The most terrible executions in the world. The most terrible tortures in the history of mankind (21 photos)

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 “trademark” executions.

Horrible Chinese executions

Perhaps no one could surpass the Chinese in inventing cruel executions. One of the most exotic ways of punishing criminals is to stretch it over growing shoots of young bamboo. The shoots grew through the human body within a few days, causing incredible suffering to the person being executed. It was in China that a person who did not report 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 particularly cruel. Executioners in China often sawed women for any reason. It is known that cooks were sawn only because the whiteness of the rice they cooked did not match the color of the Master’s wisdom. The women were stripped and, having secured sharp saws between their legs, they were hung by their hands on rings. They could not hang in a taut state for a long time; it was impossible to sit without moving and on the edge of a saw. Thus, the cooks sawed themselves from the womb to the very chest.

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

List of the most terrible executions

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

In China they carried out terrible executions at the stadium. I must say that they were less inventive in terms of executions European countries. Europeans preferred quick, “painless” killing.

"Punishment by the Wall"

Execution called "punishment by the wall" was invented in Ancient Egypt. In essence, this is the immuring of a person by Egyptian priests in a dungeon wall. The person executed in this way simply died from suffocation.

IN ancient Egypt they came up with very sophisticated executions. In the opera “Aida” you can see a 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 is the most famous execution. The Israelis and Romans considered death on the cross to be the most shameful. Hardened criminals and slaves were often executed this way. Before the crucifixion, the 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 himself to the place of crucifixion. Having dug the cross into the ground by the road outside the city or on a hill, the person was lifted with ropes and nailed to it. Sometimes the convict's legs were first broken.

Impalement

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

Impalement is a common method of execution. In Assyria, execution was carried out in two ways. In one version, the convict was pierced with a stake through the chest, in the other, the tip of the stake passed through the body through the anus. People who were tormented on stakes were often depicted on 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.” The person was placed between two troughs fitted one next to the other, leaving only his head and legs outside. The executed person was forced to eat; if he refused, they pierced his eyes with needles. After eating, milk and honey were poured into the unfortunate person’s mouth, and the face was smeared with the same mixture. The trough was turned towards the sun so that it always shone into the person’s eyes.

A simple trough can become a terrible weapon of torture. After some time, worms appeared in human sewage, crawled into the intestines and ate the condemned person from the inside. When he finally died and the trough was removed, underneath 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 “Liyin-Chi” or “sea 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.

“Sea pike bites” is the most terrible Chinese execution in the world. The peculiarity of “Lin-Chi” is in stretching out the execution over time. If a criminal was sentenced to six months or even a year of torment, the executioner was obliged to extend it for exactly this period. The essence of execution is cutting off small parts from a person’s body. For example, having cut off one phalanx of a finger, a professional executioner cauterized the wound and sent the condemned man to his 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 criminal or his premature death. For this, the executioner himself could be executed. By the end of such a sophisticated execution, the body of the recently groomed official turned into a piece of smoked, quivering meat. Physical suffering in this execution was combined with psychological, moral and status. Not only executions are terrible, but also diseases. Some believe that such diseases are given to people as punishment for their sins.

One of the most famous prisons in the world is the American prison Alcatraz ( Alcatraz), also known as Rock (from English - Rock), which is located on a small island of the same name in San Francisco Bay. The prison has been closed for several decades, but thanks to numerous stories and rumors, when people hear the word “Alcatraz” for a long time, they will think first of all about the prison, and not about the island itself!

The prison gained its fame not because of the numerous films filmed here, but because of the prisoners who served time in their cells. Alcatraz housed the most violent criminals in the United States! The island received its name in 1775, when the Spaniard Juan Manuel Ayala arrived in San Francisco Bay. Juan Manuel de Ayala). There are three islands in total in the bay, and the Spaniard gave one of them the name Alcatraces. The meaning of this word is still hotly debated, but most agree that it translates to “pelican” or “strange bird.”

The island was originally used as a military fortress, which was later converted into a federal penitentiary.

Alcatraz was famous for the fact that it was impossible to escape from it. The reason for this seemingly controversial statement is that the prison is located in the center of the bay near the city of San Francisco and can only be reached by water.

However, water is not the only obstacle on the path of a possible fugitive.

The fact is that the water temperature of the bay is not high, and the currents are very strong, so even an excellent swimmer will not be able to overcome
the distance is just over two kilometers from the island to San Francisco.

