The Chowchilla Kidnapping: Why Me?

On July 15, 1976, twenty-six school children and their bus driver were abducted from their school bus and taken on a terrifying ride which ended up in their being buried alive. Larry Park was one of the youngest of the children being six years old when the kidnapping occured. Go along with Larry as he goes through the horrifying events that changed his life forever. I am Larry Park. The kidnapping of my school bus changed my life from the moment the three men stopped us on our way home from summer school. What started as a fun day at the Chowchilla town pool ended with thirty-six our of terror that has forever changed who I was and how I would grow up. Come along with me as I discuss my life growing up, how I came to hate my life, my family, and the world around me. Feel with me the emotions of guilt and frustration, the sadness and the hatred that encompassed my life as a result of these events. As you read, you will get a first-hand glimps into the horrors left behind by such a traumatic event. From laying awake at night listening to a voice which came to me just two nights after the kidnapping occured, to my pre-teen years where I learned to gain power through the killing of barn yard animals, I am going to take you through a journey of self examination that was hard to live, harder to admit, and harder still to write. Live with me the days and nights of horror as a little boy grows up thinking that he had been abandoned by all the people he loved and counted on. You might think it amazing that the greatest minds of the day in 1976 thought that none of the children would need counseling after the kidnapping. I have looked into my own eyes and seen evil and death waiting. I have lived in the fear that I would grow up to be a serial killer. I have wondered with fear what tomorrow would bring. I have been afraid of strangers passing me by on the street and untrusting of my own family as I grew up growing more and more distant from them as the long days and nights unfolded for me. I share all of this with you. Have you ever had a bad dream and woken up in a cold sweat? My dreams have terrified me, to this day I fear going to sleep at night because I sometimes have such images of torture and horror. After the worst of my dreams I see the faces of those I have harmed in my sleep on the ceiling above my bed and coming at me from the shadows of my room. At forty-one years old, I still need a nightlight. This is your oppertunity to see where it all began and how it unfolds. I have been told that this story has the potential to help thousands of people through the telling. My prayer is that you will find strength where you didn't know you had it and that you will see the importance of telling your own story if you have faced trauma in your life. We don't have to face our horrors alone . . . ever. May this story bless you in the fact that through it all I have found hope, that I believe in the peace offered by God, that through counseling I have been able to hold back the tide of feelings that threatened to overwhelm me in my adult years.