The Big Book of Pain: Torture & Punishment Through History
Page 20
Command was now given that the fire should be kindled, but owing to the number of green [twigs] it was some time before the flames set fire to the reeds. Another fire was soon kindled of a more virulent nature … he now prayed with a loud voice. ‘Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me; Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And these were the last words he was heard to utter. But even when his face was completely black with the flames, and his tongue swelled so that he could not speak, yet his lips went till they were sunk to the gums; and he knocked his breast with his hands until one of his arms fell off, then continued knocking with the other while the fat, water and blood dripped out at his finger ends. At length, by renewing of the fire, his strength was gone … Soon after, the whole lower part of his body being consumed, he fell over the irons that bound him, into the fire, amidst the horrible yells and acclamations of the bloody crew that surrounded him. This holy martyr was more than three quarters of an hour consuming; the inexpressible anguish of which he endured as a lamb … his nether parts were consumed and his bowels fell out some time before he expired …
* * *
BURNING SULFUR
* * *
Toward the end of the great age of witch hunts, German inquisitors sometimes tortured suspected witches by placing a lump of sulfur under one or both armpits and setting it alight. Considering that sulfur burns so furiously that even water can not extinguish it, and that major veins and arteries lie embedded beneath the arms, this could well have been not only unimaginably painful but terminal.
* * *
THE CAULDRON
* * *
Apparently devised by the Spanish Inquisition, the cauldron consisted of nothing more than a large kettle which was turned upside-down on a victim’s stomach. Beneath the cauldron were several mice, or one or two rats. A charcoal fire was then lit on the upturned bottom of the pot and as the vessel heated to red-hot the frantic rodents sought the only possible route of escape by clawing and chewing their way into the victim’s stomach.
The cauldron or fire bowl.
* * *
FRYING AND ROASTING
* * *
From the days of ancient Assyria until early eighteenth-century France, people have been heaved into gigantic frying pans and roasted like living chops. This account of frying comes from the Roman chronicler Gallonio and describes one such execution which took place during Emperor Nero’s persecution of the Christians (64–68 AD).
The frying pan … was filled with oil, pitch or resin, and then set over a fire; and when it began to boil and bubble, then were the Christians of either sex thrown into it … to the end that they might be roasted and fried like fishes …
Roasting alive.
The Romans occasionally roasted one of their victims on a gridiron, a grate-like construction that functioned like a massive barbeque grill. Supposedly St Lawrence the martyr was dispatched this way in the year 258. Similarly, during the Spanish Inquisition, there are reports of Inquisitional victims being put into gigantic pans and slid into huge ovens like roasts.
* * *
HOT WIRE
* * *
While binding various parts of the body with cords and ropes was common in many places and times, the Mogul Emperors of India took this torture one step further and bound their victim’s thumbs, fingers or hands with hot wires. As though the pain of the searing wire burning its way into their flesh were not enough, once the wire was in place it was doused with cold water, causing it to contract and cut its way still deeper into flesh and bone.
* * *
SPANISH CHAIR
* * *
The Spanish Inquisition seemed never to run out of creative ways to inflict pain on their victims. The Spanish Chair looked like nothing so much as an old-fashioned wicker garden chair, with the exception that it was made entirely out of iron. The open spaces of the back, seat and between the arms and legs were filled with chain mail and metal restraints at the wrists, ankles and across the chest held the victim in place. In some cases this chain mail was fitted with sharp spikes that dug into the victim’s flesh. Once strapped and spiked into place, the agony was increased either by placing a brazier of hot coals under the seat, or exposing the victim’s feet directly to a live fire. To prevent the feet from burning away too fast, they were sometimes basted with oil or fat. While it would be comforting to say that this little horror was limited to the Spanish Inquisition, the truth is that it was widely adopted throughout Germany, France, much of Central Europe and even, according to some sources, Great Britain, and remained in use until well into the 1700s.
Trial by ordeal.
* * *
TRAIL BY FIRE AND WATER
* * *
During the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages, Trial by Ordeal was a perfectly acceptable means of determining whether or not a person was guilty of a specific crime. Despite the fact that the outcome was as random as throwing dice, Trial by Ordeal was accepted by the Church, governments and the populace at large as an incontrovertible means of establishing the truth – primarily because it removed the flawed element of human judgment and left the outcome firmly in the hands of God. In Trial by Fire the accused was required to walk barefoot over anywhere from three to nine red-hot ploughshares, pick up a glowing hot iron bar and walk three paces or, alternately, place their hand inside a super-heated glove of chain mail. When the ordeal was over, the damaged part of the body was salved with ointment and wrapped in a linen bandage. Three days later the bandage was removed; if no blisters had appeared the accused was deemed innocent. If, on the other hand, there was obvious blistering the judgment was ‘guilty’. Trial by Water involved the accused plunging their hands (sometimes swathed in protective layers of linen cloth) into a vat of boiling water in order to extract a large stone from the bottom of the pot. As with Trial by Fire, the hands were salved and bandaged and examined after three days.
