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It didn’t take long for local media outlets to figure the Mountain View address of paroled “Chowchilla” kidnapper, Richard Schoenfeld.
Not long after it was announced that the 57-year-old would be staying in Mountain View, reporters began knocking on his mother’s door, according to Liz Wylie, a spokeswoman with the Mountain View Police Department.
Before parole and police officers announced that Schoenfeld would be staying in Mountain View, they spoke with Schoenfeld’s mother, Merry, letting her know that the media might come by seeking interviews, Wylie said.
In addition to monitoring Schoenfeld’s activity in order to combat the possibility that he might commit another crime, the MVPD is also working to make sure the parolee and his mother are not harassed. “Part of our goal is that he and his relatives remain safe,” Wylie said.
Schoenfeld is of one the three men convicted of kidnapping a bus full of children in Chowchilla, California, in 1976 is now on parole and living in Mountain View, police said. He was paroled after nearly 36 years behind bars
On June 22, Wylie wrote in a press release that the former Atherton resident had been “transported to Mountain View, where he will reside in an undisclosed location.”
Richard Schoenfeld, along with his older brother John Schoenfeld and Fred Woods of Portola Valley, pleaded guilty in 1976 to kidnapping 26 Chowchilla schoolchildren and their bus driver and keeping them in a quarry in Livermore, from which they all escaped on their own without injury.
The men were sentenced to life in prison. John Schoenfeld and Woods have not yet been found suitable for parole.
Though he is a “high-profile parolee due to the notoriety of his crime, Richard Schoenfeld is not considered a high-risk offender by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,” Wylie said in her statement.
He must wear a GPS monitor 24 hours a day as a condition of his parole.
“The State and the courts have determined Schoenfeld no longer poses a threat to society,” Mountain View Mayor Mayor Mike Kasperzak said in a press release. “I am confident of our police department and know they will appropriately monitor him to ensure the safety of our community.”
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The Almanac contributed to this report.
Does this article contain any useful information at all? TV news have been showing photos and video for days. With no photos or addresses, this report is essentially zero useful content.
I live in Mountain View. My Daughter lives in Mountain View…..This loser is not wanted in my town….
you watch….he will get into trouble…no will hire him….he will have to commit crimes…….
I’m sure this liberal editor wont keep my comments on here very long….thats the problem with California…..no freedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
36 years is a looong time… True that it was a high profile crime but he did his time and he’s not a murderer or sexual predator/ offender, so I think he deserves a second chance.
This is just one of lots of parolees living in Mountain View.
This guy has been in prison for a very long time. He’s been paroled. He didn’t break out of jail. Leave him be.
He’s living with his mother. It’s not like he doesn’t have any support. While it is hard for felons to find work, sometimes, it’s not impossible.
Back then kids were tough and wouldn’t let a thing like getting kidnapped and buried alive affect them. Today, it’s another story. Kids are wimps.
Schoenfeld obviously deserves a second chance. He white and was once from a wealthy family. Now if he was a minority, that key would have been thrown away a long time ago.
“…keeping them in a quarry in Livermore, from which they all escaped on their own without injury.”
This is a misleading statement. Those kids were buried alive with no idea if they would ever be let out. What qualifies the authors of this article to say they escaped without injury? They were all psychologically scarred by the event.
“The men were sentenced to life in prison.”
Let me take a wild guess — these are the same people that don’t get that “illegals” are illegal.
Schoenfeld has been paroled, is not a threat to society, and deserves to be left in peace. he and his mother deserve to reside quietly and without undue attention by the public.
There are convicted sex offenders who live merely blocks from schools around here….. I read this guys story in detail and it was a ploy to make money from ransom that was not well planned at all. They didn’t have the intention to kill anyone, but ended up traumatizing many children along with the bus driver. Hopefully prison didn’t mess him up even moresp than he already is.
I grew up in the bay area and recall being extremely troubled as a child hearing this broadcasting live on our local news as the event unfolded. It was a very scary time and I wasn’t even in the direct victim pool. I believe it was my first introduction to the evilness referred to as abduction. Thank you for haunting my childhood.
Although his mother certainly deserves consideration and respect of her privacy, I do believe, however, her son deserves nothing of the kind. The fact she allowed him back into the maternal nest seems typical of an enabling trait.
*After being denied parole 20 times, one of the three kidnappers, Richard Schoenfeld, was deemed suitable for parole by the California Board on Parole Hearings on October 30, 2008. Richard Shoenfeld was released on June 20, 2012 and is living with his mother in a condominium complex in Mountain View, California.[3]
James Schoenfeld has been denied parole 16 times. Frederick Woods was denied parole for the 12th time on January 5, 2009, and will be eligible again in 2012.*
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping