Another says to set the skull ablaze on holy ground. One way to end the curse and put Rotten Johnny Reb’s spirit to rest is to find his skull, cut it down from the tree and bury it. There are conflicting stories as to how this story might come to an end. I imagine the Avilla Death Tree looks about like this. This legend began driving off many of the remaining townspeople after the war ended. Many deaths have been blamed on him over the years. His ghost torso searches the town and surrounding woods for his head and for Yankees to kill. As a result of removing the skull from the rest of the body, the ghost of Rotten Johnny Reb was created. This eerie symbol of warning did not go as planned though. To ward off future fighters the skull was taken hung from a tree. Rotten Johnny Reb’s spirit is said to haunt not only the town but also the infamous “Death Tree.” As the legend goes, during the war the body of a dead Confederate Bushwacker was found.
They had one purpose and that was to destroy the enemies’ spirit in any way possible. Civil war bushwhackers were some of the original guerrilla warfare fighters. It involves the spirit of The Avilla Phantom Bushwhacker or, as some call it, Rotten Johnny Reb. Missouri was a highly contested border state with both Union and Confederate soldiers.
To know that we have to go back to the A Civil-War.