TORTURE BY CRUSHING, SMASHING OR BREAKING
* * *
BOOTS
* * *
This particularly nasty little device first appears in the historical record around the year 1590 and was used in different forms and shapes throughout Britain, Europe and the Orient for centuries. The British and European version of the boot was generally an iron, boot-shaped shell designed to fit over the foot and lower leg of the victim. Once in place, wooden wedges were driven between boot and leg until the limb crushed to the point where blood, muscle and even bone marrow oozed from the cracks and out around the top of the boot. As though that were not enough, sometimes the boot was applied red-hot, searing the flesh before the crushing began. In India, the boot consisted of little more than two boards, lashed to either side of the victim’s foot, after which the ropes were twisted so tight that the ankle bones, and eventually the entire foot, was crushed.
A version of the boot.
* * *
BREAKING ON THE WHEEL
* * *
The wheel in question might be no more than a standard wheel taken from an oxcart or wagon, or it might be as elaborate as a custom-made device resembling a wheel mounted on a low pole (or axle) permanently set into the ground in such a manner that the wheel and support pole looked like a circular picnic table. To this wheel, those condemned to an especially brutal death were tied in a spread-eagle position. In front of a cheering crowd the executioner proceeded to inflict as many varying painful tortures as possible until the victim died. Common among the tortures used on the wheel were having great pieces of flesh ripped from the body with plier-like pincers (sometimes heated red-hot), having every joint and limb shattered with iron bars or wooden mallets and having the hands, feet, arms and legs lopped off with axes. As life ebbed from the victim and the spectacle seemed nearly over, the executioner would strike off the poor wretch’s head. A particularly elaborate variation on the wheel used by the Romans involved a wide, drum-like wheel mounted about 1ft above the ground on an ‘A’ frame, so as to resemble a Ferris wheel. The outside of the wheel was set with multiple spikes and
it was to the face of these that the victim was tied. Beneath the wheel, mounted into the ground was a second set of spikes. When the wheel was turned the victim was ground to pieces between the two sets of spikes.
The wheel.
Brodequins.
* * *
BRODEQUIN
* * *
Used primarily by the French, the brodequin was a shallow, three-sided box, or trough, made to fit snugly enough around a man’s legs so that the legs were compressed tightly together. When the legs were in place they were securely bound with ropes. Next, wooden wedges were driven between the victim’s knees and ankle balls, shattering the delicate bone ends. Additional wedges were often driven directly into the soft tissue of the thighs and around the shins.
Finger pillory.
* * *
PILLIWINCKES
* * *
A uniquely Scottish device, the pilliwinckes (alternatively spelled pilliwinks) were a device for crushing the fingers not unlike the thumb screws (see p.179). Whatever their precise appearance, written descriptions indicate that they caused the fingers of one hand to be bent palm-ward from the rear-most joint where they were held in a flat position while the device was slowly tightened to the point where the fingers were crushed. Whatever their exact nature, they were universally described as ‘a grievous torture’.
* * *
PRESSING
* * *
Pressing was used specifically as a method to force reluctant suspects into confessing their crimes. Under medieval and later law, a full confession was necessary before the government could confiscate the property of the convicted party. Without such a confession the suspect’s personal property would remain in the family even if the party in question was found guilty. To help ensure a confession, the slow and painful torture of pressing was instituted. According to the official act:
Finger screws.
the prisoner shall be remanded to the place from whence he came, and put in some low, dark room; there he shall lie without any litter or anything under him, and that one arm shall be drawn to one quarter of the room with a cord, and the other to another, and that his feet shall be used in the same manner, and that as many weights shall be laid on him as he can bear, and more. That he shall have no sustenance but the worst bread and water, and that he shall not eat the same day on which he drinks, not drink on the same day on which he eats; and so he shall continue till he die.
A version of the brodequin.
