Man in Boy-Buying Case ‘Wanted to Be Loved’

In a pair of jailhouse interviews, a 71-year-old man accused by Berkeley police of trying to buy a 4-year-old boy told two newspapers that he wanted to “raise him just like any child.”

The San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News interviewed Kenneth Parnell, who served five years in prison in the 1980s for kidnapping two other young boys, on Wednesday at the Santa Rita Jail.

Parnell acknowledged that his attempt to buy a child had been inappropriate but said he simply sought affection. “Time is running out on me,” he said. “I wanted to raise him just like any child. I wanted to be loved.”