Jimmy Lee Smith, who was once sentenced to death for the murder of Los Angeles police officer Ian Campbell in the famous "Onion Field" case, died in jail at age 76 after another parole violation sent him behind bars again. Smith, a career criminal and drug addict, died Friday at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, California.

Smith and Gregory Powell were convicted of abducting Campbell and his partner, Karl Hettinger, on March 6, 1963, after the officers stopped them for a routine traffic violation. Powell disarmed the officers by pulling a gun on Campbell.

Powell and Smith drove them to an onion field near Bakersfield, where Powell shot Campbell in the face. Hettinger escaped and ran to a farmhouse in the area. Hettinger was criticized for giving up his gun to Powell and his actions were used as a training example of how not to handle hostage situations.

Smith and Powell both were originally sentenced to death, but the sentences were reduced to life after court decisions that temporarily stopped executions in the 1970s.

The public was outraged when Smith was paroled 19 years after the 1963 murder, but Smith bounced in and out of prison for the next 25 years, violating his parole repeatedly with drug charges.

His latest trip back to prison was February 27 after he was picked up by two police officers in Los Angeles' Skid Row area for still another parole violation.

Gregory Powell remains in prison and has never been paroled.

The case was the focus of a best-selling book by Joseph Wambaugh and in 1979 was made into a movie, The Onion Field starring James Woods as Powell and Franklyn Seales as Smith. In the movie, John Savage played Hettinger and Ted Danson played Campbell.

Earlier Articles:
'Onion Field' Killer Back in Prison Again
'Onion Field' Killer Back in Jail
'The Onion Field' Killer Busted for Heroin

The Onion Field:
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Order the DVD

See Also:
'Onion Field' Killer Dead at 76