Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison because being in prison was a slow death. The stay in prison was paid for by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the culprit be killed.
Convicts were not kept in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, they could take their loved one for support (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) was the stocks. The most common type of last is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were shackled in this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.
Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the repeat offender caught the other), removal kneecaps, nose cutting, ear cutting, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment more severe, the judges came up with an execution called “carry out five types of punishment.” The criminal should have been branded, his arms or legs cut off, beaten to death with sticks, and his head put on display in the market for everyone to see.
In Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the prolonged torment inherent in strangulation.
The Chinese believed that the human body is a gift from his parents, and therefore returning a dismembered body into oblivion is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.
Removal. The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take several convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.
"Cage", or "standing stocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles tied into a cage, at a height of approximately 2 meters. The convicted person was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, and then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck pinched by the block, which began to choke him, this could continue for months until all the stands were removed.
Lin-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "sea pike bites" - the most terrible execution by cutting small pieces from the victim's body over a long period of time.
Such execution followed for high treason and parricide. Ling-chi, for the purpose of intimidation, was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers.
For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The criminal was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 pieces. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body was cut into only 8 pieces as a sign of imperial favor.
The criminal was cut into 24 pieces as follows: eyebrows were cut off with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - arm muscles between the hand and elbow; 9 and 10 - arm muscles between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves; 15 - a blow pierced the heart; 16 - the head was cut off; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: cut off the eyebrows with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - a blow pierced the heart; 8 - the head was cut off.
But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.
Humanity has always tried to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, under pain of severe death, they would not repeat such actions. It was not enough to quickly deprive a convict, who could easily turn out to be innocent, of life, so they came up with various painful executions. This post will introduce you to similar methods of execution.
Garrote - execution by strangulation or fracture of the Adam's apple. The executioner twisted the thread as tightly as he could. Some varieties of garrote were equipped with spikes or a bolt that broke the spinal cord. This type of execution was widespread in Spain and was outlawed in 1978. Garrote was officially used for the last time in 1990 in Andorra, however, according to some sources, it is still used in India.
Skafism is a cruel method of execution invented in Persia. The man was placed between two boats or hollowed-out tree trunks, placed on top of each other, with his head and limbs exposed. He was fed only honey and milk, which caused severe diarrhea. They also coated the body with honey to attract insects. After a while, the poor fellow was allowed into a pond with stagnant water, where there was already a huge number of insects, worms and other creatures. They all slowly ate his flesh and left maggots in the wounds. There is also a version that honey attracted only stinging insects. In any case, the person was doomed to long torment, lasting several days and even weeks.
The Assyrians used flaying for torture and execution. Like a captured animal, the man was skinned. They could rip off some or all of the skin.
Ling chi was used in China from the 7th century until 1905. This method involved death by cutting. The victim was tied to poles and deprived of some parts of the flesh. The number of cuts could be very different. They could make several small cuts, cut off some skin somewhere, or even deprive the victim of limbs. The number of cuts was determined by the court. Sometimes convicts were given opium. All this happened in a public place, and even after death, the bodies of the dead were left in plain sight for some time.
Wheeling was used in ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages it began to be used in Europe. By modern times, wheeling had become widespread in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Russia (legislatively approved under Peter I), the USA and other countries. A person was tied to a wheel with large bones already broken or still intact, after which they were broken with a crowbar or clubs. A person who was still alive was left to die of dehydration or shock, whichever came first.
The copper bull is the favorite execution weapon of Phalarids, the tyrant of Agrigentus, who ruled in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. The person sentenced to death was placed inside a life-size hollow copper statue of a bull. A fire was lit under the bull. It was impossible to get out of the statue, and those watching could watch smoke coming out of the nostrils and hear the screams of the dying man.
Evisceration was used in Japan. The convict had some or all of his internal organs removed. The heart and lungs were cut out last to prolong the victim's suffering. Sometimes evisceration served as a method of ritual suicide.
Boiling began to be used about 3000 years ago. It was used in Europe and Russia, as well as some Asian countries. A person sentenced to death was placed in a cauldron, which could be filled not only with water, but also with fat, resin, oil or molten lead. At the moment of immersion, the liquid could already be boiling, or it would boil later. The executioner could hasten the onset of death or, conversely, prolong a person’s torment. It also happened that boiling liquid was poured onto a person or poured down his throat.
