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The Onion Field
This is the frighteningly true story of two young cops and two young robbers whose separate destinies fatally cross one March night in a bizarre execution in a deserted Los Angeles field.
512 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1973
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11759 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Wambaugh
57 books762 followersJoseph Aloysius Wambaugh Jr. was an American writer known for his fictional and nonfictional accounts of police work in the United States. Many of his novels are set in Los Angeles and its surroundings and feature Los Angeles police officers as protagonists. He won three Edgar Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America. Before his writing career Wambaugh received an associate of arts degree from Chaffey College and joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in 1960. He served for 14 years, rising from patrolman to detective sergeant.
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December 15, 2023
“Gregory Powell raised his arm and shot [the police officer] 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, half conscious… 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. Jimmy Smith was to say later: ‘I can only remember his arm and hand. His hand! Each time a bullet hit him, his hand would jerk and jump up. Like he was grabbin for you. Like he was grabbin for your leg in the dark there! I’ll never forget that arm…’”
- Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field
Joseph Wambaugh’s The Onion Field is nominally about a murder, but really about so much else. It is about the long paths people take to the most important moments of their lives, and about how destinies intersect in tragic ways. It is about the accumulation of bad decisions and small mistakes, and how those decisions and mistakes can turn into an avalanche. It is about guilt and grief, and how long those can linger. And it is about human-made institutions that do not really work for human beings.
It might be the best true crime I’ve ever read.
***
The murder in question occurred on March 9, 1963. Two Los Angeles police officers – Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger – pulled over a suspicious vehicle, in which rode Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith. Unbeknownst to the officers, Powell and Smith had pulled a string of armed robberies, and were not going to submit quietly. Powell pulled a gun, and he and Smith took the officers hostage. Forcing one of the officers to drive, they ended up near Bakersfield, in an onion field.
Misunderstanding the ramifications of the so-called “Little Lindbergh Law” – a federal statute providing the possibility of capital punishment for kidnapping – Powell shot one of the officers, who died, while the second escaped. Later, both Powell and Smith were captured, beginning a drawn-out legal saga that included convictions and death sentences in their first trial; reversals by the court of appeals; and lengthy retrials that ended years after the crime occurred.
Wambaugh presents this tale with storytelling skill, enormous detail, and emotional honesty. By the end, when justice has utterly and conclusively failed, it is entirely expected.
***
Quick Note: I’m being coy – to the point of awkwardness – regarding which officer lived, and which died. I wrestled with this, because treating this information as a “spoiler” feels disrespectful, given that this was a real-life event, not a twist on prestige television. However, Wambaugh forced my hand, because he intentionally withholds this information, and the elision is central to the early structure of The Onion Field. Since Wambaugh actually met those involved, and he took this path, I reluctantly follow.
***
The Onion Field is not your typical true crime book. It’s not a mystery or whodunit. It’s not a case wherein the wrong men were arrested for the wrong reasons. It’s not a cold case unraveled by dogged detectives or cutting edge science. To the contrary, the onion field murder was solved within hours, and there has never been any doubts over the last sixty years about the ultimate responsibility of Powell and Smith. Their lawyers – as required – attempted to sow doubt and confusion about who actually fired each of the shots that night, but none of that matters in the end. They were there, and guilty under the law.
Instead, Wambaugh makes this an epic about people. Specifically, he focuses on four men: two cops, two killers, a terrible symmetry. Wambaugh is so intent on his task that the murder does not actually take place until we’re 180 pages into an almost 500-hundred page book.
Each of the four – Campbell, Hettinger, Powell, and Smith – get their due, but there is no denying that the backstories of the criminals, and especially of the arrogant, erratic, lethal Gregory Powell, is more vital. This is just a fundamental dramatic reality. I found myself totally immersed in Wambaugh’s evocation of Powell’s awful upbringing, his febrile personality, and the amateur-hour stickup-spree that led him and Smith to the corner of Carlos Avenue and Gower Street, where a fateful U-turn sealed the fate of each individual.
***
Wambaugh is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department, so I assumed to know where his sympathies lay. Somewhat to my surprise, he is incredibly evenhanded in his treatment of all involved. Without exonerating them – morally or legally – Wambaugh strives to understand the motivations of Powell and Smith.
This empathy is extended to the dozens of other characters – investigators, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys – who crowd the stage. For instance, Los Angeles legal legend Irving Kanarek plays a big role. Kanarek was famous for his dilatory tactics and – so the story goes – once raised a hearsay objection when a witness tried to give his own name. Kanarek drove Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi to distraction – as recounted in Helter Skelter – and Wambaugh is clearly appalled by his behavior. Yet he also makes an effort to understand a man who – in his own abrasive way – was totally committed to his calling.
In short, Wambaugh does not allow his own experiences and prejudices to dictate tone or coverage.
***
The leadup to the murder is closely observed, and is clearly the high-point of The Onion Field. The first trial also gets a full airing, including extensive quotations from the verbatim transcript.
Eventually, as the years go by, Wambaugh has to pull back a bit, and summarize events. He spends time with Powell and Smith in prison, with the lawyers defending them, and with the prosecutors trying to hold them to account. He also balances courtroom scenes with a deeply-affecting portrait of the surviving officer, who endured official departmental criticism and profound psychological wounds, compounded by his refusal to seek therapeutic help.
