WEBVTT - The Chowchilla Bus Kidnapping 0:00:00.840 --> 0:00:04.360 Hey, everybody, before we get started, you're very happy to 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:08.960 announce that Josh and I are on Jeopardy tonight. That's right, 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.639 we get our very own category Stuff you Should Know. 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:16.280 We had a hand in shaping the clues, which are 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.239 all from Stuff you Should Know episodes, and that was 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:20.800 super fun to work with them. They were awesome, by 0:00:20.800 --> 0:00:23.479 the way, and then we got to present. They brought 0:00:23.480 --> 0:00:26.720 a video crew to Atlanta and jumped in the podcast 0:00:26.760 --> 0:00:30.080 studio and we, uh, we're on camera presenting our very 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:34.080 own clues in our very own category. This is definitely 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:36.360 a bucket list thing for both of us, and we're 0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.760 super super excited. So it airs tonight. If you are 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:45.239 listening to this live on Tuesday, February eighth, it is 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:49.400 the prime time collegiate tournament. So check it out tonight 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.559 on ABC, our big, big debut on Jeopardy. Uh. Like 0:00:53.600 --> 0:00:55.880 I said, it was super fun and we're so proud 0:00:55.880 --> 0:00:58.400 of this. After all these years, we finally got the 0:00:58.400 --> 0:01:01.120 call we've been waiting for. Check it out tonight, everyone, 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.840 All right, on with the show. Welcome to Stuff you 0:01:05.840 --> 0:01:14.760 Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey, and 0:01:14.880 --> 0:01:17.959 welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. 0:01:18.120 --> 0:01:22.720 Chuck Bryant and Jerry's here and this is uh stuff. 0:01:22.720 --> 0:01:26.360 You should know. You know what I've been singing for 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:29.560 two days. Wheels on the bus, go rounding round. No, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:35.119 that's pretty good, guests though done. No, No, chow Chilla. 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.039 I can't get it out of my head. That got 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:41.600 Godzilla song. Now, all I'm saying over and over is 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.080 chow Chilla. That's a great song. Do you remember who 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:49.240 played it? Was that? Like at Your Winner or Johnny Winter? 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.320 I don't know. I think it's one of the winners. Okay, 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:58.440 that's my guess. Okay the long Winters. Definitely not the 0:01:58.480 --> 0:02:04.120 Long Winters. Okay. Um So, Chuck, we're talking about a 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:08.400 piece of Americana true crime history that I had no 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:12.320 idea about actually, and um I noted though, because of 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.720 the timing and because of the location. I hit up 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.160 my beloved, uh former hippie aunt who lived in San 0:02:19.160 --> 0:02:21.320 Francisco at the time I was raising kids and said, 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:23.280 do you remember this? She said, oh, yes, I remember 0:02:23.320 --> 0:02:26.280 this big time. She had kids that were about to 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.800 be bus riding agents. She was not very u comfortable 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:36.160 with this, this whole jam. Yeah, provided discomfort. Yeah, that's 0:02:36.160 --> 0:02:39.799 one way to put it. So did you even say 0:02:39.800 --> 0:02:42.240 with the name of it was? No? Um, it's the 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:45.600 chow Chilli school bus kidnapping is what people usually refer 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:49.160 to it as, right, And I think this was a 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.760 listener who sent this in. And I apologize because I'd 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:55.600 usually make note of that so I can shout them out, 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.800 but I did not do so in this case, so 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.200 I missed. I know, boot this, but yeah, this was 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:07.240 in nineteen seventy six and uh still stands according to 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:11.760 the sources, I saw as the largest domestic kidnapping in 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:16.880 US history. So my aunt says, oh yeah, she She 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:19.400 also said she was not very into it. I was 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.200 not very comfortable by that. It's very disappointing. Um yeah, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.520 the largest mass kidnapping, four ransom. I'm not sure why 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:32.240 that's a qualifier, but I don't know, but um yeah, 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.960 I saw the same thing too that it still stands. Um. 0:03:35.000 --> 0:03:37.920 And it was like the idea that the most of 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:41.720 anything happened to this little town of chow Chilla in 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.360 the San Joaquin Valley, about a hundred and fifty miles 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.880 southeast of San Francisco. Um in and of itself is significant. 