"Exactly What a Serial Killer Looks Like": Westley Allan Dodd in Prison

On camera before his execution, Westley Allan Dodd described how his offending began at thirteen, how he made himself ready to kill, and why he said the death penalty did not deter him.

Subject

Westley Allan Dodd

Runtime

5:02

Content warning: Dodd describes the abduction, sexual abuse and murder of young children.

The Interview

In the period between his death sentence in 1990 and his execution in January 1993, Westley Allan Dodd gave several interviews on camera. This five-minute excerpt, from a programme that has not been identified, shows him speaking to an interviewer whose questions are cut out. He says he is "exactly what a serial killer looks like", that he kidnapped and killed three boys, and that his offending began when he was thirteen. The uploader states that parts of the clip were removed.

Historical Context

Dodd had a long record of sexual offences against children in Washington and Idaho, which brought short sentences. On September 4, 1989, he murdered two brothers, Cole Neer, 11, and William "Billy" Neer, 10, in David Douglas Park, Vancouver, Washington. On October 29, 1989, he abducted four-year-old Lee Iseli from a playground in Portland, Oregon, and killed him the next day. On November 13, 1989, he tried to abduct a six-year-old boy from a cinema in Camas, Washington; the boy's cries brought help and Dodd was caught. He pleaded guilty, and on July 15, 1990, a Clark County jury sentenced him to death. He refused to appeal and chose hanging.

Circumstances of the Interview

Dodd spoke to the media repeatedly while awaiting execution and argued that he should be executed. In this excerpt he speaks of his court battles as over, which suggests it was recorded late in that period. While in custody he also wrote a pamphlet on keeping children safe from molesters, and here he gives similar advice.

What the Interview Covers

Dodd describes his childhood as happy and says he was never abused or neglected. He says his offending escalated from the age of thirteen, that he dropped out of counselling after a couple of months because it was not required, and that he kept getting away with his crimes. He says that to be able to kill he had to make the thought exciting through fantasy. He describes luring a small boy with the promise of a trip to Kmart and McDonald's, and quotes what his victims said to him. He says the system does not work, that the death penalty was no deterrent to him, that he does not deserve "a neat, clean, painless little death", and that children can protect themselves: "just say no, yell for help, and run away." The excerpt ends with a few seconds of another speaker, apparently a relative of the Neer brothers, recalling the day the boys went to the park.

What Makes the Recording Significant

Dodd was unusual in how openly he described his offending on camera, and in pressing for his own execution. Here he links his crimes to years of offending that went unpunished or lightly punished, and to his own fantasies, rather than to any abuse in his childhood.

Archival Importance

Dodd's hanging on January 5, 1993, at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla was the first legal hanging in the United States since 1965. This excerpt preserves his own account, in his own voice, of how he came to kill.

Important Caveats

Dodd's account of himself, including his statements about his childhood and his remorse, is his own. The programme and date are not identified, and the clip has been cut by the uploader, so it is not a complete interview. The final speaker is not identified on screen. The six-year-old boy whose cries led to Dodd's arrest is not named here, and the children Dodd abused earlier are not named.

Programme Voice: Be aware that portions of this story are intense.

Westley Allan Dodd: I am exactly what a serial killer looks like. I'm exactly what a sex offender looks like. It can be anybody. I kidnapped three little boys, a four-year-old, ten-year-old and eleven-year-old, and I killed all three of them. I, I didn't just go out and start killing. It, uh, everything started happening when I was just thirteen years old.

Westley Allan Dodd: Authorities don't care if I engage in that kind of activity either. I progressed a little bit more. Uh, I started asking other kids to pull [unclear: "our" / "my"] pants down. After that arrest, and the charges were dropped, I was in counseling for a short period of time, for only a couple of months. It wasn't required, so I, I quit going. See, things kept progressing. I kept getting away with all these crimes, [unclear: "well" / "while"] I was going to try to do a little bit more. I was enjoying what I was doing. You know, I mean, hey, great, I could do anything I want, anything. They couldn't report what I had done, who had done it.

Westley Allan Dodd: Uh, but I wasn't sure I could kill, so in my mind I had to make that exciting. I had to fantasize about it. And to be able to kill, I had to make that thought exciting. And in a matter of just a couple of weeks I was able to do that, and I was ready to kill. I wanted to kill.

Westley Allan Dodd: [unclear: "Stabbing him" / "Having him"] before he could get away, he told me, "I'm sorry." After all that had happened, all planning and fantasies and everything, I, I can't believe I actually did it. I actually killed somebody. I killed two little boys. And I, I just became obsessed with it at that point. And that, that is all I thought about. Every minute I was awake, I had dreams about it.

Westley Allan Dodd: Uh, at work, that's all I thought about. And there was a little boy, I figured was maybe four or five. Oh, okay, I'm going to get that little boy. I'm going to get that little four- or five-year-old. Ask him if he wanted to play some games, and that sounded like a good idea. He was kind of hesitant about going anywhere with me. [unclear: "He" (Whisper only)] reached out my hand, and just kind of an automatic response, he reached out and took my hand. And, and that was it. He went with me.

Westley Allan Dodd: And I said, "Well, what if I take you down to Kmart and we'll buy you something to play with, and we'll go to McDonald's for dinner? Then would you like to spend the night with me?" And he said, "Okay, yeah, that would be all right." So I, I just kidnapped him a couple hours earlier, and I take him into a busy Kmart store. But he's, he kind of mumbled, "What?" And I, I repeated, I said, I said, "I'm going to kill you in the morning." And he said, "No, you're not." I said, "Okay, I won't." He never opened his eyes.

Westley Allan Dodd: Moving to a different place where I could kidnap kids and keep them and use them for as long as I wanted. Um, kind of use him as sex slaves. He yelled, "Someone help me, he's killing me." Um, he, of course, at that time didn't have any way of knowing that that's exactly what I intended to do. The things I would have done would have been even worse than murder.

Westley Allan Dodd: The system does not work, and from my point of view it doesn't even want to. I was never abused. I was never sexually abused. I was never physically abused. I wasn't neglected. The family had plenty of money, owned [unclear: "our" / "their"] own house, two cars, a trailer. Uh, I had a happy childhood.

Westley Allan Dodd: Death penalty is not a deterrent. I knew it could happen. I knew I would probably get the death penalty if I was ever caught. I didn't care. I mean, death means nothing to me. Other, no more worries. Um, nothing else to worry about. No more court battles are over. Uh, it's all over.

Westley Allan Dodd: Hey, your kids can protect themselves, even from a killer. Uh, just say no, yell for help, and run away.

Westley Allan Dodd: I don't think I deserve a neat, clean, painless little death. You know, I mean, hang me. I know I won't stop killing. And when you lay down at night and you hear a dying little boy telling you that he's sorry, uh, or a four-year-old, "No, you're not going to kill me," uh, you think about those just about every night, and, and it makes you really, really think about what it is you've done.

Westley Allan Dodd: Well, you know, it's too late to be sorry. The time to be sorry is before you're in jail, not after you're in. You know, it's easy to, to say you're sorry after you broke the cookie jar, not before you broke it.

Unidentified Speaker: [unclear: "Kept on checking on" / "Kept unchecking on"] my brother so he wouldn't do anything wrong. Asked if they could, uh, go to a, one of the, uh, parks in the area and, and play. And, you know, it was a nice sunny day, and I said, "Sure." [recording ends] ---