(Thanks to Meaghan Good of the Charley Project for the guest post. -ed.)
On this date in 1994, an uncooperative Charles Rodman Campbell was lashed to a board to keep him upright, and hanged by the neck until dead at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
According to this Seattle Times timeline of his life and crimes, Campbell had been getting in trouble since he was a child, to the extent that by the time he was seventeen his mother had given up on him and never wanted him back home again. His crimes began with burglary and drug use but quickly escalated into violence.
True crime author Ann Rule wrote a chapter about Campbell in her book A Rose For Her Grave and Other True Cases:
Charles Rodman Campbell is a killer straight out of a nightmare. There should have been some way to keep him locked up forever. But he slipped through the loopholes of our justice system and he was allowed freedom to stalk his unknowing victims. If ever there was a case that pitted innocence against pure evil, it is this one. He was out of his cage, and he was aware of every facet of her life, and yet his potential prey felt only a chill premonition of danger. He was a man consumed with rage and the need for revenge. Because of a neglectful bureaucracy, Campbell was allowed to take not one life — but three.
The sordid story that lead to his execution began on December 11, 1974, when Campbell broke into the rural Clearview, Washington home of Renae Louise Wicklund. He held a knife to the throat of her baby daughter, Shannah, forced Renae to perform oral sex on him, then fled the scene.
It took over a year to arrest him, but Renae identified him as her attacker and in 1976 he was convicted of burglary, sodomy and first-degree assault and sentenced to thirty years in prison.
In an appalling oversight, Campbell was put on work-release for good behavior in 1981. His behavior in the Monroe Reformatory hadn’t been good at all: he’d racked up multiple infractions for drug trafficking and sexual and physical violence against his fellow inmates. A prison psychologist described him as “uncaring of others, conscienceless, malevolently intolerant of the social order which imprisons him, and imminently harmful to all who directly or indirectly capture his attention or interest.”
It wasn’t until much, much too late that the parole board discovered the Monroe Reformatory was not supplying them with full records of prisoners’ infractions. Hundreds of inmates, it turned out, had been released without a complete evaluation of their behavior in custody.
No surprise, Campbell’s behavior on work-release wasn’t good either. He displayed “poor attitude and behavior,” he was caught drinking alcohol, and his ex-wife claimed he slipped away from his job twice to rape her.
But somehow, the authorities neglected to return him to prison.
Renae Wicklund still lived in the Clearview home where she had been attacked in 1974, and she wasn’t notified when Campbell was let out of prison. In January 1982, he was transferred to a work-release residence less than ten miles from Clearview and he began staking out her house, planning his next move.
On April 14, Campbell went to her home and found her there with Shannah (now eight years old) and a neighbor, Barbara Hendrickson, who along with Renae had testified against him at the rape trial.
Campbell killed them all by slashing their throats. Renae got special treatment: she was also beaten, strangled, stripped naked and her genitals mutilated.
He’d finally committed an offense grave enough to revoke his work-release status.
Campbell was arrested almost immediately and, at his trial, had little to say for himself. It can’t have been hard for the jury to choose the death sentence. As a result of the triple homicide, Washington state passed a law requiring that victims of violent crime be informed when their attackers are released from prison.
The state of Washington allowed (and still allows — it’s the only state with an active gallows) a condemned inmate a choice in the manner of death: hanging, or lethal injection.
During his twelve years of appeals, Campbell refused to make the choice and argued that being made to choose meant the state was effectively forcing him to commit suicide. The default method at the time for a prisoner who refused to choose was hanging,* and Campbell further claimed that was cruel and unusual punishment.
His case actually made it up to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it declined to hear his appeal.
When his time came, the prison staff had to use pepper spray to persuade him to come out of his cell, strap him to a board and drag him to the scaffold, and even then he made things difficult by turning his head this way and that while they tried to secure the hood and noose. But he couldn’t delay the end for long. The prison guards would later find makeshift weapons in his cell, including a four-inch piece of metal in his cell that had been sharpened into a blade.
As of this writing, Campbell was the last man to be judicially hanged in Washington state (though not the last in the U.S.).
