Sixty-three years ago today, on a dark night in Hollywood, two young LAPD officers—Ian Campbell and Karl Hettinger—were on routine patrol when fate took a cruel turn. Gregory Powell and Jimmy Lee Smith, career criminals with nothing to lose, took them hostage at gunpoint. They drove their captives north, far from the city lights, deep into the isolation of a barren onion field near Bakersfield. Then, without mercy, Powell executed Officer Campbell in cold blood. Hettinger, in a desperate bid for survival, fled into the darkness. He lived—but in many ways, his nightmare had only begun. Haunted by survivor’s guilt, Hettinger never truly recovered. Instead of being supported by his department, he was shamed—LAPD brass saw his escape as an act of cowardice, eroding his spirit even further. The trauma followed him for the rest of his days, a grim testament to the weight of duty and the scars it can leave behind. Justice, too, took a winding road. Powell and Smith were sentenced to deat...