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:53.160 But it was a really terrible like most of event 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.920 that happened to this poor little town, as we'll see. 0:03:56.240 --> 0:04:00.600 All right, So should we just start on July seventy six, Yes, 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.160 all right, we'll paint a picture for you. You already 0:04:04.160 --> 0:04:07.640 mentioned where. It was between Fresno and San Francisco, out 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.200 in a part of California that had some very very 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.760 small towns at the time. It's hard to imagine anywhere 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.080 in California having forred people living there, but that was 0:04:17.080 --> 0:04:19.880 the case in the mid seventies in Chowchilla. And it 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:21.960 was the next to the last day of summer school 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:27.880 and a bus was being driven after a because it 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:30.599 was summer school, a little fun day trip to a 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:35.119 swimming pool, driven by fifty five year old Ed Ray. Yeah, 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:37.520 it was a farmer there in chow Chill himself. Apparently 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:41.080 he bailed hey like nobody's business. He was married to 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:43.320 a woman named Odessa who was a bank teller at 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.400 the Bank of America, and he was apparently quite happy 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:48.560 being a farmer and then driving kids around on the 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.080 school bus, because even after this he continued on for 0:04:51.120 --> 0:04:55.719 another dozen years as the school bus driver. That's right. Uh, 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.520 he had only dropped off a few kids at this point, 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:02.279 and the were nineteen girls and seven boys on board 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:07.200 from five to fourteen, and notably, um the fourteen year 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.359 old because he will factor in pretty heavily here. His 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.680 name was Mike Marshall. He wasn't even supposed to be 0:05:13.720 --> 0:05:16.400 on that bus. He usually got picked up by his mom, 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:18.720 but he got busted the night before it with some 0:05:18.760 --> 0:05:22.160 beer and his mom said, to your punishment, you gotta 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.479 ride that school bus home tomorrow and after school or 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.280 after the trip. Apparently he was like, I don't even 0:05:29.320 --> 0:05:31.960 know what bus to take because I don't do this, 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.600 but he knew who Ray was, and so he went 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:36.479 to ed Ray and said, hey, man, well you I 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:37.720 don't know if this is my bus or not, but 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:39.839 you take me home. And ed Ray is ed Ray. 0:05:39.880 --> 0:05:43.720 So he went short shoreboard. So um, thank goodness, he 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.160 said that. Yeah. So after that that third stop, there 0:05:47.160 --> 0:05:49.880 were twenty six kids and ed Ray on board, and 0:05:50.040 --> 0:05:53.400 ed Ray was continuing along his route and he turned 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.880 on to a street called Avenue, and as he turned 0:05:57.880 --> 0:06:01.680 onto Avenue one, Edray on that there was a white 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:05.760 van blocking the road, and apparently he started to go 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:07.840 around it and then I guess thought the better of it, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:10.040 and I wanted to stop and see if they needed 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.360 any help instead, And when he did, he realized very 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:16.320 quickly that he was actually being hijacked. Because when you 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.240 see a man with a long gun and panty hose 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:24.800 on his head, um, you're probably being hijacked, that's right. 0:06:25.960 --> 0:06:28.160 The first thing he saw was this one guy who said, 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.479 opened the door, and then he realized there were a 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.480 couple of other guys, same m O. I think they 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.720 had shotguns with the panty hose, and they said get 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.400 in the back. We'll take over the driving from here. 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.960 If you watched the movie, did you see any of that? No? No, 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:49.479 I haven't yet. We'll get to it. Then there's a 0:06:49.520 --> 0:06:51.560 there's a Lifetime movie that came out in the nineties. 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.520 I think looks like it was made in three somehow. 0:06:56.440 --> 0:07:00.400 That is on YouTube, and I highly recommend scrubbing through it. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.360 I wouldn't say watch the whole thing because I don't 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:06.960 know if you'll be able to. But Carl Malden, Yeah, 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:10.680 play that ed Ray and uh, I don't know if 0:07:10.680 --> 0:07:13.720 it's true to the story, but he gave them a 0:07:13.720 --> 0:07:15.640 lot of guff about getting out of that driver's seat 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.640 in the movie. Yeah, I don't. I'm not sure if 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:20.600 it happened in real life or not. It's a Malden 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:25.640 improv if I've ever heard one. Yes, And I'm not 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:30.880 getting out of my seat right my feet hurt. So 0:07:31.160 --> 0:07:34.840 he eventually did though, and they drove Um. They drove 0:07:34.880 --> 0:07:38.280 that bus followed by the van uh for a bit, 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:41.760 and then eventually transferred those kids to that van and 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.600 another identical van UM. And you know they I think 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:47.840 we should point out a few smart things these guys 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:51.200 did along the way, because they mainly did dumb things. 