Bloody oven. The most cruel and painful execution

Attitudes towards crimes and criminals differed in different eras and in different countries, so the severity of punishment also 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 dismembering the 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.

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.

Since this lasted for a long time, the person had time to choke, not to mention the blows on the keel itself, covered with sharp shellfish - the skin was torn off from the person. 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.

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 true today in Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and 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.

Chinese bamboo torture

A notorious method of terrible Chinese execution throughout 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 a full 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) Sprouts of living bamboo are sharpened with a knife to form sharp “spears”;
2) The victim is suspended horizontally, with his back or stomach, over a bed of young pointed bamboo;
3) The bamboo quickly grows high, pierces the skin of the martyr and grows through his abdominal cavity, the person dies for a very long time and painfully.

Like torture with bamboo, the “iron maiden” is considered by many researchers to be a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the people under investigation, after which they confessed to anything.

"Iron Maiden"

The “Iron Maiden” was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. 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 quite short and do not pierce the victim, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, receives a confession in a matter of minutes, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to remain silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never admits to what she had done, so she was locked in a sarcophagus for a long time, where she died from loss of blood;
5) Some Iron Maiden models had spikes at eye level to poke them out.

The name of this torture comes from the Greek “scaphium”, which means “trough”. Scaphism 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 who were partial 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 large quantities of milk and honey, which causes the victim to have profuse diarrhea, which attracts insects.
3) The prisoner, having shit himself and smeared with honey, is allowed to float in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) The insects immediately begin their meal, with the living flesh of the martyr as the main course.

Pear of suffering

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

A pear of suffering. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1) A tool consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments is inserted into the client’s desired body hole;
2) The executioner little by little turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaf” segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is completely opened, the offender 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, by the coppersmith Perillus, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris, who simply loved to torture and kill people in unusual ways.

A living person was pushed inside the copper statue through a special door. And then Phalaris first tested the unit on its creator - the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris 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 lit under the bull’s belly;
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 amulets were made from the bones of the executed, which were sold at bazaars and were in great demand.

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

Torture by rats. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

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

Cradle of Judas

The Judas Cradle was one of the most torturous torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. Victims usually died from infection, due to the fact that the pointed 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 or 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 is thrust into the anus or vagina;
3) Using ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) The torture continues for several hours or even days until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.

Rack

Probably the most famous and unrivaled death machine of its kind called the “rack”. It was first tested around 300 AD. e. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.

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

Rack. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

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

Shiri (camel cap)

A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Ruanzhuans (a union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into slavery. They destroyed the slave's memory with a terrible torture - putting a shiri on the victim's head. Usually this fate befell young men captured in battle.

Shiri. (pinterest.com)

How it works?

1. First, the slaves' heads were shaved bald, and every hair was carefully scraped out at the root.
2. The executors slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, dense nuchal part.
3. Having divided it into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces stuck to the heads of the slaves like a plaster. This meant putting on the shiri.
4. After putting on the shiri, the neck of the doomed person was chained 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 screams, and they were thrown there in an open field, with their 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 torment caused by drying, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed and squeezed the slave's shaved head 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 the rawhide; in most cases, finding no way out, the hair curled and went back into the scalp, causing even greater suffering. Within a day the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Ruanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured people was found alive, it was considered that the goal had been achieved.
7. Anyone who underwent 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 skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.

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.

Water torture. (pinterest.com)

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, causing internal damage, and then inserted again and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on a table under a stream of ice water for hours. 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.

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.

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 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)

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.

Bloody Eagle

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.

Bloody eagle. (pinterest.com)

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.

"Catherine's Wheel"

Before tying the victim to the wheel, his limbs were broken. During rotation, the legs and arms were completely broken off, bringing unbearable torment to the victim. Some died from painful shock, while others suffered for several days.

Catherine's Wheel. (pinterest.com)

Spanish donkey

A wooden log in the shape of a triangle was fixed on “legs”. The naked victim was placed on top of a sharp angle that cut straight into the crotch. To make the torture more unbearable, weights were tied to the legs.

Spanish donkey. (pinterest.com)

Spanish boot

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

Quartering. (pinterest.com)

Back in the 19th and early 20th centuries, execution was considered a preferable punishment compared to prison because being in prison was a slow death. The stay in prison was paid for by relatives, and they themselves often asked that the culprit be killed.
Convicts were not kept in prisons - it was too expensive. If relatives had money, they could take their loved one for support (usually he sat in an earthen pit). But a tiny part of society was able to afford it.
Therefore, the main method of punishment for minor crimes (theft, insulting an official, etc.) was the stocks. The most common type of last is “kanga” (or “jia”). It was used very widely, since it did not require the state to build a prison, and also prevented escape.
Sometimes, in order to further reduce the cost of punishment, several prisoners were chained in this neck block. But even in this case, relatives or compassionate people had to feed the criminal.

