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 most fast growing plants on Earth. Some of it Chinese varieties They can grow a whole 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.
Bamboo grove. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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) The bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, the person dies for a very long time and painfully.
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"
The “Iron Maiden” was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
"The Iron Maiden". (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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 he did, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some Iron Maiden models had spikes at eye level to poke them out.
The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism 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.
Skafism. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force fed large quantities 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 dish.
Pear of suffering
This cruel tool was used to punish abortionists, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina for women or the anus for men. When the executioner turned the screw, the “petals” opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torture to the victims. Many then died from blood poisoning.
A pear of suffering. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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 “leaf” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is revealed completely, the offender receives internal damage, incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he has not already fallen into unconsciousness.
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 torturing and killing people in unusual ways.
A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door. And then Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator - the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.
Copper bull. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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 roasted alive;
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.
Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by the leader of the 16th century Dutch Revolution, Diedrick Sonoy.
Torture by rats. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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.
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, due to 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.
Cradle of Judas. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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.
Rack
Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and became a helpless vegetable.
Rack. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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. As 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. In this case, 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 arms turned out. 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.
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.
Shiri. (pinterest.com)
How does this work?
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 it into pieces, it was immediately pulled 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 shackled in a special wooden deck so that the subject cannot 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 into the open field, with tied hands and feet, 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.
Spanish water torture
In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special big 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, using a funnel, to swallow large number water, then they hit the swollen and arched belly.
Water torture. (pinterest.com)
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 confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court 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.
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.
Spanish armchair. (pinterest.com)
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.
Gridiron (grid for torture by fire)
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 ordinary metal grill 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.
Bloody Eagle
One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his 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.
Bloody eagle. (pinterest.com)
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.
"Catherine's Wheel"
Before tying the victim to the wheel, his limbs were broken. During rotation, the legs and arms were completely broken off, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.
Catherine's Wheel. (pinterest.com)
Spanish donkey
Wooden log in the form of a triangle it was fixed on the “legs”. The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp angle that cut straight into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.
Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)
Spanish boot
This is a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, was tightened more and more in order to break the bones of the person’s legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was involved in the torture, who hit the fastening with a hammer. Often after such torture, all the bones of the victim below the knee were crushed, and the wounded skin looked like a bag for these bones.
Spanish boot. (pinterest.com)
Quartering by horses
The victim was tied to four horses - by the arms and legs. Then the animals were allowed to gallop. There were no options - only death.
Quartering. (pinterest.com)
This device was widespread and had many names - “Spanish donkay”, “Wooden pony”, “Mare”, etc. It was very similar to the “Chair of the Jews”.
The interrogated naked person was placed astride a sharp metal or wooden corner of this device and a load of 24 kg or more was hung at his feet. Under the pressure of the tortured body and the added weight, the pointed corner crushed the testicles and dug into the woman’s genitals and anus. If he sat on it for a long time, the donkey's comb would crush the sacrum.
Often, for the convenience of the interrogators, the victim was pulled up to the ceiling with a rope or chain, which made it possible to regulate the pressure (and pain) depending on the desire of the executioners.
There was another modification of this device, which consisted of a stand with sharp spikes installed on its top. The interrogated person was laid on it, tied in such a way as to exert a stronger influence on the genitals and breasts of women.
Charles de Coster gives a description of such an interrogation, when the torture was supplemented by putting on boots that were shrinking from the heat: “... the executioner put Catalina astride the lid of an oak coffin, which stood on trestles in front of the fireplace. The lid converged upward with a sharp edge, like a knife blade. A hot flame was burning in the oven fire.
Catalina, who was sitting on the sharp edge of the coffin, was put on tight boots made of fresh leather and pushed towards the fire. When the tip of the coffin began to dig into her body, and the heat heated up and the skin of the already tight boots that were squeezing her legs, she screamed..."
One of the simplified, but no less painful, forms of “Donkey” was to sit women on a rope. This torture was designed specifically for women. The rope, digging in, damaged the clitoris and labia, often causing dangerous bleeding.
The interrogated person was often suspended by the arms so that the pain could be regulated, either lifting the woman and reducing the pain, or lowering her, so that the weight of the whole body was transferred to the embedded rope. If necessary, additional weights were hung at the victim’s feet.
In a number of cases, the interrogated woman, seated on a rope, was dragged back and forth along it, tearing her genitals; in this case, the rope was chosen to be coarsely piled.