Impalement was first used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. They impaled people in different ways, and the thickness of the stake could also be different. The stake itself could be inserted either into the rectum or into the vagina, if they were women, through the mouth or through a hole made in the genital area. Often the top of the stake was blunt so that the victim did not die immediately. The stake with the condemned person impaled on it was raised up and those sentenced to painful death slowly descended down it under the influence of gravity.
Hanging and quartering was used in medieval England to punish traitors to the motherland and criminals who committed a particularly serious act. A person was hanged, but so that he remained alive, after which he was deprived of his limbs. It could go so far as to cut off the unfortunate man’s genitals, gouge out his eyes and cut out his internal organs. If the person was still alive, then at the end his head was cut off. This execution lasted until 1814.
1. Chinese bamboo torture.
A notorious method of terrible Chinese execution throughout the world. Perhaps a legend, because to this day not a single documentary evidence has survived that this torture was actually used.
Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants on Earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow a full meter in a day. Some historians believe that the deadly bamboo torture was used not only by the ancient Chinese, but also by the Japanese military during World War II.
How it works?
1) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through him abdominal cavity, a person dies for a very long time and painfully.
2. Iron Maiden
Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything. The "Iron Maiden" was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the “iron maiden” are quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives a confession in a matter of minutes, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what she had done, so she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some models of the “iron maiden” were provided with spikes at eye level in order to quickly poke them out.
3. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Skafism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae who were partial to human flesh and blood.
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed large quantities of milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main course.
4. The Terrible Pear
“The pear is lying there - you can’t eat it,” it is said about the medieval European weapon for “educating” blasphemers, liars, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and gay men. Depending on the crime, the torturer thrust the pear into the sinner's mouth, anus or vagina.
How it works?
1) A tool consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is inserted into the client’s desired body hole;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is completely opened, the offender receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.
5. Copper Bull
The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or, to be more precise, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door.
So what is next…
Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is lit under the bull’s belly;
3) The victim is fried alive, like a ham in a frying pan;
4) The structure of the bull is such that the cries of the martyr come from the mouth of the statue, like a bull’s roar;
5) Jewelry and amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand..
6. Torture by rats
Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by 16th century Dutch Revolution leader Diedrick Sonoy.
How it works?
1) The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner’s stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
7. Cradle of Judas
The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, as a result of the fact that the pointed seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The Cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered “loyal” because it did not break bones or tear ligaments.
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
8. Trampling by elephants
For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. An elephant is very easy to train and teaching it to trample a guilty victim with its huge feet is a matter of just a few days.
How it works?
1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the martyr’s head;
3. Sometimes before the “head test,” animals crush the victims’ arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.
9. Rack
Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, around which ropes are wound to hold the victim’s wrists and ankles. When the rollers rotated, the ropes pulled in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the victim’s arms and legs are stretched and torn, bones pop out of their joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person's hands were tied behind his back and lifted by a rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the arms of the person raised on the rack were turned back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on his outstretched arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on the rack was beaten on the back with a whip and “put to the fire,” that is, burning brooms were passed over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a man hanging on a rack with red-hot pincers.
10. Paraffin in the bladder
A savage form of torture, the exact use of which has not been established.
How it works?
1. Candle paraffin was rolled by hand into a thin sausage, which was inserted through the urethra;
2. Paraffin slipped into bladder, where the deposition of solid salts and other nasty things began on it.
3. Soon the victim began to have kidney problems and died from acute renal failure. On average, death occurred within 3-4 days.
11. Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory with a terrible torture - putting a shiri on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.
How it works?
1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided the neck into pieces, they immediately pulled it in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking screams, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their hands and feet tied, in the sun, without water and without food.
5. The torture lasted 5 days.
6. Only a few remained alive, and the rest died not from hunger or even from thirst, but from unbearable, inhuman torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved. .
7. Anyone who underwent such a procedure either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
12. Implantation of metals
A very strange means of torture and execution was used in the Middle Ages.
How it works?
1. A deep incision was made on a person’s legs, where a piece of metal (iron, lead, etc.) was placed, after which the wound was stitched up.
2. Over time, the metal oxidized, poisoning the body and causing terrible pain.
3. Most often, the poor people tore the skin in the place where the metal was sewn up and died from blood loss.
13. Dividing a person into two parts
This terrible execution originated in Thailand. The most hardened criminals were subjected to it - mostly murderers.
How it works?
1. The accused is placed in a robe woven from vines and stabbed with sharp objects;
2. After this, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; This operation stops the bleeding and prolongs the life of most people.
