm going.

To fuck with you in my next episode. Episode is going to be.

Okay, So Jilla, California, it's a relatively small town under twenty thousand and just to like give a little bit of a reference, it's about two hours from San Jose.

Okay.

At the time of the incident. I think it was much smaller though, like under five thousand people, so very small, very close knit town and a community where everyone kind of just like knew each other and looked out for one another. Okay, okay, sounds kind of like your typical small town.

No need to lock your doors at night, but we're gonna learn that you probably should lock your door.

It was actually, yeah, one thing that people said they never locked their doors and stuff, but this one is we're not going to well lock your doors people, but this one doesn't go there.

Just just lock your doors.

It was July fifteenth, nineteen seventy six, when school bus driver Ed Ray was driving himself and twenty six children from Dairyland Elementary School. Like children were from Dairyland Elementary School, and he was driving them back home from summer school where they spent the day at the swimming pool.

Nice nice afternoon.

Yeah. The children on the bus range from ages five to fourteen. It's pretty young.

Little babies, little babies, little babies fourteen though you think you're a full blown.

Adult, actually yeah, you definitely do. On their commute home, after already making a few stops dropping kids off up ahead was a white van that was blocking the road.

Did it say free candy?

It was a creeper van. I don't think it said free candy, though it didn't need to. I guess it still suck them up. So Ed, being the ridiculously nice man that he was, he stopped and opened the bus door to see if they needed any help. Which it's like, it sucks, but sometimes I feel like you should not offer help to people.

I mean, you want to be a nice citizen, that's a good thing to do.

Get sometimes you get like you get aft up offer.

Help from a distance with a baseball bat in hand.

Oh because at that moment, three masks masked men confronted ed two jumping onto the bus.

Oh shit.

They had nylon stockings covering their faces, making their faces look very distorted and their eyes almost hollow. Like. One man carried a sawd off double barrel shotgun and held at gunpoint while the other, well, another took over driving the bus.

What the fuck?

Key? But I actually needed to ask you this because what does that mean when it's like a sawd off double barrel shotgun, Like, what's the point of that?

Well, it it can be concealed a lot easier and it can be used at a closer range. It's it's illegal to be doing that because now you can conceal a shotgun in like your jacket.

Oh okay, because it makes it way shorter.

It makes it shorter, easier to conceal, and more dangerous because now like when you're pointing it, you have this longer barrel. That's like, if you're in close proximity to someone, they have to be at the end of the barrel. If the barrel shorter, you can be like face to face with someone touching their nose and the barrel can fit in between you and them. So it's a very very dangerous weapon then, so it's very illegal to do that.

And it would like same kind of damage, same like kind of noise and stuff. Oh yeah, okay. For at one point I was like, does it make it quieter? Like, I don't know, I had no idea.

It's strictly so that way you have a shotgun that you can conceal, handle easier, and aim easier, and it's just all around more dangerous.

Wow that shit. Yeah, okay, So adds that gunpoint. Another one is taking over driving the bus and the third man is following behind a in The White Man. Gotcha, So that's a shit show.

I'm still hung up on the shotgun now you got me going through that, I'm like thinking evil Dead, like oh yeah, Bruce Campbell saw that off and everything, so he could like shoot the dead heights easier.

Oh boy, Well we're into this story, so get get out of the evil Dead mindset back.

Onto the bus with the three assholes.

Got yeah, they're very much so assholes. All the children obviously like scared to death.

Oh I'd be shitting myself right.

They're young, wondering where these mass men were taking them and were they going to die? Yeah, Like, holy molly, could.

You imagine being in that situation?

Well, and remember like some kids had already got dropped off?

Yeah, oh that's true, like.

That, Like that's one of those moments where it's just like, uh, like you'd just be so unbelievably thankful that you had gotten already dropped off.

Or imagine like your stop is next or the next couple of months, and then like you're driving past your driveway.

Oh Ben, you just went there.

Sorry, Well, could you imagine that story?

Is actually? Like going through the story, I kept almost like tearing up it's.

A brutal situation.

Oh my god, Oh it's dude, you don't even know.

Well, I have a feeling of like the brutality that's about to happen, and I'm just saying, like the situation they're in and the fear that they're having to confront. No, thank you, Okay.

The kidnappers eventually pulling off the road into a dry river bed, stop the bus in a bamboo patch where the bamboo was like taller than the bus. So basically feeling, I know, I actually thought that was really weird, but a few report said bamboo so and then I was just like, maybe I don't know anyway.

