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

The Onion Field

Joseph Wambaugh

Paperback | Pages: 512 pages

Rating: 4.13 | 18322 Users | 349 Reviews

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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

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”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

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Ratings: 4.13 From 18322 Users | 349 Reviews

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I read this way back in the 80s. Don't know why it's not on my page here. It was the first Wambaugh I'd read, and I think the only non-fiction I've read of his. None of his novels have ever impressed me the way this true story did.

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 novelcomplete with a weird "gardener interlude" between chapterswith 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

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

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

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

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