Washington, A-F, 1886-1993, Undated

‘your father, you are the one to prove he is not,”

efficiently for several years. He had a grown son, Ted, and
a daughter, Marie, but they were not living at the Johnson
home at the time.

“Te didn’t have an enemy in the world,” a neighbor, Mrs.
Jack Foote, stoutly asserted.

Deputies Cannon and Holmes carefully searched the house,
outbuildings and grounds. They looked for any recent dis-
turbances of the earth which might indicate a grave. But they
found no clue to the mystery of Johnson’s disappearance.

“The trail is cold here,’ Cannon told Holmes. ‘‘We’ll have
to hop over to Yakima.”

Deputy Prosecutor Max Etter of Spokane County joined
Cannon and Holmes on their 150-mile trip west to Yakima.
Ted Johnson, son of the missing man, also went along.

“If the person who is writing those checks claims to be
Cannon
explained to the young man.

First call at Yakima was the Yakima branch of the Bank
of Commerce, which had sent the drafts over to the Spokane
bank. Fred Glaetzner, assistant manager of the Yakima bank,
called in Reva Bollen, bookkeeper.

“Yes, [| remember Mr. Johnson,” she told the officers. ‘“He’s
been in several times. He showed me a passbook and put in
two drafts on the Old National Bank. The drafts went
through, and the money was delivered to him.”

“How would you describe him?” asked Cannon.

“He is just an ordinary, medium-sized, middle-aged man,”
she said,

“Can’t you think of any distinguishing marks about him: fad
persisted Deputy Prosecutor Etter.

Miss Bollen hesitated. “Not about him personally,” she said
finally. “But I noticed he drove a flashy new Dodge car.”

“Now we're getting somewhere!” exclaimed
“Let’s go!”

Cannon.

He rushed from the bank with Holmes and went to the
Yakima -Dodge agency.

Lee IF. Bruff, salesman, remembered the deal.

“Yes, we sold such a car to Johnson,” he said. “He’s a
ranch hand working somewhere in the valley.” .

The deputies next went to the Yakima sheriff's office.

“We want to locate a man going under the name of Dave

Johnson, who has bought a new car lately,” Cannon told
Deputy Sheriff Bert Guns of Yakima County.

‘Johnson is a character we’ve had our eyes on for some
time,” Guns told the Spokane deputies.

“Why is that?”

“He’s just a ranch hand, who arrived here lately. But he’s
been splurging himself, spending money right and left, and
he bought that new .car. it seemed odd for a ranch hand.
We’ve just been waiting for him to make a false move. Now
that you want him, we'll pick him up.”

Sheriff Guns barked an order and Deputies Archie Simon
and Ed Wood, of the Yakima “hop patrol,” sped in a prowler
car to find the mysterious “Johnson.” They knew he had been
working at the John Dollenbacker ranch, and they went
directly there. Dollenbacker met them.

“Is that new fellow Johnson still working for you?” =e
Simon inquired.

“Yep,” said the rancher, “but he isn’t here right now. He’s
out somewhere riding in that new car of his.”

Deciding to come back later and pick up’ their man, Deputies
Simon and Wood got in their car and drove back toward
Yakima. As they were on the way, Wood suddenly sat bolt
upright.

“That’s him!” he cried.
Johnson’s at the wheel.”

There were four men in the car. The two officers drew up
alongside, crowded the car to a halt, and ordered the driver
to lead them slowly to the Yakima jail. The four men, two: |
of them white, two of them Indians, were booked there a few

|

“That car right ahead of us.

minutes later. =

Deputies Cannon, Holmes and Prosecutor Etter visited
the four in the jail office. One of the white men sat in a
corner, his head in his hands. He answered nOugIUY the
description given by the bank bookkeeper.

“Which one of you is Dave Johnson?” Deputy Holmes
asked.

ANDERSON, John Bruce, white, hanged Washington (Spokane) on November 1), 191.

By STUART WHITEHOUSE

A BLACKENED BUCKLE WITH THE INITIAL “D" WAS

THE CLUE THAT TRIPPED

“aT SEEMS MIGHTY FUNNY to us neighbors that a
lone woman like you should move out and take over Mr.
Johnson’s place, and him just walk out without saying

goodbye to anyone.”

The woman paused and smiled significantly.

“Yes, it seems mighty strange to us—but I guess it’s none
of our business,” she went on. “Well, glad to have met you,
Mrs. Boleneus. Goodbye.”

With a swish of her skirts, the neighbor woman walked
down the gravel path away from the neat white cottage set
in a forest clearing near Marshall, a settlement ten miles
southwest of Spokane, Washington.

Mrs. Ruth Boleneus, new owner of the small chicken ranch,
cast a troubled gaze after the departing neighbor.

Something, she knew, was wrong. Something dreadful... .

Mrs. Boleneus had felt this eerie sensation for the past
two weeks, since she had paid twenty-five dollars down to a
Spokane real estate agent and had taken possession of the
farm home she had dreamed of for years.

The cottage was charming. .

The setting was beautiful, -

But the moment she stepped foot into the house dlone, after
making the purchase, she knew something was not right
about. the place. That feeling grew as she noted that her

“neighbors glanced at her with more than curiosity.

Now this caller had brought into the open the community

’ feeling—that there was something strange about the sudden,

unexplained departure of the former owner, David Johnson.
With a sense of foreboding, Mrs. Boleneus turned back into
the house, that hot July day of 1940.

THIS SCHEMING SLAYER!

As she shut the front door, her body tensed. Again she
felt the wave of fear and horror which her new home brought
to her. .

This time she realized what it was. The sense of evil was

Lad YCISNI

~
as

TH6T Syotey *qaT LOT

wee

brought by something physical—the smell of death!

Something was dead, or had been dead in the building. She
was sure of that. It was the faint, horrible scent, now magnified
by the heat, which told her what had been bothering her all
this time.

Suddenly determined, she telephoned to the sheriff’s office in
Spokane.

“J—IT’m afraid Mr. Johnson, whose place I bought, has
been killed and buried here,” she reported.

Chief Deputy Sheriff James Cannon and Deputy Ted
Holmes drove up a few minutes later. Mrs. Boleneus met them
fearfully on the porch.

“The smell seems to come from ‘the cellar,” she said. “It’s
—it’s ghastly.”

“We'll look into it, ma’am,” Cannon said.

He clumped down the cellar steps with his partner. Mrs.
Boleneus waited anxiously on the porch.

The two deputies returned after five minutes. Cannon held
a shovel before him. On it was a small object, coyered by a
newspaper. ;

“Did you find him?” the woman demanded.

“Yes, ma’am, we did.” Deputy Cannon chuckled. .““He was
a dead rat. We'll properly inter the remains. Now you just
quit your worrying.”

Easier said than done. Mrs. Boleneus, still convinced some-
thing was wrong, dressed for the city and went to the office
of Rogers: and Rogers, who had handled the sale of the
Johnson farm.

W. Scott Rogers, prominent Spokane business man, looked
over the papers involved in the sale.

“Nothing wrong as far as I can see,”
wait——”

He called in two of the firm’s salesmen, H. E. Wessels
and Leonard V. Bates.

“Anything fishy about that sale of the Johnson chicken
ranch ?” Rogers asked.

“Not a thing,’ Wessels replied. “Johnson came in, said
he was getting out of the chicken business, and listed the
place for sale.”

Rogers smiled at Mrs. Boleneus. “You see ?”

But the ranch woman still felt that all was not well.

he declared. “But

She visited Chief Deputy Cannon. “I ‘hate to bother you~

so much,” she apologized, “but I cannot help but feel there’s
something out of place in the whole picture. Neighbors tell
me that Mr. Johnson was well-to-do and well liked. It doesn’t
seem right that he’d disappear into nothingness one summer

DEPUTIES learned that
* John Anderson (left) had ©
taken) Johnson’s car, a
~~ sold, his. ranch; : appro-
‘~‘priated his bank ac-
“count and even stolen |
his ‘name. “But ‘where
‘was Dave Johnson? ~

OFFICIALS converged
on. the Johnson - tanch
(right), scene of the
_ mystery. In foreground
“are Prosecutor Quack

enbush and his a

“sistant, Max Etter (ha
less), in discussion

day without a word to anyone.”

Cannon pondered. “If he was well-to-do, he must have had a
bank account,” the deputy finally said. “Let’s have a look-
see. May be nothing to it, but his bank may know something
we should know about his affairs.”

Cannon found that Johnson had an account in the Old
National Bank of Spokane. The deputy went with Mrs.
Boleneus to the bank and consulted J. C. Ferguson, draft
teller.

“Yes, we’ve had some business with Johnson _ lately,”
Ferguson revealed. “He had nearly $4000 here, but he’s
moved west to Yakima, and recently has taken out $2200 in
drafts and checks.”

“The signature on aie dratt was O. K,, I presume? ’ Cannon
queried.

“Of course. But just to make sure [ll check,” Ferguson
said.

While the teller was gone, Cannon warned Mrs. Boleneus:
“Everything is probably aboveboard, you know. I just wanted
to settle this once and for all.”

But Ferguson was white-faced when he returned to the cage.

_“Forgeries!” he cried. “Remarkably accurate forgeries |”

(Ep1tor’s Nore: The bank was fully covered by insurance
and no rightful claimant to the money lost a cent through the
forgeries. )

And so the case broke wide open. Some one was forging
Johnson’s name, drawing out his money—while Johnson
seemed to have disappeared !

The bank revealed that Johnson had a $3000 savings account
and approximately $700 in a checking account. The $700

-had almost all been drawn out by the mysterious forger. The

$3000 savings account, built up by Johnson during many
years of toil, had melted away like ice in the springtime at
the hands of the wily forger.

The forger had drawn one draft for $500, followed
by another for $1000—thus cutting Johnson’s savings in
half.

“Tt looks like murder,’ the amazed Cannon told Mrs.
Boleneus. “This forger wouldn’t dare make these withdrawals
on Johnson’s account unless he was mighty sure that Johnson
is where he can never make a squawk.”

But who was the forger? And where was Johnson—or
Johnson’s body ?

Sheriff Ralph Buckly had his deputies check with all
of Johnson’s neighbors. Johnson, it was learned, was
a widower of 58, who had operated the chicken ranch


In Re JAMES BLODGETT, Superintendent, Washington State Penitentiary,
et al., Petitioners

502 US —, 116 L Ed 2d 669, 112 S Ct —
[No. 91-716]
Decided January 13, 1992.

Decision: Mandamus to compel Federal Court of Appeals to issue decision,
on second habeas corpus petition by state prisoner condemned to death,
denied where state failed to object to order delaying decision.

SUMMARY

An accused was convicted in a Washington state trial court in 1982 on
multiple counts of murder and was sentenced to death. After his conviction
and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal (103 Wash 2d 1, 691 P2d 929)
and the United States Supreme Court denied certiorari (471 US 1094, 85 L
Ed 2d 526, 105 S Ct 2169), the accused in 1985 filed a habeas corpus petition
in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The District Court denied the petition, the United States Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit affirmed (829 F2d 1453), and the Supreme Court, in
1988, denied certiorari (488 US 948, 102 L Ed 2d 369, 109 S Ct 380). In
March 1989, the accused filed a second habeas corpus petition in the same
District Court, which denied a stay or other relief days later. The Court of
Appeals, however, granted the accused an indefinite stay of execution, and
the case was argued and submitted in June 1989. No decision was forthcom-
ing, and in 1990 the Court of Appeals did not respond either to inquiries
from the state attorney general or to the accused’s motion to withdraw
certain issues from consideration. In July 1990, the accused filed a personal
restraint petition in state court, his third state action for collateral relief. In
February 1991, the Court of Appeals noted the accused’s motion to with-
draw issues, requested a report on the status of the state court proceedings,
vacated its submission of the case, and did not act on a request that the case
be resubmitted. In March 1991, the state’s highest court denied the personal
restraint petition. In June 1991, the accused advised the Court of Appeals
that he wished to discharge his counsel and proceed pro se and that he
would file a third habeas corpus petition in the District Court. In August
1991, the Court of Appeals granted the motion to relieve counsel, directed
the accused to file his third habeas corpus petition, and stated that it would

Sake. fl a
CXCated 4, hey oth

U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 116 L Ed 2d

wait for the District Court’s ruling on that petition before taking further
action. Finally, in October 1991, the state attorney general filed With the
Supreme Court a petition for a writ of mandamus to direct the Court of
Appeals to issue its decision on the second habeas corpus petition. The Court
of Appeals’ response indicated that (1) the submission of the case had been
vacated in February 1991 because the appeal would have become moot if
the state courts had granted the personal restraint petition, (2) the court
wished to avoid piecemeal appeals by awaiting the District Court’s decision
on the third habeas corpus petition, and (3) consolidation of the last two
petitions was consistent with the objective of the Circuit’s Death Penalty
Task Force, which sought to eliminate successive habeas corpus petitions.

Granting the accused leave to proceed in forma pauperis, the United
States Supreme Court denied the state’s petition for a writ of mandamus. In
a per curiam opinion expressing the views of REHNQUIST, Ch. J., and WHITE,
O’Connor, Scaia, KENNEDY, SOUTER, and THOMAS, JJ., it was held that (1)
the Supreme Court would decline to issue a writ of mandamus to the Court
of Appeals—although the Supreme Court (a) was concerned that the state
had sustained severe prejudice by the 2'4-year stay of execution, (b) found
no plausible explanation or reason for the Court of Appeals’ delay prior to
the accused’s personal restraint petition, and (c) found grounds to question
both the necessity and the propriety of the Court of Appeals’ August 1991
order—because the state had not objected to the August 1991 order, whereas
the state, as a predicate for extraordinary relief, should have asked the
Court of Appeals to vacate or modify that order before coming to the
Supreme Court for relief, given the requirement of Rule 20.1 of the Supreme
Court Rules that, in order to justify the granting of an extraordinary writ, it
must be shown that adequate relief cannot be obtained in any other form or
from any ‘other court; (2) denial of the writ was without prejudice to the
state’s right to again seek mandamus relief or to request any other extraor-
dinary relief by motion or petition if unnecessary delays or unwarranted
stays occurred in the Court of Appeals’ disposition of the matter; and (3) in
view of the delay that had already occurred, any further postponements or
extensions of time would be subject to a most rigorous scrutiny if the state
filed a further and meritorious petition for relief.

STEVENS, J.,' joined by BLackmun, J., concurred in the judgment, express-
ing the view that the state’s petition for mandamus should have been
denied summarily, because (1) in only the most extraordinary circumstances
would it be appropriate for the Supreme Court to issue a writ of mandamus
to require a Federal Court of Appeals to render its decision in a case under
advisement; (2) the Court of Appeals’ response provided a completely satis-
factory explanation for its July 1990 decision to defer ruling on the merits
of the second habeas corpus petition pending state court disposition of the
personal restraint petition, namely, the desire to avoid piecemeal litigation
and to address all of the accused’s claims in a single ruling; (3) since that
explanation alone was sufficient to mandate denial of the state’s petition,
there was no occasion for the Court of Appeals to explain its delay prior to
July 1990; and (4) the state had failed to comply with Rule 20.1.

670

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ee ed i‘
(36

‘Jake the Hex’
Wins Another
Death Stay

WALLA WALLA, Wash., Dec. 25,
—(AP)—Jake Bird, the transient
Negro who said he would outlive

.}all who were linked with :the trial

that led to his death sentence, is
“tickled to death” over his latest
reprieve.

Bird, who has put off his hanging
by appearances in various courts in
person and by postcard, received
his latest reprieve from the
supreme court Friday. He was ad-
vised of it in his cell at the state
prison here.

While he has been exhausting
the legal processes, five of the
people connected with his trial

‘have died—including the _ trial

judge.
STAY GRANTED.

U. S. Supreme Court Judge Doug-
las Friday granted a stay of execu-
tion. It was granted until the
supreme court can review Bird’s
trial for the Tacoma ax slaying of
Mrs. Bertha Kludt.

John Tuttle, Walla Walla attor-
ney, said he had appealed to the
supreme court from rulings of the
state’s high court.

He argued, he said, that Bird in
presenting his case personally
twice before the supreme court of
Washington state was not permit-

ted full use of a transcript of his}:

superior court trial because he
lacked finances. Tuttle and Bird
contend that Pierce county, in
which Tacoma is located, should
have provided money to pay for

making the transcript.


4C Monday,

National News |

Medical school
applications —

are on increase ©

~The number of applicants to US.

Medical schools has increased for
only the third time in the past 15
years, prompting medical educa-_
tion officials to hope for an end to”
a downward trend some believed —
endangered the quality of ‘the na-
tion’s medical care. ~~

“The (decline. in the number of
applicants) was one of the greatest
threats to our ability to attract the
best and brightest people to the (2
field,” said Timothy Baldwin, 35, a - ew
resident physician on. the Ameri- 3
can Medical Association’ 's board of
trustees.

The reasons. for the decline in
applications are legion: grueling |
vears of schooling and training, an

March 27, 1989 = Sen n Jove 3 Mercury News

WE

WALLA WALLA, Wash. (AP) —
P ington state has found a. hangman to
execute a prisoner who walked .away
from a work-release program to. exact
vengeance against a woman who. testi-
fied against him after he assaulted her
‘years earlier.’

_If Charles Rodman Campbell goes. to

nation since Kansas executed four men in

-was told in the Truman Capote book’ “In
Cold ‘Blood,”

; brutal 1982 slayings of Renae ‘Wicklund,
her daughter and a neighbor would be the
=) state’s first in-‘nearly 26 years. -

~~ “Because ‘hangings are so rare. in the

rections officials had difficulty finding a

Associated Press.
“qualified executioner, said Rich oe

Charles Campbell killed three people speeatiie for the penitentiary. .

_—

ee rw chin

Wash- 7

the ‘gallows Thursday. morning as sched-
uled, it will be the first hanging in the |

-1965, including Richard Eugene Hickock -
and Perry Edward Smith, whose story ~

- , uled for 12:01 'a.m. Thursday.
- The execution of Campbell, 34; for the

| United States; state Department of Cor- »

or oac h es”

: righta 4 were: violated | “hihied. he: was ake
-Jowed to: miss the jury selection process;
‘even though it was.at his request. He also:

are keeping the person's ‘identity secret, . claimed :that.he: must'serve earlier sen::

- prompting the American Civil.
Union to ask for public-records to prove:
‘the executioner’s credentials...

Prison Director Lint Kinchelde ‘sald
‘the executioner was hired in the ‘United

States for. $1,500. Corrections. officials. :

_Campbell’s last avenue of appea!

-to begin today in the U.S.-District,Court
‘in Seattle, but federal. courts have turned ee
him down in the past. His final state-level -

request for a stay of his execetion

Barring a stay, Campbell: will ‘di by
hanging in the execution chamber at:the

“Washington State Penitentiary, unlesshe
decides to choose lethal/ injection of —
“drugs, which'he'so far has’ refused to: ‘do.
Hanging is Washington state's official
_form. of execution, although a. prisoner.

“May choose injection. = °

_Inhis pps Campbell argued that his .

ran
y

iberties -

‘ cp pow i

ay di sence 1

“terices before being executed and that the:
state's decision to have two. methods of:
execution violates his right to religious
Is was ut
_ choice in his ‘own’ death. ::

freedom because ‘he’ is forced to make a

- Defense attorney Al. Lyon ‘said he- ‘plans.

“to use basically the:same appeal in. feder:)

appeal ended last. week when. ‘Washing- “al court, “packaged: a little differently.”

ton’s Supreme: Court denied ‘Campbell’s
chic

- Campbell was convicted-of Jeaving an.

Everett. work-release center April 14;:

1982, and going to the Clearview home. of
- Wicklund, 31, whose testimony: about’ ani
earlier attack had sent him to: prison for:

‘sodomy and assault in 1974.0 0)
‘State and prison officials have -said,

ttle about their preparations for: the’

execution, -hoping to avoid the carnival.
atmosphere that accompanied the recent:
execution in Florida of another: Nene

ton state resident, Ted. Bundy." matt

al

Py Ree a

‘Rnantal Dunne -

|
i
{

Summoned by an anonymous telephone call from
a frightened woman, Seattle, Wash.., police forced
their way into the locked home of Mrs. Harriet
Arnold, 45 years old, left, and found her body
crammed into a small cabinet in the kitchen
below. She had been stabbed with an ice pick.
beaten badly and strangled with a dog chain still
twisted about her neck. The brutal murderer had
carefully opened a can of dog food and prepared
a meal for the woman's pet before making his
escape. There were no signs of a struggle and
nothing to indicate a motive for the slaying.

Police began a search for the
missing Denzel Davis, 23-
year-old son of the murdered
woman and Detective Tom
Pratt. above, discovered the
fatal ice pick concealed in a
hotel room formerly occu-
pied by the fugitive. Davis,
shown at right after his cap-
ture, confessed that he mur-
dered his mother following
@ quarrel which resulted
when she wanted him to
look for a job. Davis, a
mechanic, had been on relief
and objected to his mother’s
suggestions.

prom

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sume Fatal F

ae

A DETECTIVE removes the murder
weapon from the curtain fold where it
was discovered by a hotel chambermaid.

DAVIS, Denzel, white, hanged washington (King) on March 2h, 19 LB |

‘SRE ane aaa

HARRIET ARNOLD, twice having weighed connubial bliss up against a tough case when they found her.body folded u
in the balance and found it wanting, was dedicated to the in a-small cupboard under the sink in her kitchen.
Proposition that never again would she be a sucker for a man. Mrs. Arnold never had been one to put her wash on the
In her early 40s, a trace of silver in her hair, pretty of face line and let it hang there indefinitely and it was this circum a
and trim of figure, she lived alone in a neat cottage set back stance, plus the fact she had not been seen around for two:
from the highway in a pine grove on the outskirts of Seattle, days, that led one of her neighbors to telephone the police.

they entertained her. She frequently went to the ‘theater and pleasant bungalow had somehow been interrupted was a peft
attended many of the city’s social functions, but she played  ciled note tacked to the front door which read:
the game of life alone and it was a rare occasion that anyone
w her with a male companion. She had been thrifty, and
m the years passed, was regarded by her friends as a well-
to-do and attractive widow. ca ba
Because of these facts and others which came to light later
on, the police of Seattle and of King County knew they were Presently County Investigator Harlan Callahan discov

Wash. She worked in one of the city’s better stores as a When the authorities arrived at the cottage at 14544 Stor
buyer in the women’s department and her income was sufficient Avenue late in the afternoon of* March 19, 1940, the place
to provide her with a comfortable mode of life. locked and the only sign of life inside was a small white dog 7
And Harriet wasn’t unsocial. Far from it. She was friendly that barked furiously and dasled from one room to another ~~ HARRIE
with her neighbors, both men and women, who lived in nearby whenever a strange face appeared at a window. a M 3
bungalows similar to her own. She entertained them and Another obvious sign that the routine of life within the |@ respecic
5

Denzel: The store called and said your mother was not at work e
yesterday. They wondered if she is ill—Louis CHENowITH. ~

INSIDE DETECTIVE, Aygust, 1918


SHE KNEW ENOUGH ABOUT A CERTAIN MAN TO PUT HIM IN JAIL,

BUT SHE KEPT QUIET ABOUT IT—AND THE RESULT WAS MURDER!

By Luther Locke

2 ee ae Ree

HARRIET ARNOLD—her murder was
g because she was upright and
Rspectable, involved in no affairs
@ the sort that lead to violence.

THE SLAYER (right) sponged off a
Yoman until she would no longer con-
faue to protect him. Then he killed
her, Ppawned her jewelry and fled.


picious-looking and we were just about to
leave, when I turned and on sheer impulse
pulled back the curtains on the clothes-
closet door. I got a glimpse of a pair of
legs. It was Davis. He was sitting there on
the closest shelf in his stocking feet.”

Denzel was meek and docile. “I’ll plead
guilty,” he told his captors at once. “All I
want is to get it over.”

His eyes were haunted and his face hag-
gard, half-hidden by grime and five days’
growth of beard. His lips trembled so, he
could scarcely speak coherently at times.

He had, he explained, hidden in the base-
ment of this apartment house late on Tues-
day night, after entering it through a coal
chute. Two or three times a day he had
emerged from his hiding place to get a
drink of water in the furnace room. During
the entire period, from late Tuesday until
Saturday morning, he had eaten nothing
except two candy bars which he had hap-
pened to have in his pocket.

His cigarettes had quickly given out.
When he had taken refuge in the apartment
in which he was caught, it was because of
an aching need to get some of Eriksen’s
tobacco. He had treated himself to one
luxurious smoke before climbing stiffly to
his perch on the clothes-closet shelf.

“I didn’t have any idea of trying to
leave town,” the prisoner said. “I knew you
fellows would get me, sooner or later.”

He insisted that he hadn’t hated his
mother, hadn’t wanted or meant to kill
her. As she lay groaning on the kitchen
floor, after his skull-fracturing hammer
blow, he had used the ice pick only to
“quiet her,” he said. He’d had the same
motive, he said, when he tied the dog leash
around her neck and stuffed her into the
cupboard beside the’ sink.

Denzel admitted having taken some
change from her purse—‘‘only about four
bits’—and her ring and watch, which he

had put up for necessary cash loans.
Bodia and Gamrath found but 12 cents in
his pockets when they took him into cus-
tody.

On Tuesday, March 26th, Denzel Davis
was arraigned before King County Su-
perior Judge Roger J. Meakim. The ac-
cused stated that he didn’t want counsel,
but the judge insisted on appointing an
attorney, “at least to consult with this
man.”

And on the 28th Denzel turned down
Deputy Bodia’s offer to escort him to the
funeral of his mother, which would be held
the following evening. He said, “No. I have
no right to go, in a way. I’ve done enough
damage now.”

He was examined by a psychiatrist and
found to be sane. On Friday, April 5th, he
was brought into court for a plea. His
court-appointed attorney, Jacob Kalina,
said, “The plea is ‘Not Guilty’.”

Davis was asked if he cared to speak for
himself. “Guilty,” he said. And he firmly
repeated it, at the request of the court.

On Monday, May 6th, 1940—only 51 days
after the crime—the murder trial of Den-
zel Davis began, with Superior Judge Wil-
liam J. Wilkins presiding. The next day,
Tuesday, the 7th, Deputy Prosecutor
Charles Ralls rested his case for the state.

Attorney Kalina introduced a defense
psychiatrist who described Denzel Davis
as “mentally irresponsible’ and a “con-
stitutional psychopathic personality with
psychosis,” a person living in a “dream
state.”

Mrs. June Davis attempted to support
this theory by telling the jury of six men
and six women how Denzel once had tried
to kill her, himself and their baby by
driving them off a cliff in their automobile.
She had prevented it, she said, only by seiz-
ing the steering wheel. She was obliged to
admit under cross-examination, however,

that her husband had known that he had
done wrong when, at the Berkshire Hotel,
he undertook to conceal the ice pick and
then confided to her how he had killed his
mother.

On Thursday, May 9th, the jury retired
for the night after having deliberated for
12 hours without reaching a verdict. But
the next day, after further prolonged de-
liberations, the jury agreed that Denzel
Davis must hang for the murder.

And the day after, Saturday, Denzel
interrupted his pinochle game in King
County Jail long enough to comment, “It’s
okay. I thought it was a fair verdict. I’d
just as soon have it over with. Why rot in
here?”

Judge Wilkins sentenced him to be
hanged on July 29th, but an appeal to the
state supreme court automatically deferred
his execution. This appeal failing, Judge
Wilkins on February Ist, 1941, again set
a date—March 24th—for Davis’ execution.

And so, on the 24th of March, 1941, one
year and eight days after the slaying of his
mother, Denzel Davis was hanged at the
Washington State Penitentiary at Walla
Walla. He left in the care of a spiritual
adviser at the prison a note which read:

“Dear Baby and June—Please forgive
me for all the misery and the disgrace I
have caused you two. May God make the
people forget quickly and not condemn
you two for what I did. Love Daddy,

Denzel Davis” rx xD

EpiTor’s Nore:

The names, Mattie Harlan and Joseph
Neilson, as used in the foregoing story,
are not the real names of the persons
concerned. These persons have been
given fictitious names to protect their
identities.

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‘

1
'
‘J

DAVIS, Denzel, white, 2), hanged washington (King) on March 2), 19)1
HARRIET?S LAST LOVER |

HE NERVOUSLY SCANNED THE PAPERS FOR NEWS OF THE KILLING. LIFE IN THIS LOVE-
NEST WAS BEGINNING TO WEAR ON HIM.

HE restaurant was a small one

in midtown Seattle, Washing-
ton. Dimmed table lamps stimulated
conversation, waiters kept nicely in
the background, and although the
music was tinned, it came at you
in soft, relaxing doses.

Mrs. Harriet Arnold sipped her
coffee slowly, with enjoyment. She
reached out and squeezed the hand
of her escort, Cary Smithson. “This

is nice,’’ she whispered, ‘You
couldn’t have picked a_ better
place.”

Smithson assented. But inwardly
he wasn’t so sure. How much more
intimate and cozy her own little
cottage on the outskirts of town
would have been! But the lady had

coyly demurred. After all, they
were practically strangers.
Not exactly strangers. They

both worked in the same depart-
ment store and saw each other
daily. Mrs.
ticed the dapper, forty-odd Smith-
son who sold luggage on the sec-
ond floor and talked with a slight
lisp.

Obviously, he had noticed. her.
That night he had asked for a
date. They had just quit work and
she was walking toward her car at
the curb. Harriet Arnold was 37, a
twice-married widow who was any-
thing but prim and unsocial where
men were concerned, yet his sud-
den invitation had taken her a bit
aback.

She hesitated. He sized up the
situation instantly and poured: on
the charm. Soon they were chatting
like old friends.
Smithson definitely had a way with
the ladies.

They said good-night at the
crub and it wasn’t until Mrs. Ar-
nold was halfway home that she
had her first misgivings. Did Mr.
Smithson know she was a widow—
surely he had noticed the wedding
band on her finger—or had he
dated her believing she was the
sort who would step out on her
husband? And she had consented
so readily. Whatever must he think!

36

Arnold had barely no- ©

The lisping Mr.

In. the morning, Harriet man-
aged to waylay Smithson at the
store, and without making it too
obvious, straightened him on_ her
marital status. Hastily, he assured
her he had known all along she
was a widow. It was precisely this
knowledge that had given him the
courage to ask for the pleasure of
her company.

Such a_ nice
Smithson!” Mrs.
herself.

The date came off very smooth-
ly, and Mr.
another and of course ‘Harriet
agreed. They saw each other once
or twice every week for a month.
Then one night, since they were no
longer strangers, she invited him
out to her house for dinner. Mr.
Smithson beamed, and when he
arrived promptly at eight, he
brought flowers and Napoleon bran-
dy of the finest vintage. Harried
hadn’t felt so catered-to and happy
since her last husband died.

‘A few of the neighbors saw Mr.
Smithson leaving her house at
rather unconventional hours in the
weeks that passed, but no tongues
wagged despite the fact that this
was. a rather straight-laced little
community. After all, Mrs. Arnold
was a mature woman, she had been
married before and certainly knew
her way around.

Anything she did was fine so
long as she did it quietly and in
ladylike fashion and Harriet Arnold
was a lady to her fingertips.

Mrs. Arnold’s friendliest neigh-
bor was Mrs. Sue Calamine, a
housewife. On the afternoon of
March 19, Mrs. Calamine strode
determinedly to the telephone on
her foyer table and called the
police. She explained she was wor-

that Mr.
assured

man,
Arnold

ried about her neighbor, Mrs. Ar-

nold, and wanted them to send
somebody around to check. In a
half hour, a prowl car drove up to
the trim little cottage set back
from the highway and_half-hidden
behind a pine grove. Mrs. Calamine
was there waiting on her friend’s
porch. :

“Mrs. Arnold left

the house

POLICE DETECTIVE ANNUAL, # 18.

Smithson asked for,

_making frantic

opened

Monday morning,” she explained.

_“She didn’t return that night. Or

all the next day. And this morning
-there’s still no sign of her. She’s
got a little dog in there she’s crazy
about. I know he hasn’t had food
in all this time. It’s unthinkable
Mrs. Arnold would neglect him like
that. Something must have happen-
ed to her.”

The two policemen \ were skepti-
cal but didn’t argue. They found
the doors locked. The windows
were fastened, all except one in
the living room. They climbed in-
side. The dog whimpered excitedly,
little movements
toward them and _ then, suddenly
halting, reversed his field.

“He wants us to follow him,”
one of the policemen said.

The dog practically pushed
them toward the sink in the kitch-
en. He clawed at the doors of the
cabinet beneath it. The officer
the doors. Mrs. Arnold’s
dead body was stuffed in the small
enclosure beneath the sink!

Strangely, there was no phone |

in the house, Mrs. Arnold having
had an aversion to them, and Mrs.
Calamine’s telephone was utilized to
summon help. Chief Deputy Sheriff
K. Bodia arrived with.County De-
tective A.J. McDonald, Coroner

Otto H. Mittlestadt and Dr. Carl J.

Hartwig.

County Physician Gale Wilson
joined the group a few minutes
later, and he, Dr. Hartwig and the
Coroner examined the dead woman.
An electrical applicance cord had
been tightly fastened around her
neck. She had been stabbed seven
times in the throat and face with a
small-pointed instrument that Mittle-
stadt guessed was an ice pick. Doc-
tors Hartwig and Wilson agreed that
the weapon could have been an ice
pick.

Aside from the: seven puncture
marks’ and the swelling around her
throat from the cord, her body

bore. remarkably little evidence of |

violence. Her hair was not dis-
arranged, her clothing wasn’t torn,
and there were no_ scratches or
bruises anywhere on her person.

a Sa

SCR lt alla eas ininbin sacomeat


-*

Two empty wine glasses, some
hors doeuvres of the packaged
variety and some _ crackers and
cheese were spread out on a table
in the living room.

“The lady was entertaining a
visitor,’ Bodia theorized out loud.
“She went into the kitchen on an
errand. He followed her in, lashed
out with the ice pick once or
twice, then found the cord and
tied it around her neck. She might
have still been breathing so he used
the ice pick some more.”

Mrs. Arnold was only size 14,
but even so, the killer had needed
considerable strength to accordian
her body into a position that
would fit the small cabinet.

McDonald found a note that
had been shoved under the front
door. It read:

“Denzel: Your mother was not
at the store today. We are won-
dering if she is ill. We couldn’t
call her on the phone. Will you
call us?”

Carey Smithson

The note was shown to Mrs.
Calamine. She identified “Denzel”
as “Denzel Davis, Mrs. Arnold’s son

. by her first marriage. He was very

devoted, came to visit her often,
and lived in the city with his wife
and child. He was a salesman for a
hardware firm and spent a lot of
time on the road.

‘“*And. Smithson?”
asked.
Mrs. Calamine hesitated. “He
works with Mrs. Arnold. A_ very
nice man, from what I can gather.
Mrs. Arnold spoke to me_ several
times about him. ‘I wouldn’t be
surprised but that he was pretty
serious about her.”

According to Doctors Wilson
and Hartwig, the victim had died
at least 36 hours ago, or roughly,
since before midnight on Monday.
The neighbors, Mrs. Calamine
among them, were quizzed to dis-
cover if there had been any un-
usual incident or noises in the
immediate vicinity of the cottage,
but none could recall having seen
or heard anything out of .the way.

Mrs. Arnold’s bag was on her
bed. It contained ten dollars in
cash and a check for two weeks’
wages. She was wearing a_ wrist
watch and the slim gold wedding
band. At the moment, it seemed

McDonald

unlikely that robbery had figured

38

in the brutal crime. Particularly in
view of the obvious degree of in-

timacy between the svelte widow

and her visitor.

However, the police would keep
an open mind on the subject. And
on every other angle of the case
until more information could be
gathered.

The body was removed to a

Seattle morgue. A search of the
murder premises was begun in earn-
est.

In a woodbox in the kitchen,
the officers found a small huck towel
that the killer had used to wipe his
blood-stained hands. They found a
toaster from which the electrical cord
had been ripped. A clumsy attempt
had been made to wipe up the blood
on the floor near the sink.

The most puzzling find was three
unopened letters addressed to the
slain. woman, lying on the foyer
table. If Doctors Wilson and Hartwig
were correct — and there was no rea-
son to believe they were in error —

‘how could the three letters bearing

Tuesday’s offical postmark have
found their way into the locked
house of a woman who was already
lying dead on Monday night?

Wryly, McDonald said, “Go try
and figure that one out.”

Yet within an hour they had an
answer of a sort. Mittlestadt had cir-
culated among the neighbors and
while talking to a Mr. Calvin Fenauly,
a shy-mannered, middle-aged bache-
lor, he learned that it was Mr. Fen-
auly’s habit to pick up Mrs. Arnold’s
mail from her box which was paired
with his a considerable distance out
on the main highway, and deliver it
to her.

On Tuesday afternoon, he had
trudged up to her house with the
three letters he found in the box. She
wasn’t home, the door was locked, so
he crawled in through the open win-
dow!

Middestadt was flabbergasted. Did
Mr. Fenauly always climb in through
people’s windows. Mr. Fenauly con-
sidered the question on its factual
merits, shook his head and said,

“Only Mrs. Arnold’s. She wanted me ~

to use the window if that was the
only way I could get in.” .
The dog, apparently accustomed

to Mr. Fenauly’s strange entrances,
had never interfered. ©

‘Fortunately for the bachelor, he
had an excellent reputation in the
community, and his weird explan-
ation was accepted, at least for the
present.

A call was put through to the
Seattle Police Department, and Detec-
tive Captain Marshall C. Scafford
agreed to send an identification ex-
pert: to the Arnold house. The expert

- arrived and dusted the wine glasses, — 4

cord, cupboard, sink, etc. for possible
finger prints. He- was successful only
to the point where he was able to
assure the local officers that the mur-
derer, clumsy as he had been in other
respects, had been most meticulous
about removing finger prints from ob-
jects he had touched.

“It’s the movies,” said experts
glumly. “Nobody leaves any prints
any more.”

Denzel Davis lived in Seattle. Cap-
tain Scafford sent a detective to in-
terview the son, break the news of
his mother’s brutal murder, and get
whatever information he could. But
Davis was not at home. He had been
away on business for a week, his
wife, Mrs. June Davis said. She gave
the sleuth the name of the hotel in
Portland, Oregon where her husband
stayed while in that city.

The hotel was contacted. Davis

- had checked out that morning and

was probably on his way home.
Detective McDonald and Deputy
Bodia went to the department store
where the victim had,been employed.
Their mission was two-fold. They

~ would question Mrs. Arnold’s co-

workers to learn what they could
about her everyday affairs and have a
nice long talk with Carey Smithson.
- , Smithson had not come in to
work that day. He had phoned in at
8:45 A.M. saying he was sick with
the grippe. Smithson’s superiors were
asked their opinion of the man Mrs.
Arnold had found so attractive. With-
out hesitation, they gave him a
hearty endorsement. His one mild
failing—if it could be called that—was
his shade-too-attentive manner toward
women customers.

Bodia and McDonald rode out to
Smithson’s two-room apartment. An
air of shabby gentility pervaded the
place and was reflected in the dilapi-
dated furniture, the worn rug and

even in the frayed edges of the dress- ©

ing gown Smithson was wearing as he
greeted the officers.

He had seen Harriet on Sunday
night, he said. They ate dinner at her
cottage, later went for a drive, return-
ed around eleven-thirty, had a few

drinks and he departed around one

o’clock. That was their last date.
Monday, she was at work, cheer-

ful as ever. When she failed to show

up Tuesday, he had taken a bus out

to her place in the evening, but find-
ing the house in darkness and getting
no answer when he rang the doorbell,
he left a note for her son under the
door. Denzel, he figured, might drop
by if his mother was ill.

He had met Denzel a few eeeks
before at Harriet’s house and had

liked him a lot.

Smithson’s alibi for Monday night
was thin. After leaving work and eat-
ing dinner, he had taken a bus home
where he stayed all evening. The be-
ginnings of the grippe were already

bothering him and he had gone to ~

bed very early, around 9 o’clock.

He had no idea whatever who

_ Mrs. Arnold’s caller was on Monday

night. He presumed she had other
gentlemen friends, but had of course
never questioned her on the subject.

Asked if he had an opinion on
the motive for the crime, he said
promptly, “Robbery. And I don’t be-
lieve what the newspapers say about
how she was killed in a fit of rage or
jealousy or something like that by
her visitor. I think a burglar sneaked
in through that open window and
robbed and killed her.”

A woman living alone wouldn’t
keep much money around the house
to tempt burglars, Bodia pointed out.

*‘Money?” I’m _ thinking about
that diamond wrist watch and ring
she owned. They were worth
plenty!”

In spite of himself, Bodia blinked.
McDonald’s surprise was also ap-
parent. No such jewelry had been
found in the house despite a thor-
ough search.

Smithson described the watch and
ring in detail, saying Mrs. Arnold had
worn them only when he had a date
or on other special occasions. :

She had worn both on Sunday
night.

The officers departed. Two hours
later, Denzel Davis arrived at police
headquarters. He had just returned
home where he learned the tragic
news of his mother’s death from Mrs.
Davis. Denzel was tall, thin, good-
looking. He was young, only 21, but
marriage had matured him.

The last time he had seen his —

mother was about a week ago, before
he left for Portland. She had been in
excellent spirits, talking constantly
about “that nice Mr. Smithson.” He
didn’t know if she had any other
gentlemen admirers, but guessed that
she did.

He verified that she owned a dia-
mond watch and ring, and offered to
accompany the officers to his

mother’s house to help search for the
valuables.

Bodia, McDonald and Davis
reached the white-painted cottage a
few minutes before midnight. Davis
led the way into the living room,
went directly to a built-in shelf of
books near the fireplace and picked
out a small volume titled “The Jewels
of the Madonna’. He flipped open
the cover. The book was hollow, a
small niche having been grooved out
of the pages to form a hiding place.

It was here Mrs. Arnold had kept
her jewels. It was empty.

‘“‘Who besides you and your
mother knew about this book?”
Bodia asked.

The son smiled wanly. “Dozens
of people. Mother was the trusting
kind. She thought this little idea of
hers was cute and showed it off to
her friends. Some neighbors, too.
And the night I met Mr. Smithson

~ here, she took out the ring to wear.”

Mrs. Arnold never had over ten or
twenty dollars in cash in the house.
The place had never been burgular-
ized. About the window, the lock
had been broken several months ago
and she had not bothered to fix it.

“Mr. Fenauly? The old codger is
a swell guy. He was a little sweet on
Ma and was tickled to death when
she let him do little things for her

- like getting the mail. She would have

trusted him.with her last cent. So
would I. Sure, he used to come in
through the window. It was a neigh-
borhood joke.”

“You mean the whole neighbor-
hood knew about it and could have
entered the house at will?” Bodia
demanded.

“Sure. After all, there are only a
couple dozen families living around
here. And all of them were Mother’s
friends.”

“I wonder!” Bodia muttered.

“What about an ice pick?” Mc-
Donald asked. ‘“‘Was there one in the
house?”

Davis said there was and showed
them where it was kept in a drawer
with the silverware in the kitchen.
The ice pick was missing.

Back at headquarters, descriptions
of the stolen watch and ring were
hastily prepared for distribution to
pawnshops in and around Seattle.
Bodia went to the several banks
where Mrs. Arnold had kept funds on
deposit. There was an outside chance
that she had switched to a safety de-
posit box as a hiding place for her

jewels. But Mrs. Arnold had no satefy

deposit box. €
Chatting with one of the Sank
managers, Bodia was handed a pro-

vocative bit of information. About a_

month ago, in April, a check drawn

on Mrs. Arnold’s account was re-
ceived by the bank through usual

clearing channels after having been

* cashed at a Seattle department store.
It was discovered that the amount -
of the check was a hundred dollars in ©

excess of the total amount she had
on deposit and she was notified by
telephone. She hurried to the bank,
examined the check and excitedly in-
sisted it was a forgery.

On the very next morning, how-
ever, she returned and meekly de-
clared she had erred and that the sig-
nature was indeed hers. Discreetly,
the manager had “forgotten” the in-
cident.

Did this puzzling affair have any
connection with her murder? Bodia
discussed this possibility with Mc-

Donald and Mittlestadt and they .

agreed that perhaps the forger was
someone Mrs. Arnold had known in-
timately, a lover who had decided to
make their relationship pay off in
cold cash. He had deliberately forged
the check to test her reaction when
he revealed that he was the culprit.
Of course, she had cried and then
berated him, but in the end had for-
given and forgotten, as he had been
quite cockily certain she would.
Having broken the ice, they theor-
ized, he brashly demanded other

_ “loans” in cash. Tuesday, night, at the

cottage, he had asked for more
money. She refused. He followed her
into the kitchen where they argued
violently. In a rage, he struck her
down, stabbed and garrotted the de-
fenseless woman and fled with the
substantial haul of jewelry.

This was only theory and _ sus-
picion. The. invesitgators were wisely
determined to keep an open mind.
Lacking direct evidence of any kind
against Smithson, everyone had to be
considered as a suspect. Denzel Davis
and Calvin Fenauly included.

Checking, police verified that
Davis had been registered at the Port-
land hotel on Monday night and all
that week. On the negative side of his
alibi, none of the hotel employees
could say for certain when he had
been in or out, since his business
duties kept him pretty much on the

move. Perhaps he had eccupier his —

room Tuesday.
While police were checking fur-

ther on him and Fenauly, there came
(Continued on page 56)

39


ements

Parra

Death sentence pilus 50 years
for the murders of three boys —

Associated Press
and Times staff

VANCOUVER, Clark County —
Westley Allan Dodd was formally
sentenced to death yesterday for
murdering three young boys, and
the 29-year-old killer said he wants
to be executed soon.

Clark County Superior Court
Judge Robert Harris ordered
Dodd’s death based on a jury
verdict July 14. Jurors decided
there were no mitigating factors
warranting leniency for Dodd, who
pleaded guilty to three counts of
aggravated murder.

In handing down the sentence,
Harris said Dodd is depraved, the
death penalty was the correct
verdict and people still feel unsafe
as the result of the slayings.

He theorized that if Dodd
hadn't been caught in November
while trying to abduct a boy from a
Camas movie theater, he would
have.continued to kill boys.

Dodd, a former Renton resi-
dent, admitted during his trial that
he killed Cole Neer, 11, and Wil-
liam Neer, 10, brothers from Van-
couver, and Lee Iseli, 4, of Port-
land, for sexual gratification. The
slayings were committed last Sep-
tember and October.

Harris handed down a sentence
of death plus 50 years. The addi-
tional years were added to the
sentence in case the death-penalty
law is ever revoked.

“I hope Dodd will never ever be
released.” Harris said. “I would be
the first to call for the recall of
anyone who would release Dodd.”

Fa),

Westley Allan Dodd
“The system does not work”

Dodd said he didn’t want any
appeals launched on his behalf and
said he hoped his death would
come soon. He said he has no
excuses for his crimes.

“They
pened,”

he said. “I should be

punished, as should all sex offend-

ers.”

Dodd. who previously had been |
convicted of sex-related crimes, .’

invited experts to study him before
his death in the hope they can
prevent such behavior in others.

“I will not blame the system,.
but the system does not work,” he:
said. “I know I’ve caused a lot of

pain and grief and I’m sorry.”

He also quoted a statement that
he said came from-a death-row
inmate who recently was executed.

“If my death will bring peace to

SZATTLE TIMES
Zo 27-96

shouldn't have hap-

the people I’ve hurt so bad, then
it’s time for me to die,” Dodd said.
Several members of the audience,
which included‘:relatives’ of the
victims, then said, “Amen.”” 4°"

Dodd had admitted in King:
County court documents in 1987.
that he found his urges:uncontrol- |
lable. TE pe here el
He was arrested:.in Seattle in
1987 and charged with first-degree
attempted kidnapping in “connec-
tion with an attempt to life an 8-
year-old North Seattle boy from a
playground. But the King County
prosecutor’s office could not prove
Dodd planned to abduct the boy,
so Dodd was convicted on attempt-'
ed unlawful imprisonment, a gross

' . misdemeanor.

Dodd received a one-year Sus-

pended sentence, actually .spend-

ing 118 days.in the King County
Jail and a year on probation. -..
Yesterday’s- sentencing came
after Harris refused defense attor- |
neys’ requests for a new trial.
Before sentencing, a statement
written by Lee Iseli’s mother, Jo
Cornell, was readin court...
“You are the’.scum ‘of. the
earth,” the statement said of Dodd.
“Had you not been caught, you
would still be killing children. It’s
like opening up wounds again. I
hate your guts. I hope you rot in

“hell.”

4

ha

iwwwovwrieweweweweweweweweweweweowewewewewewewewewewewewwewe te YY ewer

from him. He followed her, grabbed
the utility electric cord and hung it
around her neck. He tried to strangle
her but it wouldn’t work. While she
was still lying on the floor, he «got
the ice pick, stabbed her with it re-
peatedly and then stuffed her body
into the cabinet under the sink. ;

He got the diamond watch and
ring and fled. He went to his room at
Mrs. Paxton’s, sneaked in, hid the
stolen jewelry under the pillow, lock-
ed the door and took the next train
back to Portland.

On May 6, 1940, Denzel Davis
was tried for the first degree murder
of his mother, Mrs. Harriet Arnold.
He was found guilty as charged in the
indictment and Superior Court Judge
William J. Wilkins sentenced him to
be hanged. On March 24, 1941, the
cringing slayer met death on the
gallows.

(The names Carey Smithson,
Calvin Fenauly, Sue Calamine, Mrs.
Julie Paxton are pseudonyms) END

Jealousies

(Continued from page 27)

In general there seems to be less
active homosexuality, perhaps be-
cause the sex drives of women are
less demanding than those of men
in similar circumstances.

Another reason is that women
have less chance for homosexual ac-
tivity than do the men. In women’s
prisons the inmates usually sleep
in rooms to themselves or in dormi-
tories where they are closely
watched. ‘

However, women prisoners often
develop violent ‘‘crushes’” on each
other. And like men they often send
each other mash notes, exchange
presents, and show other signs of
passionate affection.

It is often more common to find
a practising Lesbian (a female
“queer’) among the matrons and
guards in a women’s institution
than among the inmates. Many
husky-voiced “dikes” (hardened,
confirmed Lesbians) seek out jobs
in such places. They scheme to use
their power to gain new conquests
amongst each batch of incoming
prisoners. They have a_ special
appetite for the “fluffy,” tender,
clinging-vine type of young wom-
an... the same kind, incidentally,
which many men find so appealing.
They shower each of these cute
girls with presents and extra
privileges and their rate of success
is said to be amazingly high. ©

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the hall.

“Sorry, boys,” he said. “For a while,
it looked like you might be the fellows
who tried to kill that girl.”

After releasing the suspects, Miller
returned to the girl’s bedside. From the
way she looked up at him, he knew that
she wanted to talk. He sat down. beside

her bed and leaned close to catch every
word.

She had picked.up the hitchhikers at
the intersection of highways 212 and 83,
five miles south of Gettysburg, she told
Miller. One of the young men had sat
up front with her, andthe other had
climbed into the back.

Ada had no reason to be suspicious of
them, she said. They had been talking
pleasantly and had given no indication
of what they had in mind. After five or
six miles, the man in the front seat
looked around at the man in the back.
Next thing she knew, the one in the back
had struck her on the head.

“At that, the man in front grabbed

the wheel, and put his foot on the brake
pedal,” she said. “Just as I was opening
the door to jump out, he fired two shots.
Then they threw me in the back seat,
and that’s the last thing I remember.”

Tears came into her eyes after she had
gasped out her story.

“I hope you find them,” she whis-
pered.

Deputy Miller patted her hand. “We
will,” he said. “That I promise you.”

‘There was a sudden tremor up and
‘down the girl’s body. A minute later, the

interne shook his head. “She’s dead,” .

he said quietly.

_ Meanwhile, out on the prairie beyond
where the girl’s purse had been found,
Sheriff Reedy and his men were still
trailing their quarry. Time and again
they would find tracks, follow them
hopefully until they led into another
swamp, and then lose them again.

For eight hours the search had con-
tinued, when suddenly Sheriff Reedy.
who was out ahead ot the posse, noticed
the tips of low bushes moving a few
yards ahead. His right hand on his gun
holster, he held up his left hand as a
signal for his men to stop.

“Who’s there?” he called, his gun
leveled at the low bushes. “Stand up
with your hands raised—or I’l] shoot.”

Ten or twelve seconds ticked by before
_ the head and shoulders of a man ap-
peared. As he rose up to his full height,
holding up his arms, Sheriff Reedy
walked toward him.

There was a sudden rustle in the brush
a few feet away. Another man _ had
sprung up and started running.

“Stop, or I'll fire!” Reedy command-
ed. The man continued running.

_Calmly, Reedy took careful aim and
fired a warning shot. It pred the fugi-
tive’s head.

56

“The next one goes in your back!” the

sheriff called out.

That did it. Coming to a dead stop, the
fugitive put up his hands.

A quick search of the young men—
one light-haired and the other dark—
und they were taken to the nearest farm-
house where Reedy hurried to telephone
Deputy Miller at the hospital in Onida.
There he heard the news that Ada Carey
had died. Reedy turned to the captives.
“Let’s go,” he said. And he waved them
toward his car near the barn.

At the State Crime Bureau in Pierre
that evening, the taller hitchhiker iden-
tified himself as Norman Westberg, the

. shorter .one as Howard Christensen.

They hailed from Chicago, they said,
and were on their way to the West Coast.

Charged with the crime, the suspects
denied that they knew anything about
the shooting. Questioned at length by
Ellsworth Evans, assistant attorney gen-

eral, and Tom Ronayne, deputy super-

intendent of the State Department of
Justice, they refused to admit a thing.

Finally, District Attorney Ryan, who
had been participating in the question-
ing, took over. -

“It’s no use, boys,” he told them. “You
might as well admit it. You flagged a
ride with Miss Carey because you knew
it would be easier to take advantage of
a woman. You planned, before she ever
stopped to give you a lift, to wait for a
woman to pick you up, take her money,
kill her, ditch the body and escape with
the car.”

Dawn was breaking when. without
warning, Christensen broke down and
confessed.

“It was us all right,” he said with a
shrug. “We were waiting for a woman
to come along in a car—alone, so we
could steal a car and maybe get some
money to get us on to the coast.”

“We’d’ve gotten away with it, too,”
Westberg interposed, “if we hadn’t hit
that pile of loose gravel and turned over.
We were going to leave her body in a
ditch. By the time it was found, we’d
have been long gone.”

Justice moved fast. Arraigned the fol-

lowing day and indicted a week later,

the two young men went on trial on Sep-
tember 3rd, 1936. Three days later, a
jury returned a verdict of life imprison-
ment.

But these two young men were to pay
even further for their crime. While at
the State Penitentiary, Norman West-
berg committed suicide. And, in Novem-
ber, 1957, Howard Christensen was com-
mitted to the State Hoenig) for the
Insane.

EDITOR’S NOTE: To protect persons inno-
cently involved in this case, the names
Chris Halpern and Harry Ramsey are
fictitious as used here. THE END

“electrifying news. A Seattle pawnship

HARRIET’S LAST LOVER

: : (Contin ued from: page 39 |

reported that the stolen ring and
wrist watch had been pawned on
Thursday night by a young woman
who gave her name as Mrs. Julie Pax-
ton, and her address as 416 East
Madison Street, Seattle. The woman
was described as poorly dressed,
pretty, a brunette, a little on the
blowsy side.

Bodia and McDonald hurried to
East Madison Street. A_ startled
brunette, in her 20’s, stared at them
open-mouthed as they flased their

_ credentials and asked if she was Mrs.

Paxton. She nodded her head.

““What’s this—this all abou. she
stammered.

They asked to go inside and she
led them into the parlor. Actually the
place was a rundown boarding house.
Mrs. Paxton was the owner.

Bodia showed her the pawned
wrist watch and ring. She blinked.
“So this is what all the fuss is for!
Well!” she seemed almost relieved.
Relaxing a little now in her chair, she
admitted pawning the jewelry.

“Why shouldn’t I have?’ she de- -

Two men came up bshind William
Thomas on a New York City street, dropped
an ash can over his head and, while he
was thus contained, went through his pock-
ets and got away with $200.

In Glasgow, Scotland, burglars entered

a grocery, took eight pounds of butter,
greased the floor with it, then slid the safe
to the door and onte their getaway truck.


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“manded angirly. “That guy of mine.

Always promising me this and that
then turning around and borrowing
every penny of rent money I get!”
She loosened a sly grin. “This time I
fooled him. I found this stuff in his
room, under the pillow. I hocked it.
If he wants to get it back, he'll have
to redeem it himself.” She patted her
purse contentedly. “I got mine back.
Every dollar he borrowed from me.
Can you blame me, gentlemen?”

Her soidid story was revealed
after patient prodding by the pair of
detectives. A year ago, at a dance,
she met a Mr. Harry Bender. He was
a salesman of some kind, a nice
enough guy, but always broke. They
had a few days. Their friendship
blossomed quickly enough into a
more intimate relationship. He took a
room on her house, but stayed there

only a day or two at a time, explain- |

ing he had to be on the road a great

deal. Where was Harry now? She

smiled. “Upstairs in his room. I
suppose you cops are here because
the jewelry is hot. Well, itll serve
Harry right to get what’s coming to
him.” ,

The two sleuths followed Mrs.
Paxton, a divorcee, upstairs. She
knocked on a door at the end of the
hallway. There was no response. She
tried the knob, twisting it and the
door opened. The room was empty.

Not quite. Bodia glimpsed the tip
of a man’s shoe sticking out from
under the bed. The shoe moved
slightly. Bodia stooped down, got a
bulldog grip on the foot inside the
shoe and yanked hard. A man’s body
emerged slowly from under the bed.
He got to his feet, grinned sheepishly.

“Hello, Denzel,” Bodia greeted
him.

Cowed, the picture of absolute
misery and dejection, Davis con-
fessed. He told how he had met Julie
Paxton, fallen for her, neglected his
job, fell behind in providing for his
family, and in desperation had forged
his mother’s name on a check.

She had discovered the criminal
act and threatened him with expos-
ure. For the sake of his wife and
child, however, she had relented and
made good the check. But he was
soon hard pressed again. Monday, he
left Portland without checking out at
the hotel and returned to Seattle. He

visited his mother Tuesday night. She

was home, reading a book. They had
some wine, talked, then Denzel asked
for money. She refused to give him a
cent. They argued quite loudly. She
went into the kitchen to get away

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| two young brothers he fo

__-durors in the court of Judge
Robert Harris found there was |.

'ver’s David Douglas Park. ms

Net Me i 5 a a. y 9 ‘e > ae pos a H
j..Man gets death penalty ede

' before announcing the sentence
| Bgainst Westley Allan Dodd, 29,.
t Wis oe

Vancouver. .. .

