Joseph Wambaugh, who wrote the gripping, true-crime bestseller "The Onion Field" and numerous gritty but darkly humorous novels about day-to-day police work drawn from his own experiences as a Los Angeles police officer,

Former Los Angeles police officer turned best- selling author Joseph Wambaugh, known for books such as "The Onion Field" and "The New Centurions," has died at the age of 88.

He wrote 'The Onion Field,' 'The New Centurions' and 'The Blue Knight' and created the realistic anthology series 'Police Story.'