22 Facts About Kenneth Parnell

Kenneth Eugene Parnell was born in Amarillo, Texas to Cecil Frederick and Mary Olive Parnell, during the region's Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression.

Kenneth Parnell later moved with his mother, his two half-sisters, and a half-brother to Bakersfield, California, where his mother operated a boarding lodge.

In March 1951, Kenneth Parnell was arrested for raping a young boy and impersonating a police officer; he was sentenced to four years in prison.

Kenneth Parnell had lured the child through use of a deputy sheriff's badge he bought at an army-navy surplus store.

Kenneth Parnell escaped from a state institution in Norwalk, but was recaptured.

Kenneth Parnell married 15-year old Patsy Jo Dorton in 1949, had a daughter in 1951, and divorced in 1957.

Kenneth Parnell claimed to have married a third and final time in 1968, but no records were ever found to substantiate this.

On December 4,1972, Kenneth Parnell abducted seven-year-old Merced resident Steven Stayner with the help of Edward Ervin Murphy, a co-worker at the Yosemite Lodge, where Kenneth Parnell worked as a night auditor.

Kenneth Parnell had attempted another kidnapping with his mistress Barbara Mathias, but that failed to go to plan.

Kenneth Parnell conscripted Stayner into aiding him in kidnappings, but Stayner had always failed to grab the targeted child to the point Parnell stopped using Stayner as an accomplice, berating him for being an "incompetent".

On February 14,1980, Kenneth Parnell abducted five-year-old Timothy White from Ukiah with the help of Sean Poorman, a minor and an acquaintance of Stayner.

Stayner waited until Kenneth Parnell had gone to his night shift job as a clerk at a local motel on March 1,1980, and, carrying White on his back, hitchhiked 40 miles to Ukiah.

Kenneth Parnell was convicted of both kidnappings and served five years of his seven-year prison sentence.

In January 2003, Kenneth Parnell was arrested again after trying to coerce his caregiver's sister, Diane Stevens, into buying him a four-year-old boy for $500.

Kenneth Parnell was, by this time, 71 years old and suffering from diabetes and emphysema, as well as other ailments brought on by an earlier stroke, requiring near 24-hour-a-day nursing care in his cluttered apartment in the 2600 block of Mathews Street in Berkeley.

Kenneth Parnell paid $100 for a birth certificate and had $400 on his person for the completion of the transaction when he was to receive the child on January 3,2003.

Kenneth Parnell was arrested that day, subsequently telling authorities "I wanted a family".

Kenneth Parnell was convicted on February 9,2004, on the charges of attempting to purchase a child and attempted child molestation, even though no child had been targeted.

Kenneth Parnell was sentenced to 25 years to life under California's "three strikes" law.

Kenneth Parnell remained incarcerated until his death, at age 76, on January 21,2008 at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville, California.

Kenneth Parnell had been under hospice care for some time.

Stayner's account of his time with Kenneth Parnell formed the basis of a 1991 book by Mike Echols.