On this day, Jan. 5, in 1993, a convicted serial killer and child molester became the first person executed by hanging in nearly 30 years. Westley Allan Dodd, of Washington state, was sentenced to death for molesting and fatally stabbing 11-year-old Cole Neer and his 10-year-old brother, William, and for a separate rape and murder of 4-year-old Lee Iseli. Dodd refused his appeal. “I must be executed before I have an opportunity to escape,” he said. “If I do escape, I promise you I will kill prison guards if I have to and rape and enjoy every minute of it.”
By state law, Dodd was allowed to choose his method of dying. He chose hanging because “that’s the way Lee Iseli died,” he said. His request to televise his hanging was denied.
Scott McCabe
