If you had to to pick one method to get tortured or executed OR have
fun with someone you have a little dispute, which one would it be?
(besides the first two kind ones)
20 Gnarliest Torture Devices of All Time
And you thought you had it bad when your Mom made you eat soap
What would have been the worst aspect of life during the European middle
ages? Heinous personal hygiene? No. Disease and famine? Hardly. That really
crappy mandolin music that midgets enjoy dancing to? Close, but wrong
again. The worst thing about medieval life was the unwavering evil of the
Christian "justice" system and the tools of torture they
employed.
The following are the 20 worst torture devices of all time in order of
sheer terror:
20. Punishing Shoes
The shoes were often used in conjunction with the standing pillory (a
device that holds your head and wrists in place while you stand). How long
do you think you could stand on your tippy-toes before you had to rest your
heels on those iron spikes?
19. Heretic's Fork
The four sharp points snugly nestled under the chin and sternum were
designed to allow the victim just enough range of motion with his mouth to
murmer a confession.
18. Dunking Stool
Used primarily on women (as was the case for most devices of pseudo-sexual
torture), the dunking stool would dip its occupant into a river for as long
as the authorities saw fit.
17. The Boots
The victim's legs were placed between two planks of wood and bound
together with cords. Between the cords the torturers placed wedges with
which they would violently hammer. Each time a wedge was hammered, an acute
portion of the shin bone was shattered. The tormentors could hammer at
least a dozen wedges up and down the legs. When the Boots were removed, the
bone fragments fell to pieces and the skin of the lower legs merely served
as loose sacks for them.
16. Water Torture
This is the only non-medieval, European torture on our list. The water
torture was a favorite among Japanese POW guards during WWII. The victim
was first bound with barbed wire and his mouth stuffed with rags. Next, the
guards would snake a tube down the victim's nasal passage and bloat
his belly with water. Once that was finished, the guards would kick and
beat the poor sap's midsection until his stomach lining burst and and
death ensued.
15. Cat's Paw
This was simply used to slowly tear the flesh from its victim, often times
all the way down to the bone.
14. The Rack
It does exactly what it looks like it does: the rack pulls your body from
end to end until your limbs are slowly plucked from their joints.
13. Quartering by Horses
Quartering is the rack taken to the next level and was reserved only for
murderers and those who killed or attempted to take the life of a nobleman
or royalty. Each of the prisoner's limbs were tied to a horse and the
horses were whipped simultaneously so that each limb would erupt from the
body in an instant. A crowd favorite.
12. The Pear
Hinging on your gender, the pear was either placed in your anus or your
vagina in its thin form and then cranked to open up and blossom into a
rather uncomfortable position.
11. Cleansing the Soul
In many Catholic countries, the clergy believed that the corrupted soul of
a damned person could be cleansed if they were forced to consume boiling
water, burning coals, or both. Of course, this was what happened to
prisoners before they were punished for their crime -- sort of a
"warm-up" torture, if you will.
10. The Hanging Cage
The pictured victim is one of the lucky ones because most occupants were
caged completely naked to expose them to either extreme cold or hot weather
conditions. And... most caged prisoners were usually placed in there only
after other means of extreme physical torture were administered. But wait
-- there's more! The victims were left in the cage until they died
from either the elements or thirst, which could take weeks.
9. The Head Crusher
If ever an explanation was in a name, the head crusher is it. Death by head
crusher usually went something like this: the teeth imploded into their
sockets and smashed the surrounding jaw bones. Then the eyes squirted from
their sockets and finally, brain matter squirted from the ears.
Unbelievably, many nations still use a version of the head crusher to this
very day as an interrogation tool.
8. Burning at the Stake
A favorite execution for those accused of witchcaft. Clergy believed that
the burning of a witch permanently removed her evil spirits from the
physical world, thus eliminating the possibility of any further
contamination of innocent souls. Makes sense.
7. Judas Cradle
The victim was hoisted above the pyramid and slowly lowered, crotch first,
onto its sharpened pinnacle. Hinging on the torturers mood, he could vary
the amount of the victim's body weight applied to the point.
6. The Cradle
The Cradle is the nastier second cousin to the Judas Cradle. We believe the
picture does all the explaining for us.
5. Iron Maiden
The following is a depiction of the first recorded use of the Iron Maiden
on August 14, 1515 : "A forger of coins was placed inside, and the
doors shut slowly, so that the very sharp points penetrated his arms and
legs in several places, and his belly and chest, and his bladder and the
root of his member, and his eyes, and his shoulders, and his buttocks, but
not enough to kill him; and so, he remained making great cry and lament for
two days, after which he died."
4. Interrogation Chair
Not only were the hundreds of tiny spikes uncomfortable to sit on, but a
fire was usually kindled under the iron chair to make it reach a horrible
scalding point.
3. Impalement
This was the standard form of punishment for traitors in Algiers, Tunis,
Tripoli and Salee during the Middle Ages. Believe it or not, once the
lengthy spike entered the victim's posterior and exited their mouth or
throat, the victim might live for more than a day in this state and was
left to crawl in the dirt for all to watch.
2. The Saw
The saw may represent human ingenuity's darkest hour. The idea here is
that when the victim is suspended upside down, most of the blood will go to
the head. That is an important part of the process, you see, because as the
torturers saw into the victim's crotch, all of the blood in the head
will oxygenate the brain so that the victim will not pass out as one
normally would under such excruciating pain. Typically, the saw would reach
the victim's navel before unconsciousness would take hold -- sometimes
as far as the midriff.
1. Breaking with the Wheel
Okay, we've saved the most treacherous display for last. So, if
you've had trouble with any of the above and want to turn back now, no
one will think less of you for it................ You still here? You sick
bastard. Okay, here we go... In terms of frequency used, the wheel was
second only to hanging as the most common form of execution in Germany
during the Middle Ages. First, the victim (usually naked) had each of his
limbs spread apart and tied to the ground. However, wooden crosspieces were
placed under each major joint such as the wrists, ankles, knees, hips and
shoulders. The torturer would then smash each limb and joint with the
heavy, iron-enhanced wheel. But that was just the beginning of the
nightmare. Once the limbs were reduced to gelatinous appendages of mashed
bones, blood and flesh, each arm and leg was braided into the spokes of the
wheel and then hoisted upright for display. The agonizing victim would
remain in this position for days as crows and insects feasted on him or her
until death.
The wheel is cool because of the deformation of the human body. I get a
chubby from it too (like H.P. Ness).
The saw is my favourite. Impalement is nice, especially if you
"miss" the important organs, the victim can live a longer
time.
#4 may be my 2nd favourite. Anything combining piercing or sawing pain
along WITH red hot iron pain is really fucked, and I love that (for other
people).
These tortures should be used on pedo's. It would save mega bucks on
caring for them in prison and parents and relatives of the victim can throw
rotten garbage at them while getting their frustration out. Society would
benefit. My fav is the brain crusher.
if i had to pick one method to torture someone...i would choose none of the
above.
i would get two single ball
flails so i could beat away at the person while making it look pretty
and dancing around in the shower of their blood
Ppl are sick.. whoever invented this stuff shud be made immortal and spend
eternity on/in their "instruments" of course i would come join
them.. the judas cradle seems like a lot of fun
Medieval times = pain in the crotch
