Dairyland Dungeon Challenge (14 pics)

This episode is so out of the ordinary that it was included in forensic psychiatry textbooks in the USA. And he strikes not thoughtfulness or elegance of a criminal idea, but illogicality and stupidity, coupled with cruelty.





A typical summer day in California, Dairyland. July 16, 1976 driver Edward Ray picked up 26 children aged 5 to 14, to take them home after the pool.



Soon an obstacle was found on the road: a van, blocking the passage, and standing beside him in confusion, thin guy. Edward stopped to look at the problem and suggest help. And instantly felt a poke from the barrel in the back. Pleasant young the man told him to get on the bus, lie in the back seat and not protrude. And inside that masked guys were already operating, leading children and pushing them into two unmarked vans with painted windows. The driver was pulled out last.

A very long journey has begun. For more than 10 hours the men were wagons while terrified children waited for their fate, suffering from dehydration and wild heat. Finally stop in the field. Children counted on the heads, wrote down the data of each and demanded to give one personal things.





A string of disoriented, terrified kidnapping victims were led across a field and stopped in front of some strange pile of dirt. Which at upon closer examination, it turned out to be another van, completely dug into the ground.

When the last child descended through the hatch, the fanatics covered the entrance with a metal sheet, laid a couple of batteries on top and covered everything with earth and rubble. Yes, so carefully that no one would I suspect it's underneath.



Mattresses were found inside, a box for an impromptu latrine, a meager supply of provisions, which would hardly be enough once to have a bite to eat to such a crowd of guys. Primitive ventilation system the criminals "kindly" organized in the van, soon covered themselves. And close the dark space was filled with the stench of sewage and vomit. hung in the van a heavy atmosphere of grief that seemed to be palpable.






Oxygen was depleted catastrophically. And I had to look exit. The driver, the only adult, decided to try to move the hatch through which they were herded into the van. He folded the mattresses, climbed on makeshift mountain and began to try to move it. With huge labor, but the hatch began to give in. The older boys came to Ray's aid.



In turn, constantly resting and suffering from lack of air, they rose to the ceiling, moved the sheet and changed. Until finally from above rubble fell. A man with the help of teenagers in the literal sense gnawed their way out of freedom, since the kidnappers turned out to be self-confident and sprinkled the entrance only lightly, for disguise.

A string of exhausted teenagers and toddlers trudging through the field, I saw a quarry guard, near which, as it turned out, all this happened. The man goggled his eyes and blurted out: “Yes, the whole world!"






Police, press, parents, fuss, tears of joy. It turned out that in a roundabout way they were brought only to a neighboring town. During investigation under hypnosis, Ray remembered the number of the van that blocked road. It was registered in the name of Frederick Newhall Woods. The 24-year-old blockhead was the son of the owner of that very quarry. They take him home warm. And then they discover his assistants - the Schonfeld brothers, Richard and James, who were 24 and 22 years old.



And then the thrash begins. Because the police need find out the motives. It turns out that the basis of the crime was a horror story, which overgrown idiots read in a magazine.

Report the crime to the police and set the conditions for morons just... couldn't. Didn't get through due to line overload: pparents abductees were cut off by phones. A letter has been prepared ransom note to the Department of Education. But, Accordingly, there, too, no one knew anything.



And the icing on the cake: the Woods family was more than wealthy. The Schonfeld brothers also did not live in poverty. James then explained to the police, that they got into debt. And we decided in this way to close all debt obligations. After all, "children are defenseless and priceless."



Greedy and, to put it mildly, not very smart. This fact was even recognized attorney for the main defendant. The brothers were released in the 2000s. And Woods sentenced to 27 life terms, applied for parole 19 times. And received refusal. There is information that in August of this year the petition is still satisfied, allowing the 70-year-old Frederick to live out his allotted time on the loose.

However, the old man in prison did not get bored: he married three times and twice divorced, acquired a luxurious property next to the prison after receiving a multi-million dollar inheritance.

But what about the children? Happy end did not happen: after the postponed stress, almost everyone is addicted to alcohol and illegal drugs. All their lives they were tormented by panic attacks, had nightmares, tormented by phobias such as fear of mice, wind or cars. Several casualties became criminals themselves and went to jail because of "aggressive attempts to control others."



Ed Ray

The Woods Foundation even paid compensation to the victims. Not too much big. “A psychologist,” as one of the victims said. Ed Ray became national hero. In honor of the driver in his hometown even organized a holiday. Although regularly returning to events that I want to erase from memory, then more pleasure. Heroic driver passed away in 2012. And in recent days, almost all former the captives of the dungeon visited their savior in the hospital.



Morality? Stupidity, arrogance and greed is boundless. Important understand that there is no perfect security anywhere. But also hopeless situations do not exist. You can always find a way out, get out yourself and bring others along.