Unusual: The United States Executed Three Criminals by Hanging\
And I I just became completely obsessed with it. That’s all I thought about 24 hours a day. I I was dreaming about it at night uh constantly all day at work. It’s all I thought about was killing kids. I am what a child molester looks like. There is no dirty old man. Dirty old man does not exist.
I am what a child molester looks like. I am what a serial killer looks like. The man you just saw on screen begged to be executed, claiming that he couldn’t control his sexual impulses. He was hanged in 1993. When people talk about executions by hanging, many think of scenes from the early 20th century. However, in the late ’90s, executions by this method were still being carried out in the United States.
In this video, you will discover all the executions by hanging of the modern era, the horrible crimes that unite these criminals, and the last words of the condemned before they died on the gallows. Wesley Dodd was born in Richland, Washington in 1961. He was raised in an upper middle class family with no economic hardships or history of abuse or mistreatment.
It was a close-knit and happy family. Dodd, from the age of 10, showed very strange behaviors for his age, of an exhibitionist nature. He would show his private parts from the window of the house or go out riding his bike completely naked. Obviously, since he was a small child, most people interpreted these as something funny or cute rather than something concerning.
When he was alone, Dodd also committed acts of massochism that no one witnessed. I won’t go into details about what he did since it would be too explicit, but they were very intense behaviors and completely inappropriate for a child his age. In his adolescence, Wesley had already known for a long time that he was homosexual, but he also recognized that he felt a dangerous attraction toward minors.
According to his own account, those impulses were so intense that they were triggered by everyday situations involving babies, like changing a diaper. Dodd began sexually abusing minors from a very young age. His first victims were his own cousins. Although his family had frequent suspicions, it was hard for them to believe that these abuses were happening inside their own home, which allowed them to continue for years.
Over the years, he offered to take care of children and babies from his neighbors in the neighborhood, and he systematically abused them as well. By the age of 18, he had already been caught by the law on two occasions. Once trying to kidnap two little girls and another offering money to girls in exchange for going to a motel.
These actions left him with a criminal record. But incomprehensibly, he was released. But at this point in the story, everything took a dark turn. Over time, Dodd’s fantasies began to become more macob, and he started contemplating the idea of torture and murder. By this point, he was already labeled in the area as a person who liked children, and with six arrests for the same reason, he moved to Vancouver.
It was in 1989 when the worst would happen. At the end of the summer of 1989, Wesley Allen Dodd already had murder on his mind. On September 4th, armed with a 15 cm knife, he went out to prowl around David Douglas Park in Vancouver. That afternoon, he randomly chose two brothers, Cole Near, 11 years old, and William Near, 10 years old.
The boys were walking alone through the park when Dodd intercepted them. He intimidated them and forced them to follow him off the main path, heading into a more isolated area of the woods. Once there, he tied them up with their own shoelaces. abused both of them and finally stabbed them to death. After that, he fled.
Less than 15 minutes after his escape, a teenager who was hiking discovered the bodies and ran to alert the police. Dodd spent the following weeks closely following the news about the children’s murders, enjoying the media coverage. He even filled a scrapbook with newspaper articles and noted every detail in his diary.
Over time, that obsession grew and drove him to go out again in search of new victims. On October 29th, he crossed the river into Portland, Oregon, and kidnapped 4-year-old Lee Icely from the playground of Richmond Elementary School. In his apartment, he abused the boy and photographed him. The image you are seeing on screen is a disturbing photograph taken by Wesley himself of Young Lee before killing him.
The horror was briefly interrupted when they went to McDonald’s and Kmart where Dodd bought the boy a toy. Once back, he continued the abuse. The murder was completed at 5:30 the next morning. Dodd strangled the little boy until he was unconscious and finished the job with a rope, hanging Lee’s body from a bar inside the closet.
That same night, after work, he dumped the corpse near Vancouver Lake, where a hunter discovered it in the early hours of November 1st. While watching the news about the new discovery, Dodd designed a torture rack in order to begin experimenting with slightly more elaborate torments. When he finished building it, he went out in search of his fourth victim.
On November 11th, Dodd tried to abduct a boy from a movie theater. However, he was discovered while fleeing with him down an alley after being chased by the boyfriend of the boy’s mother and several employees of the place. The child had screamed and struggled, which alerted those nearby and caused a huge commotion.
