On November 13, 1989, Westley Allan Dodd attended a “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” showing in Camas, Washington — but he wasn’t there for the movie. He quickly spotted an unattended 6-year-old heading to the restroom after the light went down. Dodd threw the child over his shoulder and tried to walk out of the building.
The boy screamed so hard, he dropped him and ran to his car which broke down just two blocks away. The child’s mother’s boyfriend caught up with him and held him down until the police arrived.
Not only had Dodd attempted to kidnap the young boy in the theater, he was also responsible for the recent rape and murder of three other young boys in the area. He claimed that he’d molested at least 175 children over the previous 15 years, crimes he’d mapped out in a chilling diary that included gruesome sketches and details of the pact he believed he’d made with Satan.
At trial, even Dodd asked for his own execution, and in 1993, he became the first American to be hanged in nearly 30 years. His final words before execution were: “Somebody once asked me… if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said no. I was wrong.”
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His execution came up as controversial as he was to be hanged, and a lawsuit was filed mentioning that the method of execution was a violation of the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution but as Dodd chose execution by hanging himself, it couldn’t stop the execution.
There is even an episode titled “Malice” in the series Real Detective showcasing his crimes and how he was bought to justice.
My family and I lived in Portland, OR while all this was going on. I had two little boys and was terrified to let them out of my sight anywhere, including our backyard, after Lee Iseli was kidnapped from a playground in Portland and murdered by Dodd. Dodd took himself out of the equation, which was the right thing. What a despicable character.