Festival Of Fear: Day 30 ~ Terrible Tortures, Part 5

And finally, we've reached the end of our exhaustive, quite extensive lists of torture methods and devices.
What are you waiting for...... Here we go.

45) TORTURE CHAIR (a.k.a. JUDAS CHAIR, IRON CHAIR) - One of the most evil-looking forms of torture was a chair covered in spikes in which a prisoner would be forced to sit.  The torturer would then tighten the restraints in order to push the sharp points into flesh.  Worse yet, they were often made to endure an even worse fate when the chair would be placed over hot coals or a fire and the victim would slow-roast to death.

46) THE BRAZEN BULL - Invented in Ancient Greece, this device was a life-sized statue of a bull which was hollow to hold a prisoner/victim.  They would then be locked in and the bull would have a roaring fire lit underneath it, causing the victim to burn alive.  Even more creative was when a series of hollow tubes were added so that the screams of the dying victim would sound like an angry bull. 

47) STONING - Dating back to Ancient Greece, stoning has long been a form of capital punishment the world over and remains in use to this day. It is rather self-explanatory: victims have stones thrown at them until they die. In similar fashion, Giles Corey was pressed to death during the Salem witch trials of 1692. His accusers laid heavy stones on top of his chest and kept adding to try to force a confession of witchcraft from the man.  He refused, and died after 32 boulders were laid on his body, forcing his insides out through his mouth, ending his life.

48) BURNING ALIVE - Speaking of witchcraft, this form of execution was used before accused witches were burned at the stake, and well before the time of Christ. It continues to this day in various incarnations. Some of the various torturous deaths: the Celts used wicker men (yes, just like the movie!), Ancient Romans burned Christian martyrs alive by dipping a tunic in wax and setting them on fire, arsonists in Germany were placed in a wooden chamber which was then filled with sulfuric smoke and set on fire, and of course, witches during "the Burning Times" were simply burned alive at the stake.  A few of the previous methods were discussed within this series also, like boiling alive, necklacing, and number 42 on this list, the Brazen Bull. There seems to be no end to the ways to burn a person.

49) DEATH BY ANIMAL -  Fairly self-explanatory, this type of torture and death was used for thousands of years.  From throwing a man to the lions, pitching a poor soul into a pit of venomous snakes, goring someone with a bull, and my personal favorite: death by elephant.  That one involved having an elephant crush your head like a melon with his foot.  Sometimes they crushed each limb first, then the abdomen, to make it take longer and hurt more.

50) HERETIC'S FORK - This was an iron device with two forks, one on each end, and secured by a collar or leather strap.  It would be placed to fit between the victim's upper chest and chin, and did not allow any movement whatsoever, lest the victim's soft flesh be punctured by the sharp points. The victim's hands were tied behind their back to restrict movement.  It was often used for sleep deprivation because if the victim moved, they would immediately be jarred back to the reality that was their torture.

51) ABACINATION (EYE TORTURE) - This is the purposeful blinding of another person as a form of torture. Simply put: a red hot metal plate is placed over the eyes to burn them shut.  Blinding has been used since before the Dark Ages as a form of torture.  It was also common to put lime in paper cups and fasten them to the eyes so that the corrosive agent eats the eyeballs.  Some tortures included pouring molten silver directly into a victim's eyes. And there was always the gouging out of eyeballs.  Director Lucio Fulci made a habit of including eye torture in many of his films.

52) LEAD SPRINKLER - What at first looks like a device used to sprinkle holy water actually has a much more sinister purpose.  The sprinkler would be filled with hot liquid like tar or oil -  or molten metal and it would come out the end with the holes and onto the victim.

53) CEMENT SHOES - The American Mafia started this tradition of execution.  The victim (usually someone who has been a rat or has harmed the family in some way) has both feet placed into the openings of a cinder block, or even in a bucket - and then cement is poured all around.  It is left to harden and then the victim is simply dumped in the river or some other body of water and quickly drowns.  It is where the mob phrase "sleeps with the fishes" came from.  Not pleasant.

