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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast.
The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and how. Episode 182. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Rosland Weyberg Thun. Last episode in this saga concluded with the horrific murder of Lee Isele. A crime so brutal and heinous that it deeply affected your humble host.
I'm probably going to wait a while before covering pedophilic serial killers again. This expose has been taxing. Tonight we rein in and wrap up the tale of Wesley Allen Dodd's life and crimes.
i am particularly going to go into great detail about the one thing that gave dodd a modicum of fame aside from his murders namely his execution enjoy
As always, I want to publicly thank my elite TSK Producers Club. Their names are...
Marilyn, Meow, Missy, Nick, Oakley, Operation Brownie Pockets, Robert O., Robert R., Russell, Sabina, Skortnia, Scott, Sputnik, The Radio.
Trent, Val, and Vanessa, you are the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast, and without you, there would be no show. You have my deepest gratitude. Thank you.
I am forever grateful for my elite TSK Producers Club, and I want to show you that your patronage is not given in vain. All TSK episodes will be available 100% ad-free to my TSK Producers Club on patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast. No generic ads, no ad reads, no jingles. I promise.
And of course, if you wish to donate $15 a month, that's only $7.50 per episode, you are more than welcome to join the ranks of the TSK Producers Club too. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, Wednesday, the 1st of November, 1989. It was a beautiful, crisp, late autumn morning.
the sun has barely started to rise and the sky is pink in the east the trees were almost leafless but some still retain their flamboyant autumn colours we ride along sixty-seven-year-old elmo abernathy
as he pulled out of the driveway of his southeast Portland home and drove a few kilometers north on Interstate 5 to Vancouver, Washington. He was going pheasant hunting at the Washington State Game Preserve, located near Vancouver Lake, at the end of La Framboise Road. Today, the area is more commonly known as Shillapoo Wildlife Area.
and it is beautiful, especially on a clear autumn day like this. The area mixes forested areas with wide open fields and marshes. Abernathy had been there before, and he knew the hunting to be good, due to the fact that the Washington State Department of Wildlife stocked the preserve twice weekly with pheasants during hunting season.
He could not have been in a better mood as he exited the freeway, passed through part of Vancouver, turned onto La Framboise Road, and drove down the three-kilometer two-lane asphalt road. A few minutes later, he passed through the entrance to the game preserves.
It was 8 a.m. when Elmo steered his truck into the first parking area close to the south shore of Vancouver Lake. After he got out of the truck, he let his dog out of the back of the truck and started walking. Surrounded on three sides by tall grass, large boulders and trees, Elmo walked through an open gate at the northwest corner of the lot
and entered into an expanse of tall grass and brush. The area, circumscribed by farmland and orchards, was isolated from the city and residential areas, and seemed rife for hunting birds that morning, just as it had been on Abernathy's previous hunting trips there.
However, after walking around in the brush, hunting for his quarry for the next hour and a half, Elmo realized that the hunting wasn't anywhere nearly as good as he had first thought it would be. Other hunters must have gotten there early, perhaps at four a.m., when the preserve officially opened for the day.
After deciding to call it quits, at least for that day, he whistled for his dog, and together they began walking back towards the parking lot. He had walked only a few meters on the return trip when he noticed a lily-white object in the brush just ahead of him. He squinted his eyes, but still could not quite make out what it was.
it looked almost like a large lifelike doll or mannequin but he could not believe that someone would have discarded something like that all the way out there elmo now more than a little curious continued to approach it with his dog taking the lead when he was within two metres of the object the dog ran over and sniffed at it abernathy suddenly stopped dead in his tracks
and stared in horror at the object in front of him. It was no mannequin. What lay before him, with eyes forever closed to the world, was the naked, dead body of a small boy. The boy had been dumped in a bushy area about seventy-five feet—that's twenty-three meters—south of the northern parking lot. The boy's head lay so that it was looking to the east.
The legs were spread apart, exposing the genitalia. No attempt had been made to conceal the body, and there were no clothing near the body. It did not take the detectives long to realize that the dead little boy was none other than the missing Lee Isele.
