The Onion Field by Joseph Wambaugh

Author:Joseph Wambaugh [Wambaugh, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Non Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2007-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

Pierce Brooks, during the days to follow, talked individually many times to both of them, on virtually every crucial point, until one of them verified each event told by Karl Hettinger, including a remarkable recorded admission by Gregory Powell which he was later to deeply regret making.

“I did think of killing the officer, Mr. Brooks, as we came down the Grapevine. The thought came to my mind if we hid their bodies in one of those canyons, they never would be found. I shied away from the thought to find some other alternative to turning them loose, and yet keep them tied down long enough for me to get back to L.A., get my wife and come back to Bakersfield to get my station wagon and get a running start.

'As I got out of the car I was still trying to think up some alternative, and didn't let the thought of killing them enter my mind. I thought of handcuffs, but realized that daylight was only four to five hours away, and there was no possibility of holding them long enough to do everything I needed to do.

“So without even considering anything for fear that I'd change my mind, without really facing the fact that this is what I intended to do, I deliberately kept my mind occupied with other thoughts as I walked around the back of the car, raised my gun, and shot the officer.

“I didn't consciously think that I had to kill. I didn't dwell upon it. I just raised the gun, fired at him, and immediately tried to hit the other officer, still without thinking consciously: this man I must kill also. Because if I let the thought enter my mind of what I was doing, I might've been confused and too scared to do what I knew or felt had to be done.”

Pierce Brooks, anticipating the defense at the trial, the only defense other than insanity, said, “Greg, do you think by any chance, for any reason, that you fired the gun accidentally at the officer when you came around the back of the car?”

And Greg looked at the patient paternal tired eyes of the detective and said, “I've handled the gun enough that I'm competent with it, and the chances of it going off accidentally are nonexistent.”

Also anticipating the defense that Greg's Colt had a “hair trigger,” Brooks tested the gun and found that, cocked, it had a trigger pull of more than five pounds. A police revolver's authorized trigger pull was only between two and a half and three and a half pounds, making a hair trigger defense impossible.

“You've told me you're pretty good with a gun and a good shot. Now I know where the officer was hit. Just for kicks, you tell me where you were aiming when you squeezed off that shot.”

“I aimed for his heart.”

“Okay the heart.”

“You can end it this way,” said Greg. “The only other alternative was to give myself up or kill him. I think I thought of this previously and thought I would rather be dead myself than give up.

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