Thus, under Ivan the Terrible, the wife of clerk Viskovaty, the sister of Prince A. Vyazemsky, was tortured; according to A. Klyuchevsky, this “young and beautiful woman because she could not or did not want to show where her husband’s treasury was hidden. In front of her 14-year-old daughter, she was stripped naked, sat astride a rope stretched between the walls, and dragged back and forth along it several times. Then she was sent to a monastery, but she could not recover from the consequences of brutal torture and soon died."
In Italy, the wife of Count Cagliostro Lorenza was subjected to similar torture. According to de Guy Breton, “she, naked, was dragged several dozen times along a knotted rope in front of her bound husband, not immediately stopping the torture even when he confessed everything. The woman, in a deep faint, was thrown into a cell, sentenced to life imprisonment, but she the night is dead."
Sometimes, including in Russia under Ivan the Terrible, this torture was carried out by tying a woman’s legs and squeezing a rope between them, which was then used to tear apart her private parts like a saw. This torture was often a barbaric execution, because the interrogated person died from bleeding.
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 happened:
The victim was stripped naked and tied to a flat surface
A cage with hungry rats was placed on his stomach and tightly fixed.
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 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 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 was happening.
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 of Ancient Rome, for a long time it was used by executioners from Germany, France, Russia and other countries.
What happened:
At first, everything was broken for the victim using a hammer or a special wheel. large bones bodies.
After this, he was tied to a large 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 happened:
The victim was tied to the gridiron.
Burning coals were placed under it. The victim was “roasted” alive.
Insect torture
There are different variations types of torture and executions using insects. One of the most terrible and cruel was the following...
What happened:
The victim was placed in a special wooden barrel so that only the head remains outside.
His face was smeared with honey, which attracted various insects.
In addition to all this, he was intensively fed, 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...
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The Middle Ages are considered the period in history with the most ruthless attitude towards people. For the slightest offense they were subjected to sophisticated torture. This review features 13 torture devices that will make people confess to anything.
1. “Pear of Suffering”
This cruel tool was used to punish abortionists, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina for women or the anus for men. When the executioner turned the screw, the “petals” opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torture to the victims. Many then died from blood poisoning.
2. Rack
TO wooden frame The victim was tied by the arms and legs and the limbs were stretched in opposite directions. At first they were torn cartilage tissue, and then the limbs were torn out. A little later, spikes were attached to the frame, which dug into the victim’s back. To intensify the pain, the thorns were smeared with salt.
3. "Catherine's Wheel"
Before tying the victim to the wheel, his limbs were broken. During rotation, the legs and arms were completely broken off, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.
4. Crocodile pipe
The victim's legs or face (sometimes both) were placed inside this pipe, thereby immobilizing him. The executioner gradually heated the iron, forcing people to confess to anything.
5. Copper Bull
The victim was placed in a copper statue of a bull, under which a fire was lit. The man died from burns and suffocation. During the torture, the screams coming from inside resembled the mooing of a bull.
6. Spanish donkey
A wooden log in the shape of a triangle was fixed on “legs”. The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp angle that cut straight into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.
7. Torture coffin
The victims were placed in metal cages, which completely immobilized them. If the torture coffins were not the right size for people, this caused them additional torment. This death was long and painful. Birds pecked at the flesh of the victims, and the crowd threw stones at them.
8. Head crusher
The unfortunate man’s head was pinched under this “cap.” The executioner slowly tightened the screws, and upper part The “crusher” pressed on the skull. The jaw was the first to break and teeth fell out. After this, the eyes were gouged out, and finally, the skull was broken.
9. "Cat's Paw"
The "cat's paw" was used to tear the flesh down to the bones.
10. Knee crusher
This instrument of torture was especially popular during the Inquisition. The victim's knee was placed between the teeth. When the executioner tightened the screws, the teeth pierced the flesh and then crushed knee joint. After such torture, it was no longer possible to stand up.
11. "Judas' Cradle"
One of the most brutal tortures was called the “Cradle of Judas” or “Judas’ Chair.” The victim was forcibly lowered onto an iron pyramid. The point would go straight into the anus or vagina. The resulting ruptures led to death after some time.
12. Chest “claws”
This instrument of torture was used on women accused of adultery. The "claws" were heated and then pierced into the victim's chest. If a woman did not die, she would remain with terrible scars for the rest of her life.
13. "Expletive Bridle"
This peculiar iron mask used to punish quarrelsome women. There could be spikes inside it, and in the hole for the mouth there was a plate that was placed over the tongue so that the victim could not speak. Usually the woman was escorted through noisy squares. The bell attached to the mask attracted everyone's attention, prompting the crowd to laugh at the one being punished.
Medieval torture is a terrible phenomenon. But it’s even worse if people deliberately do this. So at all times, to correspond to the canons of beauty of your people.