the Onion Field (1973) (52 page)

We do not lightly reverse these judgments. We are well aware of the heinous nature of the crime involved, and of the strong indications of defendants' guilt.

"Strong indications!" said Pierce Brooks, and threw the sheaf of papers halfway across the kitchen.

"I felt that Irving Kanarek had to be appointed," Judge Mark Brandler said many times to justify his decision. "Lord, I presided during the motions for a new trial. I sat through that incident involving Mrs. Bobbick. I sat through weeks of it. But it's not up to me or any other judge or the district attorney or anyone else to question the defendant's choice of attorneys, not when the attorney was thoroughly familiar with the case and had won the reversal on appeal. That was finally the thing that decided for me, not just that Smith wanted him. I couldn't let my unpleasant experiences with the man enter into it. I couldn't let the Supreme Court have another opportunity for criticism."

A detective named Norm Moore contacted Karl. Moore had been an officer in the Police Protective League, the rather weak and ineffectual collective bargaining arm of the Los Angeles force which had only a fraction of the power of the police unions in cities like New York and Chicago.

Moore had lived near the Hettingers when Karl was a boy in Glendale, had known him most of his life, had worked Highland Park Detectives with Karl just before he resigned. Moore was near- ing the end of his own police career, about to take his service pension. He was a plain-talking man and not afraid to speak his mind. Moore came to talk to Karl who by now was earning a little money helping his friend Officer Stew James, who moonlighted in landscaping and maintenance gardening.

"Listen, Karl, don't be dumb. You deserve a pension," Moore would say to him.

"I don't know, Norm. I stole. You have no idea how much I stole."

"Goddamnit, kid, I don't care what you stole! If you stole, it wasn't you stealing. Don't you see that?"

"It wasn't just the cigars, Norm. That's all the department knows about. I stole all kinds of things. I stole big things like an electric knife and a saber saw. I even stole a portable sewing machine once. I stole . . ."

"Look, Karl, there're reasons that people do things. Sometimes the guy that does them is the last to understand. Now I know damn well we can get you a pension. And I know damn well that nobody deserves it more. Now all you're gonna have to do is see a few doctors ..."

"Psychiatrists?"

"Yes, psychiatrists."

"So, you think I'm . . ."

"No. No.- Look, you just see these doctors. It won't cost you anything. I'll arrange everything. You just level with them. Tell them everything."

"Everything?"

"Everything, Karl. Damn, don't you talk to anybody?"

"You're the first one I've told about all the things . . . the things I stole."

"Well tell them everything, for chrissake. Get it all off your chest." Then the older man looked at his young friend thoughtfully. "Look, kid, are you pretty depressed these days? Is it all pretty bad?"

"Yeah, pretty bad."

"I think you're gonna feel better when you see these doctors. Maybe you can pick out one and see him once in a while. Don't you have anybody to tell your problems to?"

"No."

"Don't you tell Helen?" "No."

"Why in the hell not?"

"I don't know, Norm. I just ... I don't know. I wasn't raised that way. We didn't talk about. . . personal things when I was a kid. You just didn't burden other people."

"There must be somebody. How about your church? Do you go to church?"

"No. Helen goes. I don't go."

"You have to learn to talk to people."

"Norm, now that I've told you about the stealing, I just gotta give the things back. I've got some stolen things in my garage. I've used some, some I haven't. The things seem to accuse me every day when I look at them."

"Forget it."

"I can't. Maybe I'd feel better if I gave them back."

"How many places did you steal from? How many times?"

"Fifty. I don't know. Maybe a hundred. I just don't know."

"That's what I thought. Just forget it. There's no point in humiliating yourself any more. Do you trust me?"

"Sure."

"Okay. I say it's all right, keep the stuff. It's a bunch of petty junk anyway. For God's sake, stop worrying about it. It doesn't mean anything."

"I can't. I feel so guilty."

"What do you feel guilty about?"