A small addition: This torture is described in the book of the Marquis de Sade “Justine, or the successes of vice.” This is a small excerpt from a large piece of text where de Sade allegedly describes the torture of the peoples of the world. But why supposedly? According to many critics, the Marquis was very fond of lying. He had an extraordinary imagination and a couple of delusions, so this torture, like some others, could have been a figment of his imagination. But this field should not refer to Donatien Alphonse as Baron Munchausen. This torture, in my opinion, if it did not exist before, is quite realistic. If, of course, the person is pumped up with painkillers (opiates, alcohol, etc.) before this, so that he does not die before his body touches the bars.
14. Inflating with air through the anus
A terrible torture in which a person is pumped with air through the anus. There is evidence that in Rus' even Peter the Great himself sinned with this.
Most often, thieves were executed this way.
How it works?
1. The victim was tied hand and foot.
2. Then they took cotton and stuffed it into the poor man’s ears, nose and mouth.
3. Bellows were inserted into his anus, with the help of which a huge amount of air was pumped into the person, as a result of which he became like a balloon.
3. After that, I plugged his anus with a piece of cotton.
4. Then they opened two veins above his eyebrows, from which all the blood flowed out under enormous pressure.
5. Sometimes a bound person was placed naked on the roof of the palace and shot with arrows until he died.
6. Until 1970, this method was often used in Jordanian prisons.
15. Polledro
Neapolitan executioners lovingly called this torture “polledro” - “foal” (polledro) and were proud that it was first used in their hometown. Although history has not preserved the name of its inventor, they said that he was an expert in horse breeding and came up with an unusual device to tame his horses.
Only a few decades later, lovers of making fun of people turned the horse breeder’s device into a real torture machine for people.
The machine was wooden frame, similar to a ladder, the crossbars of which had very sharp angles, so that when a person was placed on them with his back, they cut into the body from the back of the head to the heels. The staircase ended with a huge wooden spoon, into which the head was placed, as if in a cap.
How it works?
1. Holes were drilled on both sides of the frame and in the “cap”; ropes were threaded into each of them. The first of them was tightened on the forehead of the person being tortured, the last tied the big toes. As a rule, there were thirteen ropes, but for those who were especially stubborn, the number was increased .
2. Special devices the ropes were pulled tighter and tighter - it seemed to the victims that, having crushed the muscles, they were digging into the bones.
16. Dead Man's Bed (modern China)
The Chinese Communist Party uses the "dead man's bed" torture mainly on those prisoners who try to protest against illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their beliefs.
How it works?
1. The arms and legs of a stripped prisoner are tied to the corners of a bed on which, instead of a mattress, there is a wooden board with a hole cut out. A bucket for excrement is placed under the hole. Often, a person’s body is tied tightly to the bed with ropes so that he cannot move at all. A person remains in this position continuously for several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, police also place a hard object under the victim's back to intensify the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and the person hangs for 3-4 days, stretched out by his limbs.
4. Added to this torment is force feeding, which is carried out using a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is performed mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by medical workers. They do it very rudely and unprofessionally, often causing serious damage internal organs person.
6. Those who have gone through this torture say that it causes displacement of the vertebrae, joints of the arms and legs, as well as numbness and blackening of the limbs, which often leads to disability.
17. Yoke (Modern China)
One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is placed on a prisoner, causing him to be unable to walk or stand normally.
The clamp is a board from 50 to 80 cm in length, from 30 to 50 cm in width and 10 – 15 cm in thickness. In the middle of the clamp there are two holes for the legs.
The victim, who is wearing a collar, has difficulty moving, must crawl into bed and usually must sit or lie down, as the upright position causes pain and leads to injury to the legs. Without assistance, a person with a collar cannot go to eat or go to the toilet. When a person gets out of bed, the collar not only puts pressure on the legs and heels, causing pain, but its edge clings to the bed and prevents the person from returning to it. At night the prisoner is unable to turn around, and in winter the short blanket does not cover his legs.
An even worse form of this torture is called “crawling with a wooden clamp.” The guards put a collar on the man and order him to crawl on the concrete floor. If he stops, he is hit on the back with a police baton. An hour later, his fingers, toenails and knees are bleeding profusely, while his back is covered in wounds from the blows.
18. Impalement
A terrible, savage execution that came from the East.
The essence of this execution was that a person was laid on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A stake was inserted into the person's anus, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper and finally it came out under the armpit or between the ribs.
19. Spanish water torture
In order to the best way To carry out this torture procedure, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen. Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes torture was used cold water. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.