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.240 But the kidnappers did make them jump from the school 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.240 bus to the van so they wouldn't leave footprints. And 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:01.880 in these vans, they had all the kids and ed 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:04.480 Ray in the vans now two vans, UM, and they 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:07.840 had kind of like deck these vans out. Um. It 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.720 was kind of a shoddy manner of adding plywood partitions 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:15.800 to keep the kids from getting out from anybody being 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:17.920 able to see. And I think they painted over the windows. 0:08:18.480 --> 0:08:23.360 And then they drove those kids around for eleven hours 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.640 in the backs of those vans with no potty breaks, 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.560 no food, no water, no nothing. They just drove him 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.640 around for eleven hours in July, the middle of July 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:39.319 in the San Joaquin Valley, UM, pretty mercilessly before finally 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.439 arriving at the destination, which ultimately was only a hundred 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:45.600 miles away from where the kids had been kidnapped. I 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:48.680 think they just wanted to disorient the kids. Yeah, I 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.520 think that was kind of smart as well, because they 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.679 could have been, you know, eleven hours away if they 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:57.440 managed to escape or something. One of the girls years 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.520 later did say that she saw through a crack that 0:09:00.000 --> 0:09:01.640 they were up there with a c go and drinking 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.600 sodas and have a good old time, and the kids 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.319 and ed Ray are back there just suffering. Um, just 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:11.760 terrified obviously if what's going on right. That was Jennifer 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:14.000 Brown Hyde who said that, and she has not She's 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:16.680 not very happy with this whole thing. It's still to 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:22.400 this day from what I understand. Yeah, as you can imagine. So, Um, finally, 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:26.160 at three thirty am on Friday morning, they were hijacked 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.520 around after three thirty one thirty pm on Thursday. They 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.200 finally stopped driving at three thirty in the morning Friday morning, UM, 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:37.880 and they arrived at a rock quarry. They're in Livermoore, California. 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.320 Apparently again it's a hundred miles away from chow Chilla, 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.880 and um, this is the what the what the kidnapper 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:48.120 see as the final destination for these kids until they're 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.000 ransomed off, until the authorities cough up the money. And 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.000 what the what they've done is bury a moving van 0:09:55.120 --> 0:09:58.600 line trailer, so like a huge moving truck, the trailer 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.959 part of it. They buried it a total of twelve 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.160 feet underground, um, and have covered it with four feet 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:09.000 of dirt. And they've opened a hole, put a ladder 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.520 in and told the kids get down there and ed 0:10:11.600 --> 0:10:15.040 Rey too, that's right. And as the kids were going 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.760 down and this kind of points to the direction of 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:21.719 how dumb these guys were and how unprepared they were, 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:23.760 even though they it turns out, would have planned this 0:10:23.800 --> 0:10:26.560 thing for well over a year. They wrote down their 0:10:26.640 --> 0:10:30.000 names uh, and their phone numbers in contact and parents names, 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:35.360 not on a clipboard legal pad, but on the back 0:10:35.480 --> 0:10:39.320 of a Jack in the box wrapper, right so uh. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.400 And then they took apparently some kind of piece of 0:10:41.400 --> 0:10:44.480 clothing from each kid because the idea was once again 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.360 is that they have many, many kids that should bring 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:50.200 a many many moneys and dollar bills their way exactly, 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:52.840 and the fact that their kids means that people do 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:56.199 anything to to keep them safe. So these guys figure 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:58.160 they've got a pretty good pay day with twenty six 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:02.040 kids that they're now holding hostage and a buried moving 0:11:02.120 --> 0:11:05.840 van trailer um. And in in the trailer, they had 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.280 done a little more than they had in the van, 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.600 so they had peanut butter cheerios, some bread down there, 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:15.560 some water, but definitely not enough to keep all those 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.199 people alive for a very long time. They also thought 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.360 of bathrooms. They made bathrooms in the wheel wells, and 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:27.120 they they dropped ventilation tubes with some fans to force 0:11:27.200 --> 0:11:30.400 air in into the into the van, so there was 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:33.959 fresh air down there, um, but not a lot from 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:37.079 what I understand. Yeah, that's right. And the one faithful 0:11:37.120 --> 0:11:39.960 mistake they made was that for their comfort, they included 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:43.560 some old box springs and mattresses and stuff with them 0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:46.280 for them to sit on and lay on, which would 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:50.160 end up being they're undoing. Should we take a break? 