Westley Allan Dodd (July 3, 1961 – January 5, 1993) was an American convicted serial killer and sex offender who sexually assaulted and murdered three young boys in Vancouver, Washington, in 1989.

[4][5] The Seattle Times reported that Dodd described in a diary written during his imprisonment that his father had been emotionally and physically abusive, that he was often neglected in favor of his younger siblings and that he witnessed violent fights between his parents.

His father eventually told an Oregon newspaper that he was aware of this behavior but largely ignored it, since he felt his son was otherwise a "well-behaved child who never had problems with drugs, drinking or smoking.

[11] In one of these incidents, Dodd offered a group of boys $50 to accompany him to a motel room for a game of strip poker.

He moved into an apartment block that housed families with children, and worked at fast food restaurants, as a charity truck driver and other such jobs.

After finishing probation, Dodd stopped going to treatment and moved to Vancouver, Washington,[6] where he was hired as a shipping clerk.

Dodd's sexual fantasies became increasingly violent as his behavior escalated; he would later say, "The more I thought about it, the more exciting the idea of murder sounded.

"[7] On September 4, 1989, Dodd went to David Douglas Park with a fish fillet knife and shoelaces, seeking out young boys to kill.

[6] 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 both.

[6] On October 29, Dodd drove to Portland, Oregon, where he encountered 4-year-old Lee Iseli and his 9-year-old brother Justin at a local park.

The next morning, Dodd strangled Lee to death with a rope and hung his body in the closet, photographing it as a macabre "trophy".

[12] Dodd would later confess to police that he had originally planned not to kill the boy, but eventually decided that it was necessary to eliminate him based on his possible testimony.

[6] Dodd kept a low profile and mostly stayed in his apartment, writing down future plans for child abductions and constructing a homemade torture rack for his next victim.

[13] On November 13, 1989, Dodd drove to Camas, Washington, around 12 miles (19 km) east of Vancouver, where he attempted to abduct 6-year-old James Kirk II from the restroom of the New Liberty Theatre.

Kirk began fighting and crying as Dodd attempted to leave the theatre through the lobby, carrying the boy in his arms.

Dodd was charged with aggravated first-degree murder in the deaths of the Neer brothers and Iseli, plus attempted kidnapping of another child.

During his trial in Clark County Superior Court, the prosecution read excerpts of Dodd's diary and displayed photographs of Iseli in captivity.

His last words, spoken from the second floor of the indoor gallows, were recorded by the media witnesses as:I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped.

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 rarely the usual cause of death from hanging.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit saying that execution by hanging was a violation of the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

[25] Dodd's profile was featured along with another convicted sexual predator imprisoned in Washington in the 1992 Frontline episode "Monsters Among Us".

In the episode titled "Malice", detective C. W. Jensen describes his involvement in bringing Dodd to justice and the effect it had on him personally.

Dodd was the basis for an unseen character, a child killer named "Wayne Dobbs", in the 2002 film Insomnia, starring Al Pacino.

Several books have been written about the case, including: When the Monster Comes Out of the Closet by Lori Steinhorst, who communicated with Dodd in writing and by phone almost daily for 18 months prior to his execution; Driven to Kill by true crime author Gary C. King;[27] and Dr. Ron Turco's book about his experience during the initial investigation to assist in developing a profile of the killer.