Westley Dodd was a loner. When he wasn't busy building his ill conceived "torture rack" out of boards and ropes, he sat hunched over at his desk, writing deeply disturbing fantasies in his diary.
Westley Allan Dodd is perhaps one of the most calculating predators to prowl the playgrounds. Small in stature, and sometimes assuming a baby-voice himself, he did not fit the profile of the dangerous trench-coated "stranger" that children are taught to avoid. (Organizations like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are working hard to dispel myths of child-molesters as repugnant trolls luring kids with candy — they are usually someone kids trust.) Like many child molesters, Dodd knew how to gain access to his victims — he befriended children with gifts and games, and knew how to coax them into dangerous situations without using force. He was described as being good with kids. Few knew that he was also deadly with them.
Like most child molesters, Dodd betrayed the trust of children who were close to him. Stranger abductions are usually a last resort. If a sexual predator has access to kids that know and trust him, he will take advantage of their trust. Dodd's first victims were his own cousins. At 14 he molested his own 8-year-old cousin in a closet, her 6-year-old brother later that day, and another male cousin weeks later. Dodd later molested the kids of a woman his father was dating.
The arrests didn't stop him. At the age of 15 Dodd had already been arrested for exposing himself, but he was not prosecuted. Instead, the authorities recommended counseling.
Dodd volunteered to baby-sit. He took a co-worker's son on a fishing trip, as a birthday present, where he sexually abused him. He repeatedly molested a neighbor's 2 and 4-year-old kids, but the mother didn't want to traumatize the boys by pressing charges.
"Now, when I got to Seattle, I had learned I was less likely to be reported for a molestation than for an attempt. I decided that from now on I would be a little more forceful. I would no longer accept no as an answer to my requests," he later wrote. He chose the most vulnerable children, including a roommate's 2-year-old son who was partially deaf and could not yet talk. The boy resisted, and Dodd tied his hands with a bathrobe strap. "The idea of force was exciting," he said.
In 1987, Dodd chose the first child he would murder — it would be an 8-year-old boy he met while working as a security guard for a construction site. On his day off he drove to where the boy lived, hoping to lure him into one of the vacant buildings nearby. Then he planned to take the child into an isolated wooded area where he would kill him.
But the kid sensed that his new "friend" was dangerous. After Dodd asked him to help find a "lost little boy," the 8-year-old said that he was going home to get some toys for the lost boy, and promised that he would be right back. Instead, he stayed inside, and his mother called the police.
"By his own admissions he is predatory and uncontrollable"
At 12:05 am on January 5th, Westley Dodd was executed by hanging. He was the first inmate to die at the gallows since 1965.
------------
Of Course, the Internet was not exactly available during this time period. However, we have the tools to investigate about 90% of the American population at our fingertips. One of theose tools is
http://www.knowaboutthem.com