All right, let's roll with it.

I know, but if there is I want to go see it. There they met a second parked van. Both of these vans, I should note the back windows were painted black and their interiors and the interiors were reinforced with wood paneling. Like you could not see in or out of these vans.

Damn was the door in the van red? No?

Oh what does that mean?

I see a red door and that want it painted black? Rolling stones?

Oh gosh, sorry, oh gosh, at gunpoint, love you too, Ed and the twenty six children were forced from the bus into the two vans, and to avoid any footprint evidence, the vans were pulled right up to the bus door and everyone had to jump from the school bus into the van.

Oh jeez, which I thought was like.

Really weird because they left the van there or the bus there, But I mean, like I mean not seeing footprints. I don't know anyway, and they were off. The vans, like I said, were pitch black, had no water, no food or bathrooms. They were pretty much described as like a mobile prison. But I asked to actually feel like that's worse than like a prison cell. Yeah, no kidding, because a prison cell like you get fed, you get water, and you have a bathroom.

Yeah, and it's stationary, not moving around.

Yeah, Like could you imagine just darkness yea, having no idea where the hell you were going, and you're and you're six years old.

I turned the lights off in the hallway on the way to bed, and I like, pretend that I'm not they're picturing a demon chasing me on the hallway to the bedroom at night. I'm like, Nope, it's not there. Just don't look. If you don't look at it, it can't get you. So no, I can't imagine.

I know, like just terrifying, good, just terrifying. So now at this point too, parents were starting to arrive home, arriving home to empty houses.

Yeah, the kids not there.

Extremely worried, they started helping police retreat retrace the school bus's route. Nothing was found until just before sunset, when the dirt deserted. Holy, I'm stumbling here. Sorry, I'm so into the story and I'm just like I want to get it out.

You were like, what can you make that sound again?

No? I got Okay. So the bus was found right before sunset by a police pilot. You could only see it by air, gotcha, and all that was left behind was tire tracks. No children don't like the parents must be like worried, sick.

Yeah, no, kidding myself, Like I'd just be like, where the fuck is my kid?

I know, Like that is just like so sorry to like people have children that like ride buses. Like, I'm just gonna apologize right now because this is probably like a bit traumatizing for you. So I am sorry to.

Those parents who kids are taking the bus and they're not home from school yet.

Home, the traumatic they will arrive home. Meanwhile, this hell was still continuing for Ed and the children. They were in the two vans for hours upon hours, all trying to comfort each other. There's a voice recording of a little girl describing her experience. It says, a few of my little friends that were five and six came over and started laying laying on me and crying. I said, to be brave, because everything's going to be all right.

And I'm just like, I don't think everything was all right, but we'll get there. Let's see. Don't give us any any hints. Just keep going, keep going.

The van finally started to slow down, pulling off onto a much rougher road and finally stopping. The final destination was a rock quarry in Livermore, California, which was close to twelve hours. Holy oh wait, so these mofos drove them twelve hours away? Like no bathroom, bricks, no food, this this black pit that they're in. Damn Like that's a long freaking.

Ways, no kidding.

Now, being the early morning of July sixteenth, what came next for these victims? Did not get much better. They started with ed they'd opened the door of the van, grabbed one person, and then close the door and repeatedly keep doing this. Meanwhile, the kids are all like scooting to the back of the van trying to escape because they had no idea what was coming next, Like no idea,

Holy shit, yeah.

My shocking.

Damn. I'm like, I'm expecting these guys to, like, I don't know, just like start popping these kids off with a shotgun for some reason. But clearly this.

Is like a traffic they're expecting that too.

Yeah, this is a trafficking situation by the sounds of it.

In the buried truck trailer was a very small amount of food, water and some mattresses, only about enough food for a day. And remember they had already gone like quite a bit of time without food or water. Right, there were cut holes in the wheel wells for toilets and you could hear fans for ventilation. I actually have. There was quite a few photos of this. Sorry, I at online, so I'll post some, okay, so that you can see, but like, I don't know if you want

Whole new freaking situation, like a whole new perspective on tiny home living.

Hey, yeah, our tiny home will look like a freaking mansion.

No kidding. Wow.

Michael was one of the last kids to enter down into the truck trailer and was beyond thrilled to hear and see the children. They had no idea as they were being taken one from one from the van what exactly was happening, And like you kind of said, they all thought they were just like getting taken out, like executed. Right. That sense of relief of seeing everyone still alive was, however,

What the fuck?