54) SPANISH TICKLER (or CAT'S PAW) - Very similar to the Breast Ripper, this device was either a three or four pronged device that resembled a claw.  It was either on a handle or attached to a long stick so that it could be raked across bare flesh causing critical  injuries, as you can imagine.  It was oft times fatal due not to the wounds themselves, but because of the severe infections that would result from the skin being laid open.

55) ASIAN BAMBOO TORTURE- Seriously.  This is just wrong. Whether or not it was actually used or just an urban legend can't be proven, but what happens is this:  a victim is suspended horizontally over a patch of bamboo stalks that have been sharpened to a point.  Bamboo grows extremely fast, and would soon pierce through the victim's skin and grow through the body and out the other side and continue upward.


*Well, hope you enjoyed this tour of torture methods.  There were so many different types out there that I had to only pick fifty-five out of the bunch...It's sad that the world has devised so many ways to cripple and kill someone over the centuries.....

Festival Of Fear: Day 23 ~ Terrible Tortures, Part 4

Back again with Part 4 of our ongoing series on some of the most horrific forms of torture that the world has used over the centuries.  If this doesn't scare you, nothing will. 
Onward...

34)  SCAPHISM (a.k.a. THE BOATS) - In ancient Persia this upsetting form of torture and eventual death began by tying the naked victim down in the center of two canoes or hollowed out trees. One boat on top, one on the bottom - with the head and limbs protruding. They were then made to drink a ton of liquid combined of milk and honey that would in turn cause severe diarrhea.  This drew insects by the groves, and the victim would be left to float in a stagnant pond in the sun.  As you can deduce, the victim would be devoured alive by insects drawn to the feast, most times from the inside out - which would take days. 

35) HAMSTRINGING - A method that has been around longer than the bible, Hamstringing is a simple torture method. All that needs done is to sever the hamstring muscles in the thigh.  This cripples the victim, making it impossible for him to walk, hence, impossible to escape.

36) TAR & FEATHERING - While it was probably rare for someone to die from being tarred and feathered, it made it none the less humiliating.  The victim would have hot tar poured on their naked body, which though probably produced first or second degree burns would not kill you.  If that wasn't bad enough, they were then made to roll in chicken feathers and be paraded through town.  The tar would be stuck on the victim for days, sometimes peeling skin with it when an attempt to remove the tar was undertaken.

37)  HEAD CRUSHER- It is exactly what it sounds like.  A device that crushes the victim's head.  It is made of iron/metal and is a cap that fits on the head.  It has screws on it so that when the torturer starts to turn the handle, the cap squeezes tighter and tighter around the victim's head, eventually crushing the skull.  As it tightens, the bones crush and the eyes pop from the sockets.  This was common in Medieval times.

38) THE ELECTRIC CHAIR - Old Sparky has a long, storied history since its early beginnings in the late 1800's.  It was created to replace hanging as the main form of execution, and was acheived by the criminal sitting in a chair, fitted with various straps and caps, and then given jolts of electric current to kill the brain and vital organs. It has been denounced as being cruel and unusual punishment after several botched attempts to end convicts lives resulted in the men suffering various horrors from gasping to seizing to excessive bleeding to flames bursting from the victim's head.  Several states in the US still offer the chair as a form of execution.

39) THE COFFIN (CAGE) - A man-sized iron cage would hold the victim or criminal for whatever time period had been decided upon.  Sometimes, the victim would even be killed or left to die in the cage, and animals and birds would pick at and ingest the victim.  But it would always be displayed publicly, so that the victim could be ridiculed. Many times the crowd would take to throwing things at the victim, like rotten fruit, or even stones. Pirates were killed in this manner, left to hang there and die to be an example for other pirates to be wary.

40) BASTINADO (a.k.a. FOOT WHIPPING/CANING) - This form of torture dates back to before biblical times, so it has been around forever.  Basically the victim is restrained, off the ground, and repetitively beaten on the soles and arches of the feet with a whip, cane, or other implement. It can be used as punishment, just as whipping any part of the body would be, or it can be used to extract a confession out of a prisoner that doesn't want to talk.

41) JOUGS - More of a form of punishment than actual torture, victims were put in iron shackles and a collar and fastened to the outside of a house, so the criminal would be visible for all townsfolk to see (and ridicule) It was popular in Scotland and in several places within the country you can still see the jougs attached to buildings and homes.