"About the stealing. Of course. About the stealing, what else?"

He was to see doctors, seven of them. He couldn't understand it. The city just kept sending him to one doctor after another. Some of his friends suggested that the department must be hoping to hit upon a psychiatrist who would say his emotional problems were not service-connected. That his stealing was not a direct result of the murder, so the city wouldn't have to pay a pension.

The psychiatric interviews were similar. The patient would list his many physical ailments and tell of his terrible crimes and how guilty he felt about them.

"I worry a lot that I'll meet policemen I know, sir. And what they'll think of me. About my stealing. That I was a thief."

And then he was invariably asked if he felt guilty about anything else.

"No sir, what else is there? I stole so many times!" "Did you ever feel guilty about something before you began stealing?"

"No sir. There was nothing to feel guilty about. If I could just get over these feelings about the stealing. If I could just understand what made me do it." The diagnosis read:

It appears that Mr. Hettinger is an intelligent honest man who has a history of not having good, close, stable relationships to his parents or other people. The trauma of the Bakersfield incident threw him into a psychological regression. This resulted in the formation of incapacitating psychological symptoms. (Loss of self- esteem, obsessive thinking, compulsive stealing, diminished sexual response, withdrawing from friends.) He denies any guilt about the shooting, but evinces unconscious guilt which leads him to be self- defeating and self-punishing. He shows a remarkable lack of insight into his problems. I do not . Believe his compulsive stealing is a basic characteristic of him, but rather reflects his need to manipulate the environment to agree with his obsession that he is an unworthy person, to punish himself and relieve the anxiety of unconscious guilt, and to unconsciously avoid his police colleagues whom he felt looked critically at him. Had he received intensive psychiatric care earlier, it is likely much of the psychological regression could have been avoided.

Karl told another doctor: "And I stole bigger things, sir. I stole a sewing machine! I stole ..."

"Yes, Mr. Hettinger, and is there anything that made you get these same bad feelings before you began stealing all these things?"

"No sir, I had bad feelings. I had dreams. I had pains. But I didn't feel the same way I feel about the stealing."

"And how do you differentiate your feelings about the stealing?" "I feel guilty about the stealing, sir. I never felt guilty before. Just bad."

The doctor wrote:

Mr. Hettinger is a well developed, neatly dressed, pleasant and cooperative man who looks somewhat older than his stated age of thirty-two. He verbalized quite freely, however he frequently became tearful and occasionally cried when describing the incident of the murder of his partner four years ago. He appears to be unable to escape obsessive ideas which were mostly concerned with the death of his partner. The general picture suggests an individual who is undergoing a severe depressive reaction associated with compulsive behavior which takes the form of ruminative thinking about the murder of his partner masked by the compulsive need to steal. Because of the excessive self-criticism and self-devaluation, he seems to behave in a way which is crying out for help, as well as showing his desire to be punished. The possibility of suicidal behavior should be seriously considered.

He is experiencing a considerable amount of unconscious guilt, which is not expressed overtly, but which he associates with his lack of having done all that was possible the night of the murder. As such, therefore, his present condition should be considered as service-con- nected. Intensive psychiatric care is recommended.

The reports were all quite similar in their findings. All recommended vigorous psychiatric treatment. One report represented the findings of several doctors of the Julius Griffin Clinic. It was a psychiatric evaluation in great depth. The doctors took an intense interest in this unusual patient, making an extensive check into his physical history as well.

The doctors discovered that the patient evinced certain textbook symptoms. His shrinkage for example was not a perception but real, only partially explained by his tendency to hunch his shoulders. He was unable now to stand erect. It was a classic Lilliputian reaction reflecting his view of himself.

