Kevin Smokler returns to discuss Joseph Wambaugh's canonical account(s) of the murder of Ian Campbell On the Rushmore of true-crime classics, there's one face Kevin and I hadn't contemplated yet: Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field, which narrates the fateful kidnapping of LAPD officers Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger, the murder of Campbell, and the precursors and aftermaths of that night in the onion field in 1963. It's a quick read whose influences you can see in Ellroy, Mailer and others, but may have suffered from being written while various court cases were still in process...and from not including a notorious police department's history as context.
Later in the podcast, we talk about the 1979 film version of the book starring Jon Savage, Ted Danson, Franklyn Seales, James Woods, and a parade of Hey, It's That Guy!s. Wambaugh wrote the screenplay, and the things that make the book a standout don't always translate...but sometimes they're improved by excellent acting. Should you read the book first, or see the movie? Do you need to consume both? And does the ghost of Capote hover over everything that came after? Come for the discussion, stay for the DVD giveaway on The Blotter Presents, Episode 086.
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SHOW NOTES
Special Guest: Kevin Smokler.
Closing Statements
155: Most Wanted and While The City Sleeps
154: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein and The Con
Wondery Presents Even The Rich: The House of Versace
153: Ann Rule's Sleeping With Danger and The Last Narc
152: Fear City: New York vs. The Mafia and The Perfect Murder S05E09
151: The Business Of Drugs and Summer Of Sam
150: Athlete A and American Greed S13.E06
149: I'll Be Gone In The Dark and Murder Made Me Famous
148: Miracle Fishing and Exhibit A
147: Belly Of The Beast, Coded Bias, and the Yasmin Neal interview
146: Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story and Woman On Trial: The Lawrencia Bembenek Story
145: Quiz and No Stone Unturned
Blotter Brief 43: Reed Redmond on Mobbed Up
144: Fake Heiress and Unsolved Mysteries S03.E10
143: A Confession and Let Him Have It
142: Stolen Babies and The Phoebe Judge Interview
141: Bad Education and Frontline's "Terror In Little Saigon"
140: True History Of The Kelly Gang and Catch & Kill
138: A Thread Of Deceit: The Hart Family Tragedy and American Animals
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