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The most terrible executions in the history of mankind. The most brutal executions in the world

Chinese Bamboo Torture

The infamous way of the terrible Chinese execution all over 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 fastest growing plants on earth. Some of its Chinese varieties can grow as much as a 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 it works?

1) Live bamboo sprouts are sharpened with a knife to make sharp "spears";
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, back or belly over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) Bamboo grows rapidly in height, pierces the skin of the martyr and sprouts through his abdominal cavity, the person dies very long and painfully.

Like torture with bamboo, many researchers consider the "iron maiden" a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the defendants, after which they confessed to anything.

"Iron Maiden"

The Iron Maiden was invented at the end of the 18th century, that is, already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.



"Iron Maiden". (pinterest.com)


How it works?

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 rather short and do not pierce the victim through, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, in a matter of minutes receives a confession, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to be silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never confesses to his deed, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from blood loss;
5) In some models of the "iron maiden" spikes were provided at eye level to gouge them out.

The name of this torture comes from the Greek "skafium", which means "trough". Skafism 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 that were not indifferent to human flesh and blood.



Skafism. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed with large amounts of milk and honey, which causes the victim to develop copious diarrhea that attracts insects.
3) A prisoner, shabby, smeared with honey, is allowed to swim in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) Insects immediately start the meal, as the main dish - the living flesh of the martyr.

Pear of suffering

This cruel tool was used to punish women who had abortions, liars and homosexuals. The device was inserted into the vagina in women or the anus in men. When the executioner turned the screw, the “petals” opened, tearing the flesh and bringing unbearable torment to the victims. Many died later from blood poisoning.



Pear of suffering. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1) The tool, consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments, is thrust into the client's desired hole in the body;
2) The executioner slowly turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves”-segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is opened, the completely guilty person receives internal injuries 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, the coppersmith Perill, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Falaris, who simply adored torturing and killing people in unusual ways.

Inside the copper statue, through a special door, they pushed a living person. And then Falaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Falaris himself was roasted in a bull.



Copper bull. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is kindled under the belly of the bull;
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 charms were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold in the bazaars and were in great demand.

Rat torture was very popular in ancient China. However, we will consider the rat punishment technique developed by the leader of the 16th century Dutch Revolution, Didrik Sonoy.



Rats torture. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1) The naked martyr is laid 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 with a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape from the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.

Cradle of Judas

The cradle of Judas was one of the most tormenting machines in the arsenal of the Suprema, the Spanish Inquisition. The victims usually died of infection, due to the fact that the peaked 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 and did not tear ligaments.


Cradle of Judas. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid pierces the anus or vagina;
3) With the help of ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) Torture continues for several hours or even days, until the victim dies of impotence and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.

Rack

Probably the most famous, and unsurpassed in its kind, death machine called "rack". It was first experienced around 300 CE. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.

Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and turned into a helpless vegetable.



Rack. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, on which ropes were wound, holding the wrists and ankles of the victim. When the rollers rotated, the ropes stretched in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the hands and feet of the victim are stretched and torn, bones pop out of the 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 was tied with his hands behind his back and lifted by the rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the hands of a person raised on a rack twisted back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on twisted arms. 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 a rack was beaten with a whip on the back, and “applied to the fire”, that is, they drove burning brooms over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a person hanging on a rack with red-hot tongs.

Shiri (camel cap)

A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Zhuanzhuans (the union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into their slavery. They destroyed the memory of the slave by a terrible torture - by putting Shiri on the head of the victim. Usually this fate befell young guys captured in battles.



Shiri. (pinterest.com)


How it works?

1. First, the slaves shaved their heads, carefully scraping out every hair under the root.
2. The executioners slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, densest part.
3. Divided into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces, like a plaster, stuck around the heads of slaves. This meant putting on wide.
4. After putting on the width, the neck of the doomed was shackled in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking cries, and they were thrown there in an open field, with hands and feet tied, 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 torments caused by drying out, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed, squeezing the shaved head of a slave 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 rawhide, in most cases, finding no way out, the hair bent and again went into the scalp with its ends, causing even greater suffering. A day later, the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Zhuanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured was caught alive, it was believed that the goal was achieved.
7. The one who was subjected to 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 skins of one camel were enough for five or six widths.

spanish water torture

In order to best perform the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the varieties of the rack or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's hands and feet were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner went to work in one of several ways. One of these methods was that the victim was forced to swallow a large amount of water with a funnel, then beaten on the inflated and arched stomach.


