One of three men who kidnapped 26 schoolchildren and their bus driver, then buried them alive in an underground bunker, was granted parole after nearly 40 years in prison.

James Schoenfeld, 63, applied for parole 20 times before he finally received initial approval on Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reports.

In 1976, Schoenfeld, his brother Richard and their friend Frederick Woods kidnapped a bus full of children from Chowchilla, California, and buried them, as well as their driver, inside a moving van beneath a rock quarry near Livermore, California.

They planned to ransom the children, who were ages 5 to 14, for $5 million after suffering losses on a real estate project, according to the Times.

http://www.people.com/article/chowchilla-bus-kidnapping-james-schoenfeld-gets-parole