42) NECKLACING - One of the "newer" forms of execution allegedly started back in the mid-80's, most likely during the Apartheid uprisings in South Africa. In it, a rubber tire filled with gasoline or other flammable liquid is forced around the victim's chest and arms and then set on fire, essentially burning them to death.  It is said it could take upwards of fifteen to twenty minutes to die - while burning alive.

43)  BOILING - Speaking of burning.... it's really hard to imagine boiling someone to death - could there be anything more ghastly? But it was used in the Middle Ages in Europe and Asia.  As you can imagine, the victim would be stripped naked and then immersed (usually head first) in a boiling hot pot (cauldron) of oil, tar, or similar liquid.  The victim's skin would burn layer upon layer of skin until it started sloughing off and got down to vital arteries.  Gah!

The gas chamber in Auschwitz

44) THE GAS CHAMBER - We could spend an uncomfortable amount of time discussing the horrific methods of torture and death put upon the innocent victims of the Holocaust in WWII.  Nazi Germany employed this method and countless others in their "final solution", and it is terribly distressing knowing how many people thought they were just going in for a shower and then had to inhale poisonous gases and meet their death.  The gas chamber is still a modern form of capital punishment in America, but only three states still employ this type of execution. The victim is contained in a chamber while the gas is released. They are asked to take several deep breaths to speed the process along and prevent undue suffering.  If only the Holocaust victims were afforded that luxury in death.


*We'll be back next week with the last ten in the series!

Festival Of Fear: Day 16 ~ Terrible Tortures, Part 3

Our next installment of Terrible Tortures have a few that I just can't even fathom.  In particular, the very last one.  But there are some ridiculously cruel ones before you get to that one, so read on....

23) IMPALEMENT - Everyone is familiar with this method thanks to the infamous Vlad the Impaler, the main influence for the Dracula legends.  Victims were impaled on sharp poles via the rectum and left to die, the weight of their own body making it slowly sink to the ground. This could take hours to (worst case scenario) days. Horror fans will also be familiar with this type of torture if they have seen the infamous film, Cannibal Holocaust.

24) PITCHCAPPING - Devised by the British military back in the days of the Irish rebellion, it involves first shearing the head of hair, then pouring hot pitch (tar) into a paper cap (hat) and forcing it onto the victims head, meaning when the cap was cool and removed, it took the scalp with it.  Somewhat similar to the scalping made popular by American Indians, the victim of pitchcapping would be traumatized and most likely disfigured for life.

25) STRAPPADO (a.k.a. REVERSE HANGING) - This type of hanging involves tying the victim's hands behind their back and then hoisting them off the ground, causing excruciating pain and dislocation of the arm joints. It was used to try to get a confession from the accused.  Not just used in Medieval times, Strappado was unfortunately used in the concentration camps of WWII, the Vietnam War, and in the middle east to this day.

26) INTESTINAL CRANK - An absolutely fatal method of execution, this ghastly torture is performed by making an incision in the victims abdomen and attaching the upper part of the intestine to a crank, which is then rotated to remove the intestine as the victim watched. Not really much to add to that horrific visual.

27) WITCH'S (IRON) SPIDER / BREAST RIPPER - Mutilation is a popular type of torture, no doubt, and the breast ripper is one of the most offensive.  The instrument was a claw-like tool that was often heated prior to torture and used to effectively mutilate and tear the breast off.  It was used on women who were accused of witchcraft, adultery, or even to facilitate their own abortions. Yikes.

28) LETHAL INJECTION -  A seemingly civilized way to kill someone, its use in capital punishment has been popular since many states in the USA have gotten away from both the electric chair and the gas chamber.  Basically the prisoner is lying down as a series of injections are put into his vein and he slips into a coma, then death.  However, when it doesn't work as quickly as it is intended to, it can cause the victim to gasp and fight for air for upwards of 20 minutes.  A botched procedure in Oklahoma had its victim trying to get up well after he was declared unconsious, and was seen gasping, choking, trying to speak, and eventually seizing painfully for over 40 minutes.