Each judge considered it his duty to invent his own reprisals against criminals and prisoners. The most common were: sawing off the foot (first they sawed off one foot, the second time the repeat offender caught the other), removal of the kneecaps, cutting off the nose, cutting off the ears, branding.
In an effort to make the punishment more severe, the judges came up with an execution called “carry out five types of punishment.” The criminal should have been branded, his arms or legs cut off, beaten to death with sticks, and his head put on display in the market for everyone to see.

In Chinese tradition, beheading was considered a more severe form of execution than strangulation, despite the prolonged torment inherent in strangulation.
The Chinese believed that the human body is a gift from his parents, and therefore returning a dismembered body into oblivion is extremely disrespectful to the ancestors. Therefore, at the request of relatives, and more often for a bribe, other types of executions were used.

Removal. The criminal was tied to a pole, a rope was wrapped around his neck, the ends of which were in the hands of the executioners. They slowly twist the rope with special sticks, gradually strangling the convict.
The strangulation could last a very long time, since the executioners at times loosened the rope and allowed the almost strangled victim to take several convulsive breaths, and then tightened the noose again.

"Cage", or "standing stocks" (Li-chia) - the device for this execution is a neck block, which was fixed on top of bamboo or wooden poles tied into a cage, at a height of approximately 2 meters. The convicted person was placed in a cage, and bricks or tiles were placed under his feet, and then they were slowly removed.
The executioner removed the bricks, and the man hung with his neck pinched by the block, which began to choke him, this could continue for months until all the stands were removed.

Lin-Chi - "death by a thousand cuts" or "sea pike bites" - the most terrible execution by cutting small pieces from the victim's body over a long period of time.
Such execution followed for high treason and parricide. Ling-chi, for the purpose of intimidation, was performed in public places with a large crowd of onlookers.

For capital crimes and other serious offenses, there were 6 classes of punishment. The first was called lin-chi. This punishment was applied to traitors, parricides, murderers of brothers, husbands, uncles and mentors.
The criminal was tied to a cross and cut into either 120, or 72, or 36, or 24 pieces. In the presence of extenuating circumstances, his body was cut into only 8 pieces as a sign of imperial favor.
The criminal was cut into 24 pieces as follows: eyebrows were cut off with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 and 8 - arm muscles between the hand and elbow; 9 and 10 - arm muscles between the elbow and shoulder; 11 and 12 - flesh from the thighs; 13 and 14 - calves; 15 - a blow pierced the heart; 16 - the head was cut off; 17 and 18 - hands; 19 and 20 - the remaining parts of the hands; 21 and 22 - feet; 23 and 24 - legs. They cut it into 8 pieces like this: cut off the eyebrows with 1 and 2 blows; 3 and 4 - shoulders; 5 and 6 - mammary glands; 7 - pierced the heart with a blow; 8 - the head was cut off.

But there was a way to avoid these monstrous types of execution - for a large bribe. For a very large bribe, the jailer could give a criminal awaiting death in an earthen pit a knife or even poison. But it is clear that few could afford such expenses.

Today we have prepared for you TOP pro the most terrible executions in the world. Many people dream of being in past centuries after watching films that show all the delights of balls, palaces and entertainment of that time. But if you really want to be in the past, then you shouldn’t forget that there was a completely different side of the coin.

Witches were burned at the stake, heretics were killed, and many people were simply tortured to death with impunity so that others would not be bothered. So the topic of today’s article will be about the most terrible executions of the past. So think twice about whether you really want to go back in time, because if something happens, you won’t be able to go to court.

5th place: Impalement

Some of us use an expression that has long been part of the lexicon, namely: “Yes, put him on a stake.” Now we use it only in a figurative sense, but if you were in ancient Rus' and made a bad joke, you might well be personally familiar with this type of execution.

A stake was inserted into the person’s anus, sometimes pointed and sometimes blunt, so that the pain would last longer, and then they placed it vertically. Therefore, under the weight of a person, the stake penetrated deeper and deeper inside, causing unbearable pain and ultimately death.

