‘Onion Field’ Killer Held on Rape Charge

Jimmy Lee Smith, 58, one of two convicted “Onion Field” kidnapers of a Los Angeles police officer who was later murdered was arrested late Monday by West Covina police after a woman told police he had held her prisoner in her home over the weekend.

It was Smith’s fourth arrest since his conviction, with Gregory Ulas Powell, 56, for the 1963 kidnaping of Los Angeles police officers Karl Hettinger and Ian Campbell and the subsequent slaying of Campbell in a remote onion field in Kern County. The crime was the subject of Joseph Wambaugh’s best-selling book, “The Onion Field.”

He was jailed for investigation of attempted rape, abduction, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, West Covina police Lt. Lee Rossman said. Smith had been doing renovation work at the home of the 36-year-old alleged victim, Rossman said. However, early in the weekend, he forced the woman to stay in the house and unsuccessfully tried to rape her, Rossman said.