Product Code Database
Kenneth Eugene Parnell (September 26, 1931 – January 21, 2008) was an American convicted sex offender, child rapist, and kidnapping infamously known for committing the abductions of 7-year-old Steven Stayner in Merced, California, in 1972 and 5-year-old Timothy White in Ukiah, California, in 1980. He was convicted in 2004 for attempting to purchase a child for sex and died in prison.
In March 1951, Parnell was arrested for raping a young boy and impersonating a police officer; he was sentenced to four years in prison. Parnell had lured the child through use of a deputy sheriff's badge he bought at an army-navy surplus store. He escaped from a state institution in Norwalk, but was recaptured.
In a 2000 interview about his 1951 crime, Parnell said he kidnapping and molested the boy because his wife was pregnant and that he "had to find another outlet." He claimed to have had three wives, but records could only show one marriage. Parnell married 15-year old Patsy Jo Dorton (1935-2018) in 1949, had a daughter in 1951, and divorced in 1957. Later that year he married again and had another daughter. Parnell denied in that same interview having been sexually abused himself, although Mike Echols' book I Know My First Name Is Steven claims that he was molested at the age of 13 by a boarder in a rooming house that his mother owned in Bakersfield.
More than a decade after the sodomy case, Parnell was convicted of armed robbery in Utah. While imprisoned for this charge, his second wife filed for divorce. Parnell claimed to have married a third and final time in 1968, but no records were ever found to substantiate this. Parnell’s father, Cecil Frederick, died July 31, 1972, in Denver.
Stayner lived as Parnell's "son" for seven years, during which he was repeatedly sexually abused and brainwashing by Parnell and Barbara Mathias. In addition to the molestation, Stayner later claimed that Parnell's attitude altered from severe beatings to sometimes "spoiling" him. As Steven got older and entered puberty, Parnell's sexual interest in Stayner waned and Parnell sought a new boy to "build his family". He had attempted another kidnapping with his mistress Barbara Mathias, but that failed to go to plan. He also 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". Years later in interviews, Stayner revealed he intentionally sabotaged the kidnappings.
Stayner died in 1989 of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident.
Stevens was aware of Parnell's past and cooperated with police in setting up a sting operation that would lead to his arrest. According to Diane Stevens' testimony, Parnell requested that the child have a "clean" rectum, indicating sexual intentions. He 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. Parnell was arrested that day, subsequently telling authorities "I wanted a family".
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. The prosecution successfully argued that sexual aids and pornography found in the apartment, along with Stevens’s testimony, were enough to prove that Parnell's intentions were criminal in nature. Parnell was sentenced to 25 years to life under California's "three strikes" law.
Prosecutor Tim Wellman had largely argued his case before the jury by showing a slideshow of Stayner marked "1", then of White marked "2", and a blank screen marked "3" to show the nonexistent child that would have been abducted had police not been notified. Wellman said Parnell "was looking for one last hurrah. One last Steven Stayner, one last Timmy White."
aired on Hulu with all 3 episodes available immediately on the release date of April 21, 2022.
|
|