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:52.360 I think we should, because now you've got twenty six 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:57.040 kids buried in a buried trailer right now in Livermore California, 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.920 three thirty in the morning. Not a good thing to happen, 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:02.440 that's right. So we'll pick up with what's going on 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:45.400 in chow Chilla right after this. Alright, So in chow Chilla, 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.400 that bus doesn't come back, so obviously everyone freaks out 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:52.880 pretty quickly. An entire school bus full of kids and 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:57.160 a very trusted h man about town like people. You know, 0:12:57.160 --> 0:12:59.480 it's a small town. People knew ed Ray and he 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.360 was a good guy by all accounts. Um, they were 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.960 all missing. So uh. The very first thing that happens 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.079 is they locate the school bus, which have been hidden 0:13:08.840 --> 0:13:12.240 um and some with some bamboo and camouflage. But they 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.880 did find the bus right away, which, you know, on 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:17.760 one hand, that's good because they have a lead. On 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:20.160 the other hand, that just sends this thing into the 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:24.280 stratosphere as far as panic goes, because where are these kids? Yeah, 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.360 and I saw also that the bus had basically no 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.040 clues on it whatsoever. So it's like, we found the bus, 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.040 but that doesn't help at all. Um, So yeah, I'm 0:13:32.080 --> 0:13:35.560 sure they were panicked by that. So um. It became 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:41.040 pretty clear pretty early on that the child Chilla Sheriff, 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:44.480 a guy named ed Gates was going to need some help, 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:47.760 so the FBI came to town. Apparently they booked every 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:52.600 one of the hotel rooms in the two hotels in town. Um, 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.680 they brought uh, like all the state law enforcement agencies, 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:59.280 like everybody just converged on this town to help out 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.960 because it made national news, like almost instantaneously. Um. I 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.040 saw somewhere Chuck that like this is during the bi centennial, 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:09.640 and the bi centennial has just been going on and 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:11.800 going on and going on, and there was still by 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.599 centennial stuff going on, and this stopped it, like this kidnapping, 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:19.400 news of kidnapping stopped the bi centennial celebration. Dennis Check. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:21.520 It was the end of it, not just for this town, 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.920 but for the whole country. Oh yeah, I mean this 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.080 went right up to President Ford at the time and 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.720 obviously Governor Jerry Brown. So they threw everything they could 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:35.000 at it. Um. The media descended upon chow Chilla like 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.720 super fast, and because it's the media, you start getting 0:14:38.720 --> 0:14:42.080 these these terrible stories about like well maybe because you know, 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:44.800 they've never called Zodiac and this was just six or 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.280 seven years I think after the final uh what would 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.880 end up being the final killing. So they said maybe 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:52.680 it was a zodiac because they made reference to wiping 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:54.760 He made reference to wiping out a school bus at 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:58.120 one point. Um, any tip that came in they had 0:14:58.160 --> 0:14:59.960 to follow. There's a chew on the side of the road, 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.000 so they have to track down that tip. Um. There 0:15:03.080 --> 0:15:05.640 was a novel in ninety eight called The Day the 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:10.320 Children Vanished where the gang of people abductive bus load 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.800 of kids just to bring people out of town and 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.800 distract them while they robbed a bank. Ray's wife worked 0:15:15.800 --> 0:15:17.200 at the bank, like you said, so they put a 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:20.520 bank under surveillance. Uh, so there were you know, it 0:15:20.560 --> 0:15:22.600 was I don't know if I was to describe it 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.840 as a panic because the FBI was on the scene 0:15:25.840 --> 0:15:30.200 in the state, uh, California Bureau and Investigation, So they 0:15:30.200 --> 0:15:33.800 were doing good work. But there was a frenzy of activity. Yeah, 0:15:33.800 --> 0:15:37.000 and I think the sheriff had all the help he 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:39.680 possibly needed to chase down all these leads and everything. 