Freed Kidnaper ‘a Marked Man’ if He Returns to Site of Crimes

SAN FRANCISCO —  Convicted kidnaper Kenneth Parnell became a free man Tuesday, concluding three years of parole amid fears that he will be a “marked man” if he carries out reported plans to return to Mendocino County.

Parnell, 56, was paroled to Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay Area after serving five years in prison for kidnaping then 7-year-old Steven Stayner from Merced on Dec. 4, 1972, and Timothy White, then 5, from Ukiah on Valentine’s Day in 1980. Both boys were abducted as they walked home from school.

During Parnell’s trial, Steven Stayner testified that Parnell ordered him to call him “Dad,” renamed him Dennis Parnell and told people Stayner was his son throughout the eight years they roamed Northern California back roads, living in trailer parks and motels.

Although he said Parnell regularly sexually abused him, charges of child abuse against Parnell were dismissed in 1981 when a state appeals court said the statute of limitations had expired.

Conditions of Parnell’s parole had required him to stay in Alameda County, attend weekly therapy sessions and stay away from children. He was also prohibited from traveling through Mendocino or Merced counties.

Colorado-based author Mike Echols said Parnell, a former hotel clerk and drifter, has lived in a Berkeley boarding house, periodically working as a short-order cook and dishwasher.

He said he has received various communications from Parnell, who told him he planned to return to Mendocino, where he was arrested eight years ago for holding Stayner and White captive.

“He’s a free man, of course,” Mendocino County Supervisor John Cimolino said of Parnell. “We’re powerless to do anything about where he goes. But if he comes to Ukiah, I think he’ll be a marked man.”

The county opposed Parnell’s parole to that area three years ago when, because of good behavior and work credits, he was released from prison after serving five years of his eight-year, eight-month sentence for two kidnaping convictions.

“People have yet to forget what took place,” said A. G. Rochester, Mendocino County’s undersheriff. “It will create a hardship for him and law enforcement to keep things under control. And yet, he’s free to go where he likes. Unless he breaks a law, there’s not much we can do about it.”

State Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Gore said his office was not aware of any protest about Parnell. “We have received no letters . . . no communications of any kind,” he said.

Victim Angry

Parole Agent Michael Smith in Oakland declined comment Tuesday about Parnell’s activities during his parole or any of Parnell’s plans.

Word of Parnell’s move angered Steven Stayner, who said he cannot forgive him.

“I pity him for the sickness he has. I wouldn’t trust him around any child of any age,” said Stayner, who hopes to become a police officer.

Stayner said he escaped from Parnell on March 1, 1980, and hitchhiked 40 miles with White to seek help from Ukiah police to prevent White’s sexual abuse. Parnell had kidnaped White two weeks earlier and held him in a one-room cabin in a remote area west of Ukiah.

Parnell has a history of psychological problems and attempted suicides starting in childhood. He was sentenced to three years in prison in 1951 at the age of 19 for sexually molesting an 8-year-old Bakersfield boy and spent time in a Utah prison in the ‘60s for robbery and grand larceny.