The Onion Field

By: Joseph Wambaugh

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 18 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Hollywood. Saturday night. A broken taillight leads to a routine traffic stop. It shouldn’t have changed the lives of the four men involved, but it did. The Onion Field is the frighteningly true story of a fatal collision of destinies that would lead two young cops and two young robbers to a deserted field on the outskirts of Los Angeles, towards a bizarre execution and its terrible aftermath.

The Onion Field is the basis for the movie starring James Woods and John Savage.

©1973 Joseph Wambaugh (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“More ambitious than In Cold Blood and equally compelling.” ( The New York Times)

“Wambaugh is the best in the business.” (Kathy Reichs)

“No other writer illuminates the heart beneath the badge better or more honestly than Joseph Wambaugh" (Robert Crais)

Good but not exceptional.

I have to admit some disappointment in this book. The writing itself is very good, however the book is excessively long with a LOT of extraneous detail. I appreciate when an author paints a complete picture of the main characters & events, but there is so much here that I simply do not need to know to understand this tragic event. This is the ONLY time in my life I actually wished I was reading an abridgment. The narrator did not help; he reads at quite a slow pace. Eventually I actually turned up the narration speed to 1.25x the normal rate, which I have never done before. One final note: the author comes across as quite homophobic. I suppose that was more acceptable in 1973, but I did find it annoying. I do not consider this book to be the same quality as In Cold Blood, which is exceptional.

GREAT READ....

I HAD NEVER HAD THE OCCASION TO READ THE BOOK BUT ONCE I STARTED IT WAS ONE YOU DON'T WANT TO PUT DOWN....THE DETAIL THAT WAMBAUGH GIVES ABOUT THE CHARACTERS IS OUTSTANDING...I SAW THE MOVIE(LONG AGO AND HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT IT) AND IT WAS OKAY BUT AS ALWAYS...YA JUST CAN'T BEAT THE ORIGINAL...GREAT READ.....I WALK A GREAT DEAL EVERY DAY AND IT IS A PERFECT TIME TO LISTEN TO A BOOK.....ONION FIELD MADE THE MILES FLY BY......HOORAY FOR THE BOOK AND THE EXTRA WALKING....

Heartbreaking.

The police are not supposed to surrender their weapons under any circumstances. Easier said than done. I think the author has done an excellent job in showing that.

Jimmy Buffett has an album or a song "You Had To Be There" ... and boy, we all know that there are times and instances in our lives that we cannot fully explain because...you had to be there.

I do not understand the mentality of so many of their fellow officers not being able to put themselves in the shoes of these two officers and trying to imagine an unimaginable set of circumstances that would force the officers to do what they did. Are they just supposed to die rather than surrender their weapons? The situation was impossible.

My heart goes out to the good cops everywhere. The good ones.

This is an old book, but I think you can see how this one incident ruined lives, ruined by punks. To my mind, the surviving officer was not truly cop material, but was a good man nonetheless. It is well worth the listen just to get a bit of a handle on what cops face from both the criminals and the law-enforcement world.

Classic LA Noir Crime Novel

A great novel, recounting a tragic story of wrong place at the wrong time. The book may dive a little too much into the background of the stories characters which many times felt out of place initially until the narrative catches back up to the point of the characters role in the story. One thing this narrative does is shed light on the frustrations of modern police at the point at which a policeman work finds it way into the courts where not just every action of an investigator's is scrutinized but also insight how to a criminals fortunes can change once successfully tried and convicted.

Just excellent. I feel like I know the people!

Joseph Wambaugh hit a home run! The characters are like friends to me! And to you too!

A great job on a sad story.

This true story will take you up, make you laugh, and slam you back down. What happened in that onion field was terrible but what happened in the judicial system in the years to follow was almost as hard to stomach.

Best book in a long time

Really superior quality writing and a very interesting story.
I will be reading more books by Joseph Wambaugh.

A Timeless Story of Humanity and Inhumanity

This book was published when I was in high school. I never considered reading any of Joseph Wambaugh's books, because I thought they would only interest macho men. I assumed his books were all "Rah rah thin blue line!" Well, I don't know about the rest of his books, but this one was not that and told a story that was complex beyond anything I'd imagined.

Though there are traces of misogyny and homophobia in the story, no doubt artifacts both of the time it was written and of the time when the true story took place, the book holds up well in terms of modern standards of fairness and justice.

I liked how the criminals' stories were told with much detail and sympathy, allowing the reader to come to his or her own conclusions about them as the story played out. In fact, I thought the initial scenes with the cops portrayed them as almost indistinguishable one from the other, though we get to know much more about both of them as time goes on.

One of the most impressive aspects of the book is the portrayal of Karl Hettinger's traumatized reaction to the events in the onion field. The narrator doesn't exactly indict the cops who ostracized him, but the story is told so evenhandedly that there is plenty of room for the reader to reflect on the justice or injustice of what happened to him.

On a lighter note, I was delighted every time Mrs. Bobbick made an appearance. The difference between her account of what went on in the jury room vs the story the other jurors told made me roar with laughter.

An excellent listen. A book that has withstood the test of time.

A Dark Journey....

Into the lives of perpetrators, victims and our legal system. Though a talented writer and thorough researcher, I much prefer Wambaugh's fiction as these real life characters are presented as almost stiflingly prosaic. And this despite the "true crime" drama. At times, journalistically dull. High marks for scholarship, not so thrilled by presentation. Far from riveting, I'm nonetheless glad i listened.... But even more happy the tale is done

Haunting

This true story is of a murder that shocked the City of Angels, and became the impetus for dramatic change in police procedure, both in potential hostage situations, and, much later, in recognizing and understanding emotional trauma, PTSD, and survivor's guilt.

The characters are depicted with precision. I feel like I know them, or knew them, as the last of the four recently died (2012). Wambaugh is a master, a former policeman who writes with sensitive eloquence, an understanding of the people and places that makes his work leap off the page and seize your senses.

I first read this book many years ago and have never been free of its spell. The audiobook is even better. The memorable individuals, immortalized in this, Wambaugh's best work, continue to puzzle and fascinate. The onion field is very near what is now Interstate 5 in California's San Joaquin valley, just over the Grapevine from LA. I travel this road frequently, and never pass it without a nod and a prayer for the victims, the fateful events so hauntingly penned here, and the loss of innocence that touched so many people. Thank you, Joseph Wambaugh, for this historical treasure.