Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer :

In January 1958, he survived being shot in the arm while getting into his car. (His assailant was never identified.) Months later, Switzer was arrested in Sequoia National Forest for cutting down 15 pine trees. He was sentenced to a year's probation and ordered to pay a $225 fine.

On January 21, 1959, Switzer and his friend Jack Piott allegedly arrived drunk at the home of Moses "Bud" Stiltz in Mission Hills, California, reportedly to settle a debt owed to Switzer.

Previously, Switzer had borrowed a dog from Stiltz which was lost, but eventually found. Switzer paid the man who returned the dog $35 and bought him $15 worth of drinks from the bar at which he was working. Switzer went to Stiltz's house to collect the money "owed" him. He banged on Stiltz's front door, demanding, "Let me in, or I'll kick in the door." Once Switzer was inside the home he and Stiltz got into an argument.

Switzer informed Stiltz that he wanted the money owed him, saying "I want that 50 bucks you owe me now, and I mean now." When Stiltz refused to hand over the money, the two engaged in a physical fight. Piott allegedly struck Stiltz in the head with a glass-domed clock, which caused him to bleed from his left eye. Stiltz retreated to his bedroom and returned holding a .38-caliber revolver, but Switzer immediately grabbed the gun away from him, resulting in a shot being fired that hit the ceiling. Switzer then forced Stiltz into a closet, despite Stiltz having gotten his hands back on the gun. Switzer then allegedly pulled a switchblade knife and screamed, "I'm going to kill you, [expletive]." and was attempting to stab him with it, but just as Switzer was about to charge Stiltz, Stiltz raised the gun and shot Switzer in the groin. Switzer died of massive internal bleeding and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

5/28/2009 3:17:43 AM

/message_topic.aspx?topic=553899&page=3#12763140

I'm going to hell for this association.

5/28/2009 3:25:41 AM

Man, talk about a way to go.

If there's one thing we can take from this, it's don't be a child actor.

[Edited on May 28, 2009 at 3:26 AM. Reason : ^ Oh man I'm laughing, and now I'm going to hell for the nth time. Thanks.]

5/28/2009 3:25:59 AM

^^^ "It was more like murder," Corrigan told reporters. He said he heard the knock on the front door and heard Switzer say "Western Union for Bud Stiltz". Corrigan's mother, Rita Corrigan, opened the door to find a drunk and demanding Switzer complaining about a perceived, months-old debt.

Switzer entered the house followed by Jack Piott and stated that he was going to beat Stiltz. Stiltz greeted Switzer with a .38-caliber revolver in his hand. Tom Corrigan claimed to witness Switzer grab the revolver and the two began struggling to gain control over it. Piott broke a glass-domed clock over Stiltz's head whose eye swelled shut. During the struggle the gun fired into the ceiling and Tom Corrigan was struck in the leg by a piece of shrapnel. After the initial shot, his two younger sisters ran to a neighbor's house to call for help. "Well, we shot Tommy, enough of this," he remembers Switzer saying before Switzer and Piott started to retreat. Corrigan had just stepped out the front door when he heard a second shot go off behind him. He did not see his stepfather shoot Switzer, but when he turned around he saw Switzer sliding down the wall with a surprised look on his face — shot in the groin. Corrigan said he spotted a closed penknife at Switzer's side which he presumed fell out of his pocket or his hand. He then witnessed his stepfather back Piott into the kitchen counter and threaten to kill him, but as the man begged for his life, they heard emergency sirens which is why Corrigan believed Stiltz didn't shoot him again. Corrigan recalled that his stepfather, Bud Stiltz, lied in his account of the event to the authorities.

Following the shooting, Corrigan claims a now-deceased Los Angeles Police Department detective, Pat Pow, interviewed him and asked him if he would testify before a judge. Corrigan claims to have agreed, although for unknown reasons he was never called before the coroner's jury. "He didn't have to kill him," Corrigan said.

[Edited on May 28, 2009 at 9:26 AM. Reason : /]

5/28/2009 3:31:07 AM

Rascall Flatts? I wish their music career would die

5/28/2009 7:55:22 AM

5/28/2009 9:30:58 AM

Billy "Froggy" Laughlin :

When Our Gang stopped production in 1944, Laughlin voluntarily moved away from show business and enjoyed relatively peaceful teenage years.

Laughlin died on August 31, 1948, when a bus hit him from behind whilst riding a motor scooter in La Puente, California. He was killed instantly.

Laughlin lived the shortest life of the actors who appeared in the Our Gang films, living to 16-years-old.

5/28/2009 1:31:04 PM

Matthew Beard :

After Stymie left the series in 1935 at the age of ten, he went on to score some minor roles in feature films (1935 Captain Blood with Errol Flynn). By the time he was in high school, he had retired from acting. Falling into drug use and street life, Stymie became addicted to heroin, and spent most of his early adult life in and out of jail because of it. In the 1960s, he checked himself into Synanon, a drug rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles, and successfully ended his heroin use. After leaving Synanon, he made a small comeback, appearing in small roles in feature films and episodes of television shows such as Sanford and Son and Good Times; he had a recurring role as "Monty" on the latter series. In 1978, he appeared in the movie The Buddy Holly Story as a member of the backstage crew at the Apollo Theatre. He wears his trademark bowler hat in the film.

Beard also traveled around the country, giving lectures on drug-abuse awareness. He suffered a stroke two days after his fifty-sixth birthday in 1981, and died of pneumonia on January 8, 1981 in Los Angeles, California.

7/14/2009 10:27:05 AM

STYMIE IS MY BOY

RIP

7/14/2009 10:42:23 AM

Bobby "Wheezer" Hutchins :

After outgrowing the series, Wheezer and his family eventually moved back to Tacoma, where he entered public school. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 after graduating high school, served in World War II, and in 1945 enrolled to become an air cadet.

Hutchins was killed in a plane crash on May 17, 1945, while trying to land a B-26 Marauder in the Merced Army Air Corps Field in Merced, California, during a training exercise. Hutchins' mother, Olga Hagerson, was to travel to the airfield for his graduation from flying school the week after he died.

7/14/2009 10:52:32 AM

didnt buckwheat get pwned hard?


aint there a rascal curse?

7/14/2009 11:45:05 AM

Scott Hastings Beckett :

Beckett appeared as a regular in the Our Gang short subjects series from 1934 to 1935. In the gang, Beckett played George "Spanky" McFarland's best friend and partner in mischief. His trademark look was a crooked black baseball cap and an oversized black sweater, exposing one shoulder. His role was taken over by Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer in 1935, and Beckett left the series for features after that year.

.....

Beckett's later years were plagued by a series of profound problems and self-destructive behavior: bad checks, failed marriages, violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, crippling auto accidents and suicide attempts. He drifted from job to dead-end job and had frequent run-ins with the police, one of which involved an extended shoot-out. On May 8, 1968, Beckett checked into a Hollywood nursing home for injuries caused by a recent beating. He was found dead in his room two days later. Sleeping pills and a note were found near his body, but an autopsy ruled the cause of death "inconclusive". He was 38.

7/14/2009 12:46:16 PM

Norman Myers Chaney :

After leaving the gang, Chaney returned to Maryland and entered public school, where he excelled in his studies. Chaney never grew beyond 4'11". His weight continued to increase, and it was discovered that he had a glandular ailment. He underwent surgery for his ailment in 1935. His weight then dropped from over 300 pounds (136 kg) to less than 140 pounds (64 kg). Chaney became seriously ill afterward and died on May 29, 1936, at age 21. The death certificate indicated myocarditis as the cause. Chaney was the first of the regular Our Gang alumni to pass away, and the only one to not live to see the end of the series, in 1944.

7/15/2009 2:16:08 PM

Donald Haines :

Haines left the Our Gang series in 1933, but continued working as an actor at Hal Roach studios on many shorts and features until 1941. This included the East Side Kids films, beginning with East Side Kids (1940) and Boys of the City (1940) as "Pee Wee", then That Gang of Mine (1940), Pride of the Bowery (1940), Flying Wild (1941), Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941) and Spooks Run Wild (1941) as "Skinny". Spooks Run Wild (1941) was his last feature film. Later that year, Haines enlisted as an aviation cadet in the U.S. Army Air Corps on December 10, 1941, to serve in World War II.

Haines was killed in action shortly after entering the service. At the time of his death, his rank was First Lieutenant. The exact date of his death remains unknown.

7/16/2009 3:24:54 PM

Quote :

"Rascall Flatts? I wish their music career would die"

never miss a good opportunity to hate on Rascall Flatts

7/16/2009 3:27:49 PM

Clifton Young :

He was born Robert H. Young, but took his mother's maiden name as his first. He played "Bonedust" in nineteen Our Gang films from 1925 to 1931, his most notable film being School's Out. Young had small parts in a number of 1940s film noir and western films. Notable films include Nora Prentiss, Pursued, Possessed, Dark Passage, and Blood on the Moon.

Young died in 1951, in a hotel fire that started when he fell asleep while smoking.

7/17/2009 3:01:09 PM

Richard "Mickey" Daniels, Jr. :

Although appearing in several highly publicized Our Gang reunions, Daniels died in complete obscurity in 1970 of cirrhosis of the liver in a transient hotel in San Diego, California. Records of his death did not surface until being researched twenty-one years after his body was found.

7/21/2009 11:18:32 AM

help my rascal is dead

7/21/2009 11:21:38 AM

Jay R. Smith :

Smith would manage for some time to live a long and healthy life, unlike many other of his colleagues. He retired in the early 1990s, moving to Las Vegas, Nevada and living there until he was reported missing in early October 2002. After extensive searching, his body was found stabbed to death on October 5, 2002 in the desert near Las Vegas. Charles "Wayne" Crombie, a homeless man who Smith had reportedly befriended, was later convicted of the murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.

7/21/2009 2:36:59 PM

I can't believe I just read this whole thread.

10/10

7/21/2009 2:51:02 PM