_ wDodd pleaded guilty. June 11 |

‘to three counts of aggravated
first-degree murder for. the mur-
. ders of Cole ‘Neer, 11, and Wil-

_ltam Neer, ‘10, both of Vancou- |.

| ver, and Lee Iseli, 4, of Portland,
' Qhe. ne

“ngt enough Mitigating evidence

' to allow them to spare Dodd the |

death penalty. -

| The brothers were stabbed to
‘death on Labor Day in Vancou-


State Sunreme Court says Dodd can die

Judges affirm death sentence in 1990 conviction for killing 3 boys

by John White
Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The Supreme
Court of Washington today grant-
ed Westley Allan Dodd his wish to
die on the gallows for killing three

“Ns

boys.

“Mr. Dodd will be very happy
to hear he has won his right to be
executed,”’ said his attorney, Dar-
rell Lee of Vancouver, Wash. “My
client has instructed me to sue any
attorney who files an appeal with-

out his permission.”

Attorneys Gilbert H. Levy of
Seattle and Judith H. Mandel of
Gig Harbor, Pierce County, op-
posed Dodd’s push to waive an
appeal of his 1990 death sentence.
They could not be reached imme-

diately for comment on whether
they planned to appeal the high
court’s decision in federal court.
The two had been Dodd’s attor-
neys until he dismissed them.

The Supreme Court, in a split
decision, affirmed Dodd’s desire to
waive the usual high-court review
of death sentences. But the court,
in effect, performed that review.

Dodd was sentenced to die in
1990 after admitting he fatally
stabbed 10-year-old William Neer
and his 11-year-old brother, Cole,
in a Vancouver, Wash., park in
September 1989 and strangled 4-
year-old Lee Iseli of Portland the
following month.

Dodd was caught when he tried

_ to abduct another boy.

Ge SEATTCE CASH.) TIVES

Cae rel

THURS.

(0-8 9%

Dodd’s choice of death by hanging may be difficult to fulfill -

By Steve Miletich
P-1 Reporter

Westley Allan Dodd says he wants to be hanged

for murdering three young
But his request is not a

Besides an automatic appeal required by law, the
state does not have a hangman at the moment and a.
federal appeals court is considering whether hanging, the

boys.
simple matter.

constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
Still, state officials say they will have a hangman
ready if the time comes when Dodd’s wish can be
carried out. . j
“We continue to look, and we have some leads,
Larry Kincheloe, director of the state division of
prisons, said yesterday. : ;
If a hangman cannot be found, Kincheloe said,
stale will train an employee of the Department of

Corrections to do the job.

hangings,” he said.

“We have military manuals, and we have
accounts by a number of people who have performed

. Dodd, 29, who stabbed two brothers in a
‘Vancouver, Wash., park and killed a third boy

abducted from a Portland playground, told a

_See DODD, Page A7. .

Dodd: Hangman under contract in March ’89 has

lees Page 1

day that he wants to be hanged,
even though he has the option of
lethal injection.

. Expressing a desire to be
executed without delay, Dodd said
he wanted to be killed in the same
way he killed 4-year-old Lee Iseli
of Portland, who was hanged in a
closet.

The state had a hangman
under contract in March 1989,
when it appeared that Charles R.
Campbell was about to executed
for the 1982 murders of three
people in Snohomish County.

But a federal appeals court
halted the execution 33 hours
before its scheduled time. A three-
judge panel heard arguments in
the case in June 1989 but has yel
to issue a ruling.

Campbell had refused to give

his preference for hanging or
lethal injection. Under state law, if

Portland television station ane e

death row inmates refuse to
’ choose, they must be hanged.

The hangman who was hired
to execute Campbell has “with-
drawn his services,” Kincheloe
said.

The man never was identified
publicly, at his request, and a
Thurston County Superior Court
judge ruled in May that state
prison officials didn’t have to
reveal the name.

The American Civil Liberties
Union had sought the identity of
the hangman, saying it needed the
name to determine whether the
man was qualified. :

State officials argued that the
man was the “the only qualified
hangman” in the country and
would do the job only if his name
and address were kept secret. -

Kincheloe said he is looking
for a qualified hangman outside
the country.

He said he hopes to be able to
drop the search if the Legislature

acts on his department's request
to make lethal injection the only
method of execution.

Corrections officials have told
the Legislature that hangings can
be traumatic for prison staff.

Legislators have been reluc-
tant to change the law because
they fear death row inmates will
use that as an issue for appeal.

But legislators have been
warned that hanging could be
ruled unconstitutional. One of the

issues under consideration in the °

Campbell case is whether hanging
violates the constitutional amend.
ment barring cruel and unusual
punishment.

In Dodd's case, the state is not
facing any immediate decisions.
An automatic appeal of his death
sentence, handed up Saturday by
a Clark County Superior Court
jury, will take up to a year to be
prepared and heard by the state
Supreme Court.

. Dodd pleaded guilty to killing

Iseli and the two brothers, Cole
Neer, 11, and William Neer, 10,
and his attorneys called no wit-
nesses during the penalty pro-
ceedings.

If Dodd sticks to his wishes,
someone probably will intervene
on his behalf to challenge the
qualifications of the hangman,
said Jerry Sheehan, legislative
director for the ACLU in Seattle.

The U.S. Supreme Court, how-
ever, ruled recently in an Arkan-

SEQrTr4E FosT- INTELLIGENCER
THURS, #-19~9o

Sas Capital punishment case that a
third party cannot intervene on
behalf of an inmate who does not
want to appeal a death sentence.
The inmate was put to death.

Robert Gombiner, a Seattle
attorney who represents Camp-
bell, said he believes “there's a
public interest in seeing the state
has a qualified hangman, whether
Dodd wants it or not.” |

The ACLU has cited various
cases in which hangings in Wash-

‘withdrawn his services’

ington were botched. including a
decapitation in the 1950s and a
Strangulation that took 22 minutes
in 1910.

The last legal hanging and
execulion in Washington was in
1963. The last time hanging was
used in the United States was in
1965 in Iowa, where two men were
executed in one day.

Delaware and Montana are the
only other states that use hanging
for executions.

Televised
executions
may bea hit

KK oxn, the pub- Be.
lic television chan- | Geaae ry
nel in San Francis- ae 4
co, has filed suit to
televise an execu-
tion from San Quen-
tin prison. Actually, :
they would have the = |——

decency to tape it BRIAN *
and run it — unedit- LAMBERT »~
ed — after the kid- TV COLUMNIST

dies are wai
couple of days lat-
er. The station believes an opportunity0
watch someone die will affect people’s
thinking about capital punishment.

I’m not so sure. KQED says it merely
wants the camera there as a “yeutral wit-
ness.” The station isn’t betraying any bias
on the death penalty issye. But we all
know that public TV is nétoriously wimp-
liberal. We know wha they are up to.
They think decent Ayhericans will recoil
in horror’at the sight of some homicidal
maniac being gasséd to death after a dec-
ade of taxpayer/room and board. They
think a public ¢xecution like they used to
have back inAhe good old days of feudal
Europe, or ke they have in modern Iran,
will so reylt us, we'll demand an imme-
diate endto it all. They think we'll see it
as barb4ric and beastly and, and and icky.

S7. PAUL C im.)

feess

Fioneé

on. $-/6-9o

My guess is they are dead wrong.

I will bet money that a televised gas-
sing will be a hotter draw than the last
episode of “M*A*S*H.” On one hand,
there will be all the serious sociologists,
pro and am, clinking glasses of Cour-
voisier as the maniac succumbs to ulti-
mate justice. The well-bred will gather in
designer living rooms, mutter about the
horror of the spectacle and compliment
the hostess on her canapes.

On the other hand — and this is where

QED is lighting a fuse — we can’t forget
ah those red-blooded guys and all their
virtlg girlfriends who invariably show up
outside state prisons and tailgate until the
switch isNlipped or the pellet is dropped.
These ghowkg will now be able to stay in
the sports baNof their choice, raise a cold
one and a cheeNas the Ted Bundy of the
week is dispatchet\into the eternal abyss.
I’m telling you, this\crowd will create a
consumer demand no Self-respecting syn-
dicator could dare ignore

The Execution Channel}!

The thrill will probably be & little like
pornography ... once you’ve een one
you’ve kind of seen ’em all, but pwhlic kil-
lings were a ratings hit in the old days. A
good hanging or guillotining gave people a
sense of justice and community. It issa
known fact that few things fortify the
spirit like the sight of someone else suf-
fering and dying.

By next year, itll be on a cable tier
with some obscure sports network. ($7.95
a month, plus $3 converter rental fee).

B4 n_ THE OREGONIAN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 1992

Dodd files wi

Fa The child killer's papers say
he will not ask the court io
reconsider the decision that
allows him to avoid appeals

By JOHN SNELL

of The Oregonian staff

Convicted child killer Westley
Allan Dodd tried to hasten the date
of his execution in Washington by
filing court papers Monday.

In the documents, Dodd told the

state Supreme Court that he would.

not ask the court to reconsider a de-
cision earlier this month that allows

him to be executed without filing ap-

peals.

Clark County Prosecuting Attor-
ney Arthur D. Curtis Joined Dedd in
filing the document, a Stipulated
agreement, with the state's high
court. Officials were not certain
What effect the move would have on

METRO/NORTHWEST

Dodd's execution date, or if it would
have any ellect at all. .

Dodd and Curtis also filed a stip-
ulation saying that neither of them
planned to appeal the decision to the
U.S. Supreme Court.

The state Supreme Court on Oct. 8
ruled that Dodd has the right to re-
fuse to appeal his convictions on the
1990 first-degree aggravated mur-
ders of three young boys.

Dodd pleaded guilty to murdering
Cole Neer, 11, his brother William,
10, and Lee Iseli, 4, who were all
killed in late 1989. Dodd, 31, has con-
sistently maintained that he does
not want to appeal the convictions
because he prefers death to the al-
ternative of close confinement for
the balance of his life.

Dodd could appeal his sentence
through -both state and federal
courts. Federal courts have long
held that once a condemned prison-

er has proven to be mentally compe-

tent, no one else can file an appeal

on his or her behalf. The state Su-
preme Court .decision earlier this
month appeared to set the same
slandard. _

Curtis said earlier that one way
the execution might be delayed were
if one of the parties in the case
asked the court to reconsider its de-
cision. Monday’s filing makes it
clear that neither the state nor Dodd
will do that.

The remaining issue is whether
two lawyers who argued against

Dodd's original request to be exe-:

cuted without delay can still ask the
state Supreme Court to reconsider.

The lawyers, Gilbert H. Levy and
Judith M. Mandel, also were parties
in the case at one point, but only for
the limited purpose of arguing to the
Supreme Court that Dodd shouldn’t
be allowed to waive his appeal
rights.

Curtis has said that, by his read-
ing of the decision by Washington
Chief Justice Fred Dore, Levy and

th court for quick execution

Mandel are no longer parties to the
case, since the Supreme Court has
decided thatissue. —

Neither Levy nor Mandel could be
reached for comment.

Under court rule, the decision is,
in effect, held for 20 days to give par-
ties in the case the chance to peti-

_tion for reconsideration. If the par-

ties notify the court that they won't
do that, the ruling goes into effect
immediately.

The stipulated agreement by Dodd
and Curtis is an apparent effort to
close the door on Mandel and Levy
and keep them from filing any addi-
tional motions in the case.

Washington state Supreme Court

clerk Jerry Merritt told the Associ- .
ated Press that the high court hadn't
determined how it would respond to
Monday's filing,
‘No one has been executed in
Washington since 1963. Washington
gives the condemned a choice be-
tween hanging or lethal injection.

oveER)

"Sunday, September 22, 1991 _B.3

L

The Seattle Times / Seattle Post-intelligencer

Dodd offers to donate his organs"

fssociated Press

and Times staff [wu 4 .
Convicted child killer Westley

Aian Dodd — who speaks out

q|pout how children can foil sexual -

dators and seeks a speedy

ecution in lieu of appeal —
wants to donate his organs for
transplant. ‘ta3

But the retired Michigan pa-
Lplogist known as Dr. Death, who

ested the donation, can’t find
qawilling surgeon. -.. ais

“How can I.get--the medical
Community to do their duty here
q@nd-,save some lives?” said Dr.
Jack Kevorkian, a retired suburban
Detroit »pathologist. “No doctor
over thére will perform the oper-
ation, and I can’t find one here
who will do it, either.”

Dodd, 30, pleaded guilty last
Near to the 1989 murders of a 4-
Ypar-old Portland boy and two
\fancouver, Wash., brothers, ages

10 and 11. He is seeking to drop
appeals on his behalf.

Last year,. Kevorkian made
headlines worldwide by helping a
Portland woman with Alzheimer’s
disease kill herself using his sui-
cide machine. , - .

Kevorkian contacted Dodd after
seeing him on television. .

“This man. has never smoked,
never drank or had a--serious
illness. His-organs are the cleanest
in the world and he**wants to
donate them in honor of his vic-
tims,” Kevorkian said “But I don’t

- think anyone would want to use

the organs because they are from a
convict on death row.”

From death row at the Wash-
ington State Penitentiary in Walla
Walla, Dodd has asked the state
Department of Corrections for per-
mission to donate a kidney, lung,
bone marrow and an eye cornea
while awaiting execution. Dodd
_wants then to be hanged as soon

as possible and have the rest of his
organs donated for transplants.
Jerry Davis, assistant to the
superintendent at the prison in
Walla Walla, said Dodd’s request
prompted the Department of Cor-
rections to check with other states.
So far, Davis said, none of the
states doing executions has a
transplant policy.

. “it's irrational,” said” Kevor- «
kian. “If this man’s organs are just —

tossed in the trash, then eight
people are going to die-with him.
At the very

doctor willing to do the first

operation while he’s living. There’s.

nothing unethical about that.”

Medical ethicist Arthur Caplan _

east, there has to be a

said Kevorkian’s theory isn't
realistic. In order to have organs
stay viable, the donor must under-
© brain death and be hooked to
ife-support machines.

“If you hang someone, or elec-
trocute’ or gas them, you will
render the organs unsuitable for
transplant.”
~ In this state, Dodd can choose
between hanging and lethal injec-
tion. He has expressed a desire to
be hanged. .

Kevorkian and Caplan agreed

on one point: Few doctors want to:
‘extract organs from'an executed

donor.
Bi Times reporter Jack Broom
contributed to this story.


‘I don't believe the state has any choice but to cary out my execution.’ — Westiey Allan Dodd

Jan. 5: Dodd’s date with death

By Hal Spencer
The Associated Press

VANCOUVER, Wash. — A
Clark County Superior Court
judge scheduled a Jan. 5 execu-
tion date Monday for Westley Al-
lan Dodd, convicted of slaying
three boys.

At a hearing before Judge Rob-
ert Harris, Dodd repeated his
long-standing wish to skip ap-
peals and have his death sentence
carried out. He also chose hang-
ing instead of death by injection.

“I don’t believe the state has
any choice but to carry out my
execution,” Dodd told Harris.

The execution at the Washing-
ton State Penitentiary in Walla
Walla would be the first in Wash-
ington since June 20, 1963, when
Joseph Self, 32, was hanged for
killing a Seattle cab driver.

Dedd, 31, was sentenced in
1990 after admitting he fatally
stabhed 10-year-old William Neer
and his 11-year-old brother, Cole
Neer, in a Vancouver park in
September 1989 and strangled 4-
year-old Lee Iseli of Portland,
the following month.

As Dodd stood to be led out of
the jammed courtroom Monday,
Jewell Cornell, the mother of Lee
’ Iseli, shouted, “Pig!” She had
sobbed at the start and close of
the hearing.

“I'm satisfied,” said Kay Lo-
hmes, an aunt of the Neer boys.
“It’s taken a long time, but I’m
satisfied this is finally happen-
ing.”

Dodd discouraged any attempt

at clemency and testified that if:

permitted to live in prison, he
would try to escape, killing
guards if necessary. If free, Dodd
said he would kill children again.

“I will not spend the rest of
my natural life in prison,” he
said.

Dodd made the statements in
court to establish a record to
‘prevent appeals others might file
on his behalf,

His lawyer, Darrell Lee of
Vancouver, testified that Dodd is
competent to waive further ap-
peal, not mentally ill and fully
understands his legal rights. Lee
said Dodd has never wavered in

Please see Dodd, A5

are black, nine are white.

I have asked Gov. Booth Gardner
to commute the sentences of all 12
to life imprisonment without pos-
sibility of parole. This is possible
under Article 3, Section 11 of the
Washington State Constitution and

RCW 10.01.120,

I write especially of convicted.
murderer David Rice, who brutally

his wish to be executed. “This case
isn’t even borderline. This is a man
who is fully, fully, fully competent.
This is a person who knows what
he is doing and doing for good
reasons,”

The judge ruled Dodd is com-
petent and understands he will be
executed. Dodd declined to make
any statement to the court, other
than answers to questions.

In signing the execution order,
Harris did not specify that Dodd is
to be hanged, noting Dodd can still
change his mind about the method
to be used to kill him.

“I have no information that
would cause me to intervene in
this case,” Gov. Booth Gardner
said in Olympia after the hearing.

Jack de Yonge, spokesman for
Gov.-elect Mike Lowry, has said
Lowry would review the case but
“is prepared to carry out the law.”
Lowry takes office Jan. 13.

The governor doesn’t have to

sign a death warrant, as in some
states, but may order a reprieve.

41 have read some of
the (Dodd) case. It’s
tough reading. You don’t
want to have eaten
before you read it. ¥

— Gov. Booth Gardner
Ty a

In Seattle, the Washington State
Catholic Conference issued a state-
ment from the state’s four Roman
Catholic bishops urging an end to
the “cycle of violence.”

“Capital punishment can itself
be the occasion for a public and
State-sanctioned expression of vin-
dictiveness and hatred which fur-
ther brutalizes our society,” said
the statement by Archbishop
Thomas Murphy of Seattle, Bishop
William Skylstad of Spokane,
Bishop Francis George of Yakima
and retired Archbishop Raymond
Hunthausen of Seattle.

Gardner said he has had calls
from people urging him to block
the execution. “I do say I take
each particular penalty and indi-
vidual and review the case.

“I have read some of the (Dodd)
case. It’s tough reading. You don’t
want to have eaten before you
read it.”

killed four members of the Gold-
mark family whom I knew and
loved. To me, Rice was and is in-
Sane. The jury found him Sane un-
der the McNaughton Rule of 1860.
The jury was wrong. The Gold-
marks were victims of a Cold War
Psychotic. Rice believed they were
communists and so deserved death,
But, civilized people do not kill
crazy people such as Rice.

In fact, civilized people do not

play God and kill people, sane or
insane.

NEWS
TUES,

Gov. Gardner Should spare State’s Death Row inmates

There are 12 people on Death
Row in Waila Walla. All are male.
One is an Oriental who killed 13
people in Seattle’s Chinatown, two

Rules propose
injection for
Capital crimes

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Inmates ex-
ecuted under federal law would die
by lethal injection under new rules

~. proposed Monday.

“The need for the rule has be-
come imperative with the growing
number” of capital punishment
cases for drug-related crimes, the
Justice Department said.

So far only one person, David
Ronald Chandler, has been sen-

* tenced to die under a 1988 law

aimed at combating drug-related
violence. The law authorizes the
death penalty for murder linked to
illegal drug trafficking.

No date has been set for the
execution of Chandler, sentenced in
May 1991 in federal court in Bir-
mingham, Ala. Prosecutors de-
scribed him as the mastermind of
a murderous marijuana ring.

A comprehensive crime bill that
would have expanded the federal
death penalty to cover 53 offenses
was shelved in the closing days of
Congress this fall.

Under the proposed rules, the
head of the Bureau of Prisons
would set the time and place of
execution for any federal crime.
The execution would take place at
a federal prison and would be car-
ried out by a U.S. marshal assisted
by a team picked by the U.S, Mar-
—_ Service and the prison war-
en.

“Lethal injection will be the
method of execution,” the proposed
rules state,

Thirty-four people have been ex-
ecuted under federal death penalty
law but none since 1963, when Vic-
tor Feguer was hanged for kidnap-
ping. More than 2,600 inmates are
on state death rows nationwide,
and states have executed 29 this
year.

The new rules are scheduled to
take effect after a 30-day public
comment period.

an appropriate time.

TAcom™ (wasi,)

TRIBUNE

(Re/= 92

Studies show no correlation be-
tween capital punishment and
crime deterrence. Civilized coun-
tries ago abandoned the death

y

I hope that Gov. Gardner will
ng some sanity and civilization
to this state and set an example
for other governors by commuting
all 12 death sentences, For those of
0 are Christians, Christmas


Seeeeehdenetiadinieien ate

D.M. diner killings

renew Branstad’s
death penalty push

By Rod Boshart

\. Gazette Des Moines Bureau
DES MOINES — Sunday night’s slayings of
two managers at a trendy diner near Drake
University have triggered a massive manhunt
and renewed caWs for reinstating Iowa’s death
penalty.
Gov. Terry Branstad said the assailant sought
in the shooting deaths. of Cara McGrane, 25, of
Des Moines, and Tim rnett, 28, of Johnston,
would be eligible for capital punishment under
his limited death penalty proposal if convicted
of two counts of first-degree
Meanwhile, Des Moines busi
Knapp, owner of the Drake Di

@ Photo of Drake Diner, 6A

slayings took place, announced a $20,000
for information leading to the arrest and i
ment of the gunman.

torney General Bonnie Campbell.
Des Moines Police Chief Willi
said his department had not confifmed a drug
link to Sunday night’s shootings.
still piecing together details of
The assailant entered the di
7 p.m. Sunday, went directly/to the cash regis-
ter, grabbed McGrane and placed a gun to her
head, Des Moines Sgt. Raymond Rexroat said.
“As she turned to see who was behind her,
the assailant immediately, without resistance or

<a - nn sn eee: 6.

Tim Burnett

provocation from Cara, fired one shot which
stryck her in the head, killing her instantly,”
according to a police statement. Burnett was
ot in the head as he ran to her aid.

The gunman then took money from the cash
register and walked out of the restaurant.
Police officials said they had no active sus-
pects but had 20 officers working to find a black
man described as 6 feet tall wearing a gray
hooded sweat shirt and and black coat.
Moulder took what he admitted was a some-
what-unusual step by displaying an eight-shot,
Desert Eagle 44-magnum semi-automatic pistol
sunilar to the firearm believed used in the
Dré e Diner robbery. He said the handgun was
a “u igue”’ Israeli military weapon but the
number Yn Iowa would be hard to pinpoint since
as no registration requirement.
he hoped someone would recall
seeing such a\gun.
During his weekly news conference, Branstad
further clarified\his death penalty stance by
saying he favors making the capital punishment
option available in aay situation that involves a
conviction for a second capital offense, such as
multiple homicides.

C ed ov Kepids (24) | ye Che


J

Last minute preparations made for Dodd hanging

By JOHN K. WILEY
Associated Press Writer

WALLA
WALLA, Wash.
— A lawyer for
triple child-
killer Westley |
Allan Dodd
argued in court |
Monday. tha
delaying his
client’s execu-|
tion would be ¥
Phelon fa ape
etting him die
in the nation’s Dodd
first hanging since 1965.

odd, who waived all appeals,
has said he chose hanging over
lethal injection because he hanged
his youngest victim’s body in a
closet after killing him. He has said
he must die because “I know I will
kill again.”

He was scheduled to die shortly
after midnight. It would be
Washington’s first execution since
1963.

“All of the arrangements for the
execution are complete,”’ prison
spokesman Jerry Davis said
Monday morning.

There was no immediate indica-
tion when the state Supreme Court
would rule on the lawsuit argued
Monday in which 26 people sought
to have hanging declared unconsti-
tutionally cruel and unusual
punishment.

Death penalty opponents staged
prayer meetings, vigils and
demonstrations across the state.
One group mounted a 24-hour vigil
in the snow outside the prison.

“We come to pray for justice and
not for vengeance,” said Magdela-
no Rose-Avila, Amnesty Interna-
tional’s western regional director.

Dodd was visited y a clergyman
Monday morning, said Davis. Pris-
on officials would reveal few other
details.

Dodd, a 31-year-old shipping
clerk, was sentenced to death in
1990 for the 1989 sex murders of
three boys in the Vancouver area
in southwestern Washington. The

ae ae ani rn

crimes were so grisly that some of
the jurors who sentenced him
Sought psychiatric help afterward.

Before the Supreme Court in
Olympia, attorney Timothy Ford
argued that hanging amounts to
torture.

“Dodd has chosen hanging
because he wants to be treated
equally cruel,” Ford said. “The
question is: ‘Can he consent to
being tortured by the state?’”’

Dodd’s attorney, Darrell Lee,
responded that the cruelest thing to
do, other than delaying the execu-
tion, would be to kill Dodd by lethal
injection — the state’s only alter-
native to hanging. He noted that at
least one execution by injection
was botched because the execu-
tioner could not find a suitable
vein.

“Tf we want to be cruel, we could
stone people to death or we could
burn people at the stake,” Lee
Said.

Dodd greatly fears medical tech-
nicians and the prospect of some-
one sticking a needle in his arm,
Lee said.

” a aa et ~~

“He wants no appeals. He wants
no stays,” Lee said. ‘‘His mental
and emotional condition has not
changed.”’

Death penalty opponents also
asked Gov. Booth Gardner to
commute Dodd’s sentence to life in
prison. Gardner said he wouldn’t
intervene.

Dodd asked that his cremated
remains and his few belongings be
turned over to a 40-year-old Nash-
ville, Tenn., woman who has said
she loves him.

The woman came to Walla Walla
the day after Christmas to visit
Dodd. She told The Columbian
newspaper of Vancouver that she
and Dodd exchanged informal
wedding vows last May.

“I don’t care if the whole world
knows I love him,’’ she said
Sunday. But she asked to be identi-
fied only as Janet to protect her
two children.

Dodd admitted he fatally
stabbed brothers William Neer, 10,
and Cole Neer, 11, in a park in
September 1989 and strangled
4-year-old Lee Iseli the next month.

a us

(111443-La

In prison, he wrote a pamphlet
aimed at children, titled “When
You Meet A Stranger,” warning

youngsters to stay away from
people like him.

The last prison hangings in the
United States were in 1965 .in
Kansas, when four murderers
were hanged. Among them were
Richard Eugene Hickock and
Perry Edward Smith, who became
the subjects of Truman Capote’s
book, “In Cold Blood.”

Attorneys for another Death Row
inmate and triple murderer, Char-
les R. Campbell, last week unsuc-
cessfully sought permission to
videotape Dodd’s hanging to
bolster their claims that hanging is
cruel and unusual punishment.

Campbell was scheduled to die in
March 1989, but won a reprieve 33
— before his scheduled death

te.

Montana, Delaware and New
Hampshire also allow hangings.

Death penalty
shrouded by
questions

State may end Dodd's life, but
debate over execution won't die

by Terry McDermott
Times staff reporter

y mi idni first

a few minutes after midnight on the
tose of January, an employee of the state -of
Washington, acting at the behest of the Superior
Court of Clark County, intends to put a carefully

@ Execution is a smooth routine in Texas. A 18

j - -old Westley
e under the jaw of 31-year-old
Aten Dod and hang him by his neck until dead, a
process that if done properly wil] take mere pros
Dodd, if he dies, will be the first person execut “4
in Washington state in almost 30 years, but he will,
intents are fulfilled, be the first of at least 11 _
executed in Washington state in the next seve
years.
Why is this or any state in the business of killing
2 .
Peep mportant ways, this fundamental question
about the death penalty remains unanswered, even
after centuries of executions, thousands of deaths
and countless debates about the Propriety of it all.
Over time, the death penalty has come in and out
f favor. .
° Societies have executed transgressing members
t since there have been societies.
are Bab lonians did it for as slight a reason as
brewing bad beer. Seventeenth-century England had
350 capital crimes on the book. The Massachusetts
Bav Colony recommended death for stealing some-
one’s man. ; ces at
itzpatrick, a professor at the University
woareene aw School whose research has focused
on international human rights, said the long-term
trends have been toward fewer executions and fewer
crimes for which execution is deemed proper.
The United States is an anomaly. Executions are
on the rise here. The U.S. is currently the only

'

Please see EXECUTE on A 18

U.S. bucks trend against execution

EXECUTE

continued from Page 1

Western industrial nation employ-
ing capital punishment.

Other industrial nations, such
as South Africa and Japan, still
have laws allowing for capital
punishment, but use them rarely if
at all.

The rationales for state-ordered
execution have varied nearly as
much as the crimes deemed wor-
thy of it.

Reasons have ranged from the
obvious — simple. willful revenge
— to the esoteric -— German

' philosopher Immanuel Kant's no-

tion that the symmetry of society is
disrupted if a death is allowed to
pass unanswered.

Heres a look at some of the
major justifications offered.

DETERRENCE

This would seem to be the least
controversial reason for state-
sponsored killing.

The state kills to prevent other
murders. Executions warn poten-
tial criminals.

Unfortunately, no one knows if
capital punishment is a deterrent.
Studies on the subject have pro-
duced conflicting results.

Some show clearly it is. Others
show clearly it is not.

Fitzpatrick said the “studies on
deterrence sort of cancel each

Studies suggest
an execution in
Washington costs
far more than
incarceration.

other out.”

INCAPACITATION

This is deterrence on a very
small scale. The only sure result of
executing criminals is that they
will no longer be alive. Execution
prevents the person executed from
committing more crimes; it “‘inca-
pacitates" the person executed.
This is enough to satisfy some
people.

“Some of these people are so
incredibly dangerous that there's
nothing else that can be done,”
said Mike Redman, executive sec-
retary of the Washington Prosecu-
tors Association.

ECONOMICS

It used to be commonly argued
that it was a waste of tax monev to
provide free room and board for
life to vile criminals. It would be
cheaper to execute them. F

This argument might once have
made sense on strictly economic
grounds. But as the costs of execu-
tions have increased, the argument
has all but disappeared.

The Death Penalty Information

SEATTLE TIMES
SUN. DEC, "3,

(972

(oveR)

Center. a national clearinghouse
for anti-death-penalty activity, ar-
gues in a recent report that “the
exorbitant costs of capital punish-
ment are actually making America
less safe because badly needed
financial and legal resources are
being diverted from effective
crime-fighting strategies.”

No one has attempted to calcu-
late the costs of an execution in
Washington state, but studies else-
where suggest it costs far more
than incarceration.

California is spending more
than $90 million annually on cap-
ital cases, and until this year
hadn't executed anyone since
1972. Texas, the national leader in
the number of executions, spends
an estimated $2.3 million per ex-
ecution. That compares to an aver-
age cost of incarceration in Wash-
ington state of $25.000 per maxi-
mum-security prisoner per vear.

The costs of capital punishment
are not in the execution itself,
which is relatively inexpensive, but
in the process leading up to it.

Neil Sonnett. a Florida defense
attorney who served on an Amen-
can Bar Association committee
Studying costs, said higher costs
are incurred at every level in a
potential capital case. from the
hg wing through the last ap-

rials are more expensive ,

al

lores more expert witnesses are
employed, the trials last longer,
judges and lawyers are more cau-
tious, there is a separate trial just
to determine the penalty, and the
appellate process is long and in.
volved.

ahaa Oe
(Alaska

Cc
Lo,

ge

36 states have the death penalty

There have been 188 executions since 1977. The map shows the number and the
method used in each state. States left blank have no death penalty.

GF] Hanging sree lel Gas
chamber

VA

G

Hawaii

Lethal
injection

=| Firing
=~] squad

Source: NAACP Leg2' Defense |
and Educationa! Fune. inc.

The state or local jurisdiction
frequently pays for both the pros-
ecution and the defense, because
most people accused of capital
crimes cannot afford to defend
themselves.

“Many of these are costs that
will not go away so long as you

have the penalty,” Sonnett said.

VENGEANCE

This is perhaps the oldest, most
common and most straightforward
justification, commonly stated in
the Babylonian King Hammurabi's
formulation of “an eye for an eve.”

State enters new era of executions

Seattle Tres and Knight.Ridder Newsoape::

Many ss believe that society
has a right to revenge horrible

ee i
“What's the value of one life?
Another life.” said Jeralita Costa.

Please see EXECUTE on A 19

Scene eee
EXECUTE

continued from A 18

executive director of a state vic-
tims’-rights organization.

POLITICS
At the simplest — and perhaps
also most complex — level, this

new era of executions in Washing-
ton state will begin because, said
King County Superior Court Judge
and former deputy prosecutor
Robert Lasnik, “Fundamentally
one of the main reasons is that
people want it.”

No one has been executed in
_Washington since an armed robber
‘and murderer named Joseph Self
was hanged in 1963. In the decade
‘after Self's execution, public opin-
‘ion turned more and more against
capital. punishment. Nine people
were convicted of capital crimes,

but none was executed in the next
10 years. In 1972, the U.S. Su-
preme Court declared all of the
death-penalty statutes in the coun-
try unconstitutional.

_ Rather than eliminating execu-
tions permanently, this wg eventu-
ally to the resurgence of capital
punishment as a political issue
and, according to opinion polls, a
resurgence of public support for it.

Throughout the country, citizen
groups and legislators scrambled
to reinstate capital punishment
with new laws that would meet the
Supreme Court's new tests,

In 1975, a citizens’ Initiative
was passed in Washington with 70
pb we of the vote, directing the

gislature to devise a new denth-
enalty law. Although parts of the
aw that grew out of that initiative
also were found legally deficient,
the passage of the initiative virtual-
ly guaranteed the state would have
& new death penalty as soon as one
Passed constitutional muster.

Why did voters want it?

Stuart Scheingold. a political.
science professor at the UW. said
Capital punishment can serve soci-
ety at a psychological level deeper
than pure vengeance, which often
is construed as a sort of blind rage.

“The death penalty should be
considered not as a signal to the
person who committed the crime,
not as a signal to people who
might commit similar crimes, but
as Signals to one another that
although the social compact has
been broken, we still believe in it.
If you provide some sort of trivial
penalty, it implies the compact is
> weinaecl
«. Scheingold personally opposes
the death ens. Still, he cat “I
think there's a powerful way in
which this works.”

He adds, however, that like
most other arguments for or
against capital punishment, there
are very few data to support, or

_Contradict, this position.

The 11 men on

Washington’s “Death Row” | . . in Washington, death penalty appeals can -—— Charles R. Campbell, age 3:

Wiesitey Minn Dodd, wenbinéte hes yt é ~ ‘ follow three Separate routes. Each case proceeds County of crime:

been reviewed by the State Supreme al a different rate and a person may have cases Snohomish

Court, says he wants to forgo all other . , . pending in more than one court at a time. Date: April 14, 122
! 4 Each of the three routes can lead toa Sentenced: Dec 17

appeals and be executed.

Westley Allan Dodd, age 31____

*

County of crime:
Clark

Date of crimes: Sept.
4, 1989; Oct. 30, 1989
Sentenced: July 26,
1990

request for a review by the U.S. Supreme Court,
but the high court has not accepted any’of
Washington's current death-row cases for review.
Even after all court remedies are
exhausted, the governor may commute a
prisoner's sentence to life in prison without parole.

1962

Crime: Fatally
stabbed two women
and an 8-year-oic girl
in Clearview in
revenge for testimony against him in 2
previous trial.

Status of appeal: Two habeas-copus
petitions pending in 9th Circuit Coun of

Crime: Molested and Fee SPgs Me Sat ee ee STL ae gE ah Re 7 tale ian Appeals. One will be argued again
pad — = 0- and Request for review by Request for review by Request for review by betore an 11-judge panel Jan. 20, 1993.
“year. others in aes
a Vinccuieradk Heeppll, send al U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. Supreme Court,

strangled a 4-year-old Portland boy.
Status of appeal: Sentence affirmed by
state Supreme Court Oct. 8, 1992.
Dodd has declined further appeals.
Execution date set for Jan. 5, 1993.

Gary Michael Benn, age 47
County of crime:

EE!

1990

Crime: Shot his halt-
brother and another
man in a dispute over
sharing insurance
money after an arson and burglary.
Status of appeal: State Supreme Court
heard arguments Feb. 11, 1992.

James Leroy Brett, age 23

County of crime:
Clark
Date: Dec. 3, 1991

Sth Circuit Court of Appeals

Must review every case.

Original trial. Direct appeal

"Patrick James Jeffries, ec 57

County of crime:
Clallam

Date: March 19, 1983
Sentenced: Nov. 18.
1983

Crime: Snot to dean a
Port Angeles couc'é
who had betrienaea

. —e é ae
Pierce « Washington Supreme pee geneceny ee dbya s- him.
Date: Feb. 10, 1988 ; Court: Washington Supreme Court: ee-judge panel. Status of appeal: Three-judge panel of
Sentenced: June 12, = the federal 9th Circuit Coun of Appeals

Inmate files a personal-restraint Ws by an 11-judge panel ™

petition, usually in this court. may be requested.

These appeals can allege | Pre 7% |
i ® a i

violations of rights in any aspect
of the case, including conduct of
tral, sentencing, or effectiveness
of counsel.

U.S. District Court: s

Inmate files habeas-corpus

denied appeal Sept. 9, 1992: Jefires
has asked to be reheard by 11-jucge
panel.

David L. Rice, age 34
County of crime: King

petition. challenging on

process starts after conviction
and death sentence.

Ceres

% ia constitutional grounds any
inf aspect of the conviction or
sentence.

c
ie eae

=

a
eo ee ee
: [ vies
! => [Qed > |S =
2 => : =)

4
rT

: E

x {

Date: Dec. 24. 1985
Sentencec: July 23.
1986

Crime: Fatally
bludgeoned a Seattle
couple and their two
sons at their Maoron2
2re2 home on

Sentenced: July 14,

1992 Bids Se | i 5s asthma ia cmmiancsnth Pee ome Christmas Eve.

Crime: Fatally shot a ] ‘ < | Status of appeal: Habeas-corpus
sponses eereey. Appeal of criminal | | Civil challenge =| Civil challenge in |: : pedtinn parsing: U.S. Diseict Cou,
man during a robbery . ° i a k ;

at the victim's home. case in state courts | | in state courts federal courts

Status of appeal: Filed with State
Supreme Court July 16, 1992.

Brian Keith Lord, age 32

James McFanane, Christine Castigliano / Seatue Times

|__ Benjamin J. Harris Ill, age 45

i. Mitchell E. Rupe, age 38

County of crime:
Thurston
Date: Sept. 17. 1981

Michael Monroe Furman, age 2i—/ “ Jonathan Lee Gentry, age 36
: weg County of crime: | - .

Kitsap County of crime: Kitsap

Date: April 27, 1989 Date: June 13, 1988

Sentenced: March 6, Sentenced: July 22, 1991

1990 Crime: Attempted to rape, and then murdered,
Crime: Raped and fat- a 12-year-old Idaho girl who was visiting her
ally beat a woman, 85, in mother in East Bremerton.

her Port Orchard home. Status of appeal: Filed with State Supreme
Status of appeal: Court Aug. 8, 1991.

State Supreme Court heard arguments

Oct. 15, 1991.

Sentenced: Feb. 20,
1985

Crime: Shot two bank
tellers during a
robbery in Tumwater.
Status of appeal:
Habeas-corpus petition in U.S. District
Court on hold pending resoluticn of
state-count issues.

County of crime: Pierce
Date: June 14, 1984
Sentenced: Jan. 14, 1985
Crime: Found guilty of the
contract shooting death of
a man in Tacoma’s Hilltop
neighborhood.

Status of appeal: State
personal-restraint petition
filed Aug.11, 1992.

County of crime: Kitsap
Date: Sept. 16, 1986
Sentenced: Aug. 18, 1987
Crime: Fatally beat a
Poulsbo-area teenager
when she resisted his
attempts at sexual assault.
Status of appeal:
Personal- restraint petition
expected to be filed in state coun.


pang

or § gbbing th

vancouver - area!
e nas ought aP eals of

execution. He says @ wants to
hangings ecaus? he
He oungest victim, &
anim in a

‘Hanging

Continued from page 23

put to death nationwide since
. Gary Gilmore was shot by a Utah
_. firing squad in 1977, a killing that
marked the resumption of legal
executions in this country, where
only Washington, Delaware and
Montana allow hanging as an op-
tion. As the execution date nears,
Dodd continues to puzzle those
who have tried to understand him.

The oldest of three children, he
was born July 3, 1961, in the little
farm town of Toppenish, Wash.,
in the heart of the Yakima Valley.
His father, Westley J. Dodd, drove
a dairy truck, and his mother,
Carolyn S. Collins, stayed at
- home. The family moved all

around eastern Washington, finally
settling in Richland.

“‘Mr. Dodd was raised in a
household without love,’’ wrote
Teresa A. McMahill, a social
worker, in a long chronology of
his life prepared for the Washing-
ton State Supreme Court last year.
_ Most family members agreed
with McMahill’s assessmen:. Kath-
erine Dodd Cox, the youngest of
the children, said in a court docu-
ment, “We were never beaten, we
- had food and clothes, but there
was just no family, no love.”

_ Gregory Dodd, the midd!« child,
called his older brother “: nerd,”
and ‘said school children co astant-
ly made fun of him. He speculated
that his brother started to hate
children and that his later violence
was a form of revenge.
_. The defendant himself says there
are few clues to his behavior in his

family background, and he contra-
dicts his siblings. “I can remember
being teased by other kids on just

‘two occasions, certainly not con-

stantly” he said in an affidavit
filed with the Washington Su-
preme Court. “I have never been
beaten or physically abused. The
divorce of my parents was not
hard on me.”

And, Dodd has said, he himself
was not molested by either par-
ent—unlike many child molesters.

But he did concede one point.
“I was raised in a family without
love,” he said.

Of course, the world is full of
families without love; it does not
explain why Dodd became a child-
killer, say his therapists.

Shortly after the parents broke
up, the police came to the house
with a complaint that Wes Dodd
had exposed himself in the win-
dow to children outside. He was
13. About the same time, by
Dodd’s own account, he sexually
molested two cousins, a boy and a
girl. He was scolded, sent to a few
counseling sessions. His parents
thought that was the end of it,
they said.

Throughout high school, Dodd
preyed on children for sexual of-
fenses and was arrested on several
occasions.

Early on, a pattern began to de-
velop: No judge wanted to send
him to jail for long, despite his
candor about a string of sex crimi-
es.

The authorities, reflecting the
sentencing standards of the time,
opted for treatment and a belief in
the promises from the young de-
fendant.


Relatives of Dodd’s victims want
to see execution but are shut out

by Peter Lewis
Times staff reporter

Who should get to witness the
execution of Westley Allan Dodd?

As the state prepares for its first
execution in 30 years, that ques-
tion is emerging as an issue that
threatens to spill into court.

Relatives of victims killed by
Dodd want to attend the scheduled
Jan. 5 hanging and are outraged
that the state never even bothered
to ask if they wanted to.

“! definitely want to go and I
think I should have the right to
go,” said Jewell Cornell, mother of
Lee Iseli, one of three young boys
killed by Dodd.

It’s not fair, she said, that in a
policy and procedure manual is-

sued last week, the state Depart--

ment of Corrections reserved 12 of
14 witness seats for the media.

The two other spots are for .

Clark County issuing akin |
Art Curtis, who has said he doesn’t
plan to attend, and for the sentenc-
ing, judge, Robert Harris, who
hast t made up his mind.

‘It was our child that
was killed, not the
public or the media.’

Jewell Cornell,
mother of Lee Iseli

“It was our child that was
killed,” said Cornell, ‘not the
public or the media.”

Curtis and Dodd’s attorney,
Darrell Lee, agree with her.

The two lawyers say they. may
join forces in the next week or two
to obtain a court order requiring
the state to allow the victims’
relatives to attend the execution at
the penitentiary in Walla Walla.

There’s little indication the Cor-
rections Department will relent
short of a court order, said Assis-
tant Attorney General Kathy Mix,
who represents the department. .

‘Jer client’s “pretty firm” posi-

tion, Mix said, is:that the media
will be “the party. responsible for
conveying the circumstances of the
execution to the public.”

The decision to exclude all but
the media, the prosecutor and the
judge was based, Mix said, on the
department’s belief that the media
“best represents the public interest
in being present, and so they’ve
given the media very adequate
Space, and they have difficulty
determining where to cut off ac-
cess beyond that point once you
get into people who have a person-
al interest in the case.”

Department spokesman Veltry
Johnson admitted Washington’s
execution-witness. policy may be
the most restrictive in the nation,
but he noted no one has a legal
right to be there. .

There was a time, Johnson
noted, when the public was ex-.
cluded altogether. When the ex-

.ecution was. over, the warden

would meet with reporters to de-

Please se¢/DODD on A3

tHe Families denied seat at execution

| SEATTLE the execution, according to If Lee and Curtis end up going
| spokeswomen with the NAACP to court, they'll probably cite the
| DODD Legal Defense Fund and with the _ state’s voter-approved 1989 consti-

continued from Page 1

scribe what happened.

Mix said she didn’t know how
the department came up with the
number 14, acknowledging that
the Walla Walla fire marshal has
examined the room and found it
could hold 17 sitting witnesses, 38
if they were all standing.

The department’s decision to
exclude Dodd’s attorney raises the
hackles of groups that oppose the
death penalty. Even Curtis, the
prosecutor, thinks the prisoner has
a right to have counsel present at
every critical stage of a criminal
proceeding.

“Td think the ultimate sanction
is a critical stage,” Curtis said.

Johnson countered that Dodd’s
lawyer will otherwise have regular
access to his client at the peniten-
tiary.

.» Virtually all states with capital-
punishment statutes permit the
prisoner’s lawyer to be present at

National Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty.

In addition, many states, as well
as proposed federal rules that
would govern executions in federal
prisons, allow death-row prisoners
to ask for a relative, adult friend or
spiritual adviser to be present, said
the NAACP’s Kica Matos.

Lee, Dodd’s attorney, yester-
day said he planned to learn his
client’s wishes.

Lee said he was outraged the
state ‘would not allow the victims’
parents to attend ... and I suspect
that Mr. Dodd will be, too.”

Dodd, 31, was sentenced to die
in 1990 after pleading guilty to
molesting and killing Vancouver
brothers William and Cole Neer,
ages 10 and 11, and Lee Iseli, 4, of
Portland. Dodd has waived his
appeal rights, saying he deserves
to die for his crimes.

In addition to Jewell Cornell,
Clair Neer, father of the Neer boys,
has expressed his desire to attend
the execution, according to Curtis.

tutional amendment giving crime
victims the right to attend all court
proceedings the defendant attends
— including the sentencing.

The state’s decision to ex-
clude the families, observed Curtis,
“is just another example of the
or leaving the victims out in

e cold, which is what the state is
trying to eliminate with this
amendment.”

Mix, the Corrections Depart-
ment’s lawyer, contends the
amendment doesn’t go so far as to
te family of victims the right to

e present at executions.

The department has strong au-
thority to control access to its
institutions, Mix noted, and
doesn’t normally allow relatives of
victims to observe other forms of
punishmenrt..

She. also said the department
would abide by a Superior Court
order, if one is issued, to open up
the execution to other witnesses,
suliect to space limitations.

dnd \ef da dh gg WHS Vic Y se

Los Angeles Times, January 5, 1993, p. A3

ad

Court Refuses to
Halt Hanging of
Children’s Killer

w= Punishment: Washington state justices
clear a major hurdle to the execution,
scheduled for today.

From Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash.—‘The state Supreme Court on
Monday refused to halt the execution of Westley Allan
Dodd, clearing a major obstacle in the convicted child
killer's quest to be hanged for his crimes.

In a one-sentence order, the court upheld Dodd’s
death sentence, which was to be carried out early
today. In doing so, the ;— ——
justices rejected a mo-
tion brought by 26
Washington residents
that argued that hang-
ing is cruel and unusual
punishment banned by
the state and U.S. con-
stitutions.

Dodd, who killed
three children, has
waived al] appeals. He
has said he chose hang-
ing over lethal injection +
because he hung his WY NTS
youngest victim's body g 3 3 60 6
in a closet after killing
him. He has said he Associated Preas
must die because “I Westley Allan Dodd
know I will kill again.”

His execution would be Washington’s first since
1963.

His lawyers could not immediately be reached after
the court announced its ruling—reached on a 7-1
vote—and it was not clear what further appeal options
they have.

Meanwhile, prison officials said they were prepared
to carry out the execution just after midnight.

“All of the arrangements for the execution are
complete,” prison spokesman Jerry Davis said Monday
morning.

Death penalty opponents staged prayer mectings,
vigils and demonstrations across the state. One group
mounted a 24-hour vigil in the snow outside the
prison.

“We come to pray for justice and not for ven-
geance,” said Magdelano Rose- Avila, Amnesty Inter-

national’s Western regional direc-
tor.

Dodd was visited by a clergyman
Monday morning,,said Davis. Pris-
on officials would reveal few other
details.

Dodd, a 31-year-old shipping
clerk, was sentenced to death in
1990 for the 1989 sex murders of
three boys in the Vancouver area
in southwestern Washington. The
crimes were so grisly that some of
the jurors who sentenced him
sought psychiatric help afterward.

Before the Supreme Court in
Olympia, attorney Timothy Ford
argued that hanging amounts to
torture.

“Dodd has chosen hanging be-
cause he wants to be treated equai-

ly cruel,” Ford said. “The questicn
is: Can he consent to being tortured
by the state?”

Dodd's attorney. Darrell Lee.
responded that the cruelest thing
to do. other than delaying the
execution, would be to kill Dodd ov
lethal injecuon—the state's oniv
alternative to hanging. He noted
that at least one execuuon ov
injection was botched because tne
execuuioner could not find a suit-
able vein.

“If we want to be cruel, we could
Stone people to death or we could
burn people at the stake,” Lee said.

Dodd greatly fears medical tech-
nicians and the prospect of some-
one sticking a needle in his arm.
Lee said.

“He wants no appeals. He wants
no stays,” Lee said. “His mental
and emotional condition has not
changed.”

Deatn penalty opponents also
asked Gov. Booth Gardner to com-
mute Dodd's sentence to life in
prisor.. Gardner said he wouid not
intervene.

Docd admitted that he fatally
stabbec brothers William Neer. 10,
and Coie Neer. 11, in a park in
September, 1989, and strangled
4-year-old Lee Iseli the next
month.

In prison, he wrote a pamphiet
aimed at children, titled “When
You Meet a Stranger,” warning
youngsters to stay away from peo-
ple like nim.

The last prison hangings in the
United States were in 1965 in
Kansas, when four murderers were
hanged. Among them were Rich-
ard Eugene Hickock and Perry
Edward Smith, who became the
subjects of Truman Capote’s book
“In Cold Blood.”

Montana, Delaware and New
Hampshire also allow hangings.


The Nation. February I, 1993

MINORITY REPORT.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

s well as being the only “advanced industrial” or

“modern” or “‘civilized” country (how vital these

nuances can be made to seem) to retain the pen-

alty of death in its routine criminal code, the Unit-
ed States is also the only country in the world, as far as I
am aware, to conduct a continuous argument about the way
in which the penalty should be inflicted. True to the dogma
of pluralism and states’ rights, and to the religion of free-
dom of choice, executioners in America debate the merits of
shooting, gassing, electrocution, hanging and lethal injection.
(Longevity is, given the crushing limbo of death row, yet
another option.)

Now the great state of Washington has addcc a new pre-
cept—that of consumer sovereignty. On Januaiy 5, a con-
fessed sadist and child-slayer named Westley Allan Dodd was
placed on a trap door with a length of lubricated rope around
his hooded neck and dropped into the air. This happened be-
cause he demanded death, and because he selected that very
specialized means of exit.

Westley Allan Dodd, in demand-
ing to be hanged, had the last laugh.

I can’t think of a better practical satire on capital punish-
ment than that a proud and boastful psychopath should act
as choreographer and ringmaster for society’s allegedly grave
and solemn verdict. Never mind the legal or moral or consti-
tutional arguments. The people of the state are required to
affix their names to this gruesome ceremony because a tor-

turer of infants has mandated state policy. Those who don’t ©

see the joke are taking the death penalty very literally indeed.
They can’t have troubled to notice that all those fatuous ar-
guments about the mythical “deterrent effect” have vanished
in one puff of vile air.

There’s another practical joke being played here, but it’s
such a sick one that I didn’t see it mentioned or even hint-
ed at in any of the published accounts. The entire literature

of sexual sadism is replete with urgent, throaty descriptions _

of strangulation and asphyxiation by rope: the particular
method entreated by the late Mr. Dodd and supplied to him
by credulous authorities. In a really good rope-and-ladder ses-
sion between consenting adults, the payoff is erection and ejac-
ulation for both parties. (Like many such experiments, this
is so far a predominantly male preserve.) In a nonconsensu-
al, slow strangulation, the payoff comes only to the inflict-
ing partner, and, so to speak, hang the consequences for the
victim. In episodes that are only mentioned in hoarse whis-
pers, the daring autoerotic can so arrange matters that he
grabs his own noose before it tightens too far, but not an in-
stant sooner. In the real classics of the genre, you get a full-
fledged sex-death, whether willed or otherwise.
When hanging was in vogue, this was a notorious element
in popular obscenity. George Orwell referred primly to an as-

pect of the hanged man’s corpse that was too well known and
too distasteful to be mentioned in print. Lynch gangs used to
make rather a thing of the violent, involuntary protuberance.
I could go on, except that I don’t wish to seem like too much
of an expert. This used to be common knowledge, for Chris-
sake. And now, to open the year of grace 1993, the taxpayer
naively subsidizes a sexual monster (“‘a calcified sadist” was
one clinical description) as he teases the state into giving him
one final, ghastly release.

I think it can be said that Westley Allan Dodd had thie last
laugh. Truly is it written that hard cases make bad law. No-
body even thought it odd, in considering his begging for the
rope, that he had himself “hanged” the last little boy he had
ensnared.

And yet advocates of the death penalty talk as if they had
a superior, or more realistic and intimate, knowicage of “hue
man nature.” I would be less cocky than that if I were dumbly
carrying out the perverted wishes of a child-killer, and enact-

ing a pornographic ritual for the.edification of the masses.

There’s nobody as innocent as a law-and-order man who i is
just doing his job. -

Thomas Hardy is not usually thought of as prurient, but
in his story “The Withered Arm” he materialized the con-
gealed superstition and sexuality that accumulated around the
gallows. Gertrude, the protagonist, has a deformity that only
village magic, or so she thinks, can cure. She consults a bu-
colic English witch doctor:

“'You must touch with the limb the neck of a man who’s been
hanged.”

She started a little at the image he had raised.

“Before he’s cold, just after he’s cut down,” continued the
conjuror impassively.

“How can that do good?”

“Tt will turn the blood and change the constitution. But, as I
say, to do it is hard. You must go to the jail when there’s a hang-
ing, and wait for him when he’s brought off the gallows. Lots
have done it, though perhaps not such pretty women as you.”

And so it goes, through the leering jokes of the hangman
until the sour denouement. Brendan Behan was aware of
a similar tremor in his gallows play The Quare Fellow. The
writing of Jean Genet was more robust and cheerful about
the same point. And other observers, from Dickens to Thack-
eray, were forced to notice the saturnalia of minor vice and
crime and cruelty that always attended a hanging, and invar-
iably infected the spectators. This wisdom and connected-
ness has been lost in an era of supposedly sterile executio

‘chambers, where the a nia and his evil still comman
center stage.

If Dodd had committed his crimes in California, a iu 2
could have chosen to give him “life without the option,” und
which nobody convicted has been paroled, commuted or a
lowed to escape. Instead, he was given the chance to be judge
in his own cause, and supervisor of corrections. To paraphrase
Hardy, that really does turn the blood. To continue the para-
phrase, it also changes the Constitution.


sic
Bod Soh 6 td

Who cares if execution is humane? such times.

To the Editor: What interests

the debate that raged over the Selection

of a humane way to conduct an
tion. Westley Allan Dodd had hls

Let's look at real issues, The death pen-
alty does not deter from murder; in fact,
the majority of violent killers won't come
close to considering Its effect. They'll be

me is

execu: -
choice

of dying by lethal injection or hanging. 0M the streets again in a matter of

Certain teople and groups scein to feel
is an inhumane way to die.

hanging

months or years, regardless of the off-
: cial, voter-approved morality.

Who cares about being humane? Dodd Some person kills another person. This '

killed three young boys in a most v

iclous, 18 wrong. With a constitutional right to

Savage manner. He never showed a trace execute People who commit a certain
of humanity toward them. Why should type of murder, we commit an act that {s
the state of Washington be concerned in many ways similar to the one he com-

with making his death a comforta
falr?

ble af- mitted,
Not everyone is aware of the stimulat-

CURTIS C. SCOTT ing effect of violence. That’s what makes
Lake Oswego jt attractive to gangsters and compulsive

Taxpayers suffer to pay

murderers. That's why it's in so many TV
* shows, books and movies, That's why it's

for prisoners living the good life so hard to put away warmaking, °-"
To the Editor: Cruel and unusual — That's why “civil” society may choose
punishment ts taxpayers’ having to pay ‘0 Insist on retaining the death penalty.

for today’s so-called prisons. Unti
ern times and the rampant scou

1 mod. We choose to be stimulated by reviewing
rge of the murderous acts and by contemplating,

modern-day lawyers, proper incarcera- the murderer's end. :
tion was the right to pound rock and live It isn’t plous and it isn’t reasonable. It's'

on bread and water,
Dining on canned salmon, worki

a form of addiction that hearkens back to
ng out an unsophisticated, unclvilized, but very,

in the gym, watching television and get- human social organization, the one we

ting an education, all at taxpay

er ex- settle for when we choose not to analyze

pense, 1s not prison, much less punish-. all possible options, the system we choose;

ment or a deterrent to crime.

