Throughout History there were many different execution methods carried out to bring the
death of a criminal or a condemned individual. Some of the most brutal including hanging,
drawing and quartering in which a person was dragged through a town before they were hanged
until almost dead, and then quartered and cut into four different pieces after they
were beheaded. It was a terrifying ordeal, but the crowds would still flock to witness
the killings, and thousands would watch the proceedings. There were many places across
England such as the Tyburn Tree and Tower Hill where executions took place, but there
was one very rare form of execution which was used during the reign of Elizabeth I.
One of the strangest execution methods was crushing, and in history there were many other
forms of crushing to death, and some even used an elephant to do this! Join us today
as we look at this execution method, and remember as always to support our channel, please make
sure to subscribe.
Crushing has been used as a method of execution for thousands of years, and one particular
method of execution used throughout South and Southeast Asia for around 4000 years was
by using an elephant as the executioner. Referred to as execution by elephant, Asian elephants
were used to crush, dismember and even torture people in huge public executions. These animals
were very well trained and were able to kill victims immediately or by torturing them slowly,
and they were used as a sign of the royalty’s power over the people and also over nature
and wild animals. Many people were shocked when they saw captives being executed by elephants,
and it was known for being in particular very brutal.
One onlooker who witnessed an execution in Siam using Elephant crushing wrote, ‘For
Treason and Murder, the Elephant is the Executioner. The condemned Person is made fast to a Stake
driven into the Ground for the Purpose, and the Elephant is brought to view him, and goes
twice or thrice round him, and when the Elephant's Keeper speaks to the monstrous Executioner,
he twines his Trunk round the Person and Stake, and pulling the Stake from the Ground with
great Violence, tosses the Man and the Stake into the Air, and in coming down, receives
him on his Teeth, and making him off again, puts one of his fore Feet on the Carcase,
and squeezes it flat.’ Another writer wrote how, ‘the criminal is tied to a stake and
the elephant runs down upon him and crushes him to death.’
Another account of execution by elephant wrote how they could do more than simply crush,
as it was said ‘Upon a certain day, when I myself was present, some men were brought
out who had been accused of having attempted the life of the Vizier. They were ordered,
accordingly, to be thrown to the elephants, which had been taught to cut their victims
to pieces. Their hoofs were cased with sharp iron instruments, and the extremities of these
were like knives. On such occasions the elephant-driver rode upon them: and, when a man was thrown
to them, they would wrap the trunk about him and toss him up, then take him with the teeth
and throw him between their fore feet upon the breast, and do just as the driver should
bid them, and according to the orders of the Emperor.
If the order was to cut him to pieces, the elephant would do so with his irons, and then
throw the pieces among the assembled multitude: but if the order was to leave him, he would
be left lying before the Emperor, until the skin should be taken off, and stuffed with
hay, and the flesh given to the dogs.’ Elephants were still being used in the 1800s to take
lives using crushing, as one account stated, ‘The man was a slave, and two days before
had murdered his master, brother to a native chieftain, called Ameer Sahib. About eleven
o'clock the elephant was brought out, with only the driver on his back, surrounded by
natives with bamboos in their hands.
The criminal was placed three yards behind on the ground, his legs tied by three ropes,
which were fastened to a ring on the right hind leg of the animal. At every step the
elephant took, it jerked him forward, and every eight or ten steps must have dislocated
another limb, for they were loose and broken when the elephant had proceeded five hundred
yards. The man, though covered in mud, showed every sign of life, and seemed to be in the
most excruciating torments. After having been tortured in this manner for about an hour,
he was taken to the outside of the town, when the elephant, which is instructed for such
purposes, was backed, and put his foot on the head of the criminal.’
But Crushing was not used with ekephants, it was used in Ancient Rome also. One woman
named Tarpeia was crushed to death after she betrayed the city of Rome in exchange for
a reward of jewellery, and for this she was crushed to death and her body was cast from
the Tarpeian Rock which was named after her. It was also noted as a method of execution
in the Aztec Empire, but was also used as a method of torture throughout the years.
It was planned to use crushing as a slow method to extract information from an individual,
and slowly weight would be placed on an individuals chest, and with this as heavier weight was
added, the individual would struggle to breathe and eventually give in. But some would even
suffocate to death as they refused to give over information.
The problem with this is that it was hard to write this method of torture and execution
into law, and in Britain the use of the practise was abolished in 1772, and it was last used
there in 1741. The practise was recorded in the 15th century as, ‘the defendant will
lie upon his back with his head covered and his feet and one arm will be drawn to one
quarter of the house with a cord, and the other arm to another quarter, and in the same
manner it will be done with his legs, and let there be laid upon his body iron and stone
as much as he can bear and more.’ It was said that pressing to death would take a number
of days, and death wasn’t always linked to the amount of weight.
One record of the pressing to death was written and it said, ‘For such as stand Mute at
their Trial, and refuse to answer Guilty, or Not Guilty, Pressing to Death is the proper
Punishment. In such a Case the Prisoner is laid in a low dark Room in the Prison, all
naked but his Privy Members, his Back upon the bare Ground his Arms and Legs stretched
with Cords, and fasten'd to the several Quarters of the Room. This done, he has a great Weight
of Iron and Stone laid upon him. His Diet, till he dies, is of three Morsels of Barley
bread without Drink the next Day; and if he lives beyond it, he has nothing daily, but
as much foul Water as he can drink three several Time , and that without any Bread: Which grievous
Death some resolute Offenders have chosen, to save their Estates to their Children. But,
in case of High Treason, the Criminal's Estate is forfeited to the Sovereign, as in all capital
Crimes, notwithstanding his being pressed to Death.’
The most famous case of crushing to death or pressing in England was of Saint Margaret
Clitheroe. She was a Catholic who during the reign of Elizabeth I hid priests which was
a capital offence which could result in execution. These priests then conducted underground worship,
but eventually she was arrested for harbouring priests. She refused to give over a plea,
and because of this she was subject to torture and was then sentenced to death. Clitherow
was worried that her statements would implicate others and lead to the deaths of others. But
because of this to extract a confession, the authorities took her to the Toll Booth on
the Ouse Bridge, and she was then crushed to death by her own door.
Her door was brought, and the alleged pregnant Margaret Clitherow was forced to lie down
with a handkerchief tied across her face whilst a sharp rock was placed under her back. The
door from her house was put on top, and then large amounts of weight was placed on her
and she broke her back. Her death took around 15 minutes, but her body was left out for
6 hours after. It’s alleged that when Elizabeth I found out about this she was disgusted.
It’s believed that 700 pounds of weight was added which killed her. A number of other
criminals were executed in the same manner, two men in the 1700s lasted half hour under
400lbs of weight before pleading guilty, and two others Major Strangways and John Weeks
later refused to plead even under 400lbs of weight and were killed when witnesses sat
on them to put them out of their misery.
IT was used in America, as Giles Corey was pressed to death during the Salem witch trials
when he refused to enter a plea. It’s alleged that his last words were ‘more weight,’
however it’s believed he was dead as weight was being put on. But pressing and crushing
to death was a diverse but brutal method of execution that was used throughout the centuries
in a variety of different ways. It was a terrifying way to be killed, and witnesses would be haunted
by the screams of the condemned.
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