* In 1996, the default method of execution in Washington changed to lethal injection.
On this day..
- 1780: Johann Heinrich Waser, persecuted whistleblower
- 1919: Frank Willis, but not by Bill Fisk
- 1661: Archibald Campbell
- 1791: Thomas Mount of the Flash Company
- 2013: Orelesitse Thokamolelo, bad in-law
- 1925: The Sveta Nedelya bombers
- 1541: Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury
- 1776: Benjamin Harley and Thomas Henman, Smugglerius?
- 1941: Mirjam Sara P., T4 victim
- 1797: Gracchus Babeuf, for the Conspiracy of Equals
- 1525: Thomas Müntzer, prophet of the Peasants' War
- 1610: Francois Ravaillac, because Paris was worth more than a mass
I believe in total different views on both cases… I think multi personalitys are a huge factor. Look in the prisons and ministers that run our government. Most travel by radiation, menatation, and believing in Jesus Christ, promise to him you will teach world and protect while bring recreated in a promise, to preach and get help for the ones that need closure, we all need to love one another and understand why, most didn’t walk in anyone’s shoes so death is when your soul is clean, and love all to make sure all knows why, and feels the pains of abuse that was given. What goes around comes around. Today, yesterday, and all my 43-Years have been Hell! Controlled all mylife, why? Kidnapped? Dad & Mom locked up? Or is it a witch hunt. I know truth of this world. Fame Monster? WHY? POOR IN WORLD IS FINE WITH YOU? MIDDLECLASS TAKEN FROM GOVERNMENT, ENTERPUNIOURS? JURNALIST? PRODUCERS AND DAMN POLITICS & Sports all controlled by games in Past Generations. Think about one life time could you be president, Judge, or really know all about ministry of government. Do you know its going to be FBI vs. GOVERNMENT. LOOK AT THIER WAY WAYS AND COMMENDMENTS. STREETS W/ LAW ENFORCEMENT. AFRICAN AMERICANS WITH INDIANS… SPIRITUAL IN THE RIGHT WAY. IM A WHITE GIRL, THAT DONT SEE COLOR BUT I SEE THE POWER THEY HAVE ON US NOW. DO WE ALL DESERVE IT? DID ANYONE OF THEM DESERVE THE SLAVERY? DID WHITES HELP?
FUCK IM HERE TO SEE ALL GO DOWN, IM GOING IN JAIL WERE MOST FAMILY IS WHY? LAW ENFORCEMENT HARASSMENT. TO MUCH I KNOW, AND I CANT STOP FIGHTING THEN THEY TOOK MY IDENTITY TO BECOME PROSITUTE, MY OWN FATHER TRYED. ILL RATHER BE SHOT DOWN BY PIGS. SO MANY SUCIDES, KILLINGS ALL BY A CRUPTED WORLD STARTED MANY GENERATIONS AGO. GUESS WHAT THEY GOT POWER. I HAVE POWER OF ME. NO GANG. NO CLUB. NOONE WILL CONTROL ME ANYMORE THAT I FINALLY INVESTIGATED AND KNOW BY OWNING 3 HOLE IN WALL MOTELS. I KNOW MONSTERS BY THE EYES. I WANTED TO TAKE EYES OUT. IN CLUDING STRANGERS, HANDS OFF WHEN STOLEN FROM ANOTHER. AND MUCH MORE INNSANE THAN IMANGE WHEN RAPPING AND TAKING SOMEONES ABILITY TO BE OWNED. JAILBIRDS YOU WILL BE CONTROL ME CONTROL THIS! IM MELISSA Lynn Simmons ( Butler) and I’ll be next gunned down. They took all… all abandoned me. All is losing ability of life. I never had! Thank You Lord on showing me a world of evil… now time to show your true ones how to teach lessons… I love you my lord Jesus Christ. Sins you died for so many silence make me understand? I know we that want to change This Beautiful World Is here for you! I leave when you Jesus does… my sin, my hell. Please forgive me for being last one with you, I want all to be in closer, understand and live in a beautiful land with there true ones. I trust Noone, I love all, I will fight for the lam I was given and marcles I finally see in me. God bless, to all that needs it. Im Melissa, I want my wings at end, but if energy takes me in onother direction I won’t question lord but I will judge, cops, family, friends, kids… I have all them too ???????