Cruel and unusual punishmen
braving the Oregon Trail to Settle {

to live under most of the time: the rule of
t was the Jowest common denominator,

he Or- KEVIN L. BOARDMAN

egon Territory or living through the De- 7” Forest Grove

pression, or watching our traditions

going to hell in a handcar,
We have lost sight of even recent

In Walla Walla in the early '30s,
histo- executions were routine — almost

ry and what it means to experience hard-
Ships in life and take responsibility for To the Editor: As [ watched the West-

our actions,

ANDREW J. CAMPANELLA
Beaverton la Walla

Notoriety may give Dodd
hero status in twisted minds

ley Allan Dodd media carnival, I recalled

the days of the early 1930s while I was j
still in my teens. I worked on the old Wal- .
Union before its merger with the ,
Bulletin. I was a Linotype operator. :

In those days, we had at least one hang- i
ing a year; sometimes several. My side- °

To the Editor: For me, the major ques- kick was a kid just out of Whitman Col- -

tion is not, “Did Westley Allan Do

dd de- lege. Whenever there was an execution, |

Serve to live?” Rather, my concern is his job, as the one and only reporter, was
whether we have accomplished what we to cover the story. There was no TV in

think we did.
Our neighbors in NATO have all

those days, of course, and tho metropol-
elimi- {tan papers rarely bothered to send a ;

nated capital punishment as ineffective man to cover the hanging. What a con-
in protecting their citizens, perhaps with _ trast. : :
_the feeling that in fact It did the opposite. On execution nights, my friend would ;

I suspect that we gave to Dodd

in his leave his desk about 11:30 p.m., drive out ;

obviously disturbed mind the chance to to the “pen,” cover the hanging, then

become a kind of hero; the cen
much attention over the past two
concentrated in the last few days.

ter of come back to the paper to write it up.
years, While I was setting it up in type, my
friend would also file the story for AP

It was reported that he did not scem at use. And that was that. ‘
all disturbed by the impending date with ° __ It's true that if a hanging is botched, it
‘death. In fact, he won, He got his way. It © can be anything but routine. One time, he

,{s my urgent hope and prayer that
tention will not be interpreted by si

_ ly disturbed minds as a way to gain noto- “beat”

riety.

his at- came into the backshop to tell me how
milar- — that njeht’s condemned man tried to

by hunching his shoulders as he
went down the trap door. As a result, the

There are some indications that this op- drop did not break his neck.

posite reaction to our insistence on the My friend, grinning broadly, told me
, “pound of flesh” being paid may in some pow “he kicked and struggled, choked,

‘cases actually occur. Please, may

other gagged, and kicked and kicked.” This -

Innocent children not be put in Jeopardy’ Went on for several minutes until the ev-
_ by our insistence on treating the offender er-tightening rope shut off his air supply.

as he treated his victins,

There were no screened silhouettes in

JAMES P.McGUGIN those days. The whole thing was right
Rhododendron there in front of you.

Use of intellect, not emotions, —

I'm sure if Dodd’s witnesses had wit-
nessed this scene, some of them would

preferable to solving capital crime have fainted. Everything scems to be

To the Editor: I don’t intend

to get show biz these days, and I gucss a routine

emotional about Westley Allan Dodd's hanging is no exception,
death or his victims. That is a self-indul- ; JULIUS H. FERNEY
gence all too popular in this case and in Gresham

' ory

OREGONIAN

is
NS "

II n -Q2


: ET — —— :
ae Saline “Journal le Ae

‘Hanging was too eood for this child murderer

and its fine hangman, whoever he may

be. Because of the hangman's efficient
handiwork, we can now say with certainty
that Westley Allan Dodd Is nothing but a bad
memory.

No more children will be molested by Dodd.
No more little boys will be tortured and killed
to satisfy Dodd's psychopathic yearnings.
Never again will the parents of Dodd's vic-
tims be forced to share a single moment on
Earth with this revolting, despicable excuse
for a human being.

Spectators stood outside the prison and
cheered when Dodd's feet plunged through
the trap door of the gallows in Walla Walla,
Wash. They set off firecrackers and waved
sparklers when the taut rope snapped Dodd's
spine, sending him to explain to his Maker
exactly what malfunction of the human spirit
drives aman to sexually violate a 4-year-old
boy, totorture and strangle him, to hang his
body ina closet, todump the corpse ina lake.

That was just one of Dodd's crimes, of
course. He was acareer child molester, a
multiple murderer.

It made perfect sense that many people
eagerly awaited Dodd's death and celebrated
when it came. It made no sense whatsoever
that some people protested the execution.

“Death penalty foes had held prayer meet-
ings, vigils and demonstrations across the
state in the hours before the execution,” The
Associated Press reported.

Prayer meetings? Vigils? People praying
for the life of Westley Allan Dodd?

Who was praying for his victims?

A et's hear it for the state of Washington

SOS QC OMMENT.--*: Ee

Bill
Thompson

FORT WORTH STAR TELEGRAM

The anti-death penalty crowd always ral-
lies to the defense of convicted killers who are
required to confront a just society's final
vengeance. The bleeding hearts always ache

. with compassion for society's hornicidal

vermin, no matter how vile the killers’
crimes.

- One of these death penalty foes was on
television the other day, debating the merits
of capital punistunent with the father of one of
Dodd's victims. The foe, a wornan, was
arguing that death by hanging is cruel and
unusual punishment and that society should
not resort to violent means to punish crimi-
nals.

“With all due respect,” interjected the
victim's father, “who the hell is she?”

Good question. Who are these do-gooders
who insist on mercy for murderers? What
sort of people embrace an upside-down, in-
side-out value system that demands better
treatment for killers than for those they kill?

The victim's father had a suggestion as to
how these bleeding hearts might best serve
society: Shut up and butt out.

But they won't shut up and they won't butt
out. They'll go on weeping and wailing and

Stee a ee

gnashing their teeth whenever one of their
beloved homicidal maniacs is penciled in for
a visit to the gallows, the gas chamber, the
electric chair, or even to that cozy little room
where the state gently adininisters a deadly.
dose of drugs.

Yes, believe it not, the anti-death penalty
crowd has complained that lethal injection Is
cruel and unusual punishment. :

The bleeding hearts will never be satisfied
unless the rest of us agree todo away with
capital punishment and let vicious killers die
of old age, preferably while sitting ina rocker
on the porch, reminiscing about their daring
exploits with guns, knives and sharpened
screwdrivers

But here’s a news flash for allthosenoisy -
opponents of capital punishment: You're
wasting your breath.

The vast majority of Americans believe —
and will always believe — that certain crimes
must be answered with the ultimate puntsh-
ment.

Cruel and unusual? If anything, we should
be looking for more painful methods — not
more humane methods — to do away withthe
Westley Dodds of the world. Dodd opted for
hanging rather than lethal injection because,
he said, he did not want to get abetter deal
than his victims got.

Well then, we should have turned him over
to some demented monster so that Dodd
could be violated, tortured, strangled and
hung ina closet.

Cruel and unusual? Not nearly cruel and
unusual enough.

=

$
{

Ne ee cence mene tae

we

AS.

The Anniston Star

Dewaiistrators await execution of murderer Westley Allan Dodd

Hanging

Associated rises

m From Page 1

The last hangings in the United
States were in 1965 in Kansas,
when four murderers were put to
death. Among them were Richard
Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward
Smith, the subjects of Truman
Capote’ s book ‘‘In Cold Blood.”’

“*I was once asked by somebody,
1 don’t remember who, if there was
any way sex offenders could be
stopped,’” Dodd said in his final
statement. “‘] 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.”’

AFTER DODD dropped through

the trap door, there was .little
movement other than the gentle
swinging of the body before a
curtain was drawn across a window
between witnesses and the death
chamber.

Death penalty foes had held
prayer meetings, vigils and demon-
Strations across the state in the
hours before the execution. Prison
Officials arrested five death penalty
opponents after they climbed a
snowy embankment near a guard
tower. They were in jail early today.

About 150 people in favor of
Dodd’s death gathered outside the
prison and cheered his hanging.
Some set off firecrackers and
sparklers.

DODD PLEADED guilty to the

—

1989 murders of three boys in the,

Vancouver area and was sentenced
to death in 1990. The crimes were
so grisly that some of the jurors
who sentenced him sought psy-
chiatric help afterward.

Dodd admitted he stabbed to
death brothers Wiiliam Neer, . 10,
and Cole Neer, 11, in a park and
strangled 4-year-old Lee Iseli the
following month.

Dodd said he abducted the Iseli
boy from a Portland, Ore., school
playground and took him to his
apartment, where he molested and
tortured him and finally killed him
the next morning. Dodd hung the
corpse in a closet before dumping
the nude body in a lake.

Once described by a prosecutor

s ‘‘predatory and uncontrollable,”’
Dodd had been arrested several
times for child molesting by his

. mid-20s. For years, his pattern was

to molest, get caught, confess, serve
a little time and undergo a little

‘ counseling.

Until the youngsters’ slayings, he
never served more than 10 months
in prison.

TWO EARLIER cases involv-
ing known sex offenders, a 1988
murder and a 1989 mutilation,
coupled with the Dodd murders
spurred the Legislature to pass -a
package of laws aimed at habitual
offenders, The centerpiece is a law
permitting the state to confine sex
offenders indefinitely until they are
deemed cured.

In prison, Dodd wrote a pamphlet

tiled ‘‘When You Meet a
Stranger,’’ warning youngsters to
stay away from people like him..

Timothy Ford, a lawyer for those
opposed to the execution, had
argued before the state’s high court
that hanging amounts to torture.

“‘Dodd has chosen hanging be-
cause he wants to be treated equally
cruel,’’ he said. ‘‘The question is,
can he consent to being tortured by
the state?’’

But Dodd’s attorney, Darrell Lee,
said the cruelest thing to do, other
than delaying the execution, would
be to kill Dodd by injection. He said
that at least one such execution was
botched because the executioner
couldn’t find a suitable vein and
that Dodd was afraid of needles.

ow | wuU

— cas,


METRO/NORTHWEST

Hanging by execution rarely used

i When Westley Allan Dodd
goes to the gallows, he will be
the first person hanged in the
U.S. in more than 27 years

By JOHN SNELL
of The Oregonian statf

If all goes according to plan, West-
ley Allan Dodd will stand over a gal-
lows trapdoor on Jan. 5. At one min-
ute past midnight, the trapdoor will
give way and the serial killer will
become the first person in the
United States in more than 27 years
to be hanged.

Dodd, 31, is sentenced to die at the
Washington State Penitentiary for
the 1989 rape and murder of a Port-
land boy and two young Vancouver
brothers. Executions usually occur
some 10 years after conviction, but
Dodd has refused to appeal his death
sentence and has actively opposed
those who would intervene on his
behalf.

Dodd will be the 18,489th person
put to death in the United States,
counting executions in Colonial
times, and the 108th person executed
in Washington, including 34 in terri-
torial times.

In this country, only Washington
and Montana still have hanging on
the books. Delaware switched to le-
thal injection six years ago, but by a
grandfather clause will hang anyone
sentenced to death before June 13,
1986.

“The last four in this country
were two double hangings in Kansas
in 1965,” said M. Watt Espy Jr., an
expert on the history of capital pun-
ishment who has spent 22 years cat-
aloging every execution in U.S. his-
tory.

“James Latham and George York
were hanged on June 22, 1965. They
had killed seven people in a cross-
country crime spree that started in
Florida and ended up in Kansas.
Kansas had another double hanging
a few months earlier, Perry Smith
and Richard Hickock, the two mur-
derers in ‘In Cold Blood.’ James La-
tham and George York were much
worse, they were cross-country seri-
al killers. But they didn’t have Tru-
man Capote to write about them.”

Espy, an opponent of the death
penalty, believes all forms of capital
punishment are cruel, but hanging
is especially so.

“Hangings are far more likely to
be botched than any other means of
execution,” Espy said.

Hanging has been used since bibli-
cal times, having replaced stonings,

but the first person executed in the
colonies was shot by musket in Vir-
ginia in 1608. Witches were burned
at the stake. Two members of the
Colonial Army, according to Espy,
were crucified. Louisiana executed a
man in 1767 by nailing him inside a
box and then sawing the box in half.
Originally a French colony, Louisia-
na was ruled by Spain at that time.

By the early 1800s, hanging had
become the method of choice in the
United States and was adopted by
every state. When everything goes
right, hangings are quick and, some
say, painless. ~’

The noose is placed around the
prisoner's neck, the knot set just be-
hind the left ear. A hood is placed
over the head, largely to protect wit-
nessés from seeing facial contor-
tions, and the legs are tied together.

The hangman calculates the
length of the rope using a table de-
veloped in 1866. It considers the con-
demned person’s height, weight and
relative muscle tone and the size of
the rope. At Dodd’s height of 5 feet 9
and weight of 165 pounds, his “drop”
will be about 7 feet.

At a given signal, the hangman
opens the trapdoor, the prisoner
drops and the knot snaps behind the
ear, breaking the cervical vertebrae.

THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, DECEMBER 6, 1992

The Oregonian/ TIM JEWETT

Westley Allan Dodd learned last Monday In a hearing In a Clark County
courtroom in Vancouver that he would be executed Jan. 5.

In a properly performed hanging,
the spinal cord is separated from the
brain, which causes death in about
17 seconds, according to the book
“Execution Methods in the United
States.”

But in an execution in which the
drop isn’t calculated properly, the
type of rope is wrong or the knot is
improperly tied or placed, anything
from strangulation to decapitation
can result.

A hangman for Dodd already has
been arranged, but prison officials
will not disclose any details about
the person. The hangman’s pay
hasn’t been agreed upon, but in 1987
when a hangman was retained to ex-
ecute Charles Rodman Campbell,
the fee was about $1,500. Campbell’s
death was postponed by the appel-
late courts.

“When you do it properly, death is
painless,” said Dr. Joseph Rupp,
Nueces County, Texas, medical ex-
aminer, who has studied hangings.
“The only consciousness he'll have
is that 7-foot drop. How long does it
take to fall 7 feet? It will be a frac-
tion of a second and that will be all
there is to it.”

Alice Miller, director of Amnesty
International’s Program to Abolish
the Death Penalty, disagrees. “Un-
less the person is unconscious or
drugged, that person is going to be
going through tremendous psycho-
logical and, I should think, physiol-
ogical pain” -—_ mbeecery his

WIA th mos sui +

Whatever the case, Espy said his
studies show that hangings are rare-
ly clean and efficient.

“I’ve got cases where the rope has
unraveled or where their feet have
touched the ground,” he said. In
some cases, the condemned was de-
capitated from the fall.

Washington continues to use
hanging because it’s part of the law,
said Veltry Johnson, spokesman for
the state Department of Corrections.
Under Washington’s death penalty
statute, condemned inmates can
choose hanging or lethal injection. If
they refuse to choose, they are
hanged.

In court, Dodd has said he prefers
hanging because that’s how he
killed his final victim, Lee Iseli, 4.
But in a private letter written last
month to a Vancouver woman who
wanted to fight the execution, Dodd
appears to believe hanging is the
less painful choice.

“I want to be hung,” Dodd wrote,

“but the real reason is because it is
actually faster and easier than le-
thal injection. One little slip with
the needle, or just a slight variation
in the mixture of 3 drugs, and lethal
injection can be extremely painful,
and slow. Hanging — your neck
snaps, and that’s it. No room for
mistakes,”

By virtually all expert accounts,
Dodd’s analysis of his choices is
flawed. It is not clear whether he
really believes what he wrote or was
posturing to dissuade the woman's
efforts to spare him.

Washington corrections officials
tried to introduce bills in the last
two legislative sessions to eliminate
hanging and make lethal injection
the sole means of execution. John-
son said the change was sought be-
cause finding a competent hangman
presents a huge administrative
problem.

But bills that would have changed
the law never got out of committee.

It was concern about the inhu-
manity of hanging that led New
York State to develop the electric
chair in 1890.

According to Amnesty Interna-
tional, electrocution then became
the most common method of execu-
tion in the United States until the
development of lethal injection in
1977. Twelve states still use the elec-
tric chair.

The prisoner’s head and leg are

scope is taped to the chest.

The first surge of 2,500 volts heats
the brain. A second charge of 500 to
1,000 volts stops the heart.

As with all forms of executions,
things do not always work as
planned.

In 1946, Willie Francis, 17, was
strapped into Louisiana’s electric
chair but survived due to mechani-
cal failure. Francis is the only per-
son in U.S. history to survive the
electric chair, but he died in the
chair a year later after arguing un-
successfully that a second attempt
would amount to “double jeopardy”
and cruel and unusual punishment.

After World War I, when both
sides experimented with chemical
warfare techniques, the gas cham-
ber was invented by a U.S. Army
medical corps officer and adopted by
Nevada in 1924.

The gas chamber was used to kill
18 inmates in Oregon before lethal

injection was adopted in 1979. Before
the gas chamber, 40 prisoners diced
on Oregon gallows.

The last gas chamber victim in the
United States was Robert Alton
Harris, who was executed in Califor-
nia on April 21.

In the gas chamber, the prisoner
is strapped onto a chair. Beneath
him is a pan of sulfuric acid and dis-
tilled water. At the pull of a switch,
sodium cyanide tablets are lowered
into the pan. The resultant cyanide
gas fills the lungs and makes them
incapable of absorbing oxygen. The
prisoner, gasps for air he can ‘no
longer use.

The gas chamber is still in use in
five states despite being widely con-
sidered the most grotesque means of
execution in use, because of the slow
asphyxiation. The Harris execution
was filmed and may be used in court
hearings to determine if death by
gas is cruel and unusual punish-
ment. .
Two states — Idaho and Utah —
use a firing squad as a means of exe-
cution, although both states also
give inmates the right to choose, le-
thal injection. .

The firing squad is among the
most humane methods of execution,
many experts say.-A white target is
placed over the prisoner’s heart and
five gunmen standing about 25 feet
away fire their .30-caliber rifles. si-
multaneously.

One of the rifles shoots a blank
cartridge, to ease the conscience of
the gunmen.

‘A sense of conscience or some-
thing else may have been at work in
1951 when all members of the Utah
firing squad missed the heart of Eli-
sio Mares. He bled to death : of
wounds to the abdomen and legs. :

Concern, again, about finding a
humane means of death prompted
Oklahoma to adopt lethal injection
in 1977. The method, invented by the
head of the Oklahoma University
Medical-School’s anesthesiology de-
partment, uses three drugs to ren- .
der the prisoner unconscious, stop
his breathing and then stop the
heart.

Lethal tects also have been
botched. In Texas, in 1985, techni-
cians spent more than 40 minutes
poking the arms and legs of Stephen
Morin, a murderer and drug addict
whose veins were pocked by hypo-
dermic scars. Technicians eventual-
ly found a healthy vein in his right
arm in which to insert the needle.-

Eighteen states and the U.S. mili-
tary courts use lethal injection.
Dodd still has until a few days
before Christmas to opt for lethal in-

_ Shaved to ae the electrical resis- ection instead of the noose. .
eyes are generally covered. A stetho- Only in the United States are gas

chambers, electric chairs and lethal
injection used to execute. No other
country has gone to such lengths to
experiment with capital punish-
ment.
Espy believes the search isn’t
done for the condemned prisoner. -
“Virtually every time that you’ve
had a change in the means of execu-
tion, it’s been predicated on the
thought that it was a more humane
method,” he said. ‘‘There’s some ar-
gument as to whether the legislators
who made those changes were eas-
ing the suffering of the criminal or
trying to make it easier for juries'to
pass death verdicts with clear con-
sciences. :
“The general public today is in fa- -

vor of the death penalty and they '~

are in favor it being used,” he said.
“They’re not thinking about deter-
rents and they’re not thinking about
innocent people being killed.
They’re thinking about punish .
ment.”

PORTRAITS FOR PRESENTS.

IN Just-ONE Hour!

4
i


n.

f people out there
caid the relative.
ie who never had a
sot to dress up on
r got presents at
neone like that, he
‘| off at a store or
, the family mem-
eded.

ning in Vancouver,
‘ant hunter parked
‘amp to Vancouver

and unloaded his .

yack. It was a few
.m. when the hunt-
‘rush for his quarry
ate Game Depart-
a Frambois Road.
irs a day, is heavily
fishermen and is
:, brush, and a few
‘ated from the city

ite Department of
‘rea twice weekly
, hunting season,
ed to begin after
ur later, however,
return to his car.
i few yards on the
noticed the lily-
ush just ahead of
ced toward it only
racks after a few
ind surprise, the
the object was a
o was obviously

2k to his car and
dearest telephone.
yherent from dis-
ged to report his
dispatcher at the
's Department.

‘-k County Sheriff

ndersheriff Robert .

2 remote site, lo-
a two-mile-long
they met the hunt-

there were proba-
: waiting to hunt,”
wmen. “At eight
king through the
d that he and his
2 point, and when
ig he began walk-
ar.

*k to the parking
ind there it was. I
1eone would...put
ere. It’s the worst
life.”

iter led Sheriffs

Kanekoa and Songer to the boy’s body,
which lay face up in the brush about 50
yards from the boat ramp and 50 feet
from the edge of a gravel parking lot. It
was obvious to the seasoned lawmen
that no attempt had been made to con-
ceal the body. There was no clothing on
or near the cold corpse.

The probers noted the telltale signs of
strangulation, but they found nothing at
the scene that could have been used to
strangle the boy. Aware of Lee Iseli’s
disappearance, Sheriffs Kanekoa and
Songer strongly suspected that the child
had now been found. The young victim
matched the physical description of the
Iseli boy. They called in forensic experts
and notified the Portland Police Bureau
of the discovery. As a result, all avail-
able Portland and Clark county homi-
cide detectives were put on the case.

Clark County sheriff’s deputies cor-
doned off the area. Officials declined to
discuss the case with the news media
until they knew more about what they
were dealing with.

“‘We’re playing this one very close to
the vest,” said Sheriff Kanekoa. ‘“‘Obvi-
ously, you don’t find a four- or five-
year-old male child out in the brush ev-
ery day. We’re treating this case as a ho-
micide.”

Before noon, the search for Lee Iseli
was Officially over. Through his finger-
prints, forensic experts positively identi-
fied the body of the nude boy found at
Vancouver Lake as that of the missing
Portland boy. Lee Iseli had been finger-
printed a few months earlier at a chil-
dren’s fair in Portland, and a set of those
prints were used to make the identifica-
tion. A Portland police chaplain was
subsequently sent to the Iseli home to
break the bad news and to be with the
boy’s family in their time of need.

An autopsy conducted later that day
confirmed that Lee had died as a result
of strangulation, but did not con-

‘clusively determine how long he had

been dead. Authorities declined to say
whether or not the boy had been sexu-
ally assaulted.

As a panicked community began to
talk and rumors began to circulate, au-
thorities initially attempted to play
down any possible connection between
Lee Iseli’s murder and the stabbing
deaths of the Neer brothers two months
earlier. Detectives said the killer’s meth-
od of operation was different in the Iseli
case, particularly in that Lee had been
strangled and the Neer brothers had
been stabbed repeatedly. Arch Ham-
ilton, the Clark County coroner, bol-
stered that opinion by stating that there

were “absolutely no similarities at this
point” in the two cases.

Detective David Simpson of the Port-
land Police Bureau, however, took a
more cautious approach. He said this
was the first case of this type in the area
that he could recall. “I’d like to say it’s
an isolated incident, but I don’t say it re-
assuringly,”’ said Simpson. ‘“‘We don’t
know enough yet about what happened.
But I think we as a community need to
be extremely cautious until we get more
answers.”

Meanwhile, Clark County investiga-
tors conducted an inch-by-inch search
of the area where Lee Iseli’s body was
found. Anything that wasn’t a part of
the natural setting, items such as trash,
cigarette butts, clothing, and rope, was
marked on grid maps and collected as
evidence. Although they remained tight-
lipped about what evidence, if any, was
recovered, lawmen did admit that they
had no suspects.

““We’re up to our elbows in alligators
trying to get this case to make some
sense,’ said Undersheriff Songer. “Just
that a four-year-old child was murdered
doesn’t make sense to begin with. What
could a four-year-old do to make some-
one kill them?”

Meanwhile, a psychologist who spe-
cialized in sexual abuse and homicide
cases provided police investigators with
a profile of Lee Iseli’s killer. The psy-
chologist, Don Adamski of Portland,
told probers that the killer was probably
a middle-class or blue-collar working
man who often fantasized about killing
a child. Adamski said the killer was
probably living a normal lifestyle but
harboring a tremendous amount of hos-
tility.

“The killer has been having thoughts
like this for a long period of time,” said
Adamski. ‘“‘I would assume that he has
fantasized about this type of behavior.

‘“‘The other possibility,’ continued
Adamski, “is that this could be a drug-
crazed individual, but I think that that
would be pretty unusual. The person
probably leads a passive life and finally
had to act this out.”

“It’s hard to say or even look at
someone and say, ‘This is a child kill-
er,’”’ said Clark County Sheriff Frank
Kanekoa. “I have a hard time handling
a case where a child of any age is mur-
dered in this fashion. I can’t fathom the
thinking of someone who would hurt a
child who can’t do anyone any harm.
It’s too early in the case to say. We need
to gather more evidence before we
come out with a profile.”

Kanekoa stressed that the primary

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True Detective 67


detween the at-
: Ship’s return to
rt were a living
’ the therapists
seeing the faces
; dissolving in

voices call out,
ne?’

Taylor told us
Imed him when
screaming and
ne again saw the
odies, he again
d heard voices.
vere telling him
n Iraqi terrorist.
1er, had to knock
iere. He saw the
ad began swing-
nzy ended; Mrs.
daughter were

vomen compris-
vo weeks of tes-
1987 hammer
and her young
six and a half
they returned a
charges of first-
owing morning,
, the same jurors
2 of life in pris-

year term.
g on March 10,
hael Weatherby
aal feelings on
1 penalty. ‘“‘Al-
‘ling is that the
appropriate in
said, ‘‘I cannot
imendation and
» likelihood it
peal. Therefore,
t be imposed.”
-ntenced Walter
prison on each
rder, stipulating
erved consecu-
ce of parole for
erefore, serve a
prison. He has
he has already
st serve another
eligible for pa-
444

OTE:

d Summer, Jane
Jowney are not
rsons so named
“ictitious names
there is no rea-
the identities of

B63 BACT
Pedophile

from page 26

Rte 2 SOT RR

profile said, suggested the killer could
have been “acting out in response to a
significant traumatic experience that
happened to him in a close time frame”
with the murders.

Vancouver investigators appreciated
the FBI’s psychological profile, but
many expressed frustration that it really
didn’t bring them any closer to collaring
a suspect. All it did was give them an in-
sight into the mind of the type of killer
they were dealing with.

Toward the end of September, when
the case seemed destined for failure, in-
vestigators ferreted out yet another wit-
ness who provided them with a new
lead. A passing motorist informed de-
tectives that he saw two young boys
whom he believed to be the Neer broth-
ers in the vicinity of the park at about
6:30 p.m. on Labor Day. He recalled the
boys were near a park trailhead and

were talking to a man.

“Both of them had their bikes, and
they were standing in the middle of the
road, on the median strip, talking to this
individual,” Captain Anderson told the
press. The witness told investigators
that the man in question was in his late
teens to early 20s and had dark hair. He
was on foot. Unfortunately, the witness
could not provide other details, suc! as
a description of the clothing the man
was wearing.

“It leads us to the possibility that,
whoever this person was, he could well
be the assailant,” said Captain Ander-
son.

To everyone’s dismay, citizens and
police alike, no new leads surfaced, and
the unknown man seen talking to the
boys remained a mystery, at least for the
time being.

N LATE October, tragedy struck
again. Across the river from Van-
couver in Portland, Oregon, 4-year-
old Lee Joseph Iseli was reported miss-
ing by a relative.
According to the report taken by the
Portland Police Bureau, Lee had gone
with a 9-year-old relative to a play-

ground at Richmond School on Sunday
afternoon, October 29th. The play-
ground, at Southeast 41st Street and
Grant Avenue, was near the boy’s home,
located in the 3200 block of Southeast
Clinton Street. According to family
members, the boys played there regu-
larly.

The older boy told detectives that at
about 1:00 p.m that afternoon, Lee was
playing on a concrete-and-rock climb-
ing knoll known as “‘the volcano” when
he disappeared. The older boy, who was
playing on other playground equipment,
looked up and saw Lee talking to a man.
He ran over and told Lee not to talk to
strangers, and advised him to call out.
for him if the man did anything unusual.
When he looked toward ‘“‘the volcano”
a few minutes later, Lee was gone. Un-
able to find Lee, the boy rushed home
and told a family member about the dis-
appearance.

A family member told police,
“‘lLee’s] ‘the kind of kid who doesn’t
take off, but he can get sidetracked eas-
ily.”

Lee’s older relative told police that
the man he saw talking to Lee was in his
early 30s, 5 feet, 10 inches to 6 feet tall,

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True Detective 65

=

piece of evidence being sought was Lee
Iseli’s clothing. He said the clothes were
not found at the crime scene.

In the meantime, Portland detectives
questioned the subject of a composite
drawing, the man who was seen talking
to Lee Iseli at the Richmond School
playground. The location of the man
gave sleuths the first thread of hope that
they were on the right track. However,
the subject had been accompanied by
another person who stated that they
hadn’t left with Lee Iseli. After addi-
tional questioning, investigators were
convinced that the man was not a sus-
pect in Lee’s disappearance and murder.

Despite a telephone hotline and a
$10,000 reward fund, a child killer con-
tinued to walk the community’s streets
while frustrated detectives quickly ran
out of leads.

ARELY TWO weeks later, on
Breeze November 15th, a

6-year-old boy went with his
family and friends to see Honey, |
Shrunk the Kids! at the New Liberty
Theater in downtown Camas, Washing-
ton, about 15 miles east of Vancouver.
At 7:45 p.m. the boy, Tommy Staley,
told his mother that he had to go to the
bathroom. After sliding through a row
of crowded seats, Tommy walked bris-
kly up the aisle, passed through the dou-
ble doors that led to the lobby, and
entered the restroom. He passed a
young, harmless-looking, dark-haired
man in the foyer that separates the rest-
room from the lobby.

Tommy had finished his business and
was alone in the restroom, preparing to
wash his hands, when the dark-haired
man approached him in a friendly man-
ner. To Tommy’s horror and surprise,

however, the man punched him hard in
the stomach. When Tommy doubled
over in pain, the man hoisted him up
and over his left shoulder. Thinking
he’d knocked the air out of the boy, the
man carried Tommy out of the bathroom
and through the lobby. As he ap-
proached the front doors leading out-
side, Tommy began kicking wildly and
screaming as loud as he could.

“Help me!” yelled the boy. “Some-
body, please help me! I don’t know
him!”

“Calm down, son, calm down,” said
the man, as he walked in a normal man-
ner through the doors to the outside. But
Tommy continued to scream.

Theater employees didn’t like what
they were seeing. Although the man ap-
peared unruffled, the altercation smelled
of an abduction. As a result,/one of the
employees quietly dialed 911 as two
other employees followed the man and
boy into the street.

Across the street from the theater, Les
Wilson was opening the door to his
pickup truck when he spotted the man
carrying the boy out of the building. The
man carried the still-screaming boy
around the corner and approached an
older, yellow Pinto station wagon. As he
reached into his pocket for keys, the ab-
ductor put the boy down.

Sensing his chance to make a break
for it, Tommy Staley bolted and began
running back toward the theater. Crying,
he met the theater employees and, rec-
ognizing safety, he embraced one of
them.

By this time Pete Mann, a friend of
Tommy’s family, had heard some of the
commotion and began to wonder what
was keeping the child so long in the
bathroom. After conferring with Tom-

Pactin

68 True Detective

my’s relative, Pete went to look for the
boy. When he reached the lobby, he no-
ticed all the turmoil and saw the theater
employees walking back inside with
Tommy. After telling him what had hap-
pened, Pete Mann ran outside in pursuit
of Tommy’s abductor.

He looked up and down the street, but
the only person he saw was Les Wilson,
who had witnessed the kidnapper drive
away in the yellow Pinto. After giving
Mann a description of the suspect and
his car, Wilson told Mann that the sus-
pect had gone north on Birch Street and
had vanished. Pete Mann jumped into
his own older-model car and went after
him.

Mann soon found the Pinto. By some
great twist of fate, the car was stalled at
Northwest Sixth Avenue and Adams
Street, not far from the entrance to
Highway 14 that leads back to Van-
couver. The car’s driver was cranking it
over, trying to get it started again. Mann
parked his car in the parking lot of a
nearby paper mill, then walked over to
the yellow Pinto. He approached it cau-
tiously and asked the driver if he needed
some help.

“Looks like you’re having car trou-
bles here,” said Mann, speaking to the
unsuspecting abductor through the side
window. “‘Doesn’t look so good.” Mann
explained that he could probably fix the
car, but suggested that they first get the
vehicle into the paper mill’s parking lot.
Along the way, as they, were pushing the
car, Mann continued to ask ‘‘innocent”’
questions until he was satisfied that the
Pinto’s driver was the one who had ab-
ducted the boy inside the theater.

After moving the car, the driver
opened the hood and stood looking at
the engine with his back to Mann.
That’s when Mann, a burly construction

worker, made his move. He wrapped his

right arm around the abductor’s neck in
a tight choke hold and seized the sus-
pect’s left wrist with his left hand.

“This is it, you sonofabitch!” said
Mann. ‘“You’ve been restrained. We’re
going to get the cops.”” Mann then
marched the suspect several blocks back
to the theater where he pinned him
against a wall while waiting for the po-
lice to arrive.

When officers from the Camas Police
Department arrived, they took a state-
ment from each of those people who
were concerned about what had oc-
curred. The only person not talking was
the suspect, who sat quietly on the floor
in the theater lobby. After getting
enough preliminary information, the of-
ficers took the man into custody.

During question
tion, officers iden
Westley Allan Do:
At first, Dodd dic
formation: just hi
the fact that he \
watch the movie.
to further questio'
cers that he worke
Fruit Valley Roa:
noted that the wc
them was near L
far from the site
nude body was
home address we
David Douglas !

It was at that p
became a suspec
Neer brothers ai
he was advised «
tinued to talk. 1
ment, Dodd cc
murders and pr
the officers that
liberately from
promptly turned
ty Sheriff’s Dep

Despite a lis
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fenders—de
cooperation of
volved, investig:
were fast runn
Camas arrest ha
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official, particu!
was not on the
pects.

After being |
County Jail, Dc
Detective Davic
investigator for '
In a bombshell <
explained how
and Cole Neer
told, in graphi
ducted, killed, «
with 4-year-old

Dodd explair
Vancouver from
mer and had live
had saved eno
own place. Two
a duplex apartrr
Park, Dodd sa
victims.

“T was gettin;
television,” sai
terviews with
several Portlan
said he drove to
cause he thoug
where I could
going.”

He describe:

and thin in build. He was wearing a
T-shirt and blue jeans.

Because of Lee’s age, police
promptly began searching throughout
the boy’s Southeast Portland neighbor-
hood. Dog handlers brought in blood-
hounds in the hope they could pick up
the boy’s scent.

There was no question that the dogs
picked up Lee’s scent on the school
playground, but they lost it at the curb.
According to the dog handlers, this
strongly suggested that the boy may
have been picked up by someone in a
car.

Police and volunteers fanned out in
the neighborhood, knocking on doors
and visiting the local businesses. At one
point, clerks at a nearby grocery store
on Southeast 39th Avenue told police
that Lee Iseli had been seen inside the
store after 1:00 p.m., wandering the
aisles alone. That he was seen alone in
the store prompted police to consider
that Lee had wandered away from the
school playground after he was seen
talking to the stranger. Store employees
insisted they were certain of the time
they saw the boy because it had been
right after the beginning of the 1:00
p.m. lunch break.

“T figure if he would have left with
that guy [at the school],”’ said a relative,
‘“‘why would they go to the store? Lee
wasn’t seen with anybody at the store. If
the guy stayed outside and gave him
some money to go in and buy some-
thing, Lee wasn’t the kind of kid who
would have just wandered around. He
would have spent it. He’s never wan-
dered off before. It’s really hard to say
what happened, whether he’s just wan-
dering around someplace or what.

“Tt might be:that he saw some kids
and went off and played with them. He
could have wandered into somebody’s
garage or basement,”’ added the relative,
a hopeful tone in his voice. “It may be
that he’s just around, that he thinks he’s
in trouble and is afraid to come out.”

As the day wore on and no further
trace of Lee Iseli was found, relatives
and police began to fear the worst.

‘*Four-year-olds don’t run away,”
commented Detective David W. Simp-
son, a spokesman for the Portland Po-
lice Bureau. ‘‘We’re getting very
concerned, especially as time goes on.”

As darkness approached, a bureau-
wide alert was dispatched describing
Lee Iseli as 4 years old, 3 feet 8 inches
tall, and weighing 30 to 35 pounds. The
alert also described the boy’s hair as
blond, with bangs down to his brown
eyes. He was wearing a gray warm-up

66 True Detective

jacket with red stripes on its sleeves, a
white T-shirt with writing on the front,
and medium-blue pants. He may also
have been carrying a sweater with him.

Unfortunately, as frantic relatives
waited day and night by the telephone
for any information about the young-
ster’s whereabouts, no trace of Lee Iseli
was found Sunday night. Because tem-
peratures were only a few degrees
above freezing, there was added con-
cern about the possibility of the boy
having to spend the night outdoors and
suffering from exposure.

The next day, police brought in addi-
tional dogs, this time Mountain Wilder-
ness Search Dogs, to go through the
neighborhoods in another attempt to
pick up the boy’s scent. The searchers
took the dogs through rugged areas in
the parks, as well as into garages and
abandoned buildings—anywhere they
thought the boy could hide. By day’s
end, though, no traces of the boy or his
scent had been found.

As fears of a kidnapping grew, police
asked residents to search their garages,
basements, parked boats, trailers, and
cars, anywhere a small child might hide,
in a last-ditch effort to find the boy. De-
spite everyone’s noble attempts, how-
ever, there still was no sign of Lee Iseli.

As police reluctantly began to scale

back their search, they began to publicly

express their fears that Lee may have
been abducted.

“There doesn’t seem to be any other
explanation,” said Sergeant Terry Gray.
“You can wrack your brain, but you
can’t think of what a four-year-old boy
would be doing all this time. I can’t
think of any other possible excuse. If he
was staying overnight with a friend
somewhere, I’m sure the parents would
have called by now. They must know
he’s missing.”

It was Halloween, and even though
it’s usually a happy holiday for children,
there was little joy in Lee Iseli’s neigh-
borhood. The spirit of the night was
markedly dampened as more parents
than usual accompanied their children
from house to house, obviously a result
of their fears for their own children’s
safety.

Lee’s Ghostbuster costume went un-
used, and his friends were very much
aware of his absence. Many children
said they missed him. Some cried open-
ly because of the uncertainty of what
had become of the boy.

One of Lee’s relatives theorized that
perhaps a lonely adult had abducted Lee
and was taking care of him. The relative
made a public plea to anyone holding

the boy to release him.

“There are a lot of people out there
who are lonely,”’ said the relative.
“Maybe [it’s] someone who never had a
child or who never got to dress up on
Halloween or never got presents at
Christmas. If it’s someone like that, he
could just drop [Lee] off at a store or
street corner.”’ Sadly, the family mem-
ber’s plea went unheeded.

Early the next morning in Vancouver,
Washington, a pheasant hunter parked
his car near the boat ramp to Vancouver

Lake’s south shore and unloaded his .

gun and small backpack. It was a few
minutes shy of 8:00 a.m. when the hunt-
er began beating the brush for his quarry
in the Washington State Game Depart-
ment area just off La Frambois Road.
The area, open 24 hours a day, is heavily
used by hunters and fishermen and is
covered by wild grass, brush, and a few
trees. It is an area isolated from the city
and residential areas.

The Washington State Department of
Wildlife stocks the area twice weekly
with pheasant during hunting season,
and hunting is allowed to begin after
8:00 a.m. Half an hour later, however,
the hunter decided to return to his car.
He had walked only a few yards on the
return trip when he noticed the lily-
white object in the brush just ahead of
him. Curious, he walked toward it only
to stop dead in his tracks after a few
feet. To his horror and surprise, the
hunter could see that the object was a
naked little boy who was obviously
dead.

The hunter ran back to his car and
drove quickly to the nearest telephone.
Although nearly incoherent from dis-
tress, the man managed to report his
grim discovery to a dispatcher at the
Clark County Sheriff’s Department.

Minutes later, Clark County Sheriff
Frank Kanekoa and Undersheriff Robert
Songer arrived at the remote site, lo-
cated at the end of a two-mile-long
dead-end road, where they met the hunt-
er.

“When I got there, there were proba-
bly twenty-five people waiting to hunt,”
the hunter told the lawmen. “At eight
a.m., we all started walking through the
fields.” He explained that he and his
partners split up at one point, and when
he was through hunting he began walk-
ing back toward his car.

“T was coming back to the parking
lot,” he continued. ‘And there it was. I
was shocked...that someone would...put
a little dead boy out there. It’s the worst
thing I’ve seen in my life.”

The distraught hunter led Sheriffs

Kanekoa and Song:
which lay face up i
yards from the bo.
from the edge of a .
was obvious to th
that no attempt hac
ceal the body. Ther
or near the cold co

The probers note
strangulation, but t!
the scene that coul
strangle the boy. /
disappearance, Sh
Songer strongly sus
had now been foun
matched the physic
Iseli boy. They call:
and notified the Po

of the discovery. A

able Portland and
cide detectives wer

Clark County st
doned off the area.
discuss the case v
until they knew m
were dealing with.

““We’ fe playing |
the vest,’’ said She
ously, you don’t |
year-old male chilc
ery day. We’re treat
micide.”

Before noon, the
was Officially over.
prints, forensic exp:
fied the body of th
Vancouver Lake as
Portland boy. Lee |
printed a few mon
dren’s fair in Portla:
prints were. used to
tion. A Portland p
subsequently sent
break the bad new:
boy’s family in the

An autopsy con
confirmed that Lee
of strangulation.

‘clusively determi:

been dead. Author
whether or not the
ally assaulted.

As a panicked c
talk and rumors be
thorities initially
down any possible
Lee Iseli’s murde
deaths of the Neer
earlier. Detectives ;
od of operation wa
case, particularly i
strangled and the
been stabbed rep:
ilton, the Clark C
stered that opinion


{ been aban-
crime scene
5; in the event
\led them.

‘the park by
2scue volun-
provide any
linked to the

dered young-
was leaving
viving son to
illsboro, Ore-

illed my sons
told the news
ng the son I
someone who
sur of the day
ind.”

case puzzled
vestigating it.
otivated mur-
looked for a

irensic patho-

ne youngsters
Equally puz-
e killer could
boys.

» we can think
d one of the
nad pitched in

ot. Lou Bradf- ’

g the younger

ham ean

brother, the older one had fled and the
killer caught up to him where his
body was found.”

But motive was the primary puz-
zle. Who would deliberately stab to

death two young boys and for what

reason?

North Dakota police checked with
the boys’ mother. They reported that
she was devastated that her sons had
been killed but had no idea who could
have killed them or for what reason.

The father of the boys stated he
was taking the bodies to North Dako-
ta to be buried next to their grandfa-
ther. Reporters covered the service
and wrote that the two small coffins
were covered with star quilts, an In-
dian funeral tradition.

Checking every possible source for
some lead to the motive for the mur-
der of the brothers, police learned that
Neer and his sons had lived in Hazel
Dell, a suburb north of Vancouver,
before moving to the housing project.
While they were there, he had be-
come acquainted with a neighbor,
James E. Dumont, a Klamath Indian.
He had gone to the rented cottage of
his friend one morning in July, 1988,
and found Dumont stabbed to death.

Police arrested and charged Du-
mont’s girlfriend with the killing.
She admitted stabbing Dumont and
claimed it was in self-defense after he
physically abused her. An investiga-
tion revealed that the woman and Du-
mont both had a drug and alcohol
problem. On a guilty plea, she was
sentenced to one year in jail and had
been released the following July.

Neer was questioned about the
case. He said he had testified at the
trial and had told the police that he
suspected Dumont’s girlfriend had
killed him when he found the body,
but insisted he hadn’t said anything
that would cause the woman to be
angry with him or hurt his boys.

The Washington Community Cor- —

rections office said they did not know
the whereabouts of the woman, but
would attempt to locate her.

With little to go on for new leads
after two weeks, Capt. King as-
signed Detectives Darryl Odegared,
Bruce Hall and Jeff Sunby to fulltime
work on the case.

Residents of Vancouver were
warned not to go into David Douglas
Park alone on the popular jogging and
bicycle paths and to stay out of the
park after dark.

A number of residents voiced their

fears that a mad killer was on the
loose and killed only for thrill and
blood lust. ‘Three weeks after the
murders in Vancouver, the Portland
police received a report that a four-
year-old boy was missing and was
thought to have been abducted.

Lee Joseph Iseli had gone to a park
with his nine-year-old brother on
Sunday afternoon. His brother had
seen Lee talking to a man and warned
him not to talk to strangers. He had
looked away to something that at-
tracted his interest and when he
looked back Lee and the man were
gone.

The brother described the man he
had seen talking to Lee and it closcly
resembled the description of the man

witnesses had seen the Neer brothers~

talking to shortly bewfore they were
slain.

There was no connection between
the Iseli boy and the Neer brothers
and police were faced with the possi-
bility that the description of the man
was a coincidence.

A massive search for the missing
boy was conducted by the Portland
police. Three days later, Lee Joseph

Iseli was found.

A hunter tramping through a bru-
shy area near Lake Vancouver, five
miles west of the city, stumbled upon
the nude body of a little boy.

Clark County Undersheriff Bob
Songer took charge of the investiga-
tion. With the information that the
Iseli boy was missing in Portland an
identification was quickly made.

Clark County Coroner Hamilton
had the corpse examined by forensic
pathologists. They determined the
youngster had been strangled and
sexually abused. Marks on_ the
wrists and ankles indicated the
youngster had been tied up and
abused possibly a day or longer before
he was killed.

Were the slaying of the Neer broth-
ers and the murder of the Iscli boy
linked? The Neer brothers had not
been sexually abused, had been
stabbed and when found were fully
clothed. The Iseli boy had been
stripped of his clothes, sexually
abused and strangled. The one link
was the description of the man given
by the brother he had seen talking to
Lee closely resembled the. man wit-
nesses had seen talking to the Neer
brothers.

With no leads to follow, other tha
the sketches, the Vancouver police
turned to the FBI with a request for a
profile of the killer based on what
was known about the murder of the
Neer brothers as related to similar
crimes.

The Portland police made a similar
request of Dr. Ronald Turco, a psy-
chiatrist who often helped Oregon
police. ae ;

The two profiles had a number of
similarities.

FBI Agent Larry G. Ankrom with
the unit for Analysis of Violent
Crimes in Quantico, Virginia, stated:

1. The assailant acted in response
to some significant stress that oc-
curred close to the time frame of the
crime.

2. He may or may not have known
the victims.

3. The individual has a good
knowledge of the area and he .or she
is comfortable and familiar with the
David Douglas Park.

4. Fact assailant used knife indi-
cates he or she is comfortable with
knives and may have been involved
with an assaultive act with a knife in
the past. 5. Evidence indicates the as-

(continued on page 44)

17

a”

a a

EEE

———

Murdered By The Boy Next Door

(continued from page 43)

were moving along the dusty and
weed-lined avenues of Newhall.

Curtis’s mother, when __ inter-
viewed, said that she could not be-
lieve that her son could have been ac-
cused of such a ghastly crime.

But she also admitted that her son
had been a difficult child. He had only
‘moved to Newhall in February from
Florida.

In Florida, Curtis Cooper was al-
legedly involved in one dilemma after
another with police. He was arrested
for a string of petty thefts and burglar-
ies. He was picked up as a suspect
and questioned several times in rela-
tion to a number of break-ins in the
neighborhood where he lived with
his father.

While awaiting trial, Cooper sat
alone in his cell in the Sylmar jail.
There was a closed circuit television
camera that monitored everything he

did. The reports out of the jailhouse
said he did nothing but sleep. He
caused the authorities no trouble.

Meantime, little Sara Nan Hodges,
in a most private service, was laid to
rest. Only a few friends and her grief-
stricken parents attended the funeral.

Meanwhile, Deputy District Attor-
ney Michelle Rosenblatt said she
would ask the court to impose the
maximum sentence when Cooper
went to court on November 22. The
maximum penalty, she said, would
be 25 years to life in prison. Howev-
er, because Cooper was a juvenile,
she expected him to be sent to the
California Youth . Authority first,
where he would be held until he was
25. Then, he would be transferred to
a penitentiary. But that would be very
unlikely because he was only 14 at
the time of the murder, she added.

On November 2, 1989, Curtis Coo-

per pleaded guilty to first-degree mur-
der and a special allegation of sexual
molestation, in Sylmar Juvenile
Court.

According to the court records,
Curtis confessed that he sexually
molested his neighbor, then strangled
her with a 30-inch dog leash. He slept
with the body for three nights while
the intensified manhunt went on.
When the odor became unbearable, he
set up a fan to blow the stench out an
open window.

Deputy District Attorney Michelle
Rosenblatt let it be known unequivo-
cally that there would be no consider-
ation of any lesser punishment pleas.
She said she expected Cooper. would
be sent to the California Youth Au-
thority until he is 25.

However, Public Defender Barba-
ra Duey said she would seek an alter-
nate facility for her client. She said he
needed a type of psychiatric counsel-
ling unavailable in the CYA.

“This kid’s got real problems,” she
said.

Can You ‘Cure’ A Sex Maniac?

(continued from page 17)

sailant was in control while commit-
ting the crime.

Dr. Turco, making his profile on
the abduction and murder of Lee Iseli,
was more specific in his conclusions.
He reported:

1. The killer is a male between the
ages of :25 and 35 and is a loner.

2. If he served in the armed forces,
he was kicked out without an honor-
able discharge.

3. He likely photographed his vic-
tim, kept a diary of his actions and a
souvenir of the crime.

4. He preys only on young male
victims and rejects females as “defec-
tive.”

5. He may have committed several
previous murders and will continue to
kill until he is caught.

The thing neither profile contained
was who the killer or killers might be
and where, they could be found.

Both the Vancouver and Portland
police felt the urgency from the report
that the evaluations indicated the kill-
er would kill again.

“About the only thing we know is
that the killer, if he is the same person
who killed the Neer brothers and the
Iseli boy, is someone in the area,”
Capt. King said. “Whether he is in

df

Washington and crossed the river to
go into Oregon or is from there and
came here, we don’t know.”

The news media played up the
sketches provided to the Vancouver
and Portland police. It resulted in nu-
merous calls and investigations but all
without results.

The question for the police that fu-
eled fear in the minds of the residents
of Vancouver and Portland was
when would the killer strike next.

The answer came on Monday
night, November 13, a little over two
months after the murder of the Neer
brothers. William Graves of Washou-
gal, 10 miles east of Vancouver on the
Columbia River, accompanied a
woman friend and her five-year-old
son to a movie in the nearby town of
Camas. They were watching the
film, “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids,”
when the boy whispered to his moth-
er, “I gotta go potty.”

“You know where it is,” his moth-
er told him. “Can you go alone?”

The youngster said he could and
went to the restroom in the lobby. A
few minutes later, a theater employe
heard sounds coming from the res-
troom followed by a man coming out
carrying a little boy who was strug-

gling and crying.

“Calm down, son,” the man told
the youngster. “I’ll take you home
and everything will be all right.”

The man started out of the theater
with the hysterical struggling boy.
Not sure what was taking place, the
employe went out front to see the
man take the boy to a parked car. As
the man reached in his pocket for
keys, the boy broke loose and raced
back toward the theater, screaming,
“Help me. He tried to hurt me.”

The disturbance alerted Graves and
the boy’s mother. They came out to
the lobby to see the theater employe
holding the boy. She told them that a
man had carried the struggling young-
ster out of the restroom.

Asked if she knew who the person
was, she said she had seen the man
get into an older model, yellow, Ford
Pinto station wagon.

“Which way was he goirig?”
Graves asked.

The employe said the car had been
headed toward Vancouver. “I’ll get
the S.O.B.,” Graves said as he ran to
his car.

Strangely, just four blocks away
from the theater a yellow Ford Pinto
station wagon was parked alongside
the road with the driver in it. Graves
pulled up behind it and went up to the
driver, “What’s wrong?” he asked.

(continued on next page)

“Tt just stalle
going,” the drive
“Get out and
it,” Graves told !
As the driver
Grave’s put a
man’s head. “V
trying to do to
show?” Graves «
Employes in
the sheriff’s offi
ed and Graves s!
in a hammerloc
cuffs on him. T
the boy’s mothe
es that they we
the sheriff’s off
officers would
following day
what had occurr:
Booked into |
the man gave hi:
lan Dodd, 28, '
dress. Advised
Dodd selected t
represented by
A deputy
Songer at his |
the arrest, addi
kidnap the little
couple of block
of the Neer bi
got the guy we’
“Run a chec
dered. “And th
be there right a
By the time
rived at the sh«
investigators v
on the murders

‘ out an arrest 1

reading it, C:
hand with the
quarter-inch
were that cl
murder of a lit!
The record «
viant sexual
that started in
in high schoo)
and had been
tion of minors
It was dismiss
a counseling p!
Two mont!
pleted the pro
rested for co
nors for imn
also dismisse<
mental health
Navy but rece
able discharg
with minor bo
He moved


degree mur-
on of sexual
ir Juvenile

urt records,
he sexually
en strangled
ish. He slept
nights while
t went on.
ibearable, he
‘tench out an

‘ey Michelle
n unequivo-
no consider-
iment pleas.
ooper. would
1 Youth Au-

snder Barba-
‘eek an alter-
. She said he
itric counsel-
"A. :
oblems,”’ she
*

he man told
e you home
right.”

of the theater
iggling boy.
ag place, the
it to see the
irked car. As

s pocket for
se and raced
“, screaming,
ct me.”
-d Graves and
came out to
eater employe
id them that a
ggling young-

‘ho the person
seen the man
, yellow, Ford

he going?”

2 car had been
uver. “I'll get
id as he ran to

- blocks away
ow Ford Pinto
rked alongside
or in it. Graves
| went up to the
” he asked.

ext page)

“It just stalled and I can’t get it
going,” the driver responded.

“Get out and I will take a look at
it,” Graves told him.

As the driver stepped out of the car,
Grave’s put a hammerlock on the
man’s head. “What in hell were you
trying to do to that little boy ‘in the
show?” Graves asked.

Employes in the theater had called
the sheriff’s office. Deputies respond-
ed and Graves still had the man’s head
in a hammerlock. Deputies put hand-
cuffs on him. They informed Graves,
the boy’s mother and theater employ-
es that they were taking the man to
the sheriff’s office in Vancouver and
officers would check with them the
following day for statements as to
what had occurred.

Booked into the Clark County jail,
the man gave his name as Westley Al-
lan Dodd, 28, with a Vancouver ad-
dress. Advised of his legal rights,
Dodd selected to remain silent and be
represented by an attorney.

A deputy called Undersheriff
Songer at his home and told him of
the arrest, adding, “The guy tried to
kidnap the little boy and he lives just a
couple of blocks away from the home
of the Neer brothers. Maybe we’ve
got the guy we’ve been looking for.”

“Run a check on him,” Songer or-
dered. “And then call Capt. King. I'll
be there right away.”

By the time Songer and King ar-
rived at the sheriff’s office with other
investigators who had been working
on the murders, the computer had spit

- out an arrest record for Dodd. After

reading it, Capt. King held up his
hand with the thumb and forefinger a
quarter-inch apart and said, “We
were that close to having another
murder of a little boy.”

The record contained a series of de-
viant sexual assaults upon minors
that started in 1979 while Dodd was
in high school in eastern Washington
and had been charged with solicita-
tion of minors for immoral purposes.
It was dismissed when Dodd entered
a counseling program.

Two months after he had com-
pleted the program, he was again ar-
rested for communicating with mi-
nors for immoral purposes. It was
also dismissed when Dodd entered a
mental health program. He joined the
Navy but received less than an honor-
able discharge for sexual offenses
with minor boys.

_ He moved to Lewiston, Idaho, in

1984 where he was convicted of
lewd conduct with a minor. He re-
ceived a 10-year sentence that was
suspended on condition that he enter a
sexual deviancy program. Counsel-
ors reported he was not making ad-
equate progress, having been found
exposing himself to children. He
spent 10 months in jail before being
released.

In 1987 Dodd was arrested in
Seattle for attempting to abduct an 8-
year-old boy and was charged with
first-degree attempted kidnapping.
The charge was reduced to attempted
unlawful imprisonment, a gross mis-
demeanor and punishable by one year
in jail. He spent 118 days in jail and
was released for counseling.

A clinical psychiatrist who treated
Dodd presented the court with an
evaluation stating, “Mr. Dodd’s histo-
ry of deviant assaults on minors is the
most extensive I have ever encoun-
tered in an offender his age.”

The psychiatrist related that Dodd
confided to him that his sexual de-
viation started when he was 12-
years-old and had never abated. He
stated that Dodd was an “extremely
high risk for future re-offenses” and

should have no contact with young

boys.

Charges of first-degree murder
were filed against Dodd for the mur-
der of Lee Joseph Iseli and the Neer
brothers. An affidavit presented to the
court stated that Dodd had made a
complete confession to the abduction
and murder of Lee Iseli.

Details of the confession were sim-
ilar to the profile Dr. Turco had devel-
oped after the Iseli boy’s body had
been found. Dr. Turco had pictured
the killer to be a loner, aged 25 to 35
who was “kicked out of the military
if served.” Dodd was 28 and had
been kicked out of the Navy.

Dr. Turco had predicted the killer
would photograph the victim, keep
child pornography and keep a diary.
He would have an older model car
and would be employed at a job with
limited responsibility.

Dodd confessed that he photo-
graphed the boy, wrote details of
how he had strangled the youngster
and kept a piece of the boy’s clothing.
He worked as a shipping clerk and
drove a 1974 Pinto station wagon.
When the news media revealed that
Dodd had confessed to the murder of
the boys and reported his extensive
misdemeanor record of molesting mi-

nors and the scant time he had spent in
jail, angry citizens of Washington and
Oregon asked how it was possible he
could have been repeatedly paroled
for counseling that apparently had no
effect and demanded legislation to
prevent it from happening in the fu-
ture.

At a preliminary. hearing for Dodd
on the murder charges, the prosecu-
tion announced it would seek the
death penalty. The court ordered
Dodd to be held without privilege of
bail pending further legal proceedings
and that he be confined away from
other prison inmates for his protec-
tion.

By law, charges filed against a de-

fendant are accusations and the de-
fendant must be presumed to be inno-
cent until such time as his guilt or
innocence may be determined in a
court of law.

Case Of The
Crated Corpses

(continued from page 13)

Albanians were thrifty folk, frugal
unless they wanted to spend, and then
they were ridiculously extravagant.

Maybe Tsekos himself didn’t earn
so much, but his wife was a skillful
weaver, and it was a rare Saturday
night that she didn’t bring home $40
or $50 in the pay envelope.

Such mental images didn’t help
Clarke’s forebodings. He tightened
his grip on the wheel again and tried
to shake the mood.

A few moments later Tsekos said,
“Ym hungry. If you see a hot-dog
stand, stop, will you?” Clarke
nodded.

He didn’t feel hungry for some rea-
son. There was something wrong
about this journey.

What was in those boxes? Dish-
es? Absurd, Clarke told himself. No
man would pay $25 to take a taxi to
Boston with two boxes of dishes. It
was a wonder he hadn’t thought of
that before. He wished he had. What-
ever it was George Tsekos was trans-
porting between Franklin and Boston
was something that couldn’t go by
train.