Obviously the point was to make the poor wretch talk long before he expired, but in some instances the accused held out until their ribs were crushed. Such was the case of Margaret Clitheroe who, in 1586, was accused of providing sanctuary for a Jesuit priest. After a quarter of an hour of pressing, during which time nearly 900lbs were piled on her, Clitheroe’s ribs literally exploded through her sides. Another case where the victim held out until his body was crushed under the weight took place during the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 when Giles Corey was pressed to death for refusing to confess that he was a witch. In a slower, more prolonged pressing, in 1776 Thomas Spiggot endured more than a week of daily increased weights. In his delirium Spiggot believed his head was being crushed but, in truth, it was only the increased blood pressure that caused the pain in his head. Finally, after a total of 400lbs had been piled on top of the door laid on Spiggot’s back, he agreed to confess. In India a variation on pressing involved tying two stout bamboo poles to the front and back of a victim’s chest and then, usually with the aid of ropes, pulling them tighter and tighter until the ribs were crushed. In this instance the purpose of the exercise was not to make the victim confess but to maim them so horribly that they were assured of a slow, agonising death.
The wheel.
Scavenger’s daughter.
* * *
SCAVENGER’S DAUGHTER
* * *
Named for its inventor, Leonard Skeffington (whose name was later corrupted to ‘scavenger’), Lieutenant of the Tower of London during the reign of Henry VIII, the scavenger’s daughter was a torture device made of iron bars that had been roughly formed into an ‘A’ shape with a loop at the top large enough to be locked around a man’s neck, two loops at the mid-point (approximately where the cross-bar of the A would be) manacled the wrists and two more loops as the lower ends of the A, into which the victim’s knees could be locked. The device was short enough that the body had to be bent forward far beyond its normal limits – usually by having the torture master’s assistant straddling the victim and pressing down on his shoulders – before a man could be locked into it. The chest was forced to the knees and the stomach to the thighs until the victim was virtually doubled into a ball. The unnatural extension of the spine caused blood to gush from the victim’s ears, nose and mouth. If left on for more than a few minutes the scavenger’s daughter could permanently dislocate the spine and fracture the breast bone and ribs. Alternatively called Skevington’s Gyves, the Iron Shackle, the Spanish A-frame and the Stork, there are only a very few accounts of this device ever being used. A make-shift variation on the Scavenger’s Daughter was employed by Britain’s Royal Navy where it was referred to as ‘Tying Neck and Heels’. In this procedure, the victim would have one musket laid across his shoulders and another placed beneath his knees. The two guns were then pulled towards each other with the aid of ropes and several strong sailors. The damage was nearly identical to that inflicted by the Scavenger’s Daughter.
A sketch of the scavenger’s daughter in use.
Headcrusher or schneiden.
* * *
SCHNEIDEN
* * *
As far as we are aware, this is a uniquely German device, first recorded in 1530 and also known as the Kranz. It was, in effect, no more and no less than a jaw crushing machine. The Schneiden took the form of an iron skullcap held in place by a heavy leather chinstrap. Once in place the strap could be tightened with a ratchet. If pulled tight enough the victim’s teeth were shattered, his jaw broken to pieces and the pressure on the skull became so intense that it felt as though it would explode. To make the pain more unbearable the torture master might amuse himself by tapping on the metal cap with a small hammer.
* * *
THUMB SCREWS
* * *
This infamous device was designed to place increasing amounts of pressure on the knuckles of both thumbs simultaneously. The victim’s thumbs were inserted into an ‘M’-shaped frame of iron or wood and locked into place by means of a bottom plate which was screwed into place by a small crank or wing nut. As the nut was turned, the lower plate pushed ever harder on thumbs, squeezing them against the top bar of the frame. When the victim agreed to give the right answers the pressure was released; if they refused to cooperate, the pressure could be increased until the knuckles were shattered. In India, a torture similar to the thumb screws was devised, wherein the fingers of the accused were crushed between bamboo rods. Alternatively, the fingers of one hand were bound tightly together with cord and bamboo wedges were driven between the knuckles of the fingers, slicing through flesh, tendon and bone, crushing the knuckles and breaking the fingers.
Thumb screws.
TORTURE BY CUTTING, PIERCING, TEARING AND IMPALING
* * *
AMPUTATION
* * *
From the dawn of history criminals and enemies of the state have been subjected to having varying parts of their bodies lopped off both as a punishment and as a visible warning to those who would emulate their transgressions. Ears, noses, lips, hands, feet and entire legs have been publicly hacked away, leaving the victim permanently maimed and unable to earn an honest living.
Typical of this practice was medieval France where felons were often sentenced to have their feet amputated; thieves lost their left ear for a first offence, the right for a second and their life for a third. Similarly, under King Louis XII (reigned 1498–1515) anyone found guilty of eight offences of blasphemy had their tongues ripped out. Under English King, Canute (reigned
995–1035) adulterous women had their nose and ears cut off. The most elaborate ceremony associated with corporal amputation came about during the reign of England’s Henry VIII (1509–47).
Shears for amputation of digits, ears, noses, tongues, etc.