I came across this case by sheer accident and read your story. I am so sorry that you had to endure those assaults from your relative. May I ask, is your mum still alive and if she is – have you confronted her as an adult?
There are lessons in this example of pure evil Charles Rodman Campbell. Even sociopaths like him and Ted Bundy fear the reaper and facing their ultimate penalty of death on this earth. In other words there is deterrence in capital punishment. Governor Inslee is ignorant of the benefits to society and victims families by his position to halt executions in WA state after pledging not to during his first election.
As I said, Campbell was pure evil. What he did to these three innocent victims should forever live in infamy. I know a few of the details in the murders and will not offer them here. Suffice it to say, this guy like this DESERVED to be put to death and society is better off without him. He likely would have had more victims in prison if allowed to live until his “natural death.” Instead he dangled from a rope until dead — his choice by the way, and probably so he could assert during appeals that it was “cruel and unusual.”
May God give him the true punishment for all eternity.
Rot in Hell, CRC. There will be no mercy in Hell.
That was a very interesting read, Cindee. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and and opinion about these troubling people.
I have to add a bit of information here that is relatively unknown about Charlie Campbell. I know this because when I was growing up, one of his younger sisters was my very good school friend. She lived up the street from me with her grandparents (and so did Charlie with his parents who lived behind the grandparents).
I saw Charlie in passing often whenever I visited my friend, but he never bothered me. I’m not sure why as I was fully aware of Charlie’s bad behaviors and his numerous arrests.
Charlie was indeed a horrific person who had absolutely no regard for anyone, but I did know that he had been horribly abused by his violent alcoholic father since he was a child. I even had an opportunity to speak with one of his main security guards outside the Walla Walla courthouse several years after his execution and was informed that most of the guards at Walla Walla Prison were quite afraid of Charlie because he was literally crazy.
Yes, Charlie did some monstrous things and was capable of anything, but I’m not sure whether it was because he was a conscienceless sociopathic killer or he was driven insane by the horrible abuse he suffered from his father.
This subject just came up after watching the recent documentary about the Green River Killer, Gary Leon Ridgway. I can tell you all that many of these killers and serial killers have sociopathic personalities. Having grown up with some and having been married to one, I can tell you that they are born this way. I refer to them as “soulless bodies” walking among us because that’s what they truly are. These type of people are born with no conscience, no ability for compassion, empathy, remorse or regret. They are the classic example of a megalomaniac. This type of person is solely concerned with meeting all of their perceived needs and desires. They are consummate actors and pathological liars who can convince even the most cynical and skeptical of people. They can charm the pants off of you and make you believe they are something they are not; but they will ALWAYS use whatever means necessary to get what they want. Unfortunately, this most often, if not always, involves violently murdering others for whatever reason.
I felt the need to bring up Charlie and this subject for two reasons…1) the effect of violent abuse on children, 2) how sociopaths should be identified and dealt with. I have lived with this type of personality and have incredible insight about them. I guarantee that there is no way to treat or cure them, nor is there any medication that can “subdue” a sociopath. They are incapable of any real human emotion and feel nothing other than smug satisfaction with themselves for whatever they do that “entertains or amuses them.” I can even say that I am more aware of the “make-up” of a sociopath than most mental health professionals because I have lived with, been tortured and abused by them, and have looked deep within their dark, nightmarish minds.
My strong and long-considered opinion of how these people should be handled is with quick and merciful euthanasia. This kind of personality is a serious threat to any society and at some point every one of them will murder. I firmly believe that we should develop a scientific way of identifying a sociopath and then eliminate them. This ability is much closer than you might believe. Many will think this is a rather severe view, but if you knew what I know about the soulless, conscienceless sociopathic personality, you’d completely understand why I advocate this process.
I extend my deepest condolences to all of Charlie and Gary’s victims’ families. All I can say is that I hope the pain is just a little less each day. Bless you all.
@Kenyan: My rapist will, as far as I know, be free in Sudan and probably will attack other women there. Nothing I can do about that, unfortunately.