***
The Onion Field is written in a novelistic style, which includes internal thoughts, extensive dialogue, and impressive set-pieces. The prose shifts effortlessly: sometimes it is pared down and hardboiled, reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, except profane; sometimes it strives for a higher plane. For instance, late in The Onion Field, Wambaugh beautifully closes the arc of the surviving officer:
In moments like these, The Onion Field forces us to compare it to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, perhaps the greatest American true crime book ever written.
Of course, whenever we talk about In Cold Blood, we must also consider how much “truth” is actually present.
***
Capote’s 1965 classic – published 8 years before The Onion Field – brought new attention to a type of writing referred to as the “nonfiction novel.” Though the definition is pretty loose, the term generally refers to a book that uses techniques from fiction to cover nonfictional happenings. Unfortunately, Capote – despite claims to the contrary – did not simply borrow storytelling methods, but placed wholly invented scenes into his narrative.
I say this because The Onion Field raises a lot of questions in my mind about veracity. There are no endnotes, footnotes, or explanations regarding sources. In a half-page “Note to the Reader,” Wambaugh states only that he interviewed sixty people, and that he reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including court records and Jimmy Smith’s unpublished autobiography. At certain points, Wambaugh – unlike Capote – lets you know where he’s getting his information. Mostly, though, you are left to wonder, especially when you read page after page of dialogue that no one could possibly have remembered with any accuracy so long after the fact.
This does not change the essential truths contained with these pages, but the possibility that certain things were outright invented certainly loiters in the back of your mind.
***
Most critiques of the American legal system are defendant oriented, and for good reason. As a former public defender, I’ve seen the failings up close.
The Onion Field, though, shows how it fails victims, too. The slowness of the process, the intense focus on technicalities, and the ease with which delays can be caused, served to endlessly retraumatize the surviving officer, and forced the victims’ families to endure an endless purgatory where no conviction or sentence proved final.
In a short afterward added in the 2007 reprint, Wambaugh tersely informs us that Jimmy Smith was actually paroled after nineteen years. This meant that he served less time in prison for helping take a life than the dead officer – aged thirty-one – got to spend living it. Gregory Powell probably would’ve been paroled as well, but the film version of The Onion Field inspired a public outcry. He died behind bars in 2012, at age of 79.
This un-redemptive postscript to an unhappy chronicle is perfectly fitting with Wambaugh’s overall embrace of a disastrous collision of personalities, assumptions, experiences, and environments, a routine traffic stop reverberating with consequences that would last for decades, for lifetimes.
- Joseph Wambaugh, The Onion Field
Joseph Wambaugh’s The Onion Field is nominally about a murder, but really about so much else. It is about the long paths people take to the most important moments of their lives, and about how destinies intersect in tragic ways. It is about the accumulation of bad decisions and small mistakes, and how those decisions and mistakes can turn into an avalanche. It is about guilt and grief, and how long those can linger. And it is about human-made institutions that do not really work for human beings.
It might be the best true crime I’ve ever read.
***
The murder in question occurred on March 9, 1963. Two Los Angeles police officers – Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger – pulled over a suspicious vehicle, in which rode Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith. Unbeknownst to the officers, Powell and Smith had pulled a string of armed robberies, and were not going to submit quietly. Powell pulled a gun, and he and Smith took the officers hostage. Forcing one of the officers to drive, they ended up near Bakersfield, in an onion field.
Misunderstanding the ramifications of the so-called “Little Lindbergh Law” – a federal statute providing the possibility of capital punishment for kidnapping – Powell shot one of the officers, who died, while the second escaped. Later, both Powell and Smith were captured, beginning a drawn-out legal saga that included convictions and death sentences in their first trial; reversals by the court of appeals; and lengthy retrials that ended years after the crime occurred.
Wambaugh presents this tale with storytelling skill, enormous detail, and emotional honesty. By the end, when justice has utterly and conclusively failed, it is entirely expected.
***
Quick Note: I’m being coy – to the point of awkwardness – regarding which officer lived, and which died. I wrestled with this, because treating this information as a “spoiler” feels disrespectful, given that this was a real-life event, not a twist on prestige television. However, Wambaugh forced my hand, because he intentionally withholds this information, and the elision is central to the early structure of The Onion Field. Since Wambaugh actually met those involved, and he took this path, I reluctantly follow.
***
The Onion Field is not your typical true crime book. It’s not a mystery or whodunit. It’s not a case wherein the wrong men were arrested for the wrong reasons. It’s not a cold case unraveled by dogged detectives or cutting edge science. To the contrary, the onion field murder was solved within hours, and there has never been any doubts over the last sixty years about the ultimate responsibility of Powell and Smith. Their lawyers – as required – attempted to sow doubt and confusion about who actually fired each of the shots that night, but none of that matters in the end. They were there, and guilty under the law.
Instead, Wambaugh makes this an epic about people. Specifically, he focuses on four men: two cops, two killers, a terrible symmetry. Wambaugh is so intent on his task that the murder does not actually take place until we’re 180 pages into an almost 500-hundred page book.
Each of the four – Campbell, Hettinger, Powell, and Smith – get their due, but there is no denying that the backstories of the criminals, and especially of the arrogant, erratic, lethal Gregory Powell, is more vital. This is just a fundamental dramatic reality. I found myself totally immersed in Wambaugh’s evocation of Powell’s awful upbringing, his febrile personality, and the amateur-hour stickup-spree that led him and Smith to the corner of Carlos Avenue and Gower Street, where a fateful U-turn sealed the fate of each individual.