Alcatraz was also the first long-term military prison. In the 1800s, captives of the civil and Spanish-American
Wars were the first prisoners to arrive on the island. Later, due to the isolated location and
the insurmountable cold waters of the Gulf, authorities viewed Alcatraz as perfect place for holding dangerous prisoners.

In the beginning, Alcatraz or Alcazar was just another federal penitentiary, but over time the prison became famous after such criminals as George "Machine Gun" Kelly and Robert Franklin Stroud served their time there. , Alvin Karpis, Henry Young and Al Capone. Criminals who could not be held by other correctional institutions were also housed here. The average number of inmates at Alcatraz was approximately 260, with 1,545 inmates throughout the prison's 29 years of operation. During this time, there were attempts to escape, but there is not a single official record of the success of at least one of them. Several prisoners have disappeared, but they are all presumed to have drowned in the waters of the bay.

However, soon the first prisoners appeared on the island. These were not notorious criminals at all, but ordinary soldiers who violated some decree. The more prisoners there were on Alcatraz, the fewer guns there were in the fortress. Several more years will pass before the fortress finally loses its original significance and turns into one of the most famous prisons on earth!

Already in 1909, the fortress was demolished, and a prison was built in its place. Construction took place over two years, and the main labor force were prisoners from the Pacific Division of the US Army Disciplinary Barracks. It is this structure that will subsequently receive the name “Rock”.

The prison on Alcatraz Island was supposed to be a real dungeon for the most notorious criminals with minimal rights for prisoners. Thus, the US government wanted to show the public that it was doing everything possible to combat the crime that swept the country in the 20s and 30s of the last century.

In total, Alcatraz prison was designed for 336 people, but it usually housed much fewer prisoners. Many people believe that Alcatraz is one of the darkest and most brutal prisons on Earth, but this is not entirely true. Despite the fact that it was positioned as a maximum security prison, the cells here were single and quite comfortable. Many prisoners from other prisons even wrote applications to be transferred to Alcatraz!

Some of Alcatraz's most famous prisoners are Al Capone, Arthur Doc Barker and George "Machine Gun" Kelly, but the vast majority of local criminals were far from notorious thugs and murderers.

The prison on the island usually only imprisoned those prisoners who were prone to escape. The fact is that it was almost impossible to escape from here. Of course, there were many attempts, and many prisoners even managed to get out of the prison itself, but leaving the island was an impossible task. Strong currents and icy water killed many fugitives who decided to swim to the mainland! During the time Alcatraz was used as a federal prison, there were 14 escape attempts involving a total of 36 people. None of them managed to leave the island alive...

On March 21, 1962, the prison on Alcatraz Island was officially closed. It is believed that it was closed due to the significant costs of maintaining prisoners, as well as the need for expensive restoration work. Several years passed, and in 1973 the legendary prison became available to the general public. Today, Alcatraz is visited by tens of thousands of tourists every year.

Alcatraz prison consisted of 336 cells for serving sentences, divided into two large blocks “B” and “C”, 36 isolated cells, 6 solitary cells in a separate block “D”. The two cells at the end of Block C were used as security break rooms. Most of the prisoners at Alcazar are those who have been identified as particularly violent and dangerous, those who could attempt to escape, and those who are likely to refuse to follow the rules of conduct and procedures in another federal correctional institution.

Alcatraz prisoners could earn privileges that included work, visits from family members, access to the prison library, and recreational activities such as painting and music. Prisoners had only four basic rights - food, clothing, shelter and medical care.

Alcatraz did not have the facilities to carry out the death penalty, so those prisoners who were sentenced to death were sent to San Quentin City Prison for execution in the gas chamber.

Despite strict rules and strict standards for hardened criminals, Alcatraz mostly operated in minimum security mode. The types of work performed by prisoners varied depending on the prisoner, the type of work and the degree of responsibility. Many worked as servants: they prepared food, cleaned, and performed household chores for families living on the island. Alcatraz security officers lived on the island with their families in separate building and in fact were partly prisoners of Alcatraz. In many cases, individual prisoners were even trusted to care for the children of prison staff. Alcatraz was also home to several Chinese families who were hired as servants.

It is officially believed that there was no successful attempt to escape from the Rock, but to this day five prisoners from Alcatraz are listed as "absent, presumed drowned."

* April 27, 1936 - Joe Bowers, who was assigned to burn garbage that day, suddenly began to climb the fence. The guard gave him a warning, but Joe ignored him and was shot in the back. He died from his wounds in the hospital.

