Gregory Powell: Onion Field Cop Killer Dies at 79

Gregory Powell was an American murderer. Born on August 2, 1933, in Michigan, he had a long criminal record.

On March 9, 1963, he and Jimmy Lee Smith kidnapped Los Angeles police officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger and drove them to an onion field near Bakersfield, where Campbell was shot dead. Hettinger escaped. Powell was convicted and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to life in 1972.

The case inspired Joseph Wambaugh's book The Onion Field and a 1979 film in which James Woods played Powell. Powell died of prostate cancer at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville on August 12, 2012, at age 79.

Achievements: Subject of The Onion Field.

Birth: August 2, 1933 - Michigan.

Profession: Criminal.

Interesting Facts: He was denied parole many times.