| “ | Have you ever heard of the Little Lindbergh Law? | ” |
— Powell
| ||
Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, a.k.a. The Onion Field Killers, were a duo of cop killers and abductors guilty of the abductions of LAPD Officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, resulting in the duo murdering Campbell. The crimes were the beginning of the destruction of Hettinger's career as a policeman, and the inspiration for the book and subsequent film adaptation The Onion Field.
Background[]
Karl Hettinger[]
Officer Karl Francis Hettinger was born on October 29, 1934, and raised in Los Angeles to Francis and Eberley "Elsie" Hettinger, along with his sisters Miriam and Eunice. He's a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars through the U.S. Marine Corps from 1952 to 1958. Hettinger became a policeman for the LAPD shortly after his discharge, married Helen Beth Davis in Las Vegas in 1962, and had three children with her, Laurie, Kurt, and Christine.
Ian Campbell[]
Officer Ian James Campbell was born August 21, 1931 to Dr. William and Chrissie Campbell. He's a Korean War veteran through the U.S. Marine Corps, having joined the LAPD in 1957. He married Adah Willis in 1958, with whom he had two daughters.
Gregory Powell[]
Powell's father was a traveling musician often away from the family, and his mother's failing health left him in charge of his three younger siblings. Powell ran away and hitchhiked to Florida at age fifteen, shortly after which a Catholic priest sexually abused him. He accumulated a record of stealing money and cars, including from his sister. The majority of Powell's 20s were spent in prison, and Powell once had a brain operation to remove a tumor at Vacaville Medical in California. By the time Powell moved to Nevada, he prostituted himself on the street and committed numerous armed robberies, such as from liquor stores.
Jimmy Lee Smith[]
Smith was abandoned by his teenage mother, who conceived him out of wedlock, leaving him with his mother's mother and/or aunt, the latter of whom was disabled from an accidental shooting in her leg. Smith had an abusive stepfather and was constantly in and out of prison for burglary, narcotics possession, and parole violations, once under the alias "James Youngblood".
Kidnappings and Murder[]
"I still get uneasy. I still can't sleep very well. I can still see their faces. I want to stop him [Powell] from getting back on the street. I know this man."
- Hettinger's protest against Powell's chances at parole
On the evening of March 9, 1963, Officers Hettinger and Campbell pulled Powell and Smith over when they made an illegal U-turn and were found to have a broken headlight. When Campbell approached the Ford coupe the duo were in and ordered Powell, the driver, out of the car, Powell pulled out his gun, stole Campbell's service sidearm, and threatened to kill Campbell if Hettinger didn't give up his weapon. Campbell implored Hettinger to do so, and once Hettinger relinquished his weapon, Powell and Smith abducted the two officers and made Campbell drive them all to the onion fields in Bakersfield, with the lie they'd let the officers go if they complied. Campbell and Hettinger were forced out into one field, after which Powell asked Campbell of he heard of the Federal Kidnapping Act, which was better known by the nickname "Little Lindbergh Law". Powell believed abducting the two cops would get them the death penalty because of their rank and status, but where it instead applied is if any kidnapping victims were injured during abductions or held captive for ransom. With this misunderstanding, hoping to kill the two officers with them being witnesses, once Campbell answered in the affirmative about knowing the law, Powell shot his mouth. As Powell or Smith killed Campbell with more shots to his chest, Hettinger ran, Powell and Smith taking shots at him that missed. Once Hettinger reached a farmhouse after running for four miles, he called for backup. Powell was arrested hours later by California Highway Patrol, Smith at his rooming house the next day.
Aftermath and The Onion Field[]
Officer Hettinger was severely afflicted with PTSD from the attacks, investigating officer Pierce Brooks noticing upfront Hettinger's very obvious survivor's guilt. The LAPD didn't commiserate, instead making Hettinger go around the offices and give public statements insulting his own courage and taking unwarranted blame for Campbell's murder. Hettinger became the namesake for the "Hettinger Memorandum", an aggressive warning to police to never surrender their weapons to suspects and perps, accompanied with training videos. Hettinger was demoted to position of chauffeur for the chief of police, but his mental and physical health declined severely. When Hettinger's outlet for his trauma became shoplifting, he was fired under the smoke screen of a forced resignation. Author Joseph Wambaugh went between numerous living parties involved in the attacks, from Hettinger even to Powell and Smith, but Wambaugh admitted he was more desperate for successful publication with information he manipulated out of Hettinger than concerned for Hettinger's health and safety. Nevertheless, Wambaugh published The Onion Field, a novelized recount of the case and the surrounding timelines, which was adapted to film and even criticized by Powell's defense team as threatening his parole chances.
Powell and Smith were found guilty on first-degree murder and kidnapping charges and were sentenced to death. Powell attempted to escape prison multiple times, which all failed. When the Supreme Court of the State of California declared the death penalty for California unconstitutional, Powell's and Smith's sentences were automatically commuted to life imprisonments. Hettinger was the most outspoken party against Powell's parole opportunities, even campaigning to remove presiding official from the Kern County Board of Supervisors and place himself in the vacant positions. Governor George Deukmejian officially elected Hettinger to the board, where he worked from 1987 to 1993. On May 4, 1994, at the age of 59, Hettinger died from liver failure in a Bakersfield hospital, which his family insisted couldn't have possibly come from alcoholism. On August 10, 2010, a road intersection at Hollywood was dedicated to Campbell in his name.
Powell was continuously denied parole and even compassionate release after his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis. During his appeals, Powell worked in the Mule Creek State Prison law library as a clerk. He died from cancer at California Medical on August 12, 2012, at the age of 79. Smith, on the other hand, was paroled in 1982, but he was continuously imprisoned for repeat offenses, such as drug possession and distribution, driving under the influence, holding a woman against her will, and threatening a man with a knife. Smith was detained at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California, where he died of a heart attack on April 6, 2007, at the age of 76.
Modus Operandi[]
When Powell and Smith were pulled over, Powell held Officer Campbell at gunpoint and threaten his life to make him and Officer Hettinger follow their demands. The duo then put Campbell in the driver's seat and forced him at gunpoint to drive them all to the Bakersfield onion farms, into which the two officers were forced to walk. Powell then asked of Campbell understood Powell would kill him to not go to jail for kidnapping a cop, and whether Campbell understood or not, Powell shot him in his jaw, before one or both of the duo shot Campbell four more times in the chest. When Hettinger took off, they took shots at him as well, they missed, and Hettinger escaped to safety before calling for backup.
Known Victims[]
Officers Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell
- March 9, 1962, Bakersfield, California: (both held at gunpoint and abducted from Los Angeles)
- Officer Ian James Campbell, 31 (shot once in his mouth by Powell and four times in his chest by Powell or Smith)
- Officer Karl Francis Hettinger, 28 (attempted; shot at; escaped)
On Evolution[]
- Season One
- "Pay-Per-View" - While never directly mentioned or referenced in the franchise, Powell and Smith appear to be the primary inspirations for the episode's unsubs, The Bruneau Brothers - Both are duos of cop killers who each got into armed confrontations with two dispatch officers during their routines, held them hostage at gunpoint, forced them to give up their guns, which the officers did to buy time, and at least one of the officers was ultimately killed in the standoff.