If they were dishes, particularly
dishes that were packed so tight they
wouldn’t rattle on the floor of a
bounding Model T, what reason was

(continued on next page)

45

ot

Lai isis into

pair Me

Section4 x

Chicago Tribune Sunday, August 19, 1990

The noose tightens |

America could
witness a surge
in executions

By James Coates

ALLA WALLA, Wash.—
When Westley Allan Dodd
moved to Death Row at the

state prison here earlier this month—

joining the record 2,346 men and
women now awaiting execution in

American prisons—he opened his bid

to cheat the executioner in a unique

fashion.

Dodd demanded to be hanged in-
stead of dying by lethal injection, the
most common form of execution
today, knowing that the country’s
only licensed hangman had gone out
of business. Only Washington and
Montana allow condemned inmates
the option of hanging.

The 29-year-old convicted child
killer from Vancouver, Wash., thus
became part of a bizarre national
logjam resulting from the 1976 Su-
preme Court ruling that reinstated
capital punishment after a 10-year
hiatus and set automatic appeal of
each death sentence.

Now Congress is moving toward

enacting legislation to greatly reduce

=the amount of time during which

Death Row inmates can take their”
appeals to federal courts. .

But passage of this legislation might
unleash a national wave of executions
never before seen in the U.S. Federal
experts say annual execution rates
could rival if not exceed the recorts
set during the Depression when 19
people were executed in 1934 and
again in 1936, times when far fewe
people were on the nation’s Death
Rows than are there now.

In fact, if current barriers were t¢
fall and all pending appeals were
dropped overnight and one con-
demned person were executed every
business day from now on, it would
take more than eight years to clear
out.the Death Row population.

Yet, even executions at that rate
wouldn’t stop the backlog from grov
ing, since roughly four new defen-
dants are sentenced to death each
week. . a4

Currently, 37 states have a capital
punishment statute. Two of these

states, New Hampshire and South |.

Dakota, do not have anyone on
Death Row, and 23 states have not |
‘performed any executions since the |
death penalty was reinstated.
Condemned inmates frequently
seize upon innovative appeals, as
Dodd did in Washington state, to
prolong their lives, at substantial cost
to state and federal budgets, long
after their scheduled execution dates.
In a letter to a House judiciary sub-
committee last September, the Genet-
al Accounting Office estimated that it
costs $1.8 million for appeals and
other outlays for each inmate execut
ed compared to $650,000 for the av-
erage 40 years served by an inmate
sentenced to life without parole.

This appeals process, Chief Justice’

William Rehnquist complained in a »

speech in May, results in a cat-and-

mouse game that “verges on the cha-

otic.” Rehnquist noted that it now
takes eight years from conviction to
execution.

Death penalty opponents like the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educa-

tion Fund counter that legal scholars ©

generally agree that since 1905 at

least 23 people have been executed in }}
the U.S. for crimes they probably did ©

ale
| * = Ki f fi :

not commit, and warn that any
major resumption of executions
boosts the chances that more inno-
cent people will die.

From 1967 to 1977 there were no
| executions in the U.S., a lull caused
by challenges to various state death
penalty laws on the grounds they
were arbitrary and unfair. But the
case of Gregg vs. Georgia in 1976
led the Supreme Court to rule that a
new Georgia death penalty law was
fair, and states began rewriting stat-
utes to reinstitute the penalty.

In 1977, largely because he de-
manded the right to die promptly,
Gary Gilmore became the first Amer-

* ican executed in a decade. He was

~ executed in Utah by a firing squad.

|” There were no executions in 1978,
followed by two in 1979, none in

- 1980, and two in 1981. By 1985

there were about 20 executions a

| year. .
_” This year there have been 16, the
“\latest being July 29 in Florida. An-

ithony Bertolotti, 38, said he felt no
guilt for fatally stabbing a woman he

”

James Coates is a Tribune national
"doomed have worked so well, there

correspondent.

had raped and robbed.
Because pleas from America’s

SSS — /y

are far more people awaiting execu-
tion nationwide than ever before, .
paving the way for what some ana-
lysts predict may soon be production-
line executions once lawmakers break
up the logjam.

In Florida, where 23 people have
been electrocuted since capital

punishment resumed thére in 1979,

Bertolotti and six other inmates had
argued that the electric chair was
cruel and unusual punishment be-
cause it had set a victim’s hair on fire
before killing him on May 4. There
are 307 people on Florida’s Death . ©
Row.

In Texas, which has executed 37
since 1982, inmates plead that -
waiting for many minutes with an in-
travenous tube in the arm until the
fatal drip is likewise cruel. Texas has
312 people awaiting execution, the
largest number of any state.

Blacks in Louisiana, where 19 in-
mates have died since 1983, complain
that members of their race are exe-
cuted more quickly than are whites.
There are 32 inmates, 17 blacks and
15 whites, on Louisiana’s Death Row.

Whites in Georgia, which has exe-
cuted 14 inmates since 1983, com-

t
i | f
=== ff i Ae pera
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Y dif *
es fl
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Tribune illustration by Judie Anderson

i

plain that they were put on Death
Row simply to improve black-white
ratios. Georgia has 102 inmates
awaiting execution.

George Agee of Denver, a retired
accountant who worked closely with
the NAACP on death penalty issues,
used Illinois to illustrate how the
number of executions could increase.

“Since 1977 only 136 people have
been executed in the entire United
States,” Agee said. “Today in Illinois
alone, which has a relatively small
Death Row population for the state’s
size, 129 people now are awaiting ex-
ecution.”

Since the Justice Department began
keeping a national Death Row census
60 years ago in 1930, Agee noted,
Illinois has executed only 90 people.

Charles Walker, 50, a convicted
double murderer, is scheduled to die
by lethal injection Sept. 12 in the
Stateville Correctional Center near
Joliet. His execution would be the
first in Illinois since 1962.

Other states with more people on
Death Row than have ever been exe-
cuted in each state, Agee said, are
Arizona, Montana, Florida, Indiana,

See Executions, pg. 4

ns ee
a



You are respectfully invited to be present
at the execution of

Alfred Hanriilton

Friday, Way 23, 1902, at the Whatcom County

Court Wse, 6 o5c
Present this Card , c -

Not Transferable


You are respectfully invited to be present
at the execution of

Alfred Haniilton

Friday, Wlay 23, 1902, at the Whatcom County

Court Woe, 6 yerclock a.
Present this Card 7 0 :

Not Transferable


PHOTO POST CARD

POE Pere J

Tee

—
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aw

TEES

Poa er ee

al

_ but you murdered Johnson!

The man in the corner lifted his head. “I am,” he said.
“What’s this all about? I wasn’t speeding.”

Holmes took from his pocket. a photograph of Johnson,
supplied by his son, and compar ed it with the lean man with
the fly-trap mouth, sullen jaw and beady eyes who had spoken.

“Oh, no!” snapped Holmes. “You’re not Johnson.”

The man shrugged. “You seem to know,” he said coolly.

“No,” said Holmes, bending closer. “You’re not Johnson—
1?

For a long moment the hard-faced stranger said not a word,
as though lost in thought. Finally he raised his head and spoke
carefully, quietly.

“Well, yes, I killed him,” he said. “I don’t deny that. But
I did it in self-defense.”

EPUTIES Cannon and Holmes were staggered. It didn’t +

seem right that a confession should come so easily. They
quickly released the three men who had been riding with the
prisoner, Then they summoned Deputy Prosecutor. Etter, I. R.
McIver, Yakima deputy prosecutor, and Betty Moeck, girl
deputy sheriff and notary public.

“All right, now,” Cannon said to the man,
real name ?”

The hard-faced stranger seemed not at all disturbed. “My
name is John Bruce Anderson,” he said. “I’m 52.”

“Did you kill David Johnson?”

The man’s expression did not change in the least. “I. did,”
he said, in a matter-of-fact voice.

The officers looked at each other, puz-
zled. They had never seen such a. sud-
den confession, delivered with such
complete lack of emotion. This man
acted as if he were in a poker game,
and held four aces and a joker.

“You say it was self-defense,” said
Etter. “Tell us the story from the be-
ginning.”

“T lived in a shack in the woods,
near Johnson,” Anderson related. “I
went over to his place on the night of
July 20 to steal some eggs. I was near
the barn when I heard a door squeak. I
ran up a gully. When I looked back,
I saw Johnson near me, with a gun
and a flashlight.”

“What happened then: ?” questioned
Etter.

“TI drew my .38 revolver. I

“Where’s that gun now ?” interrupted
the prosecutor.

“Tt’s in the car, outside.”

Deputy Holmes left the room and
returned a moment later with the
weapon.

“That’s the baby,” Anderson said,
identifying it.

“Go on with your story,” Etter ordered impatiently.

“Well, I drew my gun and yelled at Johnson to drop his.
Instead, he fired at me—whether accidentally or not ; don’t
know—so I had to let him have it.”

“How many times did you shoot?”

A note of pride crept into Anderson’s voice. “I just shot

“what’s your

_ once. That was enough. I got him right through the heart.”

“What did you do with the body?” Etter asked.

Anderson shrugged. “I’m afraid you'll never find it, gentle-
men.”

“But where did you put it?”

“Well, first I dragged it to the house and set it up in the
basement with the legs doubled up against the chest.”

The listeners were amazed, “Why did you do that?” asked
Cannon. ,

Anderson put a lean finger alongside his nose and looked
wise.

“Rigor mortis,” he said. “I figured the body would stiffen
that way, so it could easily be set up in a car like a live person,
or else conveniently stuffed in the back seat.”

“You seem to have planned this pretty thoroughly,” Etter

‘said dryly.

“You're wrong there,” Anderson protested. “It was abso-
lutely unplanned. I only killed him in self-defense.”

“Go ahead,” urged Cannon.

“Well, I left the place then. The next day I returned with
my old Ford, put the body in the back, and drove to Newport,
where I dumped the body into the Pend Oreille River.”

Newport is north of Spokane, on the Idaho-Washington
border.

After this, according to Anderson’s statement, he began
his amazing masquerade. He took over all of Johnson’s
papers and possessions. He practiced forging Johnson’s name
until any unsuspecting pérson could not tell the difference in
signatures,

He sold the ranch under Johnson’s name, arranging to take
payment in Yakima.

“That was my mistake,” he told the officers after his arrest
on August 29 in Yakima. “I should not have tried to handle

tthe ranch deal.”

Before leaving Spokane, Anderson had tidied up one bit of
business by selling his old car. That was the reason he had
bought the new one in Yakima, under his new name of
David Johnson. ;

Anderson was strangely cool and
philosophical about it all. “I’m over 50
and can take the rap for it,” he smiled.

The next day, back in Spokane, An-
derson reenacted the slaying at its
scene, before officers and newspaper
men.

It was further learned that in May,
two. months before the killing, Ander-
son had burglarized Johnson’s home,
but had not obtained any important
loot. That burglary was to take on great
significance later, however.

Johnson was held in the Spokane jail,
while officers pondered what sort of
case they had against him.

Scores of men under Sheriff Buckley
of Spokane dragged the Pend Oreille
River for miles, but found no trace of
Johnson’s body.

“It looks like slim pickings,” Deputy
Cannon gloomily remarked to Holmes
after a week had gone by. “There is no
body—no actual proof that a murder has
been committed. And there is no way
to disprove Anderson’s claim that he
shot in self-defense.”

A bombshell was thrown into the case
a few days later when Sheriff Warren
Kapp of Bonner County, Idaho, came to Spokane and called
upon Prosecutor Carl Quackenbush.

“You’ve got a tough nut on your hands in this Anderson,”
Sheriff Rapp warned Quackenbush. “He’s murdered twice
before, and gotten away with it.”

“Twice before!” exclaimed Quackenbush. “Let's hear about
it—quick. -

“Anderson worked, in the summer of 1938, on the farm
of Paul Speare, twelve miles north of Coeur d’Alene,” Rapp
revealed.

“Then one day Speare, who lived alone, disappeared.
Neighbors couldn’t understand where he had gone, and re-
ported him missing to our office.”

“The same pattern,” breathed Quackenbush.

“Anderson had some of Speare’s personal property. Claimed
he had bought it. We had him in for questioning, but we
couldn’t even prove Speare was dead.” (Continued on page 54)

«€

road for the express purpose of beating
her to death as “he is the type of person
“who must satisfy his passions in this
manner.”

Earnest sobbed hysterically as he took
the witness stand. He swore that the
former social butterfly had accompanied
him willingly to the house of assignation,
and that he had no intention of killing her
at that or any other time. Defense At-

‘torneys Gilbert P. High and William F.

Fox pointed out that had Earnest pre-
meditated the crime he would not have
taken Richard Brady with him as a
witness.

Despite testimony that none of the party
was intoxicated and that Mrs. Atkins knew
what she was doing at all times, Earnest’s
display of emotion had no effect on the
jury of seven women and five men. They
deliberated less than five hours and re-
turned a verdict of murder in the first de-

gree with the death penalty recommended.

Earnest lunged forward in his seat and
wept audibly when he heard the fatal
words. His attorneys moved immediately
for a new trial. Until the motion is grant-
ed or denied, Earnest can only wait to
learn what his fate will be.

Justice has been served, according to
James Atkins, husband of the victim, who
declared, “Death isn’t too severe a penalty
for such a brutal crime.”

Richard Brady, charged only with being
an accessory, was held for trial at a later
date to determine his guilt or innocence.
And so, unless a new trial reverses the
verdict, William Earnest stands branded as
a vicious sadist who climaxed a drunken
spree with an orgy of blood, and will walk
the last mile to Pennsylvania’s electric
chair some time in 1941,

To protect the identities of persons in-

nocently drawn into the investigation of the’

foregoing case, the names “Harry Nestle,”
“James Morris,” “Arthur Hicks,” “Ward
Lesser” and “Mrs. Mollie Metz’ are not
actual but fictitious.—Ep1tor.

The Third Corpse
Wore a Belt

(Continued from page 19)

“What happened ?”

The visiting sheriff shook his head. “It
was no go. We couldn’t pin a thing on
Anderson, so we had to let him loose. He
disappeared from that part of the country.”

“Iéyer hear from Speare?” asked Quack-
enbush.

“Never a word, to this day. We’re sure
he must have been murdered.”

“You said something about two other
murders,” Quackenbush reminded Rapp.

“Later, we found out that identically the
same thing happened a good many years
ago at Samuels, Idaho. Anderson was
closely associated with a fellow named
Arnold, and Arnold disappeared under the
same circumstances. Looks to me_ like
Anderson has killed for the third time—
and in some way has gotten rid of the
body once more.”

“Quackenbush slapped his desk. “That
explains why Anderson’s so smug about
it all! He has had to admit the crime this
time, because we caught him with so much
of Johnson’s property, but he figures we
can’t convict him of murder without find-
ing the body.”

“But can’t you?”

“Legally, you can,” admitted Quacken-
bush. “But without a body, it is almost
impossible to get a jury to bring in a mur-
der verdict. It’s against human nature to

yote to send a man to the gallows unless
there is visible proof that murder has been
done.”

Days passed, and searchers continued to
drag the river. Sheriff Buckley put a spe-
cial launch on the river to aid in the work.
But no body was to be found in the swiftly
flowing waters of the Pend Oreille.

The State’s case was further weakened
when it was learned that Anderson intended
to say in court that the confessions had
been forced from him.

Sheriff Buckley and his aides and mem-
bers of Quackenbush’s staff conferred con-
stantly on the problem.

One discrepancy was noted in Anderson’s
confession. He had told of committing the
killing on July 20, but he had started his
masquerade as Johnson as early as July 15.

“Was that a mistake on his part, or was
he deliberately lying to us?” Deputy Can-
non asked his partner.

“Well, if I’d committed a murder, I don’t
think I’d forget the date,” drawled Holmes.

That put the deputies on a new trail.
Soon they found further proof that Ander-
son had his dates mixed. In a diary, found
among Anderson’s effects, they found one
strange notation.

“Listen to this,” exclaimed Cannon. “On
July 13 Anderson wrote ‘Jolson, Al, very
sick from gunshot wounds.’”

“Al Jolson, the mammy singer!’ ’

“Of course not, my dear Sherlock,”
laughed Cannon. “That entry is in double-
talk. It must mean that Dave Johnson was
shot that day.”

“Seems queer that Anderson would put
such a damning thing in his diary,” ob-
jected Holmes.

“Some people just can’t help writing
things down, even if it is likely to trap
them,” Cannon declared. .

On September 30, Anderson was brought

into the Spokane prosecutor’s office and
confronted with the entry in his diary.
' He scrutinized it carefully. “Why yes,
I did mean by that that Johnson was killed
that day,” he admitted. “I guess I got my
dates mixed when I said the killing took
place on July 20.”

Anderson stuck doggedly to his version
of the killing and the disposition of the
body.

“I threw it in the river,” he repeated.

“It is significant that Anderson lied in
telling us the date of the murder,” Prose-
cutor Quackenbush pointed out, after
Anderson had been led away. “He may
have had a motive for it.”

“Perhaps he put the body somewhere it
would be found before July 20, in such
condition that it would never be identified,
and then tried to establish the July 20 date
for the killing as an alibi,” Sheriff Buckley
suggested.

“Yes—he figured he would never be con-
nected with a body found before July 20,”
added Deputy Cannon.

“That’s it,” the sheriff agreed. “Now, if
you wanted a body to be found quickly,
and not identified, where would you put
it?”

“In a burning building,” came back Can- .

non. .“The fire would serve a double pur-
pose—to attract attention and to mutilate
the body beyond recognition.”

“Right,” said Sheriff Buckley. “So we
must check up on any fires during the week
between the murder on July 13 and_ the
alibi date of July 20. It must have hap-
pened nearby, since Anderson got back to
Spokane so quickly to begin stealing John-
son’s money.”

THE OFFICERS drew a 50-mile circle
around Marshall, scene of the murder,
and checked with all sheriffs and_ police
officers in the towns and villages.

“Have you heard of any fire during the’

week of July 13-20 in which an unidentified

body was found?” was the question sent
out.

The theory. was a ten-strike,

In Athol, Idaho, it was discovered that
the body of an unidentified man, almost
consumed, had been found _the night of
July 17.

“That's the very district in which Ander-
son is believed to have killed the farmer,
Speare, two years ago,” Quackenbush
pointed out. “Anderson has taken John-
son’s body back to the scene of the other
murder !”

But it wasn’t as easy as all that.

At Athol, the officers found that a body
—which local authorities. had thought that
of a tramp—had been almost consuméd in
a barn filled with hay. Only twenty-five
pounds of flesh had been left. This had
been buried by -Donald English, Coeur
D’ Alene ;mortician.

Deputy Sheriff Harry Haner of Coeur
D’Alené handed over a candy box.

“We had to sift the ashés to’ get this
much,” he said.

The box held 4 few teeth, bits of cloth,
and a belt buckle. The buckle bore the
initial “D.”

“You'd think that if it was Johnson, the
initial would be ‘J’,” Cannon mused. “This
may be a false lead.”

But back in Spokane, Ted Johnson, the
missing man’s son, heard of the buckle

‘with grim excitement.

“That proves it was dad’s body, all right,”

he said sadly. “He ordered two of those

belt buckles some time ago, one with the
initial ‘D’ for David, and the other with
a ‘T’ for my name.” .

Sure enough, Ted Johnson wore a belt
buckle of the identical type of that found
on the burned body !

Anderson went to trial just before
Thanksgiving, 1940, in Judge Louis Bunge’s
court in Spokane. Deputy Prosecutor Etter
presented the State’s case.

“Anderson burglarized Johnson’s home in
May,” Etter told the jurors. “When he
saw that Johnson had so much money listed
in his bank books, Anderson craftily worked
out the details of his masquerade.

“He murdered Johnson. Then he burned
the body, far away in Idaho. After he was
arrested, he carefully planted in his con-
fession an alibi murder date of July 20,
which was after the body had been found.
He made up the story of throwing the’
body in the river, in order to lead the law
along a false trail.”

When the defense had its inning, Defense
Attorneys Lucius Nash and Harold Gleeson
put on but one witness.

She was Anderson’s 85-year-old mother,
Mrs. Hattie A. Reed of Fort Dodge,
Kansas. She had not heard from her son
for 30 years, but when she read in news-
papers of his plight, the frail old woman
made the long trip west to help him.

Her testimony merely was to the effect
that when Anderson was four years old, a
wagon wheel had run over his head.

Anderson did not take the stand, and the
defense called no witnesses to disprove the
state’s damning story. It is believed
Anderson did not testify because he did not
want to be questioned on the stand about
past crimes, including the murders of,
Arnold and Speare in Idaho.

The jury quickly found Anderson guilty,
and Judge Bunge sentenced him to be
hanged in the state prison at Walla Walla,
Wash. He is awaiting execution at this
writing.

Anderson denies the Speare and Arnold
killings, but it is believed he committed

‘those crimes, too, and successfully hid, the

bodies.

In his third and last killing, he was
trapped by clever detective work—and by
his fatal error in forgetting that the third
corpse wore a belt.

ARAO, Henry, hanged Washington (Spokane ) on-June 3, 1905.

edema ale

*

Sppatie, CHRONICLE, June 3, 1905, page ones

ments

flake the Chronicle Your Messenger
It will Celiver your

Toanner that
read, considered and believed. .

wualnrey BINT
of the 7eoule in &

in the homes
trenre thair baiting’

will

————— se

ne

“PRICE FIVE CENTS.

a
¢

BIDS

for all or
» of $460,-
king the
xtensions
m of the
3 is made
*f ' mmission,
Ail yet s will be 4

. : ’ 30,060 and
diye owed ‘ust be an

oho fter date,
: he rate of
“able semi-

faetisgic a faassen

Y eo.
,

‘best in the country.
“At the time of the

NS

“Tt ig an almost assured fact that the convention of
tion will form a mutual insurance company,”
“We will not accept any risk for over $3000,
to 50 per cent less than tho poard companies.
way aman can carry an almost unlimited risk by taking out a $3000 policy In each of
“We expect to charge thé poard rates on all insurance carried, and us fast as- money.

we will refund to, the policy holders. In
surance by hardware men is not a new venture,

‘formation of the hardware dealers’ assoc

investigate the proposition of mutual insurance. This committee has been working very, faithfully and at the con-

vention next week will submit the data that has been prepared.”

We expect also to affillat

this way we expect to make

the Inland Empire Hardware & Implement Dealers’ associa~
stated Secretary E. W. Evenson of the association this afternoon.

and are certain that we can carry our own risks at a rate of from 20
e with the national association and in this

rebates of from ;
and the hardware risks are.considered among the very safest and

iation last February a committee was appointed to

several states.
accumulates in the treasury
20'to 50 per cent. Mutual in-

r

a4

1dges -ot the
rnoon Judge
greed on by
e one to as-
ie. juvenile

ito effect at

his afternoon
py of the law
what the re-

at he would

- errr ee Served
: Re New
uy.

-Papers in an

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‘rved on Mrs,

so mariage to

last was tha
litigation. At

16 known that
vulnst Mr. Duka

t of whieh was

ga ae neompetent. to
=e been aban-
“his family, at
ult was begun.
ls now held by

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‘HOCH WILL BE |
* MANGED JUNE 23

CHICAGO,’ June 3% — “Bluebeard”
Johann Hoch is to be hanged’ June 23.
Judge Kersten, who some time ago
sentenced him to be hanged, fixed that
date as the day of execution. ue

DEATH OF GENERAL BOYNTON.

ATLANTIC CITY, N. J., June 3.—
General H. V. Boynton, president of the
Chickamauga Park commission,. died
here today. He suffered from a com~-.
plication of discases.

RATE TO GRAND LODGE.

A fare of one and a third has been
offered by tho Northern Pacific to dele-
gates to the session of the grand lodge
of the Masonic bodics which meets at

Bellingham June 13 to 22.

?

.kane last December, paid the death

lows like a stoic.

Chit
“American Law—Faced the Gallows >
_.. Without a Tremor. Oe :

ese ‘Sam’s Death Avenged by

Henry Arao, the little ‘Japanese, who
brutally murdered Sam Chow in Spo-

penalty for his crime at 4:30 o’clock
this morning in the Walla ‘Walla peni-
tentiary. :

The prisoner fac
tremor, and met h

ea death without a
is fate on the gal-

He offered no resistance to those en-
trusted with the duty of ‘carrying out
the law’s decree; he mado no protest
against the orders of the law.
_Arao was awakened about 3:30
o'clock this morning to prepare for

the end. The solemn death warrant
was read to him by Warden Kees. He
stated to the warden that he fully un-
derstood its meaning. :

When all was in readiness the con-
demned man and his executioners
marched from the cell to the gallows.

Tho little Japanese walxed briskly,
as though willing that the fearful or-
deal should be quickly over. He step-
ped upon the gallows without a tremor,
and calmly awaited the next act.

Before the black cap -was drawn

(Continued on pare two.)

he

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LUUAINE

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Steps Being Taken to Insure
. His Safety While in
London.

LONDON, June 3.—Insurances on tho
life of King Alfonso, who is now, visit-
ing Paris, are being effected at Lloyd’s
by those who would suffer were the
fortivities cut short by a repetition of

+ ‘

He )
Its Charter

deral Union 222 Threatens to Open

. All Trades.

to Men of

“Wo will‘open qur charter to men of
all trades unless matters are satisfac-
torily adjusted within a short while,”
declared Business Agent A. G. Ander-
son of Federal union 222 this morning.

“The locals are not at all satisfled
with the progress of affairs and the
conduct of the business of the new la-

hor council.” declared Mr. Anderson,

sharp line dividing the trades unionists

of the city. There are at present only
a few A. L. U. unions in this city, but
they have the sympathy of & numer

of men whose unions are affillated with
the American’ Federation of Labor, nnd
who, in the event of trouble, might ba
depended upon to throw their support
to the A, L. U. unfons,

The Labor assembly, one of the two
central bodies, is chartered directly by
hada nical cai oh apasnghe tua oR MN ke, 7


Vist LOD EMAL DAR, 4 baw
will wend further | the Messuge has the moras. puss ve

Tale eablesram pill the great Yuropean powers, hended
, by Ruavia's ally, France, which havo
stated gens bul conveyed in the most delleate myuinoer
1 sade efit beh ey possible. an intimation of thelr convile-
Stet at the bus tlons of the futillty of a further con-

AF Fide heise NR en LLL LL of the strummle.
isles rhe tito Mmperor Willlam 1s Imnown to have
Gere ety Rihers the “GAY eoinveyed such information through
: abted the departs | Grand Duke . Michael, who arrived in
supposed | srartin yesterday, and Foreign Secre-
tary Lansdowne, In behalf of King led-

navy department

en ments

n. Hfe fur- | ward, is reported to have conveyed
started 2t

baa ee Ae sander Benkendorif.

, rt, about 129 The cabled statement that Ambas-

ed of Mantin, on | gndor Meyer has received fresh instruc-
en, ta investigate. | tions embodying President Roosevelt's

WW } Great Britain's views through Ambas-
th pusiejacoL his

|

| vatch Was tmmedl- | views wong the ling of the reported

> Aforton to the | conversation with Count Cussint for

whe { it was discussed DY presentation to Minister Lamsdorft is
: eretury Taft. It is | incorrect.

co raesner nee| HAY RESTORE | .

t hours, if undam- Ae

a hy ; } a expected here that

{ll be followed. In- :
abled Admiral Train

idourye y, Otherwise’ they ¥ 1 Oi ‘ .

F y necessary repairs, ‘ X eit a aR

i Je interned until the {°> Oi \ . RU '
ere

Unions of Labor Council to

. ¢ of Forts. , . ake Referendum
3.—Survivors' i it sonal”
f one the Simon Wee Agsdte’ f Vote. vee

rtion of the Russian
*-the forts on Tsu
k the battleship Os-

: : tes “

. Whether ‘or.wnot the business agents
i of ‘various unions are eligible as dele-
"at. owing to ‘the fre- gates to the new Spokane Labor coun-

accommodate the ‘business of the com-
pany, but the welfare of the employes
is nino tricon Into consideration, There
{ys mn reading room, & bath room, and &
locker room,, fitted out for the con-
_vouience of the employes, ‘The office
rooms are many and nil are comfort-
able. The different clerks have offices
in parts of the pullding where thelr
work requires thei to be.-

All New. Machinery.

The main room of the building is on
the main floor, It is constructed with a

ylew to complete conformity to the |

laws of sanitation, The floor is of vit-
rified brick, and cost. $2000, Every
particle of machinery is new and of the
Intest pattern. A patent can, washer
has been put in which will wash 3000
cans inside and out in a day, Ico
cream will hereafter be frozen .with
brine. The new machine has been in-
stalled, but will not be in service for
sevoral days. The machine is automatic
and ‘the cream Is removed after being
frozen without. handling.

The two churns each turn out a half
a ton:of. butter ‘at a°churning. New
Jensen ripeners have been installed to
ripen.the cream, After ripening, the
cream is turned into the churn by com-
pressed air. An elevator will be put
in as soon as it arrives from the east
The Northern Pacific will run a spur to

provement .ovor the old shipping plans.

On tho first floor thoro is «w sortos
of refrigerators, The entire end of the
third floor will later, bo filled by n re-
frigerator. | Tho fee machine. will be
put in ‘as soon as possible. A complete
Jaboratory has been put in,, where, the

‘ell. will depend upon 4& majority vote

; oe nae rp of the unions, to. which the question
was much separated will be referred. According to the
ple of acting in com- constitution of the new body, on the

; orders were to reach request of five unions any question
‘pussians were short must be referred to a referendum -vote
Sy their marksmanship of the unions affiliated with the coun-
. bear rt eil. The plumbers, prewers, teamsters,

? ’ | stage employes and sheet metal work-

ers have raised the question of the

ky Improving: construction of the article of the com-
10:40 a, m.—Vice Ad- stitutton: by which the president de-
y is resting well, with | cided that business agents were not
ptoms, and his speedy eligible as delegates, the’ petition hbeinge

products handled will be tested.
Country: Stations. 6 6,
There are 15 stations near the city
‘from which milk and cream are shipped
to. the local house. At all of these sta-
tions the milk is pasteurized in-a. ma~
chine similar to the’ one used at the
factory. The milk is then shipped in
sealed cans to the city. :

horses, has been finished. It {son
Third avenue, behind the: factory. Six-
‘teen wagons are used win ,the city for’
delivery and teaming. . ‘ ’

_ The Hazelwood company has the ex-
elusive northwest right to manufacture

the new confection sprung
at the St. Louis fair. These cones are

rvartaln, presented at the’ last, meeting of the
; isthe Russian pattleship | council. 4 " - i «aah
oe “ed to accept parole. Each of the unions affillated w
{ven.an additional day | the central labor body is now to pass Shae Ai rm to be, used in the ice cream
‘ ar the question. © upon the question, and the matter will ay
pit _\ then be decided. finally. Sentiment
ors in the Battle. favorable to the admission of the busi-

8.<Thirty naval com- ness agents seems to prevail, and it is
‘ated in the battle of probable that the ruling of President
Tice Admiral Togo was Vincent will be

made of dough baked in the form of a
cornucopia. They are then filled with
ice-cream and are supposed to be eat-

en with a. spoon, They will be mare -

reversed and the busi-
hief, leading the first ness agents admitted. jketed in the city in the near future.

Admiral Kamimura

of the: a a= j
Imiral Kataoka led the MAKE PRINTERS :

staff in the. order Fac Pe KEEP AWAY :

Imiral Kato and Cap-

, e
Saito. The command- Any member of the typographical -
= _ron divisions were Vice

“~ ‘i ‘union whod is found patronizing the
2 Uriu and Mitsu, acting | Coeur d'Alene, theater will hereafter

Is under Vice Admiral | phe suspended from the union for a

a ‘ _ Yamada, Shimamura, | period of six .months. This . decision
4 J py Ai (oO UTE . -was reached at. the monthly meeting
“ of the union held last Sunday. The

soesunted vids Coeur d'Alene it as war with the stage

3.—Admiral Togo’s re- employes and musicians’ unions, and
tussian service steamers | jt is to aid these that’ the typograph-

sunk by the Japanese | {cal union now proposes to take up the
the auxiliary - steamer fight. ; : sail :

sports Kamtchatka and : .

Da Pa Kaa OC een DS towing vessel, used ; .
a ling at sea, and believed MEETINGS AT ST. JOHN.
“y 1amed the Russ. Revival services are mow in progress
e 1 vessels present in the | in the B. & H. hall under the auspices
3 vhich were not sunk or of the M. E. church, says the st. John
aes say which are unaccounted | Journal. Rev. B. E. Koontz of Spokane
St | report adds, “the pro- | has charge. : ; "
s Oleg, Aurora, Izumrud A large tent..is expected to arrive
aree transports, two to- tomorrow and will be raised on the
royers and one towboat. | church property to be ready for: the

dawmerigg ttle the Oleg and Aurora | Sunday services. The Methodist peo-

Sop WAP DI Yo NS SIOM og RBG

range of our third and | ple here expect to take steps after the’
‘ons, and were on fire. | close of ,the meetings looking to the
= ileve escaped, put it will | puilding of a new church. The confer-
“A"yestore. their fighting | ence,.: which meets on August 23 in
a : Moscow, Idaho, will send a resident pas-

tor to this place. The meetings will be
in progress each night for ten days. ‘

to dispatches’ from St.
ye Izumrud was blown up

ag aioe bay. running on | HAS NOT INVESTIGATED.

HENRY ARKO WiS se
_——TANGED AT. SURRISE

(Continued from page one.)

tho building. This will be a ble im-)

The ;new barn, with room for 70.

a deeided ornam
special bargain
CAS:

‘Don’t forget,
district and not

Bene ie

RIVERSIDE
. \

oy

ailored

in cloth and silk, silk and cloth. coa
petticoats, ladies’ waists. of all kinds
plan to suit you. Pay a small sum
ment.. All garments are of New Yo!
lowest, and a liberal discount for cabin
“Sle ee
‘Mion Undermy

<ES

Mara!

down Arao was asked if he had. any-
thing to‘say. He replied in the, nega-
tive. - Fe ee ‘ b

The noose was adjusted. by Captain
«Wood, . At '4:28 the trap was, sprung
by Warden Kees. et ey ;

Death came to Arao without appar-
ent suffering. The work of execution
| was done quietly and smoothly, and 21
minutes from the time the trap was
sprung Arao’s pulse had ceased to beat
and he was pronounced dead.

Arao’s body was turned over to his
‘countrymen. It will be buried in &
cemetery at Walla Walla - :

The execution was’ witnessed, by
about 30 people, including prison offi-
clals and ministers. ‘

. Professed Christianity.

Before his death Arao professed him-
self converted to Christianity. Rev.
John:Le Cornu, who is to be.the new
shaplain of the penitentiary, visited
him Wednesday. evening, also on Fri-
day, and again this morning. Arao has
also had several conferences with some
Christian Japs. : <y

Before his death he wrote to Tokio.
It is supposed the, letter. was. to his
mother, for he told the chief turnkey

vostok early in the week, “yyill there be a grand jury sum-
Aurora and Jemtchug ar- moned to investigate the alleged un-
: la. today. business methods of some departments
ike ”

st Be Interned. yas of the county and city administration?

‘ ‘ was asked of Judge Poindexter this
ION, June 3. — After 4 morning. ;

that he had written .his mother, con-
fessing his crirfie and begging. her to

forgive him. He confessed to the turn-

- t the: White House this “J have made no investigation of the

ween president Roosevelt, ‘reported conditions, and could not say
rton and Attorney General | at this time whether or not there will
actions were sent to Rear |.-be & grand jury summoned.” :

, {n,; at Manila, ‘that ' the ! ———

sasels Aurora, Oleg and Jemt- | - :

Burrived there this morn- HEATHERBELL CLUB. .
ajured condition, must be The Heatherbell club held its regular

y ‘i meeting on Thursday afternoon at the

—<—<—<—<———_ home of Mrs. M. Lemman, 34 Main avee
i : nue, a very enjoyable afternoon being
we UR OF INSPECTION. spent by the members. The next mect-
we Appian f Northern Pacific officials | ing will be held at the home of Mrs.
oh. ¢ GM. Lets, assistant to | John McLean, 1224 Augusta avenue,
tt; E. J. Pearson, chief en- | The regular election of officers will be

RB. E. Palmer, assistant | held at this meeting.
.jerintendent, arrived from =

nis meetings
erintengents ory eemained | AUDITOR'S BUSINESS GROWING

about an hour after which

we the east. They are on a During the month of May 90 mar-
fection over the Hne, riage certificates were issued by tho
5 Cnet a tnd <<< k county auditor, as compared with 79 in

eecnontetiiaoitm ee @ TARRQOUING May, 1904, and 64 in May, 1902. During

thn manth P24 instruments were filed'

key that he was guilty. of the murder
of Sam Chow. : ea

It was believed at the, prison that
Arao ,made another attempt at suicide
Thursday night. He started to make
a rope from waste jute which he had
been using as & pillow.” When his
keepers discovered this Arao was, put
in another cell.

In the carly morning of December 29,
1904, Henry Arao brutally murdered
Sam Chow, a Chinese tailor and mer-
ehant, in the rear of Chow's store on
Main avenue, in this city. He was cap-
tured after a flight to Waverly, was
convicted on the testimony of the Chi-
naman’s wife and his own confessions,
made to the officers.

JUDGMENT FOR. PLAINTIFF.

Judge Poindexter this’ morning
granted tho American Type Founders’
company 2 judgment for $119 against

eater Pabltahing company. ‘The

BAND CONCERT—Hopp\.s we

~-; Spokane vs. Sa}:
SCENIC RAILWAY—A THRE

"47.19 Monroe Street, Opposif ©
" " ‘Riverside apae

, \


RE JAMES BLODGETT
(1992) 116 L Ed 2d 669

HEADNOTES
Classified to U.S. Supreme Court Digest, Lawyers’ Edition

Mandamus §§ 21, 103, 124 — to
federal court — _ deciding
case — denial without preju-
dice — in forma pauperis

la, 1b. The United States Supreme

Court will grant a respondent ac-

cused’s motion for leave to proceed

in forma pauperis and will decline to
issue a writ of mandamus to a Fed-

eral Court of Appeals pursuant to a

petition by a state attorney general,
which petition seeks an order com-
pelling the Court of Appeals to issue
its decision on an appeal from a
Federal District Court’s denial of a
second habeas corpus petition in a
capital case—although the Supreme
Court (1) is concerned that the state
has sustained severe prejudice by

Review §§ 3:940, 3:941

Sentence

beas Corpus; Mandamus

tation references.

civil case. 57 L Ed 2d 1203.

29 ALR Fed 218.

TOTAL CLIENT-SERVICE LIBRARY® REFERENCES

5 Am Jur 2d, Appeal and Error §§ 383-385; 52 Am Jur 2d,
Mandamus §§ 28-30, 46, 351, 362

2 Federal Procedure, L Ed, Appeal, Certiorari, and Review
§§ 3:228, 3:233, 3:507, 3:511; 16 Federal Procedure, L Ed,
Habeas Corpus §§ 41:106, 41:363, 41:388, 41:563

2 Federal Procedural Forms, L Ed, Appeal, Certiorari, and

17 Am Jur Pl & Pr Forms (Rev), Mandamus, Form 141

39 Am Jur Trials 157, Historical Aspects and Procedural
Limitations of Federal Habeas Corpus

USCS Court Rules, Supreme Court Rules, Rule 20.1
L Ed Digest, Mandamus §§ 21, 111, 124
L: Ed Index, Habeas Corpus; Mandamus; Stay of Execution or

Index to Annotations, Capital Offenses and Punishment; Ha-

Auto-Cite®: Cases and annotations referred to herein can be
further researched through the Auto-Cite® computer-as-
sisted research service. Use Auto-Cite to check citations for
form, parallel references, prior and later history, and anno-

ANNOTATION REFERENCES

Supreme Court’s views on constitutionality of death penalty and proce-
dures under which it is imposed or carried out. 90 L Ed 2d 1001.

Mandamus as appropriate remedy to control action of federal court in

Propriety of issuing writ of mandamus in federal criminal proceedings.

671

U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

the 24-year stay of execution im-
posed by the Court of Appeals,
which stay has prevented the state
from exercising its sovereign power
to enforce the criminal law, (2) finds
no plausible explanation or reason
for the Court of Appeals’ delay of
- more than a year between argument
and submission of the case and the
accused’s filing in state courts of a
petition for collateral review, and (3)
finds grounds to question both the
necessity and the propriety of the
Court of Appeals’ order directing the
accused to file his proposed third
habeas corpus petition and stating
that the Court of Appeals would
wait for a lower court ruling on that
petition before taking further action
—where the state did not file any
objections to the Court of Appeals’
order; as a predicate for extraordi-
nary relief, the state should have
asked the Court of Appeals to vacate
or modify its order before the state
petitioned the Supreme Court for
mandamus, given the requirement of

Rule 20.1 of the Supreme Court .

Rules that, in order to justify the
granting of an extraordinary writ, it
must be shown that adequate relief
cannot be obtained in any other
form or from any other court; denial
of the writ is without prejudice to
the right of the state to again seek
mandamus relief or to request any
other extraordinary relief by motion

ro

116 L Ed 2d

or petition if unnecessary delays or
unwarranted stays occur in the
Court of Appeals’ disposition of the
matter; in view of the delay that has
already occurred, any further post-
ponements or extensions of time will
be subject to a most rigorous scru-
tiny if the state files a further and
meritorious petition for relief. (Ste-
vens and Blackmun, JJ., dissented in
part from this holding.)

Courts § 225.1 — duties of federal
judges

2. Although reports of joint com-
mittees of the bench and bar should
be of urgent concern to all persons
with the responsibility for the ad-
ministration of justice in a federal .
judicial circuit, the ordinary course
of legal proceedings and the con-
stant duty of all judges to discharge
their duties with diligence and preci-
sion cannot be suspended to await
the recommendations of such com-
mittees.

Criminal Law § 96 — stay of exe-
cution — prompt resolution

3. In a capital case, the grant of a
stay of execution directed to a state
by a federal court imposes on that
court the concomitant duty to take
all steps necessary to insure a
prompt resolution of the matter,
consistent with its duty to give full
and fair consideration of all of the
issues presented in the case.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Per Curiam.

[1a] The Court has before it a
petition from the State of Washing-
ton for a writ of mandamus to the
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Cir-
cuit. The petition seeks an order
directing the Court of Appeals to
issue its decision on an appeal from

672

the District Court’s denial of a sec-
ond federal habeas petition in a capi-
tal case. The appeal was argued and
submitted to the Court of Appeals on
June 27, 1989, and no decision has
been forthcoming.

Charles Rodman Campbell was
convicted of multiple murders in

XN

RE JAMES BLODGETT
(1992) 116 L Ed 2d 669

1982 in the State of Washington and
sentenced to death. After his convic-
tion was affirmed on direct appeal
and we denied certiorari, Campbell v
Washington, 471 US 1094, 85 L Ed
2d 526, 105 S Ct 2169 (1985), his first
federal habeas petition was filed in
July 1985 in the United States Dis-
trict Court for the Western District
of Washington. Proceedings in that
matter were completed when we de-
nied certiorari in November 1988.
Campbell v Kincheloe, 488 US 948,
102 L Ed 2d 369, 109 S Ct 380. No
relief was granted.

In March 1989 Campbell filed a
second federal habeas petition in the
same District Court. The court acted
with commendable dispatch, holding
a hearing and issuing a written
opinion denying a stay or other re-
lief within days after the second
petition was filed. On March 28,
1989, Campbell appealed to the
Ninth Circuit. The Court of Appeals
granted an indefinite stay of execu-
tion and set a briefing schedule. The

_ case was argued and submitted in
June 1989, but no decision’ was an-
nounced and the stay of execution
remains in effect. The Washington
Attorney General sent letters to the
panel in April and October of 1990
inquiring about the status of the
case, but neither letter was an-
swered.

In January 1990 Campbell filed a
motion to withdraw certain issues
from consideration by the Ninth Cir-
cuit panel, and he renewed this mo-
tion in April. The panel took no
action. In July 1990 Campbell filed
his third state action for collateral
relief, a personal restraint petition,
with the Washington Supreme
Court. In September, Campbell
again moved the Court of Appeals to
withdraw three issues from consider-

ation in the case that it was still
holding under submission, leaving
eight others to be decided. The panel
did not respond until by order of
February 21, 1991, it noted Camp-
bell’s motion to withdraw the issues,
requested a report on the status of
the state court proceedings, and va-
cated its own submissior of the case.
Both Washington and Campbell re-
sponded that all of the issues pend-
ing before the Ninth Circuit had
been exhausted. The State requested
that the case be resubmitted, but the
panel did not do so.

The Washington Supreme Court
denied Campbell’s third personal re-
straint petition on its merits on
March 21, 1991. On June 10, 1991,
Campbell filed a document advising
the Court of Appeals panel that he
desired to discharge his attorneys
and proceed pro se and that he
would file a third federal habeas
petition in the District Court. At
that point more than two years had
passed since the Ninth Circuit had
heard oral argument in the case.
Almost two months later, on August
7, 1991, the panel granted the mo-
tion to relieve counsel, directed
Campbell to file his third federal
habeas petition by August 30, and
announced its intention to wait for
the District Court’s ruling before
taking further action. The District
Court has set a briefing schedule for
the third petition.

On October 25, 1991, the Washing-
ton Attorney General filed the man-
damus petition now before us and on
November 22 the Court of Appeals
and the members of the panel filed a
response. Neither the response nor
the record reveals any plausible ex-
planation or reason for the panel’s
delay in resolving the case from

673

SS ee ame

US. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

June 1989 until July 1990. The re-
sponse addresses the events after
Campbell’s third personal restraint
petition was filed in the Washington
Supreme Court. The response indi-
cates that the panel vacated submis-
sion in February 1991 because if the
Washington Supreme Court had
granted the state petition, the ap-
peal before the Ninth Circuit would
have become moot. It further stated
that the panel desired to avoid piece-
meal appeals by awaiting the deci-
sion of the District Court on the
third federal habeas petition. The
response noted that the Ninth Cir-
- cuit has formed a Death Penalty
Task Force with the objective of
eliminating successive habeas _peti-
tions and that the consolidation of
the last two petitions is consistent
with that objective.

The delay of over a year before
the third personal restraint petition
was filed in Washington state court
remains unexplained, and was in
fact compounded by the events that
followed. The orders by the Ninth
Circuit to vacate submission of the
case until completion of the state
collateral proceeding and then to
hold the case in abeyance pending
filing and resolution of the third
federal habeas proceeding in the Dis-
trict Court raise the very concerns
regarding delay that were part of
the rationale for this Court’s deci-
sions in Rose v Lundy, 455 US 509,
71 L Ed 2d 379, 102 S Ct 1198 (1982)
and McCleskey v Zant, 499 US ——,
113 L Ed 2d 517, 111 S Ct 1454
(1991). Adherence to those decisions,
and their prompt enforcement by
the district courts and courts of ap-
peals, will obviate in many cases
what the Court of Appeals here
seems to perceive to be the necessity
for accommodating multiple filings.

674

y

116 L Ed 2d

[2] As to the Death Penalty Task
Force, reports of joint committees of
the bench and bar should be of ur-
gent concern to all persons with the
responsibility for the administration
of justice in the Ninth Circuit, but
the ordinary course of legal proceed-
ings and the constant duty of all
judges to discharge their duties with
diligence and precision cannot be
suspended to await its recommenda-
tions.

[3] None of the reasons offered in
the response dispels our concern
that the State of Washington has
sustained severe prejudice by the
two-and-a-half year stay of execu-
tion. The stay has prevented Wash-
ington from exercising its sovereign
power to enforce the criminal law,
an interest we found of great weight
in McCleskey when discussing the

‘importance of finality in the context

of federal habeas corpus proceedings.
Id., at —— -——, 113 L Ed 2d 517,
111 S Ct 1454. Given the potential
for prejudice to the State of Wash-
ington, the Ninth Circuit was under
a duty to consider Cambell’s claim
for relief without delay. Our case
law suggests that expedited review
of this second habeas petition would
have been proper. Barefoot v Estelle,
463 US 880, 895, 77 L Ed 2d 1090,
103 S Ct 3383 (1983) (“Even where it
cannot be concluded that a [succes-
sive habeas] petition ‘should be dis-
missed under Rule 9(b), it would be
proper for the district court to expe-
dite consideration of the petition”).
The delay in this case demonstrates
the necessity for the rule that we
now make explicit. In a capital case
the grant of a stay of execution di-
rected to a State by a federal court
imposes on that court the concomi-
tant duty to take all steps necessary
to ensure a prompt resolution of the

6
=

IT TOOK strength to force the victim's
body into the small cupboard (left). In-
vestigators were fairly certain from
the start that a man was responsible.

a trace of paint that appeared to be the
same. ;

Callahan looked: up to see Deputy
Bodia watching him. :

“See these?” he asked. “Looks to me
like they were whittled off the handle of
something, maybe an ice pick.”

Bodia nodded as Callahan put them in
an envelope.

“Might be useful later on,” said the
detective.

“Right, but what gets me i§ how those
letters got on the table the day after the
woman was killed. The coroner said she
probably has been dead as long as 30

‘ hours and that would take the actual

murder back to sometime yesterday fore-
noon. Now, those letters were put on
that living room table after the mail was
delivered this afternoon because one of
them has a postmark date and time of
early: today”. °275

At this point County Detective Mc-
Donald, who had been questioning neigh-
bors, came in with a man who said he
was Frank Siebert and lived a few doors
down from the Arnold house.

“Tell ’°em what you just told me,” he
said. .

GPEvERT EXPLAINED that Mrs. Ar-
‘nold had her mail delivered in a rural

delivery box some distance away at the

main highway and that frequently when
he went for his own mail he picked up
Harriet’s and left it at her house as. he
passed. He said she usually left the back
door unlocked and it was his custom to
go in and leave the mail on the livin

room table before he returned to his‘own

_ home. :
This morning he found the back door

locked, but he noticed a side window was

we

AN AMAZ NG CLUE found in the murder
cottage (above) was a batch of unopened
letters. Several bore the date of the
very day police discovered the crime.

open so he crawled in through it, looked

‘around and finding no one home, left the

three letters and went out the same way
he entered. He didn’t notice anything
unusual while he was in the house ex-
cept that the dog appeared hungry, so he
poured some milk in a dish on the floor
and threw him a couple of slices of bread
that lay on the kitchen table. The dog
knew him well and made no fuss when
he came in through the window, Siebert
added. ;

The three detectives. looked at each
other, then at the man. i

“Isn't it rather unusual for neighbors
who deliver mail to crawl in through
windows of other people’s houses?” Cal-
lahan asked. :

‘Siebert admitted it might seem strange
to them, but he said he had done the
same thing several times when Harriet
forgot and locked all the doors before
she left for. work.

Inquiries among others who knew the
man indicated Siebert had an unques-

' tioned reputation and was a good friend

of Harriet Arnold, their friendship dat-
ing back to when she had moved to the
community several years before. In the
light of this information the officers didn’t
take him in. for further investigation at
the time. —

The investigation in the house mo-
mentarily completed, thé . officers drove
away after leaving a guard to -see that
no one entered the Arnold place. When
they arrived at headquarters, Coroner
Mittelstadt was ready with the report on
the autopsy. Harriet Arnold had been
dead approximately 30 hours and death
had been caused by one or more of the
18 stab wounds in her left side. .The
blow on the head had no more’ than

e res gu ERS

stunned her. The wire and chain had
been twisted around her neck after death.
There had been no criminal assault

It seemed probable at this point ti
detectives that the motive for the -

-der had been robbery. Mrs. Arnold was

known to keep some money in the house
and neighbors had. seen her wearing a
valuable diamond ring and wrist watch,
both of which were missing. No jewelry
had been found.

Detective Captain Marshall C. Scaf- ©

ford of the Seattle police department had
assigned detectives to find Denzel Davis

or his family, and they had been suc-

cesstul in locating Mrs. June Davis, his
wife, at the home of her parents where
the couple lived. Davis, she said, had

been away on a business trip for a week.

but she expected him home within a day
or two. She gave them the name of a
Portland, Ore., hotel where she said he
might be stopping. Bilee
A. phone call there brought the infor-
mation Davis had checked out and was
believed to be on his way back to Seattle:
He had left no forwarding address.
-Meanwhile other detectives were
searching pawnshops in the city for the

missing diamond ring and watch believed

stolen from Mrs. Arnold.

Eventually the watch was found in one
place and the ring in another. Both had
been pledged by a man giving the name
L. A. Peters, and the description of him
obtained from both pawnbrokers was
approximately the same. They said b=
was: tall, dark complexioned and \
dressed. The address he had given
not exist.

Callahan, convinced that the’ murderer

knew Mrs. Arnold well, decided to play
the pawnshop angle for all it was worth.
He knew it was a gamble but he also
knew it might break the case in one
quick stroke. His plan was simple.’ If
he could obtain a picture of every man

who lived near and was friendly with

Mrs. Arnold he could show them to the
pawnbrokers. If none of the men was
recognized by the pawnshop owners that
would at least clear the picture a bit. -

But to obtain those pictures without _

exciting suspicion was another matter.
It wouldn’t be wise to be. brazen about
it and ask for them. Finally he hit
upon a scheme and enlisted the aid ofa
newspaper photographer. The trick was
for the photographer to go out to the
Arnold place and appear to be taking
pictures for his paper. Callahan knew
the neighbors would be curious and he
hoped most of them would hang around
while the photographer was at work.
Then the photographer was to shoot
pictures at every opportunity so that

he would get one of each, of the male

neighbors.

THE PLAN WORKED to perfection
and when the photographer phon~1
Callahan with the news, the officer urg
that the prints be brought to him.
quickly as possible. ;

~

the sheriff’s office and said he would be
right over. He had just returned from
a business trip, he said, and was shocked

and horrified (Continued on. page 68).

That night Denzel Davis telephoned i |

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Harriet’s Fatal
Secret

(Continued from page 45)

of the Arnold murder.

to learn of the fate of his mother. When he
arrived he was asked to accompany deputies
to police headquarters in Seattle where he ex-
plained, as his wife had said, that he had
been away and had not seen Mrs. Arnold
for a wéek. He told them that as far as he
knew his mother had no enemies, that she
rarely went out with men and that she had
no male friend whom she saw or who called
on her. regularly. He said: Harriet’s first
husband was, at last reports, living in Alaska
and he knew nothing of her second husband
from whom she was separated.

- He said his mother had several bank ac-
counts and supplied the names of the in-
stitutions where she had funds on deposit.
He also verified the fact she always had
worn the watch and diamond ring which were
recovered in the pawnshops. He identified
both articles. . . 4

The following morning the press photog-
rapher brought Callahan the pictures he had
taken at the Arnold house. In several there
appeared’ good likenesses of the male neigh-
bors, and armed with these the detective
went immediately to the two pawnbrokers
and asked them if they recognized the man
who had pledged the jewelry. But after
close study, both shook their heads and said
none of them was the man. Callahan was.a
bit disappointed by the result but he felt
something had been accomplished—a num-
ber of possible suspects had been partially
eliminated. :

By this time the search for the murderer
of Harriet Arnold had become statewide
and newspapers throughout: the Northwest
were printing stories of the mysterious slay-
ing and urging the police to extend them-
selves to bring the criminal to justice.

It was one of these articles, in which it
was said Harriet had been slain with an ice
pick, that led the proprietor of a small
Seattle hotel to phone Captain Scafford he
might have some information that would be
valuable. Detectives were dispatched there
and presently they returned with an ice pick
which had been whittled around the handle.
A chambermaid had found the weapon hid-
den in the loop of a curtain. She had turned
it over to the management after reading

‘Calling Callahan to his office, Scafford
handed him the instrument and watched the
expression on his face as. he examined it.
In a moment, Callahan produced the envelope
in which he had placed the almost forgotten
chips he had picked out of the’ woodbox
in the Arnold kitchen and was fitting, them
to the handle. They. fell into place like the
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Only one was
missing, but that was wuttimportant.

“This is it, all right,” Callahan said, gin-
gerly turning the thin pick in his fingers.
“How long ago was the fellow at the hotel ?”

The detectives had learned the man regis- .

tered about noon on Tuesday, March 19, and
had remained that night and part. of Wed-
nesday, paying his bill and checking out in
the afternoon. The description of him, as

‘nearly as employes who had seen him could

say, was about the same as: the man de-
scribed by the pawnbrokers. The fellow
had registered under the name “John B.
Hays.” 2
The recovery .of the murder weapon was
a_-step in the right direction but still. the
description of the man, undoubtedly the
murderer of Mrs. Arnold, was so sketchy

Callahan had little hope of picking him up

_tive, as Callahan had expected.

small amounts in payment of current bills.

'washed up with men, and had actually cov-.
_ ered up her activities so well, that she had»

on the strength of it. He wondered why
the killer had taken a chance~on- carrying
away the lethal ice pick, which was quickly
identified as belonging to. Mrs. Arnold. This.

was strange since one weapon was found ~ fell
_ at the scene of the crime—a small hammer gre
on the sink drainboard. It was the only ob- cot
ject in the house capable of causing a wound Hi
such as that: made on the woman’s head. 7}
There was no blood on it or fingerprints un:
that could be distinguished. Why hadn’t ~ the
the assailant taken that -too, or disposed ~ nu
of it? + y pk

The ice pick had been handled by a num- mi
ber of persons and there was no possibility ca
of finding any valuable fingerprints on it, “qu

but it had been sent to the laboratory for
examination anyway. The result was nega-

As a matter of routine Scafford had or-
dered an inquiry at the banks where Denzel
Davis said-his mother had funds, to learn
if possible whether any large amounts of
money had been withdrawn during the days
immediately preceding her murder. None
had, the checks that went through being for

But it was discovered, because of a transfer
of cash from one bank to another several
months previously, that Mrs. Arnold also
had a checking account in an_ institution
of which the police had no previous knowl-
edge. At this bank it was learned that at the
time of the cash transfer a check had been
presented for payment that would have over-
drawn the account and the bank had phoned
Mrs. Arnold at her place of business. and
asked her to come in and make a deposit
to cover it before closing time.

