Try and imagine being arrested for a crime perhaps you either did or didn’t commit.
You’re taken to a room to be interrogated.
The experience is overwhelming as good cops and bad cops take their turn in trying to
question you, but you keep your cool and just keep uttering the magic words, “no comment.”
But let’s go back in time and now imagine when you enter the interrogation room what
you see before you is the most horrendous looking contraption you’ve seen in your
short life.
It’s a torture chair, or what we might call a cradle of pain; a device used to extract
information from you, and perhaps before you take your turn in this ghastly chair, you’ll
get to see your friend torn apart first.
We have called this the “Chinese Torture Chair”, but seeing as similar devices were
used all over the world each country had their different take on the chair.
Sometimes it was simply called the torture chair, while in Europe during the Middle Ages
it was usually referred to as the Iron Chair.
In today’s show we’ll try and find examples of various iterations of this chair, where
it was used and how it was used, but let’s first give you the basics.
First of all, this chair unlike many other torture devices in our punishment shows wasn’t
always supposed to torture and then kill a person.
Someone could indeed make it out of the chair, although they would likely be severely injured
after their extremely uncomfortable sit-down.
The device was often used to scare the hell out of people, so in some ways it was used
as psychological torture as much as physical torture.
An example being, if a group of people were, say, accused of heresy or witchcraft, one
person would be tortured in the chair first and the rest of the group were made to watch.
After that, the other members would usually admit to anything they were accused of.
If the crime was a big one, the result would sometimes be execution.
This was hardly a great result, but at least they didn’t have to face the cradle of pain.
So, what did these things look like?
Well, it was of course a chair and looked like a chair, with legs and arms and seat
and backrest.
It might have been made out of wood, but could have been made of iron.
This chair wasn’t your typical lazy-boy recliner though, and would be adorned with
spikes, a design straight from the sadist’s handbook.
There might be as many as 1,500 spikes all over the thing, on the arms, on the seat,
on the backrest.
Some of the spikes might not immediately puncture the skin, but if the person was tied tighter
to the chair during the interrogation, the spikes would pierce flesh and soon the person
would be oozing blood all over their body.
To make things even worse, sometimes fire or hot coals would be put underneath the chair,
and slowly the accused would feel unbearable pain as they were essentially cooked.
It seems to have been used until the 1800s in Europe, and the crimes allegedly committed
that might warrant the torture chair might be as bad as murder, but could have also been
witchcraft or even adultery.
Yep, imagine cheating on your spouse and finding yourself strapped to a torture chair.
That would sure cut down on adultery in this day and age, although we would think Humans
Rights organizations might have something to say about it.
The Chinese had a slightly different version of the torture chair, with far fewer spikes.
Their chair was in use from the 1700s to around 1900 and it consisted of mainly 12 large spikes
or blades around the device.
If they did not comply, their bodies would be fastened tighter to the chair and pain
would ensue.
Such torture might not kill a person immediately, but let’s remember that in those days infections
could not be easily treated.
The wounds might eventually lead to death or if not at least disablement or some pretty
nasty scars.
We’ve seen a picture of one of these chairs, because some of them are now in museums, so
we will try and describe one.
There are three blades on the back, which look like upright swords.
The arms are covered with spikes, which are like jagged saw teeth.
The seat is also lined with blades and the footrest is lined with blades.
Because these are not nails, or thin spikes, the accused would have to be pressed down
for the blades to penetrate the skin.
You can only imagine what this would look like if the person didn’t play along and
the pressing down was taken to its final conclusion.
The guy would be partly chopped, like a decorative piece of fruit.
Considering back then you could be flayed alive for defacing a book, you needn’t have
committed the worst offense to find yourself in the chair.
Just so you know, in China today there are still things that are called interrogation
chairs, with something called the “Tiger Chair” still in use.
This is more like a normal chair that the prisoner is tied to, although China has said
these things are not used specifically used for torture but rather to keep people fastened
down.
In 2015 following global criticism, China said it now even pads the chairs.
Back to the Middle Ages and Europe and the spikes on the chair, numbering many, were
more like large thorns.
If pushed down on them the injury wouldn’t make a person look like a partially chopped
potato, but with hundreds of those spikes much of the body would have been badly damaged.
No vital organs would be hit, but there would have been a lot of blood loss once the person
was taken out of the chair.
At the same time, if the confession didn’t come fast enough a fire would be lit under
the iron chair and the roasting would commence.
We might ask how many people were actually tortured or killed this way, and one researcher
said that the chairs were more likely used to scare people rather than outright execute
them.
He said, “Although it would bring about a very slow and painful death, it was probably
used more symbolically.
With this thing in front of you, the chances are that you would comply with your captor
pretty quickly.”
Unlike the torture device known as the Iron Maiden, it’s believed that these chairs
were definitely used and not just there to frighten people.
One historian and expert in Medieval Times said this is why such devices existed, “There
was an idea in the Middle Ages that you were really honest when you were under a lot of
punishment, under a lot of strain.
That the truth comes out when it starts to hurt.”
We did manage to find an account of one person who was fully roasted in the iron chair, which
was detailed in the book, “Europe's Inner Demons: The Demonization of Christians In
Medieval Christendom.”
This was a Christian who was roasted to death in a chair after he was accused of being a
cannibal.
He cried out while he was cooking, “What you are doing is indeed to eat men, but we
do not eat men, nor do we do anything wicked.”
That’s according to one book, anyway.
The Latin has been translated differently in other books, but his sentiments were the
same.
Other examples tell us that in the 17th century the device was sometimes called the Witch’s
Chair, because that’s where women accused of being witches would no doubt admit they
were, even though they were not.
The witch hunts were very real, and the horrors inflicted on those women is stomach-churning.
How do you think you’d deal with a sit-down in one of these things?
Tell us in the comments.
Also, be sure to check out our other video The Catherine Wheel - Worst Punishments In
The History of Mankind.
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.