On March 9, 1963, two ex-cons out on parole, having met and joined up with each other, and having together committed about 32 armed robberies of small convenience stores, were scouting the Hollywood area to find another place to commit robbery, being armed with automatic pistols purchased at a gun show in Las Vegas, Nevada, where a background search was not required, and where one robber, Gregory Ulas Powell, would enter and Jimmy Lee Smith would drive, generally a stolen vehicle, and act as the driver. In the early evening of this date, the two were cruising Hollywood looking for a place to rob when they were “red-lighted” by two LAPD plain clothes patrol officers assigned to be on the lookout for suspicious activities. The officers observed the stolen Plymouth driven by Jimmy Smith and noted that the driver and passenger in the Plymouth did not seem to fit the area by the way they appeared dress-wise in the area. So, the officers decided to stop the car, detain the occupants and inquire of their business in the area.
That turned out to be a mistake. The officer driving the police car was Karl Hettinger, a young officer and ex-marine with a good record in police work; the officer-passenger was Ian Campbell, also an ex marine and good officer, married and the father of two young children. The suspects’ car stopped for the red light. Officer Hettinger approached the driver’s side of the suspect vehicle, while officer Campbell approached the passenger side. Each of the suspects was ordered out of the stolen vehicle on their respective sides. Unknown to the two officers, Gregory Powell was carrying a 32 caliber automatic at the time he was exiting the detained vehicle. Officer Campbell was a large man, over six feet two inches and Powell was short, slight of build. Powell got the drop on Campbell, putting his weapon in Campbell’s back, disarming the officer and using Campbell as a shield. He pointed Campbell’s weapon, a 38 caliber revolver, at Officer Hettinger,who had his service revolver: a 38 Smith and Wesson Revolver, pointed at Powell and also at Smith. But Powell was completely shielded by the size and bulk of Campbell. Powell ordered Hettinger to surrender his weapon to Smith, and, after some hesitation, with a revolver being pointed in his direction, the officer complied and gave his Smith and Wesson revolver to Jimmy Smith. With that, the officers were directed to get in the Plymouth and abandon the police vehicle, with Hettinger to drive with Smith in the front seat and Campbell and Powell in the rear seat. The officers were told that they would be eventually let go, but the officers were unaware of the previously made plans of the two suspects not to be taken alive.The two bad guys had earlier gone to a remote trash dump area out in the Mojave Desert, where they practiced shooting at imaginary human beings to test their recently purchased weapons in order to prepare them to kill anyone that posed a danger to their being locked up again in State Prison.
Hettinger was instructed to drive towards what was then known as “The Ridge Route:” a winding road through the Tahachapi Mountain that extended from the San Fernando Valley to Kern County through various cities from Bakersfield North up through Sacramento known as highway 99. (Today, the winding road has been replaced with Interstate 5, leading to places North extending through California, Oregon and Washington States.) Hettinger complied and throughout the ride across the mountain range the officers were falsely assured the would eventually be let go. When the group reached the bottom of the Ridge Route, Hettinger was instructed to turn left and take a road known as The Maricopa Cutoff. After a few miles driving West in this remote farm area, they were told to turn left on a small country farm road leading back towards the mountains, and after a short drive, they were instructed to stop and get out of the car. The Officers complied. At that exact area, there was a ditch already dug for a watering system for the crops in the fields. ( Jimmy Smith was very familiar with the area, having worked those fields in the past, and what a perfect place to bury victims in an already-dug grave site.) The two officers were told to stand next to each other, facing Smith, and to Smith’s immediate right, Powell was stationed. Directly across from Powell, Officer Hettinger was standing and facing directly across from Smith, Officer Campbell was standing. With that, Powell said to the two officers “We told you we would let you go, but have you ever heard of the Little Lindbergh Law?” Powell then shot Officer Campbell right in the upper lip knocking him to the ground, a non fatal wound. With that, Hettinger started running South towards the mountains in, as he was trained for in the Marines, a zig zag manner to make any attempt on his life difficult for the shooter to hit him. As Hettinger was running he looked back; though this was a moonlight night and vision was not too bad, he could see from the position. He last saw Powell shooting at him, and he also saw from the position Jimmy Smith walk around to the stricken, fallen officer and saw that figure from a position directly behind Campbell, fire several shots directly into the downed Officer, appearing to go in the direction of the officer’s chest and abdomen. Hettinger ran along a barbed wire fence which separated the fields where onions were being farmed, balled himself up, threw himself through the fence and ran into the field and hid in furrows that had been dug for the crops. Of course Campbell died as a result of the murderous shots into the chest and abdomen area of his torso.
One of the ironies is when Powell uttered the term the Little Lindberg Law,” he was referring to Penal Code Section 209, which made it a crime to kidnap for the purpose of robbery or ransom, and which carried a parolable term, but if there are injuries, then either life without parole, or death. Th Law came about when one of America’s heroes was a famous person. In 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew a single engine plane named “The Spirit of St. Lewis” from Long Island, New York, solo, a single engine plane to Paris, France, the first ever Trans Atlantic flight. Later, in or around 1936, Lindbergh’s son was kidnapped and murdered. Later, a German gardener named Bruno Hauptmann was arrested for the crimes, found guilty and executed. (there still remains some doubt about the conviction.) Well, states, including California, then adopted the law regarding kidnapping or robbery for ransom with a penalty of death or life without parole for the crime if there is bodily injury. So, Powell was wrong regarding the death penalty for what they had done until the officer was killed. Today the penalty for that crime is not death or life without parole but parolable life
Well, Hettinger managed to escape, ran into a field hand, and the two of them managed to get to a farm house about five miles from the spot of the shooting, contact LAPD, who contacted Bakersfield Police and the Sheriff’s Department. Jimmy Smith got back in the Plymouth to stalk and search for the surviving officer, obviously to kill him, while Powell stole a car and fled the area, only to be stopped by the Highway patrol, Bakersfield station, on his way back to LA on the Grapevine. Recovered was his automatic. Jimmy Smith managed to get to Delano, a small town just South of Bakersfield and get into a rooming house, but was turned in by the manager to Bakersfield Police, who came and captured him and recovered in his possession Officer Hettinger’s Smith and Wesson revolver, which turned out, through ballistics, to be the very weapon that shot the bullets into Officer Campbell’s torso, the fatal shots and cause of death.
Well, I never had been called by my Office, and, to my knowledge, neither had anyone at that time, to get into a case at its inception and work with the investigators from the beginning. This was a Sunday morning, as I recall. Powell had been arrested and later, after I arrived, Jimmy Smith had been apprehended and was on his way back to Hollywood Police Station, picked up and transported by one of the smartest men I had ever met, Sgt. Pearce Brooks.
I arrived at Hollywood station mid morning of March 10, 1963, and as I had been told, there was chaos. All that was known when I first arrived and was briefed, was a Hollywood Station Police car was found abandoned in Hollywood and two officers were missing. Things developed from there.
To be continued
Marshall
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