20. Chinese water torture
They sat a man in a very cold room, tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness cold water was very slowly dripped onto his forehead. After a few days the person froze or went crazy.
21. Spanish armchair
This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
22. GRIDIRON (Grid for torture by fire)
Torture of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.
This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath.
Sometimes the gridiron was made in the form of a rack in order to be able to resort to combined torture.
Saint Lawrence was martyred on a similar grid. This torture was used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
23. Pectoral
In ancient times, the pectoral was called the chest women's jewelry in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often sprinkled with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and secured with chains.
In a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named.
In 1985, the pectoral was heated red-hot and, taking it with tongs, they put it on the tortured woman’s chest and held it until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral again cooled by the living body and continued the interrogation.
Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes were left in place of the woman’s breasts.
24. Tickle torture
This seemingly harmless effect was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person's nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch initially caused twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles occurred and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
At the most simple version torture: sensitive areas were tickled by the interrogated, either simply with their hands, or with hair brushes or brushes. Stiff bird feathers were popular. Usually they tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, and women also under the breasts.
In addition, torture was often carried out using animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated person. The goat was very often used because it was very hard language, adapted for eating grass, caused very strong irritation.
There was also a type of tickling torture using a beetle, most common in India. With it, a small bug was placed on the head of a man's penis or on a woman's nipple and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of insect legs on a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything...
25. Crocodile
These tubular metal crocodile pliers were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the person being tortured. First, with a few caressing movements (often made by women), or with a tight bandage, a persistent, hard erection was achieved and then the torture began
26. Tooth crusher
These serrated iron tongs were used to slowly crush the testicles of the interrogated person.
Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.
27. Creepy tradition.
Actually, this is not torture, but an African ritual, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls aged 3-6 years old simply had their external genitalia scraped out without anesthesia. Thus, the girl did not lose the ability to have children, but was forever deprived of the opportunity to experience sexual desire and pleasure. This ritual is done “for the benefit” of women, so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husbands...
28. Bloody Eagle
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, the ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.
From the Heretic's Fork to being eaten alive by insects, these horrific old torture methods prove that humans have always been cruel.
Getting a confession is not always easy, and sentencing someone to death always requires a lot of so-called creativity. The following horrific methods of torture and execution ancient world were intended to humiliate and dehumanize victims in their final moments of life. Which of these methods do you think is the most cruel?
“Rack” (began to be used in ancient times)
The victim's ankles were tied to one end of this device and his wrists to the other. The mechanism of this device is as follows: during the interrogation process, the victim’s limbs are stretched in different directions. During this process, the bones and ligaments make amazing sounds, and until the victim confesses, his joints are twisted or, worse, the victim is simply torn apart.
"Cradle of Judas" (origin: Ancient Rome)
This method was widely used in the Middle Ages to gain recognition. This “cradle of Judas” was feared throughout Europe. The victim was strapped down to limit his freedom of action and lowered onto a chair with a pyramid-shaped seat. With each lifting and lowering of the victim, the top of the pyramid further tore the anus or vagina, often causing septic shock or death.
"Copper Bull" (origin: Ancient Greece)
This is what can be called hell on earth, this is the worst thing that can happen. The “Copper Bull” is a torture device, it is not one of the most complex designs, it looked exactly like a bull. The entrance to this structure was on the belly of the so-called animal; it was a kind of chamber. The victim was thrust inside, the door was closed, the statue was heated, and this all continued until the victim inside was fried to death.
"Heretic's Fork" (began to be used in medieval Spain)
Used to extract confessions during the Spanish Inquisition. The heretic's fork was even engraved with the Latin inscription "I renounce." This is a reversible fork, a simple device that fits around the neck. 2 spikes were clamped to the chest, and the other 2 to the throat. The victim was unable to talk or sleep, and the frenzy usually led to confession.
"Choke pear" (origin unknown, first mentioned in France)
This device was intended for women, homosexuals and liars. Shaped in the shape of a ripe fruit, it had a rather intimate design, and in the literal sense of the word. Once inserted into the vagina, anus or mouth, the device (which had four sharp metal sheets) was opened. The sheets expanded wider and wider, thereby tearing the victim apart.
Torture by rats (origin unknown, possibly UK)
Despite the fact that there are many options for torture with rats, the most common was the one that involved fixing the victim so that she could not move. The rat was placed on the victim's body and covered with a container. Then the container was heated, and the rat desperately began to look for a way out and tore the person apart. The rat dug and dug, slowly burrowing into the man until he died.