Water torture. (pinterest.com)


Another form involved placing a rag tube down the victim's throat, through which water was slowly poured in, causing the victim to bloat and suffocate. If that wasn't enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then reinserted and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under a jet of icy water. It is interesting to note that this kind of torture was regarded as light, and confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court as voluntary and given to the defendants without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to knock out 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 enclosed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he was in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly roast, 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 made under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The well-known poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such an armchair 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 fictional, but there is no evidence that the gridiron "survived" until the Middle Ages and had at least little circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, set horizontally on legs so that a fire can be built under it.

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 rarely resorted to. Firstly, it was easy enough to kill the interrogated person, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.

blood eagle

One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, the ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. In Scandinavian legends, it is stated that during such an execution, salt was sprinkled on the wounds of the victim.



Blood eagle. (pinterest.com)


Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses convicted of 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, her limbs were broken. When rotating, the legs and arms finally broke out, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from pain shock, while others suffered for several days.


Wheel of Catherine. (pinterest.com)


spanish donkey

A wooden log in the form of a triangle was fixed on the "legs". The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp corner that cut right into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.



Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)


spanish boot

This is such a fastening on the leg with a metal plate, which, with each question and the subsequent refusal to answer it, as required, tightened more and more to break the bones of the person's legs. To enhance the effect, sometimes an inquisitor was connected to the torture, who hit the mount 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 run. There were no options - only death.


Quartering. (pinterest.com)

Before our era, executions were particularly cruel. The Chinese turned out to be the most “inventive” in terms of cruel bullying, they tried to keep up with them in other countries, inventing their own, “branded” executions.

Terrible Chinese executions

The Chinese in terms of the invention of cruel executions, perhaps, no one could surpass. One of the most exotic ways to punish criminals is to stretch it over the growing shoots of young bamboo. Through the human body, the shoots germinated in a few days, causing incredible suffering to the executed. It was in China that a person who did not inform on a criminal could be cut in half, and it was there that they first began to bury people in the ground alive.

Executions in ancient China were especially cruel. Executioners in China often sawed women for any reason. It is known that cooks were sawn up only because the whiteness of the rice they cooked did not match the color of the Master's wisdom. The women were undressed and, having fastened sharp saws between their legs, they hung them by the hands on rings. They could not hang in a taut state for a long time, it was impossible to sit still and on the edge of a saw. Thus, the cooks sawed themselves from the womb to the chest.

Executioner - one of the most terrible professions To aggravate punishment, Chinese judges used execution, which was called "implementation of five types of punishment." The offender was first branded, then his legs and arms were cut off, and he was beaten to death with sticks. The head of the executed was put on public display in the market.

List of worst executions

The rulers of different countries established the death penalty for a variety of crimes. Often the executions were invented by the judges or executioners themselves. They were the most cruel before our era.

In China, terrible executions were carried out at the stadium. I must say, European countries were less inventive in terms of executions. Europeans preferred quick, "non-sick" killing.

"Punishment by the Wall"

An execution called "punishment by the wall" was invented in ancient Egypt. In fact, this is the immuring of a person by the Egyptian priests in the wall of the dungeon. Executed in this way simply died of suffocation.

In ancient Egypt, very sophisticated executions were invented. In the opera "Aida" you can see the scene of such an execution. For the committed state crime, Radomes and Aida were doomed to a slow death in a stone tomb.

Crucifixion

For the first time, execution by crucifixion was used by the Phoenicians. After some time, this method was adopted from them by the Carthaginians, and then by the Romans.

Crucifixion - the most famous execution The Israelites and the Romans considered death on the cross the most shameful. Often hardened criminals and slaves were executed in this way. Before crucifixion, a person was undressed, leaving only a loincloth. He was beaten with leather whips or freshly cut rods, after which he was forced to carry the cross to the place of crucifixion. Having dug a cross into the ground near the road outside the city or on a hill, a person was lifted with ropes and nailed to him. Sometimes the convict's shins were first broken.

Impalement

Execution by impalement was invented in Assyria. In this way, residents of rebellious cities and women were punished for having an abortion, that is, for infanticide.

Impaling is a common method of execution In Assyria, execution was carried out in two ways. In one version, the chest was pierced with a stake, in another, the point of the stake passed through the body through the anus. People tormented by the stake were often depicted in bas-reliefs as an edification. Later, this execution began to be used by the peoples of the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

"Trough Torture"

One of the most terrible tortures is “trough torture”. At the same time, a person was placed between two troughs fitted one to the other, leaving only the head and legs outside. The victim was forced to eat by force, if he refused, his eyes were pricked with needles. After eating, milk and honey were poured into the mouth of the unfortunate, the face was smeared with the same mixture. The trough was turned towards the sun so that it always shone in the person's eyes.