She had appeared immediately, explaining
she had not made out any such check and
when shown it, declared it to be a forgery.
The bank told her they would return the
check, but she later instructed that it be
paid and arranged for the transfer of cash
from another bank for that purpose. a

HERE THEN WAS another mystery that
might have some bearing on the tragedy.
Perhaps Harriet did have a boy friend, un-
known to others, and when he forged her |
check she had let it go at the time, paying
it, but later circumstances may have caused. |
her to threaten the man with prosecution —
unless he returned the money.. This ma
have led to her murder. | ea:

But here again was the matter of identi
cation. The bankers had not seen the make
of the forged check, and trace as they would, =
the investigators could not run it down to its @
source. The name of the payee was that of |
a party unknown to Mrs. Arnold’s son and =
friends of the family. The check had been
cashed in a restaurant and the managef.,
could not remember from whom he had re-
ceived it. SR

With every promising clue eventually,
leading to a dead end, Callahan and the
other detectives on the case were begin-
ning to think that Harriet Arnold had beet”
so anxious to have everyone think she was-

&

unknowingly set. the. stage for a perfect:
crime. POWs Parsi iter PR

The search for the tall, dark, well-dressed
man who had pawned the watch and ring
and occupied the hotel] room went on, but
without results. Long lists of thieves and
known criminals were: scrutinized and their ~~
pictures shown to the pawnbrokers and the...
chambermaid ‘and night clerk at. the hotel.
No one could identify any of the photographs
with the mysterious character being sought. -

The standstill probably would have_con-
tinued indefinitely had it not been for Calla — =
han’s keen memory. The officer remember gm
something—a face. For three days he had
been turning a picture over in his mind. Now


he

a side window was unfastened, crawled
into the house and let the others in.
Then they began a search of the rooms.
_They were not long in learning what
had happened. In the kitchen the dog,
hungry and excited, stood defiantly in
front of the sink and barked and growled
savagely when the police approached.
__“Something’s in there,” said Callahan.
“Let’s look.”

They drove the dog. away and pulled
open the single door. Now the question
of what had happened to Harriet Arnold
was answered and in its place was posed
a puzzling murder mystery.

While the two parties of officers, on
from the city police department, . the
other. from the King County sheriff’s
office, awaited the arrival of Coroner

Otto H. Mittelstadt, they searched the

house and began a systematic question-
ing of neighbors who by now had learned
of the fate of Mrs. Arnold and stood
around in the yard, talking in subdued
tones.

First, Callahan wanted to know who

the “Denzel” was who was mentioned

in the note on the door, and also the

34
-s:

identity of Louis Chenowith,
who had signed it.

.Chenowith, an old friend of Mrs, Ar-
nold, was in the yard with the others

the party

and explairted that earlier in the day |

someone at the store where Harriet
worked had called his house and in-
quired about her. Mrs. Arnold had no
selephone and frequently used his, he
aid, both for outgoing and incoming
messages when it was important.

Denzel was Harriet’s son by a former
marriage. His last name was Davis and
he was married and lived with his wife
and child in another part of the city.
Denzel visited his mother occasionally
and, Chenowith continued, he thought the
quickest way to advise the son of the
message from the store was to leave a
note. He said young Davis traveled a
lot and that he didn’t know his address.

Fred Rice, who lived next door to Mrs.
Arnold, told the officers he had seen the
woman hanging out her washing the
morning before, Monday, but he had not
observed her after that. When Tuesday
morning’ came and the clothes still were
on the line, he thought it strange be-
cause never before had she left them out
all night. His statements were cor-
roborated by other neighbors who had
noticed the same thing.

N HOUR AFTER the discovery of
the body, Coroner Mittelstadt and his
deputy, Dr. Carl J. Hartwig, arrived and
examined the corpse. They found many
small wounds in the left side, apparently
made by a small instrument similar to
an ice pick. Around her neck was twisted
a section of electric appliance cord and a
piece of small chain, obviously used to tie
p the dog. There was a laceration on the
ont part of the head, but the doctors
were of the opinion that the single blow
causing it would not have resulted in
death. The body was clothed in under-
wear and a housedress. a
_- After this initial examination the cor-
oner ordered the body removed: to the
Seattle morgue where an autopsy was to

‘Wilson. af a
Meanwhile Chief Deputy SheriffO. K.-

- blood.

-without fear.

be performed y County Physician Gale

Bodia and County Detective A. J. Me-

Donald joined’ Callahan in searching the

rooms for possible clues.

‘There were several spots on the kitchen
floor near the sink that appeared to be
1. The murderer apparently had
scrubbed the floor after the crime, but
these blotches of discoloration remained.

The detectives took scrapings and sent

them to the police laboratory.

In the living room Bodia found three

unopened letters, one of them dated the

previous day and the other two dated
the same day the crime was discovered—
March 19. Had she removed them from
the front porch herself and left them
unopened just before she was attacked ?
Or had her assailant brought them in
and left them on the table while he went
about his bloody work?

The fact the woman had been struck
a blow on the front part of the head in-

‘dicated the killer had stood in front of

her when the attack took place... This,

together with the mystery of the un-.

opened letters and the fact that neighbors
had not heard the dog barking unduly
on Tuesday, led the investigators to be-
eve the attacker was well known to
Harriet and that she had admitted him

In a bedroom Bodia found the wom-

-an’s clothing laid out on the unmade bed

as though she were preparing to dress
for work when the attack came. On the
dresser was a purse. But there was no
money in it nor could they .find any cash
in the house. A pair of bow-rimmed
glasses was in the purse and on them
were what appeared to be specks of dried

blood. Obviously the assassin had_ put

into such a small space.

them there when the purse was searched,
But dresser drawers had not been: ran.
sacked and there was no. evidence.
any struggle or that other hiding place
had been scrutinized for valuables.

Before the removal of Mrs. Arnold’
body, Callahan. noticed a mark on th
fourth finger of her left hand where s
had worn a ring, and also an untann
strip of flesh on her.left wrist where sh,
had habitually worn a watch. But. ¢
jewelry was found either on her body or
in the home. . ae ae

“Must have taken a pretty strong pe
son to do that,” he mused. a

At one end of the kitchen stove the:
was a woodbox and this he now. exam

ined with great care. He made one find me |
immediately—a soiled towel with unmi: wae
takable bloodstains on it, ‘probably u daw
by the murderer to wipe his hands «0 “er
perhaps to wipe up blood from the floor. said |
This he carefully laid aside for chemical
analysis. SRE Re ee ch IE
With his fingers he started pokin; ae
through the fragments of wood and refus doi
in the bottom of the box. Presentl “mai
began picking up and examining se€¥- as
eral small pieces of wood. They ar
much smaller than the other chips a pass
they seemed to be of different “wo door
than the pieces used for kindling fire! go i
- Soon he had collected seven of them and roan
laid them out on the table. They did hom
match each other in any particular @ TI

cept that on one side of each there_


Me

the haunting likeness of a man came to him
and took him back five years toa time when,
as a detective on the sheriff's staff, he had
arrested a man for a minor offense. The
fellow. had been fingerprinted and photo-
graphed but for the life of him Callahan
could not remember his name. But that face!
His memory didn’t fail him on that point.

He paced the floor as he sought the name
under which he could find in the police files
the picture he felt certain would be recog-
nized by the pawnbrokers and the hotel em-
ployes. He wondered why he hadn't re-
membered before, but it was an obscure
case and a routine investigation that. was
quickly cleaned up and forgotten.

Then it came to him. He hurried to the
police identification bureau and asked for
an index: file. Presently he pulled out a

card and jotted down a number. Ten min- -

utes later he held a police photograph in
his hand. He pocketed it and went out.
At the pawnshop where Mrs. Arnold’s
watch had been pledged he handed the pic-
ture to the broker.
“Ever see this. fellow before?”
The pawnbroker looked at it-for a mo-
ment, then handed it back to the detective.
“I think I have. That looks like the fel-
low who pawned the Arnold woman’s watch.”
Callahan thanked him and went out. A
half hour later he was asking the question
of the money lender who had accepted
Harriet’s diamond ring. He received the
same answer: “Yes, that’s the guy who
pawned the Arnold ring.”

Callahan had one more stop to make -

before returning to his office. At the hotel
where the tall, dark man had stayed, he
found the desk clerk and the chambermaid
and showed them the picture.

Had they ever seen the man before?

They both had, identifying. the photograph
as that of the man who had engaged the
‘room the day Mrs. Arnold was murdered,
who had remained overnight and in whose
room the ice pick had been found.

As Callahan drove back it was all clear
to him now and he wondered why he had
not remembered about this man at the very
beginning of the murder investigation. | ~
..With Deputy Hartwig, Callahan drove
to a small house in East Madison Street.
When their knock on the door was answered,
a young woman admitted them.

“MOOD AFTERNOON, Mrs. Davis,”
Callahan said. “Is Denzel here? We
have some news concerning his- mother’s
death we would like to talk to him about.”
June Davis shook her head. “No, Denzel

‘went away ona trip the day after his
‘mother’s funeral. I haven’t heard from him

~+ + since.”
£-\ Quickly Callahan told the young woman

‘what he had discovered and showed her
the picture he had found in the police files.
“Do you recognize this man?” he asked.
She looked, then stared at the officers.

*Yes,” she said, “that’s Denzel !”

Little by little Callahan and | Hartwig
drew out the story of her life with Denzel

_ Davis. They had been married four years

but. the man would not work steadily and

"was in financial difficulties most of the time.

He constantly borrowed money from his
mother and several times was: in serious
trouble from which she had to extricate
him. Finally, after their baby was born,
about six months previously, they separated.
June went to live with her people. From
‘time to time Davis. came to see them and
always urged her to return to him.

The tale of Davis’ business trips was un--
true, she was sure, because he never told.

her exactly for whom he worked or why
these trips were necessary, In fact, he failed
to produce any visible income from this

ops business, , although he. frequently boasted

*

“about how much commission he had made.

He had not ‘contributed to the support of

either herself or the child for many months.

Mrs. Davis was able to straighten out
Callahan onthe matter of the forged check
Mrs. Arnold had paid..Denzel had written
and cashed it and his mother, hesitating to
have him arrested, had paid it when it
reached her bank. :

It was this, more than anything else,
that brought about the estrangement be-
tween the mother and her profligate son.
When she threatened to take action against
him after he failed to make the check good,
he had ‘left her home in a rage. After that
she refused to give him further money
and told him to stay away from her home
unless he behaved himself and supported

~his family.

“Now let’s find Davis!” Callahan snapped.
~Later, from other sources, the detectives
learned the name of a man with whom Davis
was friendly. They suspected this friend,
Harold Page, might be hiding him. or at
least might know where he was.

Te SEARCH FOR Davis began in
earnest. The man’s haunts were watched
and.the rooming house section of the city
where he had: lived from time to time, was
combed. But the suspect apparently had
made good this escape or was holed up in
some hideaway where he probably would
remain until the heat was off.

Detectives brought in Page and questioned
him but he denied having seen Davis for
several weeks. The apartment house where
Page lived was watched and his apartment
searched, but Davis was not there.

It seemed impossible for Davis to escape
the police dragnet but several days passed
without a reliable trace of him being re-
ported. Detectives ran down many tips that
he’ was in one place or another, but they.
proved groundless.

Finally Deputy Bodia and Detective Mur-
ray Gamrath decided to take another look in
the Page apartment. When they arrived
Page was out but they found the door un-
locked and slipped inside. -The place ap-
peared to be empty and they were about to
leave when Gamrath heard a sound as
though ‘someone had muffled a cough.

The two detectives stood silently and

_ listened. It came again. There was no doubt

about it. Someone was in the apartment.
They started another search. Presently they
opened a closet door. They had ftooked in
this place before. There was a slight ‘sound
from a shelf in the extreme top of the
closet on which there appeared to be stored
some blankets. The detectives could not

‘believe anyone could be hiding in such a
small space, but upon pulling out the blank- °

ets they saw a man curled up.

Bodia and Gamrath reached for him simul-
taneously and jerked him to the floor.

It was Denzel Davis.

At first he denied killing his mother, say-
ing he was hiding because he feared his
wife was going to have him arrested for de-
‘sertion. But when he was confronted with
the evidence the detectives had amassed—
the murder weapon found in his hotel room,
his identification by the pawnbrokers and
the hotel employes and the trouble over the
forged check, he confessed.

He said he had gone to Mrs. Arnold’s
home on the morning’ of March 19 to ask
her for enough money to get out of the
city and find a job so he could make a
reconciliation with his wife. She had re-
fused and told him that if he didn’t start
immediately to make good on the forged
check she would have him arrested.

Davis said this infuriated him and when
he saw the hammer on the sink he grabbed
it and hit her on the head. She fell to
the floor and he then attempted to strangle

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1g place,
nd throat

even
been

go fora
it it any

ae picked
puppy in
ly ahead,

usy. He
s» having
d money.
1 the ice
tht it out

since she
was only
‘al dough
-e should
that his
1'a drain
ity to go

across a
e the ice

the brisk
arm of a
ving her
of doors,

el better

‘e got it

aen cup-
‘ould not
She only
hie face,

Detective Tom Pratt finds murder weapon where slayer
carefully hid it under curtain in a cheap hotel room

Then the hammer swung, whipping down on, her head
with a sickening thud.

Her son bent over her, his movements now quick and cer-
tain, those of a cold-blooded killer. He had dropped the
hammer. Now he caught up the ice pick. It plunged

downward. He lifted it again. Eighteen times he struck

his helpless victim. :

The little dog whimpered, trembling, the hair rising along
its back. Denzel bent down and unsnapped the leash. He
shooed the puppy into the next room. Then he wrapped
the leash tightly around his mother’s throat.

He straightened up, glanced around the room. On a shelf
stood an electric iron. He detached the cord and wound
it about his mother’s neck.

Now he felt queerly exhausted. He. was shaking. He sat
down to rest and get his breath. But he had more to do.
There was blood on the floor. He would have to scrub it.

To delay the unpleasant job, he made himself a pot of
coffee. He drank three cups of it, heavily sweetened. At
last he went to work.

First he removed the dainty watch from his mother’s
wrist. He slipped the diamond ring from her left hand.
He couldn’t pawn them till Monday, but they should bring
even more than he had tried to get from her.

Now he had to hide the body, Sliding his hands wider
her armpits, he dragged her across the floor to the low
cupboard. He pushed the body firmly into the small space
within the cupboard.

Cleaning the blood from ‘the kitchen floor was a tougher
assignment. But finally he finished it. Next he cleaned the
ice pick and wiped off the hammer. The latter he used to
nail the cupboard shut. In some vague way this seemed,
with the scrubbed floor, to erase every telltale evidence of
the slaying.

Denzel decided to keep the ice pick: He thought briefly
of Mattie Harlan—she had good cause to remember the
pick. Anyway, it was a good weapon. He might need to
use it again.

He got some tape and wrapped it around the sharp point
of the murder weapon. It still refused to slip neatly into
his pocket. With a knife, he pared down the handle, being
careful to let the shavings fall into his mother’s wood box.
Now he could safely conceal the pick in his pocket.

The next day, Sunday, March 17th, was something of

a blank to Denzel. It was an empty spread of hours, during
which he drank a lot of coffee, but had no appetite for
food. He fed the little dog and avoided looking toward
or even thinking of the nailed up cupboard in the kitchen.

Early on Monday he set out for downtown Seattle. He
put up the ring with a man to whom he owed a card-game
debt and succeeded in ‘getting only $15 in cash for himself
out of the transaction.

Now he rode out to East Madison Street, to the home of
his mother-in-law. His wife, June, and his 20-month-old
child, Carol May, were living there with June’s mother.
Denzel’s unannounced arrival on Monday, just before lunch
time, was considered typical. However, June and the
child were glad-to see him.

He at once explained that he had made some money—
he didn’t say how—and had enough to buy his tiny daugh-
ter an Easter outfit. ‘And June consented to ride down-
town with him for lunch and some shopping.

“I do hope you have no more trouble with him. -How
long will you be gone?” June’s mother asked her:

“It sounds as though he’s found a job,” June replied hope-
fully. “Anyhow, he says he has money enough for us to
stay together tonight at some inexpensive hotel. Maybe

I'll decide to do it. So don’t worry about me if I’m not

back for dinner. It’s only fair, isn’t it, to give him this
chance to prove he’s trying to make good?” ;

After long practice upon his mother, Denzel’s ability to
deceive and wheedle a woman eager to think well of him
was at its peak.. And so downtown they went. As they
lunched, June was in high spirits, but Denzel said he had
eaten a big breakfast and wasn’t hungry. He smoked ner-
vously and gulped down a lot more coffee.

His young wife, still hopeful for their future together,
felt a pang’of uneasiness when Denzel mentioned an errand
he had to do. Over on First Avenue there were pawnshops,
Denzel said. He had to stop there next.

“To redeem something?”. June asked him.

“No,” Denzel said. He showed her his mother’s gold

‘ wrist watch, saying he had to obtain a loan.

June recognized the watch. Although at first Denzel had
appeared glum, he now seemed quite cheerful over the
prospect of acquiring more cash. June, unhappy and won-

dering, but discreetly silent, waited outside the pawnshop .

with little Carol May.

When Denzel came out, he looked gloomy again. He
had been able to get only seven dollars on the watch, he
said, although he was sure it had cost more than ten times
that amount.. And, aware of June’s troubled glance, he
explained that his mother was short of cash and had au-
thorized him to get a loan on her treasured wrist watch.
He said that was how much his mother wanted him to make
a gift of an Easter dress to his baby daughter.

“That’s sweet of her.” June said warmly. Her family
had felt that Denzel’s mother had favored, or at léast done
nothing to prevent, his estrangement from his pretty 20-
year-old wife. “I ought to phone and thank her,” June
added. ‘Where is she?”

“Gee, I wish I knew,” Denzel answered surprisingly.

The queer catch in his voice, the dull misery in his eyes,

puzzled and rather worried June. But, again, she was -

afraid to ask more questions. Denzel always had.hated to
be questioned. June hugged Carol May close and followed
him into a store.

Denzel proceeded to’ buy not only a becoming Easter

dress for the little girl, but also an equally pretty pink wool -

sweater for June. And now he steered them to the Berk-
shire Hotel, registered and got a-modest double room for
overnight,

However, at dinner, his enthusiasm for their impromptu

reunion seemed nearly as exhausted as his oddly accumu-
lated fund of cash. Again he hardly ate anything, but
smoked and gulped down steaming coffee.

Back in their room, during the evening, Denzel wept.
He would not explain the reason, but. repeatedly protested
his deep and abiding love for (Continued on page 68)

~w


settee ee

Killer's Cupboard

(Continued from page 29)

June and Carol May. Again at breakfast
he was strictly on his coffee diet. Back in
their bedroom again, he wept afresh and
again protested his love for his wife and
child.

Then June saw him do something that
really alarmed her. Denzel was clumsily
trying to hide something under the hotel
mattress. It was an ice pick, its point taped,
its handle whittled down. Then he de-
cided against hiding it under the mattress.
He climbed up on a chair and slid the pick
out of sight into the cylindrical space where
the top of a window curtain looped over
the curtain rod.

June didn’t speak, but her eyes were
asking, ““Why hide an ice pick in this queer
way?”

“IT had to get rid of it,” Denzel murmured.
“The hammer I used, and the dog leash and
the cord of the electric iron. But it was the
pick I stabbed her with. Don’t you un-
derstand, Junie? The pick was what really
finished her off.”

His haggard face and the flickering vio-
lence in his eyes told the girl-wife more
than she dared to think. They also warned
her. She and her child were in mortal
danger. Denzel mumbled apologetically
that he guessed he didn’t have money
enough left for another night’s lodging with
meals at the hotel. However, he said, she
could be sure that he would get the dough
they needed. So June, now frantically
afraid of provoking him, agreed to rejoin
him here at the Berkshire at 5 p.m. Any-
thing to get downstairs—get out in that
lobby among people!

Denzel grew cheerful once more. He
hugged them both, then put his wife and
tiny daughter aboard an East Madison
Street bus at the corner of 3rd Avenue
and Union Street. June held Carol May
up to wave to her daddy. Their last
glimpse of him saw him breaking into a
run, heading east on Union.

The agony of her thoughts, during the
long bus ride to her mother’s home, brought
June close to hysteria. But somehow she
made it to her mother’s living room.

Carol May wanted the parcels opened
and her new dress displayed. June’s fin-
gers were too numb to unknot the string.

“What’s the matter?” her mother ex-
claimed.

June, clinging to her prattling child,
could find no words with which to answer.
Staying with them was her aunt. The two
older women exchanged worried glances.
The one word unspoken by each was the
same: “Denzel!”

Her aunt relieved June of the child and
found something to distract the little girl.
And then, in the quiet room, June told her
mother what she had gone through with
Denzel. From the pawning of the wrist
watch until, finally, his hiding of the ice
pick in a hotel room where he had been
registered under his own name. Denzel,
the girl whispered, seemed to say that he
had stabbed and slain his mother!

Revealing all this, piecing it together,
shattered June’s desperately maintained
poise. She became hysterical.

The two older women went into action.
While June’s mother cared for her and for
Carol May, the aunt hurried out to find
a nearby telephone. She called the police.

It was 2:02 p.m. on Tuesday, March 19th,
when Detective Captain Marshall C. Scraf-

T ford picked up his telephone at police
headquarters. His caller was a woman,
her voice pitched high with excitement.
“Please come out here,” she begged. “There

68 seems to have been a murder committed—”

Captain Scrafford sped to the address
given. Here he found three women and
a child. One of the women, hardly more
than a girl, said she was Mrs. June Davis,
the child’s mother, the wife of a man
called Denzel Davis, who had confided to
her that he had murdered his mother.

Young Mrs. Davis was obviously close
to collapse. The veteran captain of detec-
tives questioned her gently, with a faint
feeling of disbelief. A husband, separated
from his pretty wife for four months,
would hardly invite her to a hotel room
to tell her he had murdered his mother!
But June recounted all the peculiar, details
and convinced Captain Scrafford that this
actually might be true.

“If it happened at 14544 Stone Avenue,”
he said, “it’s outside the city limits. County
jurisdiction, not ours. Where were you,
ma’am, when you phoned me?” he asked
June’s aunt.

“Just down the street.” She told him
the address.

Scrafford went there and used the same
telephone. He talked with Chief Crimi-
nal Deputy Sheriff O. K. Bodia in Seattle,
whose duty it would be to investigate such
a homicide.

Even while the Seattle detective captain
was notifying Deputy Bodia, an executive
of the department store employing Mrs.
Harriet Arnold was taking action. After
consultation with other employees, he tele-
phoned the police. Mrs. Arnold, he re-
ported, was a reliable person of regular
habits. Her absence from her job through-
out Monday and until now on Tuesday, was
therefore unaccountable, he said. Police-
woman Nell Carr was assigned to the Miss-
ing Persons case.

Deputy Sheriff Bodia, accompanied by
County Detectives A. J. Macdonald and
Murray Gamrath, drove immediately to

igive to)

MBA

FIGHT
MUSCULAR
DYSTROPHY

MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY ASSNS.
\ 39 BROADWAY, N. Y.C.6

the suburban home of Mrs. Harriet Arnold.
A side window was found to be unlocked
and the investigators climbed in. The
first thing that attracted their attention was
a penciled note. It had been slipped in
under the front door and read:

“Denzel—your mother did not go to work
today. What’s wrong? The store called
me at 2 p.m. She was not there at all to-
day. Chenowith”

Bodia and Gamrath began to search the
small dwelling. Locked in a room ad-
joining the kitchen they found a white
puppy, pitifully eager to welcome the
strangers.

Macdonald was out interviewing neigh-
bors. Almost the first one he met was
L. A. Chenowith, who had penciled the
mysterious note. He explained that the
Seattle department store, puzzled by Mrs.
Arnold’s unexplained absence, had phoned
to her nearest neighbor having a telephone.

This was Mr. Chenowith, and so he drop-
ped over to look into the matter, found the
Arnold house shut up tight, and wrote and
left his note.

Detéctive Macdonald also happened up-
on Joseph Neilson. His story about the
forged check seemed so significant that he
was asked to repeat his Friday evening’s
conversation with Mrs. Arnold to the
chief investigator on the case, Deputy
Sheriff Bodia.

Meanwhile, Bodia, searching the missing
woman’s home, chanced to step upon a
loose nail. This gave him an idea. Had
anything been nailed up recently?

* “Let’s see where any new nail heads
show,” Bodia said to Gamrath.

At the right of the kitchen sink was a
low cupboard which was nailed shut. And
the nail heads not only showed, they
shone. The hammer strokes driving in those
nails had been carelessly aimed. Both the
nail heads and the wood around them had
been battered and scraped.

Bodia nodded to Gamrath. “We want
to see what’s nailed up in that cupboard,”
he said.

The nails were yanked out. With an
ominous creak the door came open. The
cramped body of a woman sat propped up
inside the low cupboard.

Macdonald returned, accompanied by
Neilson and Chenowith. Both of these
neighbors, greatly shocked, identified the
body as that of Harriet Arnold.

Neilson informed Bodia of her son’s
attempted forgery. He also divulged that
the murder victim really was Mrs. Har-
riet Redding. She had told him that she
resumed using the name Arnold, that of
her second husband, on returning to Se-
attle and seeking employment. Her third
and present husband was W. A. Redding,
who had remained in Alaska. Her son,
Denzel, was the offspring of Harriet’s
first marriage to a man named Davis, Neil-
son added.

Otto H. Mittelstadt, the coroner, who had
been summoned by Deputy Bodia, now ar-
rived. He made a preliminary examina-
tion. “More than a dozen stab wounds,” he
said.

The necessary photographs were taken
and the coroner signed the authorization
permitting removal of the body so that an
official autopsy might be performed im-
mediately. The unhappy puppy was sent
to an animal shelter.

That this kitchen was the scene of the
homicide, none of the investigators doubted.
Faint but unmistakable traces of blood-
stains were discovered in the cracks be-
tween the floor boards and flecks of blood
still clung to several tiny imperfections in
the boards. The killer had tried to scrub
away every stain, but traces of the vic-
tim’s blood remained.

Police officers in the city of Seattle, act-
ing under the command of Detective Cap-
tain Scrafford, were backing up the sheriff’s
investigators in every way. Two officers
were stationed as guards at June Davis’
home. They were to remain throughout
Tuesday night and be relieved at regular
intervals, protecting the house and its in-
habitants. All were believed to be in
danger so long as Denzel Davis was at
liberty.

Pathetic in her worry and grief, Denzel’s
wife kept assuring the guards that this
protection was uncalled for. “I know he
never would hurt me or the baby,” she in-
sisted. But the city police weren’t taking
any chances.

The lobby and vicinity of the Berkshire
Hotel had been staked out since shortly
after 3 p.m. on the chance that Denzel
would come back there, hoping that his
wife would rejoin him, as agreed, at 5
o’clock.

The police had obtained a recent snap-
shot of the young man and June had de-


‘of flight outside the city,

scribed him as wearing brown trousers and
shoes, a gray hat, a pullover sweater and
a leather jacket with sleeves too short for
him.

Denzel, she also disclosed, once had had
a craze for tattooing. On his right arm
below the shoulder, she said, was a tattooed
cross with the word “Mother” on it. On
his left forearm, a tattooed cat. Below the
left shoulder the arm was decorated with
an ornate ship’s anchor and the name
“Chiquita.”

A description of the youth believed to
have ‘murdered his mother was flashed
widely over the West by telegraph. At
headquarters a circular was already in
preparation, with a photograph, and as soon
as printed it would be distributed to all
Western police departments.

Denzel Davis was now charged with
murder in the first degree. For, on this
same Tuesday evening, a murder war-
rant naming him was issued by Justice of
the Peace Guy B. Knott, on complaint of
King County Prosecutor B. Gray Warner.

Bodia’s men and city detectives had
searched the bedroom in the Berkshire
Hotel. Here they recovered the taped up,
shaven-handled ice pick from the curtain
top, where June Davis had seen her hus-
band secreting it. From the pawnshop al-
so named by her the authorities recovered
the wrist watch. It was found that Den-
zel, when pawning it, had not given his own
name but that of his stepfather, W. A.
Redding.

The autopsy was performed on Tues-
day night by Dr. Gale E. Wilson at the
direction of Coroner Mittelstadt. It re-
vealed that the victim’s skull had been
fractured, ayyparently by one heavy blow.
An attempt to strangle the victim had been
made, by the electric cord and a dog
leash fastened around her neck. Death,
however, had resulted from stab wounds,
of which [tr. Wilson counted 18.

Denzel [favis couldn’t be found. He did
not walk ‘back into the police trap at the
Berkshire at 5 Pp. M. or any other time.
Employees believed that they had last
seen him, around the lobby there about
half-past two in the afternoon.

On Wetdnesday morning the authorities
again sought information from Mrs. June
Davis ard her relatives. June could only
recall fiarther that her distraught husband
had sail to her on Monday night that he
ought tp get himself a housekeeping room
and en§ it all by turning on the gas. This
sent tlhe police and county detectives on
a thorbugh search of First Avenue lodging
house, where many of the rooms were
equipped for housekeeping. However, no
trace of Denzel was found.

From his wife they had heard about
her friend, Mattie Harlan, who had lived
with Mrs. Arnold. Deputy Sheriff Bodia
and Captain Scrafford talked with the girl,
wha willingly told them of the torments
Denzel had delighted to inflict upon* her,
his petty meanness and persistent preying
upon his good-hearted mother. Mattie
told. them about the ice pick and why
she had felt she must quit her job. And
she mentioned her employer’s diamgnd
engagement ring, prized memento of d@ne
of her marriages.

“I never saw Mrs. Arnold without it. She
loved to wear it,” the girl declared.

June Davis said that Denzel hadn’t
spoken to her of his mother’s ring.. Yet he

obviously had been in funds when he first |,

proposed their shopping excursion, some
hours before his pawning of the wrist
watch. Where had Denzel disposed of the
missing diamond ring?

Detectives visited each of the card rooms
ine was reported to have frequented. Var-
Sous rumors concerning his possible line
or a_ hiding
“place within it, were picked up by the
investigators. They came to nothing. Only

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one report seemed slynifieant. Tt wasn vol-
unteered by Robert Tarao, e storekeeper
whose place of business was diagonally
across from the home of June Davis’
mother.

Late the preceding day, Mr. Tarao told
Captain Scrafford, his phone had rung.
Answering, he had been asked by a man
speaking in a nervous, hushed voice to go,
please, and look at the house across the
street. : Were police cars there, or re-
porters and pnotographers hanging around?

The storekeeper, at this time unaware of
the crime, had gone obligingly and looked
out, seeing no cars, cops, or signs of the

e press. But when he returned to his tele-

phone, his nervous-sounding caller had
already hung up. Mr. Tarao now felt
practically certain that he had spoken with
Denzel Davis

On Wednesday afternoon June Davis dic-
tated a statement for the press and radio,
an appeal to the wanted man:

“Denze—please, honey, give yourself up
now.* You know they are going to get
you sooner or later. Remember, whatever
happens, baby and I love you. So please,
honey, for your sake and ours, give your-
self up.

Your wife, June”

Detective Lieutenant Richard Zelden-
rust had obtained fingerprints of Denzel
Davis and begun an ingenious combing
through police department files. It was
the Denzel tattoos that helped set the lieu-
tenant on the right track.

Thus Zeldenrust came up with the fact
that Denzel Davis, under the name of
William Burl Arnold, had been arrested al-
most four years ago, when he was 19, be-
cause of suspected complicity in a Seattle
apartment-house burglary. Five days later,
he had been released, only to be taken in-
to custody by the military authorities. It
turned out that he was an army deserter,
wanted at Fort Lawton. And four months
later, on September 17th, Denzel had been
sentenced to serve a year and a half in the
guardhouse at Fort Lewis.

Then June bravely faced up to one more
humiliating disclosure. She admitted that
Denzel had gone under the name of Wil-
liam Burl Arnold prior to his marriage to
her and that he had confessed to her, later,
that he was a convicted army deserter.

The detectives in Seattle now were con-
centrating upon leads culled from letters
or items found in the home of the slain
Harriet Arnold, together with things told
them by Mattie Harlan. If hiding locally,
it was reasoned, Denzel was hiding in-
doors. Therefore, he must be lurking in
some building whose interior was familiar
to him. And careful inquiry had put to-
gether a list of all the places in the city
intimately known to Denzel Davis and
likely to appeal to him in his fugitive
plight.

Systematically the manhunt proceeded
and by Friday, March 22nd, 1940, it had
become one of the greatest manhunts in
the police annals of the Northwest. The
cold-blooded slaying of his devoted mother,
with no provocation and for so insignifi-
cant a gain, made everyone wish him to
be promptly caught.

On Saturday morning Chief Criminal
Deputy Bodia and County Detective Gam-
rath were still checking their list of those
places where Denzel Davis, alias William
Burl Arnold, had lived in recent years or
to which he had gone occasionally on some
social or business errand. Bodia listed the
apartment address of a Seattle sign painter
named Eriksen, but Eriksen was out of
town. Even so, the deputy and detective
decided to try there, if only because Den-
zel once had lived next door to Eriksen.

Later, when explaining his hunch, Bodia
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an Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 1993, A15

Execution of Triple Murderer
Is First by Hanging Since 1965

By John K. Wiley
Associated Press

Walla Walla, Wash.

First there was silence. Then
a sharp crack as a trapdoor
sprang open and the body of
Westley Allan Dodd dropped in-
te view at the end of a 7-foot-1-
inch rope.

With cool efficiency, the state
of Washington executed the child
killer carly yesterday in America’s

“fiest legal hanging since Truman
Capote’s “In Cold Blood” days
nearly three decades ago.

Dodd's body, his head and
shoulders covered by a black hood,
swung gently on the rope for a mo-
ment. Then a curtain was drawn
across a window between the

_ death chamber and the witnesses,

who included the mothers of his
three victims.

The condemned man, who had
resisted attempts to appeal his sen-
tence, showed no fear, even “in the
last second of his life,” said his law-
yer, Darrell Lee.

After Dodd murmurcd his last
words about a newfound faith, the
black hood was placed over his
head and shoulders and the noose
was placed around his neck.

The trapdoor beneath his feet
dropped open at 12:05 a.m. His
bound body plunged the length of
the rope, a drop prison officials
had calculated would be enough to
snap his neck.

Dodd, 31, who confessed to
murdering three young boys in
Vancouver, was pronounced dead
at 12:09 a.m.

Lest-Ditch Moves Rejected

The hody was transported to
Seattle for an autopsy in the King
County medical examiner's office.

Governor Booth Gardner had
rejected requests to commute
Dodd's sentence to life in prison.

A last-ditch move by the Ameri-
can Civil Liberties Union to block
the hanging as cruel and unusual
punishment was rejected Monday
wy the state Supreme Court.

EXECUTIONS

A breakdown, by state, of the
executions corried out since the
1976 U.S. Supreme Court rut-
ing allowing states to resume
use of the death penalty. In all,
188 men and one woman have
been executed in 21 different
states in that time. Thirty-eight
stotes have death-penalty stat
ules.

Texas: 54
Florida: 29
Lovisiona: 20
Virginia: 17
Georgia: 15
Alabama: 10
Missouri: 7
Nevoda: 5
North Carolina: 5
Mississippi: 4
South Carolina: 4
Arkansas: 4
Utah: 4
Oklahoma: 3
Indiana: 2
IMlinois: 1
Wyoming: |
Delawore: |
Arizona: |
California: 1
Washington: |

Death-penalty foes held prayer
meetings, vigils and demonstra-
tions across the state. Prison offi-
cials arrested five death-penalty
opponents after they climbed a
snowy embankment near a guard
tower.

About 150 people in favor of
Dodd's death gathered outside the
prison and cheered his hanging.
Some set off firecrackers and spar-
klers.

Videotape Bid Denied

Attorneys for triple murderer
Charies Rodman Campbeil, who is

on Washington's death row, lost a
bid to videotape the hanging to
bolster their federal court claim
that it is cruel and unusual punish-
ment.

The execution was Washing:
ton’s first since 1963 and the first
legal hanging in the United States
since 1965, when four killers were
put to death in Kansas. Among
them were Richard Eugene Hick-
ock and Perry Edward Smith, the
subjects of Capote’s book “fn Cold
Blood.”

Besides Washington, execution
by hanging is an option only in
Montana, Delaware and New
Hampshire.

Feer of Needles

Dodd said he rejected lethal in-
jection because he had hanged one
of his victims and wanted the same
treatment. Lee also said his client
was afraid of needles.

Dodd dropped all appeals and
said that unless he were executed,
“1 will kill and rape again and en-
joy every minute of it.”

His last words were about a
newfound religious faith.

“1 was wrong when I said there
was no hope, no peace,” Dodd said.
“I've found both in the Lord, Jesus
Christ.”

Jewell Cornell, mother of one
victim, uttered a sound of disgust.

On Monday, for the first time,
Dodd expressed remorse for the
killings.

“He was going to ask the chi-
dren for forgiveness when he saw
them in heaven,” Lee said.

Dodd’s history of sex crimes be-
gan with exposing himself to oth-
ers at age 9, Lee said. Dodd was
arrested repeatedly for molesting
children and admitted molesting
at least 30.

Lee said that in 1989, Dodd de
cided to kill his victims to avoid
capture.

In prison, Dodd wrote a pam-
phlet titled “When You Meet a
Stranger,” warning youngsters to

stay away from people like him.

t

the room next Tuesday.

death chamber at the Washin
Wash. Child murderer Westle

_ Associated Press

A prison official walks past the entrance to the upper level of the

gton State Penitentiary in Walla Walla,
y Allan Dodd is scheduled to hang in

arg


9th Circuit Blocks
Effort to Videotape
Washington Hanging

By RICHARD BARBIERI

If Washington death row prisoner
Charles Campbell wins his argument that
hanging is so cruel it violates the Constitu-
tion, he will do it without a controversial
bit of evidence — a videotape of the na-
tion’s first state-sanctioned gallows execu-
tion in 28 yeurs.

A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
panel voted 2-1 Monday to reject Camp-
bell’s request that the state of Washington
be ordered to videotape the execution of
child-killer Westley Allan Dodd.

At 12:05 a.m. Tuesday, Dodd became
the first prisoner put to death in Wash-
ington in 30 years, and the first in the
country to be hanged since 1965.

Lawyers for Campbell, who was con-
victed in 1982 on three counts of aggra-
vated first-degree murder, are arguing that
hanging violates the Eighth Amendment
prohibition against cruel and unusual pun-
ishment. They wanted the government to

Dodd’s execution for use as evidence.

In Campbell v. Blodgett, 92 C.D.O.S.
95, Ninth Circuit Judges Cynthia Holcomb
Hall and Edward Leavy affirmed U.S.
District Judge John Coughenour, who had
denied a motion by Campbell's lawyers.
Coughenour, who sits in the Western Dis-
trict of Washington. ruled that it was
doubtful whether a tape of Dodd's execu-
tion would be vaiuable in judging Camp-
bell's clair.

Hali anc Leavy. ruled tha: there is ne
federal constitutiona’ right to discovery in
a haveas proceeding. They also agreed
with Coughenour tnat Dodd's right to pri-
vacy would be vio.ated by videotaping the
execution.

Ninth Circuit Judge Stephen Reinhardt
vehemently disagreed and called the ma-
jority’s opinion **most unfortunate.”’

In a dissent that ran twice the length of
the majority's seven-page opinion; Rein-
hardt wrote that Hall and Leavy had dep-
rived the Ninth Circuit of ‘‘the benefit of
evidence’’ it would later need to decide
Campbell’s appeal.

**As far as I can see,”’ he wrote, ‘‘there
is absolutely no principled reason under-
lying the district court’s order.’’

**A videotape of a state-conducted
hanging is obviously the best possible evi-
dence of whether or not hanging con-

" stitutes cruel and unusual punishment."’

Reinhardt said in his dissent that he
would have issued an order similar to one
written by U.S. District Judge Marilyn
Hall Patel in the case of Robert Alton Har-
ris, who on April 21 became the first per-
son executed in California in more than
two decades.

On the eve of the execution, Pate] ruled
that Harris’ lawyers could make a video-
tape to be used in a class action filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union on Harris’
behalf. Harris, unlike Dodd, had consented
to taping.

‘

2

San Francisco Recorder, January 6, 1993, p. 1

The class action, which argued that use
of the gas chamber was unconstitutional, is

{ still pending. The claim has lost some of its
| power, however, because of a change en-

acted by legislators last year allowing

condemned prisoners in California to
choose death by lethal injection instead of
gas.

Monday's ruling is not likely to have a
direct impact on the California litigation
because it did not discuss the admissibility
of videotape evidence at trial. '

For the Ninth Circuit, the ruling was the
court's first eleventh-hour opinion in a
death row appeal since the Harris case.
The Ninth Circuit was widely criticized
last vear when it issued four last-minute
stays of Harris’ execution: the court was
overturned each time bv the U.S. Supreme
Court.

Before Dodd stepped forward recently
and asked to be hanged — even threatening
to sue lawyers who tried to stop his execu-
tion — Campbell had been considered first
in line on Washington's death row.

Campbell has filed three federal habeas
corpus petitions since his conviction 10
years ago. The first was denied by the dis-
trict court, which was affirmed by the
Ninth Circuit in 1987. The Ninth Circuit
ruled on his second petition in April, af-
firming another habeas denial by Cough-
enour. The Ninth Circuit denied the third
petition on Dec. 24.

The Ninth Circuit is scheduled to reopen
Campbell's second petition at a hearing
Jan. 20 — after the judges voted Oct. 8 to
reconsider the petition en banc.

Campbell claims his trial lawyers bot-
ched his case by waiving his right to be
present during jury selection. He also says
that his Eighth Amendment rights are
violated not only by hanging, but by a
Washington statute that requires con-
demned prisoners to choose how they want
to be killed.

In Washington, prisoners have the op-
tion of choosing to be executed by lethal
injection; those who don’t make the choice
are condemned to the gallows. Campbell
asserts that his rights are violated because
his religious principles prevent him from

y ” MERYL SCMENKER
DISSENTING JUDGE STEPHEN REINHARDT:
“A videotape of a state-conducted hanging
is obviously the best possible evidence of
whether or not hanging constitutes cruel
and unusual punishment.”

choosing how he wants to be executed.

The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet
ruled whether hanging violates Eighth
Amendment prohibitions against cruel and
unusual punishment.

Reinhardt said a videotape would
**demonstrate Dodd's body movements,
and the mechanical operation — or mal-
function — of the state’s equipment. It also
will provide an additional basis for infer-
ring the force of impact on Dodd's “
throat,’’ which is information the judge
said could be used by doctors in determin-
ing posthumously how much pain Dodd

suffered.

Only four states still hang prisoners.
California replaced its gallows at San
Quentin with a gas chamber in 1937. Wit-
nesses have said that botched hangings can
be gruesome. ripping a orisoner’s skin
from his face or causing decapitation.

But whether the videotape would have

helped Campbell prove his case appears to

be an open question. Associated Press
writer John Wiley, who witnessed Dodd's
execution, indicated that death came
quickly.

**There was no violent movement. or
noticeable twitching,’’ he wrote. ‘*]
watched Dodd's hands, which were
slightly crossed in front of his groin. Cor-
rections Department officials had said ear-
lier that if they prepared correctly . . . the
7-foot, l-inch drop would snap Dodd's
neck with very little suffering.’’

Wiley reported that Dodd was pro-
nounced dead four minutes after the hang-
ing.


Hanging
is first
since ’65

warned he

By Nicholas K. Geranios
Associated Press

WALLA WALLA, .Wash. — A
man who con-
fessed to the |
grisly sex slay- |
ings of three
boys and

would kill
again was ex-
ecuted on the
gallows early

today in the
nation’s first
hanging since
i> date
Westley Dodd

Allan Dodd, 31, was pronounced
dead at 12:09 a.m., four minutes
after the hooded inmate dropped
through a trap door and fell the full
length of his 7-foot, 1-inch rope.

Given the option of hanging or
lethal injection, Dodd had asked for

hanging because, he said, he hung

the body of one of his victims and
wanted the same treatment. He had
dropped all appeals and asked to be

allowed to die, warning, ‘‘I will kill

and rape again and enjoy every
minute of it.’’

Late Monday, the state Supreme
Court cleared the way for the
execution when it issued a
one-sentence ruling rejecting a bid
by 26 Washington residents to halt
the hanging as cruel and unusual
punishment. The vote was 7-1.

It was Washington state’s first
execution since 1963.

wi See Hanging/9A


ENSACOLA te

Court
hanging of child killer

Associated Press

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The state Su-
preme Court on Monday refused 7-1 to
halt the execution of Westley Allan Dodd,
apparently clearing the last obstacle in
the convicted child killer’s quest to be
hanged for his crimes.

The execution’s opponents said they
planned no further action. In a one-sen-
tence order, the court upheld Dodd’s
death sentence, scheduled for 2 a.m. CST
today. In doing.so, the justices rejected a
motion brought by 26 Washington resi-
dents that had argued that hanging was
cruel and unusual punishment banned by
the state and U.S. constitutions.

“It’s over,” said Timothy Ford, a lawyer
, who ‘represented those opposed to. the,..;

“hanging. “‘He’s going to be executed. ‘He’ §,j

going to be hanged. LR OL OHS

’ Dodd, who; nulled Hieg ‘children®#nae AxBilly, 10;in' @ Vancouver park, and thi

“waived all appeals, He has said he ose»

“hanging over lethal, injection because he.

hanged his youngest victim’ 8, ‘body ‘i in a

closet. after killing’, “him. Tt. ‘would ‘be’ ‘after killing the Neer brothers.

faba gaa tee 8 first execution: ‘since 1963."
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The last U.S. hangings occurred in 1965.

Dodd, a 31-year-old shipping clerk, was
sentenced. to death in 1990 for the 1989
sex murders of three boys in the Vancou-
ver area in southwestern Washington.
The crimes were so grisly that some of the
jurors who sentenced him sought psychi-
atric help afterward.

Dodd kept a diary detailing his dark
desires to molest and murder children. He
insisted he would kill again if he weren’t
executed. “Perfect would be a 3-yr old to
kill and a 6-8-yr old to help with surgery,”
reads one entry.

He began exposing himself to children at
age 13. By his mid-20s, he had been
arrested several times for child molesting.

But his crimes drew little attention until

ie: he confessed to the September 1989 mi
ders’ of Cole Neer, 11, and: his brother.

22S

slaying one month later of Lee seli, ¢ ,
high. out of 4 sociated Press:

he wrote just ’ This is a 1991 file photo of Westley Allan’
er brot “y must.go iq Dodd taken at Washington State, 45. 05
‘find another child. es oil : [ wore Renitentiony in Walla Walla 2, Washoe bre

“Ukilling than ‘ molesting,”

< Y ed
at — ———

Eleven living on Death Row

= Dodd anniversary:
Three men have been
sentenced to death since
the hanging of Westley
Allen Dodd. The
sentences and convictions
will be reviewed in a
process that can take
decades.

The Associated Press

Just after midnight a year ago,
convicted child killer Westley Allen
Dodd dropped through the gallows
trap door at the Washington State
Penitentiary and, with a final snap
of the rope, into oblivion.

Dodd’s execution on Jan. 5, 1993,
was the first in Washington since
June 20, 1963, when Joseph Chest-
er Self was hanged. Self, 33, had
been convicted in the 1960 slaying
of a Seattle cab driver for a fistful
of dollars.

Dodd was convicted of the 1989
slayings of three little boys.

Following imposition of the
death penalty, Dodd, 31, asked for
immediate execution and refused
to appeal the sentence. Dodd said
he must die because “I know I will
kill again.”

Dodd had a choice of hanging or
lethal injection. He chose hanging
because he had tortured and
hanged 4-year-old Lee Isley. His
other victims were Cole Neer, 11,
and his brother Billy, 10.

Dodd’s final words before he was
hanged:

“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.”

Since the Dodd hanging, two
men have been released from
Death Row and three have taken
up residence on there at the state
Penitentiary at Walla Walla that
now houses 11 condemned men.

Michael Furman was released
from Death Row and sentenced to
life in prison without possibility of
parole by the state Supreme Court
last September. The high court re-
versed the death penalty on
grounds that Furman, who is now
21, was 17 years and 10 months old
when he raped and fatally blud-
geoned to death 85-year-old Ann
Presler in her Kitsap County
home.

sep

The Associated Press

DEATH ROW: It has been one
year since the hanging of child-
killer Westley Allen Dodd.

Writing for the court, Chief Jus-
tice Jim Andersen, said state laws
do not authorize imposition of the
death penalty for crimes commit-
ted by juveniles. :

Also released from Death Row
last year was David Lewis Rice.
Rice was convicted of breaking into
a Madrona home and killing Char-
les and Annie Goldmark and their
two young sons on Christmas Eve
1986.

U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner
overturned Rice’s sentence, saying
the killer’s rights were violated be-
cause he was not in court when his
sentence was announced. The
state is appealing.

Released from Death Row prior
to the Dodd hanging was Kwan Fai
“Willie” Mak, thought to have mas-
terminded the Wah Mee Massacre,
in which 13 people were killed in
1983 in Seattle’s International Dis-
trict.

U.S. District Court Judge Will-
iam Dwyer found Mak’s attorneys
were ineffective because they did
not present testimony from his
family about the trouble the Chin-
ese immigrant had adjusting to
American life.

A new sentencing hearing will be
held in King County Superior
Court this year.

New residents of the Row since
the Dodd hanging are Cal Brown,
Sammie Lee Luvene and Blake
Richard Pirtle. The death sen-
tences of all three will first be re-
viewed by the state Supreme
Court. From there, the convictions
and sentence will work through
various state and federal appeals, a
process that could take at least a
decade.

Brown, 35 was convicted and
sentenced to death on Dec. 28 for
the murder of 22-year-old Holly
Washa on May 24, 1991.

Luvene, 28, was convicted in
Pierce County on June 30, 1993, of
the shooting death on July 12, 1992,
of Tacoma convenience store clark
Carrol Bond.

Pirtle, 25, was sentenced to die
after his July 2 conviction by a
Spokane County Superior Court
jury of the May 1992 slayings of two
former restaurant co-workers,
Dawnya Calbreath, 20, and Tod
Folsom, 24, during a robbery of a
Burger King restaurant.

The most senior resident of the
Row is Mitchell Rupe, 39. He was
convicted of the September 1981
fatal shooting of Candace Hemmig
and Twila Capron during a robbery
of a branch of the Tumwater State
Bank.

Rupe’s conviction was upheld by
the state Supreme Court, but the
original death sentence was set
aside on grounds that testimony
regarding Rupe’s gun collection
was improperly admitted during
the penalty phase of the trial.

A second penalty phase was held
in 1985 and a jury once again ruled
that Rupe should be executed.
Rupe has an appeal pending in
U.S. District Court in Seattle.

Olympian, Olympia Wa. 1/4/94

a

8 A... TheDallag Morning News -

Saturday, January 2, 1993

H

Hangman’s noose awaits killer.

Man has waived appeal; ACLU seeks to block execution

Washington Post
At one. minute after midnight
Tuesday, Westley Allan Dodd is
_ Scheduled to walk about six paces
from his holding cell to a platform
inside Washington State Penitenti-
ary. There, he is to be fitted with a
neutral-color hood and a waxed
rope and hanged by his neck until
dead.
Unless the execution is blocked

by a successful last-minute appeal

from the American Civil Liberties

. Union, Mr. Dodd would become the

‘first person executed on the gal-

lows in the United States since two

soldiers were hanged in Kansas on
June 22, 1965, after ON ng
_ seven people.

Mr. Dodd, who confessed to kill.

ing three Vancouver, Wash.-area

boys in 1989 after raping. and —

molesting them, has said repeatedly ;
that he deserves and wants to yr eX:
ecuted.

Ten of the 11 iiher death row in-
mates at the prison in Walla Walla

were convicted of murders commit- —

ted before Mr. Dodd’s crimes. But
all except him have exercised legal
appeals to postpone their dates with
death.

Mr. Dodd has waived all appeals.
He also has chosen to die by hang-
ing instead of lethal injection be-
cause he strangled his youngest vic- :
tim, Lee Iseli, 4, ag ener him in
a closet.

His other victims, brothers Cole
and William Neer, 11 and 10, respec-
tively, were stabbed to death.

Mr. Dodd was captured Nov. 13,
1989, in a citizen’s arrest by the fa-
ther of a 6-year-old boy whom he
had attacked in a movie theater.
Questioned by police, he confessed
to the three murders.’He pleaded
guilty June 25, 1990.

‘Ina brief filed recently by his at-
torneys, Mr. Dodd said, “If I do es-
cape, I promise you I will kill and
rape again, and I will enjoy every
minute of it.”

Nonetheless, 26 plaintiffs assem-
‘bled by the ACLU are trying to
block the execution on grounds

that hanging is a cruel and unac-.

ceptable method of punishment in a
civilized society.

Only Washington, Montana and
‘Delaware still permit execution by
hanging,’ although , each offers
lethal injection as an alternative.
No executions are’ imminent in
these other states.

Although the U.S. Supreme Court
_has held that the death penalty is
‘not “cruel and unusual punish-
ment” under the Constitution,

‘Washington - state’s Constitution .

goes beyond this provision by bar-

ring simply “cruel” punishment.
/*. It is on this latter point that the

lawsuit - primarily .is based, said

Kathleen Taylor, ACLU state direc-:

tor. The 26 plaintiffs include jurists,

doctors, state legislators and the

‘mother of a murder victim. i”

Late ' Wednesday, ‘* Thurston
County Superior Judge. Richard
Strophy ruled against the ACLU but
asked the state Supreme Court to
consider’ the appeal. The state
disputes the ACLU assertion that:
hanging is a “terribly painful and
tortuous” method of death., *

“Hanging is not cruel and un-
usual punishment,” Assistant Attor-
ney General John Jones said in ar-
guing that the execution should be
carried out as scheduled.

That is the way it is described in,

‘the state manual on execution pro-

cedures, patterned closely on US.
military procedures for carrying
out the death penalty. It calls for a.
manila hemp rope. “treated with }
wax, soap or clear oils” to be placed
around the inmate’s neck so that
“the knot is directed behind the left
ear.”

A prison official then pushes a
button, opening the oakd door un-

_der the condemned.

Mr. Dodd weighs 138 pounds. Ac- |
cording to the “standard military :
execution drop chart,” he is to be.’
dropped 7 feet, 4 inches through the |
trap door, the distance calculated as |
necessary to break his neck.

— we

Washington Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty

705 Second Avenue, Suite 300
98104

Seattle, Washington
(206] 622-8952

Steering Committee

American Civil
Liberties Union

American Friends
Service Committee

Amnesty
International

Central Area
Motivation Program

Church Council
of Greater Seattle

Church Women
United

Detention Ministries,
Catholic Archdiocese
of Seattle

Fellowship of
Reconciliation

Humanists of
Washington

Murder Victims’ Families
for Reconciliation

National Association
for the Advancement
of Colored People

Olympians Against the
Death Penalty

Peace and Justice Action
League of Spokane

Washington
Association of
Churches

‘Honorary At Large Members:

Tim Ford

Hubert Locke
Carl Maxey

Lois Price Spratlen
Dale Turner

The Hon. Robert W. Winsor

At Large Members:
Michael Iaria
Jim Leonard

i ner
se LUGlls

gtem@ d Ved ( i i Dag
waswHWitiwé*wyToe
COALITION 1T0

ABOUSH
DEATH
PENAL'Y

November 25, 1992

Individuals who’ve agreed to be press
contacts

Teresa Mathis

Background Information

Thank you for agreeing to be listed as a contact for

media inquiries.

I’m sending you a copy of the

background packet we’ve prepared and sent to our media
contacts list. .

In addition, I’m sending copies of several pieces we
have prepared for internal use:

List of media/press contacts who’ve been sent
background packet. (If you know others who
should be added, please call me at 206-623-
1302.)

Talking Points: While we don’t want to put
words in your mouth, we thought this might be
useful in helping you to consider how you
might answer some questions.

Background on Wes Dodd: Keep in mind that
it’s not our task to talk up the details of
his crimes (at the same time, we shouldn’t
minimize the harm he’s done). Nor is it our
task to speculate in the media about his
family history: since the mitigation
investigation was limited, and none of the
information collected was presented to the
jury, we simply don’t know what happened to
him as a child.

WCADP Action Plan: Note that we/’1l be
putting together a calendar of events soon;
once we have that, we’ll get it to you.

Most of you are on the our press contacts list because
of specific expertise/information you can provide. In
addition, we hope you’1ll keep the following points in
mind when responding to media inquiries:

If Washington State proceeds in executing Wes
Dodd, we will be carrying out a state-
assisted suicide/prisoner-assisted homicide.
Just because someone wants to die, doesn’t
mean the state owes it to them to kill them.

There are serious questions still unanswered
about Wes Dodd’s competency, background and
mental state.

The juvenile and criminal justice systems
failed to deal with Dodd’s serious problems,
evident for 16 years but always ignored or
minimized. He didn’t get where he is on his
own; he’s there as a result, in part, of
society’s failure to deal with his earlier.

It’s not uncommon for people on death row to
want to die, or to later change their minds.

If you have questions about how you might deal with
media calls, please feel free to give me a call. My
home number, in case you need it, is 632-4782. Please
do not give this number out to the press.


Westley Allan Dodd:
Issues for Reconsideration of Death Sentence
and Background of the Case

For internal use only by
Washington Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty

Westley Allan Dodd was convicted of the aggravated first degree
murder of three children and sentenced to death. He has pleaded guilty
and rejected efforts to oppose his sentence. The law requires the
Supreme Court to review all sentences of death. Dodd requested that
the Court waive as much of this review as they could.

The Supreme Court made a limited review of Dodd’s death sentence.
The majority of justices ruled that Dodd may properly waive all
further review of his sentence. [See below for details of the Court’s
ruling and the dissent issued by two justices.] On November 19, the
Supreme Court refused to reconsider this ruling. On November 30,
the Clark County Superior Court will set a date for execution within
30 to 90 days. We will continue to protest this execution.

The Points We Want to Make

1. Mitigation: Real mitigation investigations must be made and
presented to the court, with competent and adequately funded
evaluation of Dodd’s brain function, psychiatric health, and
family history. Even in the face of Dodd’s objection to mitiga-
tion investigation, failure to present mitigation jeopardizes Eighth
Amendment protections. It is essential to carry out this mitiga-
tion investigation properly now. Dodd has opposed mitigation
investigation and wishes to proceed with the execution. But
prisoners do change their minds. Minutes before his scheduled
November 10 execution in Illinois this year, Lloyd Wayne
Hampton decided to challenge his death sentence, and a delay
was granted. Now a hasty preparation must be made by defense
lawyers; sufficient time may not be available.

2. Competence: Much better evaluation of Dodd’s competence is
needed. His apparent intelligence and intellectual ability may
disguise his actual mental status. It is not enough to declare him
competent to waive his rights or choose to die without more than
brief interviews by prosecution examiners to determine rational-
ity. It is not sufficient to declare his mental status “free of
psychosis” without thorough psychiatric measurement and evalu-
ation.

3. System failure: The entire juvenile and crimina! justice systems
failed to deal with Dodd’s serious problems, evident for 16 years
but always ignored or minimized. Counseling programs were
inadequate and underfunded.

4. Hanging as a cruel and unusual punishment: This state has
not carried out a hanging in thirty years. Hanging as a form of
execution is practically extinct in the United States and is
repellent to most persons. The physiological and mental effects
of this ancient form of execution have not been fully researched
or contested in the courts. It is the epitome of cruel and unusual
punishment.