Crucifixion (origin unknown)
Although today it is a symbol of the world's greatest religion (Christianity), crucifixion was once a cruel form of humiliating death. The condemned man was nailed to the cross, often done in public, and left hanging so that all the blood would drain from his wounds and he would die. Death sometimes occurred only after a week. The crucifix is likely still in use today (albeit rarely) in places like Burma and Saudi Arabia.
Scaphism (most likely appeared in Ancient Persia)
Death occurred because the victim was eaten alive by insects. The condemned person was placed in a boat or simply tied with chains to a tree and force-fed milk and honey. This happened until the victim began to have diarrhea. She was then left to sit in her own excrement, and soon insects flocked to the stench. Death usually occurred from dehydration, septic shock or gangrene.
Torture with a saw (began to be used in ancient times)
Everyone, from the Persians to the Chinese, practiced this form of death, such as sawing the victim. Often the victim was hung upside down (thus increasing blood flow to the head), with a large saw placed between them. The executioners slowly sawed the man's body in half, drawing out the process to make death as painful as possible.
The history of mankind knows many examples of cruelty, a separate page is devoted to medieval torture. Looking through materials on this topic, every now and then you wonder how such a thing could have been invented and what kind of sick imagination you had to have. Compared to torture in Middle Ages, any modern maniac-killer nervously smokes on the sidelines. And now we will try to convince you of this.
Torture by rats
Initially, this torture was widely used in Ancient China . But the idea of torturing people with rats also came to the mind of the leader of the Dutch revolution Dedrick Sonoya.
What's happened:
The victim was stripped naked and tied to a flat surface
A cage with hungry rats was placed on his stomach and fixed tightly.
Then burning coals were poured onto the top of the cage.
Frightened rats try to escape by gnawing their way to freedom through the body of the victim.
(There was another ending: hungry rats were simply left on a person’s body until they began to satisfy their hunger by eating living flesh, thereby bringing long and terrible suffering).
"Pear"
A special device consisting of pointed and curved metal plates was used in the Middle Ages in Europe to punish blasphemers, deceivers, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and men of non-traditional sexual orientation. Although at first glance “Pear” is not at all associated with horror, this impression is wrong...
What's happened
The victim was completely undressed, and the “pear” was inserted into the mouth, vagina or anus.
The torturer slowly turns the screw - the metal plates open, thereby gradually tearing the person's flesh. After which he dies from internal injuries.
Cradle of Judas
This medieval torture was also called “Vigil” or “Guarding the Cradle”
This was one of the most favored tortures of the Spanish Inquisition, but was also used in other countries.
What's happened:
The accused was seated on a pointed wooden or metal pyramid such that the tip stuck into the vagina or anus.
With the help of ropes or stones suspended from the feet, the victim was “lowered” down.
The torture continued until the person died (from several hours to several days).
Spanish Donkey ("Chair of the Jews")
This torture is very similar to the previous one, with the only difference being that the victim was not seated on a pyramid, but on a wedge-shaped device that rested on the person’s crotch. Often additional weights were gradually suspended from the legs.
Bamboo torture
It is believed that this torture was often used in China. There is even evidence that it was used in Japan during World War II.
What's happened.
Bamboo shoots were sharpened, thereby forming a kind of “stakes” (It should be mentioned here that this plant can grow about one meter high in just one day).
A person was suspended above them, through whom bamboo shoots grew, thereby causing unbearable, prolonged pain.
Wheeling
this medieval torture has been known since the times Ancient Rome, for a long time it was used by executioners from Germany, France, Russia and other countries.
What's happened:
First, all the large bones of the body were broken using a hammer or a special wheel.
After this he was tied to big wheel, which was placed on a pole and left to die. Often the suffering continued for several days.
Gridiron
This is a special grill for torture by fire. A kind of brazier, which is described as an ordinary grate on legs.
What's happened:
The victim was tied to the gridiron.
Burning coals were placed under it. The victim was “roasted” alive.
Insect torture
There are different types of torture and execution using insects. One of the most terrible and cruel was the following...
What's happened:
The victim was placed in a special wooden barrel so that only the head remained outside.
His face was smeared with honey, which attracted various insects.
In addition to all this, he was fed intensively, because of this, after a while the victim “swimmed in his feces. What attracted insects even more, which laid larvae in the body of the victim.
A few days later, larvae emerged from the bites and began to eat the flesh of a still living person...
Even more materials about the Middle Ages read
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