***
Wambaugh is a former detective of the Los Angeles Police Department, so I assumed to know where his sympathies lay. Somewhat to my surprise, he is incredibly evenhanded in his treatment of all involved. Without exonerating them – morally or legally – Wambaugh strives to understand the motivations of Powell and Smith.
This empathy is extended to the dozens of other characters – investigators, judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys – who crowd the stage. For instance, Los Angeles legal legend Irving Kanarek plays a big role. Kanarek was famous for his dilatory tactics and – so the story goes – once raised a hearsay objection when a witness tried to give his own name. Kanarek drove Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi to distraction – as recounted in Helter Skelter – and Wambaugh is clearly appalled by his behavior. Yet he also makes an effort to understand a man who – in his own abrasive way – was totally committed to his calling.
In short, Wambaugh does not allow his own experiences and prejudices to dictate tone or coverage.
***
The leadup to the murder is closely observed, and is clearly the high-point of The Onion Field. The first trial also gets a full airing, including extensive quotations from the verbatim transcript.
Eventually, as the years go by, Wambaugh has to pull back a bit, and summarize events. He spends time with Powell and Smith in prison, with the lawyers defending them, and with the prosecutors trying to hold them to account. He also balances courtroom scenes with a deeply-affecting portrait of the surviving officer, who endured official departmental criticism and profound psychological wounds, compounded by his refusal to seek therapeutic help.
***
The Onion Field is written in a novelistic style, which includes internal thoughts, extensive dialogue, and impressive set-pieces. The prose shifts effortlessly: sometimes it is pared down and hardboiled, reminiscent of Raymond Chandler, except profane; sometimes it strives for a higher plane. For instance, late in The Onion Field, Wambaugh beautifully closes the arc of the surviving officer:
[He] took the job with his friend. It meant great decisions in 1973, like selling his house. He did it. It meant uprooting the family and moving away. They did it. Most of all it meant going to live near the place he had tried to escape for ten years. [He] was destined to face his devils. He could never escape irony. The friend’s acreage was near Bakersfield, just a few miles from a place where onions grow so thick you can smell them from the Maricopa Highway. Just a few miles from that place where a policeman ran through the fields with a farmer one cold and bitter night under a late and lonely moon near the foot of the Tehachapi Mountains, near a place called Wheeler Ridge, near a place they marked with a blood red arrow…
In moments like these, The Onion Field forces us to compare it to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, perhaps the greatest American true crime book ever written.
Of course, whenever we talk about In Cold Blood, we must also consider how much “truth” is actually present.
***
Capote’s 1965 classic – published 8 years before The Onion Field – brought new attention to a type of writing referred to as the “nonfiction novel.” Though the definition is pretty loose, the term generally refers to a book that uses techniques from fiction to cover nonfictional happenings. Unfortunately, Capote – despite claims to the contrary – did not simply borrow storytelling methods, but placed wholly invented scenes into his narrative.
I say this because The Onion Field raises a lot of questions in my mind about veracity. There are no endnotes, footnotes, or explanations regarding sources. In a half-page “Note to the Reader,” Wambaugh states only that he interviewed sixty people, and that he reviewed thousands of pages of documents, including court records and Jimmy Smith’s unpublished autobiography. At certain points, Wambaugh – unlike Capote – lets you know where he’s getting his information. Mostly, though, you are left to wonder, especially when you read page after page of dialogue that no one could possibly have remembered with any accuracy so long after the fact.
This does not change the essential truths contained with these pages, but the possibility that certain things were outright invented certainly loiters in the back of your mind.
***
Most critiques of the American legal system are defendant oriented, and for good reason. As a former public defender, I’ve seen the failings up close.
The Onion Field, though, shows how it fails victims, too. The slowness of the process, the intense focus on technicalities, and the ease with which delays can be caused, served to endlessly retraumatize the surviving officer, and forced the victims’ families to endure an endless purgatory where no conviction or sentence proved final.
In a short afterward added in the 2007 reprint, Wambaugh tersely informs us that Jimmy Smith was actually paroled after nineteen years. This meant that he served less time in prison for helping take a life than the dead officer – aged thirty-one – got to spend living it. Gregory Powell probably would’ve been paroled as well, but the film version of The Onion Field inspired a public outcry. He died behind bars in 2012, at age of 79.
This un-redemptive postscript to an unhappy chronicle is perfectly fitting with Wambaugh’s overall embrace of a disastrous collision of personalities, assumptions, experiences, and environments, a routine traffic stop reverberating with consequences that would last for decades, for lifetimes.
February 5, 2018
”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.
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
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
November 16, 2020
Truman Capote called this book "A fascinating account of a double tragedy: one physical, the other psychological." He definitely hit the nail on the head about the first police execution murder in LA history.
I felt that Joseph Wambaugh did an incredible job writing about this true crime by relating:
1. the separate identities of the 4 major players (Ian Campbell, Karl Hettinger, Gregory Powell and Jimmy Smith) - their upbringings, their adult lives prior to this crime, and for 3 of these men, their handling of the aftermath;
2. about 1/3 of the way into the book, he retells, with intensity, the kidnapping, execution and harrowing escape;
3. the well-outlined and detailed police investigation and court proceedings. After reading this book, I could NEVER be in law - I would be pulling my hair out! The nonsensical courtroom antics and frustrating testimonies were unbelievably outlandish! and,
4. the shameful way Officers Campbell and Hettinger were "blamed" by the police force for their actions and were treated like cowards. The PTSD Hettinger had to endure alone for years was incredibly heartbreaking.
