Crime and punishment have been a necessary part of human society since we first began living in groups, and as long as laws have been in effect, there have been punishments to match. Whether torture was used as a form of punishment for crimes, real or imagined, or in an attempt to extract information, it’s truly frightening to see the creative cruelty spawned by the human mind.
10. The Witch’s Chair
This “remedy” must have extracted a confession or two in its time with the pain it was capable of inflicting. Under suspicion of being a witch or in some other way in union with the devil, the accused was undressed and made to sit in the chair against those tasty spikes in the back- and arm-rests, while the wrists and ankles were shackled. The procedure sometimes dragged on well beyond 24 hours, and even surviving the torture without confessing was deemed proof of guilt of witchery, punishable by death. A no-win situation if there ever was one.
9. Spanish Spider
The Spanish spider had long metal claws, which were heated before it was fixed onto a woman’s breast. If piercing soft flesh with a searing hot metal wasn’t enough, the breast was then ripped off a woman’s chest violently. This was the penalty for adultery or deliberate miscarriage of justice. Other uses of the Spanish spider were just as inhumane. Victims were pierced by the heated claws on their breasts, belly or buttocks (anywhere fleshy) and then hung from the ceiling. Their own weight caused the wounds and skin to stretch, and bleeding was near impossible to stop. People died hours after they were first suspended off the ground.
8. The Wheel
Being broken or “braided” on the wheel was one of the most insidiously painful methods of torure and execution practised in Europe. After hanging, “breaking with the wheel” was the most common means of execution throughout Germanic Europe from the early Middle Ages to the beginning of the eighteenth century; in Gallic and Latin Europe the breaking was done with massive iron bars and with maces instead of wheels. The victim, naked, was stretched out supine on the ground or on the execution dock, with his or her limbs spread, and tied to stakes or iron rings. Stout wooden crosspieces were placed under the wrists, elbows, ankles, knees and hips. The executioner then smashed limb after limb and joint after joint, including the shoulders and hips, with the iron-tyred edge of the wheel, but avoiding fatal blows. The victim was transformed, according to the observations of a seventeenth-century German chronicler, “into a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh (rohw, schleymig und formlos Fleisch wie di Schleuch eines Tündenfischs) mixed up with splinters of smashed bones”. Thereafter the shattered limbs were “braided” into the spokes of the large wheel, and the victim hoisted up horizontally to the top of a pole, where the crows ripped away bits of flesh and pecked out eyes. Death came after what was probably the longest and most atrocious agony that the ingenuousness of the power structure could inflict.
7. Judas Cradle
The Judas Cradle, a terrible medieval torture where the victim would be placed on top of a pyramid-like seat. The victim’s feet were tied to each other in a way that moving one leg would force the other to move as well – increasing pain. The triangular-shaped end of the judas cradle was inserted in the victim’s anus or vagina. This torture could last, depending on some factors discussed below, anywhere from a few hours to complete days. Death Factors: the time it took someone to die varied enormously from individual to individual. Torturers would sometimes add weight to the victim’s legs as to increase pain and hurry the victim’s death. Other torturers would place oil on the device which increased pain considerably. This device was rarely, if at all, washed. If the victim did not die quickly enough, or their painful execution was interrupted, they would invariantly die from an infection.
6. Knee Splitter
This is a very popular torture device during the period of Inquisition. This device was used to permanently destroy the larger joints of a victim – the limb placed between the teeth and the screws slowly tightened. It is made out of a pair spikes and wooden blocks which are pressed together by a screw until it breaks the knee of the victim. They would also use the device on elbows, arms and the lower legs. There were even instances that they would heat the device to cause a maximum amount of pain. Death wasn’t a result of this device, but it the person refused to cooperate they would use other means.
5. The Head Crusher
This grisly product of the Dark Ages didn’t need a fancy name. With the chin placed over the bottom bar and the skull snugly beneath the domed cap, the torturer would begin turning the screw that must have been anything but music to the ears of the accused. The screw pressed against the cap, slowly compacting the head. Thus in awful sequence, first the teeth were crushed, shattering the jaw; then the eyes were squeezed from their sockets; and lastly the brain matter was forced from the ears. Shockingly, versions of the Head Crusher may still be used in parts of the world today.
4. The rack
The Rack was pretty much a long thick plank of wood with two ropes for your feet and two ropes for your hands, as you can see in the picture, it was not a very pretty site when you really start pulling the victim apart. It is actually one of the 10 worst ways to die. It was mainly used to extract confessions, the person being questioned would usually sit and watch someone else endure the torture in order to instill psychological fear thus driving him to confess. It is said that the torturer was mainly supposed to only dislocate a limb or two, but most torturers would take it to the next level and rip off entire limbs (usually the arms come off first). This device has been used for many years dating back as far as 1447! Also, the French added a little twist (pun intended) to the machine by adding spikes that would dig into the victims spine. Ok, now I really want to throw up!
3. Saw Torture
We are so lucky that this thing today serves only for torturing trees, otherwise it would be very difficult for us. Read folloeing and say am I right or am I right. This method was used to torture and kill the condemned person, which were typically accused of witchery, adultery, murder, blasphemy, or theft. The accused was hung upside down. This slowed down the blood loss by forcing the blood to the brain and it humiliated the person. This type of torture could last for several hours. Some of the victims would be cut completely in half, while some would only be cut up to their abdomen in order to prolong their deaths. So?
2. Intestinal Crank
The (conscious) victim was tied to a table, where an incision was made to his abdomen wide enough for the torturer’s hand to fit inside. His small intestine was then separated from the bottom of the stomach with a hook and attached to a crank. Slowly, the crank would turn, pulling out the intestine from the gut inch by inch. The victim, and those witnessing the torture, would see anywhere between 9 to 18 feet (3 to 6 meters) collect around the shaft of the crank. This device was used to gather information from criminals, though as soon as the process started, there was no point in stopping; no one survived the crank. People died from a combination of extreme pain and blood loss.
1. Iron Maiden
I guess we all know about it, or at least heard about it, if not as a torturing device, then as the music group. For those who know it just as a music group, here is some further details about it. And remember, you are free to vomit in the end. It’s an upright sarcophagus with spikes on the inner surfaces. Double doors open on the front, allowing entrance for the victim. In one example, eight spikes protruded from one door, 13 from the other. Once the victim was inside, the doors were closed. There, the strategically placed spikes would pierce several vital organs. However, they were relatively short spikes, so the wounds wouldn’t be instantly fatal. Instead, the victim would linger and bleed to death over several hours. To add to the abject horror of it all, two spikes were positioned specifically to penetrate the eyes. . A variation found in Spain was made to look like the Virgin Mary, and had machinery that, when manipulated, caused her to “hug” the victim close to her spikes.
