Today we have more brutality from the past and are talking about punishments again.
The reason we can keep coming back to this gory topic is the fact the human race has
been incredibly barbaric, while some may argue that we are still quite barbaric at times.
Even so, there can be no debate that over the years we have become somewhat more civilized
on the whole.
We no longer eviscerate wrongdoers in front of public crowds; we don’t generally flay
the skin of our enemies and nor do we allow bamboo to grow inside of military men that
we have captured.
No doubt in 200 years’ time people will be talking about how barbaric we were in the
early 2000s, just as we will now grimace at what our ancestors did.
10.
Solitary Confinement You might be surprised that this is on the
list, seeing as putting a prisoner in solitary still goes on today all over the world.
That might be because he is a danger to himself, a danger to others, has broken the rules in
other ways or is on the hit list of other prisoners.
While being alone in a cell all day, or for most of the day, can produce a number of psychological
maladies, we can imagine that in most countries today human rights agreements preclude a nastier
kind of solitary confinement that we found in the past.
In the USA in the 1800s solitary confinement was practiced, but there wasn’t usually
such a thing as yard time or meetings with trained therapists.
Often inmates were given a bible, locked in a room with not much light, and given time
to repent.
But it wasn’t very successful, with a U.S. Supreme Court Justice pointing out in 1890,
“A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into
a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others
became violently insane.”
Some others, he said, just took their own lives.
But you only need to look at the dungeons of Europe to know that solitary was much worse
in Medieval times.
Some of these cells let no light in, while they were sometimes too small to really move
around in.
Prisoners might often be tortured on top of having to spend time repenting in their stone
cell.
You might still think this is not as cruel as some of the punishments we have talked
about in other shows, but imagine being a cold, dark dungeon and dying slowly, losing
your mind, perhaps trying to recover from having your hands crushed and without an appointment
to see a doctor so you can get some pain relief.
If the outcome was usually death, you might ask yourself if you’d rather face the chopping
block and get it over and done with or do some old school time in solitary.
9.
Immurement But occasionally people did get out of the
dungeon and life would go on.
That’s why most of you might have answered the question we just asked with, “I’ll
take the dungeon time, thanks.”
What we doubt you would want though is immurement.
This can take many forms, but it basically means being locked up until you die.
It could mean having four walls built around you, so you are in solitary but left there
with no door.
You might have an air-hole, so it’s just a matter of days until you die.
We are told in ancient Rome this might happen to Vestal Virgins who didn’t remain chaste,
but it was reportedly quite common in parts of Persia.
This is what was one visitor wrote after his trip to Persia just over a century ago and
what he saw of an immurement chamber: “Another sad sight to be seen in the desert
sometimes, are brick pillars in which some unfortunate victim is walled up alive...The
victim is put into the pillar, which is half built up in readiness; then if the executioner
is merciful he will cement quickly up to the face, and death comes speedily.
But sometimes a small amount of air is allowed to permeate through the bricks, and in this
case the torture is cruel and the agony prolonged.”
Sometimes immurement might mean being buried alive, or walled in, but in some cases there
was a door but it was just locked.
In the 12th century for instance in England the King might sentence you to starvation,
so you were put into solitary but not fed.
We might now ask you if you’d prefer an agonizing quick death such as being burned,
or crushed, or would you rather slowly starve to death or asphyxiated in a tomb?
8.
White Torture White Torture has notably been used in Iran
in recent times as a punishment for political prisoners, but this extreme kind of psychological
torture has been used elsewhere.
As you can probably guess, prisoners are isolated in white cells.
They wear white, they hear nothing, and in some cases it’s said they even only eat
white rice.
It can also mean another kind of sensory deprivation, and here’s how the organization of European
Democratic Lawyers described it when they accused the USA of it, “In Guantánamo prisoners
are held under sensory deprivation, ears and eyes covered, hands and feet tied, hands in
thick gloves, held in cages without any privacy, always observed, day and night: This is called
white torture.”
A prisoner in Iran called Amir Fakhravar said White Torture was far worse than any physical
torture he suffered, even when they broke his bones.
This is what he told the media after his release.
“We didn't see any color, all of the cell was white, the floor was white, our clothes
were white and also the light, 24 hours, was white.
Our food, also, was white rice.
We couldn't see any color and we couldn't hear any voices.”
7.
Tarring and Feathering Now back to pain, but with some added humiliation.
