I was getting bored I didnt have a TV, Westley Allan Dodd, 28, of Vancouver, Washington, told detectives. So on September 4th, 1989, he drove to a park because he thought, It might be a place where I could find a boy and get something going.
In the park he kidnapped two small brothers and raped them. Then: I pulled my knife out from under my trouser leg. I reached over and stabbed one of them and I turned to the other and stabbed him two or three times.
Later Dodd bought a map of the area and marked off several parks where he might find children playing. As he drove home he saw four-year-old Lee Iseli playing alone. He abducted the child, took him to his flat in Vancouver, stripped him and spent the next few hours molesting him and taking photographs.
All that night he continued to molest the little boy. Later he described how he killed Lee at 5.30 a.m. on the morning of October 30th before he left for work:
I took a piece of rope and wrapped it around his neck and pulled it tight. I figured Id probably been trying to choke him for two minutes or so already, and didnt know how much longer it was going to take. So using the rope I carried him over to the wardrobe and tied the end of the rope around the clothes rack in the wardrobe, and left him hanging there. I took a picture of him.
Because he didnt want to hurt the boy or cause him any pain, he said he waited until after the boy was dead before engaging in anal intercourse.
Dodd was arrested after attempting to kidnap another young boy in a cinema. When he confessed to the three child murders he pleaded for a prompt execution, insisting that he should be hanged, and declaring: I dont deserve anything better than those kids got. They didnt get a nice, neat, painless, easy death. Why should I?
He got his wish. On Tuesday, January 5th, 1993, he became the first man to be hanged in America for 28 years when he plummeted to his death through the trap-door at Washington State Penitentiary.