After being subdued, the police began to question him. Dodd denied everything. During the trial, evidence from the search of Dodd’s apartment was presented. There they found Lee Eelley’s Spider-Man underwear as well as photographs of the boy taken before and after his death. They also found a black briefcase under his bed where he kept newspaper clippings about his own crimes, his diaries, and a scrapbook titled family memories in which he hid photographs of small children.
Disturbingly, it also included an image of the baby Jesus. Throughout the entire trial, it was observed how Dodd seemed to enjoy himself every time the crimes he had committed were discussed. At one point, when he was asked what they were supposed to do with him, Wesley responded as follows. >> Raise your right hand.
Do you swear the evidence you’re about to give is the truth, the only truth, and nothing but the truth of God? >> What would be your intention if you’re forced to live in prison? do everything I can to escape and if necessary kill prison guards on the way out and I’ll go right back to doing what I was did before as soon as I hit the streets >> which is what? >> Kill kids.
>> Kill and rape kids. >> Yes. >> So you should be executed for the safety of others. >> Yes. >> In 1990, Dodd was sentenced to death and his reaction when he heard the sentence was a smile. He did not want to appeal. By then the lethal injection was starting to become popular and the electric chair was being phased out.
There was also the gas chamber but there was another legal method. At that time in Washington the gallows was still available. Dodd chose to be executed in this way. He said it was the most appropriate because that was how he had murdered his last victim. While he was on death row, Dodd wrote and published a pamphlet aimed at parents to protect their children from pedophiles.
This document came to light through the press and was tremendously controversial. As always happens on death row, Dodd converted to Christianity. He claimed that when he was executed, he would go to heaven and be with the three boys he killed so he could truly love them. Finally, after 3 years on death row, he was executed on January 5th, 1993.
The day before he died, Dodd requested roasted salmon and scalloped potatoes as his last meal. That same day, he was weighed and a full rehearsal was conducted using a sandbag with his exact weight to calculate the length of the drop needed and ensure a quick death. Dodd was executed at 12:05 a.m. at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walaw Wala.
12 members of regional and local media, prison officials, and relatives of the three victims witnessed Dodd’s execution. Already tied up and before they placed the hood on him, he was asked if he had any last words. He replied that he did and said once someone, I don’t remember who, asked me if there was any way to stop sexual offenders. I told them no.
I was wrong. I was also wrong when I said there was no hope. That there was no peace. There is hope. There is peace. I found both in the Lord Jesus Christ. Seek the Lord and you will find peace. Dod was pronounced dead at 12:14 a.m. He was 31 years old at the time of his execution. In the winter of 1974, the Wickland family seemed to be living a quiet life in Clear View, Washington.
Renee Wickland, 23 years old, was married to Jack Wickland and was the mother of a baby girl named Shana, who was just over a year old. The couple enjoyed their home in a rural and peaceful area, never imagining the tragedy that was approaching. One day, Renee decided to clean the exterior windows of her house while her little daughter slept inside.
This everyday activity left her vulnerable. At that moment, Charles Rodman Campbell, a 22-year-old man approximately 1.95 meters tall with red hair, originally from Hawaii, was prowling the area looking for something to steal. Campbell entered the Wickland home and threatened Renee with a knife. He forced her to undress, warning her that he would kill her baby Shana if she didn’t obey.
The attack was brutal and deeply terrifying. After the sexual assault, Campbell fled the scene, leaving Renee severely traumatized, but alive. Renee immediately called the police and reported the rape. Although the attacker was not caught right away, she cooperated with the authorities. Two years later, in 1976, Renee positively identified Campbell in a lineup.
Charles Campbell was arrested and tried for the sexual assault on Renee. He was convicted of first-degree assault and sodomy. Both Renee Wickland and her neighbor Barbara Hendrickson testified against him, which proved key to his conviction. He received a sentence of 4 years in prison. During his imprisonment, Campbell developed a deep resentment toward Renee and Barbara for having testified against him.