4th place: Skinning

Another no less sophisticated method of murder, and for many it was such a special way of entertainment. They mostly gathered at some central place so that more people could come and skinned a person alive. Not only did they inflict terrible pain on the offender in this way, but their skin was also left nailed to the walls for a long time, so that, as they say, it would be a shame for others.

3rd place: Bamboo

In Asia, the most attentive people have noticed that bamboo grows very quickly; it can grow up to 30 cm in just a day. Then it was decided that there was no need to get sophisticated and come up with special devices for death when you could use nature for your own purposes. They took the person, tied him to bamboo shoots in a horizontal position and left him like that. The bamboo grew and at the same time permeated the poor man’s body; death was long and terribly painful.

2nd place: Quartering

Practically one of the most terrible types of execution, where the victim simply begs to finish quickly, but this only adds ardor and heat to the audience and the executioner. At the beginning, the guilty ones were slightly stunned so that they would not twitch, so to speak, and then the worst thing began: the person’s stomach was ripped open, the genitals were cut off, cut into 4 parts, and only after that the head was cut off. The spectacle was creepy and bloody, but despite this, it was very popular. One of the most terrible executions in history.

1st place: Lin Chi (Thousand Knives)

Probably the most terrible and painful execution in the world was practiced in China. In general, everything is strict there; you made a mistake, so pay for it in full. Killing simply was considered not a clear enough example for others to not want to do, so the guys from China tied the person up and from time to time cut off a piece of him.

From the very beginning of human history, people began to invent the most sophisticated methods of execution in order to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, on pain of a harsh death, they would not repeat such actions. Below is a list of the ten most disgusting execution methods in history. Fortunately, most of them are no longer in use.

The bull of Phalaris, also known as the copper bull, is an ancient execution weapon invented by Perilius of Athens in the 6th century BC. The design was a huge copper bull, hollow inside, with a door on the back or side. It had enough space to accommodate a person. The executed person was placed inside, the door was closed, and a fire was lit under the belly of the statue. There were holes in the head and nostrils that made it possible to hear the screams of the person inside, which sounded like the growling of a bull.

It is interesting that the creator of the copper bull himself, Perilaus, was the first to test the device in action on the orders of the tyrant Phalaris. Perilai was pulled out of the bull while still alive, and then thrown off the cliff. Phalaris himself also suffered the same fate - death in a bull.

Hanging, drawing and quartering is a method of execution common in England for treason, which was once considered the most terrible crime. It applied only to men. If a woman was convicted of high treason, she was burned alive. Incredibly, this method was legal and relevant until 1814.

First of all, the convict was tied to a horse-drawn wooden sled and dragged to the place of death. The criminal was then hanged and, just moments before death, taken out of the noose and placed on the table. After this, the executioner castrated and disembowelled the victim, burning the insides in front of the condemned man. Finally, the victim's head was cut off and the body was divided into four parts. The English official Samuel Pepys, having witnessed one of these executions, described it in his famous diary:

“In the morning I met Captain Cuttance, then I went to Charing Cross, where I saw Major General Harrison hanged, drawn and quartered. He tried to look as cheerful as possible in this situation. He was removed from the noose, then his head was cut off and his heart was taken out, showing to the crowd, which caused everyone to rejoice. Previously he judged, but now he was judged.”

Usually all five parts of the executed were sent to different parts of the country, where they were demonstratively installed on the gallows as a warning to others.

There were two ways of being burned alive. In the first, the condemned man was tied to a stake and covered with firewood and brushwood, so that he burned inside the flame. They say that this is how Joan of Arc was burned. Another method was to place a person on top of a stack of firewood, bundles of brushwood and tie him with ropes or chains to a post, so that the flame slowly rose towards him, gradually engulfing his entire body.

When an execution was carried out by a skilled executioner, the victim burned in the following sequence: ankles, thighs and arms, torso and forearms, chest, face, and finally, the person died. Needless to say, it was very painful. If a large number of people were to be burned at once, the victims would be killed by carbon monoxide before the fire reached them. And if the fire was weak, the victim usually died from shock, blood loss or heatstroke.

In later versions of this execution, the criminal was hanged and then burned purely symbolically. This method of execution was used to burn witches in most parts of Europe, however it was not used in England.

Lynching is a particularly torturous method of execution by cutting small pieces from the body over a long period of time. Practiced in China until 1905. The victim's arms, legs and chest were slowly cut off until eventually the head was cut off and stabbed directly in the heart. Many sources claim that the cruelty of this method is greatly exaggerated when they say that the execution could be carried out over several days.