* December 16, 1937 - Theodore Cole and Ralph Roy, who worked in the store, decided to escape through the iron bars on the window. They managed to get out of the window, after which they ran to the water and disappeared into San Francisco Bay. Despite the fact that a storm broke out on this very day, many believed that the fugitives managed to reach land. But officially they were considered dead.

* May 23, 1938 - James Limerick, Jimmy Lucas and Raphas Franklin, working in a woodworks store, attacked an unarmed security guard and killed him with a hammer blow to the head. The trio then climbed onto the roof and attempted to disarm the officer guarding the roof of the tower, but he opened fire. Limerick died from his wounds, and the surviving couple received life sentences.

* January 13, 1939 - Arthur Doc Barker, Dale Stamphill, William Martin, Henry Young and Raphas McCain escaped from the isolation compartment into the building where the cells for prisoners were located. They sawed off the bars, climbed out of the building through a window and headed to the water's edge. The guard discovered the fugitives already on the western shore of the island. Martin, Young and McCain surrendered, and Barker and Stamphill, who refused to obey orders, were wounded. Barker died a few days later.

* May 21, 1941 - Joe Kretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle and Lloyd Backdall took several of the guards they were working under hostage. But the guards managed to convince the prisoners to surrender. It is significant that one of these guards later became the third commandant of Alcatraz.

* September 15, 1941 - John Bayles tried to escape while clearing garbage. But the icy water in San Francisco Bay forced him to return to shore. Later, when he was brought to federal court in San Francisco, he tried to escape from there. But again without success.

* April 14, 1943 - James Borman, Harold Brest, Floyd Hamilton and Fred Hunter took two guards hostage in an area where prisoners were working. They climbed out through the window and jumped into the water. But one of the guards managed to signal the emergency to his colleagues, and the officers, who set off in the footsteps of the fugitives, overtook them only at the moment when they were already sailing away from the island. Some of the guards rushed into the water, others opened fire. As a result, Hunter and Brest were detained, Borman was wounded and drowned. And Hamilton was pronounced drowned. Although in fact he hid in a small gorge for two days, and then returned to the territory where the prisoners were working. There he was captured by guards.

* August 7, 1943 - Charon Ted Walters disappeared from the laundry, but was caught on the shore of the bay.

* July 31, 1945 - one of the most elaborate escape attempts. John Giles often worked in the prison laundry, which also washed army uniforms, which were sent to the island especially for this purpose. One day he stole a full set of uniform, changed clothes and calmly left prison and went to lunch with the military. Unfortunately for him, the military was having lunch that day on Angel Island, and not in San Francisco, as Giles had assumed. In addition, his disappearance from prison was immediately noticed. So as soon as he arrived on Angel Island, he was arrested and sent back to Alcatraz.

* May 2-4, 1946 - this day is known as the "Battle of Alcatraz." Six prisoners disarmed the guards and seized a set of keys to the cell block. But their plan began to go awry when the prisoners discovered that they did not have the key to the door leading to the recreation yard. Soon the prison administration suspected something was wrong. But instead of surrendering, the prisoners resisted. As a result, four of them returned to their cells, but not before opening fire on the guards who had been taken hostage. One officer died from his wounds, and a second officer was killed while attempting to regain control of the cell block. About 18 guards were injured. American sailors were immediately called in to help, and on May 4 the mutiny ended with the murder of three prisoners. Subsequently, two “rebels” received a death sentence and ended their days in the gas chamber in 1948. And the 19-year-old rioter received a life sentence.

* July 23, 1956 - Floyd Wilson disappeared from his job at the dock. He hid among the rocks for several hours, but when he was discovered, he gave up.

* September 29, 1958 - While clearing debris, Aaor Bargett and Clyde Johnson subdued a prison officer and attempted to swim away. Johnson was caught in the water, but Bargett disappeared. Intensive searches yielded no results. Bargett's body was found in the San Francisco Bay two weeks later.