This unfathomable crime, so well-related, is definitely a must-read for true crime fans!
I felt that Joseph Wambaugh did an incredible job writing about this true crime by relating:
1. the separate identities of the 4 major players (Ian Campbell, Karl Hettinger, Gregory Powell and Jimmy Smith) - their upbringings, their adult lives prior to this crime, and for 3 of these men, their handling of the aftermath;
2. about 1/3 of the way into the book, he retells, with intensity, the kidnapping, execution and harrowing escape;
3. the well-outlined and detailed police investigation and court proceedings. After reading this book, I could NEVER be in law - I would be pulling my hair out! The nonsensical courtroom antics and frustrating testimonies were unbelievably outlandish! and,
4. the shameful way Officers Campbell and Hettinger were "blamed" by the police force for their actions and were treated like cowards. The PTSD Hettinger had to endure alone for years was incredibly heartbreaking.
This unfathomable crime, so well-related, is definitely a must-read for true crime fans!
April 16, 2008
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.
November 11, 2020
full post here:
http://www.nonfictionrealstuff.com/20...
I had nominated this book for a monthly group read in one of my groups, and as usual, the more popular authors won the day. Sad really, because this book is so good; just because it was written in 1973 doesn't mean that it should be relegated to the back burner. But don't get me started on that because we'll be here for days. Their loss. Not mine. Not at all.
The back-cover blurb of this book reads as follows:
"The Onion Field is the frighteningly true story of a fatal collision of destinies that would lead two young cops and two young robbers to a deserted field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, towards a bizarre execution and its terrible aftermath."
After having finished reading The Onion Field last week I can say that this short and succinct paragraph doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what happens here. While the book discusses the horrific kidnapping and killing of a policeman that took place on March 9, 1963, the real story here is that of the surviving officer, Karl Hettinger and the long ordeal he faced after the murder.
If you're expecting your standard true crime book, look elsewhere. Not only does the author do an excellent job of portraying Hettinger's ongoing suffering in the wake of Campbell's murder, but he is in no hurry to get right to the killing, periodically cutting away from the night of March 9, 1963 to examine the lives of all four of the main people involved as he takes his readers right up to the point of intersection when everything went so wrong. The Onion Field is well written with a depth so rarely seen in true crime reporting; it is intelligent, suspenseful, and above all compassionate, all making for an excellent read. It's a book I put down only to sleep.
Oh - and don't miss the film! It doesn't quite capture the immense depth of the book, but it comes very close.
very highly recommended
http://www.nonfictionrealstuff.com/20...
I had nominated this book for a monthly group read in one of my groups, and as usual, the more popular authors won the day. Sad really, because this book is so good; just because it was written in 1973 doesn't mean that it should be relegated to the back burner. But don't get me started on that because we'll be here for days. Their loss. Not mine. Not at all.
The back-cover blurb of this book reads as follows:
"The Onion Field is the frighteningly true story of a fatal collision of destinies that would lead two young cops and two young robbers to a deserted field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, towards a bizarre execution and its terrible aftermath."
After having finished reading The Onion Field last week I can say that this short and succinct paragraph doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what happens here. While the book discusses the horrific kidnapping and killing of a policeman that took place on March 9, 1963, the real story here is that of the surviving officer, Karl Hettinger and the long ordeal he faced after the murder.
If you're expecting your standard true crime book, look elsewhere. Not only does the author do an excellent job of portraying Hettinger's ongoing suffering in the wake of Campbell's murder, but he is in no hurry to get right to the killing, periodically cutting away from the night of March 9, 1963 to examine the lives of all four of the main people involved as he takes his readers right up to the point of intersection when everything went so wrong. The Onion Field is well written with a depth so rarely seen in true crime reporting; it is intelligent, suspenseful, and above all compassionate, all making for an excellent read. It's a book I put down only to sleep.
Oh - and don't miss the film! It doesn't quite capture the immense depth of the book, but it comes very close.
very highly recommended
December 24, 2021
This is a book of two halves and writing styles. The first part is an In Cold Blood-esque non-fiction novel. Beautifully written and in my opinion preferable to the former mentioned book. It follows the background stories of the four main characters leading up to the night of the onion field. The second half is the long and complex legal aftermath, which is written in the standard true crime narrative with court transcripts.
The first half is an easy five stars. The writing is pure excellence, oozing emotion and foreshadowing the imminent tragedy. There's a scene with bagpiper playing 'flowers of the forest' and i challenge you not to be overwhelmed with sadness after reading it. The second part did lose my interest in places but this is through no fault of the author. The legal case goes on forever with a great deal of repetition.
The first half is an easy five stars. The writing is pure excellence, oozing emotion and foreshadowing the imminent tragedy. There's a scene with bagpiper playing 'flowers of the forest' and i challenge you not to be overwhelmed with sadness after reading it. The second part did lose my interest in places but this is through no fault of the author. The legal case goes on forever with a great deal of repetition.