A contemporary witness to this execution, journalist and politician Henry Norman, describes it as follows:

“The criminal was tied to the cross, and the executioner, armed with a sharp knife, began to grab handfuls of fleshy parts of the body, such as thighs and breasts, and cut them off. After that, he removed the joints and parts of the body protruding forward, one by one the nose and ears, and fingers. Then the limbs were cut off piece by piece at the wrists and ankles, elbows and knees, shoulders and hips. Finally, the victim was stabbed directly in the heart and his head was cut off.”

The wheel, also known as Catherine's Wheel, is a medieval execution device. A man was tied to a wheel. After which they broke all the large bones of the body with an iron hammer and left them to die. The wheel was placed on the top of the pillar, giving the birds the opportunity to profit from the sometimes still living body. This could continue for several days until the person died from painful shock or dehydration.

In France, some relaxations in execution were provided when the convict was strangled before the execution.

The convict was stripped naked and placed in a vat of boiling liquid (oil, acid, resin or lead), or in a container with cold liquid, which gradually warmed up. Criminals could be hung on a chain and immersed in boiling water until they died. During the reign of King Henry VIII, poisoners and counterfeiters were subjected to similar executions.

Flaying meant execution, during which all the skin was removed from the body of a criminal using a sharp knife, and it was supposed to remain intact for display for intimidation purposes. This execution dates back to ancient times. For example, Apostle Bartholomew was crucified on the cross upside down, and his skin was torn off.

The Assyrians flayed their enemies to show who held power in the captured cities. Among the Aztecs in Mexico, ritual flaying or scalping was common, which was usually carried out after the death of the victim.

Although this method of execution has long been considered inhumane and prohibited, in Myanmar, a case of flaying all men in a Karenni village was recorded.

The African necklace is a type of execution in which a car tire filled with gasoline or other flammable material is placed on the victim and then set on fire. This led to the human body turning into a molten mass. The death was extremely painful and a shocking sight. This type of execution was common in South Africa in the 80s and 90s of the last century.

The African necklace was used against suspected criminals by "people's courts" established in black towns as a means of circumventing the apartheid judicial system (a policy of racial segregation). This method was used to punish members of the community who were considered employees of the regime, including black police officers, city officials, and their relatives and partners.

Similar executions were observed in Brazil, Haiti and Nigeria during Muslim protests.

Scaphism is an ancient Persian method of execution that results in painful death. The victim was stripped naked and tied tightly inside a narrow boat or a hollowed-out tree trunk, and covered on top with the same boat so that the arms, legs and head stuck out. The executed man was force-fed milk and honey to induce severe diarrhea. In addition, the body was also coated with honey. After this, the person was allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water or left in the sun. Such a “container” attracted insects, which slowly devoured the flesh and laid larvae in it, which led to gangrene. In order to prolong the torment, the victim could be fed every day. Ultimately, death was likely due to a combination of dehydration, exhaustion, and septic shock.

According to Plutarch, by this method in 401 BC. e. Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, was executed. The unfortunate man died only 17 days later. A similar method was used by the indigenous people of America - the Indians. They tied the victim to a tree, rubbed it with oil and mud, and left it for the ants. Usually a person died from dehydration and starvation within a few days.

The person sentenced to this execution was hung upside down and sawed vertically in the middle of the body, starting from the groin. Since the body was upside down, the criminal’s brain had a constant flow of blood, which, despite the large blood loss, allowed him to remain conscious for a long time.

Similar executions were used in the Middle East, Europe and parts of Asia. It is believed that sawing was the favorite method of execution of the Roman Emperor Caligula. In the Asian version of this execution, the person was sawed from the head.

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The death penalty - there is so much horror in this word. The associations are not pleasant. The torment of man and the cruelty of the executioners gives me goosebumps. There are many methods of carrying out the death penalty, and each of them is even more severe and inventive than the other. The past of all mankind was so cruel and brutal that life was worthless, and hundreds of people died in painful torture. The most terrible executions of the ancient world are long gone, but some of them can be read about in historical literature.

Persian toughness

The most terrible and painful executions have begun since the times of the ancient Persians. One such method involved tying the victim to a tree, leaving only his limbs. Next they fed him honey and milk to induce diarrhea. The victim's body was coated with sweet and sticky honey to attract as many insects as possible. They in turn multiplied in the feces and his skin. The victim died in agony several weeks later from septic shock and dehydration.

Execution by an elephant

In Carthage, Rome and Asian countries, the death sentence was carried out with the help of an animal, namely an elephant. Asian elephants were trained for many years and could either kill the victim immediately or take turns, slowly breaking bones one after another.