Like, holy shit?

Why?

Oh? Well, honestly, you'll find out, and it's fucked because.

That's the thing for me, Like, I'm a big why person. I like to try and understand why. Even if I don't grasp their thought process or concept or reasoning why, I just I just need to know why. And this is not making any sense why so far, And.

Even when I tell you you're probably it's just not going to be satisfying.

For well, I'm sure it's not. But to understand, to at least have a motive is some sort of yeah, some sort of lifeline to own.

There is a motive. I'm just going to leave it at that.

Yeah, no worries. Well wait we can wait.

Can you wait? Do you have any patients? Whatsoever?

I do as long as there is motive.

After being underground for twelve hours, you can imagine that the conditions in this tractor trailer were starting to deteriorate. Right, yep, the food was gone? Oh did I just lose my spot?

Oh jumped? What jumped? Like the page jumped?

Yeah? Smooth, Okay, I found it again. And I could have just like kept going because I actually like almost memories this case. But I'm like, no, let's just let's just find the notes.

Reset, reset good.

Yeah, okay, So the food was gone, the fans for ventilation had stopped.

So it would be so hot and humid in there and like no oxygen.

Well, and they're like going to the bathroom the wheelwrows and the roof was starting to cave in.

Oh shit, so the.

Freaking tear the I just can't even imagine. So it was at this point that I think a lot of them were finally grasping that they like may not go home. Like they're just like little teeny tiny babies, right, and they're just oh so Michael, that was the fourteen year old who I had mentioned earlier. Yeah, he was like one of the last ones that went into the truck. Trailer. Him and Ed decided, if we're going to die in here, let's at least diet, or let's at least what am

I've done that a film.

Okay, So if they're gonna die, let's like at least attempt to get the fuck out.

Of there, and let's not just sit back again.

And die that way versus just like sitting back, you know.

Yeah, let's try and do something about this.

So they started stacking the mattresses on top of each other so that they could reach the opening at the top of the truck and take turns pushing on it. Right now, remember the opening was covered with heavy sheets of metal and it was also weighted down with two truck batteries.

Oh dang, what about the dirt though.

And buried jeez, So they were attempting. I mean, there was sheet metal, there's two truck betterers and they're buried.

Yeah.

They were literally giving it all they had, and all the little kiddles were like cheering them on.

Nice.

Oh my gosh, Like I feel like that's just like such a like cute little visual.

Well, it's like the only hope you have, and that cheering is just going to like help your adrenaline too. Man, it's just such a dire situation.

It's unbelievable, like unbelievable, this whole case. I'm just like, it's still I know so much about it, but it still just shocks me. And then eventually, after hours of effort, they managed to wedge the lid open with a piece of wood and were able to move the batteries. This

Gotcha, Okay, Yeah, And the nice thing is is I'm assuming there's enough room inside this trailer that you can pull dirt in, push it aside, and you can tunnel your way out.

Yeah.

That's the thing with like being buried alive in like a coffin or something. If you do break through that coffin lid, dirt's just pouring in. There's no room for you to tunnel out, you know what I mean.

Oh, there's like, yeah, there's tons of room in there for the dirt to go into. Yeah. Oh gosh, thanks for just like giving me that coughin visual.

Well, I've always thought about that because I love I love the movie Kill Bill, the Quentin Tarantino film. Okay, and there's one scene where she gets buried alive and she breaks out. But I'm just like, I always thought that was just so bogus.

I mean, I know it's just a movie, but like she said, wouldn't that wouldn't be how it would be.

Yeah, as soon as you break through the lid of the coffin, the dirt's just gonna clapse in on you and you're fucked.

Yeah, yeah, that's very true.

Actually, yeah.

Yeah, so that there's that little bit of hope there. So there was no stop in Michael. He kept digging and digging until finally, sixteen hours after they had entered the truck, a ray of sunlight came pouring down into the opening.

Michael.

So, Michael badass, Michael Days, the badass of the day.

Story there we go.

Yeah, like fourteen years old man, and just like no stop, Like he just kept.

Digging and digging and dating for him.

Like, I just am so impressed with that. That is incredible, incredible.

You're a hero.

He totally is absolutely Okay. So they had no idea what was going to be out there when they emerge, though, Hm, were the kidnappers just outside with their guns or was this or like, how was this going to go down.

I'm feeling they're alone, that's my guess.

So little Michael, being the badass of the day, stuck his head out first and there was no one around, not a soul in sight.