You can find this kind of punishment in medieval Europe but it became quite popular during
the American Revolution.
It usually consisted of a person being stripped and having hot tar poured over his skin.
After that, feathers were dropped on the person so for all intents and purposes he became
a human bird.
The pain part was the hot tar and the humiliation the feathers.
Many years later the Provisional Irish Republican Army might tar and feather women who were
accused of having relationships with enemies.
The Belfast Telegraph wrote in 2007, “These terrified women had their heads shaved before
being dragged to a lamppost.
Once tied up, they had hot tar poured over their heads.
This was followed by feathers being dumped over them which would stick to the tar for
days, acting as a reminder of their so-called crimes against their community.”
6.
Trial by water This is not only inhumane, but might go down
as the most backwards kind of justice the world has ever seen.
It was seen in parts of Europe as late as the 17th century, and what happened was when
a woman was accused of witchcraft she was given the “swimming test.”
We might take the case of a woman called Mary Sutton.
In a surviving publication from 1613 it’s said was accused of making another woman fall
into a coma.
The owner of the land where she worked then threw stones at her, but later he died of
an illness.
It was thought because of this she had been dealing with the devil, and she was later
given the witch test.
She was then tied with rope and dunked into the river to see if she floated.
If she did, she must be a witch, but if she died she didn’t have the help of evil.
But the practice took many forms, and sometimes women were just thrown into water and it was
said God would decide her fate.
5.
Losing your ears or nose So this kind of punishment was what you might
call the most severe kind of justice for smaller crimes, a punishment for something that these
days might get you some community service or perhaps a fine or nothing at all bar some
criticism.
For instance, a minister in the USA when the country was still new said people had their
ears sliced off for “heresy, and other wickedness.”
We might wonder what wickedness he was talking about.
In parts of Europe you might lose your nose for something called “pandering” which
was basically Middle Ages pimping.
In fact, taking a nose or the ears happened a lot for many crimes in the past because
it was a way to let others know you had transgressed.
You would walk for the rest of your life with a mark of shame.
4.
The Pear of Anguish This punishment would also not cause immediate
death, but it would result in severe pain and often a slower death from injury.
Now, we must tell you that while these instruments existed (there are some in museums) how they
were used is rather speculative.
Some reports say the device, which was something pear-shaped, was used to punish those who
had spoken out of turn.
It could be put into the mouth of the accused and then with a key parts of the metal pear
would move outwards and force the mouth to be opened wide.
Other reports say it was inserted into the backside of men who had relationships with
other men, or put into the front side of a woman who had been accused of trying to miscarry
a child.
3.
Hamstringing This was basically a way of crippling a person,
or making them “lame” as might have been said in the past.
What would happen is the person, often a prisoner, would have all the tendons cut in the hamstring
muscles and this would effectively prevent them from ever walking again.
You can find at least one example of this punishment in the book, “The Roman History
of Ammianus Marcellinus.”
2.
Foot roasting As you all know, the soles of the feet are
very sensitive, and for that reason they have been the victims of torture throughout the
ages.
There is evidence of foot roasting in ancient Roman times and also evidence it happened
during the Spanish Inquisition.
This might also cripple a person to some extent, such as likely did in one case described in
the book, “Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templars in the Crusades.”
A person belonging to the Knights Templar was accused of heresy and had his feet roasted.
That roasting was extreme and it is said the bones of his feet charred and crumbled apart.
1.
Screws We have talked quite a lot about contraptions
of torture in other shows, and many of them have contained screws.
But the simplest kind were sometimes just called the thumb screw, foot screw, or leg
screw.
You can find evidence of the worst, the head screw, but there is also some of evidence
of the genital screw.
We are just talking about vises, bigger for the head, smaller for the thumb.
As for the leg or feet, they are sometimes called boots.
Except these boots could be made much smaller once a person was wearing one.
When they were tightened there was a possibility, depending on the offense and what was said
during the interrogation, of whatever was inside being crushed into small pieces.
In one book discussing these devices used in Scotland the leg screw was said to cause,
“The most severe and cruel pain in the world.”
Even having your toes or thumbs screwed would no doubt cause extreme pain.
But unlike some other tortures we have talked about, the use of such screws was quite common
and it seems not always employed for major crimes.
You made it all the way until the end!
So check out our whole playlist of Worst Punishments in the history of mankind!
There are at least 30 other punishments in there!
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.