When the boy was taken for autopsy, attending physician Dr. Jan Baez found no obvious blood in the boy's anus, but there was mucoid material and fecal soiling. The boy's anus was gaping, and three lacerations were clearly visible. Under closer scrutiny, Dr. Baez found 15 additional lacerations.
The findings confirmed anal penetration. Lee Isele had been sodomized. As I told you, dear listener, in the previous episode, in this saga, psychopaths lie, even to themselves. Dodd claimed in his diary that he tried to have intercourse with Lee Isele, but that he failed. The evidence shows that he lied. For the sake of Lee, let us hope.
He raped the boy post-mortem. The pain of anal penetration at such a young age is almost unimaginable. The discovery of Lee Saley's body caused a media sensation and massive public outcry. They now had a bona fide serial killer, a pedophilic serial killer at that, on the loose, hunting and killing at will.
The police had a large task force assembled and worked 18-hour shifts, relentlessly hunting down leads and clues in an attempt to find the predatory killer. The authorities got thousands of tips, and all of them were followed up on. Unfortunately, none of them turned out to be anything substantial. While the police seemed to be going in circles,
Wesley Allen Dodd had already decided how his next victim would die. He would suffocate the next child after tying him down, but he would need something extra to make it more exciting this time, and decided that it was time to construct the torture rack that he had envisioned earlier.
Dodd went out to a local lumber store and purchased the wood he would need, and then spent his spare time constructing the device. He spent hours measuring, sawing, and hammering the wooden pieces together. He completed it by attaching rope restraints at each corner for the victim's hands and feet, and another in the middle to hold his victim's lurching midsection down.
When he was finished, he stood back and admired his handiwork. Although crude, it would serve its purpose of restraining a helpless, naked boy. Once finished, he masturbated furiously several times until he fell asleep. He repeated this the following night, escalating his fantasies of torture and murder. By Saturday, the 11th of November, fantasizing about it was no longer enough.
He craved the real deal. After searching the newspapers for movie listings showing children's films, he found a theater where the film The Bear was playing. Just after 7 p.m., he loaded his quote-unquote hunting gear into his yellow 1974 Ford Pinto station wagon and drove to the theater in Vancouver.
Inside the cinema toilet area, he tried to intimidate a young seven- to eight-year-old boy into coming with him to his car. The boy, scared of the strange man, refused Dodd's advances. Sensing that the boy might scream or make a scene, Dodd quickly left the scene. Once back at home, he fantasized about the boy in the cinema and all the terrible things he wanted to do to him.
As always, he accompanied his fantasies with furious masturbation. The next evening, Dodd was on the prowl again. He drove around Vancouver between five and seven p.m., looking for children, but found none that he could easily kidnap. As an alternative plan, he drove to the New Liberty Theatre in Commerce.
a small town some fifteen miles that's about twenty kilometers east of vancouver where honey i shrunk the kids was playing he arrived in time for the nine p m show but to his disappointment discovered that there was only one boy there
He was about eight to nine years old, which Dodd considered too old and too large to easily get out of the theater. Once again, Dodd was resigned to return home to more fantasies and more masturbation. Wesley Allen Dodd updated his diary entries. In an entry dated Monday, the 13th of November, Dodd laid out his future plans, and I will quote him for you now, dear listener.
"'Beware that the content is graphic and brutal. "'4.40 p.m. will now prepare ropes, as I had for incident number two, "'tied to bed and hidden under it, to use on victims as soon as wanted or needed. "'Needing only to tie loose rope ends to the victim, other ends already attached to bed or my rack. "'My wood framework built for this purpose.'
4.45 p.m. I now ask Satan to guide me, and provide or help me obtain a boy tonight. This one I'd like to keep a while, keeping him awake all night, each night, so he'll sleep all day while I'm at work, tied and mouth taped shut, to be on the safe side. I may only keep him two or three days, or even longer if it works out.
I'll give him a haircut and buy a new set of clothes for him to change his appearance in case I take him out as I did Lee in number two. I might even get two boys, perhaps a six- or seven-year-old taking a three- or four-year-old to the toilet. In the case of two like this, the older, or both, would decide, when I'm tired of them, which was to die."
