Editing Fred Woods (section)

{{Villain_Infobox|fullname = Frederick Newhall Woods IV|alias = Fred Woods|origin = San Francisco|occupation = Ceo of the Ambria Acres Christmas tree farm and the eco Little Bear Creek gold mine<br>Ceo of a unknown car dealership|skills = Running businesses from prison but keeps getting caught<br>Hijacking|hobby = Running his businesses from prison|goals = Kidnap a school of children for ransom (temporary succeeded with kidnapping but completely failed with ransom)<br>Get paroled from prison so he can live in his Mansion and run his businesses (so far unsuccessful)|image = 360x0.jpg|type of villain = Mass kidnapper|crimes = Mass [[kidnapping]]<br>Grand theft auto<br>Child Endangerment<br>Holding kids and adult hostage<br>[[Kidnapping]]<br>Child abduction<br>Bodily harm<br>Ransom<br>Robbery<br>False imprisonment<br>Hijacking<br>}}
'''Fred Woods''' (born 1951) was the ringleader of the Chowchilla kidnapping in 1976. It was back in July 1976, when three young men from wealthy families kidnapped a school bus full of children in the Central Valley town of Chowchilla. Twenty-six children ages 5 through 14 and their driver were taken at gunpoint, driven in two locked and darkened vans for over 100 miles before being buried alive in an underground prison. It remains what is reported as the largest kidnapping ever in the United States.  

The children were buried under dirt and rocks in a quarry — inside an old moving van with makeshift ventilation, toilets, some food and water.  The kidnappers left to call in their ransom demand — $5 million, which they expected the state would pay from a recently announced budget surplus.   

But the phone lines to Chowchilla were jammed with anxious parents calling and press inquiries pouring in from around the world.  The kidnappers could not get through.  They took a break and they napped. Meantime the children brought the kidnapping to an end when they and the driver managed to dig their way out.  Their ordeal had lasted 28 hours.

Although their physical injuries were limited to cuts and bruises, the children were deeply scarred by their experience, says Dr. Lenore Terr, a San Francisco psychiatrist who described their trauma in her book, "Too Scared to Cry.

For the kidnappers, money and political connections have eased their punishment.

New reporting shows the one kidnapper still in prison, Fred Woods, has been making money and running businesses while incarcerated.  A prison investigation determined he even launched a lawsuit from behind bars — suing an employee for $1.5 million.

While California law does not prohibit an inmate from running a business from prison, it does require permission from the warden — permission Woods never bothered to obtain.

Woods is a descendant of two prominent California families — the Newhalls and the Woods —and the heir to a family fortune.  He has a trust fund from his parents, which he shares only with a sister who is institutionalized with Down syndrome.  In one court filing, the trust fund he inherited was described as "over $100 million," a number his lawyer Dominique Banos of Los Angeles dismissed as "nothing anywhere near that."

The fund does pay for a team of lawyers. Gary Dubcoff, a Woods lawyer in San Francisco, urged earlier this month that Woods be paroled. He wrote, in part, "It is unconscionable that Mr. Woods remains incarcerated some 43 years after his offense, period.  Apart from the commitment offense, he has no history of violence, whether before prison or in it.  He is an elderly inmate, fast approaching 70, and <em>clearly </em>presents no danger to anyone."