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Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 &#x2013; January 5, 1993) also known as the Vancouver Child Killer, was an American serial killer and convicted sex offender. He got in trouble for sexual offense starting early on in his life. He eventually ended up sexually assaulting then murdered three young boys. After pleading guilty to the charges of murder, he received the death penalty. His execution brought attention to the public because he firstly decided not to appeal it and then decided he wanted to be executed by being hung. This execution was preformed on January 5, 1993, and was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965.

Childhood
Westley Allan Dodd was born in Toppenish, Washington, on July 3, 1961, the oldest of Jim and Carol Dodd's three children. Dodd claimed he was never abused or neglected as a child. He claimed, however, that the words "I love you" were never said to him as he grew up, nor could he ever remember saying them. The Seattle Times reported that Dodd described in a diary written during his imprisonment that his father was emotionally and physically abusive, that he was often neglected in favor of his younger siblings, and that he witnessed violent fights between his parents. At school, Dodd was not welcome into any social groups, leaving him with no friends. By the age of 9, Dodd was aware of this attraction to boys. On July 3, 1976&#x2014;Dodd's 15th birthday&#x2014;his father attempted suicide following an argument with his wife.

Sex Offenses
At the age of 13, Dodd began exposing himself to children in his neighborhood. His father eventually told an Oregon newspaper that he was aware of the boy's behavior, but largely chose to look the other way, especially since he was otherwise "a well-behaved child who never had problems with drugs, drinking, or smoking". By the time he entered high school, Dodd had progressed to molestation, beginning with his younger cousins, and then neighborhood kids he offered to babysit and the children of a woman his father was dating. At the age of 15, Dodd was arrested for indecent exposure, but police let him go with a recommendation of juvenile counseling.

In August 1981, Dodd tried to abduct two little girls, but they reported him to the police. No action was taken. The following month, he enlisted in the Navy, and was assigned to a submarine base in Bangor, Washington, where he started abusing children who lived on the base. Once, Dodd offered some boys $50 to come with him to a motel room for a game of strip poker. This time, he was arrested. Despite confessing to police that he planned to molest the boys, he was released, with no charges filed. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested again for exposing himself to a boy and discharged from the Navy. Dodd spent 19 days in jail and underwent court-ordered counseling. In May 1984, he was arrested for molesting a 10-year-old boy, but received only a suspended sentence.

Dodd planned his entire life around easy access to "targets", as he referred to children. He moved into an apartment block that housed families with children, and worked at fast food restaurants, as a charity truck driver, and other such jobs. He repeatedly molested the pre-school-aged children of a neighbor, but the woman feared that pressing charges would be too traumatic for the boys.

In 1987, Dodd tried to lure a young boy into a vacant building, but the boy refused to go with him and instead told police. Prosecutors were aware of his history of sexual offenses, and recommended five years in prison. However, once again, Dodd received minimal punishment because he had not actually touched the boy or exposed himself. He was put on probation and had to got to psychiatric treatment. After finishing probation, he stopped going to treatment and he moved to Vancouver, Washington There he got a job as a shipping clerk.

In the early autumn of 1989, Dodd decided that David Douglas Park in Vancouver, Washington was a good place to find potential victims. He was arrested several times over the next few years for child molestation, each time serving short jail sentences and being given court-mandated therapy. All his victims (over 50 in all) were below the age of 12, some of them as young as two. Most of them were boys.

Dodd's sexual fantasies became increasingly violent over the years saying "The more I thought about it, the more exciting the idea of murder sounded. I planned many ways to kill a boy. Then I started thinking of torture, castration, and even cannibalism. He also wrote about wanting to cannibalize the genitals of his victims and perform "experimental surgeries" to turn them into obedient zombies. A psychiatrist who evaluated Dodd following one of his convictions said that he fit the legal criteria for a "sexual psychopath".

Murders
On September 4, 1989, Dodd went to Vancouver's David Douglas Park, with a fish fillet knife and shoelaces, and sought out young boys to kill. He lured two brothers, 11- and 10-year-old Cole and William Neer, to a secluded area, where he forced them to undress, tied them to a tree and performed sex acts on them both. When he was done, he stabbed them repeatedly with a knife and fled the scene. The boys were soon discovered in the park. Cole was dead at the scene, while William died en route to the hospital.

After the murders of the two brothers, Dodd started a scrapbook with newspaper clippings and other facts about the murders. On October 29, Dodd drove to Portland, Oregon and there he encountered four-year-old Lee Iseli and his nine-year-old brother Justin at a local park. The boy was playing alone on a slide, and Dodd succeeded in convincing the boy to come with him. Justin had gone home, so Dodd told Lee that he "would drive him back to his house". He managed to bring Lee to his apartment in Vancouver apparently unnoticed, and he ordered the boy to undress. Dodd then tied Lee to his bed and molested him, taking photographs of the abuse. Dodd kept Lee overnight while he continued to molest him, all the while jotting down every detail in his diary. The next morning, he strangled Lee to death with a rope and hung his body in the closet, photographing it as a macabre "trophy". He would later confess to police that he had not originally planned to kill the boy, but eventually decided that it was necessary to keep him from telling anyone. Dodd stuffed Lee's nude body in trash bags and threw it in some bushes near Vancouver Lake. He burned Lee's clothing in a trash barrel except for the boy's underwear, which he kept as a souvenir of the crime. One days later, Lee's body was discovered, which sparked a manhunt for the killer. Dodd kept a low profile and mostly stayed in his apartment, writing down future plans for child abduction and also constructing a homemade torture rack for the next victim.

Execution
Less than four years elapsed between the murders and Dodd's execution. He refused to appeal his case or the capital sentence. He insisted that he was uncontrollable and would kill again, stating in one court brief: "I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape or kill someone else. If I do escape, I promise you I will kill and rape again, and I will enjoy every minute of it." He also said in some interviews that death would give him relief from guilt over the murders. During his trial, he wrote a pamphlet on how parents could protect children from child molesters such as himself.

By Washington state law, Dodd had to choose one of two methods for his execution: lethal injection, or hanging. He chose hanging, later stating in interviews that he chose that method "because that's the way Lee Iseli [his final victim] died". His hanging was the first use of that method 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:

I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said, 'No.' I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord, and you will find peace.

Dodd was executed by hanging at 12:05 a.m. on January 5, 1993 at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. He was pronounced dead by the prison doctor and his body transported to Seattle for autopsy. The witnesses said that The King County Medical Examiner, Donald Reay, found that Dodd had died quickly, within two to three minutes. Though Dodd did not die from a broken neck, which is the most common way to die from a hanging, Reay found that it was not painful. He was cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes turned over to his family. He was cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes turned over to his family.

Execution Controversy
This execution came with a lot of controversy over Dodd choosing to be executed by being hung.The American Civil Liberties Union filed a law suit saying that this method of execution was a violation of the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The law suit made it all the way to the Washington Supreme Court, which ended up being unsuccessful in blocking Westley Allan Dodd's execution, largely because Dodd did chose to be hung. On the day of the execution, many people gathered outside the prison in either support or against the execution. There was a lot of media attention around this execution. TV reports showed people the loud sound that the trap door made, along with the silence that follows it. Newspapers even report on things like the rope that was going to be used, and how to probably prepare it for the best effects.