* June 11, 1962 - This is the most famous escape attempt thanks to Clint Eastwood and the film "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979). Frank Morris and brothers John and Clarence Anglin were able to disappear from their cells, never to be seen again. A fourth man, Allen West, was also involved in planning the escape, but for unknown reasons remained in the cell the next morning when the escape was discovered. The investigation revealed that the fugitives prepared not only fake bricks to cover the holes made in the walls, but also realistic dolls in the beds, stuffed with human hair, to hide the absence of prisoners during the night rounds. The trio exited through a ventilation pipe adjacent to their cells. The fugitives climbed the pipe to the roof of the prison block (they had previously unbent the iron bars in the ventilation). At the north end of the building they climbed down a drainpipe and thus reached the water. They used prison jackets and a pre-made raft as a means of floating. As a result of a thorough search in the cells of the fugitives, tools were found with which the prisoners used to hammer the walls, and in the bay they found one life jacket made from a prison jacket, an oar, as well as carefully packed photographs and letters belonging to the Anglin brothers. A few weeks later, the body of a man wearing a blue suit similar to a prison uniform was found in the water, but the condition of the body made it impossible to identify him. Morris and the Anglin brothers are officially listed as missing and presumed drowned.

On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz prison was closed. According to the official version, this was done because the costs of maintaining prisoners on the island were too high. The prison required approximately $3-5 million worth of renovations. In addition, keeping prisoners on the island was too expensive compared to a mainland prison, since everything regularly had to be imported from the mainland.

Currently, the prison has been disbanded, the island has been turned into a museum, accessible by ferry from San Francisco from Pier 33.

Since ancient times, the sophisticated mind of man has tried to come up with such a terrible punishment for a criminal, carried out necessarily in public, in order to frighten the gathered crowd with this spectacle and discourage them from any desire to commit criminal acts. This is how the most terrible executions in the world, but most of them, fortunately, have become part of history.

1. Bull Phalaris

The ancient instrument of execution - the “copper bull” or “bull of Phalaris” was invented by the Athenian Peripius in the 6th century BC. e. A huge bull was made from copper sheets, hollow inside and having a door on the side or on the back. A man could fit inside the bull. The person sentenced to execution was placed inside the bull, the door was closed and a fire was lit under the bull’s belly. The bull's nostrils and eyes had holes through which the screams of the roasting victim could be heard - it seemed as if the bull himself was roaring. The inventor of this execution instrument himself became its first victim - so the tyrant Phalaris decided to test the functionality of the device. But Peripius was not fried to death, but was extracted in time to then be “mercifully” thrown into the abyss. However, Phalarids himself subsequently experienced the belly of the copper bull.

2. Hanging, drawing and quartering

This multi-stage execution was practiced in England and was applied to traitors to the crown, as it was the most serious crime at that time. It was applied only to men, and women were lucky - their body was considered unsuitable for such execution, so they were simply burned alive. This bloody and brutal execution was legal in “civilized” Britain until 1814.
At first, the convicts were dragged to the place of execution, tied to a horse, and then, in order not to kill the victim during transportation, they began to be laid in front of the drag on a kind of sled. After this, the condemned man was hanged, but not to death, but was taken out of the noose in time and laid on the scaffold. Then the executioner cut off the victim’s genitals, opened the stomach and took out the entrails, which were burned right there so that the person being executed could see it. Then the criminal was beheaded and the body was cut into 4 parts. After this, the head of the executed person was usually mounted on a pike, which was fixed on the bridge in the Tower, and the remaining parts of the body were transported to the largest English cities, where they were also displayed - this was the usual wish of the king.

3. Burning

People adapted to burning a condemned person alive in two ways. In the first case, a person was tied to a vertical pole and covered on all sides with brushwood and firewood - in this case, he burned in a ring of fire. It is believed that this is how Joan of Arc was executed. In another method, the condemned person was placed on top of a stack of firewood and also chained to a post, and the firewood was set on fire from below, so in this case the flame slowly rose up the stack and approached the legs and then the rest of the body of the unfortunate person.
If the executioner was skilled in his craft, then the burning was carried out in a certain sequence: first the ankles, then the thighs, then the arms, then the torso with forearms, the chest, and finally the face. This was the most painful type of burning. Sometimes executions were carried out on a mass scale, then some of the condemned died not from burns, but simply by suffocation from the waste released during the combustion carbon monoxide. If the wood was damp and the fire was too weak, then the victim would most likely die from heatstroke, blood loss or painful shock. Later, people became more “humane” - they hung the victim before burning, and what went on the fire was already dead body. This was the method most often used to burn witches throughout Europe, with the exception of the British Isles.

