In the small town of Newtown, Alabama, locals are constantly reminded of the gross and wrong death of their own confederate soldier at the hands of his comrades.
Bill Sketoe was a southern soldier who was returning from the war to treat his sickly wife while serving in the Civil War. Sketoe got fellow soldier to take his place on the frontlines as he made his way home. When he arrived in his beloved hometown, he was met with the Dale County "Home Guard." These men were in charge of taking care of the county and being watchdogs for the locals.
The men accused Sketoe of desertion. Even though he said that he was traveling home, with permission, to take care of his sickly wife, the men still abducted him.
In order to punish him for the crime that they thought he committed, they decided to hang him from a tree. The men didn't pick a high enough branch, and Sketoe's feet still touched the ground when he was hung.
To combat that, another man dug a hole beneath his feet in order to get him to hang.
According to the local legend, the hole remained long after his body was removed. Even over the years, any time it would fill up, it would always open back up. The legend was that his body was still hanging from the tree, and his feet would cause the hole to open up.
In 1979, the town constructed a highway bridge over the hole. In the 1990s, they needed to reinforce the bridge would meant that the ground where Sketoe's murder took place had to be paved over.
The area is still a popular historical and paranormal site.