Horrific Tortures and Punishments Through the Ages


Bamboo Under the Fingernails:

This Chinese torture was agonizingly painful and would often guarantee the confession the torturers wanted. Long thin shoots of sharp bamboo would be inserted benieth the fingernails of the victim, usually all the way back to the cuticle, and then left there. If the prisoner resisted surrendering the wanted information, another finger would be done. And another. And another. If all ten fingers didn't do the trick, there were always the toenails.


The Brank

This was a mean one. Here we have an English device designed to punish woman who talked too much. The Brank, also known as the Scolder's Bridal, consisted of a steel cage worn on the head like a helmet. Inside the cage was a protruding steel plate that either had sharp spikes on it or which was cruelly sharpened. This plate was placed in the offending woman's mouth so that if she even moved her toungue she would do major damage to her mouth and toungue and experiance excrutiating pain. The woman had to wear this contraption in and about town. Occasionally a chain was attached to the front of the Brank so that she could be led around like a dog on a leash.


Castration

A wire or cord was wrapped around the base of the victim's scrotum and the testicles were either cut off or pulled off.


The Chinese Water Torture

We have all heard of this one! A prisoner was tied to a table and his head was strapped in place so that he couldn't move anything but his eyes. Water was then dripped onto his forehead, one inexorable drop at a time. Apparently this was absolutely maddening, and after a period the victim would reviel the sectret, confess to the crime, or agree to do anything his or her captors requested to get them to stop the drip, drip, drip. This doesn't sound as if it would be to hard to take, but reports from the people who have undergone it confirm it to be devilishly effective. This was particularly favored in circumstances where torture was necessary, but no evidence of physical damage could show.


Disemboweling

This could ostensibly be considered a form of execution, in that not too many people can survive having their upper and lower transverse colons and their stomachs surgically removed (without anesthesia of corse) and not put back. Victims of this horrable torment were usually tied to a post or a tree. Their abdomen was then sliced open and their innards pulled out and either left hanging or cut out completely and thrown on the ground. Sometimes the victim was forced to watch his guts set on fire while he was still alive. Needless to say, because of the violent trauma to the body, it did not take long for this form of torture to turn into an execution. Vlad the Impaler was a big fan of disembowelment.


Foot Roasting

This one must have hurt like a bastard. The procedure for this torment consisted of exactly what its title says: a prisoners feet were covered with lard and then slow-roasted over a fire for hours. OUCH!!!


The Garotte

The garotte torture involved binding a prisoner to a rack and tying ropes around his arms and legs. The rope was then slowly tightened until it ate through the first skin, and layers of muscle, until it finally reached the bone. If a person was left tied up long enough on the rack, gangrene and blood poisoning would often set in. But by the time that happened the guy was usually either in shock or dead.


The Garrucha

A prisoner's hands were bound behind his back and he was then picked off the floor by his wrists by a chain suspended from the ceiling. When his body reached a certain height, his captors would begin slowly lowering him to the floor with jerky, bouncy pulls of the chain. By the time the victim reached the floor, both of his arms were usually pulled out of their sockets.


Hacking To Pieces

Depending on what and how many body parts were hacked off determined whether this was torture/punishment or a form of execution. If a hand or a foot (or more than one) was lopped off with a sword or an ax, the victim might survive. Runaway slaves in pre-Civil War America were often hobbled by having one foot chopped off if they were cought. Larcenous workers in African diamond mines were also punished in like manner. Some Far Eastern countries (Iraq and Iran, in particular) still use amputation of the hands as punishment for certain crimes, especially stealing.


Hat Nailing

Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for the Dracula legand, came up with this one. Two Italion ambassadors once refused to take off their hats in his presence. Their punishment was having their hats nailed to their heads.


Impalement



Impalement was a particulat favorate of Vlad the Impaler. This form of torture/execution involved impaling people on wooden spikes and leaving them to die a horrable and painful slow death. The impalement was often done up the rectum, or sometimes through the stomach or heart. Occastionally, for variety, Vlad would impale people upsidedown through the skull. Sometimes just the head was impaled, but this was more a form of decoration than torture because the owner of the head was usually long dead by the time he was put on display.


Skinning

This involved slowly stripping thick layers of skin off the victim's body while they remained concious. Sometimes salt was poured into the raw exposed flesh.


The Spanish Water Torture

A suspect was tied to a rack that swiveled in the middle so that his head could be positioned lower than his feet. The man's head was strapped in place with an iron band and his nose was sealed shut. A thick piece of cloth was then stuffed into his mouth and a slow, steady stream of water was poured into the cloth. The effect combined drowning and suffocation, all while the victim remained completely conscious. This was mainly used to extract confessions from suspected criminals.

The above was taken from "The Odd Index" By Stephen J. Spignesi

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