Last convict in mass school bus kidnapping seeks parole

[Zorro]

Source: AP

Three young men from wealthy San Francisco Bay Area families spent more than a year working on their perfect crime.

They converted three prisoner transport vans, built an underground bunker to hold their hostages, even made a lead box to hold the $5 million in ransom they expected to collect to block radio signals if authorities inserted tracking devices.

Then they kidnapped a school bus full of children and buried them under mounds of dirt in a crime that haunts the victims nearly 40 years later.

"They basically stole our whole youth. Our childhood was completely turned upside down," said Jodi Heffington-Medrano, who was 10 at the time.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/last-convict-mass-school-bus-kidnapping-seeks-parole-165616908.html

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This crime was almost unbelievable at the time -- but it really happened.

[cstanleytech]

1. Frankly I am surprised that the other two were even released after doing this. nt

[Blue_Tires]

11. +1

[onecaliberal]

2. This happened about 40 miles from me. They've already released 2 of them.

The community is outraged. The governor refused to block their release even though some of the victims have yet to regain emotional stability. This is oitrageous.

[Travis_0004]

3. Im fine with life for this crime

10 years per child. Let him out in 400 years.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. 40 years for this is sufficient

Enough already.

[cstanleytech]

7. After what they did to those children? I completely disagree. None of them should have ever been let

out of prison because they did this out of pure unadulterated greed and not because of any other reason.

[bluestateguy]

5. Let him out in 50 more years

If he is dead by then that is not my problem.

[murielm99]

6. This crime was mind-boggling.

It is lucky that the whole thing did not cave in and suffocate those children.

It took a lot of work that could have been used for more productive activities.

Why parole these people for doing such a thing to children?

[melm00se]

8. this begs the question

Is prison for punishment or rehabilitation?

[eppur_se_muova]

9. Or perhaps to separate criminals from their potential victims ?

I don't care if a prisoner feels he's being punished or not, as long as he's not in a position to commit the crime again for a long time. The more serious the crime, the longer you are locked out of society.

[erronis]

12. And that's what the oubliette was for.

Lots of different ways to say the same thing in different languages all around the world.

Someone that the Powers-That-Be (tyrants or elected) decided that they didn't want to deal with. Left up the heavy lid to the large pit below and let the process begin, and end.

[Blue_Tires]

10. Who in the fuck did the clowns think they were? Leopold+Loeb?