November 3, 2014
First published in 1973, The Onion Field covers the story of the brutal encounter between two LAPD cops and two career criminals in, well, an onion field. I won't go into the outcome except to say the criminals got the best end of the deal, especially when the death penalty was struck down in California. Compelling reading, even the tedious courtroom scenes unraveling with their own grim, ironic dramas. Wambaugh's early writing, such as this nonfiction title, is generally regarded as his better output. I hope to read more of his nonfiction somewhere downstream.
March 29, 2013
The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh
The 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 television’s 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 criminal justice system (punishment, retribution, rehabilitation?), the criminal legal process and disparity between official policy and actual police practice.
Wambaugh illustrates how our system of laws exist to protect the criminals and police departments exist to protect the ‘integrity’ of those institution per se, but there is no system or institution that protects with similar zeal and diligence the rights of police officers, victims, or prosecutors, i.e., the three parties most intimately associated with the crime (besides the criminal).
The Onion Field makes it understandable why police protect one another when faced with allegations of misconduct by civilians - they have to protect themselves because the system is not there to protect them.
The 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 television’s 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 criminal justice system (punishment, retribution, rehabilitation?), the criminal legal process and disparity between official policy and actual police practice.
Wambaugh illustrates how our system of laws exist to protect the criminals and police departments exist to protect the ‘integrity’ of those institution per se, but there is no system or institution that protects with similar zeal and diligence the rights of police officers, victims, or prosecutors, i.e., the three parties most intimately associated with the crime (besides the criminal).
The Onion Field makes it understandable why police protect one another when faced with allegations of misconduct by civilians - they have to protect themselves because the system is not there to protect them.
January 23, 2022
Awesome book. Split time between the 4 main characters so you get to know them all before and after the murder. I really liked it and highly recommend it.
February 13, 2018
Two young cops pull over two thieving sociopaths, and the murder of one shatters lives for decades to come.
This is a classic -- a must-read for true crime geeks. The only buzz kill for me was in the dragging pace that consumes several areas of the book.
A solid 4 stars out of 5.
This is a classic -- a must-read for true crime geeks. The only buzz kill for me was in the dragging pace that consumes several areas of the book.
A solid 4 stars out of 5.
March 28, 2014
I couldn't make it through this book due to its poor pacing and rampant homophobia. The character development is excruciatingly focused on one character's bisexuality and how that is a major influence of his criminal behaviors. The author's perspective on this disgusted me and the pacing of the book was so poor that when I thought about those two factors, I just put the book down instead of continuing. The story is disjointed and very sluggish.
December 30, 2021
Chilling, Suspenseful, Well written!
April 12, 2025
A rich, thick, true crime story revolving around the murder of a police officer in the early 1960s and the subsequent trials.
You know when you read what’s supposed to be contemporary yet the writing elevates it to something more? That’s The Onion Field.
It is remarkable how Wambaugh gets into the heads of these people, whether they are cops, criminals, attorneys, or bystanders.
I had forgotten how good this book is. A true crime masterpiece.
You know when you read what’s supposed to be contemporary yet the writing elevates it to something more? That’s The Onion Field.
It is remarkable how Wambaugh gets into the heads of these people, whether they are cops, criminals, attorneys, or bystanders.
I had forgotten how good this book is. A true crime masterpiece.
July 4, 2018
A true story that sent shivers down my spine. I read this book ages ago and I ought to read again to see what I make of this book today. Thought provoking.
Want to read
June 22, 2016I tried reading this once when I was in high school and ended up donating it.
I'll try again now that it's only $1.99 on Amazon.
I'll try again now that it's only $1.99 on Amazon.
November 3, 2017
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 the aftermath, he's telling the story of the survivor, Karl Hettinger.
In so doing, Wambaugh presents a vivid portrait of PTSD (seven years before it was added to DSM-III, so without the terminology, but from 2017 I recognize 100% what Wambaugh describes) and a vivid portrait of the absolute fucking mess the LAPD made of its reaction to Hettinger's survival. Wambaugh is very careful, and he lays out with considerable sympathy and understanding the reasons the LAPD failed Hettinger so abysmally (making the survivor go to department roll-calls and describe what happened--being abducted by a pair of two-bit hoods, driven from Hollywood to Bakersfield, watching one of them shoot his partner, and then being chased across the onion fields in the dark--and let his brother police officers Monday-morning quarterback everything he did or didn't do is basically what you're going to find next to "contra-indicated" in the dictionary), and I thought Wambaugh's observations about the police definition of masculinity and the very brutal limitations of that definition (a police officer, being a "real" man, would never surrender his gun to anyone, no matter what the circumstances were; a police officer, being a "real" man and therefore a man of action--what Wambaugh calls a "dynamic" man--would always be able to find some positive action to take. Surrender is no guarantee of safety, as a memorandum written after Officer Campbell's murder said, a memorandum that stopped just barely short of explicitly condemning Hettinger for his actions and inactions--stopped just barely short of explicitly blaming Hettinger for Campbell's death--and the worldview encapsulated in that statement (the implicit corollary that because surrender does not guarantee safety, it is the wrong (unmanly) response), a worldview that Wambaugh understands at the same time he rejects it, is about half of what caused Hettinger's slow nervous breakdown, to use an old-fashioned term. Untreated PTSD, plus believing (half paranoia and half accurate observation) that he was being blamed for Campbell's death, plus Hettinger's own staggering lack of self-awareness making him so extremely vulnerable to the erosion of his self-worth . . . it really is no wonder that he ended up compulsively shoplifting until he was finally caught and forced/allowed to resign from the LAPD. These assumptions (unexamined by Hettinger, very carefully examined by Wambaugh) about "real" manhood and "real" men (and "real" policemen) are a beautiful demonstration of the proper use of the term "toxic masculinity." Because this is a definition of masculinity, a set of rules about how masculinity ought to be performed, that is manifestly toxic. It came within about an inch of being lethal to Karl Hettinger, that inch being the movement of his trigger finger that would have put a suicidal bullet in his brain.