Dodd’s Family History

Only a sketchy history of Westley Allan Dodd has been gathered. He
was born in 1962 and lived in the Tri Cities until his mid-teens. He has
lived in Lewiston, Idaho, and in Seattle and Vancouver, Washington,
and was in the U.S. Navy. His father was amilkman with some college
edudcation. His mother was a waitress. He has two siblings, a brother
one year younger, and a sister two years younger.

In school, his grades were Bs and he was active in the school band,
volunteering with the band even after his graduation; his band teacher
had fond memories of him and was shocked at learning of his crimes.
He describes himself as shy, and he says he has had no friends since
graduating from school.

In his early teens his parents divorced. After the divorce, the children
lived with their mother. The father moved away and remarried.

Many questions remain unanswered about Dodd’s family history and
the conditions which may have led to his mental condition. No
adequate mitigation investigation has been done.

Sexual Crimes

Dodd began exposing himself to other children from his bedroom
window at age 12 and molested a cousin at age 13; he was appre-
hended and sent to counseling, beginning an oft-repeated pattern of
juvenile arrest and ineffective “treatment.” He continued molesting
children he knew, then started approaching young boys in parks.
There are no records in the juvenile courts giving details of these
crimes, and no indication that his history was taken into account in the
prosecution of his succeeding cases.

In his late teens he was convicted of molesting a child in Lewiston; the
sentence was reduced to the time served before trial and counseling.
A Seattle sentence for kidnapping in 1987 was also reduced to time
served and counseling, although at that trial he had admitted that he
was “predatory and uncontrollable.” His “treatment” at various times
never included available methods of measuring arousal from violent
sexual fantasies or full evaluation of his mental state or the possible
outcomes of his condition. None of the programs was funded suffi-
ciently to cover these analyses, and he was always released without
adequate treatment.

Dodd has stated that “the problem was just completely ignored five
different times” and that he never got more than “a real light slap on
the back of the hand and that was about it.” He states, “If something
had been done then, if I’d gotten in maybe a good treatment program,
it might have helped.”

Dodd was dishonorably discharged from the Navy in 1982 for child
molesting. He moved to Seattle and then, after his kidnapping
conviction and stint of counseling there, to Vancouver, where his
sexual fixation became increasingly violent. He kept diaries in which
he recorded his activities and fantasies, his “hunting” techniques, and
the various means he might employ to murder and rape his victims.

On September 4, 1989, he murdered Cole and Billy Neer, 10 and 12
years old, and on October 29 he abducted and murdered 4-year-old
Lee Iseli. He had purchased a camera and had photo albums picturing
Iseli before and after the murder.


Dodd was arrested in the late evening of November 13, 1989, after an
attempt to abduct 6-year-old James Kirk from a cinema men’s room
in Camas. He was interrogated by police detectives from 10:45 pm to
1:00 am of November 14; this session was not taped. Dodd did not
wish to call an attorney, but in this portion of the interrogation did not
want police to search his house and car without an attorney. He denied
knowledge of the murders.

He was then asked “if he felt better talking about the whole thing,” and
he said he did want to talk. He admitted the murders. The police taped
the second part of the interrogation, from 1:00 am to 2:45 am of
November 14. Dodd confessed to the murders and the police obtained
warrants and found the diaries and other evidence. Some evidence
was at first excluded, then all of the diaries, physical evidence, and
confessions were allowed.

Awaiting trial, Dodd spent much of his time in the Clark County jail
writing a brochure which he said was intended to teach children to
avoid strangers like him. He has written many letters from the
penitentiary at Walla Walla, angry letters to those who urge him not
to seek the death penalty (including other prisoners on death row), and
explanatory letters to people he finds sympathetic. He has granted
numerous interviews and has encouraged his attorney to call his
crimes heinous.

Dodd claims that, if he is not put to death, he will escape and kill again.
In fact, he is incarcerated in the State Penitentiary’s very secure
Intensive Management Unit under isolated conditions from which no
prisoner has escaped. No Washington prisoner sentenced to life
without possibility of parole has escaped or been released.

Washington Supreme Court Opinion of October 8, 1992

Dodd dismissed attorneys who want to oppose his sentence of death.
He requested waiver of all waivable reviews and appeals of that
sentence. The Supreme Court heard from Dodd pro se [acting for
himself] and his attorney; from the prosecuting attorney; and from
Gilbert H. Levy and Judith M. Mandel, amici curiae [friends of the
court], who argued that allowing defendant to limit the scope of
review violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel
and unusual punishment. They argued for full mitigation investiga-
tion and presentation.

A majority of the Supreme Court justices determined that Dodd could
waive his general right of review, but could not waive statutory review
of his sentence. They made what they considered a statutory review;
it encompassed: a) the finding of Dodd’s competence to understand
the waiver and the re -

view process; b) the sufficiency of the evidence to support the death
penalty; c) the proportionality of the sentence compared to other
sentences of death; and d) a finding that the sentence did not result
from passion or prejudice. The Court found all those conditions were
properly met, and agreed to waive all other appeal of the sentence. The
Court denied that mitigation needed to be heard.

Competence
The Court cited the following assessments of Dodd’s competence to
plead guilty to the charges and to waive review and appeal:

Dr. Maletzky....determined that Dodd was ‘competent to aid and
assist in his own defense and is competent to enter a plea.’ The

[lower] court also closely questioned Dodd and determined that he
had: discussed the decision with his attorneys; reviewed with them
the plea forms; and he understood the consequences of a guilty plea.
The court also reviewed the terms of the plea with Dodd. Dodd’s
counsel believed Dodd competent to enter a guilty plea.....

Dr. Larsen opined that Dodd was intellectually intact and not
suffering from any psychosis. The doctor stated that Dodd was
oriented; did not exhibit a thought disorder; and did not suffer
hallucinations, delusions, ‘psychotic elements,’ significant person-
ality disorder, or any physical disease. Dr. Larsen diagnosed Dodd
as suffering from ‘severe homosexual pedophilia...[displaying] no
evidence of mental disease or defect’...

Dr. Parvaresh stated that Dodd has a diagnosable psychiatric
disorder: Pedophilia, sadism with mixed personality. That disorder,
however, does not impair his ability to understand the conse-
quences if he waives his right to appeal. Dr. Parvaresh concluded
that there is no reason to question Dodd’s competence....

Ms. Araiza, a social worker, met with Dodd several times and
conducted a mental status exam. She con-cluded that Dodd is
coherent, oriented, intelligent, and is free of psychosis, delusions,
or hallucination...

The [lower] court stated that at all times Dodd has acted rationally
and made independent decisions. It found that Dodd’s decision to
waive his right to appeal was ‘a considered decision,’ which he
‘unwaveringly’ maintained, and that it was not the product of any
psychological impairments. .. Because Dodd did not authorize any-
one to file a notice of appeal and asked that the notice in this case
be withdrawn, the court found there is no valid notice of appeal
filed.

The opinions of Drs. Maletzky, Larsen, and Parvaresh and of Ms.
Araiza were based on brief interviews with the defendant. No real
psychiatric examination was ever made; nor was there any cross
examination of these experts. No one opposing this death sentence
addressed the issue of Dodd’s competence. For these reasons, Dodd’ s
competence has not been properly assessed.

Mitigation Efforts

A minimal amount of mitigation investigation has been performed in
this case. The early defense was able to undertake brief interviews of
family, acquaintances, and counselors and some psychological test-
ing (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, usually called
the MMPI questionnaire).

Dodd’s MMPI indicated there were serious matters which should be
pursued. Fixated sexual activity is a hallmark of brain damage. There
was no real evaluation of family history, either mental status or the
emotional and physical environment within his family. Scan of brain
function and tests for genetic defect were not made.

Funds for mitigation studies were not available. No mitigation evi-
dence was presented at trial. The Supreme Court stated that Dodd
chose not to present mitigating evidence, that “‘he told [his attorneys]
not to....because cross examination might reveal other damaging
information.” Yet it is not clear why mitigation was not allowed at
trial and was not heard in the Supreme Court review.

|

Dissenting Opinion by Justice Utter

Two Supreme Court justices entered a dissenting opinion, written by
Justice Utter with concurrence of Justice Smith. They made two
significant points:

1) The scope of the review was improperly limited.

Justice Utter stated that the majority had erroneously allowed Dodd
to limit the scope of appellate review. He believed that a defendant
could not waive such an important right.

Moreover, he believed the Court had adopted an unduly narrow view

of the three requirements of the statute (sufficient evidence to jusify
the death sentence; whether it was disproportionate considering both
the crime and the defendant; and whether it was imposed through
passion or prejudice. He stated:

Unfortunately, the majority fails to realize that we cannot truly
answer these questions unless we resolve the significant evidentiary
and constitutional challenges raised by amici. For example, we
cannot answer the question of whether there was sufficient evidence
to justify a death sentence without first determining what evidence
was properly before the jury. Therefore we must consider amici’s
claims that portions of Dodd’s diary should not have been admitted,
that his confession and physical evidence should not have been
admitted, and that his counsel’s failure to present mitigating evi-
dence violated the federal constitution.

2) Mitigation evidence must be presented.
Justice Utter concluded:

Although Dodd’s crimes are gruesome, and he has expressed a
desire to die, we must not let that obscure our duty to review his
sentence. Society has a significant interest in the reliability of death
penalty determinations. Therefore, both appellate review and pre-
sentation of mitigating evidence are necessary, regardless of a
defendant’s desire to die. To give Dodd’s wishes paramount
importance would be to sanction state assisted suicide.

Therefore, I would consider all of the issues raised by amici on
Dodd’s behalf. / believe the failure to present mitigating evidence
may have violated the Eighth Amendment.* Unless bona fide
tactical reasons existed for pre-senting no mitigating evidence, the
failure to present mitigating evidence raises serious problems with
the reliability of a death penalty determination. It is not clear from
the record whether Dodd and his attorneys made a tactical decision
or whether Dodd, who desires to die, simply demanded that no
mitigation evidence be presented. Therefore, I would remand this
case to determine whether or not a tactical decision was made about
the presentation of mitigating evidence.

*Emphasis added.

cr the murders of the Neer brothers, Dodd wrote in his

d another child. I think I get more of a high out of killing
than two months later, Dodd kidnapped, molested and
ld boy.

was to it. There was a certain satisfaction,
and by the time Dodd reached his middle
teen-age years, he had grown bolder at seek-
ing it out.

He approached young boys in isolated set-
tings—a park, perhaps—and questioned
them. “What would you do if I told you to
take your pants down?” he would ask.
Sometimes they did. Sometimes they didn’t.
But the behavior, driven by forces unknown,
drew the attention of police. He was caught

molesting children four times between the
ages of 15 and 27. In none of those incidents
did he serve much jail time, however. And in
each case he walked away from counseling.

In his other life, the one outsiders knew,
Dodd was a musician, an average clarinet
player and a model student who earned the
right to be a summer counselor at a Seattle-
area music camp.

At Richland’s Columia High School, Dodd
was known as a quiet loner who didn't date
and didn’t socialize. He took a girl out once,
but he later described the experience as “long
and boring.”

DEATH ROW Ill

He graduated with a 3.0 GPA, worked in a
grocery store for a year and then followed his
brother into the U.S. Navy.

By his account, Dodd's Navy recruiter was
stunned at his high IQ and begged him to
volunteer for submarine duty.

While he trained in the prestigious branch
of the Navy, Dodd became only a submarine
shopkeeper. Within two years, he was
drummed out of the Navy with a general dis-
charge. There were allegations that he fre-
quented video game parlors, attempting to
solicit sex from young boys.

After the Navy, he fell into a patchwork of
jobs over the next few years. He drove a
truck, worked at a gas station and by 1987
had become a Seattle-area security guard.

By his own count, Dodd had sexual con-
tact with youngsters as many as 80 times as
he bounced from one Northwest community
to another.

His most serious brush with the law came
in July of 1987. Dodd tried to lure a 9-year-
old boy into an empty building while he was
serving as a security guard ata construction
site in Seattle.

The youngster escaped and called police.
Originally, Dodd was charged with kidnap-
ping. But he finally pleaded guilty to a re-
duced charge of attempted unlawful impris-
onment, a misdemeanor. He was sentenced
to a year in sexual therapy. That's how he
ended up on the doorstep of Seattle psychia-
trist Dr. Kenneth Von Cleave.

Dr. Von Cleave was shocked by what he
heard. In a long interview, Dodd spun what
Von Cleave called the “most extensive sexual
history I have ever seen in someone that age.
If you have a dictionary definition of a pe-
dophile, Wes Dodd's picture should be next
to it,” he would say later.

Dodd visited the psychiatrist regularly for
about a year. But when his court-ordered
probation was up, he walked away.

He went to work in a Seattle-area conve-
nience store. “Everybody liked him. We trust-
ed him completely,” the owner said.

By the time he came to this relatively
peaceful river town, he carried with him in-
creasingly vivid fantasies of molesting and
killing children. But he had to have a plan.
And in the scrupulously neat handwriting of

DEATH ROW Ill

his diary, it began to unfold some two weeks
before Labor Day, 1989.

“As a result of my dream ... | believe in
Satan and am prepared to enter a contract
with him,” Dodd wrote after his dream of the
devil on the beach. “I will trade my soul and
my services before and after death in ex-
change for the conditions on the following
page.

“I will exchange my soul for a long happy
life as a pedophile.”

Dodd listed 10 conditions of his bargain
with the devil. The first and most important:
“I must never be reported to or caught by au-
thorities.”

Though Billy and Cole told their dad they
were going to pick up golf balls Sept. 4, they
had strayed over to David Douglas Park and
the steep inviting canyon on the park's south
edge.

At 6:20 p.m., Dodd approached the boys
as they explored the canyon. He told them to
come with him. They followed the dark-
haired man.

The hunt was over.

“| found two boys down near the center
section of trails. They had their bikes,” he
told police later. “I walked up to ‘em and said,
| want you two to come with me. You can
bring your bikes with you if you want.”

Dodd and the two boys walked west on
the secluded trail downhill toward Andresen
Road, a busy, four-lane street near the edge
of the park. They could hear traffic rush by,
but the summer foliage concealed them from
view. They walked up a slope off the worn
path to the base of a large tree.

“Told ‘em I wanted one of ‘em to pull their
pants down. I wouldn't let ‘em go ‘til one of
‘em did,” Dodd said. “Billy said, ‘Him.’ Cole
asked, ‘Why?’ and I said ‘Because | told you
to.’ So he did.”

Cole, the quiet one, did as he was told.
Dodd performed oral sex on the youngster.

“| kept tellin’ ‘em everything's gonna be
okay, | wasn’t gonna hurt ‘em.” They told
Dodd that they had to go because they were
hungry and their dad would be mad. “I said
to tell him they got lost.” Billy started to
whimper. Dodd told the youngsters, “OK,
there’s just one more thing.” In a single
smooth motion, Dodd pulled a 6-inch fillet

In a sing

smooth motio

Dodd pulle
6-inch fi
knife fr
under his p
leg and stabl
Billy in

stomach. Tl

(
|
(
“
)

he turned

Cole :
stabbed
older brothe:
the chest ag
and ag:

knife from under his pant leg and stabbed
Billy in the stomach. Then he turned to Cole
and stabbed the older brother in the chest
again and again.

Billy, wounded but not dead, sprang to his
feet and clutching his stomach, he ran to-
ward the busy roadway perhaps 50 to 60 feet
away. Dodd bolted after him. Just a few feet
short of the road Dodd caught Billy, and
spun him around by the arm. For an instant,
their eyes met.

‘Tm sorry, I'm sorry,” was all Billy could
say.

Dodd plunged the knife into the boy two
or three more times. Billy dropped to the
ground, just short of safety.

Dodd half-walked and half ran up to the
spot where Cole had fallen. He was on his
back, head turned to one side. His eyes were
open and vacant. He was clearly dead.

Dodd walked back toward his car, an an-
cient, ill-running Ford Pinto station wagon.
He passed a number of people. His left hand
had some of the boys’ blood on it. He con-
cealed it inside his pants pocket. Later, no-
body would have a clear memory of a
stranger in the park that day. After all, what
had just happened down the trail on the last
day of summer was inconceivable.

Dodd checked his watch, the entire
episode took less than 20 minutes.

He drove home and showered. He felt the
blood pounding in his head. He was scared,
but there was another emotion: a powerful
rush of excitement.

Perhaps five minutes after the murders, a
McDonald's hamburger cook named Chris
Bridge dropped down off Andresen onto the
wooded path. He stumbled across Billy, all
bloody and pale. The teen-ager thought at
first the boy had been struck by a car. He ran
(o a nearby convenience store and called
911.

By the time Vancouver police detectives
Darryl Odegaard and Jeff Sundby arrived at
the park, confusion reigned. One boy was
dead, and it wasn’t any car accident. But of-
licers had found two bikes. Was it possible
there were two murders?

Clair got worried when the boys didn't
come home for supper. He spent a couple of
hours searching the neighborhood in his car.

About 10 p.m. he called 911 dispatchers to
report his two boys missing. Within minutes
Patrol commander Bob Kanekoa, a stocky,
soft-spoken Hawaiian, was on Clair’s
doorstep.

Kanekoa had carefully sorted through
Polaroid photos of the dead boy, looking for a
picture that would not convey the violence by
which Billy died.

But as he entered Clair Neer’s home, he
saw a large picture of Billy and his brothers.
The Polaroids would not be needed. He asked
Clair to sit down.

“I'm afraid I have some very unfortunate
news,” Kanekoa said. Then he watched the
life drain out of the father’s face.

About 2 a.m., a searcher discovered Cole’s
body. It was a blow to everyone. “It's the mid-
dle of the night in a forest. The innocence of
a child. It’s something you're never able to
explain,” recalled Odegaard, a beefy, tough-
minded cop who hated loose ends. But he
was now caught up in a case with enough
loose ends for a lifetime.

A manhunt was on. The murders were
fresh and police knew the first few hours
were crucial. Day and night police scoured
the forest in search of clues. They filled 15
grocery sacks with debris from the crime
scene.

What they missed, amateur searchers
found. One man brought in a rusty scythe to
the police department, convinced it was the
murder weapon.

Detectives waded through dozens—
hundreds—of phone calls. But there was pre-
cious little to go on.

That night Dodd went to bed and got a
couple of hours sleep before reporting to
work as a shipping clerk at a local paper
plant. Word of the murders had spread.

Dodd's appetite for news was insatiable.
He watched television and clipped articles
from the local newspapers. Two days after
the murders he wrapped the knife in news-
paper and threw it in a dumpster at work. It
was never found.

His co-workers talked about the killings,
but Dodd kept his mouth shut. Police re-
leased a composite drawing that Dodd be-
lieved looked dangerously like him. “I was
afraid to go to work after that came out,” he

told detectives later. “I was afraid somebody
would notice it and make a phone call.”

But his perversions were stronger than
fear. A mere two days after the murders
Dodd wrote in his diary, “I must go find an-
other child. | think I get more of a high out of
killing than molesting.”

Police were lost, and as the days wore on,
Dodd realized the murder investigation was
going nowhere. His obsession with boys only
grew. “I didn’t want to do it in a place like
that again. | wanted to have more time, so I
decided kidnapping a boy would be good
thing to do,” he told detectives.

He prayed to Satan for help in finding an-
other victim.

September grew into October. The nights
became cooler and the Northwest foliage
began to blush brilliant fall colors. By then,
Dodd's mania had again reached a full boil.

He began to plan the abduction of another
young victim. If anything, he was becoming
more fixated. The planning excited him near-

ly as much as the sex itself.

He drew a rough plan of a torture rack. He
purchased X-acto® knives and tweezers. He
wrote that he needed the tools to perform

“exploratory surgery and use what | learn
later Lo operate on live boys.”

He imagined surgically exploring a young-
ster’s genitalia. He couldn't stop thinking
about mutilation. He imagined playing games
with victims in which they would roll dice or
pull lots from a hat to choose how they would
die.

This time, he would lure a victim to his
home where he could abuse and kill a boy at
his leisure.

Lee Joseph Iseli was a blond, winsome 4-
year-old playing with his brother Sunday,
Oct. 29, 1989, at Richmond School in his
southeast Portland neighborhood.

Lee was watching some other boys play
football when a dark-haired man came up
from behind. He was wearing a hat that said,
“Don’t worry, be happy.”

“I asked Lee if he wanted to make some
money,” Dodd said. * I asked him if he
wanted to have some fun and play some
games. And he was a little hesitant. I
reached my hand out. He took it and walked
off with me.”

Lee’s 9-year-old brother Justin told police
that one minute Lee was playing nearby on

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+ DAVID TINNEY THE COLUMBIAN

PHOTO

In his early teens,
Dodd began to
show signs of
pedophilia. At 13
ov TA, he first
exposed himself
to neighborhood
kids from an
upstairs window
of his Richland,
Wash... home.

W ESTLEY
ALLAN
i DODD

It was Aug. 20, 1989, and Westley Allan
Dodd awoke startled and scared out of a
vivid dream.

He was on a beach. He watched as small
plants and animals around him were myste-
riously jerked down out of sight. Suddenly,
an oval of sand sunk away as if through an
hourglass. Standing there was the devil.

Dodd woke with a start. The devil really
exists, he thought. Would he make a deal?

irst, last and always William and Cole

Neer were brothers. They played to-

gether, fought with each other and
when they were threatened, they knew how
to fight—or run—together.

Though they played with other kids in the
Vancouver, Wash., housing project where
they lived, the neighbors took note that
William, 10, and Cole, 11, were inseparable.

Perhaps the bond had something to do
with their difficult past and present. Their fa-
ther, Clair, was an unemployed auto glass in-
staller who had come west from North
Dakota looking for work. Clair’s marriage to
the boys’ mother, Arlene, a full-blooded Sioux
Indian, had failed. The Pacific Northwest was
a green land, verdant and tree-filled—
the perfect place for a fresh start.

Clair had three sons: William, Cole and
Robert. At 5, Robert was too young to tag
along with his older brothers when they ped-
aled their bicycles out of Skyline Crest, a
drab, congested cluster of low-income du-

plexes in Vancouver's McLoughlin Heights.

Vancouver, a city of 40,000, lies next to
the broad Columbia River. It was here that
the Hudson’s Bay Company established a
fort in the early 1800s. It was for a time a
stronghold of fur trading and commerce, a
foothold for settlement of the pioncer West

Pe

Westley Allan Dodd was unremarkable in
appearance. Thin and wiry with a wisp of a
| mustache and goatee, Dodd, 28, was a quiet,
; reliable shipping clerk at a Vancouver paper
plant.

His supervisors saw potential in the man
' who followed orders, showed up on time and
| demonstrated a little initiative. A promotion
' was in his future, they believed.

- Dodd lived in a Vancouver studio apart-
ment that was really the converted back end
‘of a home owned by white-haired Vivian
‘Shay, a strict Jehovah’s Witness who regard-
"ed Dodd as a model tenant.

» Yet this man, who appeared to be just an
ordinary boy next door, was extraordinarily
disturbed.

_ He had come to Vancouver on the heels of
a failure: jilted by his girlfriend, a woman
who claimed that Dodd fathered her child.
fet she deserted the Navy veteran and left
him in a Yakima, Wash., motel room in July
of ‘89. It was another in a string of adult rela-
Honships that soured. Psychiatrists would
Say that’s why he turned to children.

Broke and alone, he sold some of his mea-
possessions for gas money to drive to
Vancouver where his father, Jim, lived. It was
, and Dodd—like Clair Neer a year or two
Defore—believed Vancouver would offer a
blace for a fresh start.

Vancouver would make a fine hunting
Bround, he wrote in his diary. It was a chill-
ng sign that behind Wes Dodd's dark, ex-
pressionless eyes, a monster lurked.

David Douglas Park is a spacious, 68-acre
able top of land that drops away on three

-to-stranger violence ide
mare of stranger-to ; g ha ides toward the flat, prosperous retail center
almost unknown. So it was, then, t Bf Vancouver

Vancouver considered itself immune from thé ,

violence of the big city. ‘ ache ue ickers, and its six baseball diamonds are
As Labor Day, 198 appro Bearly always bbasay

Vancouver was basking in a soft, war 2 On the south edge, the park falls away
Northwest summer oprete to rege 3 BL° a thickly wooded canyon isolated by
early September, the taright sun ot ae : " NN Si trees and apiadly vine maples.
mer had started to slide south giving 0© © € broad trail at the bottom, with its nat
oblique light that wae a prelude to alt. ad fal colonnade of pillar-like firs, was an iso-
Soon, the city’s presumed innoce me and fascinating place for youngsters
i € they could ride bikes and play. Up in
ee Park, or on the bustling four-lane road

pL & few yards away, nobody would know
wON€ was on the trail.

BRUCE WESTFALL

As time passed, however, Vancouver's twin |
settlement, Portland, Ore., just across the
river, outgrew its companion city to become
the dominant metropolis of the region.

Though Vancouver existed in Portland's
shadow, most people didn’t mind.

After all, Vancouver had kept a certain
pleasant parochialism, a sense of small-town
identity that Portland, with its urban hills,
had long ago lost.

People knew their neighbors and their
neighborhoods and more than anything, peo-
ple in Vancouver could feel safe.

Not that Clark County didn’t have its share
of troubles. Occasionally there were murders.
There was, for example, the case of a man
bludgeoned to death with a ballpeen hammer
and left to rot in a sleeping bag on a remote,
country road. But residents could take com:
fort in that fact that he was not a local, but 4
victim of a Portland drug deal gone bad.

Occasionally men murdered wives or git
friends. But those were simple domestic
putes taken to extremes. The urban nigh

€ broad, grassy park is a magnet for

would come to an end, as well. :

Among the 200,000 souls in and aroulg
Vancouver was a man who had become
hunter, a stalker of children. A man drives

by fantasies of sex, torture and death.

Meath (Cou
CFGS

Hq ROW im

William, known as Billy, was a sly and
outgoing 10 years old. He was a natural ath-
lete who liked to play jokes. His brother,
Cole, was a year older and more serious. Cole
loved to draw. His father regarded him as
something of an artist. Together, they mowed
the lawn and watched out for their brother,
Robert, an epileptic.

The boys also shared a passion for base-
ball. Between them, their father estimated
they had 7,000 baseball cards. To earn
money to expand their collection, they would
bicycle to the nearby Vanco Driving Range to
collect golf balls that had sailed over the
fence. The owner would buy them back for a
few cents apiece.

That's where they told their father they
were going that carefree Labor Day afternoon,
the last time Clair would see them alive.

The night before, Westley Dodd hardly
slept.

He spent four hours in David Douglas
Park Sept. 3, according to his diary. While he
saw a handful of children he believed he
could kill, the circumstances weren't right;
too many kids together or a father following
too close behind.

Despite the frustrations of the day before,
he awoke the next day refreshed and opti-
mistic. “Now ready for my second day of the
hunt,” he wrote in his diary. “Will start at
about 10 a.m. and take a lunch so I don’t
have to return home.” There was one worry.
If he had to kill a youngster in the park, “I'd
lose my hunting ground for up to two to
three months,” he wrote.

Nobody could say just where or how Wes
Dodd came by his sadistic pedophilia, sexual
gratification in molesting and harming
youngsters. But his evolution began at 13 or
14. That was when he first exposed himself
to neighborhood kids from an upstairs win-
dow of his Richland, Wash., home.

Dodd himself didn’t understand it, he
would say later. He remembered that he was
never good enough for his father. He said he
was slapped around a few times. But he
wasn't sexually abused as a child. His par-
ents divorced when he was 15, the climax of
years of fighting, he said. But that wasn’t re
ally a reason for what he did.

It was a thrill, and maybe that’s all there

Among the
200,000 souls
in and around
Vancouver was

a man who had
become a
hunter, a

stalker of
children.

ase “POT

ta

In a final statement just before his neck was placed in a noose, Westley Allan

Dodd proclaimed himself born again, saying, “There is hope. There is peace.”

(that was the number of journalists
deemed most manageable) up a long
flight of stairs from the parking lot into
a small ‘‘checkpoint”’ building. There
they crossed my name off the official
list of those allowed entry. They took
my driver’s license as part of the proc-
essing in, gave me a numbered placard
made out of plastic that I clipped to my
shirt, and stamped the back of my left
hand with the letters ““WSP” in yellow.
After being duly informed that I was
subject to a body search at any time, a

38 True Detective

group of guards led me into another
building behind the walls. This was the
visitor’s entrance.

After a short delay, I was led down a
corridor and through several electron-

‘ically controlled sliding steel doors,

each locking securely behind me before
the next one would open. Finally, I ar-
rived in the media center where 12 wit-
nesses would be selected out of nearly
100 to view the execution. By then it
was a few minutes past 10:00 p.m., and
Dodd had less than two hours to live.

After a briefing from Veltry Johnson,
the Department of Corrections’ public
information officer, the 12 witnesses
were selected and led out of a door at
the front of the room. From there,
guards led them out into the prison yard,
through a locked gate and across the
frozen, snow-covered ground into a
Square gray building where the gallows
is housed. At 11:55 p.m., the witnesses

were escorted to the execution chamber,

a bi-level facility separated by glass
windows from the witness viewing area.

Five minutes later, Dodd appeared in
front of the window on the upper level.
He was wearing a white T-shirt, gray
prison shirt, jeans, and sneakers. After
being asked if he had any last words, he
spoke boldly into a microphone:

‘IT was once asked by somebody, I
don’t remember who, if there was any
way sex offenders could be stopped. |
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
the Lord and yo
When Dodd
Opaque screen w
per-level windov
turned on, cloak
ceedings in an ec
nesses below co
noose as one of |
ing gum, placed
head. Another «
the noose aroun:
the knot just be
hood was placec
tect witnesses frc
facial contortion:
ing. Dodd’s han
him with leathe
were similarly bx
kles. Dodd was
waver. He didr
board after all.
ready to die.
Very little ti
Dodd’s stateme

the playground when Justin looked again, he
was gone.

On the way to Dodd's Vancouver apart-
ment, Lee Iseli began to cry, but Dodd reas-
sured the youngster, saying, “We're going to
have some fun.” When the two arrived, Dodd
told the boy he had to be quiet because “a
neighbor lady didn’t like kids.”

Dodd molested the boy before dinner then
took Lee to a nearby McDonald's for a ham-
burger, then to K-Mart where he bought the
youngster a “He-Man” action figure.

“There was one time when he said, ‘Can |
go home?’

And I said ‘Aren't you having fun? I
thought you were going to spend the night
with me.’ And he said, ‘Oh, yeah.’ And he for-
got about wanting to go home.” Dodd said.

The man molested the boy throughout the
night, even telling him once, “I'm gonna kill
you in the morning.” Lee Iseli didn’t believe
it. But about 5:30 a.m., about the time Dodd
had to get up for work, he arose, put his
hands around the neck of the 4-year-old and
tried to choke the life out of him.

“I thought he was dead, but he wasn't,”
Dodd said. “He'd lay on the bed and start
breathing again.” So Dodd tied a rope around
the youngster’s neck and hung him in the
closet. When he went to work, he placed the
body of Lee Iseli on his closet shelf. “He was a
bright kid. He could identify me,” Dodd ex-
plained.

After work, Dodd took the boy’s corpse out
of the closet, sodomized it, then loaded it in a
couple of garbage sacks, drove to a nearby
lake and dumped the naked body on the
ground.

He burned the rope and most of Lee's
clothes. But he kept the boy’s underwear and
continued to collect newspaper stories ina
briefcase under his bed.

A 67-year-old pheasant hunter found Lee
Iseli's body the next morning, two months
after the murders in David Douglas Park.

Police conducted a painstaking grid
search of the area on hands and knees, but
they found absolutely no clue to the killer's
identity.

Although the Neer brothers and Lee Iseli
were children and all three had been mur-
dered, police believed the similarities stopped

there. The Neers were stabbed, the Iseli boy
strangled. The Neer brothers showed no evi-
dence of being sexually molested. Lee Iseli
had been.

Police believed the crimes to be the work
of two different killers.

Police agencies went their separate ways.
As the Iseli investigation accelerated, led by
Portland police and the Clark County
Sheriff's Office, Vancouver police detectives
Odegaard and Sundby were growing increas-
ingly lonely and frustrated. Their case idled
along in neutral, going nowhere. They had a
gut feeling the person would kill again. Fact
is, he already had.

For Westley Dodd, the pace quickened
after Lee Iseli's murder. His search for vic-
tims now centered on Clark county movie
theaters. The night of Nov. 13, two weeks
after Lee Iseli was murdered, Dodd went to
the New Liberty Theater in nearby Camas.
Playing was a movie called, “Honey, I shrunk
the kids.”

As Dodd settled into a back seat in the
theater, 6-year-old James Kirk, bright-eyed
with a floppy brown head of hair, walked by
on the way to the restroom.

Dodd quietly followed him in. “You're going
to come with me. | won't hurt you,” he told
the boy. Dodd picked up the youngster and
started to exit the theater.

But James Kirk would have none of it. He
screamed and cried as Dodd walked onto
Third Street toward the corner where he
parked his car. The moviehouse owners,
alarmed by the boy's tantrum, followed the
pair out the door.

At the corner Dodd had to make a deci-
sion. He realized he couldn't carry a kicking,
screaming boy to his Car. He set James
down, quickly walked to the Pinto and drove
off.

It would take a soft-spoken construction
worker to accomplish what up to now,
dozens of cops could not.

William Graves, a concrete foreman and
boyfriend to James Kirk's mother, found out
what had happened. Graves, thin and wiry
but ready for trouble, hustled onto the street.
A passerby pointed the direction in which
Dodd drove off.

Graves hopped into his own car, drove a

DEATH ROW Ill

few blocks and found a stalled car with a
skinny dark-haired guy bent over the engine
near the town paper mill.

Sure he was the one, Graves coolly
approached the man and asked if he could
help. As Westley Dodd bent over the engine
again, Graves cranked Dodd's arm into a
hammerlock and the two marched back to
the theater.

The nights in Camas are usually quiet, So
the attempted kidnapping at the town’s only
theater drew plenty of police attention. It
didn't take Camas Police Sergeant Don
Chaney long to put two and two together. He
learned that Dodd lived less than a mile from
David Douglas Park. He learned that Dodd
worked at a paper plant near Vancouver
Lake.

He picked up the phone.

Within the hour, three homicide detectives
huddled with Dodd in the Camas Police
Chief's office. After about 45 minutes of
questioning, Portland Detective C.W. Jensen
suggested that Dodd might want to get some-
thing off his chest.

The killer bowed his head. Tears started to
well up in his eyes. He asked for a glass of
water. Then Dodd calmly confessed to all
three killings. He told police he would have
killed James Kirk, too, if he had just gotten
him into the car.

Starting almost with the moment of his ar-
rest, Dodd began a work of self-redemption.

Against the advice of attorneys he contin-
ued to talk to the cops. He was helpful to a
fault. He refused to mount a defense on three
aggravated murder charges. He shuffled in
and out of court quietly, head down.

He pleaded guilty on July 11, 1990, a day
that quite by coincidence would have been
Cole Neer's 12th birthday. “Good for the son-
of-a-bitch,” snarled Cole’s father.

He even refused to defend himself against
Washington's death penalty. After some 20
hours of deliberations, a jury agreed that
Dodd should die.

In the state of Washington, death row in-
mates can choose between lethal injection
and hanging. Dodd told a television news re-
porter he wanted to hang, “mainly because
that’s how Lee Iseli died.”

He wrote a primer for children, entitled

DEATH ROW Iii

“When You Meet A Stranger,” telling them
what to do should someone try to grab them.
He based the publication on little James
Kirk’s escape from the Camas theater. “My
name is Wes,” he wrote. “I am the stranger
you should stay away from.”

Dodd became ever more determined to live
right—and die— right.

He wrote to the parents of sex offenders,
warning them that they should seek treat-
ment for their children lest they turn out like
him.

Dodd even offered to be an organ donor
following his execution. He claimed also to
have become a Christian, and asked that
the Vancouver man who led him to Jesus to
accompany him on that lonely walk to the
gallows.

How soon that may be remains open to
question. Dodd has steadfastly waived any
rights to appeal his sentence. Growing impa-
tient with the courts Dodd even threatened
to take his own life by attacking a prison
guard at the state penitentiary in Walla
Walla. The guards would have to shoot him,
he reasoned.

The image of the slightly built Dodd at-
tempting to attack a grown prison guard
seemed unlikely at best.

But his intent was clear. He ached to die
at the hands of a hangman.

Deprived of victims by his capture, Dodd
sits on Washington's death row, becoming
more and more withdrawn. For 23 hours a
day he remains in a 5-foot-by-12-foot cell.
For one hour a day, he is allowed in a court-
yard where there is a telephone and chin-up
bar. He told a psychiatrist last June that he
has no one to call and no desire to exercise.

He asked that his television set be removed.
“| guess you would say I sit for the most part
and stare,” Dodd told the psychiatrist.

He is left with the memories of his crimes.
The only way to halt them is to die, he be-
lieves. Dodd's death at the end of a rope,
then, will not only be an act of atonement,
but a final, violent cleansing of the soul.
Perhaps a fitting end for a man whose failed
relationships included a bargain that even
the devil couldn't keep.

ee eee oor ane rae a
Bruce Westfall is a reporter for The Columbian in
Vancouver, Wash.

“| will
exchange my
soul for a long
happy life as «
pedophile.”
—Dod

a

i) ODD; Werttey A

0 1

nervous as the flight I was on broke

through the heavy cloud cover on
its final approach to Walla Walla. As I
stared at.the thick blanket of freshly
fallen show that covered the flat farm-
land, I had every reason to be nervous:
For one thing, I dislike flying, partic-
ularly in small aircraft like the De
Havilland 8 I‘was in. For another, in all

[= PERHAPS, more than a little

34 True Detective

97

by GARY C. KING

likelihood we were going to be landing
on an icy runway. And finally, the main
reason for my nerves, I was going to an
execution.

It was January 3, 1993, and child
killer Westley Allan Dodd was sched-
uled to die on the gallows at Washington
State Penitentiary shortly after midnight
on January 5, 1993. It would be the first
hanging in the U.S. since 1965.

his pecans:

sed. on cin ng s ex-
jveting trial testi-

Hi i tee odd h

| stun in

imself an

Readers of this magazine will recall
that Dodd was convicted and sentenced
to death for the 1989 murders of three
young boys, whom he also raped and
tortured prior to killing (see True Detec-
tive, October 1991). The general feeling
was that if anyone deserved to die by
the hangman’s noose, it was Dodd.

Dodd himself wanted to die by hang-
ing, and he did everything in his power

LU A

LOOK Al
LOOK Al

¢ Facts in 12 pr
and the monstrou

* Facts that sup
to deter potential
deadly deeds. Fac
this issue...Can c
deter the crime of

¢ Facts that sho
death, more often
overwhelming m:

The 1993 editic
reference that pro
death row, and de
hundreds of the c:
detailed accounts
book provides a f
punishment infon
is regarded by lav
definitive source
offenders. It’s a b:

A limited number of 1

Author Gary C. King stands outside the facility where Westley Dodd, the subject of King’s upcoming book, was sent to his death.

to achieve that fitting end. He declined
to file any appeals, and, after it was de-
termined that he was mentally compe-
tent to make his own decisions, he
ordered his lawyer, Darrell Lec, to sue
anyone who tried to intervene on his be-
half.

Dodd wanted to die quickly, he said,
without spending years on death row
fighting for his life. And he wanted to
die, he said, in the same manner that he
killed his last victim, 4-year-old Lee Is-
eli, whom he hung by a rope attached to
the clothes bar inside his closet after
raping him for 18 hours.

But I believe that Dodd asked to be
hanged not to appease the victims’ rela-
tives or out of remorse for his victims. I
believe that Dodd looked forward to the
noose because it represented his greatest
sexual thrill, the definitive perversity of
his wretched life. Hanging, I believe,
was the ultimate way for Dodd to re-en-
act his killing of Lee Iseli. He knew he
would eventually be put to death any-
way, but he wanted to make certain that
he went out under his own terms, still in
“control,” even at the very end.

Much of Dodd’s life involved fantasy
and masturbation, and toward the end,
the fantasies served to enable him to re-
live his most horrendous crimes over
and over. But there was perhaps another

36 True Detective

reason that Dodd chose to die. His only
purpose in life was to have sex with
children and then murder them in the
most horrible ways imaginable, and that
was something he could no longer do
confined to a 10-by-10 prison cell. He
just couldn’t live with that bleak pros-
pect, and Washington State seemed de-
termined to do what it could to help
Dodd bring about his own demise as
quickly as possible.

Weeks earlier, prison officials went to
work sprucing up the *gallows, which
hadn't been used since 1963 when
Chester Self was executed for the mur-
der of a Seattle cab driver in a two-dol-
lar holdup. They painted the walls, and
the mechanical levers that dropped the
trap doors were replaced by electronic
buttons. They even washed the windows
through which witnesses would watch
the proceedings.

On Monday, December 7, 1992, pris-
on officials purchased the rope for the
hanging as well as a black hood. The
rope, made of Manila hemp, was 1%
inches in diameter. Prison officials had
to boil it and stretch it to remove any
stiffness and to ensure that its “spring”
would pose no problem when Dodd
dropped through the trap door. The last
thing they wanted was to have Dodd’s
body bobbing up and down in front of

the witnesses. 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
body. And they also brought in a car-
penter to construct a wooden collapse
board, a device that could be strapped to
Dodd’s back to keep him upright in the
event that he collapsed or became un-
cooperative when ordered to take his
place on top of the trap door.

Finally, at about 8:30 p.m. on January
4th, I drove into the prison parking area
designated for “‘media only.” A fierce
arctic chill was in the air, turning Walla
Walla into a deep freeze.

It was so cold that a planned protest
from anti-death penalty protesters lasted
only 40 minutes outside. Most of the
demonstrators left, I later Icarned, and
took their protest inside a local church
where it was warm. The few who re-
mained behind attempted to scale the
prison’s wall and were promptly ar-
rested, thus accomplishing the same end
of getting inside and out of the cold.

I had arrived early, before the official
9:00 p.m. entry time. After following
the case for more than three years, I was
simply ready to put it behind me. I was

‘near the front of the line and didn’t have

to wait long to get inside. Prison offi-
cials led me in the second group of 10

ee

)IGAN

F terror that
acific North-
Monday, Sep-
vor Day, in
A few minutes

tragic discovery of his n
the brush near a game preserve.

before 7:00 p.m., Dave Miller was
walking along Northwest Andresen
Road, a busy thoroughfare that runs
north and south adjacent to the west side
of David Douglas Park, when he spotted
a mortally wounded child.

The boy appeared to be of Asian or
Indian descent. He lay motionless in a
ditch that runs along a dirt-bicycle trail

D

WASHINGTON STATE’

_PEDOP

in a heavily wooded area of the park.
The area, accessible only by foot or
bike, is not clearly visible from the
park’s more public areas. But Miller had
been able to see the boy from the side of
the road, and he rushed over to see if he
could help.

Miller noticed right away that there
was a lot of blood on the youngster’s

S MOST SADISTIC CHILD STALKER:

HILE

upper torso. Miller’s first impression
was that the boy had been struck by a
car. The child, who appeared to be no
more than 9 or 10 years old, was uncon-
scious but still breathing, which gave
Miller hope that he could be saved.
Without moving the boy, Miller ran as
fast as he could to a store about three
blocks north of the park and called 911.

When officers from the Vancouver
Police Department arrived, they could
immediately tell that the child was a
victim, but certainly not an accident vic-
tim. It was obvious to them that he had
been stabbed repeatedly in the upper
chest!

Because the boy was still alive, at-
tending paramedics felt a glimmer of
hope that he could be saved. Without
wasting a precious minute, they sum-
moned the Life Flight helicopter from
Emanuel Hospital, located just across
the Columbia River in Portland, Ore-
gon. The paramedics did what they
could for the child at the scene. They
then transported him to Fort Vancouver
High School, the nearest site where the
aircraft could safely land. He was
picked up at the school’s large parking
area a few minutes !ater by the helicop-
ter.

The boy was barely breathing as a
nurse and paramedic feverishly treated
his wounds during the short flight to
Portland. However, despite their heroic
efforts, there was just no way to save
him. His injuries were too extensive and
he had lost far too much blood. The
child, who had no identification on him,
was pronounced dead on arrival at the

TROLLED FOR
YOUNG BOYS...

HE USED 3 AS EXPERIMENTS IN TORTURE!

True Detective 17

A RE AT —————

ss

“How do you describe the enormity of the crimes for
which the defendant has pled guilty? What is the

appropriate word? Outrageous? Appalling? Beyond belief?

Horrific?...His one hobby and passion was killing. Plan
child murders. Commit child murders. Relive fantasies
about child murders and write about them in chilling
detail in a murder diary.” This was the argument used
by a prosecutor to fight leniency for the serial killer
who was the terror of the Pacific Northwest...

hospital at 7:37 p.m.

Duane Bigoni, a deputy Oregon state
medical examiner, was assigned to the
case because the child had died in Ore-
gon, even though the attack was be-
lieved to have occurred in Washington

i See? ay
earchers

State. Bigoni concurred with the investi-
gators’ opinion that the child had died
from fatal stab wounds to the chest and
abdomen, but added that a definitive au-
topsy would still have to be done to de-
termine the exact cause of death and

°F

PARK 4

HOME OF
‘COLUMBIA LITTLE LEAGUE

*,

Cole’s body was discovered seven hours after William’s in the park’s heavy brush.

18 True Detective

whether or not there were secondary ©
wounds or signs of sexual attack.

“We have very little information on
this one,” said Bigoni, shaking his head
in disbelief. ““We don’t have an ID on
the kid. We’re hoping someone will
miss him and that way we can get a
name.”

Meanwhile, a few minutes shy of
8:00 p.m., a worried father began
searching the neighborhood adjacent to
David Douglas Park for his two young
sons who had not yet returned home for
dinner from a bicycle ride.

Earlier that day, at about 4:00 p.m.,
10-year-old William Neer and his 11-
year-old brother, Cole, had informed
their father that they were going on one
of their rides to a nearby driving range.
They planned to scavenge for lost golf
balls, for which they were regularly paid
one cent each by the golf course’s man-
ager. The two boys usually spent their
money on baseball cards, model cars
and planes, and candy. They had prom-
ised their father that they would be
home by 6:30 p.m., but they had not yet
returned.

Around 9:00 p:m., following a frantic
street-by-street search that yielded no
trace of the boys or their bikes, and after
being unable to find anyone who had
seen them, the boys’ alarmed father
called the Vancouver Police Department
to report his two children missing.

When word of the missing boys fil-
tered down to the lawmen investigating
the David Douglas Park homicide,
about a dozen police officers, firefight-
ers, and members of the Silver Star
Search and Rescue Team remained at
the scene where the boy’s body had
been found. They planned to spend the
night there.

Fearing that curious onlookers might

[DIGITAL


E WASN’T A bona fide serial killer by FBI standards,
which hold in part that, for a killer to be classified a serial ot
murderer, he must claim three or more e victims i in at least
: three separate “incidents.” a8 -
But for all intents and purposes, he was a Oeeral killer, all right.
He claimed two victims in one incident, another in a second, and
would have committed his fourth murder in a third if he hadn’t
been stopped in the process of carrying out the crime. __
Although he didn’t strike util late summer 1989—at least not as
far as authorities in Oregon and Washington State knew—it would
later become clear that he was in an extended fantasy state during
this period and had been trolling for victims for at least several
months prior to that time, woking up his nerve to begin the | troci
ties he eventually committed. : ‘
Powerless in his closest rele tionships, he had ‘begut ‘searching fo
someone—not just anyone, but someone special—to play his ulti
mate power trip on. He was lurking in the shadows and waiting un-
til just the right moment to strike.
In many ways, he was like the monsters who came before him— __
killers like Ted Bundy, Jerome Brudos, Dayton LeRoy Rogers, the —
Green River killer, and a seemingly endless slew of others. He, like
they, sought out strangers as his victims. But instead of women, the
victims of choice for most sich murderers, this cowardly killer
sought out helpless children, young boys whose trust he managed to
gain with promises of friendship, money, candy, and toys. When it —
was all over, few could dispute that his malignant deeds, perhaps be- .
cause children were involved, proved more savage and emotionally
painful in the eyes of lawmen and the disbelieving Atl tye ee .
of his more notorious predecessors. :
If it can be said that anything good came out of this case, it is fanly o ‘4
that this sexual psychopath, this monster hiding inside a human
shell, was stopped before he could put his nightmarish fantasy into —
full play and snuff out more young lives. Before his. activities were -

by PHILIP MADIGAN

- thwarted, however, he would commit murder with calculated cold- _
% ©bloodedness, terrorize entire communities, and virtually turn the HE REIGN OF terror that
populace of two states inside-out. . sickened the Pacific North-

There are few crimes that have instilled such a high degree of west began on Monday, Sep-
public fear as those committed by this killer, ‘mainly because he > tember 4, 1989, Labor Day, in
struck at pure innocents and left everyone wondering who and — Vancouver, Washington. A few minutes
where he would strike next. No one’s children were safe as long as __
the murderer continued to roam the reeigd ’s streets and stake out
its parks and playgrounds. ;

Young brothets Cole (inset, f and Wil-
“liam Neer fell prey to a Sexugl psycho:
path who ambushed them when they rode
) their bikes through David: Douglas Park.

16 True Detective
FA P

before 7:00 p
walking along
Road, a busy
north and south
of David Doug]!
a mortally wou
The boy app
Indian descent.
ditch that runs

aa

HE U

%.* *

-

rom Veltry Johnson,
Corrections’ public
r, the 12 witnesses
ed out of a door at
oom. From there,
into the prison yard,
sate and across the
red ground into a
, where the gallows
p.m., the witnesses
execution chamber,
separated by glass
itness viewing area.
, Dodd appeared in
on the upper level.
white T-shirt, gray
ind sneakers. After
J any last words, he
microphone:

ed by somebody, I
o, if there was any
ould be stopped. |
.. was wrong when
0 hope, no peace.
€ is peace. I found

* 8 ‘ ‘
‘ an
- ~ aie
awn € ee
‘ “ * oe é
. ae Be
aumiet of .

Dodd’s hanging drew a battery of TV trucks
(I.) to the frozen grounds outside Washington
State Penitentiary (above) in Walla Walla.

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 up-
per-level windows, and a back light was
turned on, cloaking Dodd and the pro-
ceedings in an eerie silhouette. The wit-
nesses below could see the coils in the
noose as one of the executioners, chew-
ing gum, placed the hood over Dodd’s
head. Another executioner positioned
the noose around Dodd’s ncck, setting
the knot just behind his left ear. The
hood was placed over the head to pro-
tect witnesses from seeing the grotesque
facial contortions associated with hang-
ing. Dodd’s hands were tied in front of
him with leather straps, and his legs
were similarly bound together at the an-
kles. Dodd was cooperative and didn’t
waver. He didn’t need the collapse
board after all. The child killer was
ready to die.

Very little time elapsed between
Dodd’s statement and his placement

over the trap door. At a given signal,
one of the hangmen pressed a button,
and, without warning, the trap door be-
neath Dodd’s feet opened with a bang.
In less than a second, Dodd dropped 7
feet, 1 inch, the length of the rope the
hangman had calculated would be
needed to snap Dodd’s neck based on
his height of 5 feet, 9 inches and weight
of 139 pounds.

In was 12:05 a:m. Dodd’s body hung
there in the lower level in full view of
the witnesses for a little more than a
minute before Tana Wood closed off the
screen. Dodd’s body swung slightly, and
small, tense movements could be seen
in his abdomen as well as his hands. His
legs seemed to flex slightly. There was
no squirming, no gurgling, and no
twitching. It seemed to everyonc present
that Dodd died quickly. A doctor pro-
nounced him dead at 12:09 a.m., and his
body was cut down.

An autopsy determined that Dodd’s
neck did not break as the hangman had
planned. Instead, torn nerves and liga-
ments had caused Dodd to lose con-
sciousness quickly, and he’d strangled
to death, just like his last victim.

Dodd’s last wish had been granted.
His body was cremated and turned over
to his family for a private memorial
service. $4

All but forgotten in the media circus

surrounding Dodd’s execution were his
young victims: from top to bottom,
William Neer, Cole Neer, and Lee

es

True Detective

Iseli.

39


went to look for the
ed the lobby, he no-
and saw the theater
2 back inside with
2 him what had hap-
in Outside in pursuit
Or.

down the street, but
aw was Les Wilson,
‘he kidnapper drive
Pinto. After giving
of the suspect and
Mann that the sus-
on Birch Street and
Mann jumped into
| car and went after

| the Pinto. By some
he car was stalled at
venue and Adams
m the entrance to
eads back to Van-
iver was cranking it
started again. Mann
he parking lot of a
then walked over to
¢ approached it cau-
e driver if he needed

‘re having car trou-
inn, speaking to the
tor through the side
00k so good.”” Mann
yuld probably fix the
hat they first get the
er mill’s parking lot.
.ey, were pushing the
d to ask ‘“‘innocent”’
/as Satisfied that the
ie one who had ab-
le the theater.
ie car, the driver
id stood looking at
is back to Mann.
i burly construction
ive. He wrapped his
abductor’s neck in
ind seized the sus-
1 his left hand.
sonofabitch!”’ said
n restrained. We’re
ops.’’ Mann then
several blocks back
re he pinned him
waiting for the po-

n the Camas Police
. they took a State-
those people who
out what had oc-
son not talking was
quietly on the floor
by. After getting
information, the of-
into custody.

During questioning at the police sta-
tion, officers identified the suspect as
Westley Allan Dodd, 28, of Vancouver.
At first, Dodd didn’t provide much in-
formation: just his name, address, and
the fact that he was at the theater to
watch the movie. However, responding
to further questions, Dodd told the offi-
cers that he worked at a paper factory on
Fruit Valley Road in Vancouver. They
noted that the work address Dodd gave
them was near La Frambois Road, not
far from the site where little Lee Iseli’s
nude body was found. Moreover, his
home address was less than a mile from
David Douglas Park!

It was at that point that Westley Dodd
became a suspect in the murders of the
Neer brothers and Lee Iseli. Although
he was advised of his rights, Dodd con-
tinued to talk. To everyone’s astonish-
ment, Dodd confessed to all three
murders and provided information to
the officers that had been withheld de-
liberately from the public. Dodd was
promptly turned over to the Clark Coun-
ty Sheriff’s Department.

Despite a list of 50 possible sus-
pects—all of whom were known sex of-
fenders—developed with the
cooperation of all police agencies in-
volved, investigators admitted that they
were fast running out of clues. The
Camas arrest had been a lucky break in-
deed, a “fluke” according to one police
official, particularly since Dodd’s name
was not on their list of possible sus-
pects.

After being transferred to the Clark
County Jail, Dodd was interviewed by
Detective David L. Trimble, a homicide
investigator for the sheriff’s department.
In a bombshell statement, Westley Dodd
explained how he had killed William
and Cole Neer on Labor Day. He also
told, in graphic detail, how he’d ab-
ducted, killed, and had postmortem sex
with 4-year-old Lee Iseli.

Dodd explained that he’d moved to
Vancouver from Seattle during the sum-
mer and had lived with relatives until he
had saved enough money to rent his
own place. Two days after moving into
a duplex apartment near David Douglas
Park, Dodd sgid he began trolling for
victims.

“T was getting bored—I didn’t have a
television,” said Dodd during taped in-
terviews with Detective Trimble and
several Portland police detectives. He
said he drove to David Douglas Park be-
cause he thought ‘‘it might be a place
where I could find a boy and get it
going.”

He described how he discovered the

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True Detective 69


Necr brothers along the dirt bike paths
on the western edge of the park. He said
he ordered the boys to go with him, but
William asked why they should. Dodd
told the detectives that he responded,
“Because I told you to.”

Dodd said that he tied the boys’
hands with shoelaces, after which he or-
dered Cole Neer to pull down his pants.
When Cole complied, Dodd said he per-
formed oral sex on the boy in the pres-
ence of Cole’s brother. When he was
finished, he ordered William to do the
same thing, but the boy began crying so
hard that he was unable to comply.
Dodd said he attempted to perform fel-
latio on William anyway, but was un-
able to do so.

When he was finished, Dodd told the
children, ‘“‘Okay, there’s one more
thing.” He then raised his pant leg up
and revealed a six-inch fish fillet knife.
Dodd said that the boys, sensing they
were in imminent danger, cried even
harder and begged him, ‘‘Please don’t
kill us, mister!”

“T pulled the knife out from under my
pant leg,’’ Dodd told the detectives.
“Billy was off to my right, about a foot
off of me diagonally. Cole was off on
my left. And I reached over and stabbed
Billy with the knife. Then I turned to
Cole and stabbed him two or three
times, and while I was stabbing Cole,
Billy got up and started to run down the
hill back to the trail. Just—just started
running up the trail towards Andresen
and I ran after him. I didn’t wait to see if
Cole was dead or anything...I wanted to
get Billy before he got to the road. I
caught him and grabbed him by his—
his right arm, stopped, spun him around.
Then Billy said, ‘I’m sorry.’ ” Dodd
said he stabbed Billy again.

At that point, Billy began running
again, but Dodd did not chase after him.
Dodd explained that he was more con-
cerned with returning to Cole’s body to
make certain that he hadn’t left behind
any incriminating evidence. As Dodd
reached his car to head back to his
apartment, he said he could hear sirens
and presumed that Billy Neer had al-
ready been found.

A short time after murdering the Neer
brothers, Dodd said he began thinking
and planning his next attack. He said he
used a map of Portland and marked off
several parks where he thought he could
find children playing alone. The day be-
fore he abducted Lee Iseli, Dodd said he
went to several of the parks where he
contemplated abducting and killing 15
to 20 children. His plans had been un-
successful, however, and he began driv-

70 True Detective

ing back toward his home.

He became lost along the way and
happened to drive by Richmond School.
Although there were children there,
none were playing alone, so he left in an
agitated state, frustrated and disap-
pointed. But he returned the following
day, Dodd said, and found Lee Iseli
playing by himself near the volcano.

“T went up to the little boy and said,
“Hi! How you doing?’ ” Dodd told the
detectives. “I asked him if he wanted to
make some money and play some
games. He was a little hesitant, but I
reached out my hand and he took it.”
Dodd said he told Lee that his dad had
sent him to pick him up, and they drove
off together in Dodd’s Pinto.

After driving a few blocks, Dodd said
Lee began protesting that he didn’t live
in the direction they were heading.

““T said, ‘Well, we’re going to my
house.’ ”’ Dodd said the child began
crying a few times on the way to Van-
couver, but he was able to calm him
down.

