Joseph Wambaugh
Paperback | Pages: 512 pages Rating: 4.13 | 18322 Users | 349 Reviews
Specify Of 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 |
Ilustration Conducive To 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.
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/JeffreyKeetenJoseph Wambaugh
Present Books Concering The Onion Field
| Original Title: | The Onion Field |
| ISBN: | 0385341598 (ISBN13: 9780385341592) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Rating Of Books The Onion Field
Ratings: 4.13 From 18322 Users | 349 ReviewsPiece Of Books The Onion Field
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.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 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!
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
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
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.
To me personally, this book is comparable to. "In Cold Blood". Very well written and keeps you reading. I couldn't put it down sometimes. Just a great book, true crime fan or not.
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