On that count alone, The Onion Field is a remarkable accomplishment, but Wambaugh also pays the same careful, compassionate attention to Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, the two-bit hoods who murdered Ian Campbell. Powell (who died in prison in 2012, the last survivor of the men who walked into the onion field in 1963) and Smith were both sociopathic (to varying degrees: Powell was the complete remorseless shark-in-human-form, Smith, at least as presented by Wambaugh, was more complicated, but since he said that he thought "conscience" was something made up by white people to oppress black people and didn't really exist . . . yeah, survey still says sociopath), but Wambaugh teases out bits and pieces of how they got that way, how what they did was both completely their fault, made up of a series of choices they made with complete free will, but also how it grew organically from who they were, what their world had shaped them into.
Wambaugh does a brilliant job in the first part of the book with a foreshadowing device that was effective even though I knew exactly what he was doing. He started on the night of the abduction, and then--a perfectly standard narrative technique--cut back along each man's timeline to explain how he got there. But with Smith in particular, as he jumped back along Smith's relationship with Powell, you could see the pieces of the disaster being assembled: the acquisition of the clothes they're wearing, the acquisition of the guns, the acquisition of the car. I first encountered this device in Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books--an irony, because I find it completely ineffective there, but Wambaugh shows how it's supposed to work, the intense feeling of Greek tragedy, of a catastrophe that cannot be averted because it's already happened (particularly effective because Jimmy keeps trying to find the right moment to leave Powell, and you end up mentally shouting at him to just cut his fucking losses and run . . . and he doesn't).
The only aspect of the book I found less than brilliant was Wambaugh's attempt to reconstruct Ian Campbell's subject position. There seems to have been something essentially unknowable about Campbell, something that he kept back from everyone who knew him, so while I understand why Wambaugh had to try, it's just not really successful, pretentious instead of portentous. But, otherwise, yeah. This is an amazing book.
In so doing, Wambaugh presents a vivid portrait of PTSD (seven years before it was added to DSM-III, so without the terminology, but from 2017 I recognize 100% what Wambaugh describes) and a vivid portrait of the absolute fucking mess the LAPD made of its reaction to Hettinger's survival. Wambaugh is very careful, and he lays out with considerable sympathy and understanding the reasons the LAPD failed Hettinger so abysmally (making the survivor go to department roll-calls and describe what happened--being abducted by a pair of two-bit hoods, driven from Hollywood to Bakersfield, watching one of them shoot his partner, and then being chased across the onion fields in the dark--and let his brother police officers Monday-morning quarterback everything he did or didn't do is basically what you're going to find next to "contra-indicated" in the dictionary), and I thought Wambaugh's observations about the police definition of masculinity and the very brutal limitations of that definition (a police officer, being a "real" man, would never surrender his gun to anyone, no matter what the circumstances were; a police officer, being a "real" man and therefore a man of action--what Wambaugh calls a "dynamic" man--would always be able to find some positive action to take. Surrender is no guarantee of safety, as a memorandum written after Officer Campbell's murder said, a memorandum that stopped just barely short of explicitly condemning Hettinger for his actions and inactions--stopped just barely short of explicitly blaming Hettinger for Campbell's death--and the worldview encapsulated in that statement (the implicit corollary that because surrender does not guarantee safety, it is the wrong (unmanly) response), a worldview that Wambaugh understands at the same time he rejects it, is about half of what caused Hettinger's slow nervous breakdown, to use an old-fashioned term. Untreated PTSD, plus believing (half paranoia and half accurate observation) that he was being blamed for Campbell's death, plus Hettinger's own staggering lack of self-awareness making him so extremely vulnerable to the erosion of his self-worth . . . it really is no wonder that he ended up compulsively shoplifting until he was finally caught and forced/allowed to resign from the LAPD. These assumptions (unexamined by Hettinger, very carefully examined by Wambaugh) about "real" manhood and "real" men (and "real" policemen) are a beautiful demonstration of the proper use of the term "toxic masculinity." Because this is a definition of masculinity, a set of rules about how masculinity ought to be performed, that is manifestly toxic. It came within about an inch of being lethal to Karl Hettinger, that inch being the movement of his trigger finger that would have put a suicidal bullet in his brain.
On that count alone, The Onion Field is a remarkable accomplishment, but Wambaugh also pays the same careful, compassionate attention to Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, the two-bit hoods who murdered Ian Campbell. Powell (who died in prison in 2012, the last survivor of the men who walked into the onion field in 1963) and Smith were both sociopathic (to varying degrees: Powell was the complete remorseless shark-in-human-form, Smith, at least as presented by Wambaugh, was more complicated, but since he said that he thought "conscience" was something made up by white people to oppress black people and didn't really exist . . . yeah, survey still says sociopath), but Wambaugh teases out bits and pieces of how they got that way, how what they did was both completely their fault, made up of a series of choices they made with complete free will, but also how it grew organically from who they were, what their world had shaped them into.
