The Worst Punishments in History???

[spittle]

In 1531 the English Parliament passed a law that anyone found guilty of poisoning would be boiled alive. Although it was a very rare sentence a few actually suffered this excruciating end to their lives.

 

I have mentioned before the potential Roman punishment of having ones nose cut off, then being sowed into a sack with a wild animal and thrown off a rock. This was a punishment for bribing (or attempting to bribe0 a government official.

 

Trying to avoid the most well known and barbaric punishments such as being burned at the stake or hanged, drawn and quartered, can you think of any methods of execution that seem particularly uncivilised to our modern ways of thinking?

[Rameses the Great]

Hanging I think. It must be excruciating to hang with only your kneck until of course it breaks. This to me is unethical and is still used as a form of the death penalty in one state in the US.

Edited March 7, 2007 by Rameses the Great

[docoflove1974]

I'd rank crucifixion on the list. Not only are you wasting away, you're being burnt to a crisp by the sun, and eventually suffocate.

 

Of course, for some it's not so bad...gets you out in the fresh air

[Divi Filius]

Could imagine fewer punishments that are more cruel and sick then skinning a person alive...

 

 

This is an interesting topic for me. As a child I guess we all learned of those unusual punishments that elders or simply older people would scare us with (always starting with: "you know, a long long time ago, if you did this or that..."). I know wonder how much truth there is in them.

 

For instance what cultures had the torture rack(where your body is stretched)?

Edited March 7, 2007 by Divi Filius

[FLavius Valerius Constantinus]

Well, it is not the worse punishment, but the Iron Maiden looks like an extremely painful one.

Nevertheless, I suppose the worse punishments, well top 2 is skinning people and impaling Dracula style.

[Antiochus of Seleucia]

The Roman method called cudgeling, beating the criminal with clubs until he dies. Ouch.

Edited March 7, 2007 by Antiochus of Seleucia

[spittle]

Could imagine fewer punishments that are more cruel and sick then skinning a person alive...

 

 

This is an interesting topic for me. As a child I guess we all learned of those unusual punishments that elders or simply older people would scare us with (always starting with: "you know, a long long time ago, if you did this or that..."). I know wonder how much truth there is in them.

 

For instance what cultures had the torture rack(where your body is stretched)?

 

They still have a rack in the Tower of London. I'm 99% sure it was the only one that ever existed in England and was only used on rare occasions, usually relating to treason or heresy trials.

 

A more common English (and later American) torture was used only against accused persons who refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. A piece of wood similar to a door was placed over their prostrate body and rock after rock was heaped on until the accused entered a plea (or was crushed).

[The Augusta]

During ancient times, the Indians ordered people to be executed by being trampled on by elephants. Not nice at all! Alexander's general Perdikkas employed this punishment against the mutineers led by Meleager after Alexander's death. (Quintus Curtius)

 

And does anyone remember the punishment of being tied to two trees which were bent to the ground, then allowed to spring upwards again, thus tearing the body in two? I know I've read that somewhere!

 

I agree that the old hanging by slow strangulation was vile, as was garrotting (sp?), and I once read an account by a friend of the poet John Keats (Joseph Severn, the artist) who wtinessed a public execution in Italy in the 19th century of a young boy who had his head clubbed until he died.

 

And wasn't Mark Smeaton, the alleged lover of Queen Anne Boleyn, said to have had a knotted rope placed around his eyes and slowly tightened until his eyes popped?

 

Phew - as old Rabbie once said: 'Man's inhumanity to man/Makes countless thousands mourn'.

Edited March 7, 2007 by The Augusta

[Rameses the Great]

And does anyone remember the punishment of being tied to two trees which were bent to the ground, then allowed to spring upwards again, thus tearing the body in two? I know I've read that somewhere!

 

Alexander ordered it done to Bessus for killing Darius.

[Pantagathus]

As a son of Poseidon it's my duty to acknowledge one most of you land lubbers probably have never heard about; it's also one of the worst as far as I'm concerned... Keelhauling

 

A line was passed from one end of the main yard under the ship and up to the other end, and the victim was secured to one end with a deep sea lead tied to his feet, dropped and hauled under the ship and up the other side (sometimes from bow to stern). If you didn't drown, you were often severely cut up by the barnacles & what not on the keel... :whip:

[Julius Ratus]

Hanging I think. It must be excruciating to hang with only your kneck until of course it breaks. This to me is unethical and is still used as a form of the death penalty in one state in the US.