Thank you, Patricia. I am over it now. However if I ever see the guy responsible again, he will be so sorry!
I realized shortly after I commented that saying Dodd took it like a man was not the correct thing to say but couldn’t find the right words. I only meant he didn’t cry, whine etc. and have to be dragged from his cell like Campbell was. He was a horrible, terrible person, a child molester who tortured and murdered 3 little boys for his own sexual gratification. Worse than Campbell maybe. But he realized that if he were ever released he could and would rape and murder again and he told the authorities that. He didn’t fight the execution and even wrote a book about keeping kids safe from creeps like himself which I read but it’s been a long time ago and don’t remember much about it. I do remember that his hanging was broadcast on television, shown in silhouette, behind a sheet. Does anyone miss him? I doubt it. I am sorry for what you, Meghan, Fiz and others here went through, I know it can and does change a person for the rest of their lives.
I find it hilarious that this POS was such the hard ass, Mr. Torturer, abuser, rapist, predator, murderer, etc, but was a scared little piece of garbage when it came time for him to be put to death. In a way more humane way than any of the victims he murdered had met death.
@Patricia You said Dodd took his execution like a man. In my own opinion, taking the execution with out showing fear of his own death is no where near manly.
Could easily have been defiance. Who has the last laugh? Dodd. He won’t go begging for a stay or become visibly scared like Dodd and even Bundy did.
Idk. IMO.
I have never heard of this case until just now, reading it here.
The nightmares became reality. To realize her attacker was right there, ready to torture, abuse, rape, murder, not only her, but her child and friend. I am sure she was made to watch him torture, probably sexually abuse/rape, her baby and friend, before he started in on her.
I’m just so sickened. Our justice system is so screwed up. How could any of the officials involved in keeping this POS in prison basically write off his behaviors while in prison? Why would a human being not care to be completely honest to any board that could set him up with privelages, work release, etc? He was sexually abusing men in prison! HELLO! WTAF?!
Sick.
@Meghan Will he be put in jail/prison in Sudan or will he be free?
My uncle was a serial offender, I overheard conversations that he had raped 2 girls back in Kenya, got one of them pregnant. I was witness to him raping my older sister, although at the time I was 5 and didn’t understand, only knew something was wrong since he crept in our room, middle of the night, in his underwear and started making my sister cry in her bed. I actually told my mom the next morning. So instead of being hugged and told I would never have to see and hear anything like that ever again and a good job for coming to tell me, my mom told me to never repeat what I told her to anyone or else she and my dad would be in jail and me and my sisters would be put into foster homes and never see each other again. I even remember a few weeks later my mom getting me out of bed, my older sister and my uncle, like freaking 2 or 3 in the morning. She quietly tells us that while she is gone (she was going to go visit her parents in Kenya with my little sister), she doesn’t want to hear about anything going in between us. I was confused.
I was 8 when the pos first touched me. He told me not to tell. I didn’t tell anyone for the whole 8 years it went on.
It came out when I was in 11th grade. He was facing 80 years. My family supported him, treated me like the criminal, forced me to recant. So I did. He was acquitted. Deported back to Kenya. Family still supports him. He got married and has kids now. God only knows what he is doing to his daughter(s).
I came across this case by sheer accident and read your story. I am so sorry that you had to endure those assaults from your relative. May I ask, is your mum still alive and if she is – have to confronted her as an adult?
What a chicken POS this guy was. I remember this vividly (I live in Tacoma). So much sadness for the victims and their families. At least Westley Dodd, as bad as he was, didn’t fight his execution and went to the gallows like a man.
Thank goodness for that. The guy who attacked me was white, middle class and entitled. I did not report him as date rape was not recognised in the 1970s. 🙁
Fiz, speaking as another victim of sexual violence, the story of Renae’s death resonates especially with me. My attacker is a serial offender and he is, I believe, getting out this October! The only upside is that he’s being deported to Sudan.
I’m not surprised – a coward to the end!
Such a terrible case! Renee must have felt all her nightmares coming true when Campbell turned up once more at her house. RIP , Kerry, Shannah and Barbara. x