“When we got there [to Dodd’s ‘apart-
ment], I told him he had to be real quiet
because my neighbor lady didn’t like
kids,”” Dodd continued. Once inside,
Dodd ordered the boy to remove all his
clothing. Dodd said he spent the next
several hours molesting Lee and taking
Polaroid pictures of him.

“I asked him if he’d like to stay the
night and he said no, that his brother
would probably miss him. And I said,
‘Nah. Your brother is probably having
fun, too.’ ”

Dodd said he told Lee that he was
sorry he didn’t have any toys for him to
play with. He then promised to take Lee
to a nearby K-Mart store and buy him a
He-Man toy and to McDonald’s for din-
ner if he’d agree to stay. Dodd said the
child eventually agreed.

Dodd said he molested the little boy
throughout the night and at one point
told the child he was going to kill him
the next morning. When the boy became
frightened and began to cry, Dodd said
he tried to reassure Lee by telling him
that he wouldn’t kill him. Dodd then
graphically described how he killed Lee
Iseli at 5:30 on the morning of October
30th, before he left for work.

‘So I took a piece of rope and
wrapped it around his neck and I pulled
it tight,” said Dodd, in a chilling, fright-
eningly matter-of-fact tone. “I figured
I’d probably been trying to choke him
for two minutes or so already, and I
didn’t know how much longer it was
going to take, so using the rope, I car-
ried him over to the closet and tied the

end of the rope up around the clothes
rack in the closet and left him hanging
there. Then I took a picture of it.”

Because he didn’t want to “hurt the
boy...cause him any pain,” Dodd said he
waited until after the child was dead be-
fore engaging in anal intercourse.

What did he do with the corpse when
he went to work? Did he dump it at the
La Frambois Road location where it was
found? The detectives didn’t have to
press Dodd very hard for answers.

Dodd calmly explained that he placed
the boy’s corpse on a shelf in the closet
and concealed it by placing pillows and
other items in front of it “just in case the
landlady decided to come in and have a
look around.”

When he returned home that evening,
Dodd wrapped the boy’s body in a plas-
tic garbage bag and took it to the loca-
tion where it was found, near Vancouver
Lake. He said he then burned the child’s
clothing in a barrel outside his apart-
ment, but retained the boy’s underpants.
Police knew that the underpants served

A sex offender
slipped through
the cracks...

as a “trophy” of his kill.

Armed with search warrants, homi-
cide probers converged on Westley
Dodd’s duplex apartment in the 9800
block of Northeast Third Street in Van-
couver. During the lengthy search, in-
vestigators found a briefcase that
contained photographs in a pink 4-by-6-
inch album. Many of the photos showed
Dodd engaging in deviant sexual acts
with Lee Iseli before and after the boy’s
death. One of the pictures depicted the
boy hanging from a rope inside the clos-
et.

Sleuths also seized a pair of boy’s un-
derpants, a diary, plastic garbage bags, a
Polaroid camera, a roll of undeveloped
but exposed 35mm film, several vol-
umes of “Parent-Child” books, sections
of Dodd’s bed frame with pieces of rope
attached, and numerous newspaper clip-
pings about the murders of the Neer
brothers and Lee Iseli. They also took a
copy of the New Testament, still in its
original box.

As a matter of routine, investigators
took a number of vacuum sweepings

from Dodc
for hair an
seized bed
from the bi
ment.

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the deaths «
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ctives didn’t have to
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lis kill.
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ohs in a pink 4-by-6-
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lastic garbage bags, a

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aurders of the Neer
eli. They also took a
Testament, still in its

‘outine, investigators
vacuum sweepings

from Dodd’s apartment in their search
for hair and fiber evidence. They also
seized bedding, as well as the ashes
from the burn barrel outside his apart-
ment.

A short time later, Westley Dodd was
charged with three counts of aggravated
first-degree murder in connection with
the deaths of the three boys. Prosecutor
Art Curtis said he would seek the death
penalty and would try the case in two
separate trials. One trial would be for
the death of Lee Iseli, the other for the
deaths of William and Cole Neer. That
way, explained Curtis, he would have
two shots at getting the death penalty
for Dodd.

Dodd was also charged with one
count each of first-degree attempted
kidnapping and first-degree attempted
murder in the Camas theater case in-
volving Tommy Staley. Despite his con-
fession to police, Dodd pleaded ‘‘not
guilty” to all of the charges. Vancouver
attorney Lee Dane was appointed to
represent him.

When the detectives fanned out in
Dodd’s neighborhood in their attempt to
build a stronger, more solid case against
their suspect, they found a neighbor
who told them she recalled observing
Dodd arrive home with a small blond
boy about the time Lee Iseli disap-
peared.

“T thought nothing of it at the time,”
said the neighbor. She said the boy was
no more than five or six years old and
was wearing a lightweight jacket. ““My
feelings are asking me now if this was
the little Iseli child...I don’t even want
to think about it,”’ she said.

Dodd’s landlord told detectives that
Dodd was ‘‘real nice, real helpful” to
her. She said she didn’t know much
about him and did not notice anything

“suspicious about his activities. “He paid

his rent on time,” she said. She also told
the investigators that she discussed the
Neer murders with Dodd right after the
two brothers were killed. ‘‘He told me
he hoped they caught the man who did
it. He seemed concerned about it.”

When the detectives began checking
out Westley Dodd’s background, they
were told by the owner of the paper
company where Dodd worked as a ship-
ping clerk that the murder suspect was a
model employee. He was very conscien-
tious about his work and never missed a
day since he started there.

““He was the last person you’d sus-
pect,’’ said one company official.
“There was total shock’’ at the plant

when employees were told of Dodd’s ar-

rest. “It was absolutely devastating. If

you had a man who didn’t miss a day of
work, was willing to work weekends,
was very sharp, articulate, and diligent,
what would you think? The supervisors
here were looking for ways to promote
him.”

Westley Dodd had an oniinous past,
detectives soon learned, and had some-
how managed to slip between the cracks
in the system that was supposed to pro-
tect decent citizens from such predatory
animals. Dodd, it seemed, had left a
long trail of sex offenses, all involving
children, and was no stranger to law en-
forcement in the state of Washington.

Born in Toppenish, Washington, on
July 3, 1961, Dodd’s family had moved
to Kennewick when he was 3 years old.
The rest of his life was marked by fre-
quent family moves and the eventual di-
vorce of his parents. Although Dodd
was bright and had an avid interest in
music, he held mostly low-paying jobs
throughout his life.

By the time Dodd reached age 12, he
began to develop a sexual attraction to-
ward young boys. By age 16, he began
seeking frequent sexual contact with
children, mostly boys. Police talked to
him on a few occasions, but there was
never enough evidence to bring forth
formal charges. At law enforcement’s
prodding, Dodd began voluntary coun-
seling but quickly dropped out of a pro-
gram for young sex offenders.

Dodd graduated from Columbia High
School in Richland, Washington, in
1979 with a 3.0 grade point average, af-
ter which he worked as a stock boy for a
local grocery store. The following year
he was arrested for soliciting sex from a
minor, but the case was dismissed.

Looking for a change, Dodd enlisted
in the U.S. Navy during the summer of
1981. He was sent to Groton, Connecti-
cut, where he was trained for submarine
duty. After training, he was stationed at
the Bangor Naval Station in Bangor,
Washington, where he began spending a
lot of his free time at local arcades prop-
ositioning 7- to 10-year-old boys.

In June 1982, Dodd went AWOL and
attempted to solicit a sexual act from a
9-year-old boy at a Richland play-
ground. In August of that same year, the
Navy found and arrested Dodd at Camp
Burton, a music camp in King County
near Seattle, on charges of child mo-
lestation stemming from the June inci-
dent. He received a less than honorable
discharge from the Navy.

A few months later, in December,
Dodd lured a young Benton City, Wash-
ington, boy from a playground and con-
vinced the child to undress. He was

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Truc Detective 71


arrested and pleaded guilty the follow-
ing month. He was ordered to partici-
pate in a counseling program.

Failing to meet the conditions of his
court-ordered counseling, Dodd served
23 days in jail. After his release, he
moved to Lewiston, Idaho, where he en-
gaged in sexual acts with a 9-year-old
boy on at least two occasions. Nearly a
year later, the boy’s parents reported the
incidents to police and Dodd was con-
victed of lewd conduct with a minor. He
was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Al-
though he served time in the Nez Perce
County Jail, Dodd’s sentence was re-
duced to time served. He was released
after he agreed to attend an outpatient
program for sex offenders under the ju-
risdiction of the state of Idaho.

In 1986, Dodd moved back to Rich-
land, Washington, where he sexually
abused a 4-year-old neighbor boy over a
period of five months. Again, Dodd es-
caped receiving any significant punish-
ment for his deviant actions.

By the fall of 1986, Dodd was living
and working as a truck driver in Seattle.
In June of the following year, he at-
tempted to lure a young boy into a va-
cant building. Luckily, the boy escaped,
but Dodd was arrested and convicted of
attempted unlawful imprisonment, a
misdemeanor. He was incarcerated until
October, at which time he was put on
probation and ordered to undergo treat-
ment again.

When his probation expired in the fall
of 1988, Dodd quit the treatment pro-
gram despite objections from officials
who said he was far from being cured.
Dodd was employed for the next several
months at a gas station/store, a job he
had held while on probation, where he
was trusted and well liked by his co-
workers who, of course, knew nothing
about his child molestations.

Alone and strapped for money, Dodd
moved in with relatives in Vancouver in
late July 1989. On September Ist, he
moved into his own apartment. Within
days, children began turning up mur-
dered.

During a jailhouse interview with this
writer following his arrest, Westley
Dodd confessed that he would have
killed the Seattle boy had the boy not
escaped. He explained that this had been
the first incident in which he had formed
the intention to carry out a murder. Un-
fortunately, it had not been his last...

N MONDAY, June 11, 1990,
Dodd appeared in Clark Coun-
ty Superior Court for a hearing

before Judge Robert Harris. In a move

72 True Detective

that took authorities by surprise, Dodd,
against the vigorous objections of his at-
torney, announced that he wanted to
change his pleas from not guilty to
guilty. In low monotones, Westley Dodd
confessed his crimes in court.

““On September 4, 1989, I went to
David Douglas Park with the premedi-
tated intent to cause the death of a hu-

man being,” said Dodd, reading from a _

prepared statement. “I met Cole Neer. I
raped Cole Neer, and then I killed him. I
also at about the same time murdered
William Neer.”

He told the judge that he took a knife
with him to the park with the intent of
raping and murdering a child. He said
he committed the murders to conceal his
identity from the police. Dodd said that
after killing the Neer brothers, he felt a
sense of fear but soon overcame it.

“T was nervous. I was kind of afraid
that I was going to get caught. And then
as I watched the papers I realized that
the police didn’t have any clues. I start-

The suspect
described Satan
as a “Love God.”

ed feeling a little bit more confident and
realized I could do it and get away with
it. The next step would be to actually
kidnap a boy.

“On October 29, 1989, I kidnapped
Lee Iseli from Portland and drove him
to my apartment in Vancouver. I raped
him, and on the morning of October
30th, I murdered Lee Iseli.”

Judge Harris asked Dodd if the kill-
ing had occurred on the spur of the mo-
ment, on a whim.

“No, sir,” Dodd responded. “It was
premeditated.”

Dodd also admitted that when he at-
tempted to kidnap Tommy Staley from
the Camas theater, it was his intention to
rape and then murder the boy.

Although Dodd’s admission of guilt
made it unnecessary for the state to con-
tinue with a trial for a guilt or innocence
determination, it was still necessary to
empanel a jury to decide whether Dodd
should be sentenced to death or life in
prison. By pleading guilty, Dodd had re-
linquished the right to appeal many of
the legal issues of the case, including
whether the warrants used to search his

apartment and car were legal and
whether the confessions he made to po-
lice were valid.

The following month, after a jury of
six men and six women were seated,
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Roger Bennett
began presenting the case. He took the
jurors step by step through the case,
from the heinous killings to Dodd’s con-
fessions to the defendant’s lurid past. He
showed them grisly photographs of the
victims and a 20-minute video made by
police of the scene when Lee Iseli’s
body was found.

But perhaps the most chilling part of
the proceedings was that focusing on
Westley Dodd’s diary, which detailed
the killings, his future plans to kill chil-
dren, and a pact he made with Satan,
which he described as a “Love God,” to
help him achieve his murderous goals.

Prosecutor Bennett explained that”
Dodd’s handwritten diary showed that

he “planned to engage in a large num-
ber of long-term kidnappings and mur-
ders of young children.”

Bennett said Dodd’s writings showed
a desire to “torture children before he
killed them.” The prosecutor produced
schematic drawings from Dodd’s diary
that depicted a rack which he could use
to tie up and immobilize his victims so
that he could perform “experimental
surgery” and dismember the children
while they were still alive. His plans
were to surgically remove parts of their
sex organs while the children were con-
scious.

Dodd’s diary told of numerous ways
in which he could murder children.
Some he planned to strangle, others he
intended to suffocate. Still others would
be drowned or poisoned. He referred to
the planned deaths as his ‘‘experi-
ments.”

Prosecutor Bennett showed the jurors
a map of David Douglas Park, drawn by
Dodd, and an entry in his diary that said
the park would be a “‘good place for
rape and murder, or kidnap, rape and
murder...a good hunting ground.” Dodd
also wrote in his diary that he “got more
of a high out of the killing than the mo-
lesting.”

“Cole and William Neer died in
David Douglas Park on Labor Day as
victims of ‘the hunt,’ ” said Prosecutor
Art Curtis, his voice often cracking with
emotion. “‘At least twenty other chil-
dren avoided death through fate that
weekend alone. Do you wonder where
those children are? Who are the lucky
ones?

“Lee Iseli met a friend at the play-
ground, a nice man who wanted to buy

him a toy, wante
money,’” continu:
did what we teac
do....Little did he
happily at Mr. D
night before his «
was sitting, writin

Prosecutor Curt
from the diary: ‘
playing. Will prob
ing to kill him. |
now. That way his
ly fresh for experi

Arguing agains
Curtis told jurors t!
for them to consic
niency.

“Must I remind

_ he asked. ‘“‘How

enormity of the cri
fendant has pled gi
propriate wor
Appalling? Beyon
is difficult to belie
capable of fanta
crimes.”

“Look at what }
in his free time,” «
Bennett told the ji
panel that Dodd’s

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Tha ROUSE §


VANCOUVER, Wash.
Child-killer Dodd asks
to be executed quickly

Convicted child-killer Westley
Allan Dodd says he wants a
hangman to execute him, the
same: way he killed his final
victim.

-Dodd, 29, was sentenced to
death by a Clark County Superior
Court’ jury on Saturday for the
sexually motivated murders of
three young boys. He talked yes-
terday to news anchor Mike Dona-
hue of KOIN-TV in Portland, Ore., |
about his’ wish to be executed |
without delay.

“Last month just about every
night I start thinking about the
boys,” Dodd told KOIN, referring
to- brothers. Cole Neer, 11, and
William, 16, of Vancouver, and
Lee Iseli, 4, of Portland, Ore.

“I don’t wanf‘ to sit there on,
Death Row thinking about those:
things,” Dodd told KOIN. |

Execution in Washington is by |
lethal injection or by hanging, and |
Dodd told KOIN he would ask for |
a hanging.

SEATTLE
POST « INTELLIGENCER

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1[/3 [42
ithe



his Northwest
en received

yount of goods vag
sent of our sale

-of dovars worth?
as heretoiore,

Se allowed on a.

stock.

‘al attention to “hss
? Dress Goods, 472%
and most fash--
syual of which®:
the city, and
nsider that we =
- irom 25 to 50:
“he sare goods:'*
-- it hehooves all
ow prices...
-ared Stiks and
: prices you:
incredibie-
Neclewear. 3 :
Corsets, +H
sis Immense
to vay retail
G3 when theyné
: jobbers’ rates. “ee

the Ic

ius’, ™) sses’ and:
‘an Hosiery is:

races ail the nov-

“all tolavin a
rs seasen.
ecial atention
assorted stock
ads chiidren’s
“ich we sell at
2nG guarantee
“rcent less than
fe boughe else
orninz in. this

“of trom the best 7%

7s, youths’ and

‘ut complete and

ments [0

those
vs tor the least

Groceries, To.
Otis
, COST.

* too chests of +%

own importation,» °

ae eal to “ws

ota

> 0)
ale

has

, hanged Walla Walla,

The Daly J saad

Ww ALLA WALLA,.W. T.

“Cureeat otiecing for wheat, to- -day, 75
ents pet bushel.

TUESDAY, NOV. <20, "1883, .

*

A large javoice of W allowa sbutter, nice
and fresh, at Esteb & Martin’s.: 79tf

For a nice cigar and a quiet evening go
to Snodgrass & Taylor’s. whist’ partors. “tf

Railroad shipping receipts bound in can-
ens for sale at the Pioneer Book Bindery.
Tom Tierney has a choice article of bail-
ed hay that he wilt sell as’ cheap as: any-
pody. 3 47-18
AtSam Creger’s you can buy the: best
clothing in the city for the least’ money.
Call and see. a3-Im
For a nice carriage and team and trusty
driver, call on Joha Leverton at the Cali-
fornia Stable. - . 44tl

At the Aurora Hotel everything is nice,
new and clean, A Now 1 cook | as also a
prominent feature. ee ete 6

Those desiring artistic papering . and
painting done by first-class.. workmen and
at satisfactory rates, call on H. O.. Simonds,
near Mabry’s on Alder streetes07.8/ 0 tf

For insurance that insures call on. Daven-
port & Paxton, who. represent’ some of the
strongest companies doing business. on the
‘coast, both English and American.» ..tf

New goods in smail lots arriving every
few days, fresh; clean, new;) and: strict at+
tention paid to*cusiomers,*by» John. F.
McLean, 22 Main street, W fala. Walla, zot!

Beer in mind that. E.:'Vz Eversz, of: the
Pioneer Furniture - Store,.!.has>the- finest
selection of bed-room suites and. parlor fur-
niture ever carried in this city, at grea tly
reduced rates-:; ; Ray by tf

Go to the-St: Nicholas Restaurant in the
Mix building on Third street between Main
and Alder. ~ A square meal ata low oe
White labor alone employed. - ,

tf J. H. East, Proprietor.

Messrs. Nye & Frank, 254 Main street.
are the W alla Walla agents for the Portland
house of Bradley & Doheny . in the sale of
belting, lace- -leather, packing, hose, etc.,
and carry a fall-stock of -goods. of this
kind. “2 fieyges. §2-Im

Mr. J. HL. East, fodenesty of they New
York Restaurant, has handsomely fitted up
roums in the Mix building on Third street
for the “St. Nicholas,” where. he will be
happy to see his old friends. and the public

generally.

Now that cold weather is a it
stands all persons well in~ hand ‘to prepare
for it. . If those who have not: yet comple-
ted homes, or have homes -that are not as
warm as they might be, will put. at least
one thickness of the building paper that
Offield & Denker, No. 9," First street, are
able to supply, they will find’ that it.will
add astonishingly to. the comfort of their
houses. Give them a call. Sete tl

A visit to the jewelry sicslNiaentins of Z.

Straight will satisfy anyoue, even the most
exacting connoisseurs, that his selections of
jewelry are such as to: denote a more than
ordinary taste. This is true of the stock in
general, but he has among his late invoices
some rings whose settings are carved with
such exquisite grace and superior work*
manship,. that they. would find admirers
among the patrons of the famous houses in
the large cities. He courts criticism of his
wares and cordially invites those who are
lovers of fine engraving and carvings to
call and inspect his specimens. tt

There is no place between Portland and
St. Paul that can rival Walla Walla in the
size or cleanliness of butcher shops. The
character of their stocks. are all rhat the
hungry or dainty coulddemand. Any. day
the passer-by can see hang sing in the well
known and deservediy popular establisi-
ment of Chris. Enais & Co. a dozen or ff-
teen carcasses of as nice. and fat cattle,
sheep and hogs as can be found in any city
or country. Now that game is coming in
soon, their dispiay of venison and game in
season will be most tempting.» Take this
house all in all, we doubt if Portland can
excel or even equal it. ; u

Take Notice.

All persons meee to the old firm “ol
Evans & Witt will please call at my office
in Baumeister’s eiidine and settle ac-
counts without delay. L. B. Hanson...

wei ies Wanted. 2. 000,

A- purchaser fora Now second-hand
business: A bargain if applied for at once,
and no mistake. [am bound to sell either
at whoiesaie or retath.. M. F. eds

They Have. ave Come..,: Stays
“That ar. load of - “fine heating and. cook

payor at) ans cor

drunk ; he had seen him go to the bar but
Wilson said |

| Hagerty well and had no enmity towards

QUICK WORK.

Trial of Elius for:the Killing of
Dan. Haggerty--A" Verdict
. of. Murder -in ihe
First Degree. --

‘+ John Elfus was arraigned in the district
court Monday afternoon to stand trial for
the killing of Daniel Haggerty at Prescott
on the morning of Oct..27. George T.
Thompson. appeared for the -prosecution
and Messrs. L. B. Hanson and R. H.
Ormsbee for the defence.» The following
named were impanelled as jurors: A. J.

Newton, W. . J Scott; John Dobson, J. N.

Fall, William Cummins, ..R. N. McLean,
Jasper Howard, C. Kesner, J. -H. Ker-
shaw, J. A. Martin, John Dewar and A. S.
Legrow.

Mr. Ormsbee,. on behalf of the defence,
stated that they would not deny the killing
or plead insanity: or self-defense; they
would only ask of the jury a true verdict
according to the testimony and the mange
of the judge.

- Clarence: Cusker, CG W. * Griswold,
Clarence... Wilson, . O:. D.: Tabor, E.. F.
Tice, Richmond Tice-and A..M. Johnson,
witnesses for the prosecution, were exam-
ined and gave testimony which did not dif-
fer in any material point from the accounts
of: the. shooting, heretofore gerard by
this paper, :

Mr. Cusker testibied teat ‘Elfus was not

Mr.
that about“1§ persons. were in the. saloon. at
the time he ejected Elfus ; while he was
there Elfus did not drink at the bar, but he
judged by actions .that. Elfus - had been
drinking ; Haggerty - not _ to Elfus
at all. *

once during the: night.

‘E. F.: Tice, whe lives about’ two miles
from Prescott, said: that. while he -was
hitching up his horses at 6 a, M., the 27th,
Elfus came to his house and asked to be
taken to Walla Walla; Eltus told that he
had. shot Dan -Haggerty . because . Dan
ordered him put out of the saloon-—that he
didn’t. know how. he could have missed, as
he was. not two feet from Dan when he
shot ; wanted to. go to. Walla Walla to get
a fair trial, as justice for him. couldn’t be
had in Prescott where he had had one trial;
Elfus. paid: $10: for the: ride, saying he

would have no.use for the money.

The defence introduced the EDISON,
who, being swom, said’: My name is Joho
Elfus ; I was born in Germany ; have been
in this country 12 years and in this territory
about a year, at Touchet, Dry Creek and
Prescott ;. I. have: been at’
January 7th last,:.working in a hotel for a
man. - named - Foster; tending bar ;; on
October 27th. was tending bar for’ Mr.
Anderson, right across. the road from Dan
Haggerty’s; amaa came into our saloon
whose name, I understand now, was Man-
ning ; he refused to pay for the drinks ; he
called me all kinds of names and struck
me a ‘pretty fair struck;” he was pushed
out ; I told them I would close.up ; I went
to Haggerty’s and asked him for the money
he owed me; I sawhim playing cards; I
had been drinking and got into an alterca-

Prescott since

tion with. him; I. was put out twice—
shoved out pretty roughly; I had nothing
against Mr. Haggerty; I went over there
to collect the 50 cents this man owed me;
I don’t know how I yot hold of the gun; I
do not remember whether I said anything
or not when I was put out ; after I was put
out I got the gun; it seemed to me some-
thing told me toshoot in there; the road
looked like empty space and made me feel
if I didn’t shoot I would be thrown in the
space; then, when I shot, something
pulled the gun out of my hands and I ran
and came to Walla Walla.

The witness was very incoherent and

talked wildly and expressed himself as be- |
‘ing indifferent to his fate ;» he said that he
would as leave be hungas to lead the*same:
kind of a life, he had so far lived? < He
stated, on cross- -examination, that ‘he knew

him; that. he: “supposed | Haggerty ° had

under one head.or “the other, » After five

| minutes’ retirement the jury brought in a

verdict of murder in.the first degree.

, Elfus appeared indifferent throughout the
trial and the announcement of the verdict
seemed not to affect his cvmposure. ; ;

PERSONAL. ;

Wilbur Jesse, auditor ‘of Columbia
county, is in the city to-day. :

My. Frazier, of Dry Creek, .one 2 of the
pioneer excursionists,. has arrived home.

Capt. J. M. Gorman, ‘proprietor of the
Norton House,- Portland, is in the city. ‘

Wm. Jones -arrived from Portland’ this
‘Afternoon... He reports business dull at the
inland seaport.

Reveille, Baker City, 15: Mr. Theo. Mas-
kelyne, of Boise City, passed through on the
luwer stage this morning for Walla Walla.

. The following-named are at the Deimon-
ico: Philip Cox, Colfax; Mrs. Murlan,
Prescott; C.. Griffith and A,.G. White, Tu-
cannon; J. R. Starrie,. Waitsburg; E. S.
Kellogg and Sol Hardman, Eureka Flat.

M. Sauer, Mt. Idaho; L. Wheelan, Pendle-
ton; E. C. Walker, Weston; F..0. McCoy,

Grant’s- Station; John Polly, F.. Roland
Yakima;. J. F. and, C, C.. Hubbard, Day-
ton;. C...Wilson, Waitsburgs. are: vat: “the
Stine, House. :

. Aesthetic. Py ogress.

“The ‘wipes and finest show of Christmas
goods. ever made in Walla...Walla.will decs
orate the shelves and counters.of our deal-
ers this season... The trade. in fancy goods
here is constantly’ increasing, ~and elegant
and high-priced articles in this line, which,
a few years ago, could not have - been. dis-
posed. of, now find ready ‘sale. A local
dealer tel!s that, last fall, he purchased a
number of toilet sets,.including two extra
fine ones, which he..marked at. $25 each,
and that, while the cheaper grades were
easily sold, these remained on hand till the
day before Christmas when’ both were
taken and a dozen more of the same kind
would have gone off in the hot-cake style.
His exhibit this year will. include a couple.
of much finer'sets, valued at $60 apicce.
Verily, nothing is too rich for Walla Walla
blood, OH Wt Re ters

~* Asotin County Organization. a
~The commissioners of the new county
of Asotin met last week and appointed. the
following officers: Sheriff. Jno, L. Vinson;
Assessor, H.
S. Bennet; School Superintendent, Chas.
Goodwin; Treasurer, J. J. Kenawyer; Sur-
veyor, Jackson: O’Keefe; Coroner, AZJ.
Allen; Sheep Commissioner, S. T. Jones.
O’Keefe, Allen and Jones refusing to serve,
Messrs. Cling, Robinson ’and Tuttle were
appointed to fill their respective offices. T.
M. E. Schank’s new store building at Aso-
tin is used as_ the temporary court house.
At last accounts the appoint: of audito
had not been made. :

‘Charges Favoritism. tod

Mr. John Bryant charges favoritism. in

the awarding of a contract to. Mr. Petry,

par bik kA the following duly, sub-
mitted:

WALLA WALLA, Ww. T°
Nov. 19, 1883. see
To the Committee’ on Streets and Public
Improvements of Walla Walla,..W. T.:
Gentlemen:—I will do the work on silt |
Creek as per the specifications, for twenty
dollars less than any other bid placed in the
hands of the city clerk prior to five o’clock
p. M. of this date. Jour BryYANnrT.

geanct Moore of the Us S} Signal Service,
we Jearn that.a disastrous ‘fire: was raging in
Lewiston at.9:30 this morning-;- The block
known as China town is entircly “destroyed.

Tos. Alexander’s store was. in great danger

Jas.. Meek, Warrens, Idaho; A. Large,.

Wamsley; Probate Judge, S..

i Checoicie: ‘Dayton, ‘ Nov.: 19: From Ser-:

A nice
ley Eich]
Don’t
rink Thu:
‘Lewis '
‘on the C:
For fin
See their
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at Vic Li
use a spt
» Garvi
center of
was caug
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of wheat
and 30 4
50 car-lo
In the
Dunn, d
Bronson
paying
sent up
Postn
Meat €
Wright,
Smith”
ed. whe
“At th
Taylor
ther Sh.

[tere ¢T

the bri
hime
for Sead
The
is take’
improp
the fad
one. ca
use of
should
It is
the ma
sched
from
day, 8
and a
This
the be
perien
Ald

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for thd
sayin
prepa
will rq
they
deale:
here ¢
prepa
Mr
thoug!
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and t
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was


5ae OR AGE ag | c Pa sya FE bang

wie,

De ane Song NTE bMou (St Carre 7 ioe ahaa. - ;
Lirk. Enceg Bb Mel: 1 hae Oh. nan pet word, lee Pikiaalted fad"

Y ckeaganedd A EE Fe Circle Own im sae lial ado fv thre fro + Aigpliicl
Hitcerdlos | 2-2-1898 |

4 Muwe JtLrceritroo-t
raed

hitol lo-wked yor hnecevroont Lt Leg taspy, S ectire dN oF
&Z0, Q0 ES

Se
“i epalid ta? sft, t é Lael dosed f lore, juadlgesesset yar
aaklea Cru nerning oY taser Gs

peter

fs he Cf Leck ph LZA2

Zs aS Aho | , es ya
At Liubee faves, ee eed (eed & 5 Lane te bf: 2 fron !

Lgl  acsacrnth eid be hand he Meee fy Let PREG

fli arrsat Abesypted auiside Lg per crag leached wn GAne. hhctarcud

tee Maca Ad dia of estesh Ve, bop Pbespbihbinate

cut Prin cule teh uholad net hibpcd bo
es tts th ric fecal, Ax juacrided

baeyecfea vA $450


frchut (Bet)

past patty Fok fear hoe Wf fo-/92F

RECORD

TU OE at Pie en |40G8 jf |Ra_E . {METH

I-SO Kifke

OTIVE

SYMOPSIS

bul, J Ai se ad L hess Aten fake. Stoned
bet beverg bo Le SILT Fn Wsergh Len Howr S Bl3 trtro?
luts ie fo wLew Meu lew > bgp Legtecns | Adee Qeheeracd
CAzanued deat: SYA elie 4 Mhise Keon oe as litte bed aete
COLUuLg but lL, Ail tukiek bs eee Keeat, [7 Lacllet Libeteeg
hor ier eg Les Meare ttleeLed Gece foe Baik, f Plater
Out bdo, Ha lie, Thu breur B brbeos aL ibn fpr dad:
fbi ee t odtewe pel Zaz ba) Lased 2 Lh f hema
Lyte se bith tir lerteiod A huclerrrgte hedby, He
Take A aypeheh A hey sido fact lla 7
Loch har ferccewtral finur lifter ttn [i fat: 750k kerk fas
Rearized preverasl tiotiee. “ah bearvict Yee. earns les Lhe pnk.
toe tiga Yh boa fp AB load log eenbuspe abe Atel F aocsulleds
t be Aefrcaed [i ears. Sho herd ay /-3/

had Age Le tell, Phe tard ho Cad
at” 4 tifrleaho. tetas - lLvas AG Lid Aroes WA A2.__

Phe tune Bethins Ligsstr: Lbatiued ko twas hrc ar Yeo’

TRIAL

APPEALS

LAST WORDS

EXECUTION

RANK NEWTON OFFICE SUPPLY-OOTHAN

eagle ak ens’ aif an

ee ele


Bye
St Fa 9 Fas,

Supreme

ho wise:
A ih a

; ‘nected: with tht ase this -.morning
‘ ‘brought’ only: one - reply, “y. don’ t
0. know anything about itv’) ss 0

+ bee

ae. that: ‘he Jinew. ‘abpoluiv'y, nothing: of

any- ‘arrangements... “Morticians’ ‘in |S
4 the: ity ;th{s| morning tad: received | 2
hal BO-natice of any- intention - to-return
: the ;remains- to’ Vancouver. 5;
“Ta ‘the event that no move-is ae 5
claim Luther "'s body, burial!

: isi! re like’ to £in

LUTHER BAKER
pes pile wal

; Pe: Side ~omas

Sinezeabouts <

4 Tf. there. are “funeral varrangements
tor; Titthe?,. Baker,” the™ zinformation:
was’ ‘Known “Ony Oa. few. persons! |
Bere ¥today. | Taiquiries ~ among ~‘in-
dividuals: “who been closely con-

ven ° Tea, Paker{nephew. of Luth-
er. send “co-defendant. -in‘' the murder
tial? / declérea. that -he“ is in zignor- {1

ito she: said from his’ “hospital cot in
Hillerest sgpitariim..- “I, don't even.
know “who would. now, unless it’s
Elmer: He’ 's “been: “fooking > after |
things: -But Ly eis
‘him myself.’
> Burial May Be at Walla Walla”
‘ “Edwin® ‘Baker,-the, ‘fourth. peathien:
ds said” t6: ybe somewhere in the White
At 3 “Wo: 9

here: sto:

Ser ear wats. om aa ene

Cthere ; Phave arrangements “for such
3 Bee
i hie gt Crime Occurred 22*Months Ago

a don't: know: a word -about. F

nit cnow where. he. i

interments,, it“4s believed:

“Phe interment will.-.be = the-

éases.
Mors: than. 22. months: “have:

oe

ote

5} thersBaker_walked . to th @ gal-
“Vows:and. died.: "3 ;

.[oell, Hewes moreshaken than ..
». {the man. | wha.climbed.the thir.”
; teen steps: tee: =
|e: > Tongs:

fon

of Concetning- the “qa rder. presi

Sentence; ‘Funeral. “Are sae eS

es fO8 agit a

(STATES WALLA. Wn: ai Ma.

29.—(UP)—Silently. 01a. Lu-

ceeat

. “The trap was sprung. vat. 4: 34°.

‘Va, m.:today and-at-4:46°a. m.

physicians said life: had left
the spare frame..’ 2
The cbt ie Ne
er; 60°years old, was killed ‘for
shooting - Sheriff *. Lester.. L.
Wood: of. Clark county in May,
1927. :

ts. Seis

Only a tea: ‘yards: Pee the’
‘gallows. Ellis: Baker; brother °

of. the: executed= “man, ee ,
pris ment |

erry

wn orl wate

is

Elis: Baker wwas +

= The’ brothers: swere permitted to -
spend“ a. haif hour, together. ‘during -

ly, the.silence that..bas amarked. their..

final pisperaticna’

‘logked, atethe- spectators’ cwith®:
te | ase ery

\:Hoped. For. Connmatation =

fee

¥ ; sentence fromtGovern

Rect Se a

didn’

ter ryenc, en takeit! agit

! ewe Bika

a: Baker's >boay™ was placea™

tak

£EBs. py ettis 2,

Bk ‘peniténtiary «Morgue, - It. ¥ was Sex op

+| pected ‘to “be .taken-bacit.t3,

Biames
on
ps Sint ae

" ver. for burial.

-Fangements Unknown: shit

ake ta: _his cell” =
ei during: the “execution$He,. too, was -
- | silent, and: he: sat;alone-
final
act in the month-long, cpurse. of one,
of: - Clark. county’s~ “biggest < murder
-It has been: along action:

= x4

the ‘wight\tut they- broke. only brief-

ee ‘the babes saan 24

a3 stThen. before the howed seas ofa &
*;dozen “witnesses,” the Sprison~ @haplain *'
: raved. in. a faitering | voice £

“for cme.” “He. “told* ‘Coviate short i
‘Vdays< ago that’ if- ‘Governor r Hartley 4

Ss

a
+t

gay

Luther

BAKER, han ged Washington

(Clark) 3-29-1929,

-(FromvANGOUVER - -COLUMBIAN....:

r vf. lynch Jov-im-that~springtime “day:

as, ithe, appa Was yo-heard ‘November
pce? ®. ; i decision :
wy; peieteink: *th ¢,

‘oll-}rind Ellis. After ‘that ame
sing}: :
yp “thefag a Pe
~-ittlet: ty

a: ‘King, who” directed; Fo A> Dunlanc.
and Ronald DuBwesne! assisted with on
he setage’. management ‘and “HieAV. [a5

ar Months later “ihe "hig 500

March 29, 1929.

age, AT stn a suicharl

Others. epee
Ceus:-of- “thes pageant: cyunre ° -Mrs. We:

tEccengeer, _chaiman: “of. ‘the: ‘educa *

{-tidna? .conimittes of -the: Jassociation "| Fa

‘under hose ‘danéction”! ~Splans* were
anade, Miss Eba. Winter ‘and Miss 7

Eré ae pers rated, thre: eee

|BAKER. FUNERAL

ihe “high-piteihed: excitemen
“Wvitve: of intemse: “feeling. * ‘the, threat

ive.gone,. as: ighow.step by. slow: “stey.

3 {hie case dragged ‘through*the-courts? rate a

First - ‘there’. as “the initial” - trial:

‘routine ‘course-ame, to , -the. Papp
It, was heatd: —" “weeks: | blapiec

awaltod.: Phe. nano nord ‘that™
"fcourt! Veould-meot mare’. a sand that: the

tbe. heard ¥4 in®be y
i {'tlie-court = che pant
“cours :

mee See ”
ik Bakervut: “affirming H-asto" Lather :

gewern
> feaalt

Alice ‘Smith prefided R

‘ Sdelayec abt of

Sate

: 36
t- date: ans, docketed and at:

; Reed
2 PERE Seth eat

3 \ one ‘ Wo. wen
tithe sit eee atthe bar to:

Minnie. ee


RENE aN ——
a ——A_ \
id
- ee 2 °. ‘ -~
tL 4 oh a ‘ me fe erty” ! a Your »usiness will row even .
3 ih Ye ad © , re y Ye oe ts pag i my 2 ducing the summer months when
a ‘?> 7 ; j i \ | i} tee 4 novertised systematically in tho
' tt , ; a] ia | i : gi
@ iL jh Pees ' : Re Se $f ; v/, y t Chronicie.
a ee Gate NRF PO |
‘ iy o/4 a SS 7 ee
—_

~

i

, a { | yf ee aed ~* t 4 INA i
Pye ty [ fo aah S| i |
; \ 4 | f % 4 } i cy 4 Ae 4
—_ inst io an ee i, OS Ls

Opinion otf

| yill Is That the
| Right to Vote on

Corporation ‘Counsel ‘Mor-

the

le Have No

Mranchises...

- Peop

| |
fOTmAITMO FER DASAR CP! BA AM OM
SON DS PUWRIVIAL Wes Vira b Mae

a

ON TO f

| 2 8 ‘
written opinion ren
vation Counsel
hutional practically destroy

| formal,

the North Coast and Milwaukee

strength of Mr. Morr

:*

lengthy court proceedings, which

Following
morning with a committee of 16
from the citizens’ committee,
which presented the petition oi
17,000 names asking the council to
pass the franchises without a ter-
minal rate provision, at which the
mayor was urged to sign the fran-
chises, he was closeted for several
hours with the corporation coun-
sel and City Engmeer Morton
Macartney going over the docu-

ments.

The mayor refused to state whether
or not he would sign or veto the ordi-
nance, but he stated that he was syatis-
fied with the grade separations de-
manded in the franchise, which the
city engineer says are strictly accord-
ing to his recommendation. eS

“I have yet to go over some parts of
the franchises with Mr. Morrill and we
may be through this afternoon. I have

\ Wednesday night to sig or veto,

——

\

ba eT

I will decide what to do before
. I think the franchises are pretty
4 ones as far as I have gone, though
am not entirely through with the

common-user clause.”

: “We ealled on the mayor thin morn-
vO ing, asking him to quiet this hysterinu
NG | the city seems to be in and signa the

Yranchixes,” sald A. W. Yoland, chrire

maa of the cltizens’ committec, followe-

fn his nudience with the mayor.

¥F. B. Morrili holdi
aave been fighting to have-the people pa

for the election is presented to the cou
ill’s opinion,

petitioners, according to Mr. Morrill.
a conference this *

dered to Mayor, Pratt today, by
ng the referendum law un- |
s the last. ray of hope. of those
ss-on-the granting of
~If‘a petition asking
neil it. will be denied..on the
sand: the only recourse will be
are sure to be decided, against the

|
|

franchises.

'

TURNER OPENS THE.
‘FISHERIES CASE

pokane Man ‘Is the First
Speaker for the United
States Before Tribunal.

THE HAGUE, June 20.—George Tur-

ner, for the American counse, opened
the case for the United States today

he
i
iS

|
|
|

|
|
|
|

 eacuariag affecting

|
Bi
|

|
|

Sra ikea i UE Te
1 EbRdS, ws

6 cents on tralas,
2 cents in city.

fa. FA
ba ae
Pa ry
er 3 - Fd t
& ce bud t

(puBLicrT

Ar TAN AT TUT Ct
CAMPAIGN FUNDS
WASHINGTON, Sune 20.>—Presi-

‘dent ‘Taft decided tod
an issue of the passage
before the. adjournment of the
ent session of the bill providing for
publicity of contributions in all s
federal offices.

ay to mako
py congress
pres-

aS ok atl ‘AS FaaN a!
i a oes . , oj ‘aii | »
ade Guu WON
a OF ~4 mg
wna ALAS GEIS
; a iy # ‘A BO wre bs uA §
4 ta i" \ } Nj uA ; ¥ ey 5
omar ‘ ‘wd 1 NEY ioees bl ¢/

Lt iw

‘WMurderer of Ira Messinger

Pays the Penalty of His
Deed at Walla Walia.

ae

WALLA WALLA, Wash, June 20.—

(Special to the Chronicle.)—Refusing
all offers of spiritual, advice and dis-
playing not the slightest concern about
his fate, Frank Barikar, the soldier from
Fort George Wright, paid the penalty
for the murder of Ira Meuseharer, a civil

war veteran, on the gallows at the

ntate penitentincy here ut sunrise this
'

mornin,

Barkar retired carly rast night, sleepe
ing so soundly that he had to be awuak-
ened when the hour of execution came
this morning.

On arising. he ‘ate a hearty breakfast,
afterward taking a chew of tobacco,-
which he carried in his mouth until he

reached the scaffold. On his way to
the gallows he joked with the guard
who accompanied him, and a sniile
was on his face as he walked up the
steps to the trap. After that he uttered
no word.

The condemned man was years
yld and at the time of the crime was &
meinber of the Third United Stater ine
gantry. His mother.is living in lllinois,
hut he made no attempt to communicate
with. her. Ils body was buried in the
prison cemetery.

23

a y oe | aes


NS

RE JAMES BLODGETT
(1992) 116 L Ed 2d 669

matter, consistent with its duty to
give full and fair consideration to all
of the issues presented in the case.

[1b] Despite our continuing con-
cerns, we decline to issue mandamus
to the Court of Appeals at this time.
While there are grounds to question
both the necessity and the propriety
of the Ninth Circuit’s order of Au-
gust 7, 1991, Campbell v Blodgett,
940 F2d 549, the State did not file
any objection to it. The State should
have lodged its objection with the
Court of Appeals, citing the cases it
now cites to us. True, the State had
taken some action. It wrote twice in

1990 to inquire about the status of

the case. And after the panel’s order
vacating submission, the State ob-
jected and asked that the case be
resubmitted for decision. The argu-
ment could be made that further
requests for an expedited decision on
the merits had little chance of suc-
cess. But as a predicate for extraor-
dinary relief, the State should have
asked the Court of Appeals to vacate
or modify its order of August 7,
1991, before coming here. This

Court’s Rule 20.1 (“To justify the
granting of any writ under that pro-
vision, it must be shown ... that
adequate relief cannot be obtained
in any other form or from any other
court’”’).

As we do not now issue a writ of
mandamus, the Court of Appeals
should determine how best to expe-
dite the appeal, given the present
posture of the case. Denial of the
writ is without prejudice to the right
of the State to again seek mandamus
relief or to request any other ex-
traordinary relief by motion or peti-
tion if unnecessary delays or unwar-
ranted stays occur in the panel’s
disposition of the matter. In view of
the delay that has already occurred
any further postponements or exten-
sions of time will be subject to a
most rigorous scrutiny in this Court
if the State of Washington files a
further and meritorious petition for
relief.

The motion of respondent Charles
R. Campbell for leave to proceed in
forma pauperis is granted. The peti-
tion for writ of mandamus is denied.

SEPARATE OPINION

Justice Stevens, with whom Jus-
tice Blackmun joins, concurring in
the judgment.

In recent years, the federal judi-
ciary has done a magnificent job of
handling a truly demanding appel-
late workload. On a national basis,
the average time between notice of

appeal and disposition is now less
than 11 months. Although delays
that are not fully justified occasion-
ally occur, only in the most extraor-
dinary circumstances would it be
appropriate for this Court to issue a
writ of mandamus to require a court
of appeals to render its decision in a
case under advisement.!

1. ‘The remedy of mandamus is a drastic
one, to be invoked only in extraordinary situ-
ations.” Kerr v United States District Court
for Northern District of California, 426 US
394, 402, 48 L Ed 2d 725, 96 S Ct 2119 (1976);
see also Will v United States, 389 US 90, 95,
19 L Ed 2d 305, 88 S Ct 269 (1967); Ex parte
Fahey, 332 US 258, 259, 91 L Ed 2041, 67S

Ct 1558 (1947). Mandamus “has traditionally

been used in the federal courts only to confine

an inferior court to a lawful exercise of its
prescribed jurisdiction or to compel it to exer-
cise its authority when it is its duty to do so.”
Will, 389 US, at 95, 19 L Ed 2d 305,°88 S Ct
269 (internal quotation omitted). Accordingly,
we have required that the party seeking issu-

675

U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTS

In its petition for a writ of manda-
mus, the State criticizes the Court of
Appeals’ failure to rule on the mer-
its of Campbell’s second habeas cor-
pus petition, which was submitted in
June 1989. In their response, the
judges on the panel provide a com-
pletely satisfactory explanation for
their July 1990 decision to defer
ruling on the merits of the petition
—namely, their desire to avoid
piecemeal litigation and to address
all of Campbell’s claims in a single
ruling. Because that explanation
alone is sufficient to mandate denial
of the State’s petition, there was no
occasion for the panel to explain its
pre-July 1990 delay.

The panel’s decision to defer its
ruling on the second habeas petition
pending disposition of the third per-
sonal restraint petition filed in the
Washington Supreme Court in July
1990 showed proper respect for that
court. Although this Court expresses
its concern about the State’s interest
in expediting its execution of Camp-
bell, the Court is notably silent
about the fact that the Washington
Supreme Court considered the
claims Campbell raised in his third
personal restraint petition to be sub-
stantial. Although the state court,
over the dissent of Justice Utter,
denied Campbell’s_ petition, that
court appointed counsel, scheduled
briefing, heard oral argument, and
addressed the merits of Campbell’s

several claims. On these facts, the

v
116 L Ed 2d

Ninth Circuit’s decision to delay its
ruling on Campbell’s second habeas
petition was sound, for it enables
that court to consider the entire case
at one time and will not delay the
ultimate disposition of the matter.”

Although I am sure the Court did
not intend to send such a message,
its opinion today may be read as an
open invitation to petitions for man-
damus from every State in which a
federal court has stayed an execu-
tion. This is unfortunate because, as
we noted in Kerr v United States
District Court for Northern District
of California, 426 US 394, 403, 48 L
Ed 2d 725, 96 S Ct 2119 (1976),
“particularly in an era of excessively
crowded lower court dockets, it is in

. the interest of the fair and prompt

administration of justice to discour-
age piecemeal litigation.”

Moreover, as we have so fre-
quently recognized, mandamus is
disfavored because it has “the unfor-
tunate consequence of making the
judge a litigant, obliged to obtain
personal counsel or to leave his de-
fense to one of the litigants [appear-
ing] before him.” Ex parte Fahey,
332 US 258, 260, 91 L Ed 2041, 67S
Ct 1558 (1947). Mandamus is an “‘ex-
traordinary remed[y] reserved for re-
ally extraordinary causes,” ibid., pre-
cisely because of the great respect
we have for our fellow jurists. This
is not a situation in which the Ninth
Circuit has unduly delayed decision

ance of the writ have no other adequate
means to attain the desired relief, and that he
demonstrate that his “right to issuance of the
writ is ‘clear and indisputable.’ ” Bankers Life
& Casualty Co. v Holland, 346 US 379, 384, 98
L Ed 106, 74 S Ct 145 (1953), quoting United
States v Duell, 172 US 576, 582, 43 L Ed 559,
19 S Ct 286 (1899).

2. On the facts of this case, the “severe

676

prejudice” perceived by the Court is illusory.
Even were we to direct the Ninth Circuit to
decide Campbell’s second petition, the State
would still be required to wait until that
court ruled on his third petition. The State
seems to recognize as much, for it asks that
we both direct the Ninth Circuit to decide the
second habeas petition and vacate the August
7 order which permitted filing of the third
habeas petition. Pet for Writ of Mandamus 9.

RE JAMES BLODGETT
(1992) 116 L Ed 2d 669

of a case, but rather a situation in
which that court has chosen to avoid
repetitive and piecemeal litigation
by consolidating two appeals. Re-
spect for our fellow judges means
providing them latitude in the han-
dling of their burgeoning dockets,
and granting due deference to those

whose dockets are less discretionary
than ours.

For the foregoing reasons, and be-
cause the State has failed to comply
with this Court’s Rule 20.1, I believe
that the State’s petition should have
been denied summarily.

677

4
Ae
:

U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 116 L Ed 2d

WILLIAM LEWIS SMITH, Petitioner

V
WAYNE S. BARRY et al.

502 US —, 116 L Ed 2d 678, 112 S Ct —
[No. 90-7477]
Argued December 2, 1991. Decided January 14, 1992.

Decision: Informal brief filed in Federal Court of Appeals held effective as
notice of appeal under Rule 3 of Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, if
filing of brief is timely and conveys information required by Rule 3.

SUMMARY

Rule 3 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure (FRAP) requires (1)
that a notice of appeal be filed within the time allowed by FRAP Rule 4,
and (2) that such a notice (a) specify the party or parties taking the appeal,
(b) designate the judgment, order, or part thereof appealed from, and (c)
name the court to which the appeal is taken. A Maryland state prison
inmate filed, in the United States District Court for the District of Mary-
land, a 42 USCS §1983 action alleging that several prison officials had
violated the inmate’s rights under the Federal Constitution’s Eighth Amend-
ment. After a verdict in favor of most of the officials but against two of
them, the two officials filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the
verdict, and the inmate, without consulting his attorney, filed, with the
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, a notice of appeal
that, because it was filed while the motion for judgment notwithstanding
the verdict was pending, was invalid under Rule 4. Despite the invalidity of
the notice, the Clerk of the Court of Appeals sent to all parties copies of the

’court’s “informal brief,’ which was used in pro se appeals and which

contained questions about the parties’ legal positions. After the District
Court denied the motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and
before the Rule 4 deadline for filing a notice of appeal, the inmate returned
his informal brief to the Court of Appeals. Holding that a brief could never
qualify as a notice of appeal required under Rule 3, the Court of Appeals
dismissed the inmate’s appeal for want of jurisdiction (919 F2d 893).

On certiorari, the United States Supreme Court reversed the judgment of
678

r

%
bead

2
Caen mc

Sana IO

s

2 ~

a ae a Oe

to
o>

air. It described a neat arc and, descending, its sharp

point stuck in the floor barely.an inch from Mattie
Harlan’s neat small shoe. Mattie reached quickly for it,
but Denzel snatched it up again,

D ENZEL DAVIS twirled the ice pick, tossed it into the

“Give it to me,” she said, anger making her voice shake. .

“It’s mine. I bought it and paid for it.”

“You want it, pet?” His voice was mocking. He held
it just beyond her reach.

“I don’t want you tossing and juggling it that way.” Her
eyes flashed. “You make me sick, Denzel Davis, loafing
around here, bothering me, nagging your mother for money.
Why don’t you get a job?” -

The young man stared at her. His face was deceptively.

amiable, but there was menace in his eyes. He was a big
youth, five feet eleven inches tall and weighing 150 pounds.
His dark hair looked untidy. ~

“I’m not trying to annoy you,” he countered, twirling
the pick again. “I’m just, keeping my hand in with this,
same as shuffling a deck of cards.”

“You’d do better to.leave cards alone, too,” the young

‘girl snapped. “And, if you don’t quit this, I’m going to

leave. I’ve told your mother—” .

“You talk too much. And you listen too much to Mom
and my wife; June.” His eyes glittered. He spun the pick
into the air again. And again it descended swiftly, its sharp
point barely missing Mattie’s toe.

With an angry gasp Mattie ran from the room.

Denzel listened for a moment, hearing his mother’s voice
‘mingling with that of the girl who was her paid companion.
Then he shrugged. Tiptoeing softly, he left his mother’s
home, on the outskirts of Seattle, and walked swiftly along
the street, whistling off-key and kicking at pebbles like
a schoolboy.. It was his normal behavior, for although he
now was 23, married and the father of a 20-month-old
daughter, he never had seemed to grow up. His wife had
left him, .returning to her mother’s home, with little Carol
May. Denzel blamed Mattie and his mother for that.

Now his mother, Mrs. Harriet Arnold, an attractive wo-

“man of 47, was talking with Mattie Harlan. “I’m sorry

to have you go,” she told the pretty 18-year-old girl. “It’s
been nice to have you here and I’d like to have you stay.
But if you feel you must go—” she sighed. “I know Denzel’s
difficult. I’ve tried—” :

“I’m sorry, too, Mrs. Arnold,” Mattie said earnestly. “I
was glad when June suggested your taking me as your
companion and I’ve loved being with you. But—” she
flushed, then added hurriedly, “It isn’t just what Denzel
does—it’s what he might do, that worries me. I’m really
afraid of him.” ___. \

“Well, dear—” Mrs. Arnold smiled at the pretty girl, but
her. eyes were sad. “You must do what you think best.”
She added, “Anyway,: take the ice pick with you, when
you go.” —

“I don’t want it. I’ve seen too much of that,” Mattie
cried. ‘

“Then hide it somewhere, where he won’t find it,” Mrs.
Arnold suggested. '

On Saturday, March 2nd, Mattie left the suburban home
where she had lived since January. She was sorry to
leave her friend. Mrs. Arnold, who worked in the altera-
tion department of a Seattle department store, needed
someone to help her‘at home. Maybe, she thought, June

and Carol May would come back and live there with her
and Denzel. Maybe Denzel, Mrs. Arnold’s son by an earlier &
marriage, would get a job and straighten out. Before she }

left, Mattie carefully-hid the ice pick in a low cupboard at
the right of the kitchen. sink. Denzel, she thought, really
seemed to love his mother. He always praised her ap-
pearance and her generosity. But then, she recalled, with

~ @:Shake of.her.-head,.he.always..cashed in.on.his .compli-

ments, touching her for more money. ;

But on March 15th, less than two weeks after Mattie had
left, Mrs. Arnold was faced with an even more serious
problem concerning her son. He had cashed, at a local

shop, a check for $25 to which he had forged his mother’s
signature,

On learning of it, she had stopped payment on the check,
telephoned the shop that she would bring them the $25 and
asked them not to put the check through. But now she
thought worriedly, what should she ‘say to Denzel? He
might do it again—or something worse. What ought she
to do? She decided to ask a neighbor, Joseph Neilson, for
his advice.

“You did the right thing,” Mr. Neilson told her, when she
had explained her‘problem. “Now you have to take the
next hard step—see,the county prosecutor.” .

“Oh—” Mrs. Arnold paled. “I hate to—to go to the law
—about it.” .

. “It was a childish act,” Mr. Neilson said sympathetically.
“But there may be more and worse, unless you employ a
force he is obliged to respect.”

Her. eyes misted, but she said bravely, “I know you’re
right. I'll take time off.from my job and go to the prose-
cutor’s office the first thing Monday morning.”

“And,” Mr. Neilson said gravely, “I suggest that you
keep your own counsel.” i

“You mean—not say anything to Denzel?”

“That’s what I mean. ~

She understood. She had been weak with Denzel, she
reproached herself. And now his behavior was reaching
a dangerous point. It might not be safe, either to threaten

. or to warn him. Her heart was heavy as she returned
home. .

All day Saturday Denzel nagged her for money. But for

once she did not give in to his pleas. He refused to say what

he had done with the $25 he had got by cashing the check.

by R.J.Gerrard


her with the piece of electric fixture cord.
“When it broke he took the ice pick from the
‘ice box and stabbed her several times. He
then grabbed the dog’s chain and twisted it
around her neck and stuffed her body under
- the sink. Locking all the doors, he left
_ through the window. The killer did not
. explain the matter of the small pieces of
goood whittled from the handle of the ice
pi

_.... Davis was charged with first degree mur-

_. der, indicted and brought to trial on May 6,

- 1940, before Superior Court Judge William
~ J. Wilkins and a jury. Through his attor-
ney he pleaded insanity. But after hearing
the evidence the jury found him sane and
returned a verdict of murder in the first
degree.

Judge Wilkins then sentenced Denzel Davis
to be executed. He was hanged on March
24, 1941, in the state penitentiary at Walla
Walla, Wash. —

Eprtor’s Nore: The names Frank Siebert
and Harold Page, as used in this narrative,
are fictitious.

Very Special
Gallows

(Continued from page 8)

If necessary, we can use him as a shield.”

Roa reluctantly agreed not to*kill Kirin-
cich, and moments later, the jailer managed
to escape.

All these happenings we in Chicago heard
about from downstate, but soon after his sec-
ond jailbreak the one-man crime wave came
close to home. Chicago police trapped him
and his companions; fighting it out with them
in a blazing gun battle.

When the shooting ended two of the
Mexicans lay wounded and Policeman Leo
Grant was dead. Roa had killed him. And
_ Roa had escaped again.

The hunt for him spread throughout the
state and the nation, but it finally centered
in Mexico, for it was believed that Roa had
fled to his native land.

The search for the killer continued for
more than two decades.

And then, on March 15, 1948—exactly 21
years after his escape from the Will County
jail on the eve of his execution—narcotics
agents captured him in Mexico City.

His mistress, Juanita, wasn’t with him.

She was dead. The girl had committed
suicide after Roa had cast her aside. _
News of his capture was wired to the
Chicago narcotics agents, who in turn no-
tified the Will County authorities. Extra-
dition papers were immediately filed with
the secretary of state in Washington.
’ As this is written, the law is ready to
bring the three-time murderer, who twice
escaped from prison, back to Illinois to be
texecuted. When this is read, Roa _ will
probably be dead. _ } :
And that brings up an interesting point.
When the Will County judge sentenced Roa
‘to death he decreed he must be “hanged by
the neck until dead.” That was 21 years
ago, when legal execution was by hanging,
but since then the electric chair has been
. used. This means that if the letter of the
law is to be carried out, the State of IIli-
nois must build a spécial gallows for Roa.
But, however Roa is disposed of, he will
have the consolation of knowing that an old

acquaintance will be on hand to see him die.-

John Kirincich, the jailer whom the Mex-
ican once was on the verge of killing, now
is sheriff of Will County, and in that
capacity will be in charge of the execution.

