CNN to broadcast documentary on kidnapping of 26 school children in Chowchilla
The case, which shocked the Valley and nation in 1976, is being told through survivors and others
Screenshot from YouTube trailer for CNN Films/Max documentary “Chowchilla.”
By VICTOR A. PATTON
victor@cvlocaljournalism.org
The notorious 1976 kidnapping of 26 school children and their bus driver in Chowchilla has been chronicled in a new documentary that’s scheduled to air next month.
The film “Chowchilla” will include interviews with survivors and reenactments of the events from that fateful day on July 15, 1976, when three masked men boarded a bus, kidnapped the driver and the children aboard, according to a CNN news release.
The documentary will stream live for pay television subscribers on CNN.com, CNN OTT and mobile apps on Sunday, Dec. 3, the release said.
It will be available on demand beginning Monday, Dec. 4 to pay subscribers on CNN.com, CNN apps and various cable platforms.
While the case has been infamous for decades, many local residents haven’t forgotten the heroism of Edward “Ed” Ray, the bus driver who saved the children.
He died in 2012, but a park in Chowchilla was named in his honor in 2015, according to the Merced Sun-Star.
When the incident happened, the kidnappers drove around with the victims and eventually stopped at a Livermore quarry.
There, Ray and the 26 children were forced into a buried moving van. The kidnappers planned on asking for a $5 million ransom. However, Ray and several older youth stacked mattresses and climbed out the top of the van.
According to the Sun-Star, they escaped by pushing open a metal lid covered with about 200 pounds of industrial batteries. They cleared away some debris and freed the rest of the children after 16 hours underground.
The kidnappers were all captured and paroled years later, the Sun-Star reported.
“Our goal in making ‘Chowchilla’ was to provide a platform for the people who endured this event – who were just little kids on their way home from summer school when it happened – to tell their own stories in their own voices, not only about the kidnapping, and their incredible escape, but about the struggle to find peace in its aftermath that continues for many to this day,” Paul Solet, the director of the film, said in the release.
“Chowchilla” was produced by Zipper Bros Films and Sutter Road Picture Company for CNN Films and Max.