4. Lynch

Eastern people were especially sophisticated in torture and execution. So, the Chinese came up with a very cruel execution called linchi, which consisted of slowly cutting off small pieces of flesh from the victim. This type of execution was used in China until 1905. The condemned man was gradually cut off pieces of meat from his arms and legs, stomach and chest, and only at the very end they plunged a knife into his heart and cut off his head. There are sources claiming that such an execution could last for several days, but this still seems like an exaggeration.
This is how an eyewitness, one of the journalists, described such an execution: “The condemned man was tied to a cross, after which the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, grabbed handfuls of fleshy body parts on the hips and chest with his fingers and carefully cut them off. He then trimmed the tendons of the joints and protruding parts of the body, including the fingers, ears and nose. Next came a line of limbs, starting at the ankles and wrists, then higher up at the knees and elbows, after which the remainder was cut off at the exit of the body. Only after this came a direct stab in the heart and cutting off the head.”

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5. Wheeling

Wheeling, or as they said in some countries, “Catherine’s wheel,” was widely used for executions in the Middle Ages. The criminal was tied to a wheel and all his large bones and spine were broken with an iron crowbar. After this, the wheel was mounted horizontally on a pole with a pile of meat and bones of the ground victim lying on top. Birds often flew in to feast on the meat of a still living person. The victim could live for several more days until he died from dehydration and painful shock. The French made this execution more humane - before the execution they strangled the convict.

6. Boiling in boiling water

The criminal was stripped naked and placed in a vat of boiling liquid, which could be not only water, but also tar, acid, oil or lead. Sometimes it was placed in a cold liquid, which was heated from below by a fire. Sometimes criminals were hung on a chain, on which they were lowered into boiling water, where they were cooked. This type of execution was widely used for counterfeiters and poisoners in England during the reign of Henry VIII.

7. Skinning

In this version of slow killing, either all the skin or some parts of it were removed from the body of the convicted person. The skin was removed with a sharp knife, trying to keep it intact - after all, it was then supposed to serve to intimidate the people. This type of execution has ancient history. According to legend, the Apostle Bartholomew was crucified upside down on St. Andrew's Cross and skinned. The Assyrians flayed their enemies to terrorize the population of captured cities. Among the Mexican Aztecs, skinning was of a ritual nature, it often touched the head (scalping), but even the bloodthirsty Indians usually scalped corpses. This far from humane form of execution is already prohibited everywhere, but in one village in Myanmar they recently flayed all the men.

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8. Impalement

A well-known type of execution where the criminal was placed on a vertical sharpened stake. Until the 18th century, this method of execution was used by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which executed so many Zaporozhye Cossacks. But they also knew it in Sweden in the 17th century. Here peritonitis or blood loss leads to death, and death occurred very slowly, after a few days.
In Romania, when women were impaled, the instrument of execution was inserted into their vagina, then they died faster from heavy bleeding. A man planted on a sharp stake, under the influence of his own weight, descended lower and lower along it, and the stake gradually tore apart his insides. To prevent the victim from getting rid of the torment too quickly, the stake was sometimes made not sharp, but rounded and lubricated with fat - then it penetrated more slowly and did not tear the organs. Another innovation was the crossbars nailed slightly below the end of the stake; by descending to which the victim did not have time to damage vital organs and, again, suffered even longer.

9. Skafism

This ancient Eastern method of execution is unhygienic, but causes a painful, long death. The condemned person was completely undressed, coated with honey and placed in a narrow boat or a hollowed-out tree trunk, and covered with the same object on top. It turned out something like a turtle: only the limbs and head of the victim were sticking out, which was heavily fed with honey and milk to cause uncontrollable diarrhea. A similar structure was either placed in the sun or allowed to float in a pond with stagnant water. The object quickly attracted the attention of insects, which entered the boat, where they slowly gnawed at the body of the victim, laying larvae there until sepsis began.
The “compassionate” executioners continued to feed the poor fellow every day in order to prolong his suffering. Finally, he usually died from a combination of septic shock and dehydration. Plutarch reported that this is how they executed King Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, and suffered for 17 days. The American Indians also used a similar method of execution - they tied a victim covered in mud and oil to a tree, leaving it to be eaten by ants.

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10. Sawing

The person condemned to execution was hung upside down with his legs spread apart and began to be sawed in the groin area. The victim's head was at the lowest point, so the brain was better supplied with blood and, despite the enormous loss of blood, remained conscious longer. Sometimes the victim lived to be sawed down to the diaphragm. This execution was known both in Europe and in some places in Asia. They say that this is how Emperor Caligula loved to have fun. But in the Asian version, sawing was carried out from the head.

