This day in history: A clue in Coeur d'Alene linked a California kidnapping fugitive to the area

In Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a 1976 FBI investigation into an abandoned car helped link James Schoenfeld—wanted over the Chowchilla, California school bus kidnapping—to the area. Two Coeur d’Alene police officers on patrol found a 1963 beige Chrysler matching the same license plate Schoenfeld had used when he was turned back at the Canadian border north of Spokane. Schoenfeld was a fugitive after being identified as one of three men who kidnapped children and demanded ransom, though the children later escaped unharmed. The FBI did not provide further details. The same date in 1926 also saw firefighters robbed on a train near Rathdrum.