Wambaugh does a brilliant job in the first part of the book with a foreshadowing device that was effective even though I knew exactly what he was doing. He started on the night of the abduction, and then--a perfectly standard narrative technique--cut back along each man's timeline to explain how he got there. But with Smith in particular, as he jumped back along Smith's relationship with Powell, you could see the pieces of the disaster being assembled: the acquisition of the clothes they're wearing, the acquisition of the guns, the acquisition of the car. I first encountered this device in Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books--an irony, because I find it completely ineffective there, but Wambaugh shows how it's supposed to work, the intense feeling of Greek tragedy, of a catastrophe that cannot be averted because it's already happened (particularly effective because Jimmy keeps trying to find the right moment to leave Powell, and you end up mentally shouting at him to just cut his fucking losses and run . . . and he doesn't).
The only aspect of the book I found less than brilliant was Wambaugh's attempt to reconstruct Ian Campbell's subject position. There seems to have been something essentially unknowable about Campbell, something that he kept back from everyone who knew him, so while I understand why Wambaugh had to try, it's just not really successful, pretentious instead of portentous. But, otherwise, yeah. This is an amazing book.
November 17, 2020
Although I read this almost 40 years ago, I still remember it as being one of Wambaugh's best. So glad that it is getting a new readership this many years later.
November 9, 2016
I read this some time ago and I still get the chills thinking about the brutal nature of the true story. There was a movie as well. If my memory serves me, a LA Cop was gunned down. The horror was not over because of the never ending police investigation and court room drama. The bad guys won in a way: they never got the gas.
August 28, 2015
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 the trial were buried in paragraphs of tedium. Lastly, maybe a product of its time, but the author is homophobic and that features heavily due to one of the criminal's bisexuality. I'd look elsewhere if you want a good true crime book.
July 31, 2015
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 almost ten years to finally get this case through the system. For those that like crime I highly recommend this. For those that like drama or just a really good story you too would enjoy.
April 3, 2021
Simply a great book. Profound, suspenseful, perfectly written.
January 14, 2018
Joseph Wambaugh was a young officer in the Los Angeles Police Department when the 1963 incident occurred that he later turned into a nonfiction novel called The Onion Field. Two young plain clothes cops on patrol, Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell, made a routine traffic stop. The young men in the vehicle kidnapped them and took them to an onion field in San Bernadino and murdered Campbell. Hettinger ran for his life across the field and only his happening on a man out working in the dark saved his life.
This part of the book is gripping, but it's not ultimately the most riveting story. Hettinger, clearly suffering from survivor's guilt and what we would now call PTSD, found himself sharply criticized by the department for giving up his gun although one of the men had a gun pointed at his partner. A training video was produced emphasizing that this was the wrong thing to do. The impact of the official criticism, despite the understanding and support of many fellow cops, sent Hettinger spinning into a life of nightmares and depression. This historically honorable and conscientious man began shoplifting and was forced off the police force.
This is the story that eventually led LAPD and other law enforcement to recognize the formidable damage such an experience has on officers and to establish routine psychological interviews after traumatic events.
Wambaugh's 1973 book is dated. But the story it tells is engrossing and the book is still worthwhile reading.
This part of the book is gripping, but it's not ultimately the most riveting story. Hettinger, clearly suffering from survivor's guilt and what we would now call PTSD, found himself sharply criticized by the department for giving up his gun although one of the men had a gun pointed at his partner. A training video was produced emphasizing that this was the wrong thing to do. The impact of the official criticism, despite the understanding and support of many fellow cops, sent Hettinger spinning into a life of nightmares and depression. This historically honorable and conscientious man began shoplifting and was forced off the police force.
This is the story that eventually led LAPD and other law enforcement to recognize the formidable damage such an experience has on officers and to establish routine psychological interviews after traumatic events.
Wambaugh's 1973 book is dated. But the story it tells is engrossing and the book is still worthwhile reading.
June 17, 2017
True crime classic about two small-time punks who manage to get the drop on a couple of tough LA cops. The tragic aftermath sees the surviving cop spiral into guilt-ridden addiction and despair, while the two hoods actually thrive on Death Row, outsmarting the system through patience and persistent legal maneuvering and ultimately drawing life imprisonment instead of execution.
Watch for the movie featuring a very young James Woods as the creepy cop killer. It was his debut performance and it sparked a legendary film career!
Watch for the movie featuring a very young James Woods as the creepy cop killer. It was his debut performance and it sparked a legendary film career!
June 25, 2017
I thought this book would be the true account of the 1960s kidnapping of two police officers by two petty criminals, and the legal travesty that followed. Instead, I was disappointed to find this book was written as a novel—complete with a weird "gardener interlude" between chapters—with conversations or internal thoughts included that the author would have no way to substantiate. Realizing he added fictionalized content made it impossible to accept anything the author wrote, because it was hard to discern what conversations or events actually occurred and what the author concocted for dramatic effect. And there were no footnotes or bibliography to aid the reader in determining what was fact or show where the author obtained his information from.
