Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wambaugh's Best., February 2, 2001
The Onion Field is a top shelf book. It's the in-depth analysis of the true story of a 1963 event in Los Angeles. Two cops pull over two crooks in an otherwise routine traffic stop. But the desperate crooks get the drop on the cops, get their guns, kidnap them, drive them out to an onion field in the countryside, and murder one of them. One of the cops escapes death, but is haunted by guilt over the death of his partner and his inability to help. The murderers are captured, tried, convicted, and then retried over and over again on appeal.The surviving cop is further savaged when the LAPD uses the case in training as an example of all the wrong things a cop can do when stopping and approaching cars. Haunted by horrific memories, saddened by the loss of his partner, wracked by guilt, ostracized by his own, and repeatedly tormented by defense attorneys in one retrial after another, the cop suffers emotional meltdown. Wambaugh, takes us meticulously through the crime, second by second, and then tells the surviving cop's powerful and moving story: the destruction of a forgotten victim. This is as good as it gets. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I can't believe I waited so long to read this book., December 16, 2000
By A Customer
I lived in Los Angeles in 1963 and I've seen the movie several times, but not until I picked up a used copy of the book out of the Good Will this last week did I read the written account. As usual, the book is ten times better than the movie. It's gripping and very hard to put down. The sadness of what happens to the surviving police detective is so frustrating and seems, today, so unnecessary. Of course, we forget that seeking help from therapists and even talking about your innermost fears(called "burdening others" with your problems), etc. were not the vogue in 1963. If they had been, this story might have ended differently. I was particularly interested in the author's references to local landmarks which made the story come alive for me. What makes it eerier is that the area of the onion field where the murder took place is not all that far from the city but even so, it's strictly away from city life, kind of up in the hills, pitch dark at night and isolated with nothing but a big lonely highway running through surrounding fields growing a variety of crops. Oddly enough, regarding the two sleazoid criminals, at times they seemed more intelligent than some of the defense attorneys. Fantastic story! I predict it will stay with you for days after reading it.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's so unbelievable it has to be true. Sadly, it is., June 4, 1999
By A Customer
The cruel slaying of LAPD Officer Ian Campbell and the sadistic hunt for his surviving partner, Karl Hettinger in a Bakersfield onion field is vividly recounted in this Wambaugh non-fiction classic. Additionally, in-depth and fascinating studies are made of the cold-blooded killers, Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith. Finally, the heartbreaking psychological deterioration of Officer Karl Hettinger, a victim of survivor's guilt and hard-nosed, ignorant superiors is recounted in painful detail. An agonizing, dark, and horrible page in California history.
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