Police seek 'Onion Field' killer

[Sequoia]

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- One of the two men convicted of the "Onion Field" kidnap-murder of a police officer in 1963 has violated parole and is being sought by authorities.

Jimmy Lee Smith, 76, has been at large since December 22, said California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Jonathan Parsley.

Parsley could not specify what parole condition was violated. Smith previously went back to prison in June 2005 after admitting that he had violated parole by possessing heroin.

Smith and Gregory Powell were convicted of abducting two Los Angeles policemen from a Hollywood street on March 6, 1963. The officers were driven 75 miles to an onion field south of Bakersfield where Powell shot Officer Ian Campbell to death and fired at Officer Karl Hettinger as he fled.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/19/onion.field.killer.ap/index.html

How odd is this, I just picked up the book on Friday. Scary criminals. I saw the movie year ago and just finshed "Hollywood Station", and thought I ought to read his best book. It was in the closed stacks (basement)of the library. A classic book and it's in the library...(?).

[hadrons]

1. I saw the film and read the book in high school ...

I even rememeber the ads when the film first came out when I was in the 6th grade

[kestrel91316]

2. We can relax. At 76, I doubt he's much of a threat to the average

American.

Yes, they need to find and lock him up again for parole violations, it looks like. No, they don't need a 50-state manhunt and wind up killing him in a shootout, which is what I suspect is coming.

[piedmont]

3. Why was he out on parole to begin with?

Sounds like a perfect candidate for life without parole.

[Kingshakabobo]

5. Their original sentence was death.

"Smith and Powell were sent to death row but their sentences were commuted to life in prison in 1972 when the California Supreme Court overturned the state's death penalty. "


That's a good question. Why wasn't it commuted to life without parole?

[devilgrrl]

4. Just so you know, Joseph Wambaugh is a right-wing asshole

I used to like his books until I read some of his fiction novels.... total crap.