In the right hands, this could have been an insightful read into the real-life events that led to police manuals being rewritten, and in describing the role Miranda v. Arizona and People v. Dorado played in the court case that occurred BEFORE the Miranda and Dorado rulings made history. But here, it appears the author simply gathered up whatever information was already readily available, as there is no indication the author did any research or actually interviewed anyone connected to this case himself, thereby providing an unreliable account by blurring the lines of the true crime genre with embellishments that trivialized the events that actually took place.
In the right hands, this could have been an insightful read into the real-life events that led to police manuals being rewritten, and in describing the role Miranda v. Arizona and People v. Dorado played in the court case that occurred BEFORE the Miranda and Dorado rulings made history. But here, it appears the author simply gathered up whatever information was already readily available, as there is no indication the author did any research or actually interviewed anyone connected to this case himself, thereby providing an unreliable account by blurring the lines of the true crime genre with embellishments that trivialized the events that actually took place.
January 22, 2012
I read this many years ago but I still remember how vividly the story unfolded, and how the pages drew me in and ultimately wrung me dry. It is a harrowing recounting of a true event. The author's experiences as a police officer lends credibility to the book, and Wambaugh's writing style is powerful and gritty. This was the first of many of his books that I read over time. Joseph Wambaugh quote: "The Onion Field made me a real writer. And then I knew it was over, I couldn't be a cop anymore."
December 21, 2011
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!
I really don't want to give any of the book away, if you enjoy true crime books I recommend this one!
April 4, 2021
The Onion Field covers a case I’d never heard of, and I resisted looking it up before reaching the end of the book, so it was exciting to learn the details of the case as I read. And boy does Wambaugh go into details. It’s very well researched, but I think a lot of dialogue could have been edited out and summarized. This is my old fickle attitude towards books dense with information; is it better to have so much research and knowledge and detail or is it unnecessary, affecting the enjoyability and cohesion of the book? I also was not sure what was fiction and what wasn’t, which is frustrating. And, of course, I had to keep reminding myself that this was written and published in the 1970s.
Wambaugh slowly and carefully reveals the personalities and life experiences of the victims and the perpetrators so that the reader feels they really know the characters by the time the crime is committed. When Wambaugh details the events of the crime itself, which comes quite far into the book, I was captivated. Much of the aftermath of the crime are the trials, so many trials, which get a bit longwinded. But what interested and saddened me the most was the prevalent attitude towards one of the victims who suffered ptsd and the toxic culture within the police force. The stigma of being a man with trauma and a man who talks about his trauma, stigmas that still exists today, made it all the more devastating. It was, at times, difficult to get through it was so heartbreaking.
Although it felt long at times and at the same time didn’t address certain issues I deem important, most likely because of when it was written, this book was very well researched and, at times, moving.
My grandmother owned the copy I read as did my mother, so it seems like a matrilineal duty to read it.
Wambaugh slowly and carefully reveals the personalities and life experiences of the victims and the perpetrators so that the reader feels they really know the characters by the time the crime is committed. When Wambaugh details the events of the crime itself, which comes quite far into the book, I was captivated. Much of the aftermath of the crime are the trials, so many trials, which get a bit longwinded. But what interested and saddened me the most was the prevalent attitude towards one of the victims who suffered ptsd and the toxic culture within the police force. The stigma of being a man with trauma and a man who talks about his trauma, stigmas that still exists today, made it all the more devastating. It was, at times, difficult to get through it was so heartbreaking.
Although it felt long at times and at the same time didn’t address certain issues I deem important, most likely because of when it was written, this book was very well researched and, at times, moving.
My grandmother owned the copy I read as did my mother, so it seems like a matrilineal duty to read it.
February 27, 2013
This book takes place back in 1963. The first half of the book goes describes the four main people. It describes where they grew up, their parents, sisters, brothers, and what kind of personality each of them has as well. It makes you feel like you know all four people really well by the time you get half way through the book.
Two of the main men are petty thieves trying to make it day to day by robbing and scamming. The other two men are police officers. The two thieves driving around town looking for trouble looking like they were up to no good. The two police officers noticed them sticking out like a sore thumb and pulled them over. They were kidnapped and taken out to the country next to an onion field. Once they were there something shocking and terrible happens.
The rest of the book talks about trials of the two thieves. The trials last for way to long and are drawn out with the thieves and lawyers making everything as hard as they can and make a mockery of the system.
February 19, 2019
A canonical true crime book that's more important than it is enjoyable. Can feel a bit homework-y at times when you realize a) it was written by a cop who hadn't written nonfiction before and b) it was being written as the story was unfolding so Wambaugh is building the road and driving on it at the same time.
If you want to know where true crime writing in America came from, you must read this. But read it alongside In Cold Blood and Fatal Vision and Stranger Beside Me to help it go down a bit smoother.
If you want to know where true crime writing in America came from, you must read this. But read it alongside In Cold Blood and Fatal Vision and Stranger Beside Me to help it go down a bit smoother.
January 22, 2026
May have been considered groundbreaking true crime when written in 1973. I wouldn't say so now in 2023. It almost seems amateurish in the way it was written. True story the bulk of which was courtroom dialogue taken from official court transcripts. Much of the rest of the book was what seemed like made up conversations between the characters and then jumping into their minds with what they were supposed to be thinking at the time. A long dragged out very repetitive book. I've always heard that it was such a great book, but I was really disappointed in it. I actually give the book 2.5 stars.
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