Many European travelers describe this method of execution in their observations. Using a similar method of killing a person, Asian rulers demonstrated that they were the rightful rulers of not only people, but also animals. This method of execution was mainly used for prisoners of war.

European cruelty

But the executions of Rome and Carthage did not end there. A crowd of onlookers gathered in the amphitheaters to watch how huge, wild tigers and lions tore to death the criminals released into the arena. Such an execution was a holiday for everyone and whole families came to watch it.

In that era there was another terrible execution - crucifixion. This is how the Son of God Jesus Christ was executed. The man was stripped, beaten with sticks, thrown with stones, and then forced to carry his cross to the place of execution. On the hill, the cross was buried in the ground and a person was nailed to it with huge nails. The convict died long and painfully from thirst and painful shock. This method of execution was mainly used for criminals who had committed more than one atrocity.

The most terrible executions in the world took place in Rus'. The victims of such massacres were primarily those who committed crimes against the government, as well as those related to sex, culture and religion. From those very times the expression came about: impalement. This was the execution itself, when a person was impaled, slowly pierced through his body. People died from hellish pain within a few days.

Ancient Egypt was also famous for its method of execution. This method was called “punishment by the wall.” The name speaks for itself. People were simply immured alive in the wall and they died of suffocation. Composer Verdi in his opera Aida describes this moment when the main character and her lover are sentenced to such punishment.

Executions of the Celestial Empire

The most cruel people in the history of mankind were the Chinese. How the execution would take place was decided by the executioners and judges themselves. Their fantasies cannot be compared with others in their ingenuity. One method was to stretch a person over young bamboo shoots. Since the plant itself grows quickly, within a few days the bamboo entered the person like a spear and continued to grow in his body. The slow death of a person in agony came.

It was in China that they came up with the idea of ​​burying a living person in the ground, and he died there from suffocation. Another method of torture and long suffering of a person was death by a thousand cuts. If a criminal was sentenced to a year of torment, then the executioner extended this execution for a year. Every day he came to the criminal’s cell and cut off a small part of his body. Then he immediately cauterized the wound with fire to stop the bleeding and prevent the person from dying.

And the procedure was repeated day after day for a year until the person died. Moreover, if the executioner failed to cope with the task and the convict died before the appointed time, an equally painful death awaited him.

The worst executions in human history were carried out on Chinese women. They were simply sawed in half. It is worth noting that they were nagged for any reason and because of any offense. The women were undressed, hung by their hands on rings, and sharp saws were fastened between their legs. Naturally, they could not hang for long and sawed themselves right down to their breasts.

We have looked at some of the most terrible executions in the entire history of mankind, but this is just a small part of the sophisticated imagination of our ancestors. Different cultures also used a method of execution such as skinning alive. The person was simply tied to a table or pole and the skin was cut off into small pieces. All this happened in front of other people, and for many it was entertainment. Death occurred from loss of blood and pain shock.

The “Wheel” execution is one of the same mass events. The victim was tied to a rotating wheel, and the executioner delivered chaotic blows to different parts of the body. After such torture, the person was left to die in front of the entire crowd.

Execution of the criminal world

One of the last types of execution of our time comes from Africa. This method of execution has been used repeatedly by criminal groups. The essence of the execution was that rubber tires were put on a person, doused with gasoline and set on fire. The man was simply burning alive, screaming in pain.

The death penalty in modern civilized society is prohibited in many countries of the world, but countries such as China still use this capital punishment for very serious crimes. Of course, such cruelty as in ancient times no longer occurs. In modern society, the death penalty is used in the form of: shooting, lethal injection or the electric chair. Today the criminal dies instantly.

Every criminal must be punished! This is what all of humanity thinks, and many demand that the punishment be as harsh and terrible as possible. In ancient times, it was not enough for people to take the life of a convicted person; they wanted to see how criminals suffered from pain. That is why various painful punishments were invented in the form of impalement, gutting, quartering or feeding to insects. Today you will find out what the most brutal executions were used in the past.

Alcatraz - the most terrible prison in America

In Alcatraz, one of the most famous prisons with strict rules and strict standards, inveterate criminals did not have the opportunity to experience the full horror of the cruel methods of execution invented by judges and executioners. Although Alcatraz is considered the most terrible prison in America, there was no equipment for carrying out the death penalty.

