100%

Scanned image of the page. Keyboard directions: use + to zoom in, - to zoom out, arrow keys to pan inside the viewer.

Page Options

Download this Issue

Share

Something wrong?

Something wrong with this page? Report problem.

Rights / Permissions

This collection, digitized in collaboration with the Michigan Daily and the Board for Student Publications, contains materials that are protected by copyright law. Access to these materials is provided for non-profit educational and research purposes. If you use an item from this collection, it is your responsibility to consider the work's copyright status and obtain any required permission.

November 04, 1977 - Image 7

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
Michigan Daily, 1977-11-04

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Chowchilla witness.
describes 'hysteria'

ByAP and UPI
OAKLAND, Calif. - A sheriff's depu-
ty described for a judge yesterday "the
scene of hysteria and paranoia" he en-
countered moments after 26 Chowehilla
children and their school bus driver dug
their way to freedom from an under-
ground tomb.
Lt. Edward Volpe said the children
were so frightened when he arrived at
the gravel quarry near Livermore that
they refused to cooperate with officers,
fearing they were kidnappers in dis-
guise.
"THE KIDS WERE saying they were
afraid we were dressed in disguises and
would bury them again," .Volpe said.
"We had to forcibly carry the kids onto
the buses because they were afraid to
get on the bus again."
Several of the youngsters kidnapped
with their school bus driver testified
Wednesday. They spoke of tears and
prayers, of fainting from fright and
bolstering their courage with songs
sung in the darkness of the under-
ground prison.
"A lot of kids were crying and
screaming," 10-year-old Jennifer
Brown recalled. ' . . I was singing, 'If
You're Happy and You Know It .. ."
James Schoenfeld, 26; Richard
Schoenfeld, 23 and Fred Woods, 26, sat
stony-faced through the testimony.
They have admitted hijacking the
Chowchilla school bus on July 15, 1976,
taking the children and their driver to a
gravel quarry and burying them in a
dirt-covered moving van.
BUT THEY DENY they harmed any-
one, and that is the issue being tried. If
found guilty of kidnapping with bodily
harm, they face life in prison with no
chance of parole.
Volpe described bus driver Ed Ray as
"just a bundle of nerves. He couldn't sit
still for 30 seconds.
"The scene was one of hysteria,
paranoia, screaming, crying and laugh-

ing," ,Volpe said.
HE DESCRIBED an interview with
one child, Becky Reynolds, who testi-
fied Wednesday.
"She was continually sobbing,
crying, laughing," Volpe said. "I had to
take her aside and talk to her alone. She
couldn't stand still. She complained of
being cold and hot at the same time."
He said some of the children refused
to talk about the kidnapping and ex-
pressed fear they would be spanked
when they got home for not doing their
chores.
VOLPE'S TESTIMONY was repeat-
edly interrupted by objections by the
defense, but the judge allowed him to
continue
In other testimony yesterday, a doc-
tor said they were in good spirits after
their rescue, with only a few minor cuts
and bruises.
Dr. Howard Wax said under; cross
examination that "in general, they
were in excellent spirits, with some of
the children having minor injuries."
WAX, A PEDIATRICIAN, said he
was summoned to the Santa Rita coun-
ty prison facility to examine the chil-
dren after they had dug their way out of
the underground hiding place in a
quarry near Livermore, Calif.
Under questioning by the
prosecution, Wax said conditions were
"non-optimum," because he did not
have thermometers or other testing
equipment. But he said he examined
each of the children and bus driver Ed
Ray.
Under cross-examination by defense
attorney Herbert Yanowitz, the doctor
said he found only a few minor injuries.
He read from notations made at the
time about several of the children who,
the pr6secution contends, suffered
bodily injury.
The examination of bus driver Ray
found him "normal," the doctor's notes
said.

40 CINEMA 1I ANGELL HALL AUD. A
Friday, November 4
FRAND CAPRA'S
YOU CAN'T TAKE*
his T WITH YOU
This is a 1938 vintage Capra comedy from the George S. Kauf- s
man/Moss Hart play about a family of New Yorkers who do exactly
what they please in life and even manage to convert a stuffy tycoon
whose son has fallen in love with their daughter. JEAN ARTHUR, JAMES
STEWART, LIONEL BARRYMORE. Winner of Best Picture.
7 9:15 $1.50
sief5$$$$$$ $$ a3.

The Michigan Daily-Friday, November 4, 1977-Page 7

The Rudolf Steiner Institute of the Great Lakes Area
presents two lectures by:
Professor Werner Glas
Director of the Waldorf Institute of Mercy College of Detroit
Eardy Childhood Eduation .
Its Impact on Adult Lifev
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1977 8:00 P.M.
The IHeartof Childhood
anid the Future o f Work

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6,1977
RUDOLF STEINER HOUSE
1923 Geddes Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan

3:00 p.m.
The public
is invited

1

QUI LAPAYUN

Council debates use

of tenant g
(Continued from Page 1)
says he's a city official when he really
is not... that's misrepresentation and
fraud."
Latta referred to his contention that
Johnson posed as a city official to
enable himself to purchase services on
credit from the Kelly Girl temporary
office help company.
OPINIONS are mixed as to which of-
fice should receive the $35,000 for
tenant services.
"PHTO has not lived up to its com-
mitments and I will not support any
more funds going to them," said Mayor
Wheeler. "That is, unless they got a
new organization and Board of Direc-
tors, but under present circumstances I
wouldn't give them a dime," he said.
Belcher, however, said Wheeler has a
"vendetta" out on the PHTO. "What's
Wheeler going to do now with $35,000?"
asked Belcher. "City bureaucracy is
what Mr. Wheeler seems to be leaning
towards the idea of creating a tenant
service group run by the city ... its like

roup funds
trying to ask GM to fund the UAW."
BELCHER SAID PHTO programs so
far have been "pretty good," and the
city should help the group. "It's easy toI
kill them," he said.
Kenworthy said the audit came out
"sorrier" than he had expected. "What
we need is a board more representative
and a new director," he said.
Councilman Gerald Bell (R-Fifth)
said the audit has revealed "some
things that are rather startling," al-
though he questions why the PHTO
received 'such an "in-depth examina-
tion" when other groups did not.
KIM and HEATHER
BOB and DAVID
at
DASCOLA
STYLISTS
E. Univ. at So. Univ.
REDKEN-IMAGE

Friday, November 4
Power Center
8:00 pm
$3.50 General Admission

An Evening of Music
in Solidarity with the
Chilean People

Ann Arbor Committee for HumanRights in Latin America

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

n ra

H

SSSHAMPOO1
Set on the eve of Richard Nixon's re-election, SHAMPOO examines the sexual
attitudes and actions prevalent in the contemporary U.S. WARREN
BEATTY (in a true-to-life performance) portrays a hairdresser on the make
who tries to spread his time between GOLDIE HAWN, JULIE CHRISTIE,
CARRIE FISHER and LEE GRANT (in an Academy Award winning role).
Already a controversial film of the 70's.
SAT: AMARCORD

7s

CInema Guild

TONIGHT AT
7:00 a 9:05

OLD ARCH. AUD.
Admission $1.50

** ************** *** *
Mediatrics *
DOG DAYAFTERNOON
Sat., Nov. 5-7:00 & 9:30
Natural Science Auditorium $1.50

Back to Top

© 2024 Regents of the University of Michigan