Good good, they can make their escape.

When they finally all fully emerged, they got a full grass of exactly how camouflaged the trailer was hidden. There would have been absolutely no way that they would have been able to like anyone looking for them would have been able to know that there was a trailer buried there, damn Like it was unbelievable from the photo.

So are you going to post said photo on Instagram?

Well, I don't know how what have I already said? I'm posting what we can post, Like I have to post a few so like the inside and then like the out how it looked.

But you can post like the multiple shots right, so you can like slide and see a bunch of shots.

Because I know, I think people are gonna want to see these photos.

I want to see them. Definitely.

It's honestly basically a miracle that they got out. Really like, I think it's a freaking mirror.

Especially like if you have a bunch of kids, like this, chances are you're not going to have the muscle power or you think you have the muscle power to even attempt to escape.

I know, like, it's it's amazing that they got out, Like it's just holy moly.

No kidding, good for them, good for Michael.

Mm hmm and ed and ed. So it was eight pm on July sixteen when the group emerged and started walking to find help. They heard some equipment operating up ahead, and obviously we're worried that it could be the kidnappers, like frig but feeling like they had no other choice, they walked ahead. They eventually entered into this work site and were approached by like some very stun workers in

Not a single casualty, right, No, well, I mean I'm sure there's like minor injuries, is that casualty?

But no, no one died. No one died.

Oh that's incredible, Like amazing. Wow.

Police arrived and the children were taking taken to Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center. So it's like a jail, but it was the closest place they could hold them safely while they collected evidence and while they were being examined by doctors. After four hours from from being from escaping, the children boarded yet another bus to head home. I was like, oh my gosh. Boarding that bus probably was just like terrifying. Hey yeah, like, oh my goodness to have to climb

Oh, I can only imagine.

I don't have a bunch to say about it. One little boy came from the bus, got placed into his mom's arms, said hi mom, and instantly fell asleep on her shoulder, just like finally feeling like safe.

And I'm just like, oh my, that's that is heart wrenching.

Finally getting in your parents' arms and just like feeling like you're you lactually survived and you're safe.

It's it's over.

Oh, just like my heart. Okay. So, and you're probably wondering at this point what the ship was all about, Right.

I've been wondering that this whole fucking time. What do you mean that at this point, Like, what the fuck? I even like granted about it for like a minute.

No, you're just starting to wonder.

Okay, I'm just starting now, Yeah, you know what I am actually, now that you mentioned it, I'm starting to get a little curious, Yes, a bit, just a teasy weep it.

So obviously, immediately the police went to where the trailer was buried and started digging for evidence. It was about a two week investigation, but finally twenty four year old Frederick Newell Woods, who was the son of the owner of the rock quarry and had keys to get in and enough access to have buried a trailer in there, and his two friends, twenty four year old James this is gonna be a tough one Scotenfield or something, I think is how you.

Say his last name, James asshole.

Pretty much, and his younger brother, twenty two year old Richard, were arrested.

Richard Asshole Junior.

Yeah, Like these guys, Oh, and they're like I showed you a picture of them. They just look fre geting nasty.

So did they ever return to the crime scene at all? Like the buried trailer.

Getting there? Okay, okay, we're getting there because it's actually quite hilarious.

Oh hilarious.

Oh, so the kicker. All these men came from wealthy families. They were like wealthy af After a warrant was issued to search the woods estate, they came across a piece of paper laying out the plan of the kidnapping. Oh, a draft ransom note, and the list of children's names and ages they had collected when they were transferring them from the bus or from the van to the buried trailer. The plan was that they were going to ask for a five million dollar ransom ransom in exchange for the children.

What the fuck?

The ransom was never actually asked for, though they attempted to phone in, but the phone lines to the Chichilla Police Department were so inundated with calls from like parents media that they couldn't get through, so they decided to go to sleep instead, and when they woke up, they found through the news that the victims had freed themselves.

Oh my fucking god, what the f fuck?

Like, isn't that just fucked up? So they can get through and they're just like, fuck it, they've been up like pretty much all night. I guess let's just go to bed.

Okay. Want to know how I picture this going down. The three of them are sitting in their fucking parents' basement or whatever the fuck it is and.

Their parents mansion.

Yeah, well yeah, and they're sitting here just like having a fucking beer and they're like, Okay, I'm gonna try call again. Dude, it it's busy. Oka's try again. It's busy. They try like maybe like five times, and like, dude, is it just I can't we can't get through. We just can't get through. You know what. Fuck it, Let's just go to bed. Let's I'm tired, dude, Like we spent all day driving. Fuck it. Let should go to bed.

