Crime Victim, Law Enforcement Officer. He was the survivor of the attack made famous in author Joseph Wambaugh's book "The Onion Field" (1973) and the 1979 movie of the same name (Hettinger was portrayed in the film by John Savage). A police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), he was taken at gunpoint on the night of March 9, 1963 with his partner, Officer Ian Campbell, by Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith in Hollywood. Driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, Powell and Smith murdered Campbell, but Hettinger escaped. Powell and Smith were picked up, tried, and jailed for the murder of Officer Campbell and the kidnapping of the two officers. After serving 49 years of a life sentence, Gregory Ulas Powell died in August of 2012. Jimmy Lee Smith died in April of 2007 in a California detention center where he was being detained for a parole violation; he had spent his most life in and out of jail. Hettinger was troubled by depression, and forced out of the LAPD after being arrested for shoplifting. He worked as a gardener in Los Angeles, then moved to Bakersfield where he became an assistant to Kern County Supervisor Trice Harvey. After Harvey was elected to the state assembly, Governor George Deukmejian appointed Hettinger to finish Harvey's term. Hettinger died in a Bakersfield hospital in 1994 at the age of 59.
Crime Victim, Law Enforcement Officer. He was the survivor of the attack made famous in author Joseph Wambaugh's book "The Onion Field" (1973) and the 1979 movie of the same name (Hettinger was portrayed in the film by John Savage). A police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), he was taken at gunpoint on the night of March 9, 1963 with his partner, Officer Ian Campbell, by Gregory Ulas Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith in Hollywood. Driven to an onion field near Bakersfield, Powell and Smith murdered Campbell, but Hettinger escaped. Powell and Smith were picked up, tried, and jailed for the murder of Officer Campbell and the kidnapping of the two officers. After serving 49 years of a life sentence, Gregory Ulas Powell died in August of 2012. Jimmy Lee Smith died in April of 2007 in a California detention center where he was being detained for a parole violation; he had spent his most life in and out of jail. Hettinger was troubled by depression, and forced out of the LAPD after being arrested for shoplifting. He worked as a gardener in Los Angeles, then moved to Bakersfield where he became an assistant to Kern County Supervisor Trice Harvey. After Harvey was elected to the state assembly, Governor George Deukmejian appointed Hettinger to finish Harvey's term. Hettinger died in a Bakersfield hospital in 1994 at the age of 59.
Bio by: JD
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