logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2022
6m 23s

Wondery Presents Against The Odds: Chowc...

Wondery
About this episode

When an entire school bus full of children goes missing from a rural California town, local law enforcement, the feds, and the media mount an enormous manhunt. The kidnappers locked the children and their bus driver in a storage container, burying them alive in a quarry. With no rescue in sight, the bus driver tries to get the children and himself out. This is the story of the largest kidnapping for ransom in American history.

This is just a preview of Against the Odds. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at Wondery.lnk.to/ATO_Scamfluencers

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Up next
Apr 2025
Listen Now: Don’t Cross Kat
Kat Torres has the insta-perfect life. She is rich, gorgeous and not ashamed to share it. Her posts about witchcraft and “alien baths” drew in over a million followers, all chasing the dream of a lifestyle like hers. But as she gathers more followers around her, the secrets benea ... Show More
5m 52s
Mar 2025
Billy Mitchell: Truth or Kong-sequences | 151
Billy Mitchell became the king of arcade games when he achieved a perfect Pac Man score, and held the highest score in Donkey Kong. But in the early 2000s, a documentary about an upstart trying to be the best at Donkey Kong leads fans to examine how Billy actually achieved those ... Show More
48m 15s
Mar 2025
Introducing: Law & Crime’s LUIGI
When Luigi Mangione allegedly gunned down UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, the media called it a senseless crime. But online, a different story emerged—one of rage, reckoning, and a suspected killer turned folk hero. More than just a true crime podcast, LUIGI, hosted by Jesse Weber, dares ... Show More
5m 39s
Recommended Episodes
Nov 2022
Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping | Vanished | 1
<p>In the summer of 1976, three masked gunmen hijack a school bus full of children in rural Chowchilla, California. The twenty-six kids and their bus driver are driven to a quarry and buried alive. Back in town, no one has any idea where the children went, who took them, or why. ... Show More
41m 44s
Dec 2022
Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping | Buried Alive | 2
<p>The kidnapped children and their bus driver are trapped underground in the back of a moving truck, and they’re running out of food and water. They decide the only way out is to dig their way to the surface. Meanwhile, the amateur criminals who hijacked the school bus are tryin ... Show More
41m 16s
Jul 2022
The Chowchilla Kidnapping
<p>On July 15th, 1976, a school bus driven by 55-year-old Frank Edward Ray, for Dairyland Elementary, in the school district of Chowchilla, California, was hijacked by three armed men. Ed Ray was driving 26 children, ranging in age from 5 to 14, home from a summer class trip to t ... Show More
1h 9m
Jan 2023
Idaho murders roommate allegedly saw killer in the house; TikTok cousins solve baby kidnapping
This Week on True Crime Daily The Podcast: New court documents detail evidence used to arrest the alleged killer in the University of Idaho slayings. Plus, the valiant efforts of two moms bring an alleged child abductor to justice and a missing child home. Joshua Ritter joins h ... Show More
1h 3m
Dec 2022
Chowchilla School Bus Kidnapping | One Survivor’s Story | 3
<p>On the afternoon of July 15, 1976, nine-year-old Jennifer Brown Hyde and her older brother Jeff were returning home from a summer school trip to a local pool. On their way home, masked men with guns boarded their school bus, and her life was changed in an instant. In this spec ... Show More
41m 22s
Jan 2023
#229: The Vanishing School Bus - 26 Kids Went Missing Together
<p>When someone goes missing without a trace, it’s enough to make the hair on our arms stand up. One second they are here; the next second, they are gone.</p><p>When 26 kids vanish into thin air on their school bus… the whole nation loses their minds.</p><p>Chaos. Parents calling ... Show More
1h 10m