Hello there Inky Buds, today's topic is a very unusual one, and macabre one at that. I will talk about torture devices. Before you click away from this gruesome topic, hear me out. While this topic is a bit unorthodox, it perfectly aligns with one of my reasons for starting this blog. I want to teach you all something new, things they don't teach in school. Please don't think of me insane, but it is a very interesting thing to fall back on as punishments for crimes progress overtime. Not only will I talk about all the bells and whistles used to persecute outlaws and wrongdoers, but I will also talk about how they've faded overtime as more humane method became the norm. Still want to leave? It's perfectly fine if you do, this topic isn't for the faint of heart, but if you have a strong stomach, then proceed. On with this ghastly topic! (I will show them from bad, to worse, to macabre.)
So, torture devices. What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word? Maybe something similar to the rack or an iron maiden probably come to mind. But my friends, punishment in previous centuries were so stomach wrenching and grisly it was hard to believe they were performed on humans! I kid you not readers, these methods would be taboo in today's society. Let's start with a very well-known torture method. The pillory. The name probably doesn't ring a bell, but the image may jog your memory.
Does it look familiar? I thought so! A person is put into a wooden frame such as this one, and is humiliated and abused by passerby. The torture was humiliation or abuse. According to Wikipedia: "Those who gathered to watch the punishment typically wanted to make the offender's experience as unpleasant as possible. In addition to being jeered and mocked, those in the pillory might be pelted with rotten food, mud, offal, dead animals, and animal excrement. Sometimes people were killed or maimed in the pillory because crowds could get too violent and pelt the offender with stones, bricks and other dangerous objects."
Fun, huh?
These next couple of devices are somewhat the same in the way they are used. They are the Judas Cradle, Spanish Donkey, and Pear of Anguish. Now what do these have in common? These devices involve the victim having to sit on it, or get it inserted into an... intimate area. The Judas Cradle was a pyramid that the persecuted had to sit on. The Spanish Donkey was a triangle-shaped piece of wood perched on 4 legs, and the lucky contestant would be stripped of their clothes and would sit on it. The Donkey was popular during the Spanish Inquisition to punish nonbelievers. Below is an image of the Spanish Donkey, the next image is the Judas Cradle. These objects weren't fatal for the most part, but they weren't washed so an infection may be the result. Keep in mind that people were either gullible, superstitious, or poorly educated in the centuries before the 1800's. People didn't know about infection or even dental hygiene, so I guess you can't blame them. The thing about the Judas Cradle is it was used to acquire vital information. That's probably where the name came from. In case you didn't know, Judas betrayed Jesus by disclosing his whereabouts for 30 pieces of silver.
Sometimes weights would be added to the victim's ankles for more discomfort. They both had a similar objective: penetrating the victims anus, or vagina. The Pear of Anguish wasn't just for the nether regions, the Pear would be out into any orifice like the mouth as well.
This image explains it verbally, as well as showing the device itself. These ones aren't so bad actually yes, they are, but it gets worse.
The next ones aren't very bad, but they aren't particularly good either. They are more dangerous than a pyramid in your anus, but not as disturbing as the last couple. This next doohickey is one of many names, mainly known as the "Scold's Bridle" or "Gossip's Bridle." This device was used on gossiping women. Like many people like gossip today, so did the people in Medieval Ages, but they had brutal consequences. According to Allthatsinteresting.com: "The Scold’s Bridle was comprised of several strips of iron that surrounded an iron muzzle, that would be wrapped around a woman’s face like a mask. A small piece of iron, known as the “bridle bit,” would be placed inside a woman’s mouth and pressed upon the tongue to prevent her from speaking."
It was like a horses bridle for controlling it, but this bridle inflicts harm. Very pretty looking mask right? Yeah, I didn't think so.
I frown upon people who gossip, mainly because it is dishonest and is a result of boredom, but this is excessive. Let's be glad that we don't have to deal with a Scold's Bridle today. I feel like many people in the streets would be wearing them if they were used today. Not only would it inflict physical harm, but it was humiliating because the mask was less than discreet.
