World History boasts of many inventions and discoveries. But unfortunately it also boasts of many cruellest and painful torture techniques to punish the criminal or a wrong-doer. Different forms of torture and executions are spread out quite literally in every culture’s bloody past. Here are some of the most brutal torture and execution methodswhich will definitely make you grateful that you do not live in those centuries.
1. Saw Torture
The victims were hung upside down to keep them conscious during the torture. The capital punishment of being sawed in halves either longitudinally or transversely. This method of torture was very common in Roman Empire, Spain, and in some parts of Asia.
2. The Brazen Bull/Sicilian Bull
Designed in ancient Greece it is a solid piece of brass casted with a door on the side that could be opened and latched. The victim would be placed inside the bull and a fire set underneath it until the metal became literally yellow as it was heated. The victim would then be slowly roasted to death all while screaming in agonizing pain. The bull was designed to amplify these unspeakable painful screams and make them sound like the bellowing of a bull
3. Heretic Fork
This torture device consisted of a metal piece with two opposed bi-pronged forks attached to a belt or strap. One end of the device was pushed under the chin, the other to the sternum, and the strap was used to secure the victim’s neck to the tool while the victim hung from the ceiling so that they could not sleep. If their heads dropped, the prongs would pierce their throat and chest and they would die.
4. Breast Ripper:
This torture device is pretty palpable. The Breast Ripper was used on women who committed unspeakable acts according to society, namely adultery and self-abortion. Made popular in Bavaria, Germany, during the later 1500s, the Breast Ripper ripped the breasts off of a woman. Women accused of facilitating their own miscarriage, adultery, heresy, blasphemy, or being a witch were punished using an iron instrument with four claws at the end. After it was heated up, the device would slowly rip the breasts off the accused woman’s body. If the woman did not die as the result of extreme blood loss, she was left horrifically disfigured for the rest of her life.
5. The Judas Cradle
This gruesome punishment entailed having the victim sit on the pyramid-shaped cradle, after which they would be forced down on it by ropes with the intent of stretching the victim’s orifice over a long period of time, slowly impaling them. To add to the overall humiliation, the victim was usually naked and the device was rarely washed. So if the torture did not kill you, the infection contracted from it would.
6. The Lead Sprinkler
Usually filled with molten lead, tar, boiling water or boiling oil, it was used to torture victims by dripping the contents onto their stomach or other body parts like the eyes. Using this device the torturer would proceed to pour molten silver on the victim’s eyes which resulted in agonizing pain and eventual death.
7. Iron Maiden
This torture device consisted of an iron cabinet with a hinged front and spike-covered interior, sufficient enough to enclose a human being. Once inside its conical frame, the victim would be unable to move due to the great number of steel spikes impaling them from every direction. The interrogator would scream questions at the victim while poking them with jagged edges.
8. The Pear of Anguish
The Pear of Anguish, deriving its name from its pear-shaped appearance, can be found on display in multiple museums around the world, including the Torture Museum in Poland and Museum der Festung Salzburg in Austria. Just by looking you can see what its intended purposed was. The device was slipped into the victim’s anus or vagina before a key was used to open its spoon-like devices. Some accounts assert the torture tool was used on women accused of self-abortion and adultery, homosexuals.
9. The Breaking Wheel
The Breaking Wheel ensured the victim endured as a much pain as humanly possible before eventually dying. There were various methods of torture carried out using the Breaking Wheel. Two of the more popular involved tying the victim’s limbs to the spokes of a wheel. During the first method, executioners bludgeoned the victim until their eventual death. In The second method, the wheel would turn ever so slowly while the victim’s bones broke one by one.
10. Guillotine
One of the most notorious forms of executions, the guillotine was made of a razor sharp blade attached to a rope. The victim’s head was placed in the middle of the frame as the blade dropped, severing the victim’s head from the body. Since the decapitation was considered to be an instant and painless, it was considered the most humane method of execution.
11. Tongue Ripper
Looking like an oversized pair of scissors, it could effortlessly cut the victim’s tongue. Their mouth would be forced opened with a device called a mouth opener, and then the iron tongue ripper would uncomfortably twitch the tongue with its rough grippers. Once a firm hold was maintained, the screw would be firmly tightened and the victim’s tongue would roughly be torn out.
By Archa Dave
