Deadly Crash Site of Child Star Bobby Hutchins

when the Great Depression brought hard times to America families filled movie theaters to take in short real comedies and their minds off their troubles with his chubby cheeks dimpled xan irresistible smile perhaps the most endearing of the child actors in the our gang series was Robert Bobby Hutchins nicknamed Weezer the Tacoma Washington native appeared in 58 our gang films between 1927 and 1933 typically plot in a beanie and corduroy vest Hutchins appeared as the tag-along little brother always eager to be part of the action after Hutchins was cut from the series in 1933 the young actor faded into obscurity with World War two raging as he graduated from high school in 1943 Bobby trained in California to become a military pilot however tragic miscalculations on a May 17 1945 training run cost the 20-year old to die in a fiery crash in a California fields join Jeff on this episode of history hunters as he revisits the life of Bobby Hutchins and reveals for the first time the site of the deadly crash of 75 years ago Jeff will use the official accident report to detail the last moments of the former child star [Music] [Applause] [Music] at about 8 p.m. Bobby Hutchins took flight for the last time in about 20 minutes the former child star would be dead [Music] 14 years earlier dorchen mirror [Music] Hey [Music] Bobby Hutchins first film in our gang was the 1927 short baby brother Hutchins tenure and our gang took him through both the silent and early sound periods of the series he appeared as the main character in several of the films including bouncing babies pups is pups big ears and dogs is dogs the reason for Weezer's departure from the series in 1933 remains a mystery today is wall-e film work outside of our gang included a handful of appearances and three features in 1932 and 1933 with the boys career over Jamison Olga Hutchins went their separate ways and Bobby moved back to parkland where he attended parkland grade school he graduated from Lincoln High School in 1943 and joined the US Army Air Forces enrolling in the aviation cadet program with the goal of becoming a pilot during the first three months of 1945 Hutchins trained in Lancaster California he later was transferred to train at the Merced Army Airfield as he neared the completion of his flight school training mother Olga was preparing to journey from Washington to Merced for graduation ceremonies a week later right now driving out to the Billy Coe airfield where Bobby Hutchinson was killed on May 17th 1945 towards the end of World War two it was basically established outside of a pasture our farmer gave up some of his land out there they built some air strips during World War two at the time World War two broke out we didn't have an Air Force we basically had air force division of the RV I would imagine that they built this out here because it's not very populated there's a lot of pasture lambs so that if there was a crash that wouldn't affect any of the people on the ground he died in a grassy field [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] it's really a peaceful countryside out here I'm in about a half mile from the southern hand of the airport well the crash took place 75 years ago yeah like I stumbled upon this skull don't know what it is it could be a coyote or a dog or something but I don't see the skeleton anywhere there are airplanes out here doing some practice takeoffs and landings there's a Cessna type plane right there coming in for landing apparently this airfield gets more traffic than I thought it did so pretty jest that I was able to find this I wrote always heard about Bobbie Hutchins being killed I didn't know exactly where over until I got II official Air Force report I didn't know exactly where it was this is where it was I'm gonna get closer to that fence but that's the boundaries of the Belenko airports or Turlock Airport I'm not gonna break the law by going inside of it and I can't fly a drone here either but the crash site was about 500 feet beyond that fence so it looks like I came as far as I can here's the sign that indicates that I can't go any farther otherwise I'll be trespassing if you had been here around 8:30 p.m. on May 17th 1945 you would have seen a huge orange fireball running from the ground to back that direction snuffed out the life of Bobby Hutchins when Robert Hutchins passed away the local newspaper here in town didn't really give it much attention in fact it was on the inside page about two inches of space mentioned his name but made no indication that he was the famous child actor Bobby Weiser Hutchins the crash would have been off in that direction about 500 feet the report indicates that he fell short about a thousand feet shy of the runway when he was struck by a plane that was flying right over him I have a page from the report right here and I want to read it to you this is a description of the accident that Hutchins was in a 86'd took off from castle air force base of what would be castle air force base at approximately 8:00 p.m. for this field right behind me he set his base like too far from the landing net so in other words he was landing too far away from the runway so they told him to pick up his throttle and what happened was another plane was coming in right to the off to the site and just above him Hutchins pulled up at the bottom of the aircraft I am not sure from reading the accident report if Hutchins cockpit or his head was at the bottom of the plane but we know from pictures that the prop actually cut through the bottom of the other man's plane I believe his name was Edward Hamill Hamill was able to land his plane with no problems whatsoever after the two had an impact Hutchins plane went at a 60 degree angle right towards the ground and exploded into a fireball there was no indication that he tried to pull up which may be an indication that he was debilitated and possibly died hopefully he was dead because we'd hate to think that he died in a fire crash using Google Earth measuring tool I determined that Hutchins plane came down approximately in this location John Horrocks stated that Hutchins tried to gain altitude after coming in short I didn't see the plane coming in above him second lieutenant Joseph Lucas stated that the air was crowded with planes the pilots confused and not giving themselves enough space no trespassing we're not going to trespass today there was really nothing left I'm sure if you went out there with a metal detector you could probably find that spot I'm sure there's pieces of the plane that are buried I was fascinated to watch one youtube channel in which some metal detectors went out and found pieces of Leonard Skinner's plane after these many years after crashed in the 70s so I wouldn't surprise me if there's pieces of his plane out there here east of Turlock California I'm gonna come down here and show you what I think is debris from the airfield from back in the 40s this airfield was decommissioned in 1946 and handed over to the city of Turlock in 1947 looks like that concrete there is left over from the days of World War two [Music] I'm not sure what this is but it obviously goes back to some kind of structure that was here could have been a tower it could have been the length of the tower so we have the coastal winds that come in from this direction than from the Northwest so the planes are always landing and taking off in this direction I'm assuming that this is where the aircraft tower was at that time remnants of World War 2 here from Google Earth I could see that there was a dilapidated building that was removed I love - all the wood out here there is some kind of structure dating back to the airfield long time ago so yeah that's that's what's left of some of the buildings that are out here decommission of 1946 including Castle Air Force Base which also has been decommissioned [Music] check it out looks like some kind of satellite dish somebody's toilet right here as well and ironically today you can see Half Dome in use somebody' National Park about 85 to 90 miles away it's not every day that you get to see that but it's cleared up today or that is happening and I can see through my telephoto lens on my camera that there's a lot of snow up there too the official investigation faulted both pilots for failing to check the airspace around them Hutchins body was taken back to Washington where his funeral was held at the Trinity Lutheran Church in parkland mourners filed past his coffin draped in the American flag and then gathered at the Parkland Lutheran Cemetery where he was lowered into the ground Constance Hutchins who had been making plans to attend her son's graduation from flight school that week was now burying her son when she passed away in 1969 she was buried next to her son in preparing this video I learned that there's little documentation available about Bobbi Hutchins had no books about him rumors haven't that Hal Roach cut him from our gang because his dad was abusing the boy starving him to stunt his growth and not allowing him to play with others on the set but with most people from that era dead there's no way to confirm such stories James Arthur Hutchins died in 1961 and was buried in a different town well I want to thank you for watching this episode of history hunters we go to weird places like this and tell you the stories that maybe nobody else has told you about we always love to have new subscribers we'd love to have a comment or to possibly tell your friends about us and give us a like catch on the next episode of history hunters stare console play [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Channel: History Hunters

Views: 66,623

Keywords: Bobby Hutchins, Wheezer Hutchins, Our Gang, Early Hollywood, WWII crash, History Hunters, Deadly airplane crash, jbenziggy, Merced County

Id: WhzoMTFlz5A

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020