This next item is called a coffin. No, not the kind you put the deceased in. The coffin was a steel cage, barely big enough to sustain an adult person in. It looked similar to a birdcage. Not so bad at first, right? However, the coffin brought a slow demise by starvation and thirst. The victim was placed in this cage which hung from a building or tree in an area with many people. Eventually as the person died, they would remain in the cage, and became food for the crows. The crows would pluck and eat at the corpse squeezed into a tiny cage.
You can't even move in that. Not to mention, like the pillory, the public would ridicule the victim as they slowly died. Now, here is the next section of today's show "Stretching, Compressing, and More!"
The Scavenger's Daughter was an instrument that was popular during the 16th century. It was framed in the shape of an "A" and would compress the victim in 3. The knees were brought up to the chest, and the victim would face down. It would do the opposite of our next device. The rack is a staple to Medieval torture dungeons in movies. You tie somebody by their ankles and wrists and stretch their bodies until their arms popped out of their sockets. Ultimately, you are being pulled apart. Below are the Scavenger's Daughter and the rack.
Here's a pretty well-known one: Chinese water torture. According to Wikipedia: "This is a mentally painful process in which cold water is slowly dripped onto the scalp, forehead or face for a prolonged period of time. The process causes fear and mental deterioration in the subject. The pattern of the drops is often irregular, and the cold sensation jarring, which causes anxiety as a person tries to anticipate the next drip."
It made people go insane with a psychological attack. The origin of the name is unclear, but it is mainly thought to have an Asian origin as the name insists.
We've reached the last segment of the torture devices: the macabre torture devices/methods. These are the most gruesome, grisly, and terrifying ones there probably is. If you are sensitive to graphic content like blood and organs, be careful. You've been warned
This one is one of the worst ones there is, the Brazen Bull. This was popular during the ancient Greek and Roman times. The victims were placed inside of a hollow bronze bull with one door. This bull would then be placed over a fire. The bronze would get hot and roast the victim alive. The worst part? Legends state that the bull was acoustically modified so that the pathetic screams of the victim were made to sound like a bull.
Now what could be worse than being roasted alive while your screams remained unheard? Being eaten alive of course! These last 2 are very, very, VERY horrific.
The second to last one for today is "The Tub." Sounds unsuspecting right? According to TheCoolist.com: "A person was bound hand and foot so they could not escape, then their face was smeared with honey. Flies and other biting insects would be drawn to the person where they would eat the honey and crawl into the openings in the face.
Prisoners tortured in this way were force-fed food and water to keep them alive. As time went on, the person would be left in their own bodily wastes, where maggots would be laid that would eat the person’s body as they decayed, still alive."
Now we have reached our last one: Scaphism. The existence of this method is somewhat debated, some believe that it is merely a legend, while other say it actually happened. It is actually quite similar to the tub. There is even historical descriptions of this method:
"[The king] decreed that Mithridates should be put to death in boats; which execution is after the following manner: Taking two boats framed exactly to fit and answer each other, they lie down in one of them the malefactor that suffers, upon his back; then, covering it with the other, and so setting them together that the head, hands, and feet of him are left outside, and the rest of his body lies shut up within, they offer him food, and if he refuse to eat it, they force him to do it by pricking his eyes; then, after he has eaten, they drench him with a mixture of milk and honey, pouring it not only into his mouth, but all over his face. They then keep his face continually turned towards the sun; and it becomes completely covered up and hidden by the multitude of flies that settle on it. And as within the boats he does what those that eat and drink must needs do, creeping things and vermin spring out of the corruption and rottenness of the excrement, and these entering into the bowels of him, his body is consumed. When the man is manifestly dead, the uppermost boat being taken off, they find his flesh devoured, and swarms of such noisome creatures preying upon and, as it were, growing to his inwards. In this way Mithridates, after suffering for seventeen days, at last expired."
Thank you for that detailed description, Wikipedia. So not only are they being force-fed honey and milk, but they are also drenched in it, for all types of creatures to arrive for a "feast." In this case it's not just bugs and creepy crawlies. You are outside on a boat sitting in the sun. Birds, mosquitoes, AND rats! IT's the best of all worlds in the torture world: water, the sun, starvation, thirst, and animals. Below are images of the practice drawn by an artist. I must warn you; these are some of the most graphic pictures in this entire post!