His anger turned into an obsessive hatred. Despite the seriousness of the crime, Campbell was later placed in a work release program. On April 14th, 1982, while he was in that work program, Campbell, driven by irrational hatred, returned to Clear View with deadly intentions. He went straight to Renee Wickland’s house and her family’s home.
Campbell burst into the residence and attacked Renee first. He beat her brutally, stripped her, and murdered her by cutting her throat in the bedroom. The violence was extreme with signs of mutilation and years of pentup rage. Shana Wickland, the 8-year-old girl, was the second victim. She was attacked in the dining room, beaten, and dragged into her mother’s bedroom, where her throat was also cut.
The girl tried to resist or flee, but she had no chance against Campbell’s fury. Barbara Hendrickson, the 51-year-old neighbor and family friend, had gone to the Wickland house that afternoon to help with little Shana and to take Rene’s temperature and blood pressure. When she didn’t return home, her husband Donald went to look for her.
Barbara became the third victim. She was attacked in the dining room and murdered in the hallway, also with throat cuts and signs of extreme violence. Campbell killed her to eliminate a possible witness who had previously cooperated in his rape conviction. Donald Hendrickson discovered the three bodies that same afternoon when he entered the house.
The crime scene was horrifying. Renee in the bedroom, Shana dragged beside her, and Barbara in the hallway. All three had been beaten and had their throats slit. The police quickly linked the murders to Charles Campbell because of his prior history with Renee and his participation in the work release program.
He was arrested shortly afterward and charged with three counts of aggravated firstderee murder. During the trial, it was established that the crimes were an act of revenge for Renee and Barbara’s testimony in 1976. The case caused a huge public outcry in Washington where much of public opinion demanded the death penalty and Campbell was ultimately sentenced to death in 1984.
Charles Campbell spent 12 years filing appeals and throughout that time insisted that he did not want to be executed trying to prolong the process as much as possible. He also refused to choose his method of execution. So the state applied the default method hanging. He likewise did not select a special last meal because according to him doing so would mean accepting his own death.
>> Death is not instantaneous with hanging and that a lot of people it takes 5 10 15 minutes to die and that’s a long time to be you know hanging up there. It’s a very ghastly way to die. He was finally executed by hanging on May 27th, 1994 in Washington. On the day of his execution, Campbell refused to cooperate, so the guards had to spray him with pepper spray to get him out of his cell.
He was so terrified that he couldn’t walk or stand, so they strapped him firmly to a rigid board to keep his body upright during transport. Once at the gallows, they carried him to the platform. They placed a black hood on him with difficulty since he kept moving his head in an attempt to remove it. And then they adjusted the noose under his jaw.
He gave no final words before dying. At 12:08 a.m., the trap door opened and Campbell fell approximately 1.70 m, a distance calculated to break his neck immediately. The execution caused a cervical fracture that resulted in an almost instantaneous death. He was pronounced dead 6 minutes later and the coroner confirmed that he died within seconds showing no movement after the fall.
Campbell was 39 years old when he died and was the last person executed by hanging in the state of Washington. Hi Anne Seaman, a university student, was murdered in 1975 and for decades the case remained unsolved. It was not until 2024 that forensic scientist William Stubs through DNA analysis managed to identify Charles Campbell as the killer of Halley Anne.
Billy Bailey was born in 1946 in South Carolina as the 19th of 23 siblings in conditions of extreme poverty. He suffered constant physical abuse, lost his mother at 6 months old and his father at 6 years old. He spent much of his childhood in foster homes and developed a severe alcohol problem along with a violent and impulsive temper.
In 1974, he was sentenced to 5 years in prison for robbery, although he was granted parole shortly after. On June 12th, 1979, while participating in a work program that allowed him to reduce his sentence in Delaware, Bailey escaped in what was described as a state of uncontrolled psychosis. He then went to the home of his foster sister in Chzwald, where he attempted to take his own life, but she managed to stop him.
After this altercation, Bailey got into a vehicle heading into the city. Upon arrival, he entered a liquor store, robbed it at gunpoint, assaulted the clerk, and fled with cash and a bottle of liquor. He then walked to the Lambertson farm. At the location were Gilbert Lambertson, 80, and his wife Clara, 73. Bailey had known them since his teenage years, as they had occasionally given him work.