Don't know if survivor or just a lone boy would die or be used to help get another boy home. We'll have to wait and see. I also want to do my medical experiments this time. Once finished with sexual play on the bodies. Also hoping for more better pictures. May also play spin the bottle or stripping games. Especially with two boys.
5.25 p.m. Now going to Camus. Will check out local parks before movie. End quote. The next evening, Dodd was out hunting again, this time promising to himself he would not return home empty-handed. As stated in his diary, he returned to Camus and the cinema there. He sat down in the back row at the New Liberty Theatre.
The family film Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was still playing. But Dodd was not there for the film. Instead, he systematically scanned the audience for his next victim. He watched a young boy who walked up the aisle towards the lobby, alone. Dodd casually got out of his seat and followed the child into the restroom.
Another boy, six years old, also walked through the lobby to use the bathroom. Dodd, smiling, motioned to the six-year-old to go first. The most powerful designer drugs are the digital ones we use daily. And we get high off them. One touch, tap, like, scroll at a time. You know, just like tech creators want us to.
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For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it. But when you feel like you have no time for yourself, non-negotiables like therapy are more important than ever.
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Visit BetterHelp.com slash Serial Killer today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash Serial Killer. The theater employees relaxed in the quiet of the lobby after the film had started. But a child's frantic screams pierced the calm. The cries were coming from the men's bathrooms.
Dodd pushed the door open, carrying the shrieking boy over his shoulder. The boy was screaming his heart out. It was very loud, even though Dodd had tried punching the boy hard in the chest to knock the wind out of him. Dodd pretended to be the boy's father, saying as he patted the child on the back, and I quote, "'Calm down, son. You're causing a scene. Calm down!' end quote."
It was not just the intensity of the screams that caused the heroic theater employees to react. It was what the boy was screaming. He screamed, and I quote, Help me! Please help me! I don't know this man! He is trying to hurt me! Help me! Please help me! End quote.
They ran after Dodd outside, who hurried down the dark street, tightening his grip on the tearfully frightened boy. Approaching the car, he fumbled for his keys, breathing hard, looking over his shoulder. But six-year-old James broke free and scrambled away as fast as he could. He ran straight into one of the theater owners who was pursuing Dodd, grabbing onto her legs and holding tight.
The two of them returned to the theatre in order to find the boy's mother. Meanwhile, William Ray Graves, the boyfriend of James' mother, heard a commotion after the boy left to use the restroom. In the lobby, he heard what almost had happened and became furious. He loved the boy as his own, and he loved his girlfriend.
The thought of anyone hurting either of them was intolerable. Someone had seen the abductor in a mustard-yellow Pinto station wagon. Graves ran outside into the dark streets, looking for the car, determined to chase him down, even if by foot. For once, Dodd's devilish luck had run out.
and for some reason the Pinto station wagon had stopped in the middle of the street, apparently stalled. This guy was stuck, and Graves cautiously made his move. He approached the Pinto, acting as casually as his racing heart would permit, and asked the driver if he needed help. Dodd nervously glanced at Graves and accepted his offer.
When he had his chance, Graves grabbed Dodd in a chokehold and dragged him back to the theater. He told Dodd he was detained, and that they were going to wait for the police to arrive. It took a massive amount of willpower not to seriously injure the pathetic, whimpering man who had tried to hurt his girlfriend's son. It did not take long for officers to arrive at the scene.
Officer R. L. Strong from the Camas Police Department took statements from the employees and others who had witnessed Dodd as he had attempted to kidnap young James. After placing Dodd in handcuffs, he told the sour-looking man that he was under arrest. At first, Dodd made a weak attempt at denial. He tried lying using the oldest trick in the book—
using a little bit of truth to convey a larger lie. He admitted to having tried to kidnap young James in order to molest the child. However, he said he had originally planned on molesting the boy in the bathroom, but, as the child made such a ruckus, decided to take him outside to rape him there.