Simply put, you are decaying alive. Over the course of centuries, torture methods varied from humiliating to leaving you on-the-verge of death. In fact, it wasn't until 1994 that the UN banned severe physical and psychological pain. That recent! Plus, the CIA used torture to obtain information. Pretty sketchy, right? These procedures were kept under wraps of course. According to Historynewsnetwork.org: "Although the Agency trained military interrogators from across Latin America, our knowledge of the actual torture techniques comes from a single handbook for a Honduran training session, the CIA’s “Human Resources Exploitation Manual — 1983.” To establish control at the outset the questioner should, the CIA instructor tells his Honduran trainees, “Manipulate the subject’s environment, to create unpleasant or intolerable situations, to disrupt patterns of time, space, and sensory perception.” To affect this psychological disruption, this 1983 handbook specified techniques that seem strikingly similar to those outlined 20 years earlier in the Kubark Manual and those that would be used 20 years later at Abu Ghraib." They would use methods like waterboarding (when a cloth is placed over someone's face and water is poured over it to stimulate drowning and induce panic,) restricted diets, sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, forced nudity, threats, beatings, and rectal feeding.
As the Cold War reached a conclusion, the methods of torture fell out of "fashion." There really wasn't a need to torture Russian spies into giving them information anymore. After investigation of continued allegations of torture, the Supreme Court ruled in 1999 that all torture – even moderate physical pressure – was illegal. This decision was praised by human-rights organizations.
I'm glad that torture methods diminished over time and has been recognized as inhumane. Punishments for crimes are more harmless like doing community service.
Our methods for dealing with unruly civilians have changed over a very long course of years. Weird enough, there are hundreds of torture devices and methods. Yes, there are many more ways to kill/torture somebody.
Below are some "honorable" mentions:
Blood Eagle- The practice that allegedly found torturers separating the victim’s ribs from their spine, pulling their bones and skin outward to form a set of “wings,” and removing their lungs from their chest cavity. This was practiced by Norsemen and Vikings.
Boiling to Death- it's self-explanatory, but water was used. There are instances in which boiling wax,oil,wine and even lead were used.
Roman Candle- Not the firework type, but maybe that is the inspiration for the name. "A rumored favorite of the mad Roman Emperor Nero, this method saw the subject tied to a stake and smeared with flammable pitch (tree or plant resin), then set ablaze, slowly burning to death from the feet up. What sets this above the many other similar methods is the fact that the victims were sometimes lined up outside to provide the lighting for one of Nero’s evening parties."
Rat torture- A rat was placed on the bare chest of the victim while it was inside a cage. The executioner would place hot coals on top of the cage, which made the rat panic and seek an escape by tearing through the victim's chest.
The Iron Maiden- Not the metal band, an actual iron maiden. It was a coffin with spikes inside that would impale the victim inside. Care to give it a whirl?
Ling Chi: Death by a thousand cuts- Originating in China, Ling Chi was essentially getting flayed alive. This was popular during Feudal China. Very painful, and I could imagine very excruciating. If they didn't die because of blood loss, they would get stabbed in the heart afterwards.
Iron Spider- To all the ladies reading this, again be grateful this is in the past. The Iron Spider also called the Breast Ripper was a torture device that did, you guessed it, ripped off women's breasts. It was made of iron (as the first name states) and would even be heated as the victims said goodbye to their tatas. This item was made for women who committed acts of adultery, and self-performed abortion.
In conclusion, history can be pretty messed up. There are many dark corners of it that many of us haven't seen yet and are left under wraps for thousands of years. This is proof that sometimes history is best left in the past.
Thank you for reading I hope you learned something new today with this random knowledge. Now if someone asks you "What's the worst way to die?" maybe one of these will come to mind. Sweet nightmares... 😜
Thank you, Inky Buds, and have a good day/night.
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I hope I will not go in one of those torture devices 😱