Karl Francis Hettinger
Karl Francis Hettinger (October 29, 1934 - May 4, 1994) was an American police officer of the Los Angeles Police Department from 1958 to 1963. Hettinger formerly served for the United States Marine Corps from 1952 to 1958 and served in the Korean War and Vietnam War. He was known for surviving the "Onion Field" incident, in which he and his partner, Officer Ian Campbell, were kidnapped on the night of March 9, 1963, by criminals Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith and taken to an onion field near Bakersfield, California where Officer Campbell was fatally shot. Hettinger's story is depicted in Joseph Wambaugh's 1973 nonfiction book, The Onion Field. The book was adapted into a 1979 feature film of the same name in which Hettinger was portrayed by John Savage. Biography Hettinger was born in Los Angeles, California, to Francis and Elsie (Eberley) Hettinger. He had two sisters, Miriam and Eunice. He was raised in Los Angeles. He was married to Helen Beth Davis in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 1, 1962; they had three children: Laurie, Kurt, and Christine. On the night of March 9, 1963, Hettinger and his partner, Ian Campbell, pulled over a vehicle driven by