Without showing remorse, he shot them multiple times. First Gilbert, who was outside, and then Clara, using both a pistol and a shotgun. he found inside the house. Afterward, he arranged their bodies in chairs before fleeing. The primary motive was robbery. While fleeing on foot, a Delaware State Police helicopter located him.
Bailey attempted to shoot the co-pilot, but missed. An officer pursued him and caught up. Bailey fired at point blank range, but missed again. He was ultimately apprehended at the scene. He was quickly linked to the murders and brought to trial. In 1980, his defense argued that he acted under extreme emotional distress due to a childhood marked by abuse and alcoholism.
However, throughout the proceedings, Bailey behaved aggressively. At one point, he told the judge, “Go ahead, hang me, you son of a [ __ ] I killed them.” Bailey was convicted on two counts of firstdegree murder along with robbery and other related charges. The jury sentenced him to death by hanging. the method established in his original sentence.
He spent more than 15 years on death row in Delaware. Although the state switched to lethal injection in 1986, Bailey was given the option to choose it, but he refused and demanded to be hanged, stating that he did not want to be put to sleep like a dog. He rejected clemency and his execution warrant was signed. Finally, on January 25th, 1996, at the age of 49, he was executed by hanging on a gallows specially constructed for him at the Smyrna prison.
Since Delaware had not carried out a hanging in 50 years, state officials traveled to Washington to study the methods and build the gallows specifically for Bailey. The day before he was weighed at 220 pounds and a test was conducted using a sandbag of equivalent weight to ensure a drop of approximately 5 ft. Bailey spent his final 24 hours sleeping, eating, watching television, talking with staff, and meeting with his sister, the prison chaplain, and his lawyer.
For his last meal, he requested a well-done steak, a baked potato with sour cream and butter, dinner rolls with butter, peas, and vanilla ice cream. Minutes before the execution, once he was secured, he was asked if he had any final words, and he replied, “No, sir.” Billy Bailey became the first person executed by hanging in Delaware in 50 years, and the third in the United States since 1965.
To this day, his case remains the last legal execution carried out by this method in the country. The image you are seeing corresponds to the actual location where he was executed. The gallows were dismantled in 2003. It is striking that despite being a relatively recent case, so little information is available and that most of the details come solely from old newspaper reports.
To close, here is the story of the last public execution carried out in the United States in 1936. The case of Rainey Bethea. Rainey Betha, a 26-year-old African-Amean man born in Virginia and orphaned at an early age, had a history of theft. On June 7th, 1936 in Owensboro, Kentucky, he attacked Lucia Edwards, a 70-year-old widow who lived alone on East Fifth Street.
Beth Thea was familiar with the home as he had previously worked there doing cleaning jobs. To enter, he climbed onto the roof of an adjacent building and accessed the bedroom through a window after removing a grate. Once inside, he woke Edwards, strangled her, and brutally assaulted her. Before fleeing, he searched the room and stole several gold rings.
The body was discovered that same morning by a family living on the lower floor. At the scene, investigators found muddy footprints and a key piece of evidence, a celluloid ring with the initial R, which belonged to Betha. He was captured on June 10th while hiding in bushes near the Ohio River. After his arrest, he confessed multiple times and revealed where he had hidden the stolen jewelry, which was later recovered by police.
To ensure a public execution, the prosecution made a strategic decision to charge him only with rape. At the time, murder was punished with a private execution in the electric chair, but a 1920 law allowed those convicted of rape to be publicly hanged in the county where the crime was committed. The execution was set for August 14th, 1936, and drew around 20,000 people, turning the city into a kind of spectacle.
Images from the time show entire families attending, while food and drinks were sold, and people traveled from other states to witness the event. The execution was overseen by Florence Thompson, who became the first female sheriff to carry out an execution in the United States after taking over the position from her deceased husband.
In his last meal before being taken to the gallows at 5:20 a.m., Bethea requested fried chicken, pork chops, and watermelon. According to records, before climbing the 13 steps to the gallows, he asked to remove his shoes because he did not want to die wearing them. He gave no final words.
The execution lasted several minutes and he was pronounced dead shortly after. Following the act, part of the crowd rushed the site to take souvenirs, tearing pieces from the hood. As a result of this case, Kentucky officially banned public executions in 1938.
