City to Dedicate Intersection in Honor of 'Onion Field' LAPD Officer

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to name an intersection in Hollywood after Los Angeles police officer Ian Campbell, who was kidnapped and murdered in the notorious 1963 Onion Field case.

Councilmen Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge proposed the motion to rename the intersection of Carlos Avenue and Gower Street as "Ian Campbell Square."

Campbell and his partner, Karl Hettinger, were kidnapped at gunpoint from the intersection on March 9, 1963, after questioning two robbery suspects during a traffic stop. The suspects disarmed and abducted the officers, driving them to a remote onion field near Bakersfield. Campbell was shot to death, but Hettinger managed to escape.

One of the killers, Gregory Powell, was after pleading for compassionate release on grounds that he suffered from terminal prostate cancer. His accomplice, Jimmy Lee Smith, died in 2007.

Garcetti called the murder "one of the most tragic losses ever endured by the members of the police department."

The circumstances surrounding the case "had a profound effect not just on the LAPD but on law enforcement throughout the nation," Garcetti said.

Campbell was an avid bagpiper. After his death, the instrument became a standard part of funerals for LAPD officers killed in the line of duty.

The naming of the intersection was backed by the Los Angeles Police Historical Society and Emerald Society Pipes and Drums.

A ceremony will be held to unveil the sign on Aug. 17.