In 1975, a police unit working the night watch in Los Angeles indulges in off-duty drunken hedonistic orgies. For them, the ‘choir practice’ sessions are a coping mechanism, a way to vent and let off steam to keep from exploding from the pressures of their job and the world around them. They work hard and play even harder, until caution is thrown to the wind one time too many, resulting in a tragedy that brings them all down.
These cops are not the ‘white nights in blue’ of so many clichéd TV shows. These are all-too human, with all the faults, weaknesses and character flaws they have to contend with as they fight both the criminals on the street and the bureaucratic hierarchy they work for and gripe about in private. This is one of the best police-themed novels in that it describes the effect police work has on the officers. Maybe once idealistic, these officers are now embittered and disillusioned and just struggle to make it through the day like everyone else.
Written by a seasoned former police officer, the characters and situations described throughout this novel have an authentic feel about them. By turns harrowing and hilarious, with characters you can both laugh with and loathe in equal measure, this remains one of the author’s best works.
This reads like a novel, but is in fact a true story. The tragedy of this account is that justice was never really served to the perpetrators.
It happened on a Saturday night shift, in Los Angeles, California, March 9, 1963. Two cops, Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, during routine patrol, pull over two career criminals for what was a minor traffic violation.
The criminals: psychopath, Gregory Powell and his side-kick, Jimmy Smith, had a lot to be on edge about – they’d just pulled a robbery.
They kidnapped the cops and, held them both at gunpoint, and forced Campbell to drive them to an isolated, moonlit onion field.
Powell had his facts wrong about the state law on kidnapping. He mistakenly believed that all kidnapping cases, not only the ones where the hostages were killed, were classed as capital crimes.
Powell forced the two cops to stand side-by-side with their hands in the air and asked Campbell: “We told you we were going to let you go … but have you ever heard of the Little Lindbergh Law?”
When Campbell replied: “Yes.” Powell shot him dead.
Hettinger managed to scramble to safety, but in the weeks, months and years that followed, he suffered survivor’s guilt, which led to shop-lifting and a descent into alcoholism.
Powell didn’t just kill a police officer that night, the consequences of his crime led to the destruction of several others lives.
One of the stand-out elements of this account is the potential life-threatening risk that every police officer takes when they go out on duty. They put themselves on the line for the safety of others, which makes them, like those in the military and emergency services, the true heroes in this world.
The Onion Field is a stark, tragic example of crime and its ramifications, which will have readers enraged against the injustice of the system that allowed the perpetrators to play it for their own gain.
When a crime is committed, those who suffer longest are the victims who survivor the ordeal, and their families.
There is no such thing as victimless crime.
In 1975, a police unit working the night watch in Los Angeles indulges in off-duty drunken hedonistic orgies. For them, the ‘choir practice’ sessions are a coping mechanism, a way to vent and let off steam to keep from exploding from the pressures of their job and the world around them. They work hard and play even harder, until caution is thrown to the wind one time too many, resulting in a tragedy that brings them all down.
