The Tavern on West 9th Avenue

In Rock Island, IL, alongside the West 9th Avenue Road is a tavern called "The Green Bottle". The tavern was closed down in 1969 after numerous complaints of an eerie stench coming from the building, but that's not why it closed down. Health officials never released to the public on why the Green Bottle tavern was closed down, thinking that this would trigger a bad reputation for most taverns. But because of an anonymous source, I know why they REALLY closed down, and I'm here to share it with you today.

On November 12, 1968, The Green Bottle tavern opened for business in Rock Island, IL. Within 6 weeks of opening, the owner, Howie Reynolds, was diagnosed with a mental illness. After this event occurred, Reynolds was sent to a mental institution located in the backwoods of Iowa leaving his wife Jenny to manage The Green Bottle.

Within a week of being relocated there, he escaped, killing 7 wardens, and 11 inmates in the process. Upon finding his way back to Rock Island, he snuck into the Green Bottle afterhours, while his wife was still there getting the tavern ready for next day's business. While Jenny was cleaning the men's restroom, Howie mercilessly snuck up behind her with an axe, and gave a clean slice to Jenny, dismembering her head. The next day, everyone was surprised to find that Howie was back behind the counter. Nobody asked about his mental illness, but instead asked where his wife. He calmly said "She's on vacation in California. She'll be back in a few weeks".

One day, a customer ordered a burger, Howie went back to the kitchen, and took his wife's decapitated head out of the cupboard. Using a hacksaw, Howie detached the cranium from the head, causing the brain to fall out on the chopping block. Using a butcher knife, Howie cut off bits of the brain and mixed it in with the raw beef. Then, acting like he didn't do anything wrong, Howie cooked, and then served the burger to the customer. With the rest of Jenny's head, Howie used the remains for any meal that any customer ordered. As for Jenny's headless body, Howie burned it in a barrel behind the tavern, which is where the first complaint of the disgusting stench came from.

On December 2, 1968, A police officer came to the tavern telling Howie about the complaint. Howie told the officer that he just finished cleaning out the grease traps. Without questioning that response, the officer went about his way, and left the tavern. A few weeks later, Howie was visited again after the same complaints while he was melting the now-rotten skin off his wife's skull. Howie used the same excuse as the first time. On January 6, 1969, Howie finished burning the remains of the headless corpse of his wife, when several police officers came to the tavern.

Howie panicked, knowing that the "grease trap" excuse would no longer be valid considering that this is 3rd time he's been visited. Howie lunged at the officers axing one in the shoulders. Luckily, that officer survived. Howie was silenced after being shot in the leg by one of the officers. Slowly after doing so, the officers discovered the remains of Jenny's body in the same barrel that Howie burned it in previously. And after going in the kitchen, the officers discovered the melted skin from Jenny's skull on a chopping block, and discovered the fleshless skull hidden in the oven. Since Howie was mentally ill at the time, he wasn't sentenced to prison, but was sent to what seemed to be an inescapable mental hospital in West Virginia. To this day, he is in mental rehab, and wishes to forget about his gruesome past.