Westley Allan Dodd

Dodd was the basis for an unseen character, a child killer named "Wayne Dobbs", in the 2002 film Insomnia, starring Al Pacino. He was fictionalized as a man who murdered a young boy in a way similar to Dodd's murder of Lee Iseli.

Dodd wrote detailed accounts of his murders in a diary which was found by police. After pleading guilty to the charges of murder, he received the death penalty. After refusing an automatic appeal, his execution by hanging on January 5, 1993 was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965.

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 not from a broken neck, which is the usual cause of death from hanging. Reay stated that Dodd's death had likely not been very painful. Dodd was cremated following the autopsy, and his ashes turned over to his family.

In 1990, Dodd was sentenced to death for the murder of the Neer brothers, as well as for the separate rape and murder of Lee Iseli.

In the early autumn of 1989, Dodd decided that David Douglas Park in Vancouver, a heavily wooded park with several secluded trails, would be 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 (around 50 in all) were below the age of 12, some of them as young as 2, most of them boys.

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.

On November 13, 1989, Dodd attempted to abduct 6-year-old James Kirk II from the restroom of the New Liberty Theatre in Camas, Washington, but the child began fighting and crying as Dodd was leaving the theater through the lobby, carrying the boy in his arms. Despite Dodd's attempts to calm the boy, theater employees became suspicious. Once outside, Dodd released his victim before getting into his car and driving away.

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 placed on probation and ordered to seek psychiatric treatment. After finishing probation, he stopped going to treatment and moved to Vancouver, Washington, where he was hired as a shipping clerk.

Once, Dodd offered a group of boys $50 to accompany 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.

In August 1981, at the age of 20, Dodd tried to abduct two little girls, who reported him to the police. No action was taken. The following month, he enlisted in the US Navy, and was assigned to the submarine base in Bangor, Washington, where he began abusing children who lived on the base.

The Seattle Times reported that Westley 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 had discovered that he was sexually attracted to other boys. On July 3, 1976—Dodd's 15th birthday—his father attempted suicide following an argument with his wife.

Washington state law gave Dodd the choice of either lethal injection or hanging for his execution. He chose hanging, later stating in interviews that he preferred that method "because that's the way Lee Iseli [his final victim] died". His execution by hanging was the first in the United States since George York and James Latham were hanged by Kansas in 1965. Dodd's execution was witnessed by 12 members of local and regional media, prison officials, and family members of the three victims. Dodd ordered broiled salmon and fried potatoes for his last meal. His last words, spoken from the second floor of the indoor gallows, were recorded by the media witnesses as:

Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993), was an American convicted serial killer and sex offender. In 1989, he sexually assaulted and murdered three young boys in Vancouver, Washington. He was arrested later that year after a failed attempt to abduct a six-year-old boy at a movie theater.

Westley Allan Dodd was born in Richland, 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. His younger brother Gregory was arrested in 2016 for the attempted sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl.