The last of the two men that kidnapped two police officers in 1963, killing one as the other escaped, has died in prison.

In the March 6, 1963 incident that inspired the the book and 1973 movie “The Onion Field,” Gregory Powell, and his partner, Jimmy Lee Smith, kidnapped Officer Ian Campbell and Officer Karl Hettinger from a street in Hollywood after they were stopped by the officers for executing a u-turn.

During the contact with the officers, Powell threatened to kill one of the officers at gunpoint and then took the two officers to an onion field near Bakersfield. Thinking that they had violated federal kidnapping laws and would face the death penalty for the crime, decided to kill the two officers.

Powell killed the first officer, Ian Campbell by shooting him in the face. The other officer escaped from the two when Powell opened fire on him and he ran. Officer Hettinger ran to a farmhouse approximately four miles away.

The two ex-convicts were arrested and tried for their crimes. They were sentenced to death in California. But, when the state of California abolished the death penalty for a time, the death sentences for the two was commuted to life in prison. When the death penalty was re-instated in the state, the two would continue their life sentences as the law was not retroactive.

Jimmy Lee Smith was paroled in 1982. He would spend the rest of his life being picked up repeatedly on drug charges. He was placed under arrest one last time and detained at the Pitchness Detention Center for failing to report to his parole officer. He died there of a heart attack in April of 2007.

Powell, who was concidered the leader in the killing, was denied parole 11 times throughout his incarceration. The last time, he tried for parole on the grounds that he was dying from Prostate cancer and wanted to live out the remainder of his life outside of prison. Powell told the parole board, “I’ve done enough time, I’m a different man, I am ready to be paroled.” The parole board was unmoved by his request, he was once again denied.

Powell died at a hospice at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville on Sunday. He was 79. Powell had spent almost 50 years in prison for the shooting crime.