Yeah. But meanwhile, to even go to bed, like I mean, okay, they're not good people. We already know they're they're shit. But it's like those people those if they had left the men much longer, like they could have just died in there.

Oh yeah, and.

Like do they not give a shit about that? Like God is just like holy heck.

So were they specifically targeting that bus or were they just waiting for a bus or what?

Okay, well, what I'm about to say might help you here. So James later stated that despite coming from wealthy families, both he and Woods were deeply in debt. We needed multiple victims to get multiple millions, and we picked children because children are precious. The state would be willing to pay ransom for them, and they don't fight back.

They're vulnerable, fucking trash like.

Isn't that brutal?

God?

So, Fred, James, and Richard all pleaded guilty to kidnapping for ransom and robbery, but pleaded not guilty to bodily harm, as a conviction on that count in conjunction with the kidnapping charge, carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Okay, I'm I'm sure you're gonna get to it here, but no bodily harm was done. Are you're fucking kidding me? You had him at shotgun point, You had him fucking in a mobile, locked up prison. Ye buried them under fucking ground where they are literally about to fucking suffocate to death or fucking get carved in on dirt. How the fuck is that not bodily harm? You starve them? Like, what the fuck?

I know they have got like that traumatized the fuck out of these children.

No shit, they better have gotten slapped with that.

Hum. So they were tried on the bodily harm charge, found guilty good, and given the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Yes, you fucking trash, You're gonna fucking rot. But for fuck's sakes, of course, there's a butt. God damn it. What okay, what what is it? Oh my gosh, you had to do that to me?

I know, I feel absolutely terrible. Just a few years later, their convictions were overturned by an appeal which found that physical injuries subtained sustained by the children, like mostly cuts and bruises, did not meet the standard for bodily harm under the law. They were resentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

They better not fucking end up getting parole.

So and it's okay, and this, okay, this is like their lawyers, they had freaking awesome lawyers.

Yeah, their parents have money.

Yeah, And like, could you imagine being that lawyer that has to put that up I mean we've talked about this before. That puts that appeal in like freak, Like, I don't even know how you could do that. I don't know because now these mofos get I don't even have it in here. But there was like sixty times where it would come up were they their parole came up, and so all these freaking victims have to relive their goddamn trauma and go and like testify.

Can you imagine having to? Fuck you're one of those rich parents whose kid fucking buried children alive because they were in debt just because they were irresponsible with their money, And you are paying money to get your kid out of jail because you believe that, oh, he didn't actually do that much wrong. He deserves to freedom. Fuck that. I know. You're my kid, I love you. I'm going to fucking visit you in prison where you're rotting for the rest of your life.

I know. Like it's too much Yeah, like they did. That's too much wrong. Yeah, it's too much wrong. Okay, So you ready for this?

Oh God.

Richard was released in twenty twelve and James in twenty fifteen. Those are the brothers Fred the I just keep going here. Fred, the ring leader of the whole operation, is still in jail. He continues to minimize his crime as well as continues to get caught with contrabround, porn, and cell phones. He also is apparently running several businesses in prison and hasn't been I guess when you do that, you have to notify the prison authorities about it, which he hasn't. He

Okay, keep going.

Also, coming from a wealthy family, this piece of shit, So that's why I'm like, do his parents not actually think he's a piece of shit? Inherited a trust fund, so he inherited trust him from his parents, described in one court filing as being worth one hundred million dollar.

Fucking god.

He's been married three times while in prison and has purchased a mansion about thirty minutes away from the prison. Like, I just can't believe that someone does something so shitty and still like this rich mofol.

No shit, Holy fuck.

You just look like you're just like been put through the ringer.

Yeah, this is a fucking roller coaster, fucking episode. Holy shit.

Yeah, by your f bombs like in Dell.

Yeah.

Fuck thanks, Okay, enough about them, enough about them, like just enough. Yeah, back to the victims. We're gonna be wrapping up here soon. But it's not great, as you can expect. The victims, a lot of them had suffered from panic attacks, nightmares involving kidnappings and death. Many developed fears of such things like cars and the dark.

Yeah.

Symptoms of trauma were reported at least twenty five years after the kidnapping, including many of them with substance abuse and depression, and a number of them have also been in prisoned themselves for doing something controlling to somebody else.

These guys fuck these kids up.

