The Peculiar Truth about Alfalfa’s Murder

• Carl Switzer had several careers in his brief life. He’s best remembered as a child actor, most notably in the Our Gang movies. In 24 short films throughout the 1930s, he appeared as the memorable character Alfalfa.

• Although he achieved fame, fortune didn’t follow. And tragedy would eventually befall him.

• In the Forties, Switzer found work in movies such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Pat and Mike, and other films. Throughout his adulthood, however, he acted in such minor supporting roles that his name often didn’t appear in the credits.

• He had to find additional ways to make ends meet. Switzer was arrested for chopping down trees in Sequoia National Park, some 200 miles north of Los Angeles, and selling them as Christmas trees. Then after marrying, he took a job as a bartender.

• In the early 50s, Switzer got cast in several TV episodes of The Roy Rogers Show, and he made the acquaintance of Rogers and his equally famous wife Dale Evans.

• During filming on Rogers’ rural movie ranch, Switzer befriended Bud Stiltz. It would prove to be a fateful relationship.

• Switzer appeared in the 1958 classic film The Defiant Ones starring Sydney Poitier and Tony Curtis. It was his final acting role.

• That’s because in January 1959, Carl Switzer aka Alfalfa died at age 31 of strange circumstances.

• Switzer had taken up a side hustle breeding and training hunting dogs. He did it for numerous people, including Hollywood legends Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Roy Rogers. He also trained a dog for Bud Stiltz.

• While in Switzer’s care, however, the dog ran away. Switzer searched everywhere for it but gave up hope. Bud Stiltz was furious. Switzer posted flyers and offered a $50 reward for the animal’s safe return.

• The runaway dog was found, and the reward money was given. Stiltz was relieved.

• Switzer, however, was irked. He had put up the fifty bucks for his friend’s dog, so he felt entitled to get that money back from Stiltz. He enlisted a friend named Jack Piott to join him in confronting Bud Stiltz for the cash. They went to Bud’s home.

• Things got heated fast. Stiltz didn’t want to pay. So Switzer struck him with a clock and then produced a knife. Stiltz drew a handgun. They fought over the weapon, and it fired. A bullet almost hit Stiltz’s teenage stepson, Tom Corrigan.

• A second bullet struck Carl Switzer in the groin. He suffered massive bleeding. His final words were “What did you shoot me for?”

• An ambulance came for Switzer, but he arrived at the hospital dead. He was 31 years old.

• Police heard Bud Stiltz’s side of the story and declared the incident to be justifiable homicide or self-defense. The matter was put to rest.

• Almost no one in show business noticed Switzer’s untimely death, however, because he died on the exact same day as Hollywood legend Cecil B. DeMille. The famous film director got all of the media attention instead.

• Switzer’s story resurfaced over 40 years later, though, thanks to Tom Corrigan. He was age 14 when his stepfather, Bud Stiltz, shot Switzer, and in 2001 he gave a retelling of events.

• Corrigan claimed that Switzer had come to the house drunk, Piott hit Stiltz with the clock, and all Switzer had was a penknife. Corrigan also said that a bullet actually struck him in the leg, an accidental firing, which prompted Switzer to leave.

• Bud Stiltz shot him anyway. Tom Corrigan claimed the incident was less an act of self-defense and more like a murder.

• But by then his stepfather had already been dead for 20 years, so none of it ultimately mattered.

• Carl Switzer, aka Alfalfa from Our Gang, was buried in Hollywood Forever Cemetery shortly after his death in January 1951. Although his strange death is long forgotten, his film appearances from nearly 100 years ago live on.