Boiling Alive: Another form of cooking people, popular in the Middle Ages.
Buried Alive: Widely used around the world throughout the ages. For example, in India they buried women
in sand up to their necks, then left them, head emerged only, to bake in the sun.
Burned at the Stake: Popular during the Inquisition for heretics, witches, and uppity women.
Eaten by Animals: The early Christians were thrown to the lions. This has actual historical backing
and was a favorite of many Roman's to watch as a sport.
Skinning/Flaying: The skin is removed in strips.
Drawn and Quartered: The person is carved into pieces while alive. It was often combined with hanging
and used for extremely serious crimes such as high treason, where mere hanging alone was not enough.
Impaling: Stakes are driven through the person's body in such a way that vital organs needed for survival
are not pierced.
Iron Chair/ Iron Bed: These pieces of iron furniture were placed over a stoked fire and occupants
were roasted to death.
Iron Maiden: Female effigies constructed of wood or iron with the inside hollowed out and filled with
sharp iron spikes. The iron maiden would be opened up and the offender placed inside. The person would then be embraced by
the iron maiden, being impaled by all the stakes.
The Wheel: Wheels were used in a variety of ways. For example, a person could be somehow attached to
the outer rim of a wheel and then either rolled over sharp spikes or off a hill.
Crucifixion: Most people immediately think of Jesus. Early crucifixions were carried out on trees, later
to be done on crosses in the AD era.
Drowning: Used in a variety of ways. Popular at sea and witch trials. Probably the most well-known variation
is the witch's test. If the water rejects the woman and she floats, then she is guilty and executed by anth method. If the
water accepts her and she drowns, then she was innocent.
Blown from a Cannon: The person is positioned across the mouth of a can, then a shot is fired, blasting
through the person's body.
Pendulum: Just like in the Edgar Allen Poe story. A person lies on his or her back and a razor edged
pendulum swings above them, slowly descending. There is question if this actually existed, or was just a creative work of
the imagination.
Poison: Interestingly, this has not been a common method of execution. Socrates, who was forced to drink
hemlock, is probably the most well-known victim of poison.
Pressing: The person lies under some sort of slab-like surface and then heavy objects such as stones
are placed on top until the person is slowly crushed to death. This process could take hours, or weeks to die from.
The Rack: Catch-all term for a number of mechanical devices and practices which cause torture and death
by stretching the person.
Sawed in Half: Not just used in magic shows
Death by Insects, Etc. There are many variations on the scenario in which the person is staked to the ground, smeared
with something sweet like honey, and left out to eventually be eaten/stung to death/devoured by insects. This was a favored
tool of the Muslims, and some Native America Tribes.
Disembowelment: The torso is slit open and the entrails are removed.
Shot by Arrows: Practiced by the Vikings. They would aim at non-vital parts of the body in order to
prolong agony as long as possible.
Spanish Donkey/ Wooden Horse: The person sat astride a V-shaped structure as if on a horse or donkey.
Weights are increasingly attached to the person's feet pulled increasingly downward, until the person is split in two. Also
used modernly as a tool of sexual torture in the SM movements.
Starvation: The person is put away in a cell or cage and not fed anything. For example, in medieval
France there were oubliettes (oublier is France for forget). Currently, the CIA still uses this method while making them stand
at attention during the duration of it all.
Stoning: Rocks are thrown at a person until he or she dies. Often members of the community will assist
in the stoning. Still in practice in some Islamic and African countries (or at least until very recently). Some great
fictionalized depictions of stonings include Zorba the Greek and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.
Garrote: Oftentimes a hybrid of the rack and hanging. Something is tightened around the person's neck
until death results.
Dragging: The person is tied to a horse and dragged until death.
Throat Slitting: Not used very often because of it's lack of drama.
Thrown from a Great Height: The person is thrown off a mountain or a high wall. comment:
"Being thrown from a great hight" nowadays includes being thrown from a helicopter (unofficial method by certain military
organizations)
Tied in a Sack with Animals: A favorite practice in Ancient Rome, a all time fave of the Spanish Inquisition.
The Cauldron: A iron container, mouth down, is placed on the victim's stomach. The container is
lifted a bit and some mice or rats slipped inside. Then the container is heated up from the outside with a flame. As it begins
to get hot, the mice want to escape, but there is no way out except through the mouth of the cauldron. So they begin to gnaw
through the person's stomach and do so until the person dies.
Torn Apart Between Two Trees: As in the Robert Frost poem "Birches", two trees would be pulled down
so they would come together from opposite directions. One arm and leg would be tied to one tree, the other arm and leg to
the other tree. Then, let go of the trees.
Torn Apart by Horses: A person is attached to four horses, one to each limb of the body. The horses
are then giddied on to gallop in oppostie directions, in the aim that the person will become dismembered. Not a very effective
method unless certain tendons in the limbs are pre-cut.
Water Death: Person is forced to drink water until death. Traditionally a stiff tube (made of intestine)
was forced down the victims throat and they had a non-stop flow of water entering them, or a slow trickle depending on how
long they were to suffer.
Water Torture: Used in U.S. prisons in the nineteenth century. Water was poured on top of the
prisoner's head and a large bucket of water was also placed under their chin to simulate the feeling of drowning.
The Gag: This device was placed in prisoners' mouths and kept in place by locking the chain around their
necks. Used in U.S. prisons in the nineteenth century. People starved to death via the gag.
