Hostages Released After Sebastopol Stand Off (1973)

KPIX-TV news footage from March 2 1973 with Ch.5 reporters Pat O'Brien and Mike Lee, featuring scenes from the end of a hostage stand-off at 1716 Hurlbut Lane north of Sebastopol in Sonoma County. Two men - David Clair Ferguson and Douglas T Savory - have just surrendered to county Sheriffs, after holding homeowner Michaela Madden, Sheriff's Lieutenant James Caulfield and reporter Boniface Saludes hostage for 9 hours. Prior to this we're told that deputies Joseph Romano and Edward Spadorcio were shot and injured by 4 men after they stopped a car on nearby Highway 12. Two of these suspects (Ferguson and Savory) woke Michaela Madden up shortly afterwards and took her hostage but released her 5 children. Incudes views of Ferguson and Savory being arrested after giving themselves up to Sheriffs, glimpses of Boniface Saludes and Lieutenant Caulfield following their release and a brief interview with Madden. Mike Lee ends this report by explaining that a search is ongoing for the other two suspects in the original shooting incident on Highway 12 in nearby Freestone, which resulted in another arrest. We aren't sure if  the 3rd suspect shown on-camera under arrest is Joseph Carbonaro or Raymond Cadena because the voice-over information provided in KPIX's report conflicts with that of an account in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper. Opening graphic designed by Carrie Hawks.

Please note that this screener was edited together using many different 16mm film picture and sound elements (prior to the COVID-19 lockdown), to try and present the KPIX report as it might have been aired on television at the time. Although we don't have any studio footage featuring KPIX's news anchors. The fragments of film which survived and the separate magnetic soundtrack were in heavily edited, chaotic states and this is reflected in a choppy screener.

An account of this incident can be read in the Saturday March 3rd 1973 edition of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper by Jim Brewer, on p.2.