What do you think was the most terrible thing during the Middle Ages? Lack of toothpaste good soap or shampoo? The fact that medieval discos were held to the tedious music of mandolins? Or maybe the fact that medicine did not yet know vaccinations and antibiotics? Or endless wars? Yes, our ancestors did not visit cinemas and did not send messages to each other emails. But they were also inventors. And the worst thing they invented was instruments for torture, instruments with the help of which the system of Christian justice was created - the Inquisition. And for those who lived in the Middle Ages, Iron Maiden is not the name of a heavy metal band, but one of the most disgusting gadgets of that time.

Iron Maiden. Iron Maiden. Maid of Nuremberg

This is not “three girls under the window.” This is a huge sarcophagus in the form of an open, empty female figure, inside of which numerous blades and sharp spikes are reinforced. They are located in such a way that the vital organs of the victim imprisoned in the sarcophagus are not affected, so the agony of the person sentenced to execution was long and painful. The "Virgin" was first used in 1515. The condemned man died for three days.

Pear

This device was inserted into the openings of the body - it is clear that not into the mouth or ears - and opened so as to cause unimaginable pain to the victim, tearing these openings.

Copper Bull

This torture was developed in Athens, Greece. This was a bull shape made of metal (brass) and hollow inside, with a door on the side. The convict was placed inside the “bull”. The fire was lit and heated to the point where the brass turned yellow, eventually causing it to slowly brown. The bull was designed in such a way that when screaming and screaming from inside, you could hear the roar of a mad bull.

Torture by rats

Torture by rats was very popular in ancient China. However, we will look at the rat punishment technique developed by 16th century Dutch Revolution leader Diedrick Sonoy.

How it works?

1. The stripped naked martyr is placed on a table and tied;
2. Large, heavy cages containing hungry rats are placed on the prisoner's stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened using a special valve;
3. Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4. In an attempt to escape the heat of the hot coals, rats chew their way through the flesh of the victim.

Vigil or Cradle of Judas

The know-how belongs to Hippolyte Marsili. At one time, this instrument of torture was considered loyal - it did not break bones or tear ligaments. First, the sinner was lifted on a rope, and then sat on the Cradle, and the top of the triangle was inserted into the same holes as the Pear. It hurt to such an extent that the sinner lost consciousness. He was lifted, “pumped out” and put back on the Cradle. I don’t think that in moments of enlightenment the sinners thanked Hippolytus for his invention.

Trampling by elephants

For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. An elephant is very easy to train and teaching it to trample a guilty victim with its huge feet is a matter of just a few days.

How it works?

1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the martyr's head;
3. Sometimes, before the “head test,” animals crush the victims’ arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.

Rack

This device is an oblong rectangle with a wooden frame. The hands were firmly fixed below and above. As the interrogation/torture proceeded, the executioner turned the lever, with each turn the person was stretched and hellish pain set in. Usually, upon completion of the torture, the person either simply died from pain shock, because that’s all his joints were pulled out.

Dead Man's Bed (modern China)

The Chinese Communist Party uses the “dead man’s bed” torture mainly on those prisoners who try to protest against illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience, imprisoned for their beliefs.

How it works?

1. The arms and legs of a stripped prisoner are tied to the corners of the bed, on which, instead of a mattress, there is a wooden board with a hole cut out. A bucket for excrement is placed under the hole. Often, a person’s body is tied tightly to the bed with ropes so that he cannot move at all. A person remains in this position continuously for several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, police also place a hard object under the victim's back to intensify the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and the person hangs for 3-4 days, stretched out by his limbs.
4. Added to this torment is force-feeding, which is carried out using a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is performed mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by medical workers. They do it very rudely and unprofessionally, often causing serious damage internal organs person.
6. Those who have gone through this torture say that it causes displacement of the vertebrae, joints of the arms and legs, as well as numbness and blackening of the limbs, which often leads to disability.

Yoke (Modern China)

One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is placed on a prisoner, causing him to be unable to walk or stand normally. The clamp is a board from 50 to 80 cm in length, from 30 to 50 cm in width and 10 – 15 cm in thickness. In the middle of the clamp there are two holes for the legs. The victim, who is wearing a collar, has difficulty moving, must crawl into bed and usually must sit or lie down because vertical position causes pain and leads to leg injury. Without assistance, a person with a collar cannot go to eat or go to the toilet. When a person gets out of bed, the collar not only puts pressure on the legs and heels, causing pain, but its edge clings to the bed and prevents the person from returning to it. At night the prisoner is unable to turn around, and in winter the short blanket does not cover his legs. An even worse form of this torture is called “crawling with a wooden clamp.” The guards put a collar on the man and order him to crawl on the concrete floor. If he stops, he is hit on the back with a police baton. An hour later, his fingers, toenails and knees are bleeding profusely, while his back is covered in wounds from the blows.