The lie was that he had no intention of raping James in the theater or outside. He had planned on taking James home, tying him to the torture board and murder him in the most gruesome manner imaginable. Dodd's plan was to make the detectives focus on the kidnap attempt and his previous history of sexual misconduct.
rather than the three murders he had committed. His plan failed spectacularly. When presented with being a suspect in the murders, he exclaimed, and I quote, "'Oh my God! I like kids. I love little children. I would never hurt a child!' end quote."
The officers saw how Dodd was trembling and sweating and looking around, looking for escape. Dodd might as well had liar printed in large letters on his forehead. So they simply continued the interview, asking questions and letting Dodd know in no uncertain terms that he was not going anywhere.
The break came when they asked to search Dodd's home. At that point, Dodd sighed deeply and leaned forward, bowed his head and started to cry. Between sobs, Dodd told the detectives that they would find a certain key on his key ring. The key, he said, would unlock a briefcase that they would find beneath his bed.
Inside the briefcase, he said, they would find photos of Lee, Isele, and other items that pertained to the murders of the Neer brothers. The officers looked at each other. They had found the Vancouver child killer. Dodd's trial was held on Monday, the 11th of June, 1990.
During his trial in Clark County Superior Court, the prosecution read aloud excerpts of Dodd's diary and displayed photographs of Lee Saley. The defense did not call any witnesses or present any evidence, suggesting only that Dodd must be legally insane. The jury found Dodd guilty. Prosecutors requested the death penalty, and the jury agreed.
Dodd would claim that speaking in his own defense was pointless. Washington state law gave Dodd the choice of execution, by lethal injection or by hanging. Dodd stated that he wished to die by hanging, because that was how he had killed Lee Isserly, his last victim.
Washington State Penitentiary officials went to work sprucing up the gallows, which had not been used since 1963, when a man named Chester Self was executed for the murder of a Seattle cab driver during a holdup that netted only two dollars. They painted the walls, and the old mechanical levers that dropped the trapdoors were replaced by electronic buttons.
Workers even washed the windows through which witnesses would watch the hanging. On Monday, the 7th of December, 1992, prison officials purchased the rope to be used in the hanging, as well as a black hood. The rope, made of Manila hemp, was one and one-quarter inches in diameter.
prison employees boiled it and stretched it to remove any stiffness and to ensure that its spring would no longer pose a problem when dodd dropped through the trap-door the last thing they wanted was to have his body bobbing up and down in front of the witnesses due to any elasticity left in the rope
the rope was also oiled and waxed to enable the knot to slip smoothly as it pulled taut around dodd's neck from the weight of his one hundred and thirty nine pound that sixty three kilogram body
Finally, they brought in a carpenter who constructed a wooden collapse board, a device which could be strapped to Dodd's back to keep him upright in the event that he collapsed or became uncooperative when ordered to take his place on top of the trapdoor.
Wesley Allen Dodd would be the first person to be executed by hanging in the entire USA since 1965. A thick blanket of freshly fallen snow covered a vast area of the flat farmland that makes up much of eastern Washington state.
The desolate wintry countryside surrounding Walla Walla Prison seemed an appropriate setting for a confessed pedophilic serial killer to spend the final segment of his life, far removed from the Northwest's major population centers that he had prowled looking for prey. Wesley Allen Dodd granted a final interview with a reporter from Kinewick television station, during which he said,
that he had made the choice to be put to death because death was a more lenient sentence, at least in his case, than spending the rest of his life behind bars. He also said that he chose hanging over lethal injection as the method of death because of guilt over what he had done. Whether Dodd actually felt remorse for his actions, or whether he simply knew that by choosing hanging he would get a lot of attention—
we will never know the scene outside the walla walla prison on the night of the fourth of january nineteen ninety three seemed almost surreal shrouded by the still falling snow and encased by a fierce arctic chill the prison although aglow from the light reflecting snow and the illuminated walls and guard towers
remained an ominous sight on the edge of town where it seemed as if it was cordoned off from the rest of the world. A small group of anti-death penalty protesters, contained in their own designated fenced-off area near the prison's entrance, chanted and waved signs as they shivered in nature's deep freeze in a demonstration that would last only forty minutes.
Despite their presence, everything seemed orderly. However, perhaps because the evening had been so carefully orchestrated by prison officials, it was a night to be remembered. One of the nation's most hated men was about to become the first man in thirty years to be hanged there, and the countdown to his death had begun.