A simple trough can become a terrible weapon of torture. After some time, worms started up in human sewage, which crawled into the intestines and ate the condemned from the inside. When he finally died, and the trough was removed, under him were entrails teeming with various creatures. The meat was already completely eaten.

The most terrible and painful execution

The most terrible execution was invented in China and was used during the reign of the Qing Dynasty. Its name is "Lin-Chi" or "pike bites". It was also called "death by a thousand cuts." Every year, fifteen to twenty people were executed in this way, and only high-ranking corrupt officials.

"Pike bites" - the most terrible Chinese execution in the world The peculiarity of "Ling-Chi" is to stretch the execution in time. If the offender was sentenced to six months or even a year of torment, the executioner was obliged to extend it precisely for this period. The essence of the execution is to cut off small parts from the human body. For example, having cut off one phalanx of a finger, a professional executioner cauterized the wound and sent the condemned to the cell. The next morning, the next phalanx was cut off, and cauterization was performed again. This went on every day.

Suicide was considered a way to avoid a terrible execution. It was important to prevent the suicide of the offender or his premature death. For this, the executioner himself could be executed. By the end of such a sophisticated execution, the body of a recently well-groomed official turned into a piece of smoked, shuddering meat. Physical suffering in this execution was combined with psychological, moral and status. Terrible are not only executions, but also diseases. Some believe that such diseases are given to people as a punishment for sins.

In the old days, people were sentenced to death for all kinds of crimes: from murder to petty theft. Most often, the executions were public, therefore, in order to attract more onlookers, they tried to make the act of killing more spectacular. And there were no limits to the human imagination.

copper bull

Before execution, the condemned man's tongue was cut off, and then he was locked inside a copper bull. A huge fire was kindled under the bull, and the poor fellow was practically roasted alive in it. Due to the lack of a language, he could not scream, so all that remained for him was to beat against the hot walls. From the blows, the bull staggered and seemed to come to life, causing a stormy delight of the crowd.

Ash execution

The person was locked in a cramped unventilated room filled with ashes. The offender died in long agony, which sometimes lasted several days or weeks.

elephant execution

Those sentenced to death were given to be torn to pieces by a specially trained executioner elephant. He trampled the victim, and she died from injuries. Moreover, those criminals who were stepped on by an elephant, one might say, were still lucky - they died quickly and without torment - while others could be tormented by an elephant for hours.

bamboo execution

The well-known property of bamboo - rapid growth - was also used by the sick human imagination to torture those sentenced to death. The body of a person was placed over the shoots of young bamboo, and the plant sprouted through it, causing unimaginable suffering to the victim.

Milk and honey

The convict was placed in a boat, fixing his body in such a way that he could not move. For a long time, the poor fellow was fed only milk and honey. If he refused to eat, a sharp stick was poked into his eye until he opened his mouth. The skin of the condemned was also smeared with honey. Soon hordes of insects, attracted by the sweet smell, pounced on the body and literally ate the poor fellow alive.

blood eagle

With this method of execution, the condemned was tied up and laid on his stomach. Then the skin on the back was torn open and all the ribs were cut with an ax so that they stick out like wings. After that, the person, as a rule, was still alive. For greater torment, the wounds were sprinkled with salt. And only after some time, the man was finally allowed to die, having torn out his heart and lungs from his tormented body.

Necklace

This type of execution has already been invented today. A rubber tire filled with gasoline is put on a person’s neck or waist and set on fire. The man sentenced to death suffocates from the acrid smoke and burns alive.

In this post, we want to expand and continue this topic a bit, so we present you with the most terrible executions in the world. The faint of heart may not read.

1. This type of execution was widely used by the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians, and then the Romans. With the help of the crucifixion, the most notorious criminals, rebels and slaves were executed. Death by crucifixion was considered shameful. First, the criminal was stripped naked (leaving only a loincloth), then beaten with rods, after which they were forced to carry a huge cross to the place of their execution. After that, the cross was dug into the ground on a hill and a person was lifted on the ropes, after which they were nailed to the cross. Death was long and painful. The man experienced intense thirst, pain and suffering. This is exactly what Jesus Christ suffered. And now the crucifix is ​​a symbol of Christianity.