This type of execution was a favorite pastime of the Romanian ruler Vlad the Impaler, better known as Vlad Dracula. On his orders, the victims were impaled on a stake with a rounded top. The instrument of torture was inserted through the anus several tens of centimeters deep, after which it was installed vertically and raised higher. Under the weight of its own weight, the victim slowly slid down. The cause of death during impalement was rupture of the rectum, which resulted in the development of peritonitis. According to available data, about 20-30 thousand subordinates of the Romanian ruler died from this type of execution.

The idea of ​​​​creating an invention designed to combat heretics belonged to Ippolito Marsili. The torture device was a wooden pyramid rising on four legs. The naked accused was suspended from special ropes and slowly lowered onto the tip of the pyramid. The execution process was suspended for the night, and in the morning the torture resumed again. In some cases, additional weights were placed on the defendant's legs to increase pressure. The victims' excruciating suffering could last for several days. Death occurred as a result of serious suppuration and blood poisoning, since the tip of the pyramid was washed very rarely.

Heretics and blasphemers usually faced this type of execution. The convict had to wear special metal pants, in which he was hung from a tree. Sunburn is nothing compared to what humans have experienced. Hanging in this position, the victim became food for predatory animals.

You won’t envy those who had to go through this punishment. The limbs of the offender were tied to opposite sides of the hanger, after which, using a special lever, the frame was stretched until the arms and legs began to come out of their joints. Sometimes the executioners turned the lever so hard that the victim simply lost his limbs. To intensify the suffering, thorns were also added under the victim’s back.

This type of execution was used exclusively for women. For abortion or adultery, women were allowed to live, but were deprived of their breasts. The sharp teeth of the execution instrument were red-hot, after which the executioner tore the woman’s breasts into shapeless shreds with this device. Some French and Germans came up with other names for the torture device: “Tarantula” and “Spanish Spider”.

Homosexuals, blasphemers, liars and women who did not allow a little man to be born went through hellish torment. For those who sinned, a specially invented instrument of torture in the form of a pear with four petals was inserted into the anus, mouth or vagina. By rotating the screw, each petal slowly opened inside, causing hellish pain and digging into the wall of the rectum, pharynx or cervix. Death as a result of such execution almost never occurred, but it was often used in combination with other tortures.

Those sentenced to the wheel most often died from shock and dehydration. The convict was tied to a wheel, and the wheel was placed on a pole, so that the victim's gaze was directed to the sky. The executioner used an iron crowbar to break the man's legs and arms. The victim with broken limbs was not removed from the wheel, but was left to die on it. Often those sentenced to wheeling also became objects of consumption for birds of prey.

With the help of a two-handed saw, homosexuals and witches were most often executed, although some murderers and thieves were subjected to such torture. The execution instrument was operated by two people. They had to saw a condemned man hanging upside down. The blood flow to the brain caused by the position of the body prevented the victim from losing consciousness for a long period of time. So the unheard-of torment seemed eternal.

The Spanish Inquisition was particularly cruel. The most popular method of torture for the investigative and judicial body, created in 1478 by Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, was the head crusher. In this type of execution, the victim's chin was fixed on a bar, and a metal cap was placed on his head. Using a special screw, the executioner squeezed the victim's head. Even if a decision was made to stop the execution, the person was left with crippled eyes, jaw and brain for the rest of his life.

A person's legs were placed in wire cutters with sharp teeth, the number of which varied from 3 to 20, but the hands were also not ignored. Death did not occur as a result of torture with wire cutters, but the victim was very mutilated. In some cases, to increase pain, the teeth of the pliers were red-hot.

History knows that there are still many sophisticated methods of execution, and judging by how cruel and terrible they were, one can only be glad that not one of them has survived to this day.

Humanity has always tried to punish criminals in such a way that other people would remember it and, under pain of severe death, they would not repeat such actions. It was not enough to quickly deprive a convict, who could easily turn out to be innocent, of life, which is why they came up with various painful executions. This post will introduce you to similar methods of execution.

Garrote - execution by strangulation or fracture of the Adam's apple. The executioner twisted the thread as tightly as he could. Some varieties of garrote were equipped with spikes or a bolt that broke the spinal cord. This type of execution was widespread in Spain and was outlawed in 1978. Garrote was officially used for the last time in 1990 in Andorra, however, according to some sources, it is still used in India.

Scaphism is a cruel method of execution invented in Persia. The man was placed between two boats or hollowed-out tree trunks, placed on top of each other, with his head and limbs exposed. He was fed only honey and milk, which caused severe diarrhea. They also coated the body with honey to attract insects. After a while, the poor fellow was allowed into a pond with stagnant water, where there was already a huge number of insects, worms and other creatures. They all slowly ate his flesh and left maggots in the wounds. There is also a version that honey attracted only stinging insects. In any case, the person was doomed to long torment, lasting several days and even weeks.