0:15:39.720 --> 0:15:42.760 But from what I saw, there was just not much 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:45.760 to go on. There were there They were just dead 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.200 ends left and right. Um, and so like there was 0:15:49.320 --> 0:15:52.080 there was a just an enormous amount of panic and 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:56.080 terror in the town. Families started converging on the firehouse, 0:15:56.160 --> 0:15:58.560 the local firehouse. For some reason, I'm not sure why, 0:15:58.920 --> 0:16:02.720 but it became like the meeting place for anybody concerned 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.360 about the fate of the kids. And um, this is 0:16:05.400 --> 0:16:08.080 where news would first be broken. And I think the 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.040 media probably hung around there too, so um, you can 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.520 only begin to imagine how anxious the parents were, and 0:16:14.560 --> 0:16:17.080 then the town and then apparently the whole country was 0:16:17.080 --> 0:16:20.360 was anxious as well. Um. And so it was really 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:24.480 kind of surprising when all of a sudden, um, at 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.800 about uh, I think about eight pm the next night, 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.040 Saturday night, so the kids have been gone for almost 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:38.560 uh thet about thirty hours, thirty two hours something like 0:16:38.600 --> 0:16:42.400 that at this point, thirty two hours of terror, when 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.920 all of a sudden, at that quarry, some people are 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.560 working and a man and a bunch of kids run 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.560 over and it turns out to be the kidnapping victims 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:53.920 who just present themselves to a security guard at the 0:16:54.320 --> 0:16:56.840 at the quarry in Livermore, who gets on the phone 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:01.320 and says, we found them. That's right, amazing, and you 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:06.080 would think, well, pretty sensational story, but it was very 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:07.600 short span of time and all the kids were fined, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:10.159 so why is it really a story. It's a story 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:13.080 because as we'll see, the trauma that they suffered emotionally, 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.439 and um, how it went down in who these people were, 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:21.840 who kidnapped them. But before we get to those dumb dumbs, Um, 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:24.560 let's talk about the escape. Uh, they were down there 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:28.080 about twelve hours and running out of food and water. Um, 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:30.400 the roof. You know, they had a lot of weight 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:33.280 on this moving van roof and those things aren't super strong, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.959 so this thing was, you know, kind of dented in 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:38.560 and it seemed like it might cave in, and they 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.840 were worried that they just couldn't stay there. Basically, and 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.840 this is where the story I mean, I guess we'll 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:50.120 cover both points of view, Um, the immediate history and aftermath. Uh, 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.280 ed Ray saved the day because he was the only 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.120 adult there, so obviously he was the one that broke 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:58.119 those kids out of there. Um. Years later, you know, 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:00.600 we mentioned Mike Marshall, the fourth teen year old that 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.040 wasn't supposed to be on that bus, and he was 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:05.800 far and away the oldest kid there and the most 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.600 capable to help. Years later, after a while of this 0:18:09.760 --> 0:18:13.480 story of ed Ray, he finally came out and said, oh, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:14.960 you know, Ed Ray is a good guy. I want 0:18:15.000 --> 0:18:18.200 to disparage him, but like it was my idea and 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:20.719 I was the one that really led the charge to escape, 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.480 and he was a big mess, kind of crying in 0:18:24.560 --> 0:18:27.919 his hands that they were doomed and dead, and he 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.880 got on board and helped me. But it was really me. 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.040 And the reason I kind of believe that after reading 0:18:34.040 --> 0:18:36.760 all the accounts is it took many years for him 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.320 to kind of come out with this, and it felt 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:43.440 like he even felt bad for saying so. So I 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.800 think that Mike Marshall in fact did lead the charge 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.479 to escape. Well. His his account was corroborated by another 0:18:50.480 --> 0:18:53.399 guy named Larry Park who wrote a book called The 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.560 chow Chillas School Bus Kidnapping Cole and Why Me. And 0:18:57.600 --> 0:18:59.439 I don't know if he corroborated in that or in 0:18:59.480 --> 0:19:02.400 an interview you later on, but um, he was there 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:04.280 and he said that that's true, that that's how it 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:08.280 went down. On the other perspective, the fact that like 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:12.000 when Ed Ray like live the rest of his life, 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:14.720 he stayed in chow Chilla. Most of those people kids 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.920 who've been kidnapped with them