The prison parking area that was designated for the news media was filled nearly to capacity, mainly with vans and trucks bearing satellite link-up dishes from major network affiliates from all around the country. At 9 p.m., members of the media were let inside to a designated media center.
The media pool was informed that Dodd had eaten salmon, scalloped potatoes, mixed vegetables, coleslaw and lemonade as his last meal. They were further informed that Dodd had spent time with a member of the clergy and his lawyer for much of the evening. Twelve witnesses to the death of Dodd were chosen by way of lottery from the media pool.
At 11.55 p.m., after being subjected to a pat-down search, the group was escorted into a room facing the execution chamber, which was little more than a bi-level compartment separated by glass windows from the witness-viewing area. Jewel Cornell, Lee Selly's mother, and Claire Neer, Billy and Cole Neer's father,
were already there, seated next to Darrell Lee, Dodd's lawyer. Seconds after midnight, Dodd was brought from his holding cell, twenty paces away, and led into the upper level of the gallow. Wearing a white T-shirt, grey prison shirt, jeans and sneakers, he appeared in front of the large picture window.
When asked if he had any last words, he stepped boldly up to a microphone next to the window and said, and I quote, I was once asked by somebody, I don't remember who, if there was any way sex offenders could be stopped. I said no. I was wrong. I was wrong when I said there was no hope, no peace. There is hope. There is peace.
I found both in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Lord and you will find peace." When Dodd finished speaking, an opaque screen was drawn over the upper level windows to protect the anonymity of the executioners. A backlight was then turned on which airily silhouetted Dodd as he took his place over the trap door.
The witnesses below could see the coils in the noose, as one of the executioners, chewing gum, placed the dark hood over Dodd's head. The purpose of the hood was to protect the witnesses from seeing the grotesque facial contortions associated with hanging and strangulation.
A second executioner then positioned the noose around Dodd's neck and set the knot just behind his left ear. Dodd's hands were tied in front of him with leather straps, and his legs were similarly bound together at the ankles. Dodd appeared cooperative and did not waver. He did not need the wooden collapse board after all. He was apparently ready to die.
Very little time had elapsed from the moment Dodd had finished his statement to him taking his place over the trapdoor. At a given signal, one of the hangmen pressed a button, and without warning, the trapdoor beneath Dodd's feet snapped open with a loud bang. It took less than a second for Dodd to drop seven feet one inch—that's two point fifteen meters—
This was the length of rope that one of the hangmen had calculated would be needed to break Dodd's neck, based on his height of 5 feet 9 inches. That's 1.75 meters, and weight of 139 pounds, or 63 kilograms. The reason one simply does not make the rope longer than what is determined to be just right
is to ensure that the condemned prisoner's head does not get torn off when the rope halts the body's fall. It was 12.05 a.m. Dodd's body swung somewhat, and a slight movement could be seen in his abdomen, along with some in his hands. His legs, slightly bent, seemed to flex for a moment, and seconds later his body went limp.
There was no squirming, no gurgling, and no twitching. It seemed to everyone present that Dodd died quickly. Dodd's body hung there in the lower level, in full view of the witnesses for a little more than a minute before the warden, Tana Wood, closed off the screen. A doctor pronounced Dodd dead at 12.09 a.m., and his body was cut down.
An autopsy would determine that Dodd's neck, in fact, did not break as the hangman had planned. Instead, torn nerves and ligaments had caused Dodd to lose consciousness quickly, and he then strangled to death. His body was cremated, and the ashes delivered to his family for a private memorial service.
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And so it is that we come to the end of the saga of Wesley Allen Dodd, the Vancouver child killer.
Next episode will feature a brand new serial killer expo, say. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. What follows is a message to my dear Norwegian listeners in Norwegian. Som du kanskje har fått med deg er Seriemordepodden nå lansert, og første episode har vært tilgjengelig i to uker. Episode 2 i sagaen om Jeffrey Dahmer er tilgjengelig samtidig som du lytter til dette.
Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening. If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillerpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you. Good night.
Good luck.