His patient poured out his heart to Dr. Griffin. He told of as many thefts as he could remember, described in detail the horror of his crimes. Tried to remember every peccadillo in his entire life. To reveal all to this confessor who broke down the barriers. He told of the erasers he and another little boy had stolen. Of the fishing plugs he and a young friend stole from a Sears store so many years ago. Of one benny he had swallowed while in the marines. He dragged it out, all of it. Every sin of his life, everything which might be a sin. Every inadequacy. His failure to be able to support his family, his recent impotence, which itself was a crime against the girl who had been his first and only love, and which shamed him almost as much as his crimes. Of his striking a helpless baby. All of it. All the terrible unspeakable things he had done to everyone who trusted him. And he spoke of the rumors of a coming retrial for the killers.

The patient says that he would almost refuse to appear at another trial. He is considering running out of the state and will resist extradition back. As he spoke of this he cried. Mr. Hettinger admits that he cries frequently and has episodes of severe depression. He also has great guilt feelings as to whether he deserves a pension. He realizes that from a financial standpoint it can make a great deal of difference in his future security. He has always wanted to work a farm, and he hopes that he can go into farming work. He is extremely depressed because he does not know where his life will lead him.

The Griffin report presented an interesting chapter entitled "Patterns of Vocational Interest" which was not found in the other evaluations.

His interest clearly lies with the care of growing things. Within this group, the destruction of anything is most traumatic, and of any living thing especially so. Very often, people with this pattern of interest care excessively about the welfare of people and all living things. Often they are shy in interpersonal relationships, and show the degree of their care through service or making useful objects.

Under "Aspects of Personality" he was described:

Mr. Hettinger is a man of high-average intelligence. His shyness and determination to achieve would lead others to believe he was an extremely self-sufficient individual. He feels a need to conceal his softer feeling. His rather peculiar combination of strength and shyness would render him a dependable and basically kind individual who would work rather hard for the good of a group. He would be a very dependable husband and father.

Mr. Hettinger is showing a marked and severe depression that appears to be reactive, that is, resultant from a situation or occurrence, rather than as a chronic condition. It results from his deep belief that he has failed to meet his own standards of excellence. There is the suggestion that he is near his limit for emotional stress. The patient became aware in February of this year that the two convicted criminals had appealed on the basis of recent Supreme Court rulings. The patient is extremely depressed, apprehensive, frightened, confused, and bewildered. He feels that he simply cannot go through the horror of the trial again.

A reasonably compulsive thoroughness in work habits, moral standards, and general approach to life tends to make people of this sort drive themselves exceedingly hard. And because of this, they are generally considered very reliable persons. Because of a high general level of anxiety, which is normal for them, when their tolerance for stress has been exceeded, they are subject to excessive, obsessive and compulsive thinking and behavior which exceeds the normal range. This reaction makes for a vicious cycle. The neurotically controlled behavior is beyond their understanding and leads them to behave in such a way that they further contradict their normally excessively high standards in that their behavior is beyond intellectual control.

Further into the report the doctors wrote:

We see extreme anxiety and depression with the antisocial behavior serving as a frantic signal for help. The fact that he could reconstitute in a protective environment such as an aide to the chief of police signals a competent strength. The fact that he is threatened by an impending retrial is more than he can bear. This man needs urgent psychological assistance and probably will need it for at least several years.

The final paragraph read:

In an unsolicited opinion by this examiner to the police department, may I humbly and respectfully suggest that a careful assay be made of procedures that are presently being used to assist officers who suffer severe physical or emotional trauma. It is unfortunate that this man was not given an opportunity for psychologically working through his fear, shame, guilt, desperation, and panic, occasioned by the event. In my opinion, this man's emotional equilibrium could have been much more stable if immediate attention and opportunity had been given to him for psychological assistance. Perhaps all he needed at that time was some cathartic ventilation and perhaps also some restoration of his self-confidence. To assume that a man can just resume a normal way of life after such an overwhelming episode is asking too much of most of us. I do not know of the arrangement which the police department has for psychological assistance, but I urge that very careful consideration be given for the prevention of mental and emotional disturbances arising from traumata in the line of duty.