I know, Like it was just such a ridiculous like the how traumatized they would have been, like from this, and that's not something that you just like get over really, no, not at all. Like they got buried freaking alive. Yeah, So I mean I know, some like some even though they had all this trauma, like they still went and

So yeah, to be fair though, like I'm sure a lot of that PTSD and anxiety stuff is in trauma is connected to the incident. But I mean, you have, what was it, twenty six kids. Yeah, I'm sure that there's going to be some some of those kids might have gone to jail anyways regardless, or had bad lives or done things like you know, I'm sure majority of that stuff is related to the incident, but there's going.

To be some stuff that they could have ended doing something bad anyway. Yeah, like one or two of the twenty six.

Yeah, some of them might have ended up going to prison anyways or being bad people or doing bad things.

Some six But then like a lot of that, like the substance abuse too cause them to do like bad things.

But I mean substance abuse as well, Like you, out of twenty six people, you're going to have substance abuse most likely. Yeah, So it might not be correlated to that specifically. I'm just playing Devil's advocate, you are.

Because I'm like, no, these pieces of shit ruin their life.

Well they did, don't get me wrong. And most likely this substance abuse, the jail time, whatever occurred to these kids is most likely tied to that. But who's to say that all of it was so just playing devil's advocate there, just to keep a neutral perspective.

That's fair. That's fair. In twenty sixteen, so not too long ago, the kidnapped children settled a lawsuit they had filed against their kidnappers. The exact settlement amount was not disclosed, but one survivor said it was enough to pay for some serious therapy, but not enough to buy a house. So they got a little bit of money, like wave down the road. But I just don't even think any amount of money could.

Considering that fucking ring leader now has over one hundred million dollars.

Well, it apparently came from his trust or something.

Well he should be liking what here's.

Like, he's you'd leave all his money to that?

Yeah, well I'm sure he wouldn't, but.

But he he's a terrible person. Like the other ones, I think did some rehabilitation and like got it. Maybe I don't know if i'd say better, but like even some of one of the victims went and visited them and like met him because that's what he needed to help with him dealing with his trauma. But this Fred dude, I think is just an all around piece of shit.

Yeah, he's fucking trash. Would you would think that, Oh, I did this because I was in debt and I need five million dollars to get out of debt. Now you have over one hundred million dollars. Maybe you should, I don't know, pay it forward to the damage you caused in these kids. Yeah, but clearly not. He's fucking trash, total trash.

And the last thing I'm going to say is about Ed Ed is the bus driver. Yeah, okay, just making sure you remember. I remember Ed in twenty two so he died in twenty twelve. And before he died, though, he was visited by many of this school children he had help save, which I thought was adorable.

I like that. Yeah.

And every February twenty sixth or February twenty sixth, so I don't know why that's so hard to say, which was his birthday has been declared Edward ray Day in Chechilla.

I like that, Yeah, Ray Day, love it.

I know, it even just sounds like a glorious day.

It does a little ray of sunshine in February.

Yeah, so there we go.

That was a fucking roller coaster.

I know. That was like okay, and I tried to just do that case a bit different and like keep it a little bit more suspenseful and boom.

I mean like clearly, like you were telling the story from the very beginning, so it's like, clearly there's they get caught. Clearly there's some survivors, but it was still like, okay, do they all fucking survive or it just like one manages to survive somehow.

It's actually amazing. I even listening to that, you're reading like you would have thought one some of them might have died, you know.

Yeah that my assumption was that they were going to start getting executed, and I was.

Like, why could you imagine? Oh that's not that's disgusting. I mean, all the whole thing is disgusting already.

But yeah, well I'm glad they made it out, I know.

Yeah. So it's like it's a good ending, not a great ending, but a lot better than it could have been.

Yeah, a lot better than it could have been. Although that one hundred million dollars.

Should not h fuck freakin' Fred.

Dude's fucking trash? Fred or was it Frank?

I don't even remember. That's how little I give a shit about him.

How fuck that guy?

Is it? Fred? Or Frank? Do we care? Should I look?

No? Fuck it?

Okay, we're done with him.

Fuck Fred, Frank fucker.

Anyway, Thanks for listening. We'll post some pictures up on Instagram so you can uh check out it if you want. It is intriguing, Like, definitely go go check it out and let us know what you think.

I'm I'm scared to see these photos, but I want to see them.

Yeah, they're They're not great, but they're interesting. It kind of like rounds out the story. Well, so do take a look. Go take a look. And with that being said, make sure you stay wicked.