Impalement

A terrible, savage execution that came from the East. The essence of this execution was that a person was laid on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A stake was inserted into the person's anus, which was then driven in with a mallet; then they drove a stake into the ground. The weight of the body forced the stake to go deeper and deeper and finally it came out under the armpit or between the ribs.

Chinese water torture

They sat a man in a very cold room, tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness they very slowly dripped water onto his forehead. cold water. After a few days the person froze or went crazy.

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 placed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he found himself in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly fry, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time. Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne to which the victim was tied and a fire was lit under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The famous poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such a chair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.

GRIDIRON (Grid for Torture by Fire)

Torture of Saint Lawrence on the gridiron.

This type of torture is often mentioned in the lives of saints - real and fictitious, but there is no evidence that the gridiron “survived” until the Middle Ages and had even a small circulation in Europe. It is usually described as an ordinary metal grate, 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, mounted horizontally on legs to allow a fire to be built underneath. 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 used very rarely. Firstly, it was quite easy to kill the person being interrogated, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.

Pectoral

In ancient times, a pectoral was a female breast decoration in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often sprinkled with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and secured with chains. In a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named. In 1985, the pectoral was heated red-hot and, taking it with tongs, they put it on the tortured woman’s chest and held it until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral again cooled by the living body and continued the interrogation. Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes were left in place of the woman’s breasts.

tickle torture

This seemingly harmless effect was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person's nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch initially caused twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for quite a long time, then after a while spasms would appear. respiratory muscles and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation. At the most simple version torture: sensitive areas were tickled by the interrogated, either simply with their hands, or with hair brushes or brushes. Hard ones were popular bird feathers. Usually they tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, and women also under the breasts. In addition, torture was often carried out using animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated person. The goat was very often used, since its very hard tongue, adapted for eating grass, caused very strong irritation. There was also a type of tickling torture using a beetle, most common in India. With it, a small bug was placed on the head of a man's penis or on a woman's nipple and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of insect legs on a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything...

Crocodile

These tubular metal crocodile pliers were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the person being tortured. First, with a few caressing movements (often made by women), or with a tight bandage, a persistent, hard erection was achieved and then the torture began

Tooth crusher

These serrated iron tongs were used to slowly crush the testicles of the interrogated person. Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.

Creepy tradition

Actually, this is not torture, but an African ritual, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls aged 3-6 years old simply had their external genitalia scraped out without anesthesia. Thus, the girl did not lose the ability to have children, but was forever deprived of the opportunity to experience sexual desire and pleasure. This ritual is done “for the benefit” of women, so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husbands...

Bloody Eagle

Part of the image engraved on the Stora Hammers stone. The illustration shows a man lying on his stomach, with an executor standing over him, ripping open the man’s back with an unusual weapon. One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, his ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. Scandinavian legends claim that during such an execution, the wounds of the victim were sprinkled with salt.

Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses caught in treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.

Spanish water torture

In order to best carry out the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the types of racks or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's arms and legs were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner began work in one of several ways. One of these methods involved forcing the victim to swallow a large amount of water using a funnel, then hitting the distended and arched abdomen. Another form involved placing a cloth tube down the victim's throat through which water was slowly poured, causing the victim to swell and suffocate. If this was not enough, the tube was pulled out, calling internal damage, and then inserted again and the process was repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under the spray. ice water. It is interesting to note that this type of torture was considered light, and the court accepted confessions obtained in this way as voluntary and given by the defendant without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to extract confessions from heretics and witches.

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Attitudes towards crimes and criminals in different eras and in different countries differed, so the severity of the punishment varied. But if a person was sentenced to execution, then it was very cruel. The most brutal executions in the history of mankind cause horror, since the condemned could die in terrible agony for weeks.

10 most brutal executions in the world

1. Chinese execution. Oddly enough, the executioners treated women with particular cruelty. One of the most terrible executions in history was practiced in China. The condemned woman was stripped naked and, deprived of support on her feet, saws were secured between her legs.