29) KNEE SPLITTER - During the Inquisition, this device was two wooden blocks with screws or spikes in the middle. The knee was placed between and then the device was turned, impaling and crushing the knee.

30) HANGED, DRAWN & QUARTERED - Reserved for men convicted of high treason, this horrific means of death started by dragging the accused by horse to his place of death, then he is hanged until nearly dead, then drawn - which involved cutting off the genitals and burning them in front of the victim, then disemboweled and beheaded, followed by dismemberment (quartered). After which the parts of the body would be spread around the town in various locations in order to emote fear.  Scotland's William Wallace died in this manner, which was shown in the movie Braveheart.

31) SPANISH DONKEY (a.k.a. WOODEN HORSE / DONKEY)  - Victims were made to straddle a wooden device that is somewhat like a modern day sawhorse but with a sharply angled top. Their full weight is on their crotch and it soon causes irreparable damage to the genital area. Used during the Civil War, it was known as "Morgan's Mule". Tortured soldiers were made to "ride" the mule for hours at a time until they fell off in exhaustion.

32) THE SAW - Obviously fatal, sawing has been a popular form of execution since Roman times. It's also a self-explanatory method: saw the victim in half, whether it is through the abdomen, or down through the body transversely. Most victims were hung upside down and sawed through. Because the victim was upside down, all the blood would rush to the head, making death slower, and the victim more likely to be conscious longer to witness their own death.

33) RAT EXPOSURE - In what may be the most abominable form of torture and death, victims are laid down on a table, with a rat placed on their stomach. A metal cage would then be placed over the rat and hot coals would be placed on top, causing the rat to burrow and eat its way into the victim's bowels to find a way to escape the heat.   The mere thought of this just horrifies me!

Stay tuned....next week, part 4!

Festival Of Fear: Day 9 ~ Terrible Tortures, Part 2

Welcome to part two of Terrible Tortures, in which we are taking a look at the most horrific methods of torture that were used on victims over the centuries.  It's hard to believe some of these modes of misery and execution existed.  Let's continue....

12) THE JUDAS CRADLE - Perhaps one of the most painful deaths, certainly the most degrading. The naked victim was put into a neck harness and lowered onto the pyramid shaped "seat", forcing the point into the person's rectum (or sometimes vagina, if female), causing eventual tearing and probable death if not from the act itself, then from the sepsis the victim most certainly contracted from being impaled.  Apparently the "cradle" was known to have been cleaned very infrequently. Sometimes, the executioner would add weights to the victim's legs, to hurry the process along. 

13) SCOLD'S BRIDLE (a.k.a. THE BRANK) - Devised for the humiliation of its victim, the Scold's Bridle was frequently used on women whose continual gossip eventually had her locked up in this device that fits over the head like a muzzle, preventing her from speaking.  Many times the bridle also had spikes on it, so if the victim attempted to talk she would be impaled by the spike on her tongue. It is said that many an offender died while still wearing the bridle, so it would seem that folks in medieval times were pretty unforgiving.

14) SHOWER BATH - Used frequently in the American prison system, this torture involved showering the convict to death.  Simple tactic, extremely effective.  The prisoner would be placed in a stall  (in some cases with a wooden box around him, like a stockade) with a shower overhead and basically would be doused by very cold water over his head over and over and over until either confession or death.

15) CHINESE TEAN ZU - Similar to the thumb screw, this Chinese contraption tortured all the fingers.  Essentially, it was a set of six wooden sticks between the fingers and connected by strings.  When a prisoner would not confess to a crime, the strings would be pulled, causing excruciating pain.  It would snap the bones eventually, which as you can imagine was a great ___ to help the victim confess, whether they committed the crime or not. The Chinese were famous for all kinds of horrific finger torture - with one of the more ghastly ones being shoving various items under the fingernails. 

16) THE GARROTE - Popular world-wide, the Garrote (garrotte) was perfected by the Spanish, the victim was tied to the chair with his neck placed into a metal collar which had screws on it.  The executioner would then turn the screws, killing the victim by a crushing suffocation. Newer versions had a wire or cord that effectively asphyxiates the criminal.