2. Ling-Chi or Death by a Thousand Cuts. This painful execution was invented in China during the Qing Dynasty. In this way, high-ranking officials who were convicted of corruption were most often executed. The essence of the execution lies in the fact that the offender could be sentenced to a year of torment and the executioner stretched this execution for a year. Every day, the executioner must come to the prisoner's cell and cut off a small part of the body (for example, a piece of a finger), after which he must immediately cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding and the prisoner did not die. The next day, the procedure is repeated, and so on throughout the entire period, until the convict dies. This torture can even be called the most terrible execution.

3. Wall punishment. Ancient Egyptian execution, the meaning of which was to immure the prisoner in the walls of the dungeon, where he slowly died of suffocation.

4. This device resembles a pyramid on legs. The essence of this execution is that the convict is put on this pyramid right on the tip, after which, due to the severity of his weight, the person sank lower and lower along the pyramid, and his body was simply torn and the person felt just wild pain. For greater cruelty, they even hung loads on their feet. Thanks to such an execution, a person could die from several hours to several days. Among other things, this cradle was never washed, so often people suffered from various purulent infections.

5. . It is also a very terrible and terrible execution. The victim was tied to a large wheel, after which the wheel was spinning, and the executioner struck hard blows with a hammer on the limbs, breaking them. After all the limbs were crushed to smithereens, the victim was left to slowly die on this wheel. Often people died from dehydration. Sometimes it happened that the executioner hit the vital organs, then the victim died quickly. Such blows even got their name - "Sweep of mercy."

6. A pretty metal cap was put on the victim's head, and the chin was fixed on the bottom bar. There was a large screw on the caps, which the executioner screwed into the head of the victim. It was one of the favorite tortures of the Spanish Inquisition.

7. Rib hanging. This terrible torture consisted in the fact that a hook was thrust into the side of the condemned person and hung up by the rib, in addition, his hands were tied so that he could not free himself. The man experienced terrible pain and was forced to hang until his death. Often people died in this way simply from dehydration.

8. Skafism. An ancient form of execution. A person was placed in a tree trunk and only watered to failure. The man was suffering from terrible diarrhea and all these feces accumulated constantly. And from the abundance of honey and feces, a bunch of insects flocked, which began to feed on all this and multiply right in the human skin. Death could also occur after 2 weeks if the person did not die earlier from starvation, dehydration or infection.

9. Flaying. A convicted person was skinned alive. This was done for all to see, and this was done in order to keep other residents in fear and obedience.

10. Crushing. A huge board was placed on the victim, on which a huge load (stones) was gradually placed. As a result, a person died either from lack of air or from crushing.

Many unfortunates throughout the history of mankind have experienced all the horrors of torture, but the worst thing is not that these terrible methods of bullying a person existed. Worse, how the authors of the tortures were sophisticated, wanting to deliver maximum torment to their victims.

1. Sitting in the bathroom

The convict was seated in a tub, from which only his head protruded. After the executioner smeared the face of the unfortunate with milk and honey, so that flies flocked to him. The victim was also regularly given food. Ultimately, the man actually bathed in his own feces and rotted alive, while his flesh was eaten by flies and worms.

2. Copper bull


Copper, also known as the Sicilian bull, was designed by the ancient Greeks. This is a copper structure, hollow inside, and with a door on one side. A man was put inside the bull through the latter. After the doors were closed, a fire was lit under the structure. The bull was white-hot, the victim was screaming in a voice that was not his own, and these cries resembled a bull's roar.


It was Vlad the Impaler's favorite method of torture. The stick was sharpened and driven into the ground, and the convict was placed on the tip. Under the weight of its own weight, the victim gradually slid down the stake and pierced his internal organs. Death when impaled on a stake did not occur immediately. Some died for three days. And it gave Vlad a special pleasure. Once he executed 20 thousand people and calmly watched their torment, enjoying a meal.

4. Heretic Fork


The torture device consists of a metal bar with forks at the ends. One end was placed under the chin, and the other - on the collarbone. The fork was attached to the neck with a strap. The victims were not supposed to fall asleep. As soon as they were smeared, the head dropped, and the fork stuck into the throat and chest.


A very humiliating and painful form of torture. A collar made of metal and wood was worn around the victim's neck. After that, for several days the person could not lie down, lower his head, eat. Otherwise, sharp spikes pierced his throat.


This is one of the most famous tortures, and is still practiced in some countries to this day. It consists in tying or nailing a person's limbs to a wooden cross. After this, the unfortunate man is left hanging in the open air without food or water, almost naked. Death by crucifixion does not come soon. It takes several painful days to exhaust.


