Petey, the Little Rascals' Dog

Died 1938(?) - Silver Spring, Maryland; Calabasas, California

Everyone likes Petey from the Our Gang (a.k.a. "Little Rascals") comedies, the adorable pit bull with the magic marker circle around one eye. But not everyone agrees where he is buried.

The Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery in Silver Spring, MD, is the burial place of Jiggs, whose real name was General Grant, and who everyone says is the Little Rascals dog. But is Jiggs really Petey? If General Grant was his real name, and Petey was his Little Rascals name, where did "Jiggs" come from? And why does the grave have a picture of a bulldog on it? You want to be sure: otherwise it's like driving all day to reach the grave of one of the Three Stooges, only to discover that you are standing over Curly Joe DeRita.

Three thousand miles away, much closer to Tinseltown, is the grave of a "Petey" at the famous Pet Memorial Cemetery in Calabasas, CA. Pet Memorial is also home to other pet celebrities and celebrity pets like Steven Spielberg's Jack Russell, Rudolph Valentino's dog, Kabar, and Hopalong Cassidy's horse, Topper. Still, we think that this is a lesser Petey, and that Jiggs is our dog.

Here's our reasoning:

1. The Our Gang comedies were made from 1922-1944. There had to be more than one dog.
2. Jiggs lived for ten years, from 1928-1938. Surely, Jiggs would have been in his prime during the Gang's glory years.
3. Was it mere coincidence that Jiggs died the same year that Hal Roach stopped producing Our Gang and sold the rights to MGM? (Remember, dog food costs money, and this was during the Great Depression).

Clearly, more research needs to be done.

Even if we're wrong, Aspin Hill is a nice place to visit. It's the final resting place of J. Edgar Hoover's dogs (including Spee De Bozo), Rags "The Dog Who Went To War," and 40 humans who insisted upon being buried alongside their pets. Aspin Hill ran out of money in the 1980s, and Silver Spring was going to turn it into a shopping center. PETA stepped in and bought it, but much of the grounds still haven't been reclaimed from the undergrowth. Who knows what other pet celebrities may yet be uncovered?

We do know of one grave that is definitely NOT Petey's. It's the one with the picture of Petey on it at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery. This is actually the grave of fellow Rascal Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, who died in 1959 in a dispute over a $50 debt.

July, 1999: Chesapeake Wildlife Sanctuary owns the Aspin Hill Memorial Park now and the grounds have been reclaimed and look pretty nice these days. [Dianne Pearce]

...Previous Grave | Next Grave...