17) THE WHIRLIGIG - This method involved a cage-like contraption suspended above ground. The victim would be placed inside and the torturer would spin the cage round and round forcefully in order to make the victim violently nauseous.  This would be one of my worst fears, I'm not kidding.

18) TONGUE TEARER - Torture in its most basic form. This implement was placed in the mouth of the victim and grabbed onto the tongue then twisted, ripping the tongue out of the mouth. It was used for blasphemers, gossips, and the like.  It could also be used to tear off other parts of the body, as you can imagine.

19) CROCODILE SHEARS - Speaking of tearing... this device was used most often in the Middle Ages when someone attempted to assassinate the king.  Sometimes it was used on the fingers, but usually it was inserted onto the penis to mutilate the victim's member. Frequently, the accused would bleed to death from arterial damage. Who thinks of these things?

20) WHIPPING (CAT O' NINE TAILS) -  Slavery in the USA during the Civil War brought whipping to the attention of the public, but it's been around long before that travesty.  And while "the cat" wasn't the only type of whip used in flagellation, it was one of the worst tools of the trade.  A long leather handle that had nine cords attached would cause intense pain when used to strike the victim, most times on the back.  It was quite popular with the British Army, and usually involved the accused being tied up to a pole in public and whipped until the lacerations were so deep they usually became infected, and most certainly caused both physical and psychological pain to the highest degree. 

21) SCAVENGER'S DAUGHTER - This method was a metal frame that would force the body into a compressed - and entirely painful - position.  With all the blood rushing to the victim's head and out the ears or nose, they were left for hours, days or even months at a time, until they either went mad or expired.  This device was most popular in the days when torture ran rampant at the Tower of London.

 22) BARREL PILLORY (a.k.a. SPANISH MANTLE, a.k.a DRUNKARD'S CLOAK) -Used mostly to humiliate and degrade its victims, the extremely uncomfortable Pillory was essentially a barrel with a top cut out for the head and holes for the arms.  Criminals were paraded through town in the ridiculous item and townsfolk would throw rotten fruits or vegetables, sometimes going as far as to hurl feces or even stones at the victim. The idea was to make an utter fool of the person, or worse.


Next week....eleven more methods of mayhem.

Festival Of Fear: Day 2 ~ Terrible Tortures, Part 1

 In this new segment of the Festival of Fear, each Thursday we'll be taking a look at some of the most gruesome, horrifying, downright appalling torture methods that have been used over the centuries.  Because let's face it, we all have a morbid curiosity about the subject. Otherwise, Saw wouldn't have become the wildly successful film series that it was, right?

Originally I was planning just one ten-item list but when I started doing research on it, I found well over 50 different ways to ridicule, hurt, maim, cripple, punish, torture, and execute someone. It's shocking how many various methods there are.  And I didn't even include everything I found.

Nonetheless, enjoy reading about how unbearably cruel people were throughout history.  Gah!

1) IRON MAIDEN - There is some controversy as to whether or not this was used or even existed, but it's obvious how it worked. A man-sized cabinet holds several spikes that are strategically placed to inflict puncture wounds in areas that miss vital organs so it takes longer to die.  Not to mention being entombed in a sarcophagus for hours or days on end, suffering.  Perhaps the worst of it:  two spikes placed right where the eyes would be....not that they could see anything anyway. (In the 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow, Icabod's mother was encased in an Iron Maiden.)

2) THE RACK - In what is perhaps the most painful form of torture, the rack dates well before Medieval times, but it is from that time period that it is most well known.  Generally it was used to coax a confession out of the accused, but it resulted in quick crippling.  It was a long wooden frame, slightly raised off the ground, with rollers and ropes.  Victims are fastened to these rollers and the torturer would turn the handles to pull the victim's limbs out of joint.  I don't imagine it was a very pleasant experience, and even a observer would be repulsed, hearing the joints crack and pop out of place.  And other prisoners were surely convinced to do their captors' bidding by having to watch this kind of torture take place, lest they be next.