The instrument of torture is a pyramid on high legs. The convict was planted with his crotch on the point and tied by the limbs. The man sank deeper and deeper into the cone under the weight of his own weight. At night, he was removed from the pyramid and left in limbo to bleed, and the next morning the torture continued. Death occurred within a few days, and often the cause of it was infection - no one ever washed the tip of the cone.

8. Sprinkler


As a rule, molten lead, boiling water, resin or hot oil were poured inside the gun. After the mace was attached in such a way that its contents dripped onto the victim's stomach or into the eyes.


Wardrobe with a folding front wall and a huge number of spikes on the lid. A man was placed inside the maiden, and when the lid was closed, he practically could not move - every movement brought hellish pain.

10. Coffin of torture


A favorite method of torture during the Middle Ages. It consisted in the fact that the victim was placed inside a cell the size of a human body. Fat people were deliberately put in smaller cages. The closed "coffin" was hung on a tree and left on the street to be eaten by birds and animals.


There are many different types of this instrument of torture, but the principle of operation of all of them is the same. The vise is intended for crushing the fingers and toes, knees, elbows. There is even a vise for the cranium. During the Middle Ages, this method of torture was very popular.

12 Rope Torture


The rope is the simplest but most versatile instrument of torture. People have found many uses for it. The rope was used on the gallows. Victims were tied to trees with ropes and left to be torn to pieces by wild animals. The rope was also used to fasten the limbs of the unfortunate to the horses, which were subsequently allowed to run in different directions, and the person was torn to pieces.

13. Pear of suffering


Another terrible instrument of torture was a pear with petals that open when the screw is tightened. The pear was inserted into the mouth or anus of the victim (often in the vagina for girls) and the screw was gradually tightened, thereby tearing the internal organs. The victim died a long painful death.


This is one of the most painful and terrible tortures in the Middle Ages. The tool is a frame with ropes. The victim was tied up and placed on a platform. After that, the executioner began to turn the handle, which pulled out the ropes tied to the limbs of the victim. As a result, bones were broken, muscles were torn, joints popped out. But even after that, the executioners continued to stretch the ropes until the limbs of the victim were torn off the body.


Huge scissors easily cut out people's tongues. The mouth for the "procedure" was opened forcibly with the help of special stretch marks.


For someone, being in the same room with rats is already torture. The essence of this method lies in the fact that a cage with rodents without one wall is placed on the body of the victim. After attaching the structure, they began to heat it from the other side, and the rats, trying to escape from the heat, gnawed their way to freedom through the person.

17. Torture chair


Or the Judas chair. On its surface there are from 500 to 1500 spikes. The victim is held in the chair with stiff straps. Sometimes a source of heat was placed under the chair. The torture chair was often used for intimidation and caused many to "split".

18. Cement boots


The method was invented by the American mafia. When mafiosi executed their enemies, they poured cement mortar over their feet. As soon as the latter hardened, the person was thrown into the river.

19. Forceps-"bibs"


Women were subjected to the same methods of torture as men. But this tool was created specifically for them. The tongs dug into the flesh and pulled out or slowly pulled out. Death occurred as a result of severe blood loss.

20. Crocodile scissors


They were used to execute those who rebelled against the king and tried to kill the monarch. Before crushing and cutting off the victim's testicles, the scissors were heated.


Popular torture during the French Revolution. The victims are a man and a woman. They were stripped naked, tied up and left to drown in this form.


Catherine's wheel made it possible to kill the victim painfully slowly. The unfortunate person was tied to the gun and slowly started to rotate. At this moment, the executioner struck with a hammer on the limbs. When all the bones were broken, the still living victim with the wheel was raised to a high pillar, where birds could feed on its flesh.

23. Spanish donkey

The naked victim was laid astride a structure of wooden boards with a blade on top. Weights are tied to the limbs of the martyr. The weight increases until the blade cuts through flesh.

24. Sawing

The victim was hung upside down so that the blood rushed to the head, and she remained conscious longer. After that, the unfortunate began to be cut in half from the crotch. Many were cut only to the stomach to increase the torment and prolong the agony.

25. Suspended, drowned, dismembered


For high treason in England during the Middle Ages, a person was hanged, drowned and quartered in public. The victim was placed in a frame for executions. After that, the accused was strangled to a pulp, castrated and burned his genitals in front of his own eyes, and at the end they quartered and cut off his head.



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