Execution "Sawing"

The woman's hands were tied to the ring. Under the influence of gravity, the victim fell down onto the cutting edges of the saws, so that her body was slowly sawed from the womb to the sternum. The reasons for such a terrible punishment are incomprehensible to us; for example, the rice prepared by the cook did not turn out to be as snow-white as the color of the owner’s wisdom required.

2. Quartering. In Russia, and throughout Europe, in India, China, Egypt, Persia and Rome, this execution implied tearing or dismemberment human body into several parts. The parts themselves were put on public display after the execution was completed. There are many options for dividing a criminal into parts - he was torn apart by horses, bulls, treetops. In some cases, an executioner was used to cut off the limbs.

Execution "Quartering"

Moreover, it is impossible to even identify for what type of crime such punishment was imposed. It was often used when it was necessary to make an execution spectacular. That’s why they quartered deserters and members of their families, state criminals, rapists, Christians in ancient Rome, etc.

3. "Tin Soldier" Alcatraz prison has gone down in history as one of the most terrible prisons in the world due to its executions. The management of the correctional institution had an unhealthy imagination; it is simply impossible to explain the appearance of the “tin soldier” otherwise.

The convicted prisoner received an injection of heroin, after which he was doused with heated paraffin. At the same time, the guards put the person in a pose that was funny from their point of view. When the paraffin hardened, the person simply could not move anymore - the result was a “tin soldier”. After this, the guards cut off the prisoner's limbs. Death from shock and blood loss lasted for hours, which the executed person experienced in terrible agony.

4. “The Cradle of Judas.” Another no less cruel option for killing prisoners at Alcatraz is the “Cradle of Judas.” The person sentenced to execution was placed on a pyramid, with his hands and body fixed. The tip of the pyramid was placed in the anus or vagina, so that the structure gradually tore the body apart. To speed up the process, weights were attached to the condemned man's feet, increasing the pressure.

This slow and painful death from blood loss and sepsis took up to several days; with weights, the process was accelerated to several hours. The leadership of the famous prison borrowed this barbaric method from the medieval inquisitors.

5. Keeling. There was a separate set of executions for pirates, the worst of which was pitching. The person was tied up and pulled with a rope under the keel of the ship.

Execution "Kilevanie"

As long as it lasted for a long time, then the person had time to choke, not to mention the blows on the keel itself, covered with sharp shellfish - the person’s skin was torn off. However, this type of punishment for disobedience to the captain, who had absolute power on the ship, was also practiced in the English fleet.

6. Deserted island. Another pirate execution option known throughout the world - the rebels were not killed, but were landed on a desert island that would feed the criminals.

Many unlucky rebels were left for years to eke out a miserable existence on a piece of land without normal food or amenities.

7. Walking on a plank. This type of execution among pirates is described in adventure novels.

Execution "Walking on the Plank"

The crew of the captured ship was not needed by the robbers, so they set off to sea. The board was placed over the side of the ship, so that a person, having walked along it, fell into the sea in the mouth of waiting sharks.

8. Execution for treason. In many cultures, the punishment for adultery for a woman is death. Methods of execution vary. In Turkey, an adulteress was sewn into a bag with a cat and the bag was beaten. The maddened animal tore the woman apart, and the convict died from blood loss and beatings.

In Korea, the adulteress was forced to drink vinegar, and then the adulteress's swollen body was beaten with sticks until the fairer sex died.

9. ISIS executions. The types of punishments adopted by ISIS (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) are also classified as cruel, but they do not occupy the first place in the list of TOP 10 terrible executions.

Representatives of the group willingly distribute in the media photos and videos of executions by burning and beheading, which is not much different from the medieval set of tortures and executions.

10. Executions for rape. Executions for rape are often much less brutal than for adultery, especially for the fairer sex. However, the death of a rapist was threatened not only in the Middle Ages, this is still relevant today in Iran, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Pakistan, Sudan.

However, Muslim tort law sometimes causes strange decisions. There are precedents when, after rape, a girl is executed by stoning, because the victim allegedly seduced the rapist. In other countries, for crimes of a sexual nature, the offender is punished with imprisonment for a term of 1 year to life imprisonment.

During Soviet times, rape committed by a repeat offender, rape that resulted in grave consequences, or rape of a minor victim was punishable by death. This law was in force until 1997. By the way, a similar measure for the rape of a child in the US state of Louisiana was abolished only in 2008.