The Onion Field

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The Onion Field is a book by Joseph Wambaugh, a sergeant for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) during the 1960s riots, published in 1974, regarding the March 9, 1963 kidnapping of two plainclothes LAPD officers by a pair of criminals, pulled over for a routine traffic violation. Ian James Campbell [1] and Karl Hettinger noticed a broken tail light on the car Jimmy Lee Smith (aka "Jimmy Youngblood") and Gregory Ulas Powell were driving.

Fresh from a string of robberies, Powell (who was driving) pulled a gun on Campbell and forced Hettinger to give up his gun to Smith. The two officers were then forced into Powell's car and driven to an onion field around Bakersfield where Campbell was fatally shot. The killing occurred primarily because Powell assumed that the kidnapping of the officers alone constituted a capital crime under the state's Little Lindbergh Law. However, Powell's interpretation was incorrect, as under the Little Lindbergh Law, kidnapping becomes a capital crime only if the victims are harmed or the kidnappers try to ransom them.

1 Aftermath
2 Update
3 Film adaptation
4 External links

[edit] Aftermath

Hettinger was able to escape, but later became scorned by his fellow officers, fired from the force, and eventually a police training video was made using his experience as example of what not to do when stopping and approaching a vehicle. Hettinger suffered severe emotional trauma as a result and people who knew him said he was never the same afterwards. He was forced to resign from the LAPD after committing some acts of petty shoplifting and developing a drinking problem. Later in life, Hettinger was appointed to serve as a county supervisor; he died of a liver disease in 1994. The book details these events, as well as the lengthy trials and continual appeals of the two criminals. Powell has never been released from state prison; however, Smith was initially paroled in 1982, but subsequently has been reincarcerated to prison several times on drug-related parole violations. In February 2007 it was reported that Smith has been at large since December 2006 and is being sought for an unspecified parole violation [2].

[edit] Update

Jimmy Smith was thought to be at large in the Skid Row Area of Los Angeles since December 2006. This area is patrolled the Los Angeles Police Department's Central Division and had been a top priority for officers to locate Smith.

On Sunday, February 25, 2007 at approximately 10:00 am, LAPD's Safer Cities Task Force Officers' Nichols and Ortiz (21FB14) were on patrol in the Skid Row Area. The Officers detained a man on 7th St and San Julian St, in the heart of Skid Row, resembling Jimmy Smith's wanted poster.

After Smith gave the Officers several aliases, Officer Nichols recovered Smith's California parole ID card in his right rear pocket. The ID revealed his photo and true name, Jimmy Lee Smith. Smith was immediately arrested and taken to Central Station were he was booked for his parole violation.^{[citation needed]}