3) PEAR OF ANGUISH (a.k.a. CHOKE PEAR - This interesting looking device was used in various ways depending on the crime you have committed, but it produces the same effect.  The instrument was forced into an orifice and then a screw at the top would be turned, opening the four leaves outward, effectively mutilating the area and causing excruciating pain.  Generally, it was inserted into the mouth for liars or blasphemers, the anus for homosexuals, and the vagina for promiscuous women or one found to have been guilty of a sexual sin. Often it was the first line of torture, as it rarely induced death.

4) CRUCIFIXION - While everyone associates Crucifixion with the death of Jesus Christ, this form of capital punishment has been used since ancient times. It involved simply nailing the victim to a cross or tree and leaving them to perish.  It could take days to eventually die.  Oft times they were beaten and tortured further while on the cross, and many victims would have had to carry their own cross to the execution site, as is depicted in the story of Christ.  Once dead, they were left to rot, as a warning to other criminals.

5) THUMB SCREWS - This self-explanatory device consisted of a simple vise, designed to crush fingers until the victim told the torturer what they wanted to hear. It could also be applied to toes as well as fingers, and sometimes even had sharp points to elicit even more pain. Obviously it wasn't something that cause death, but it surely had perpetrators talking to evade such agony.  Sometimes the simplest means can produce results.

6) THE BREAKING WHEEL (a.k.a. THE CATHERINE WHEEL) - Designed for the worst of the worst criminals, the wheel always killed its victims, but did so in a painstakingly slow amount of time.  Victims were tied down to the wheel with each limb attached to a spoke.  They were then beaten and left to die, sometimes placed on poles so the birds could peck at them while they still breathed. Another method that could take days, as the broken and battered victims would eventually die of dehydration, but not before they were subjected to some of the worst pain one could ever endure.

7) WATER TORTURE - While the Chinese get some perhaps undue credit for water torture, it actually dates back to the Middle Ages.  Many forms of torture using water were used, including dunking (which is exactly like it sounds, dunking the victim in water and leaving them until they confessed or died), water drop (dropping water onto the forehead one slow drop at a time until the victim went mad or the area perforated), freezing (in which the victim was continually soaked down and forced outside in the cold until they froze to death), and my personal favorite - the water cure, in which the victim was forced to drink large quantities of water to avoid drowning, resulting in their stomach bursting.  This particular method was supposedly used as late as the 1940's.

8) FLAYING - A pretty straightforward way of executing someone, flaying for torture involves removing the skin of a human while they are still alive. Death, if not from the act itself, arrives via blood loss, infection, and/or shock.  Many horror movies have employed this horrific method, the most terrifying probably being 2008's Martyrs.  Other films would include The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Flaying, and Skinned Alive, to name a few.

9) THE BOOT- There are unfortunately, several ways to maim and cripple someone by way of the foot.  In Medieval times, the boot was a boot that encased both legs, with wood or iron hammered down between the feet. The victim would eventually pass out from the pain as the torturer continued to increase pressure. Sometimes these boots would be lined with spikes (ahh!).  Another popular boot torture involved two iron plates that the foot would be placed between, causing mind-numbing pain as the plates were screwed together. These types of tortures were not just reserved for the Middle Ages, they continued nearly into modern times.

10) PENDULUM - This device hearkens back to the days of the Spanish inquisition, but folks in horror circles remember it well from the Edgar Allan Poe story: The Pit and the Pendulum, as well as the Vincent Price movie of the same name.  Generally used to extract a confession from someone accused of a crime, the victim would be laid out flat on a table under a crescent-shaped blade that would be lowered in increments until it started to slice the abdomen.  If no confession came, the victim would be sliced in two.

11) DEATH BY 1000 CUTS (a.k.a. SLOW SLICING) - The Chinese are known for this particularly gory method of execution.  It doesn't take a rocket scientist to imagine how this is done:  A sharp knife is used to removed pieces of the body methodically until the victim succumbs to death. Reserved for the most heinous of crimes, slow slicing wasn't outlawed in China until 1905.  The Chinese had strong beliefs that this form of capital punishment would leave the perpetrator unable to have a spiritual life after death, as they would not be "whole". Probably the worst thought involving this type of death is that the victim would be alive as they were cut and tortured, and maybe even as they are dismembered.

I'll be back next Thursday with eleven more dastardly tortures.  Stay tuned....