‘Onion Field’ Killer Arrested for Assault

Paroled “Onion Field” police killer Jimmy Lee Smith was arrested in Van Nuys after he allegedly threatened a man with a butcher knife, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Smith, 59, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, two weeks after a man complained that Smith had threatened him, Lt. Warren Knowles said. Smith, who police said was under the influence of heroin when arrested, was being held without bail because the arrest violates conditions of his parole.

It was yet another arrest for Smith, who was paroled in 1982 after serving 19 years for his role in the 1963 slaying of Los Angeles Police Officer Ian Campbell.

Campbell and his partner, Officer Karl Hettinger, were abducted in Hollywood by Smith and Gregory Powell and driven to an onion field south of Bakersfield. Powell killed Campbell but Hettinger escaped. The case was recounted in Joseph Wambaugh’s best-selling 1973 book “The Onion Field.”