Westley Allan Dodd (July 3,
1961 – January 5, 1993) was a convicted American
serial killer and child molester.
His
execution on January 5, 1993, was
the first legal hanging (at his own request)
in the United
States since 1965.
His childhood years
Dodd grew
up in Richland,
Washington
, in what has been described as a loveless home; he
was often neglected by his parents in favor of his two younger
brothers. He has stated that he was also ostracized in his
school environment and deprived of or denied any emotional
growth.
Criminal history
Dodd began sexually abusing children when he was a teenager; his
first victims were his own cousins. All his victims (over 50 in
all) were children below the age of 12, some of them as young as
two. Dodd's
sexual fantasies became
increasingly violent over the years (he wrote about wanting to eat
the
genitals of his victims).
He killed brothers
Cole and William Neer (aged 10 and 11, respectively) in Vancouver,
Washington
in 1989, and tortured,
raped and murdered four-year-old Lee
Iseli. After he was arrested for trying to abduct a boy from
a movie theater, the police found a homemade
torture rack in his home, as yet unused.
He was
arrested by local police in Camas, Washington
and interviewed by task force detectives.
Portland Police Bureau Detective
C.
W. Jensen and
Clark
County
Detective Sergeant Dave Trimble obtained Dodd's
confession and served the search
warrant on his home.
Several books have been written about the case, including
Driven to Kill by
true crime
author Gary C. King and Dr. Ron Turco's book about his experience
during the initial investigation to assist in developing a
profile of the killer.
Arrest and trials
Dodd was
sentenced to death in 1990 for
molesting and then stabbing to death Cole Neer (age 11) and his
brother William (10) near a Vancouver, Washington park in 1989, as well as for the separate rape and
murder of Lee Iseli (4).
Less than four years elapsed between the murders and Dodd's
execution. He refused to
appeal his case or
the capital sentence, stating "I must be executed before I have an
opportunity to escape or kill someone within the prison. If I do
escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and
rape and enjoy every minute of it." While in court he said that, if
he escaped from jail, he would immediately go back to "killing and
raping kids."
Dodd was
executed by hanging at 12:05 a.m. on January 5, 1993 at Washington State
Penitentiary
in Walla Walla
. By Washington state law, Dodd had to choose
the method of his execution, and state law gave Dodd two options:
lethal injection or hanging. Dodd
chose hanging, later stating in interviews that he chose that
method "because that's the way Lee Iseli died." He also requested
that his hanging be televised, but that request was denied. His
hanging was the first use of hanging for an execution in the United
States since
George York
and James Latham were hanged by Kansas in 1965.
His execution was witnessed by 12 members of local and regional
media, prison officials, and representatives of the families of the
three victims. He ate salmon and potatoes for his last meal. His
last words, spoken from the second floor of the indoor gallows,
were recorded by the media witnesses as:
Dodd was
pronounced dead by the prison doctor and his body transported to
Seattle
for autopsy. The King
County Medical Examiner, Dr. Donald Reay, found that Dodd had died
quickly and probably with little pain. He was
cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes
turned over to his family.
Dodd Died Quickly, Autopsy Finds
Body Returned For Cremation
See also
References
- Westley Allen Dodd - Child Serial Killer and Child
Molester
- The True Crime Website of Author Gary C. King - Driven to
Kill
- Ronald Turco
Further reading
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