‘Onion Field’ Officer Gets Supervisor Post
SACRAMENTO — Karl Hettinger, a former Los Angeles police officer who survived the 1963 “Onion Field” murder case, was appointed Wednesday by Gov. George Deukmejian to the Kern County Board of Supervisors.
Hettinger, 52, who for the last 10 years has been administrative assistant to former Supervisor Trice Harvey, was appointed to serve the remaining 21 months of Harvey’s term. Harvey was elected to the state Assembly last Nov. 4.
In 1963, Hettinger and another officer, Ian Campbell, were kidnaped from a Hollywood street by gunmen Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, who drove to an onion field in Kern County, where they shot and killed Campbell. Hettinger left the police force and moved to Bakersfield in 1972.
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