Particularize Books During The Onion Field

Original Title:	The Onion Field
ISBN:	0385341598 (ISBN13: 9780385341592)
Edition Language:	English

The Onion Field Paperback | Pages: 512 pages

Define Containing Books The Onion Field

Title	:	The Onion Field
Author	:	Joseph Wambaugh
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Reprint
Pages	:	Pages: 512 pages
Published	:	August 28th 2007 by Delta (first published September 1st 1973)
Categories	:	Crime. True Crime. Nonfiction. Mystery. History

Representaion Supposing Books The Onion Field

”But he still dreamed of it, could feel the cold night wind in his face, could smell the onions in the field.”


Jimmy Smith is on the left, and Gregory Powell is on the right. The detective to the far right needs to try not to look so gobsmacked at historic moments like this.

It was a routine traffic stop; a 1946 Ford coupe with the tag light out was pulled over by Officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger. If the occupants of the vehicle had just played it cool and not let their guilt from their past crimes take the wheel of their roller coaster emotions, The Onion Field murder would have never happened.

Gregory Powell was just smart enough to be really stupid. When he pulled that gun on Officer Ian Campbell and forced Officer Karl Hettinger to give up his gun and both officers to get in the car, he thought he had already committed a capital crime. This assumption would lead to disastrous circumstances.

”And Gregory Powell raised his arm and shot Ian in the mouth.

For a few white-hot seconds the three watched him being lifted up by the blinding fireball and slammed down on his back, eyes open, watching the stars, moaning quietly, a long plaintive moan, and he was not dead nor even beginning to die during these seconds---only shocked, and half conscious. Perhaps his heart thundered in his ears almost drowning out the skirl of bagpipes. Perhaps he was confused because instead of tar he smelled onions at the last. He probably never saw the shadow in the leather jacket looming over him, and never really felt the four bullets flaming down into his chest.”

It just happened. Just like that. One moment there were four men standing in a field outside of Bakersfield having a conversation, and the next moment someone was dying.

Officer Karl Hettinger ran.

He kept running for the rest of his life. He didn’t die in that field, but he might as well have. He never really lived after that. Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith should have been on trial for two cold, blooded murders.

Joseph Wambaugh takes the reader through the lives of these four men leading up to this moment and then continues to share the lives of the three remaining men after the murder. Most of us are deluded about who we really are to some extent, but Gregory Powell was definitely suffering from the eight feet tall and bulletproof delusion, almost as if he was on a steady drip of whiskey and speed. In some ways, Smith was even more dangerous than Powell because he was lacking in self-confidence to the point of cowardice, and cowards are unreliable and unpredictable. They can make a bad situation worse, and certainly Smith made that situation in the onion fields in 1963 much worse.

The trial was, frankly, infuriating. District Attorney Phil Halpin was quoted as saying: ”I would’ve made any deal with Powell and Smith if I’d had the power. I would’ve let them go. Dropped all charges. Released them. If only I could’ve put their two lawyers in the gas chamber.”

By the time I got through the trial segment of the book, I couldn’t have agreed more. I actually groaned when I read that Irving Kanarek was joining the defense team. I first met him in the bookHelter Skelter. He represented Charlie Manson. Now how this guy ended up knee deep in two of the most notorious California murders of the 1960s is beyond me. He was so annoying during the Manson Murder Trial, objecting to everything, that Manson actually attacked him in court. Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecuting attorney in that case, referred to him as the Toscanini of Tedium.

Kanarek made a simple case into a complex case and cost the taxpayers an incalculable amount of money. Was he after justice? After the truth? If he was, he had a convoluted way of showing it.

The real victim of this trial was Karl Hettinger, who kept having to come back time and time again to testify for appeal after appeal. It was like he was experiencing Bill Murray’s version of Groundhog Day, only he was stuck in an even worse nightmare of experiencing March 9th, 1963, over and over again.

Joseph Wambaugh

The Onion Field shows up on every list of Best True Crime books ever written, along with Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule. The Ann Rule is the only one of this group I haven’t read. I have a copy sitting in my pile of books to be read very soon, so sometime this year I will spend time with Ted Bundy. *Shudder* I just can’t wait.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at: https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

Rating Containing Books The Onion Field

Ratings: 4.13 From 18322 Users | 349 Reviews

Judge Containing Books The Onion Field

This was a true crime book where a police officer got killed. The book was very well written and never boring (as a few true crime books I've read over the years can be) some parts were very hard to read, as in gave me a strong emotional response, but then again those are some of the best books that can do that. I really don't want to give any of the book away, if you enjoy true crime books I recommend this one!

The Onion Field by Joseph WambaughThe Onion Field tells the true-life story of two young Los Angeles Police Department detectives who are kidnapped by two robbers in 1963, and the subsequent ordeal of all four men. The book is structured like an episode of televisions Law and Order - the first half of the book focuses on the crime, while the second half focuses on the numerous, protracted criminal prosecutions that follow the incident.Wambaugh raises important questions about the purpose of the

Two police officers are brought to an onion field where one is executed. The trial becomes the longest in Californian history as the question of just who fired four bullets into Officer Campbell is dissected in the minutest of detail. Written in the form of a novel, it contains all the pathos you'd expect from fiction - although fiction may well have been kinder. That fateful night in the onion field destroyed the lives of all involved -Ian's murder, Karl's gradual sink into depression and petty

This book does, in fact, deserve to be a classic. Like In Cold Blood, it's something between true crime and a novel; like In Cold Blood, it's an account of a vicious and senseless murder; unlike In Cold Blood, one of the victims survived. That, in fact, is what sets The Onion Field apart from almost all the true crime I've read: just as much as Wambaugh is telling the story of the murder and the story of the ghastly theatre de l'absurde that was the endless trial-and-appeal, trial-and-appeal, of

This book was a bit of a surprise. It was a recommendation from years ago and on a whim decided to listen to the audio version. I didn't even know it was a true crime story. The story as told is much more than just a crime novel. There is a tremendous amount of backstory about each of the primary participants. Joe Wambaugh writes a superb account of the trials and overturned rulings. It's really amazing how the system was manipulated by the two felons. The story is heartbreaking - that it took

I read this as a young cop and again after I had been a crime reporter for a good long time. Each reading gave me chills. Having attended many police survival courses and pulled many car stops, I can relate to the experiences of the officers. Working a one-man unit in the middle of the night when you're twenty-three and carefree is one thing. Looking back on it from an adult's perspective many years ago, I'm surprised I never visited an Onion Field of my own.

Not my favorite True Crime book. It felt like it dragged on longer than the story had steam, partly because the trial was so long and crazy. The author does a great job of outlining the characters and overall it was a fairly interesting and terrible tale of the abduction and execution of police officers in Los Angeles in the 60s. But parts of the way the book was structured and paced bothered me, with little interludes from an unnamed (until the end) character and often important revelations in