The Cage: Giant oddly-shaped metal cages were placed on prisoners' heads and worn throughout the waking
hours. Used in nineteenth century American prisons and asylums.
The Cat/Flogger: Prisoners were whipped with leather straps and cat-o'-nine tails until their flesh
was raw and bleeding. Used in nineteenth century American prisons.
The Aeroplane Treatment: About the first thing that suspected terrorists or harbourers were put
through in the backrooms of many police stations in the Punjab in those dark years of terror. Gradually, in many places, it
replaced intelligent questioning, Security forces in Kashmir also made wild use of it. It has caused limbs to be amputated
and even death. The accused is hung upside down. It starts getting bad as soon as the blood rushes to the head. The second
stage of torture commences from here, starting with the beating of the soles. Even without this, heavily-built men can withstand
the ‘aeroplane’ treatment only for a few seconds. Lighter men can put up with it for not more than ten minutes.
The Bombay Cuf: A variant of the aeroplane; method: The prisoner’s hands are tied behind his back
and a pipe is placed under his knees. He is then elevated just above ground level. It is impossible for anybody to remain
in that position, with the body weight entirely on the knees, for more than a few seconds.
The Roller Method: Perfected in Kashmir, the prisoner is forcibly laid on his back. Then a round pole
is rolled over his legs and body, sometimes with the tortures standing on either end of it and rolling it up and down. Terribly
painful, and with long term consequences.
Cog Needle: A thin iron rod is inserted through the umbilicus, tearing the skin and the muscles, or
up the anus damaging the muscles, or up the arms damaging the mucus membrane and other parts of the rectum.
Bellary: One of the oldest torture techniques, and still prevalent. A stick smeared with red chilli
powder or green chilli paste is thrust into the anus.
Breast Ripper: Cold or red-hot, the four claws slowly ripped to formless masses the breasts of countless
women condemned for heresy, blasphemy, adultery and many other “libidinous acts”, self-induced abortion, erotic
white magic and other crimes. In various places at various times –in some regions of France and Germany until the early
nineteenth century– a “bite” with a red-hot ripper was inflicted upon one breast of unmarried mothers, often
whilst their creatures, splattered with maternal blood, writhed on the ground at their feet.
Besides the punitive function, breast-ripping also served as an interrogational and juridical procedure.
Head Crusher/Head Screw: Recorded in sources dating as early as the Middle Ages, head crushers enjoy
the esteem of the authorities in many parts of the world today. The victim’s chin is placed on the lower bar, and the
cap forced down by the screw.
All comment seems superfluous. First the teeth are crushed into their sockets and smash the surrounding bone, then the
eyes are forced out of their sockets, and finally the brain squirts through the fragmented skull. Although nowadays no longer
a means of capital punishment, head crushers are still used for interrogation. The modern caps and chin rests are padded with
soft materials so as to leave no mark on the victim. Examples of headcrushers can be seen in the Tower of London and at the
Tijuana, Mexico Cultural Center.
Head Screw: Another very effective device was the Head Screw. It consisted of a metal hoop, which could
be put around one's forehead and the back of the head. With a screw the hoop could be tighten more and more, so that the delinquent
was afraid of having his head crushed. This caused extreme panic, so that nearly every confession could be reached.
The Pear: These instruments were used –and still are, no longer ornamented but otherwise not much
changed– in oral and rectal formats, like the present specimen, and in the larger vaginal one. They are forced into
the mouth, rectum or vagina of the victim and there expanded by force of the screw to the maximum aperture of the segments.
The inside of the cavity in question is irremediably mutilated, nearly always fatally so. The pointed prongs at the end of
the segments serve better to rip into the throat, the intestines or the cervix. The oral pear was often inflicted on heretical
preachers, but also on lay persons guilty of unorthodox tendencies; the rectal pear awaited passive male homosexuals, and
the vaginal one women guilty of sexual union with Satan or his familiars.
Knotting: This form of torture was specific to women. It involved tying a stick into a woman’s
hair and twisting it tighter and tighter. When the Inquisitor no longer had the strength to twist, he would hold the victim’s
head or fasten it in a holding device until burly men could take over the chore. Not only would the hair be ripped out, but
the scalp would often be torn open, exposing the skull. As expected, only women with thick or long hair were chosen for this
torture.
The Strappado: The strappado was one of the easiest and, therefore, one of the most common torture techniques.
All one needed to set up a strappado was a sturdy rafter and a rope. The victim’s wrists were bound behind her/his back,
and the rope would be tossed over the beam. Then, the victim was repeatedly dropped from a height, so that her/his arms and
shoulders would dislocate.
The Wheel: In France and Germany the wheel was a popular form of capital punishment, not least becasue
it was pure agony for the victim. In concept it was similar to a crucifixion. The prisoner was tied to the side of the wheel
lying on the scaffold, stretched across its spokes and hub. The victim's limbs shattered the limbs one by one with a heavy
iron bar. Each arm and leg was broken in several places before the job was done. A skilled executioner would smash the bones
of his victim without piercing the skin. The wheel was then propped upright so onlookers could appreciate the dying gasps
of the victim. At first the severity of the injuries was thought to be sufficient to bring about death. Later the exectutioner
ended the torture by one or two blows to the chest. The wheel could be refined, too, to include other torturous aspects. A
suspended wheel might be turned over a fire or a bed of nails. In any event it meant unbearable suffering for the victim.