“I'm Coming Out
Shooting!”

(Continued from page.29) .

and Sullivan. They decided to canvass the
few year-around homes in the region after

daybreak. At that time they would also

search Grant’s cottage. .

Trainor accompanied the state detectives
when they called on Mrs. Grant. Although
she had expected the worst right along, Mrs.
Grant was stunned and bewildered by the
tragedy. She kept saying brokenly : ;

“No, no, there was no reason tor anyone
to kill him. He had no enemies. I can’t tell
you anything. Jesse never harmed anyone.
Who would do such a thing?”

Conniff wished he could answer that ques-
tion. He asked Mrs. Grant if she knéw how
much money her husband had when he left
her the morning of the 19th.

“I know that he received his paycheck for
$62 Thursday night,” she said, “but I don’t
know whether or not he cashed the check
Friday on his way to Billerica.”

Mrs. Grant added that her husband was in

the habit-of cashing his checks at any one
of three banks located in Cambridge; at
Central Square, at Inman Square, or on
Massachusetts Avenue. She described the
items her husband usually carried in his
pockets. Thus it was established that the
killer had also taken a separate set of keys
which were used to open police and fire-
alarm boxes. Incidental information was
that Grant had been a city signal inspector
for 18 years, a veteran of World War I, and
a member of the American Legion.

“One more thing, Mrs. Grant,” Trainor
said. “Your husband wore a hat when he
left you, didn’t he?”

“Yes,” she replied. “A brown one.”

By 8 o’clock that Saturday morning, the
investigation was rolling along smoothly.
Conniff had been placed in charge of the in-
vestigation. Captain Joseph FE. Crescio,
skipper of the state police detective bureau,
had assigned Inspectors Andrew J. Trodden,

Gerald F. McCarthy, and Cornelius Crowley —

to work with Conniff.

Trodden and McCarthy took over the
probe of Grant’s background through his
friends and acquaintances. Their job was
also to find out if Grant had cashed his pay-
check. At Bedford, Sullivan, after a con-
ference with Conniff, started out to compile
a list of all persons who owned guns of a
high caliber.

Telephone calls from persons with infor-
mation to offer weren’t long in forthcoming.
In Joseph J. Martin Jr., of Lexington Road,
Billerica, Conniff had the last person who
had seen Grant alive. Martin ran a garage,
and claimed he had been pretty friendly with
Grant.

“Grant stopped at my garage around 11
o'clock Friday morning,” Martin said. “He
returned a battery charger he had borrowed

the day before. While talking, Grant said .

he intended to look over his land.. He asked
my opinion about driving his car down the
old turnpike. I told .him I wouldn’t take a
chance on getting stuck in the mud. From
what I hear, he parked the coupe on a dry
spot and walked the rest of the way to his
land.”

“That’s right,” Conniff said. “What else
do you know?”

“Well,” Martin said, “I gave Grant $3.33.
He had bought a vise jaw for me in Cam-
bridge.”

This sum upped the ante to at least $65 that
Grant had on his’ person when he was shot.

Through Robert A. Pasha, of Web Brook

Road, Billerica, it was establishe:

' Grant’s coupe was parked on the oid

pike road shortly after 1 o’clock Frida,
noon. Pasha had seen the coupe th
that time with nobody in it.

Mrs. Arthur Barbard, wife of a R:
selectman, told the investigators a p
story. In driving through that area, s
seen a car parked on the old tu
hadn’t paid any attention to its
All she remembered was a man sit
the car with his head protruding out th
sidé window as if he were sick.

Mrs. Barbard hadn’t bothered to st:
investigate. She couldn’t say wheth:
man was young or old. Her story ga
detectives something. to think abo:
seemed incredible to imagine that ;
Grant she had seen after he had bee:
The clean, undisturbed interior of the
outlawed such a possibility.

Considering the time element, it ;
unlikely that it was another car tha:
Barbard had seen. The detectives con:
it might have been the killer in the
killer with a touchy stomach who «.
take it after blasting an innocent 1:
death.

HE CANVASS of homes near the :

site netted the detectives nothing.
had heard or seen anything. Connifi !
way to Grant’s cottage. They started
stairs when a loud, nerve-racking
began to shatter . the tranquillity
countryside.

Conniff pushed back his hat. “!
darned,” he exclaimed. “This joint is
up with a burglar alarm system!
must be a cut-off somewhere around.”

Almost deafened by the noise, the,
their way into the two-story cottage. }
located the alarm set-up in the attic a:
it off. They breathed easier as they
around. The place was equipped wit!
fortable furniture. Trainor didn’t h:
comment that Grant had quite 4
as a party-giver. There was an
of the fact in empty bottles, an eaccuet
ply of canned goods, and plenty of |
liquor hidden away in cabinets.

All the detectives found was an alu
box crammed with letters, notes, and <
The letters shed no light'on Grant’s n
They were of a business nature, as «:

“notes. The diary listed the names, ad:

and phone numbers of men and wo:
Boston, Cambridge, Billerica, and b

“Make a list,” Conniff said to M
“We'll check them.”

The detectives wondered why Gra:
rigged up a burglar alarm system. |
unusual in a summer cottage, esp
when there was nobody around to hea
the event of a break during the off-
months.

“Strange,” Conniff said thoughtful
seems certain Grant didn’t rig up th:
just for the hell of it.”

“You can’t tell,” Trainor remarke
was a funny guy. Look at the way °
flowers to people he didn’t know.”

On that note, they searched the
They found several burlap bags, but
with the trade-mark “Wirthmore.’
garage and the grounds were ca:
checked. Nothing was found. The

tives looked over the other cottages.

them locked and the windows boarded

The small group of Grant's frien!
quaintances, and co-workers who ha:
questioned were unable to shed an:
on his murder. Only one definite th:
been established. Grant had cashed h:

check in a Central Square ber?

morning. . :
Persons owning guns of a his
the Bedford-Billerica area were ein

one by one.


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Cupboard (I.) in kitchen of Mrs. Harriet Arnold, 47, where her body was found by \
police investigating her absence. (Above) Gaunt, unshaven killer found in closet

“

Police have a candidate for the gallows

when they discover the secret of the

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“It’s spent,” he insisted sullenly. “It was only a measly
twenty-five bucks. I need some more dough, right away.”
“No more money today, nor tomorrow,” she declared,

’ worn by his arguments, his insolence. Then, forgetting Mr.

Neilson’s warning, she added, “And on Monday you will
have to discuss that business of the check with a prosecut-
ing officer.”

As soon as she had spoken the words, she was aware of
her indiscretion. The thing had weighed so heavily on
her mind, she had spoken almost without conscious thought.
Denzel was staring at her with narrowed eyes, an expres-
sion of disbelief on his face. But she couldn’t back down
now.

“Pye taken all I can,” she said sadly. “Something’s got
to bring you to your senses. I’ve tried—but I’ve failed. It’s
my duty now, to save you—everybody’s told me—”

He interrupted hotly, “You've been discussing me with
everybody? Where’s your pride?” A slow flush stained
his face.

“Where’s yours, son?
check.”

“Not if you didn’t tell them.” Then, suddenly, his surly
mood seemed to vanish. ‘“Shucks, let’s not argue, Mom,”
he said in his most winning way. “l’m to blame. You’ve
been a brick to me.” -

She felt tears sting her eyes. She knew he was only
trying to get around her again, make a fool of her as he

People had, to know about the

iat

Mrs. Arnold ignored friend’s warning, lost her life

Body of victim, removed from cupboard hiding place,
bore 18 stab wounds, dog leash wrapped around throat

had done so often. He’d have her forgiving him, even
apologizing, maybe, letting him have the money he’d been
trying all day to get. |

“I need some fresh air,” she said. “J think I’ll go for a
little walk. And I’ll be glad not to argue about it any
more, Denzel.” °

Slipping a dark coat over her light print dress, she picked
up.a leash and whistled her small white mongrel puppy in
from the kitchen. . With the dog straining eagerly ahead,
she went out of the house.

After she had gone, Denzel. became very busy. He
searched the kitchen with expert thoroughness, having
‘had years of training in seeking caches of household money.
In the cupboard next to the sink he discovered the ice

.pick which Mattie Harlan had hidden. He brought it out
gleefully.

It wasn’t difficult to find his mother’s purse, since she
had taken no pains to hide it. However, there was only
some small change in it. She must have some real dough
somewhere, Denzel ‘thought. Saturday night, there should
be money in the house. It did not occur to him that his
mother’s.redemption of the forged check had been a drain
on her purse and she had not had an opportunity to go
to the bank since then. : :

In his search for more money, Denzel came across a
hammer and a box of nails. He laid these beside the ice
pick. (ie : sate:

His mother returned, new color in her face from the brisk
walk. She twisted the puppy’s leash around the arm of a
chair and sank down in the chair without removing her
coat.,“‘I’m a little winded,” she said. “It’s cold out of doors,
tonight.” ; .

“You look’ sweet,” Denzel said admiringly. “Feel better
now?”

“yes, Lots better.” She smiled.

“Good. Now, maybe, you’ll listen to reason.”

“Oh, Denzel,” she protested.

“J want money—at least twenty bucks. You’ve got it
somewhere,” he insisted.

“But I haven’t, Denzel—I haven’t got any—” .

She had not noticed the open door of the kitchen cup-
board, the ice pick lying beside the sink. She could not
see the hammer in the hand behind his back. She only
saw, in one terrified glance, the angry grimace on his face.

Da ie adh

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ameliorate


Urgent Action

How You Can Oppose
the Execution of

Westley Allan Dodd

Please copy and distribute freely.

Washington Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty
705 2nd Ave., Seattle, WA 98104
(206) 622-8952

WRITE A LETTER TO GOVERNOR
GARDNER REQUESTING CLEMENCY
OR SEND THE ENCLOSED POSTCARD.

Ask Governor Gardner to commute

Dodd’s sentence to life without the
possibility of parole.

You may want to make the following
points:

-- No full and fair evaluation of
Dodd’s competency or psychological
background has ever been done.

-- We should exercise moral leadership
rather than bend to Dodd’s will.

-- The state failed when it didn’t take
Dodd’s earlier actions seriously.

' WEAR A BUTTON AND BLACK RIBBON

TO SHOW YOUR OPPOSITION TO THE
DEATH PENALTY.

See order form on reverse.
VOLUNTEER FOR WCADP
WCADP is looking for volunteers to
prepare mailings, leaflet, and more. If

you would like to volunteer, please fill
out the form on reverse.

EVENTS

For more information and additional
events, call the contact person for each
city or (206) 622-8952 between Spm
and Yam for a recorded message.

Execution date: Tues, Jan. 5, 1993,
12:01 am.

Seattle:
[contact: Pam MacRae, 622-8952]

Leafletting: Mondays 12-1,
Wednesdays 4:30-5:30, and Saturdays
2-3, Westlake Center. (Call to °
volunteer and confirm.)

January 4, 9pm-12:30am: Vigil and
speakers, St. James Cathedral, 804 9th
Ave.

Tacoma:
[contact: Kevin Glackin-Coley, 627-
0566]

2X, Tem
January 3,—night: Vigil at Unitarian
Universalist Church, 1115 S. 56th.

(events continued)


Killer faces

noose after
reform fails

By Timothy Egan

New York Times News Service

SEATTLE—After trying for 17
years to reform the life of Westley
Allan Dodd, the State of \ ‘ashing-
ton is scheduled to kill him next
week, in what would be the na-
tion’s first execution by hanging in
nearly three decades.

A slight, hazel-eyed man of 3{
who pleaded guilty to torturing,
raping and killing three small boys
in 1989, Dodd saw all manner of
Psychiatrists, sex therapists and
counselors in the years before his
killing spree, as the state tried the
traditional methods of treating sex
offenders.

If last-ditch legal efforts by third
parties fail to halt the execution, he
IS set to have a waxed noose
slipped around his neck shortly
after midnight on Tuesday and a
trapdoor opened beneath his feet.

. Waiving all appeals, Dodd has

chosen to hang rather than receive

a lethal injection. But Westley

Dodd is significant not so much

for how he will be put to death,

but why.

His case removed many illusions
in this state about legal and psychi-
atric treatment of violent sex of-
fenders. Washington threw out
most of its old laws regarding in-
mates like Dodd because, state offi-
cials said, his record was a road-
map of failure—and a typical one,
at that.

From his Death Row cell in
Walla Walla, a few hundred yards
from the half-century-old gallows,
Dodd continues to taunt the State,
saying it has no choice but to kill
him. Violent sex offenders, he says,
are incurable, a conclusion this

State has written into law.

“I must be executed before I
have an Opportunity to escape or
kill someone else,” Dodd said in a
recent court brief intended to cut
off all appeals by third Parties. “If ]
do escape, I promise you I will kill
and rape again, and'I will enjoy
every minute of it.”

Mpa dar co has the strictest laws
on sex offenders in the nation. Sev-
eral other states are studying its ex-
ample, but Washington’s experi-
' €nce is viewed as much as a

cautionary tale as a pioneering ef-
fort.

ae |

Dodd ; Weslo

te’s Sex-
i 990, under the state's.
atic law, some grb
i child molesters ¢ be
kent et confinement indefinitely 2
aver serving the normal ee
their sentence—if a jury con 0
that they still bates ni? ey ea
ety. The law, whi paige eek
in court, allows
Sp people for what they might
a is an uncon-.
itics say the law 1s )
ditional over-reaction to a sae 3
of tragic crimes. It takes Li
who have already been punl :
for their past and. para
nish them for their future, c ns
Paitting them to an ay pein i ; iy
c
in prison under a vague S
teas guidelines, the wae Pini
law was p
a a Legislature that hag
heat from thousands of td
eople, many of whom ee
never ‘let the pattern. of e
d repeat itsell.
EL ee was ere ee
f 1989, he confesse b-
ig we brothers, Cole and ie
liam Neer, ages 11 and 10, an Aes
hanging a boy, Lee ie ‘. bere
repeatedly raping him. The tee
shock was replaced by eos
outrage over the fact rere _
had 8 100g sty oe had Dever
ing children,
ee oe than four months in
jail at any one time.
ea esiest came a few Arise
after Earl K. jam pelle rss
sive record oO ;
an ace bet had recently ae ie
leased because he had served .
ime; was charged with team
Ty ear-old boy and severely muti —
ting him. Shriner recently ers
given a sentence of 131 years

gw would be the 185th person

See Hanging, pg. 28


Olympia:
[contact: Glen Anderson, 491-9093]

December 10, 6-9pm: Demonstration
downtown and at Capitol. Contact
Scott Douglas, 352-0451.

December 11, 1-2pm: Death penalty
panel discussion, channel 31. Also
shown 12/13 llam, 12/18 lpm, 12/20
llam, and 12/22 9pm.

January 4, 7pm-execution:
Demonstration on Capitol steps.

Yakima:
[contact: Jim Leonard, 966-2427]

January 2, afternoon: event.

Spokane:
[contact: Nancy Nelson, 838-7870]

Leafletting: Fridays 5-7, Saturdays 11- |

1, and as arranged. Call for place and
dates.

(events continued)

January 4, 5:30: Vigil with speakers at
Farm Credit Bldg., Ist & Wall.

6:00: March to Westminster Church,
307 W. 4th. 7:30: Service in chapel of
Westminster. Chapel will be open
until execution.

Walla Walla:
[contact: Nancy Nelson, 838-7870]

January 3, afternoon: possible vigil.

January 3, 10pm: Gathering Service
for those attending 12/4 vigil, St.
Patrick’s Church, 405 W. Poplar.

January 4, 12:0lam-execution on Jan:
5: 24 hour vigil at penitentiary with
speakers, singing, reflection. Please:
bring songs, instruments, poems,
readings, candles, etc. Sleeping space
available if needed. Please call contact
or (206) 622-8952 if planning on
attending.

January 4, 7pm: Church service at St.
Patrick’s Church, 405 W. Poplar.

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF
YOUR LOCAL PAPER.

Express your sorrow/anger/horror that
this execution will occur, and express
your desire that the Governor commute
the sentence to life without the
possiblity of parole.

You may want to make additional
points, including the following:

-- the barbarity of hanging and of
executing people in general;

--your concern for the families of
Dodd’s victims, Dodd’s family, and
those in Corrections who must carry

*~ out the execution on our behalf;
. -- your reasons for opposing the death
: penalty.

Begin your letter with "Dear Editor"
and address it to the specific paper.
Keep it short--1 to 3 paragraphs.

12\4\92

e
*e

The NATIONAL EXECUTION ALERT NETWORK is a project
of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
For more information, contact: Pamela Rutter, NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B, Washington DC 20005 (202)347-2411
Peacenet Access Code--ABOLITION//Non-Business Hours Alert Answering Machine 202-347-2415
Partial Funding for the Alert Network is provided by the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute, the
Boehm Foundation and the Unitarian Universalist Foundation.

ALERT 92-9 December 16, 1992
**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**
WASHINGTON ***CONSENSUAL*** — = JANUARY 5, 1993 HANGING

WESTLEY ALLAN DODD, (White), age 32 has been on death row since July 1990. He was convicted and
sentenced to death for the sexual assault and murder of three white boys. Dodd confessed to the
murders. He waived his right to a jury trial, and pled guilty before a judge. Since his conviction and
sentencing, Dodd has demanded that his execution be carried out. He has fired attorneys who want to
oppose his execution, and is now represented by a lawyer who has agreed to help expedite the
carrying out of his sentence. Dodd has waived all reviews-and appeals of his sentence.

Westley Dodd's case has not been heard in an adversarial court proceeding. At his mandatory
Supreme Court review hearing, both the "defense" and the State argued his competence to be
executed. Though there are indications of brain damage and psychiatric disorders in Westley Dodd, at
his own request, no mitigation evidence was presented at his trial, or before the Supreme Court. Two
justices of the Washington Supreme court dissented and urged that a full hearing on the mitigation
evidence be held, but a majority of the Court found that Dodd’s waiver of his review process was
constitutional and that the execution could proceed.

Washington state is 1 of 4 U.S. jurisdictions which allow hanging as the method of execution.
though the State’s death penalty statute, revised in 1981, allows execution by lethal injection,
condemned prisoners must choose lethal injection. Westley Dodd has requested to be hanged.

The last man executed in Washington was Joseph Chester Self, hanged June 20, 1963.

A petition for clemency will be filed with Gov. Gardner on behalf of Westley Dodd.

Points to raise in your letter to the Governor:
eno full and fair evaluation of Dodd’s competency or psychological background has ever been done;
ewe should exercise moral leadership rather than bend to Dodd's will;
ethe state failed when it didn‘t take Dodd’s earlier sexual offenses seriously.
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Governor Booth Gardner
State of Washington

Legislative Building (206) 753-6780
Mail Stop AS-0002 FAX (206) 753-4110
Olympia WA 98504-0002
VIRGINIA **CONSENSUAL** FEBRUARY 3, 1993 ELECTROCUTION

MICKEY DAVIDSON, (White), age 35 has been on death row since April 1991. He was convicted and
sentenced to death for the murders of his wife and two stepdaughters. He pleaded guilty at his trial.
The Virginia Coalition on Jails and Prisons is asking for letters to Davidson asking him to pick up his
appeals and fight his death sentence. (Express your own convictions on the death penalty and personal
reflections on why it is so important for death row prisoners to fight their death sentences.)
TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Mickey Davidson #187116

Box 500

Boydton VA 23918
ARIZONA FEBRUARY 13, 1993 LETHAL INJECTION OR GAS CHAMBER
RANDY GREENAWALLT, (White), age 43 has been on death row since 1979. He was convicted and
sentenced to death for the kidnapping/murder of 2 white females and 2 white males.

Raymond, Ricky and Donald Tison smuggled guns into the Arizona State Prison on July 30, 1978.
They forced guards to release their 42-year-old father, Gary Tison, and fellow inmate Randy Greenawalt,
then age 29. Both were serving life sentences for murder.

The day after the escape, a tire on the getaway car went flat on an isolated stretch of Arizona
95. A married couple, drove by with their infant son and 15-year old niece and offered to help. Instead
the car was comandeered and all 4 family members were shot and killed.

The fugitives fled to New Mexico and Colorado before returning to Arizona and running into a
police roadblock on August 11, 1978. During a shoot-out with police, Donald Tison was killed and
Greenawalt was arrested along with Raymond and Ricky Tison. Gary Tison escaped into the desert but
was found dead of exposure in the desert several days later.


Death Row ‘Salvation’ Is Possible _

BY DAVID BRIGGS

ASSOCIATED PRESS |

ye estley Allan Dodd abused children with no
sign of remorse throughout much of his

adult life. Even after he was caught, Dodd told

authorities that if he were let loose, he would “kill
and rape again and enjoy every minute of it.”

_ But before a hangman’s noose was placed
around his neck, Dodd talked of a newfound reli-
gious faith that he believed would grant him an
eternal reward. He spoke of meeting his young
victims in heaven, and his final words on the gal-
lows expressed hope in Jesus Christ.

Parents of the murdered boys expressed dis-
gust at Dodd's 11th-hour conversion.

But for others, it provided a striking modern
- example of the ancient riddle that has puzzled
Christians since the account of Jesus on the cross
pardoning the criminal hanged at. his
possible for a person who has led an evil life to be
saved in a last-minute conversion? )

“The answer is absolutely it is,” said the Rev.
Richard Neuhaus, a Roman Catholic theologian.
“The thief on the cross was not meant to be a one-

time case. It holds out hope for everybody.” :

‘side: Is it -

. who, if there was any way Sex

bie in paradise.” In the parable of the prodigal son, .
the wastrel child is welcomed back with a fatted: |

; calf. :
But what
-cult for those who

make Dodd’s case particularly diffi-
doubt the sincerity of his new-

found faith were the shocking nature of hiscrimes -

dand his own expressed joy in committing them.

Dodd raped and stabbed Cole Neer, 11, and
‘stabbed brother William Neer, 10, in a park on
Sept. 4, 1989. A month later, he abducted 4-year-old
‘Lee Iseli from a school playground, then molested
and tortured the boy before hanging him.

When his death sentence was in the courts,
Dodd did not hide the pleasure he took in his

crimes. “I liked molesting children and did what I
-. had to do to avoid jail so
| ing,” he told the state Supreme Court in 1991. In his
' diary, he wrote, “I think I got more of a high out of

I could continue molest-

‘killing than molesting.” . _

But on. the gallows yesterday, moments before
he became the first person hanged in the United

States in nearly three decades, Dodd, 31, spoke of a

change of heart.

“T was asked by somebody, I don’t remember

” stopped,” he said a minute before a noose was put

, There is plenty of biblical precedent for such a
belief. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells the crimi- .

" nal hanging at his side that “today you will be with ;

/

around his neck. “I said no. I was wrong. I said
there was no hope, no peace. There is peace. There
is hope. I found both in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

offenders could be .

Cun Francise

Tanuaky

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CCAir picte
7.2/9 S

pos

Doctors should
study, not kill,

convicted felons

Just before Christmas the
American Medical Association
declared participation by
‘ physicians in executions
unethical.

Thirty-seven states have the
death penalty. The demand for
doctors to monitor vital signs,
provide lethal drugs, supervise
others involved in administering
the death penalty or declaring
death has increased as more
prisoners are executed.

The AMA did the right thing
and no case puts that to the test
more than the repulsive criminal
career of Westley Allan Dodd.

In 1989 Dodd, then 28,
confessed to the stabbing deaths
of brothers Cole and William
Neer. He admitted repeatedly
raping and then killing Lee Iseli.
Lee Iseli was 4; the Neer
brothers were 10 and 11.

Career criminals are hard to
find. Dodd is one. His rampage of
rape, violence and abuse began
when he was 13. He sexually
molested two of his cousins.

Throughout high school he was _

arrested several times for
molesting children.

In 1981 he was discharged
from the Navy when the cops
caught him offering money to
boys for sex. Further arrests for
sex offenses against minors
followed in Idaho and
Washington. Dodd has seen
many therapists over the years,
in and out of jail.

He told Washington state
court officials, “Each time |
entered treatment, I continued
to molest children. I liked
molesting children and did what
I had to do to avoid jail so I could
continue molesting.”

{
‘
’

|, It wasn’t his cail

Dodd was without remorse.
He laughed at doctors, social
workers and psychologists. Last
year he told a Washington state
court that the state had to kill
him.

In waiving any appeal of his
death sentence he wrote, “I
must be executed before I have
an opportunity to escape of kill
someone else. If I do escape I
promise you I will kill and rape
again and I will enjoy every
minute of it.” Considering the
misery he left in his wake, it was
hard to resist the urge to want
Dodd dead. The declarations of

“doctors that they will not

participate in executions seems

. frivolous in the face of what a

man like Dodd did to children.
But the AMA position is

right. Dodd said the state had
better execute him or else. Why
should we permit someone like
Dodd to threaten us from his jail
cell? Where does a man like this
come off claiming the right to
drag others down to his level of
moral bestiality by demanding
they must kill him? Dodd spent
most of his life coercing children.
Is the right punishment to
permit him and others like him

to coerce the medical, legal and

prison authorities to wallow in
his trough of violence and death?

We need to understand

Criminals like Dodd need to
be studied, not killed. We need
to understand what makes them
tick so we can stop them before
they molest, rape and kill. And
criminals like a Westley Allan
Dodd should not be permitted to

' threaten or bully the medical

| community or anyone else into

doing their bidding.

Rather than fulfilling his
request for death, maybe we
should have forced him to live in
a maximum security prison in

- isolation while experts tried to

learn why he was what he was.

When doctors refuse to
| Participate in executions, they
do so because they don’t believe
their skills should be used to
achieve the aims of the criminal
Justice system. They are right.
| Doctors should not kill on the
orders of the state. Nor should
| the state allow incorrigible,
‘violent criminals to have any say
in their punishment.

What would serve society
best is to understand the
Westley Allan Dodds of this

_world in order to prevent them.
What would punish such
criminals is knowing that

' biomedical science intends to
use them for society’s interest
rather than allowing them to use
medicine for theirs.

Arthur Caplan is director of

_ the Center for Biomedical Ethics

at the University of Minnesota.

~


DEATH ROW:

Continued from Al

Jeffries said Monday. ;

“They didn't think they were
going to get caught, then they don't
think they will be executed.”

Unlike Dodd, who repeatedly
expressed his desire to die and even
said he would gladly kill again if
given the chance, Jeffries has main-
tained his innocence throughout his
imprisonment for the murders of
Phil and Inez Skiff, a Port Angeles
couple who befriended him while he
was at. Mountain Prison near Chil-
liwack. :

Phil skiff, 59, was shot seven

times, twice in the head. His 57-year- y

old wife was shot numerotls times in
the chest, back and right hand.

Relatives of the couple have con-
sistently expressed their desire to
see Jefiries executed for the crime,
and Jeffries has already chosen to be

killed by lethal injection should that.

day arrive.

Jeffries said the feeling among
many of the other 10 denth-row pris-
oners at Washington State Peniten-
tiary is that Dodd's much-publicized

vest to die “hurts us as a whole”
and that all those on death row end,
up getting
eyes of the public.

Certainly the crimes for which
Dodd was convicted — torture, rap-
ing and killing three small boys in
1989 — have convinced many people
in this state that he should die.

Dodd’s execution would mark the
first time in 30 years that someone
has been executed in Washington
and he would become the 185th per-
son put to death in the U.S. since
legal executions resumed In 1977
when Gary Gilmore faced a firing
squad in Utah.

But Jeffries said what is over-
looked with Dodd is his value to
researchers probing the troubled
mind of the child molester and
killer.

“Dodd has a lot to contribute. He's
free-speaking. He doesn’t hold any-
thing back,” Jeffries said.

“Wouldn't you think he’s gota lot
to stive? If he dies he's gone. But it’s

lumped together in the’

_ Jeffries was

Canadian inmate awaits his fate

not over. What he did to those fami-
lics will always be with him.”
Jeffries said most of the prisoners
he knows on death row — five of the
11, including Jeffries, are housed in
one unit and have daily contae#with
each other — are prepared to sce
Dodd or someone else execuled.

And they don’t spend much time
talking about il. ,

‘wwe live it every day, so there's
really nothing to talk about,” he
said. “We know it's coming down,
and we know if we do have to go

we're going to have to face it, Loo.”

Jeffries and one of his appeal law-
ers, Brian Phillips, hope that day
doesn't come for him.

But the lengthy appeal process
they have embarked on is winding
down. :

Phillips has filed a petition for a
rehearing before the ninth circuit of
the U.S. Court of Appeals. If that
appeal fails there remain only two
last hopes for a slay of execution —

‘the U.S. Supreme Court and adireet

appeal to Washington's governor.

So far, the courts have consis-
tently denied the appeals, which
were based on the proposition that
Jeffries was not adequately repre-
genes by his lawyers at the original
trial.

Key to that argument is that after
found guilty he told his
lawyers not to have anyone speak on
his behalf during the penalty phase
when jurors recommend death or
life imprisonment.

Jeffries said he and his trial law-
yers thought the circumstantial case
against him — no murder weapon or
witnesses to the killing were
brought forward — was weak.

“we really thought we were on our
way, even the prosecutor did,
because there was nothing there,”
Jeffries said. So when the guilly ver-
dict came down, Jeffries said he
didn’t see the point of having his
brother Vern and his two daughters
speak on his behalf.

“The judge,” Jeffries recalled,
“didn'tinform me this was a serious
part of the trial.”

-on his own,

Two days after being found guilty,
Jeffries was sentenced.to die.

Phillips said the lack of testimony
on Jeffries’ behalf deall a critical
blow to his client. And the only way
Jeffries will not have to face the exc-
cutioner is by gelling the court lo
recognize thal.

“Pat didn't understand in a legal
context the consequences of what he
was doing,” Phillips said, adding
more than 80 per cent of convicted
killers who have evidence intro-
duced on their behalf “do nol gel the
death penalty.”

_ Since being sentenced Lo die, Jef-
fries has spent the bulk of his time
reading case law, searching out dif-
ferent routes for his appeal lawyers
to pursue.

He'said the special housing unithe

* now resides in is a big improvement

over the “IMU” (intensive manage-
ment unit) where he spent more
than six years under constant guard
and was segregated from other
inmates.

Prisoners in IMU wear bright
orange suits and are allowed oul of
the cells one at a time for one hour
provided they submit to a strip
search. Even something as scem-
ingly innocent as a toothbrush is cul
in half to prevent prisoners from
sharpening them into crude picks.

[ronically, Jeffries had access to
many sharp tools in B.C. where,
imprisoned over several years fora
range of crimes including armed
robbery, he became a gifled carver.
Over one six-month period he
carved a hardwood mold that Cor-
rections Canada later used to pro-
duce plaques.

“Pat is just like an old army man,
you know. As long sis he has supervi-
sion he gets along fine,” his brother
said in an interview from Costa Rica.
“He's been institutionalized for so
many years but with supervision he
is absolutely fantastic. He'll do any-
thing he’s told but.as soon as he gets
h that’s when he screws

However Jeffries’ appeal goes,
Phillips said, he'll never gel the
chance to make another mistake
outside Walla Walla. He'll either dic
by lethal injection or win his appeal *
and serve a life sentence, .

75 CENTS aurea OUTSIDE fons MAINLAND

"Tuesday, Jan. 5. 1993 :

Washington
hangs slayer

Convicted child-killer Westley
Allan Dodd died on the gallows at
Walla Walla Prison shortly after
midnight today.

He had spent his final hours with
a church minister and prison offi-
cials in a special holding cell.

The death, witnessed by a mem-
ber from cach of two families who
lost three boys to the killer, was
the first in Washington State in 30
years.

Dodd was escorted from death
row to the holding cell at late Mon-
e

Killer's death hurts others on death row, Canadian says

day afternoon. Ilis dinner menu:
salmon, scalloped potatoes, mixed
vegetables, coleslaw and lemon-
ade.

WALLA WALLA
ATRICK Jeffries never ima-
gined the day would come
when the state of Washington
would execute one of his fel-
low prisoners on death row.

But as television trucks set up
satellite dishes on a snowy, wind-
swept field outside the penitentiary
in the southeast corner of the state,
it was clear to the former east Van-
couver resident that the point of no
return was close at hand.

Jeffries, one of three Canadians on
death row in U.S. prisons, has been
incarcerated at Walla Walla for mur-
der since November 1983. At 57, he

is 26 years older than Westicy Allan
Dodd, a convicted child killer who
was hanged today.

The Washington state Supreme
Court cleared the way Monday for
Dodd's execution by ruling that
hanging is constitutional.

Dodd had waived all appeals and
requested he be hanged. But a civil
rights group challenged the Iegality
of hanging, arguing it is cruel and
unusual punishment, therefore
unconstitutional.

Sixteen hours before Dodd was
scheduled to die, Jeffries arrived al
a concrete and glass cubicle for a
rare interview with his lawyer anda

Vancouver Sun reporter to discuss
his rapidly dwindling avenues for
appeal and his thoughts on the death
penalty.

Dressed in a light grey prison-
issue shirt, baggy jeans with rolled-
up culls and a pair of navy blue Nike
running shoes, Jeffries appeared
relaxed on this most unusual of
days.

“L think everybody here, or the
people I know, believe it (their death
sentences) will he overturned
whether they plead guilty or not.”

Please see DEATH ROW, A5


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ERE || |)

interfere with their search efforts, police
cordoned off the area. They also closed
down the northbound lanes of Andresen
Road later that evening, according to
Vancouver Police Lieutenant Roy
Brown.

As the park search continued, the
sleuths tried to determine if the victim
was one of the Neer brothers. The law-
men moved carefully in their question-
ing of the distraught father. They didn’t
want to unduly alarm or distress him
further by making irresponsible state-
ments about the boy found in the park.
After all, the victim might not be the
man’s son. Sleuths made every effort to
obtain as much information about the
man’s sons as they could, such as physi-
cal descriptions, the clothing they were
wearing when they left home, and the
types of bikes they were riding.

Meanwhile, at the park, one group of
searchers armed with flashlights and
lanterns proceeded carefully along the
trails while another group beat the
bushes in search of evidence and, possi-
bly, another victim. It was slow going
under the conditions of night but, a short
time later, searchers found not one, but
tvo childrens’ BMX bicycles near the
trail, about 45 yards south from where
the stabbing victim was found. Lieuten-
ant Brown told reporters that investiga-
tors did not yet know for certain if one
of the bikes belonged to the dead boy,
but he added that both bikes fit the de-
scription given to police by the Neer

20 True Detective

Employees at a Portland grocery store claimed to have seen the missing Le

e Iseli.

boys’ father. Fearing that the unnerving
discovery meant there might be another
victim somewhere, the lawmen decided
to call in extra help and expand the
search.

“We have no idea at this time who
the [dead] boy is, who the bicycles be-
long to, or if there are any other vic-
tims,’’ said Lieutenant Brown, not
wanting to jump to any premature con-

clusions. He added that he hoped a posi-
tive identification would be made soon.
‘“‘We are going under the assumption
that there may be more victims,” he
said, his statement obviously based on
the report filed by the worried father.

Some seven hours later, at about 2:00
a.m., a volunteer from the Silver Star
Search and Rescue Team found what all
those concerned hoped they wouldn’t—
another victim. Like the first, it was a
little boy. This one was dead at the
scene. Appearing to be no more than 10
or 11 years old, his body was lying in
heavy brush about 25 yards east of
where the bicycles were found earlier in
the evening.

Like the first body, the second victim
had been stabbed numerous times in the
chest and abdomen. Both boys had de-
fensive wounds on their hands and legs,
indications that they had attempted to
fight off their attacker before succumb-
ing to his violence.

A short time later, there was no long-
er any doubt who the boys were. Both
were identified as William and Cole
Neer. William had been found first, po-
lice said, and both boys had likely been
attacked about the same time, between
6:15 and 6:45 p.m. There was no appar-
ent motive for the murders, which had
occurred less than a mile from their
home.

“What kind of motive does someone
have for killing a ten- and eleven-year-
old boy?” asked Vancouver Police Cap-
tain Ray Anderson. ‘“‘There are only so

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‘A relative saw Lee talking to a stranger at this playground before he vanished.

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Pretending to offer help, a crafty witness collared the suspect in parking lot.

Police confirmed that the park had
previously been a trouble spot for the
department, with late-night teenage
drinking parties and occasional fights.
But nothing ever came close to match-
ing the senseless violence that claimed
the Neer brothers’ lives.

Parents weren’t the only ones who
were jumpy in the aftermath of the Neer
murders. The Vancouver School District
took the precaution of increasing adult
supervision on playgrounds and at stu-
dent crossing zones. The school also
sent letters home, cautioning students
not to wander into secluded or wooded
areas and to walk or bicycle in groups.

In their efforts to better understand
every aspect of the tragedy, detectives
began looking at the Neer family’s
background. Investigators learned that
the family had moved to the Vancouver
area in 1986 from North Dakota, set-
tling in the suburb of Hazel Dell. Be-
cause of employment difficulties,
however, the family was forced to move
in July 1989 into public housing in the
McLoughlin Heights area of Vancouver.

Neighbors told detectives that the
Neer family was quiet. They kept to
themselves, but were generally well
liked. It was common for neighbors to
see William and Cole tearing down the
streets of the usually quiet neighbor-
hood on their BMX bikes.

“Those boys were always so good,”
recalled one friend and neighbor. “And
they were always together, every time
they went out bike riding.”

“They were just babies,” said a tear-
ful relative of the victims. ‘‘I can’t
imagine anyone doing this to them.”

24 True Détective

In the meantime, while making ar-
rangements to take the victims’ bodies
back to their native North Dakota for
burial, the boys’ father told the Associ-
ated Press that he was also making plans
to take his only surviving child to Hills-
boro, Oregon, where they would live
with a relative.

‘As soon as | step outside that door,”
said the father, ‘‘I’m gone. I’m not
going to lose my last son to this crap.”
He said he didn’t plan to ever set foot in
Vancouver, Washington, again, not even
to drive through it.

““Vancouver—I used to like it,’’ he
said. “The boys seemed to like it really
well. Now, I don’t want anything to do
with any of it.”

The grieving father told reporters that
the public needed to know what had
happened to his family. Children, he

After his intended victim escaped, the abductor sped off.down this Camas street.

said, ‘‘need to know that they should lis-
ten to their parents. Something’s going
to happen if they don’t. Don’t let them
wander off too far. Losing one is bad.
Losing two...all I’ve got is my baby
left.”

In the days following the double mur-
der, detectives concentrated on inter-
viewing family members in an effort to
reconstruct William’s and Cole’s activ-
ities the day they were killed. They also
went door to door through the neighbor-
hood looking for potential witnesses.

In the meantime, detectives located a
young boy who had been in the park late
on the afternoon of the murders. He was
interviewed and, according to Acting
Vancouver Police Chief Bob King, Port-
land police artist Jean Boylan was
brought in to draw a composite sketch
of a suspicious man seen in the park the
day the Neer boys were killed.

“*The sketch has been circulated
among our police officers, and they
have instructions that if this person is
seen, we want to talk to him,”’ said
King, who stopped short of calling the
man a suspect. “‘We’re considering him
a person of interest, someone we want
to talk to about the case.” King added
that if his officers had no luck in finding
the man, the sketch would be released to
the news media.

“This is one of those cases that is so
senseless,”’ he said. “‘We’re going to
need a lot of help in solving this one.
Hopefully, other people will come for-
ward with information about others who
may have been in the park at the same
time. That’s how these cases are made.”

A short time later, police officials an-
nounced that a second person, believed
to have been in the park at the time of
the killings, was being studied. A wit-
ness provided detectives with a descrip-

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many possible motives in something
like this. With adults, there’s always the
anger motive. People get mad at each
other and fight. But when it’s a couple
of young boys cut up for no apparent
reason...you just don’t know.

“This kind of thing just never hap-
pens in Vancouver,” continued Captain
Anderson. ‘‘We can go a whole year
without a homicide. These are just two
brothers—spitting images of each oth-
er—out riding their BMX bikes, and
they come across an assailant. We’re
talking about the kinds of things that
happen to other people in other places,
but hopefully not to you.”

Captain Anderson said both boys
were fully clothed when found but cau-

~

ix

22 True Detective

An attempted abduction at this theater (r.) led to apprehension of child killer.

tioned that that did not necessarily mean
they had not been sexually assaulted. He
said detectives were awaiting tests to
determine whether or not the victims, in
fact, had been.

“If we find out they were [sexually
assaulted], it’s something else again,”
he added.

Investigators sent the victims’ clothes
and other evidence from the crime scene
to the Washington State Crime Labora-
tory in Kelso, Washington, for analysis,
hoping for any kind of break that would
lead them at least one step closer to the
killer. However, little of significance
was learned, dashing sleuths’ hopes that
the case could be quickly solved.

The case took on a marked intensity -

a ""

like none that Vancouver had seen be-
fore. Homicide cases involving children
are always more intense, said Captain
Bob Kanekoa of the Vancouver PD. “It
strikes you harder than anything when
juveniles are involved,” he said.

The intensity was evident throughout
the next day as the sleuths combed the
park with metal detectors in their search
for evidence. At one point a knife was
found, but it was not considered to be
the murder weapon. It was covered with
mud and rust, apparently from having
been at the location for a considerable
time prior to the murders.

Police officials warned area residents
to take extra precautions in the David
Douglas Park neighborhood, and ad-
vised people, especially children, not to
go to the park alone. They urged resi-
dents to report any suspicious characters
or activities in any of the Vancouver
neighborhoods, especially those near
parks.

Uneasiness and anxiety were vir-
tually pandemic among area residents.
Mothers and fathers were seen in areas
near David Douglas Park after school
the day after the murders. Sentry-like,
they positioned themselves about 50
yards apart, lining the paths that school-
children normally took to their homes.

“T’m a little jumpy, a little worried,”
said one area resident after learning
about the grim murders. The mother of a
third-grader who lived only a few
blocks from the park said she began
driving her child to school instead of al-
lowing him to ride his bike. “I know the
park has had its problems...[but] I didn’t
think anything bad would happen.”

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The suspect was employed as

tion from which a second composite
sketch was prepared.

“We have reason to believe that this
fellow is someone who hangs around
the park quite a bit,” said Captain An-
derson. “Our officers are showing the
sketch to people who may have been in
the park Monday to see if they can help
us find the man. He is only someone we
want to talk to and we don’t want to
raise any terror in anyone.”

Captain Anderson added that detec-
tives weren’t sure whether more than
one killer was involved, or whether the
killer was a man or a woman. He said
searchers would continue until investi-
gators were ‘satisfied that nothing
slipped past” them. —

As one day followed another, despite
two police sergeants each leading a
team of three detectives in their search
for clues, only a few leads of any signif-
icance trickled in to the Vancouver Po-
lice Department. With little else they
could do unless something substantial
- turned up, detectives, aided by numer-
ous volunteers, returned to David Doug-
las Park and the site of the Neer
murders.

“We want to backtrack where we’ve
searched already because we may pick
up on some things that may have been
missed earlier,” said Captain Anderson.
“We especially want to look at some ar-
eas where people were seen running
through the park at about the time of the
crime....[It’s] an area that’s heavily
wooded and has a lot of nooks and cran-
nies. There are a lot of leads that we
have to follow up on that are routine.”

One of those leads was supplied by a
woman who saw a man running from
David Douglas Park at the approximate
time the killings were believed to have

26 True Detective

a clerk at this paper factory

i)

2 i Bi
not far from th

e loca

occurred. Police now had at least two
persons of interest to be on the lookout
for; both were men.

Investigators followed up on leads
obtained from interviews with neigh-
bors and from more than 100 telephone
calls generated by the release of the
composite drawings. Callers told police
they had seen men resembling one or
the other of the sketches driving near
the park around the time of the murders
and described the vehicles the men were
driving. Some callers suggested neigh-
borhoods where the men might reside.
Others provided detectives with the
names of companies where the men
might work.

Westley Allan Dodd kept a diary in which
he described, among other perversions,
a desire to do “experimental surgery.”

tion where Lee Iseli's body was dumped.

However, the investigators ran up
against a brick wall at nearly every turn.
The leads didn’t pan out. The persons of
interest had airtight alibis and witnesses
who could vouch for their activities at
the time of the murders. Unfortunately,
by mid-September, the homicide prob-
ers were still at square one.

Investigators were relentless, how-
ever, in their perseverance in the case.
They backtracked again and again. They
found a reliable witness who told them
he had seen the Neer boys riding their
bicycles north on Andresen Road near
the park at approximately 6:10 p.m.
They found another witness who said he
had seen the boys heading south, walk-
ing their bikes uphill along Andresen
Road in the same time frame.

Despite their dogged efforts, all the
investigators had been able to do was
retrace the victims’ activities up to
about 6:10 p.m. on the day they were
murdered. They were without clues as

“to the boys’ movements from that time

until the time William’s body was dis-
covered by the passerby.

At the request of the Vancouver Po-
lice Department, the FBI in Washington,
D.C., worked up a psychological profile
of the possible killer. The profile sug-

gested that the killer most likely lived in.

the community and probably was very
familiar with David Douglas Park and
the surrounding area. The profile also
suggested that the killer could have
known the two boys and most likely
was physically large enough to easily
overpower them. The nature of the
deaths indicated the killer was comfort-
able with knives and may have used a

knife in a previous assault or killing.
The senselessness of the crime, the
(Continued on page 65)

Talk tc

perso!

abil


found in a search that would begin at
daylight.

Clark County Coroner Archie
Hamilton made a preliminary exami-
nation of the bodies before turning
them over to forensic pathologists for
a postmortem. He said he was vir-
tually certain that the youngsters had
not been sexually molested and
strangely, neither showed signs of
having been tied up. There were de-
fensive wounds on the hands and
arms, indicating the boys had
struggled with their killer, but it left a
question of how the murderer had
been able “to constrain two active
boys.

At daybreak, Capt. Anderson orga-
nized a search of the park. Officers
and Search and Rescue Team mem-
bers were directed to use the spot
where the bodies had been found as a
focal point and then make a growing
circle, like hands on a clock, in a
shoulder-to-shoulder search for a
knife or anything that might appear to
be physical evidence.

Capt. King requested the news me-
dia to make an appeal for anyone who
might have seen the boys on their bi-
cycles, particularly around six-thirty
in the evening, to contact the police.
Checking with the medics who had
first been called with the discovery of

16

Billy’s body, they said the attack on
the youngster must have taken place
within a very short time prior to
when he had been found. The young-
ster had not been breathing but the
flesh had been warm.

The appeal by the news media
brought in two responses. One was
from a 17-year-old boy who said he
had seen two boys on bicycles talking
to a man on Anresen Road at the trail-
head of the park. He placed the time
as somewhere close to 6:30 p.m. He
described the man as being on foot, in
his late teens or early 20’s, slender
with dark hair. He was unsure of the
man’s clothing or if he had an auto-
mobile.

The second call was from a 13-
year-old boy who had been on the
trail in the park. He had not seen the
brothers on their bicycles, but he had
seen a man walking’ hurriedly out of
the park and placed the time as shortly
after 6:30. The description he gave
was similar to the one received from
the first person to report.

A police artist drew a sketch of the
persons the witnesses had seen. Capt.
King gave it to the news media with
a statement saying the persons were
not considered to be suspects but the
police wanted to talk to them about
what they might have seen.

Suspect’s car in police poundia
fter it was seized in search. F
"rae WET

| The bicycles that had been aban-

‘ doned were. checked by crime scene

_ Specialists for fingerprints in the event
the killer might have handled them.

A three-day search of the park by
officers, Search and Rescue volun-
teers and dogs failed to provide any
evidence that could be linked to the
slaying of the little boys.

The father of the murdered young-
sters announced that he was leaving
Vancouver with his surviving son to
live with relatives in Hillsboro, Ore-
gon.

“I don’t know who killed my sons
or for what reason,” he told the news
media. “But I am taking the son I
have left to be with someone who
can watch him every hour of the day
until the killer can be found.”

Known facts in the case puzzled
the team of detectives investigating it.
If it had been a sex motivated mur-
der, they would have looked for a
sex deviate, but the forensic patho-
logists were positive the youngsters
had not been molested. Equally puz-
zling was how a single killer could
have subdued two active boys.

“About the only thing we can think
of is that if he grabbed one of the
brothers, the other one had pitched in

to try to rescue him,” Det. Lou Bradf- °

ladt said. “After stabbing the younger

brother, the c
killer caught
body was fou
But. motiv
zle. Who we
death two y«
reason?
North Dal
the boys’ m«
she was dev:
been killed b
have killed th
The fathe:
was taking t!
ta to be buri:
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and wrote th
were covere:
dian funeral t
Checking
some lead to
der of the bri
Neer and his
Dell, a subu
before movir
While they
come acqua
James E. Du
He had gone
his friend on
and found Dv
Police arr
mont’s  girlfi
She admittec
claimed it we
physically ab
tion revealed
mont both h
problem. On
sentenced to
been released
Neer was
case. He sai
trial and had
suspected Di
killed him w
but insisted |
that would c
angry with hii
The Washi
rections offic:
the whereabo
would attempt
With little
after two w
signed Detec'
Bruce Hall an
work on the ca
Residents
warned not to
Park alone on
bicycle paths
park after dark
A number c

‘re legal and
1e made to po-

after a jury of

were seated,
Roger Bennett
-. He took the
ugh the case,
to Dodd’s con-
s lurid past. He
ographs of the
video made by
en Lee Iseli’s

chilling part of
at focusing on
which detailed
ans to kill chil-
de with Satan,
‘Love God,” to
irderous goals.

xplained that”

ry showed that
in a large num-
pings and mur-

vritings showed
dren before he
cutor produced
n Dodd’s diary
ch he could use
» his victims so
‘experimental
er the children
jive. His plans
ve parts of their
ldren were con-

numerous ways
irder children.
angle, others he
ill others would
i. He referred to
s his ‘‘experi-

1owed the jurors
; Park, drawn by
is diary that said
‘good place for
idnap, rape and
2 ground.” Dodd
chat he “‘got more
ling than the mo-

n Neer died in
yn Labor Day as
* said Prosecutor
‘en cracking with

enty other chil--

1rough fate that
u wonder where
ho are the lucky

end at the play-
o wanted to buy

to bea TRAINED

him a toy, wanted to give him some
money,’’. continued Curtis. ‘‘Lee Iseli
did what we teach our children not to
do....Little did he know as he played
happily at Mr. Dodd’s apartment the
night before his death that Mr. Dodd
was sitting, writing in his diary.”

Prosecutor Curtis then read a passage
from the diary: ‘6:30 p.m. Lee is still
playing. Will probably wait until morn-
ing to kill him. He suspects nothing
now. That way his body will still be fair-
ly fresh for experiments after work.”

Arguing against leniency for Dodd,
Curtis told jurors there was no evidence
for them to consider that warranted le-
niency.

“Must I remind you of the crimes?”
he asked. ‘‘How do you describe the
enormity of the crimes for which the de-
fendant has pled guilty—what is the ap-
propriate word? Outrageous?
Appalling? Beyond belief? Horrific? It
is difficult to believe a human being is
capable of fantasizing about such
crimes.”

‘Look at what Mr. Dodd likes to do
in his free time,” co-Prosecutor Roger
Bennett told the jurors, reminding the
panel that Dodd’s one hobby and pas-

sion was killing. “Plan child murders.
Commit child murders. Relive fantasies
‘about child murders and write about
them. With life without parole, two of
those things are still available to him.”
Bennett then urged the jury to sentence
Westley Dodd to death.

Dodd’s attorney, Lee Dane, argued
that Dodd should be sentenced to life
without parole. Dane said Dodd would
not pose a future threat to society be-
cause he killed only children, and norie
would be available to him if he was sen-
tenced to life in prison.

“1’d like you to think about the effect
of an execution on a community—
whether it heals or hurts a community,”
said Dane. ‘“‘The death penalty has nev-
er brought back a human life, has never
elevated a community or the people
who comprise it.”

On Saturday, July 15, 1990, follow-
ing 14 hours of grueling deliberations

- over three days, the jury concluded that

Westley Allan Dodd must die for his

crimes. They failed to find any reason’

for leniency.

Dodd subsequently asked that his
death sentence be carried out expe-
ditiously. Authorities are making every

effort to grant his request and are confi-
dent that Dodd may be executed in as
little as two years if he doesn’t file any
appeals. So far he hasn’t. Dodd has writ-
ten to the Washington State Supreme
Court from his cell on death row at the
state penitentiary in Wala Walla, re-
questing that they quickly conclude the
one mandatory appeal afforded all death
penalty cases, urging the justices to up-
hold his conviction and sentence. Dodd
has said that he will choose hanging
over lethal injection when the time
comes.

In the meantime, Westley Dodd re-
portedly lies in his prison cell and mas-
turbates night and day as he wanders in
and out of fantasy states, apparently re-
living the gruesome murders he com-
mitted as well as those he had planned
to commit. oo

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Dave Miller, Don Adamski, Tommy
Staley, Pete Mann, and Les Wilson are
not the real names of the persons so
named in the foregoing story. Fictitious
names have been used because there is
no reason for public interest in the iden-
tities of these persons.

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True Detective 73

~»

’ electric
minutes
ster was.
pital.
sr police
d two bi-
: boy had
They as-
) young-
iid not be
formation
_ been in-

hospital.
helicop-
d on arri-
cuck by a
stabbed to

g chief of
ble officer
oa yellow
{ the area
yeen found
idence and

Portland to
ng on the
‘that might

back that
‘te who the
red to be

ag did not
.. The boy
ie had sav-
o the little
ion of who
vicycle that
connection
e murder.

2er reported

as
p
iS

seer a ee

ne ene. venrne sree

to the police that his 10 and 11-year-
old sons were missing. They had left
home on their bicycles to go to the
driving range to look for golf balls.
He had been concerned when they
had not returned home for dinner. He
and his younger son had gone out to
look for them.

When Captain Ray Anderson, who
was directing the police activities at
the park, was given the information,
he sent an officer to pick up Neer to
ask him to look at the two bicycles
that had been found.

Neer identified the bicycles as
those of his sons and was given the
information that a boy, most likely
one of his sons, had been found
stabbed to death. The second boy had
not been located.

Captain King put in a call to Bud
Downs, training officer with the Sil-
ver Star Search and Rescue Unit, re-
questing help with search dogs.

Officers conducting intensive search of wooded area.

Westley Dodd, described as a
sex deviant with a high risk of
repeat offense.

At two o’clock in the morning, of-
ficers found the second body. It was
about 60 yards from where the first
boy had been found. It was Cole Neer
and, like his younger brother, he had
been viciously stabbed to death.

Clair Neer was questioned by de-
tectives. He had no idea who could
have killed his sons or for what rea-
son. The boys were like twins and
went everywhere together. They had
lived in the housing project for only a
short time and were acquainted with
only a few persons. Both had been
excited when they learned that they
could be paid for finding errant golf
balls outside the fence of the driving
range.

After the second body had been

found, Capt. King ordered everyone
out of the dark, wooded park for the
night to prevent any possible contami-
nation of evidence that might be

(continued on next page)

15


Se R aR GER TERE

.?

MAD 6

ah @ 5

"Rash of child killings in Pacific Northwest

has lawmen and citizens both wondering:

by JACK HEISE
he mood of the resi-

dents of Vancouver, |

Washington,

anger and then to fear as the
police were unable to locate
the savage killer of two
small brothers. It wasn’t that
the police weren’t doing ev-
erything possible with the
entire force working almost
around the clock, but there
was no motive, no witnesses
and no physical evidence.

The brothers, 11-year-old Cole
Laverne Neer and 10-year-old Wil-
liam (Billy) lived with their father
and a young brother in the Skyline
crest housing project. They had come
from Oberon, North Dakota, follow-
ing a bitter divorce from the boys’
mother, a member of the Devil’s Lake
Sioux Indian tribe.

A glass cutter and mechanic, 35-
year-old Clair Neer had been unable

changed
from one of shocked grief to

to find work and was accepting wel- .

fare to care for his sons.

Cole and Billy found a source of in-
come for spending money. They
would go on their bicycles to the

‘Vance Driving Range and wait for

the golfers to knock balls over the
fence, which they would retrieve and
turn into cash.

At four o’clock on Labor Day, Sep-
tember 4, 1989, the brothers told their
father they were going to look for
golf balls, hopped on their bicycles
and rode down the path through the
David Douglas Park to the driving
range on the far side.

At 6:45 a jogger spotted the body
of a boy laying in the brush just off

Westley Dodd making another
court appearance. He kept
coming back with ever more
vicious assaults.

the path. The youngster’s clothes
were bloody and the jogger ran to a
nearby convenience store to call the
°11 emergency number.

Medics arrived within minutes.
The youngster was not breathing but
the body was warm. Medics thought
he had probably been hit by an auto-
mobile.

As they attempted to revive him, a
call was put in to the Life Flight serv-
ice for a helicopter to take the boy to
the Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Or-
egon, across Columbia River from
Vancouver.

The chopper pilot radioed the med-
ics to meet him at the football field of
a nearby high school where he could
land without interference of electric
wires. It took less than 15 minutes
from the time the youngster was
found until he reached the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver police
called to the scene discovered two bi-
cycles not far from. where the boy had
been spotted in the woods. They as-
sumed there had been two young-
sters, but the second boy could not be
located and they had no information
as to who the boy who had been in-
jured might be.

A call came in from the hospital.
The youngster brought in by helicop-
ter had been pronounced dead on arri-
val, but he had not been struck by a
car. He had been viciously stabbed to
death.

Captain Bob King, acting chief of
police, ordered every available officer
to the 68-acre park to put up a yellow
police line ribbon around the area
where the boy’s body had been found
and to look for possible evidence and
witnesses.

An officer was sent to Portland to
learn if there was anything on the
body of the slain youngster that might
identify him. He reported back that
there was nothing to indicate who the
boy might be. He appeared to be
about 10 or 1 1-years-old.

He related that the killing did not
appear to be a sex attack. The boy
was fully clothed. Someone had sav-
agely plunged a knife into the little
body a dozen or more times.

It brought up the question of who
had been on the second bicycle that
had been found, and what connection
the person might have to the murder.

At 10 o’clock, Clair Neer reported

Re

14

i The revolving door of prison is all too true a fact, as Tl
homicide detectives can attest. Seems they keep
going after the same faces, with only the victims
-being tragically different..

to the p
old son
home o
driving
He had
had not
and his
look for
Whe:
was dir
the par}
he sent
ask hin
that had
Neer
those ¢
inform:
one ol
stabbed
not bee
Capt
Downs.
ver Sta
questin

sie