LOS ANGELES–Jimmy Lee Smith, the lifelong criminal whose role in the 1963 kidnapping and killing of a police officer inspired Joseph Wambaugh's true-life crime novel The Onion Field, has died in jail. He was 76.
Smith died Friday at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, Calif., where he was being held for failing to report to a parole officer, a state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman said Saturday.
Foul play was not suspected, but the cause of death was under investigation, according to the county coroner's office.
Smith, once sentenced to death for the killing of Officer Ian Campbell, was paroled after 19 years in prison. His 1982 release drew public outrage.
His crimes were documented in 1973's The Onion Field and the 1979 film of the same name, both written by former Los Angeles police officer Wambaugh.
Smith, who was on parole when he killed Campbell, spent the last 25 years of his life in and out of prison. He was arrested again and again on various charges, usually drug crimes.
Smith and Gregory Powell were convicted of abducting Campbell and his partner, Officer Karl Hettinger, from a Hollywood street on March 6, 1963. Powell shot Campbell but Hettinger bolted. Both Powell and Smith were arrested later.
Powell, who remains in prison, has never made parole.
