The most terrible torture in the history of mankind (21 photos). The most brutal methods of execution in history (photo)

Like torture with bamboo, many researchers consider the "iron maiden" a terrible legend. Perhaps these metal sarcophagi with sharp spikes inside only frightened the defendants, after which they confessed to anything. The "iron maiden" was invented at the end of the 18th century, i.e. already at the end of the Catholic Inquisition.
How it works?
1) The victim is stuffed into the sarcophagus and the door is closed;
2) The spikes driven into the inner walls of the "iron maiden" are rather short and do not pierce the victim through, but only cause pain. The investigator, as a rule, in a matter of minutes receives a confession, which the arrested person only has to sign;
3) If the prisoner shows fortitude and continues to be silent, long nails, knives and rapiers are pushed through special holes in the sarcophagus. The pain becomes simply unbearable;
4) The victim never confesses to his deed, then she was locked in a sarcophagus for long time where she died from blood loss;
5) In some models of the “iron maiden”, spikes were provided at eye level in order to quickly poke them out.
3. Skafism
The name of this torture comes from the Greek "skafium", which means "trough". Skafism was popular in ancient Persia. During the torture, the victim, most often a prisoner of war, was devoured alive by various insects and their larvae that were not indifferent to human flesh and blood.
How it works?
1) The prisoner is placed in a shallow trough and wrapped in chains.
2) He is force-fed with large amounts of milk and honey, which causes the victim to develop copious diarrhea that attracts insects.
3) A prisoner, shabby, smeared with honey, is allowed to swim in a trough in a swamp, where there are many hungry creatures.
4) Insects immediately start the meal, as the main dish - the living flesh of the martyr.
4. Terrible pear


“There is a pear - you can’t eat it,” it is said about the medieval European tool for “educating” blasphemers, liars, women who gave birth out of wedlock, and men gay. Depending on the crime, the tormentor put the pear into the sinner's mouth, anus or vagina.
How it works?
1) The tool, consisting of pointed pear-shaped leaf-shaped segments, is thrust into the client's desired hole in the body;
2) The executioner slowly turns the screw on the top of the pear, while the “leaves”-segments bloom inside the martyr, causing hellish pain;
3) After the pear is opened, the completely guilty person receives internal injuries incompatible with life and dies in terrible agony, if he had not already fallen into unconsciousness.
5. Copper bull


The design of this death unit was developed by the ancient Greeks, or to be more precise, the coppersmith Perill, who sold his terrible bull to the Sicilian tyrant Falaris, who simply adored torturing and killing people in unusual ways.
Inside the copper statue, through a special door, they pushed a living person.
What next
Falaris first tested the unit on its creator, the greedy Perilla. Subsequently, Falaris himself was roasted in a bull.
How it works?
1) The victim is closed in a hollow copper statue of a bull;
2) A fire is kindled under the belly of the bull;
3) The victim is roasted alive, like a ham in a frying pan;
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 in the bazaars and were in great demand ..
6. Torture by rats


Rat torture 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, Didrik Sonoy.
How it works?
1) The naked martyr is laid on a table and tied;
2) Large, heavy cages with hungry rats are placed on the prisoner's stomach and chest. The bottom of the cells is opened with a special valve;
3) Hot coals are placed on top of the cages to stir up the rats;
4) Trying to escape from the heat of hot coals, rats gnaw their way through the flesh of the victim.
7. Cradle of Judas

The Cradle of Judas was one of the most painful torture machines in the arsenal of the Suprema - the Spanish Inquisition. The victims usually died from the infection, due to the fact that the peaked seat of the torture machine was never disinfected. The cradle of Judas, as an instrument of torture, was considered "loyal", because it did not break bones and did not tear ligaments.
How it works?
1) The victim, whose hands and feet are tied, is seated on the top of a pointed pyramid;
2) The top of the pyramid pierces the anus or vagina;
3) With the help of ropes, the victim is gradually lowered lower and lower;
4) Torture continues for several hours or even days, until the victim dies from powerlessness and pain, or from blood loss due to rupture of soft tissues.
8. Elephant trampling

For several centuries, this execution was practiced in India and Indochina. The elephant is very easy to train and to teach him to trample the guilty victim with his huge feet is a matter of several days.
How it works?
1. The victim is tied to the floor;
2. A trained elephant is brought into the hall to crush the head of the martyr;
3. Sometimes before the "control in the head" animals squeeze the victims' arms and legs in order to amuse the audience.
9. Rack

Probably the most famous, and unsurpassed in its kind, death machine called "rack". It was first experienced around 300 AD. on the Christian martyr Vincent of Zaragoza.
Anyone who survived the rack could no longer use their muscles and turned into a helpless vegetable.
How it works?
1. This instrument of torture is a special bed with rollers at both ends, on which ropes were wound, holding the wrists and ankles of the victim. When the rollers rotated, the ropes stretched in opposite directions, stretching the body;
2. Ligaments in the hands and feet of the victim are stretched and torn, bones pop out of the joints.
3. Another version of the rack was also used, called strappado: it consisted of 2 pillars dug into the ground and connected by a crossbar. The interrogated person was tied with his hands behind his back and lifted by the rope tied to his hands. Sometimes a log or other weights were attached to his bound legs. At the same time, the hands of a person raised on a rack twisted back and often came out of their joints, so that the convict had to hang on twisted arms. They were on the rack from several minutes to an hour or more. This type of rack was used most often in Western Europe.
4. In Russia, a suspect raised on a rack was beaten with a whip on the back, and “applied to the fire”, that is, they drove burning brooms over the body.
5. In some cases, the executioner broke the ribs of a person hanging on a rack with red-hot tongs.
10. Paraffin in the bladder
A savage form of torture, the actual use of which has not been established.
How it works?
1. Candle paraffin was rolled out by hand into a thin sausage, which through urethra introduced inside;
2. Paraffin slipped into bladder, where the precipitation of solid salts and other nasty things began on it.
3. Soon the victim began to have kidney problems and she died from an acute kidney failure. On average, death occurred in 3-4 days.
11. Shiri (camel cap)
A monstrous fate awaited those whom the Zhuanzhuans (the union of nomadic Turkic-speaking peoples) took into their slavery. They destroyed the memory of the slave with a terrible torture - by putting Shiri on the head of the victim. Usually this fate befell young guys captured in battles.
How it works?
1. First, the slaves shaved their heads, carefully scraping out every hair under the root.
2. The executioners slaughtered the camel and skinned its carcass, first of all, separating its heaviest, densest part.
3. Having divided the neck into pieces, it was immediately pulled in pairs over the shaved heads of the prisoners. These pieces, like a plaster, stuck around the heads of slaves. This meant putting on wide.
4. After putting on the width, the neck of the doomed was shackled in a special wooden block so that the subject could not touch his head to the ground. In this form, they were taken away from crowded places so that no one would hear their heartbreaking cries, and they were thrown there in an open field, with 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 torments caused by drying out, shrinking rawhide camel skin on the head. Inexorably shrinking under the rays of the scorching sun, the width squeezed, squeezing the shaved head of a slave like an iron hoop. Already on the second day, the shaved hair of the martyrs began to sprout. Coarse and straight Asian hair sometimes grew into the rawhide, in most cases, finding no way out, the hair bent and again went into the scalp with its ends, causing even greater suffering. A day later, the man lost his mind. Only on the fifth day did the Zhuanzhuans come to check whether any of the prisoners had survived. If at least one of the tortured was caught alive, it was believed that the goal was achieved. .
7. The one who was subjected to such a procedure, either died, unable to withstand the torture, or lost his memory for life, turned into a mankurt - a slave who does not remember his past.
8. The skin of one camel was enough for five or six widths.
12. Implantation of metals
A very strange means of torture-execution was used in the Middle Ages.
How it works?
1. A deep incision was made on a person’s legs, where a piece of metal (iron, lead, etc.) was placed, after which the wound was sutured.
2. Over time, the metal oxidized, poisoning the body and causing terrible pain.
3. Most often, the poor fellows tore the skin in the place where the metal was sewn up and died from blood loss.
13. Dividing a person into two parts
This terrible execution originated in Thailand. The most hardened criminals were subjected to it - mostly murderers.
How it works?
1. The accused is placed in a hoodie woven from lianas, and he is stabbed with sharp objects;
2. After that, his body is quickly cut into two parts, the upper half is immediately placed on a red-hot copper grate; this operation stops the blood and prolongs the life of the upper part of the person.
A small addition: This torture is described in the book of the Marquis de Sade "Justine, or the successes of vice." This is a small excerpt from a large piece of text where de Sade allegedly describes the torture of the peoples of the world. But why supposedly? According to many critics, the Marquis was very fond of lying. He had an extraordinary imagination and a couple of manias, so this torture, like some others, could be a figment of his imagination. But the field of this is not worth referring to Donatien Alphonse as Baron Munchausen. This torture, in my opinion, if it did not exist before, is quite realistic. If, of course, a person is drugged with painkillers before this (opiates, alcohol, etc.), so that he does not die before his body touches the bars.
14. Inflation with air through the anus
A terrible torture in which a person is pumped with air through the anus.
There is evidence that in Russia even Peter the Great himself sinned with this.
Most often, thieves were executed in this way.
How it works?
1. The victim was tied hand and foot.
2. Then they took cotton and stuffed the ears, nose and mouth of the poor fellow with it.
3. In anus it was inserted into bellows, with the help of which a huge amount of air was pumped into a person, as a result of which he became like a balloon.
3. After that, I plugged his anus with a piece of cotton.
4. Then they opened two veins above his eyebrows, from which all the blood flowed under great pressure.
5. Sometimes connected person they put him naked on the roof of the palace and shot him with arrows until he died.
6. Prior to 1970, this method was often used in Jordanian prisons.
15. Polledro
The Neapolitan executioners lovingly called this torture "polledro" - "colt" (polledro) and were proud that it was first used in their native city. Although history did not preserve the name of its inventor, they said that he was an expert in horse breeding and came up with an unusual device to pacify his horses.
Only a few decades later, lovers of mocking people turned the horse breeder's device into a real torture machine for people.
The machine was a wooden frame, similar to a ladder, the crossbeams of which were very sharp corners so that when a person is put on their back, they crash into the body from the back of the head to the heels. The staircase ended with a huge wooden spoon, in which, like a cap, they put their heads.
How it works?
1. Holes were drilled on both sides of the frame and in the “bonnet”, ropes were threaded into each of them. The first of them was tightened on the forehead of the tortured, the last tied the big toes. As a rule, there were thirteen ropes, but for especially stubborn ones, the number was increased.
2. With special devices, the ropes were pulled tighter and tighter - it seemed to the victims that, having crushed the muscles, they dug into the bones.
16. Dead man's bed (modern China)


The "dead man's bed" torture is used by the Chinese Communist Party mainly on those prisoners who try to protest their illegal imprisonment through a hunger strike. In most cases, these are prisoners of conscience who went to prison for their beliefs.
How it works?
1. The hands and feet of a naked 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, ropes are tightly tied to the bed and the body of a person so that he cannot move at all. In this position, a person is continuously from several days to weeks.
2. In some prisons, such as Shenyang City No. 2 Prison and Jilin City Prison, the police still place a hard object under the victim's back to increase the suffering.
3. It also happens that the bed is placed vertically and for 3-4 days a person hangs, stretched by the limbs.
4. Force-feeding is added to these torments, which is carried out with the help of a tube inserted through the nose into the esophagus, into which liquid food is poured.
5. This procedure is done mainly by prisoners on the orders of the guards, and not by health workers. They do it very rudely and not professionally, often causing more serious damage to the internal organs of a 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.
17. Collar (Modern China)

One of the medieval tortures used in modern Chinese prisons is the wearing of a wooden collar. It is put on a prisoner, which is why he cannot walk or stand normally.
The collar is a board from 50 to 80 cm long, from 30 to 50 cm wide and 10 - 15 cm thick. There are two holes for the legs in the middle of the collar.
The shackled victim is difficult to move, must crawl into the bed, and usually must sit or lie down, as the upright position causes pain and injury to the legs. 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 presses 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 not able to turn around, and in winter, a short blanket does not cover his legs.
An even worse form of this torture is called "crawling with a wooden collar." 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, fingers, toenails and knees bleed profusely, while the back is covered with wounds from blows.
18. Impaling

Terrible wild execution that came from the East.
The essence of this execution was that a person was placed on his stomach, one sat on him to prevent him from moving, the other held him by the neck. A person was inserted into the anus with a stake, 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.
19. Spanish water torture

In order to the best way to perform the procedure of this torture, the accused was placed on one of the varieties of the rack or on a special large table with a rising middle part. After the victim's hands and feet were tied to the edges of the table, the executioner went to work in one of several ways. One of these methods was that the victim was forced with the help of a funnel to swallow a large number of water, then beat on the inflated and arched stomach. Another form involved placing a rag tube down the victim's throat, through which water was slowly poured in, causing the victim to bloat and suffocate. If that wasn't enough, the tube was pulled out, causing internal damage, and then reinserted and the process repeated. Sometimes cold water torture was used. In this case, the accused lay naked on the table for hours under a jet of icy water. It is interesting to note that this kind of torture was regarded as light, and confessions obtained in this way were accepted by the court as voluntary and given to the defendants without the use of torture. Most often, these tortures were used by the Spanish Inquisition in order to knock out confessions from heretics and witches.
20. Chinese water torture
The person was seated in a very cold room, they tied him so that he could not move his head, and in complete darkness cold water was very slowly dripping on his forehead. After a few days, the person froze or went crazy.
21. Spanish chair

This instrument of torture was widely used by the executioners of the Spanish Inquisition and was a chair made of iron, on which the prisoner was seated, and his legs were enclosed in stocks attached to the legs of the chair. When he was in such a completely helpless position, a brazier was placed under his feet; with hot coals, so that the legs began to slowly roast, and in order to prolong the suffering of the poor fellow, the legs were poured with oil from time to time.
Another version of the Spanish chair was often used, which was a metal throne, to which the victim was tied and a fire was made under the seat, roasting the buttocks. The well-known poisoner La Voisin was tortured on such an armchair during the famous Poisoning Case in France.
22. GRIDIRON (Grate 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 fictional, but there is no evidence that the gridiron "survived" until the Middle Ages and had at least little circulation in Europe. It is usually described as a simple metal grate 6 feet long and two and a half feet wide, set 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 rarely resorted to. Firstly, it was easy enough to kill the interrogated person, and secondly, there were a lot of simpler, but no less cruel tortures.
23. Pectoral

Pectoral in ancient times was called a breast adornment for women in the form of a pair of carved gold or silver bowls, often strewn with precious stones. It was worn like a modern bra and fastened with chains.
By a mocking analogy with this decoration, the savage instrument of torture used by the Venetian Inquisition was named.
In 1985, the pectoral was red-hot and, taking it with tongs, put it on the chest of the tortured woman and held until she confessed. If the accused persisted, the executioners heated up the pectoral, cooled by the living body again, and continued the interrogation.
Very often, after this barbaric torture, charred, torn holes remained in place of the woman's breasts.
24. Tickle Torture

This seemingly harmless influence was a terrible torture. With prolonged tickling, a person’s nerve conduction increased so much that even the lightest touch caused at first twitching, laughter, and then turned into terrible pain. If such torture was continued for a long time, then after a while spasms of the respiratory muscles arose and, in the end, the tortured person died from suffocation.
At the most simple version the interrogated were tortured by tickling sensitive places either simply with their hands or with hairbrushes and brushes. Tough were popular bird feathers. Usually tickled under the armpits, heels, nipples, inguinal folds, genitals, women also under the breasts.
In addition, torture was often used with the use of animals that licked some tasty substance from the heels of the interrogated. A goat was often used, because its very hard tongue, adapted for eating herbs, caused very strong irritation.
There was also a form of beetle tickling, most common in India. With her, a small bug was planted on the head of the penis of a man or on the nipple of a woman and covered with half a nut shell. After some time, the tickling caused by the movement of the legs of an insect over a living body became so unbearable that the interrogated person confessed to anything.
25. Crocodile


These tubular metal tongs "Crocodile" were red-hot and used to tear the penis of the tortured. At first, with a few caressing movements (often performed by women), or with a tight bandage, they achieved a stable hard erection and then the torture began.
26. Serrated crusher


These serrated iron tongs slowly crushed the testicles of the interrogated.
Something similar was widely used in Stalinist and fascist prisons.
27. A terrible tradition.


Actually, this is not torture, but an African rite, but, in my opinion, it is very cruel. Girls from 3-6 years old without anesthesia were simply scraped out the external genitalia.
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 rite is done “for the good” of women so that they will never be tempted to cheat on their husband
28. Blood Eagle


One of the most ancient tortures, during which the victim was tied face down and his back was opened, the ribs were broken off at the spine and spread apart like wings. In Scandinavian legends, it is stated that during such an execution, salt was sprinkled on the wounds of the victim.
Many historians claim that this torture was used by pagans against Christians, others are sure that spouses convicted of treason were punished in this way, and still others claim that the bloody eagle is just a terrible legend.

People often dream of visiting the past. But history buffs should pay attention to the fact that not everything is as romantic as it might seem. The past was a brutal, cruel place where the slightest legal or social violation could lead to a painful and horrific death. Over the past few hundred years, most Western nations have abolished the death penalty. But in the past, it was very often the goal to inflict as much pain as possible on the person being executed.

There were various reasons for this; some of them political, religious, and some used as intimidation. Regardless of the reasons, the executions were horrendous. See below for some of the worst executions in human history.

Skafism

Scaphism (also known as "boats") was an ancient Persian method of execution whereby the condemned person was tied inside a small boat or hollowed out tree trunk. The only thing left outside was the arms, legs and head of the victim.

The victim was forcibly fed milk and honey to induce severe diarrhea. Moreover, the whole body was smeared with honey, with special emphasis on the eyes, ears and mouth.
The honey attracted insects, which bred in the victim's excrement or in his dead skin. Death occurred after a few days or weeks from dehydration, starvation and septic shock.

Bestiaries

In ancient Rome, huge crowds gathered in the amphitheaters to witness the cruel and inhuman execution.

Bestiaries were one of the favorite activities at these gatherings. The prisoners were sent to the center of the arena. Angry wild tigers and lions were also released there. The animals remained in the arena until they maimed or gnawed to death the last victim.

It is important to note that some entered the arena voluntarily, for money or fame, but these fighters were given weapons and armor and fought purely for the entertainment of the crowd, while criminals or political prisoners were completely defenseless and deprived of a chance to defend themselves.

Elephant execution

Death by elephant was a common method of execution in South and Southeast Asia, although Western powers like Rome and Carthage also resorted to it.

Death came either quickly or slowly, depending on the severity of the crime. A trained elephant would either step on its head, causing instant death, or step on its limbs, crushing one after the other.

Vertical shaker

The vertical shaker was invented in the United States in the 19th century. It is very similar to hanging, but in this case, the prisoner was strongly lifted up by the neck to tear the spinal cord and cause instant death. This method was intended to replace traditional hanging, but did not see widespread use.

Sawing

The sawing execution was used throughout the world. Often, the condemned was hung upside down, which allowed the executioners to start sawing from the genitals. The inverted position allowed enough blood to flow to the brain to keep the victim alive for the horrific torture to continue.

Live skinning

Live skinning was also used by different cultures. The victim was held while her skin was cut from her body. Death came from shock, blood loss, hypothermia or infection, and it could take.

In some cultures, a person's skin was hung in a public place to warn others of the consequences of disobeying the law.

wheeling

Wheeling is one of the most brutal executions on our list. Reserved for particularly nasty criminals. The convict was tied to a large, spoked wheel. He was then beaten with clubs or other blunt instruments.

blood eagle

The blood eagle is a ritual method of execution described in Scandinavian poetry. The ribs of the condemned person were broken out so that they resembled wings, and the lungs were taken out and hung on the ribs.

There is some debate about whether the ritual was a fictional literary device or an actual historical practice, but many agree that the details are too macabre to be used in practice.

Burning at the stake

We have all seen this inquisitorial execution that was shown in the movies, but few understand how widespread it was in medieval times and antiquity.

In Europe, the convicted person was often given a chance to confess for a lighter sentence - they were strangled to death before the fire was lit. Otherwise, they either burned out or died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

bamboo torture

An unusual and very painful method of execution. It is believed to have been used in parts of Asia as well as by Japanese soldiers during World War II.

The victim was placed on pointed bamboo shoots. Within a few weeks, a very resilient plant began to grow right through the victim's body, eventually piercing him.

The prisoner was fed, not allowing him to die prematurely, thus making his death even more painful.

Lynchy

Lingchi, also known as "Slow Slicing" or "Death by Thousands of Wounds," is a particularly gruesome execution method used in China from ancient times until 1905.

The executioner gradually and methodically cut the victim into pieces, leaving her alive for as long as possible.

Buried alive

Unfortunately, many cultures have used this method of execution for centuries. Death came in the form of suffocation, dehydration, or worst of all starvation. In some cases, fresh air entered the coffin from below, as a result of which the condemned man remained alive in complete darkness for several days or weeks, until he finally died.

spanish tickler

The Spanish tickler is an execution method also known as "Cat's Paw". The Cat's Paw was a torture and execution device. The device was attached to the executioner's hand, allowing him to easily peel the flesh from the victim. Everything was done live, and the convict died much later due to infection.

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

1. Bull Falarida

The ancient instrument of execution - the "copper bull" or "bull Falaris" was invented by the Athenian Peripius in the VI century BC. e. Made from copper sheets huge bull, hollow inside and having a door on the side or on the back. A man could fit inside the bull. The one sentenced to death was put inside the bull, the door was closed and a fire was kindled under the belly of the bull. The nostrils and eyes of the bull had holes through which the cries of the roasting victim were heard - it seemed that the bull himself was roaring. The inventor of this instrument of execution himself became his first victim - so the tyrant Falarid decided to test the device's performance. But Peripius was not fried to death, but was taken out in time, in order to then “mercifully” be thrown into the abyss. However, Falarid himself later came to know the belly of a copper bull.

2. Hanging, gutting and quartering

This multi-stage execution was practiced in England and applied to traitors to the crown, since 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 an execution, so they were tritely 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 lay them in front of the drag on a kind of sleigh. After this, the condemned 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 insides, which were burned right there so that the executed person could see it. Then the offender was beheaded, and the body was cut into 4 parts. After that, usually the head of the executed was put on a pike, which was fixed on the bridge in the Tower, and the rest of the body was taken to the largest English cities, where they were also put on display - this was the usual wish of the king.

3. Burning

People have adapted to burn the condemned alive in two ways. In the first case, a person was tied to a vertical pole and surrounded 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 was placed on top of a stack of firewood and also chained to a pole, and the firewood was set on fire from below, so in this case the flame slowly rose along the stack and climbed to the legs and then to the rest of the body of the unfortunate.
If the executioner was skilled in his work, then the burning was carried out in a certain sequence: first the ankles, then the hips, then the arms, then the torso with forearms, the chest, and finally the face. It was the most painful kind of burning. Sometimes the executions were massive, then some of the condemned did not die from burns, but simply suffocated from the released during combustion carbon monoxide. If the firewood was damp, and the fire was too weak, then the victim was more likely to die from heatstroke, blood loss, or pain shock. Later people became more “humane” - before burning, the victim was hung, and already fell on the fire dead body. In this way, witches were most often burned throughout Europe, with the exception of the British Isles.

4. Lynchy

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

Each culture has its own way of life, traditions and delicacies in particular. What seems normal to some people may be perceived as...

5. Wheeling

Wheeling, or as they said in some countries, "Catherine's wheel" was widely used for executions in the Middle Ages. The offender was tied to a wheel and all his large bones and spine were broken with an iron crowbar. After that, the wheel was horizontally fixed on a pillar with a pile of meat and bones of the ground victim lying on top. Birds often came to feast on the meat of a still living person. At the same time, the victim could live for several more days until he died from dehydration and pain shock. The French made this execution more humane - before the execution, they strangled the convict.

6. Welding in boiling water

The offender was stripped naked and put into 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 boiled. similar view execution was widely used for counterfeiters and poisoners in England under the reign of Henry VIII.

7. Skinning

In this variant of slow killing, either all the skin or some parts of it were removed from the body of the convict. 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 the St. Andrew's Cross and skinned from him. The Assyrians skinned their enemies to intimidate 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 by no means humane form of execution is already banned everywhere, but in one village in Myanmar, all men were recently skinned.

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8. Impaling

A well-known type of execution, where the offender was hoisted onto a vertical pointed stake. Until the 18th century, this method of execution was used by the Commonwealth, which executed so many Zaporozhye Cossacks. But they also knew it in Sweden of the 17th century. Here, peritonitis or blood loss leads to death, and death occurs very slowly, after a few days.
In Romania, when impaling women, the instrument of execution was inserted into the 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. So that the victim would not get 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 transverse bars nailed slightly below the end of the stake, dropping to which the victim did not have time to damage vital organs and, again, suffered even longer.

9. Skafism

This ancient oriental method of execution is unhygienic, but causes excruciating pain. long death. The sentenced was completely undressed, smeared with honey and placed in a narrow boat or a hollowed out tree trunk, and covered with the same object from above. It turned out something like a turtle: only the limbs and the head of the victim stuck out, which they heavily fed with honey and milk to cause uncontrollable diarrhea. A similar design was either placed in the sun, or allowed to swim in a pond with stagnant water. The object quickly attracted the attention of insects that entered the boat, where they slowly gnawed at the body of the victim, laying larvae there until sepsis began.
"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 the king Mithridates, who killed Cyrus the Younger, who suffered for 17 days. The American Indians also used a similar method of execution - they tied a victim to a tree, smeared with mud and oil, leaving it to be eaten by ants.

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10. Sawing

The condemned to death was hung upside down with legs apart and started sawing in the groin area. The victim's head was at a low point, so the brain was better supplied with blood and, despite the huge loss of blood, was conscious longer. Sometimes the victim survived, being sawn already to the diaphragm. This execution was known both in Europe and somewhere in Asia. They say that the emperor Caligula loved to have fun so much. But in the Asian version, sawing was carried out from the head.

One of the most famous prisons in the world is the American prison Alcatraz ( Alcatraz), also known as The Rock (from English - Rock), which is located on a small island of the same name in the 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 at all because of the numerous films shot here, but because of the prisoners who served time in their cells. Alcatraz contained the most violent criminals USA! The island got its name in 1775, when Spaniard Juan Manuel Ayala arrived in San Francisco Bay ( Juan Manuel de Ayala). In total, there are three islands 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 as “pelican” or “strange bird”.

The island was originally used as a military stronghold, 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 in 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 that 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, prisoners of the civil and Spanish-American
wars were the first prisoners to arrive on the island. Later, due to the isolated location and
the irresistible cold waters of the bay, the authorities considered Alcatraz as an ideal place to keep 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 Kelly (George "Machine Gun" Kelly), Robert Stroud (Robert Franklin Stroud) served their time in it , Alvis Karpis (Alvin Karpis), Henry Young (Henry Young) and Al Capone (Al Capone). Criminals who could not be held by other correctional institutions were also located here. The average number of prisoners in Alcatraz was approximately 260, while for all the time during the 29 years of the prison's operation, 1545 prisoners visited it. 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 found 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 any decree. The more prisoners became on Alcatraz, the fewer guns became in the fortress. It will take a few more years before the fortress finally loses its original meaning 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 was carried out 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 later 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 is doing everything possible to fight the crime that swept the country in the 20s and 30s of the last century.

In total, the Alcatraz prison was designed for 336 people, but usually it contained much fewer prisoners. Many believe that Alcatraz is one of the darkest and most cruel 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 inmates from other prisons even applied for transfers to Alcatraz!

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

Only those prisoners who were inclined to escape were usually put in prison on the island. The fact is that escaping from here was almost impossible. 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 get to mainland! In total, during the time that Alcatraz was used as a federal prison, 14 escape attempts were made, in which a total of 36 people participated. 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 significant costs for the maintenance of prisoners, as well as the need for costly restoration work. Several years passed, and in 1973 the legendary prison became available to the general public. Today Alcatraz is visited annually by tens of thousands of tourists.

The Alcatraz prison consisted of 336 cells for serving the sentence, divided into two large blocks "B" and "C", 36 isolated cells, 6 solitary confinement in a separate block "D". The two cells at the end of block "C" were used as security break rooms. Most of the inmates at the Alcazar are those who have been found to be particularly violent and dangerous, those who may have attempted to escape, and those who are more likely to refuse to follow the rules and regulations of another federal penitentiary.

Inmates of Alcatraz could earn perks that included work, visits from family members, access to the prison library, leisure activities such as art and music. Prisoners had only four basic rights - food, clothing, shelter and medical care.

Alcatraz did not have the facility to carry out the death penalty, so those who received the death penalty were sent to San Quentin City Jail to be gassed.

In spite of strict rules and harsh standards for hardened criminals, Alcatraz predominantly operated in a minimum security regime. The types of work performed by prisoners differed depending on the prisoner, the type of work and the degree of its responsibility. Many worked as servants: they cooked, cleaned, and did household chores for families living on the island. The security officers of Alcatraz lived on the island with their families in a separate building and, in fact, were partly prisoners of Alcatraz. In many cases, individual prisoners were even trusted to care for the children of the prison staff. Alcatraz was also home to several Chinese families who were employed as servants.

It is officially believed that there was no successful attempt to escape from the Rock, but so far five prisoners from Alcatraz are listed as "missing, presumably 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 wound 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 the San Francisco Bay. Despite the fact that it was on this day that a storm broke out, many believed that the fugitives managed to get to land. But officially they were considered dead.

* May 23, 1938 - James Limerick, Jimmy Lucas and Raphas Franklin, who worked in a woodwork shop, attacked an unarmed guard and killed him with a blow to the head with a hammer. 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 a life sentence.

* January 13, 1939 - Arthur Doc Barker, Dale Stamfil, William Martin, Henry Young and Raphas McCain escaped from the isolation compartment to the building where the prison cells were located. They sawed down the bars, climbed out of the building through the window, and headed for the water's edge. The guard found the fugitives already on west bank islands. Martin, Young, and McCain surrendered, while Barker and Stamfil, who refused to obey orders, were wounded. Barker died a few days later.

* May 21, 1941 - Joe Cretzer, Sam Shockley, Arnold Kyle and Lloyd Backdoll took several guards under whose supervision they worked 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 run while he was cleaning up the garbage. But freezing water in San Francisco Bay forced him back to shore. Later, when he was taken to a federal court in San Francisco, he tried to escape from there as well. But again without success.

* April 14, 1943 - James Borman, Harold Brest, Floyd Hamilton, and Fred Hunter took two guards hostage in a prison-working area. Through the window they climbed out and jumped into the water. But one of the guards managed to signal the state of 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, someone opened fire. As a result, Hunter and Brest were detained, Bormann was wounded and he drowned. And Hamilton was declared drowned. Although in fact he hid in a small gorge for two days, and then returned to the territory where the prisoners worked. There he was captured by the guards.

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

* July 31, 1945 - one of the most thoughtful attempts to escape. John Giles often worked in the prison laundry, which also washed army uniforms that were sent to the island specifically for this purpose. Once he stole a complete set of uniforms, changed clothes and calmly left the prison and went to lunch with the military. Unfortunately for him, the military dined on Angel Island that day, not in San Francisco, as Giles had supposed. In addition, his disappearance from prison was immediately noticed. Therefore, as soon as he was 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 bunch of keys to the cell block. But their plan began to falter when the prisoners discovered that they did not have the key to the door leading to the recreation yard. Soon the prison administration became suspicious. But instead of surrendering, the prisoners resisted. As a result, four of them returned to their cells, but first opened fire on the guards taken hostage. One officer died from his wounds, and a second officer was killed while trying to regain control of the cell block. About 18 guards were wounded. American sailors were immediately called to help, and on May 4 the riot ended with the killing of three prisoners. Subsequently, two "rebels" received a death sentence and ended their days in a gas chamber in 1948. A 19-year-old rioter received a life sentence.

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

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

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

On March 21, 1963, the Alcatraz prison was closed. According to the official version, this was done because of the high cost of maintaining prisoners on the island. The prison required repairs in the amount of about 3-5 million dollars. In addition, the maintenance of prisoners on the island was too expensive compared to the mainland prison, since everything had to be regularly imported from the mainland.

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

Attitude towards crimes and criminals in different eras and in different countries different, so that the severity of punishment varied. But if a person was sentenced to execution, then it was very cruel. Most brutal executions for the history of mankind cause horror, because 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 worst executions in history was practiced in China. The sentenced woman was stripped naked and, depriving her of support on her feet, they fixed saws 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 sawn from the womb to the sternum. The reasons for such a terrible punishment are incomprehensible to us, for example, the rice cooked by the cook turned out to be not 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 meant tearing or dismembering human body into several parts. The parts themselves, after the completion of the execution, were put on public display. There are many options for dividing the criminal into parts - he was torn apart by horses, bulls, treetops. In some cases, an executioner was used to cut off limbs.

Moreover, it is impossible even to single out for what type of crimes such punishment was imposed. It was often used when it was necessary to make the execution spectacular. That is why they quartered deserters and members of their families, state criminals, rapists, Christians in ancient rome etc.

3. "Tin Soldier". The Alcatraz prison went down in history as one of the most terrible prisons in the world due to executions. The leadership of the correctional institution had an unhealthy imagination, otherwise it is simply impossible to explain the appearance of the "tin soldier".

The condemned 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 sick point of view. When the paraffin solidified, the person simply could not move anymore - it turned out " tin soldier". After that, the guards chopped off the limbs of the prisoner. Death from shock and blood loss lasted for hours, which the executed experienced in terrible agony.

4. "Cradle of Judas". Another no less cruel version of the killing of prisoners in Alcatraz is the “cradle of Judas”. The person sentenced to death was put on a pyramid, fixing his hands and body. The tip of the pyramid was placed in the anus or in the vagina, so that the structure would gradually tear the body apart. To speed up the process, weights were attached to the legs of the condemned, increasing the pressure.

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

5. Keeling. For pirates, a separate set of executions was used, the most terrible of which was the keeling. The man was tied up and stretched on a rope under the keel of the ship.

Because it lasted long time, then the person managed to choke, not to mention the blows on the keel itself, covered with sharp mollusks, - the skin was torn off the person. However, this type of punishment for disobedience to the captain, who wielded absolute power on the ship, was also practiced in the English fleet.

6. Desert island. Another world-famous pirate version of the execution - the rebels were not killed, but landed on a desert island that would feed the criminals.

Many unfortunate rebels were left for years to drag out a miserable existence on patches of land without proper food and amenities.

7. Walking on the board. This version of the execution of pirates is described in adventure novels.

The crew of the captured ship was not needed by the robbers, so they went to sea. The plank was exposed over the side of the ship, so that a person, having passed on it, fell into the sea in the jaws of waiting sharks.

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

In Korea, the traitor was forced to drink vinegar, and then the swollen body of the adulteress was beaten with sticks until the representative of the weaker sex died.

9. Executions in ISIS. The types of punishments adopted by ISIS (an organization banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) also belong to the category of cruel, but they are far from 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, beheading, which differs little from the medieval set of tortures and executions.

10. Executions for rape. Executions for rape are often much less severe than for adultery, especially for the fairer sex. However, the death of a rapist was threatened not only in the Middle Ages, this is true even now 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 sexual in nature the offender will be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 1 year to life imprisonment.

In Soviet times, rape committed by a recidivist, rape that entailed grave consequences, or rape of a minor victim was punishable by death. This law was in effect until 1997. By the way, a similar measure for the rape of a child in US state Louisiana was canceled only in 2008.