The Assyrians used flaying for torture and execution. Like a captured animal, the man was skinned. They could rip off some or all of the skin.

Ling chi was used in China from the 7th century until 1905. This method involved death by cutting. The victim was tied to poles and deprived of some parts of the flesh. The number of cuts could be very different. They could make several small cuts, cut off some skin somewhere, or even deprive the victim of limbs. The number of cuts was determined by the court. Sometimes convicts were given opium. All this happened in a public place, and even after death, the bodies of the dead were left in plain sight for some time.

Wheeling was used in ancient Rome, and in the Middle Ages it began to be used in Europe. By modern times, wheeling had become widespread in Denmark, Germany, France, Romania, Russia (legislatively approved under Peter I), the USA and other countries. A person was tied to a wheel with large bones already broken or still intact, after which they were broken with a crowbar or clubs. A person who was still alive was left to die of dehydration or shock, whichever came first.

The copper bull is the favorite execution weapon of Phalarids, the tyrant of Agrigentus, who ruled in the second half of the 6th century BC. e. The person sentenced to death was placed inside a life-size hollow copper statue of a bull. A fire was lit under the bull. It was impossible to get out of the statue, and those watching could watch smoke coming out of the nostrils and hear the screams of the dying man.

Evisceration was used in Japan. The convict had some or all of his internal organs removed. The heart and lungs were cut out last to prolong the victim's suffering. Sometimes evisceration served as a method of ritual suicide.

Boiling began to be used about 3000 years ago. It was used in Europe and Russia, as well as some Asian countries. A person sentenced to death was placed in a cauldron, which could be filled not only with water, but also with fat, resin, oil or molten lead. At the moment of immersion, the liquid could already be boiling, or it would boil later. The executioner could hasten the onset of death or, conversely, prolong a person’s torment. It also happened that boiling liquid was poured onto a person or poured down his throat.

Impalement was first used by the Assyrians, Greeks and Romans. They impaled people in different ways, and the thickness of the stake could also be different. The stake itself could be inserted either into the rectum or into the vagina, if they were women, through the mouth or through a hole made in the genital area. Often the top of the stake was blunt so that the victim did not die immediately. The stake with the condemned person impaled on it was raised up and those sentenced to painful death slowly descended down it under the influence of gravity.

Hanging and quartering was used in medieval England to punish traitors to the motherland and criminals who committed a particularly serious act. A person was hanged, but so that he remained alive, after which he was deprived of his limbs. It could go so far as to cut off the unfortunate man’s genitals, gouge out his eyes and cut out his internal organs. If the person was still alive, then at the end his head was cut off. This execution lasted until 1814.

Consider yourself lucky. If you believe this, you most likely live in a society that not only has a functioning legal system, but also one where that system allows for the hope of fair and effective justice, especially where the death penalty exists.

For most of human history, the main purpose of the death penalty was not so much the termination of human life as the incredibly cruel torture of the victim. Anyone sentenced to death had to go through hell on earth. So, the 25 most cruel methods of execution in the history of mankind.

Skafism

An ancient Persian method of execution in which a person was stripped naked and placed in a tree trunk so that only the head, arms and legs protruded. They were then fed only milk and honey until the victim suffered from severe diarrhea. Thus, honey got into all open areas of the body, which was supposed to attract insects. As the person's feces accumulated, it would increasingly attract insects and they would start feeding and breeding in his/her skin, which would become more gangrenous. Death may take more than 2 weeks and is most likely due to starvation, dehydration and shock.

Guillotine

Created in the late 1700s, it was one of the first methods of execution that called for ending a life rather than inflicting pain. Although the guillotine was specifically invented as a form of human execution, it was banned in France, and was last used in 1977.

Republican marriage

A very strange method of execution was practiced in France. The man and woman were tied together and then thrown into the river to drown.

Cement shoes

The execution method was preferred by the American mafia. Similar to Republican Marriage in that it used drowning, but instead of being tied to a person of the opposite sex, the victim's feet were placed in concrete blocks.

Execution by an elephant

Elephants in Southeast Asia were often trained to prolong the death of their prey. The elephant is a heavy beast, but easy to train. Teaching him to trample criminals on command has always been exciting. Many times this method has been used to show that there are rulers even in the natural world.

Walking on the plank

Mainly practiced by pirates and sailors. The victims often did not have time to drown, as they were attacked by sharks, which, as a rule, followed the ships.

Bestiary

Bestiaries were criminals in Ancient Rome who were given over to be torn to pieces by wild animals. Although sometimes the act was voluntary and carried out for money or recognition, often the bestiaries were political prisoners who were sent into the arena naked and unable to defend themselves.

Mazatello

The method is named after the weapon used during execution, usually a hammer. This method of capital punishment was popular in the Papal States in the 18th century. The condemned man was escorted to the scaffold in the square and he was left alone with the executioner and the coffin. Then the executioner raised the hammer and struck the victim's head. Since such a blow, as a rule, did not lead to death, the victims' throats were cut immediately after the blow.

Vertical "shaker"

Originating in the United States, this method of capital punishment is now often used in countries such as Iran. Although very similar to hanging, in this case, in order to sever the spinal cord, the victims were violently lifted up by the neck, usually using a crane.

Sawing

Supposedly used in parts of Europe and Asia. The victim was turned upside down and then sawed in half, starting from the groin. Since the victim was upside down, the brain received enough blood to keep the victim conscious while the major abdominal vessels were ruptured.

Flaying

The act of removing skin from a person's body. This type of execution was often used to incite fear, as the execution was usually carried out in a public place in full view of everyone.

Bloody Eagle

This type of execution was described in the Scandinavian sagas. The victim's ribs were broken so that they resembled wings. Then the lungs of the victim were pulled through the hole between the ribs. The wounds were sprinkled with salt.

Gridiron

Roasting a victim over hot coals.

Crushing

Although you have already read about the elephant crushing method, there is another similar method. Crushing was popular in Europe and America as a method of torture. Each time the victim refused to comply, more weight was placed on their chest until the victim died from lack of air.

Wheeling

Also known as Catherine's Wheel. The wheel looked like an ordinary cart wheel, only larger in size with more spokes. The victim was undressed, the arms and legs were spread out and tied, then the executioner beat the victim with a large hammer, breaking the bones. At the same time, the executioner tried not to deliver fatal blows.

Spanish tickler

The method is also known as "cat's paws". These devices were used by the executioner to tear and tear off the skin of the victim. Often death did not occur immediately, but as a result of infection.

Burning at the stake

A popular method of death penalty in history. If the victim was lucky, he or she was executed along with several others. This ensured that the flames would be large and that death would result from carbon monoxide poisoning rather than being burned alive.

Bamboo

Extremely slow and painful punishment was used in Asia. The bamboo stems sticking out of the ground were sharpened. The accused was then hung over the place where this bamboo grew. The rapid growth of bamboo and its pointed tips allowed the plant to pierce a person’s body in one night.

Premature burial

This technique has been used by governments throughout the history of capital punishment. One of the last documented cases was during the Nanjing massacre in 1937, when Japanese troops buried Chinese citizens alive.

Ling Chi

Also known as "death by slow cutting" or "slow death", this form of execution was eventually outlawed in China in the early 20th century. The victim's body organs were slowly and methodically removed while the executioner tried to keep him or her alive as long as possible.

Seppuku

A form of ritual suicide that allowed a warrior to die with honor. It was used by samurai.

copper bull

The design of this death machine was developed by the ancient Greeks, namely the coppersmith Perillus, who sold the terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Phalaris so that he could execute criminals in a new way. Inside the copper statue, through the door, a living person was placed. And then... Phalaris first tested the unit on its developer, the unfortunate greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Phalaris himself was roasted in a bull.

Colombian tie

A person's throat is cut with a knife, and the tongue sticks out through the hole. This method of murder indicated that the murdered man had given some information to the police.

Crucifixion

A particularly cruel method of execution, used mainly by the Romans. It was as slow, painful and humiliating as it could be. Usually, after prolonged beating or torture, the victim was forced to carry his cross to the place of his death. She was subsequently either nailed or tied to a cross, where she hung for several weeks. Death, as a rule, occurred from lack of air.

Hanged, Drowned and Dismembered

Used mainly in England. The method is considered one of the most brutal forms of execution ever created. As the name suggests, the execution was carried out in three parts. Part one - the victim was tied to a wooden frame. So she hung almost until she was half dead. Immediately after this, the victim's stomach was ripped open and the entrails were removed. Next, the entrails were burned in front of the victim. The condemned man was then beheaded. After all this, his body was divided into four parts and scattered throughout England as a public display. This punishment was applied only to men; convicted women, as a rule, were burned at the stake.