 

 

Actually, American style hanging is rather quick (short rope, long drop). Usually when the neck breaks the victim is killed instantly and feels nothing. This is about as quick as it comes, except for the Chinese method of execution, 9X18 Makarov bullet to the back of the head, where the spinal cord connects to the brain. The victim is dead before the bullet has even left his head.

 

My vote for worst goes to boiling.

 

As far as unusual punnishments go, the Roman punnishment for Patricide is the bizarrest. The executee is tied into a sack with a dog, a snake, a rooster, and a monkey and is thrown into the Tiber.

 

BTW, I'v heard that the Romans also employed a particularly sick execution involving rape by Giraffe. Is this true or just a sick story?

[Primus Pilus]

Anything involving fire would be rather unpleasant I should think.

[M. Porcius Cato]

I'd rank crucifixion on the list. Not only are you wasting away, you're being burnt to a crisp by the sun, and eventually suffocate.

 

Of course, for some it's not so bad...gets you out in the fresh air

 

Nice Life of Brian reference, but the widespread view that crucifixion causes death via suffocation is incorrect. (Follow up here.)

 

One pathologist writes:

The complicated and much debated issue regarding how the individual expired on the cross has generated widespread debate over the years. While many researchers have believed that death occurred as the result of a ruptured heart (Stroud 1874, Whitaker 1935, Wedessow 1978) due to the story in John 19:34 of the water and blood flowing out of the wound, pathologists such as Zugibe (1984) have ruled this out as medically untenable. Other scholars (LeBec 1925, Hynek 1936, Barbet 1937, Modder 1949) have regarded asphyxiation as being the cause of death, however the latest research findings have shown the issue to be more complicated depending upon the manner in which the victim was affixed to the cross. A series of experiments carried out by an American medical examiner and pathologist on college students who volunteered to be tied to crosses showed that if the students were suspended from crosses with their arms outstretched in the traditional manner depicted in Christian art, they experienced no problems breathing (Zugibe 1984). Thus the often quoted theory that death on the cross is the result of asphyxiation is no longer tenable if the arms are outstretched. According to the physiological response of the students, which was closely monitored by Zugibe, death in this manner is the result of the victim going into hypovolemic shock[5] which can be in a manner of hours, or days depending on the manner in which the victim is affixed to the cross. If the victim is crucified with a small seat, a sedile, affixed to the upright for minimum support in the region of the buttocks, death can be prolonged for hours and days. In fact, Josephus reports that three friends of his were being crucified in Thecoa by the Romans who, upon intervention by Josephus to Titus were removed from the crosses and with medical care one survived. (Life 76)

 

So, it could be worse: you could be stabbed...

Edited March 7, 2007 by M. Porcius Cato

[Gaius Octavius]

A more common English (and later American) torture was used only against accused persons who refused to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. A piece of wood similar to a door was placed over their prostrate body and rock after rock was heaped on until the accused entered a plea (or was crushed).

 

I think that this was used in witchcraft trials.

 

"And does anyone remember the punishment of being tied to two trees which were bent to the ground, then allowed to spring upwards again, thus tearing the body in two? I know I've read that somewhere!"

 

Until recently in S.E. Asia.

Another, in that region, is to allow a bamboo shoot to grow up ones bottom.

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

"And does anyone remember the punishment of being tied to two trees which were bent to the ground, then allowed to spring upwards again, thus tearing the body in two? I know I've read that somewhere!"

 

I've read about something similar to that but involving horses, where the victims arms and legs are tied to four horses then the horses are whipped and proceed to run of in different directions resulting in the victims limbs being ripped off, now thats gotta make your eyes water!

 

Also, has anybody seen the film 'The Passion Of The Christ' where he's (daren't mention his name in-case I get told off for turning this into a religious thing) flayed to within an inch of his life and then nailed to a cross...ouch!