Jimmy Lee Smith, 76, an 'Onion Field' killer

LOS ANGELES - Jimmy Lee Smith, 76, one of the notorious "Onion Field" killers whose crime was documented in a best-selling book and a movie, and who spent most of his life in and out of prison on repeated parole violations, has died.

Smith died Friday of a heart attack in the Pitchess Detention Center, where he been detained for yet another parole violation, county sheriff's officials said.

Smith led a life of petty crime and drug abuse, interrupted by the 1963 murder of Los Angeles Police Officer Ian Campbell.

Joseph Wambaugh's 1973 book, The Onion Field, chronicled the case and was later made into a movie.

Campbell and his partner, Officer Karl Hettinger, stopped a car for making an illegal U-turn in Hollywood. Two stick-up men - Smith, 29, and Gregory Powell, 32 - were in the vehicle.

Powell disarmed Campbell after pulling a gun on him. He then forced Hettinger to give up his weapon.

Powell and Smith drove the two officers to an onion field in Kern County. Powell shot Campbell in the face. One of the men fired four more shots into Campbell, killing him. Powell always said it was Smith, who denied it.

Hettinger began running through the field and escaped as Powell fired at him.

Powell was captured a couple of hours later; Smith was arrested the next day.

Smith and Powell were convicted of murder and sentenced to death. But in the 1970s, those sentences were reduced after the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty.