Chowchilla, California - 26 Children & Bus Driver Kidnapped - July 15, 1976

On July 15, 1976, twenty-six children and their bus driver were kidnapped in Chowchilla, California by armed men blocking the highway around 4 p.m. Some details of the crime corresponded to details in "The Day the Children Vanished", a story written by Hugh Pentecost and published in Alfred Hitchcock's Daring Detectives (1969). A copy of this book was in the Chowchilla public library, and police theorized it had been the kidnappers' inspiration.
All three were sentenced to life in prison. Richard Schoenfeld was released in 2012. James Schoenfeld was granted parole in 2015 without a parole date being set. Frederick Woods remains in prison; his next possible parole hearing will be in the fall of 2015.
Frank Edward "Ed" Ray (February 26, 1921 – May 17, 2012) received a California School Employees Association citation for outstanding community service. Before he died in 2012, he was visited by many of the schoolchildren whom he had helped save.
A study found that the kidnapped children suffered from panic attacks, nightmares involving kidnappings and death, and personality changes; many developed fears of such things as "cars, the dark, the wind, the kitchen, mice, dogs and hippies," and one shot a Japanese tourist with a BB gun when the tourist's car broke down in front of his home. Many of the children continued to report symptoms of trauma at least 25 years after the kidnapping, including substance abuse and depression, and a number have been imprisoned for "doing something controlling to somebody else."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1976_Chowchilla_kidnapping