stayed in Chowchilla. When he 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:21.439 was dying, those same kids as adults now came and 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:25.439 visited him at his his bedside and say goodbye. Um, 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.760 there's plenty of opportunity for you know, a little town 0:19:28.800 --> 0:19:31.400 to start talking, you know, whispers and that kind of thing, 0:19:31.440 --> 0:19:33.639 and that doesn't seem to have happened. He seems to 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:37.640 have died considered a hero as well. So my take 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:41.480 on a Chuck is that he may have been a 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:44.080 gloom and doom about their prospects to begin with. And 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:47.199 maybe it really was um Mike Marshall who said, no, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:48.800 we need to we need to try to get out 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.520 of here. But even Mike Marshall said after a while, 0:19:51.560 --> 0:19:54.479 once Mike Marshall started to try, Ed Ray joined in 0:19:54.560 --> 0:19:56.679 and started helping, and that they might not have been 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:58.560 able to Yeah, they might not have been able to 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:00.760 get out had a grown man not in helping them. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.920 Like push against this, totally agree. I think we're I 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.000 think we park our cars in the same garage here. Yeah, 0:20:06.040 --> 0:20:10.920 look at them. Uh so here's how they got out. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.920 They took those mattresses and stacked them up, and they 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:16.760 took apart one of the kind of smashed one of 0:20:16.800 --> 0:20:21.040 the box springs which are framed in wood, and they 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.680 started using that wood as like a sort of makeshift 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.880 crowbar to try and what these guys kidnappers have done 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.160 as they put um sort of sort of iron plate 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.080 I've seen manhole, but it was some kind of heavy 0:20:31.200 --> 0:20:36.480 metal plate over the thing, along with two industrial tractor 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.119 batteries which are super heavy, and then dirt, so there's 0:20:40.520 --> 0:20:42.639 ended up being several hundred pounds kind of weighing this 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:45.920 thing down, uh, this escape hatch. But they were able 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:48.119 after hours and hours to finally kind of use that 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.680 wood to pry open just enough to where they see 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:55.320 starlight and dirt leaking in, and with the help of 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.479 Ed Ray and and his you know, manly man strength, 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:01.560 they were able to climb out of there. Mike Marshall 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:04.560 was so Mike Marshall climbed out and then from that 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:08.200 moment on and so apparently also Edray was really worried. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:10.399 I guess Mike Marshall was too, but it was not 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.720 a deterrent for him. But they were worried that there 0:21:12.840 --> 0:21:16.040 was at least one or more of the kidnappers hanging 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:20.280 around with a gun, so there was a good chance 0:21:20.520 --> 0:21:22.560 in their minds that they were going to poke through 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:25.280 and just be shot on site, so they were worried 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:28.119 about that, and luckily, when Mike Marshall poked his head up, 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:29.960 he saw that there was no one around. There's nobody 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.320 guarding it. They it turned out that they had long 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:37.040 since left UM and that so Mike Marshall had Edray 0:21:37.040 --> 0:21:39.960 start handing kids up to him, and they got all 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:42.000 the kids out and then ed Ray out and Mike 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.119 Marshall ran into the woods to hide so in case 0:21:45.200 --> 0:21:48.080 the kidnappers were still around, they just hadn't seen them yet, 0:21:48.440 --> 0:21:50.440 and those kids were intercepted by him, at least Mike 0:21:50.480 --> 0:21:53.080 Marshall would be able to run away through the woods 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:56.600 and get help UM. But it turned out the kidnappers 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.440 weren't there and and somebody luckily was still working at 0:21:59.440 --> 0:22:02.840 the quarry I believe, including a security guard when ed 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:06.240 Ray and the kids ran up and presented themselves, so 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:08.760 that's how, and then I guess the guy got on 0:22:08.760 --> 0:22:12.560 the phone and within moments of that happening, the news 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:14.199 made it back to chow Chilla that they had all 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:18.080 been found safe and they were all alive and generally unharmed, 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:24.240 and UM ed Ray was basically automatically hailed as a hero. Uh. 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:27.360 Carl Marl Karl Maldon was certainly portrayed as the hero 0:22:28.400 --> 0:22:30.560 in the Lifetime movie. They said, do you have anything 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:32.480 you'd like to say, and he said just that my 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:35.840 feet hurt. And you know, we again want to point 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:39.360 out this was uh, thirty six hours from beginning to end. 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:44.280 But these kids were I didn't know what was going 0:22:44.320 --> 0:22:48.080