Week 6: Tortures

Marisol

TORTURE MECHANISMS.

THE RACK: The victim was tied –hands and feet- to the extremes and then he/she was pulled to opposite sides until the fore and back limbs were taken off of the body. It was mostly used in France and Germany during the inquisition.

THE MASHING HEADS:

It was designed to compress and smash human skulls. The chin of the victim was placed on the inferior supporter and a helmet placed on the head was pushed down by a screw. The effects caused by the use of this device are teeth, jaw and skull broken, making the brain to come out from the eyes cavity and pop out of the bone.

THE RAT’S TORTURE:

It was used during the inquisition but it is known from ancient China. It consist on placed a rat on the stomach of the victim, it was shut up in a cage with only one side open - the side that rest on the victim’s abdomen- while the executioner bothers the rat with sticks set on fire, leaving the rat with just one option to escape, through the intestines of the victims, the rat digs on the belly of the victim to find a way out.

THE IRON MAIDEN:

The iron maiden is a coffin where the victim stays sit while it is being closed. On the walls inside the coffin there are several sharp sticks pointing to the victim’s body so while the door is being closed the sharp elements are slowly introduced in the flesh of the person causing serious damage and indescribable pain. Also the sticks were removable so it gave to the executioner the chance to cause more harm in specific parts of the body.

WATER’S METHOD:

It consist on making the victim drink at least 10 litres of water at once causing him/her to feel like if he/she were drowning, even it could cause the stomach to explode. For this torture it was necessary the use of a funnel.

THE GOAT:

In this situation the victim is tided hand and feet, and the lasts are covered by salt or fatten. Then a goat is taken to that place and it is attracted by the salt or the fatten which it starts to lick, given its rough tongue the skin of the feet is removed leaving the flesh exposed and sometimes the bone.

THE WHEEL:

It was common in Germanic Europe, and it is one of the most horrendous types of torture. The victim is immobilized and place naked face up the floor; his/her limbs are stretch as much as they can and tied with wood or iron stakes. The executioner spanks hard to break bones and joints avoiding causing fatal injuries. Then the victim is hanged up on a wheel at the top of a post where wild animals can tear up pieces of skin and flesh until the person is death.

JUDA’S WEDGE:

The accused is hanged up over a wedge and then he/she is dropped down so the weight makes the edge of the pyramid to insert itself in the anus, vagina or scrotum of the victim. 

Laura

Chinese Torture

Chinese Torture: As painful as the human body can resist.

Chinese Water Torture

It is popular torture in which water is dripped onto a person’s forehead, one gout falls down each certain time interval unknown and variable. There is no evidence that this torture was used by Chinese, however, the name is attributed to Harry Houdini (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini#The_Chinese_Water_Torture_Cell) a Hungarian-American escapologist, who created the predicament escape: Chinese Water Torture Cell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Water_Torture_Cell). The torture was done as is presented below:

Victim was strapped down with the purpose they could not move. Then after, water was dripped down slowly, on to a small area of the forehead, so, the victim was able to see the gout falling down constantly.

MythBusters, a series of Discovery Channel made a study about the Chinese Water Torture, finding that it is very stressful if the victim is not able to move, and if cold water is used, the key part of the torture (And therefore the worst) is that the time interval is not constant, it means, one gout can fall down, and the next one can take 1 second, 2 seconds, 1 minute…The victim does not know when the next one will fall down. Next video is a part of the episode.

Ball torture

It is a psychological torture which is done as is described below: The victim is fixed in a wall (It could be with ropes, or worst, with nails), and a small ball on a rope from the roof to the victim’s head is hitting the victim all the time. After months or years, maybe, the victim’s brain was reached and the victim died.
Bamboo under fingernails

Long and thin pieces of bamboo were inserted beneath the fingernails of the victim. The victimizer put the piece until the cuticle and moved the piece, if the victimizer did not obtain the information, another finger was tortured. It is shown in the image below.

Water Dungeons

Victim has to pass though many days of darkness immersed in chest deep water. Usually the water was dirty. Image below is a shown.

More tortures can be found here: http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/torture/chinese.htm

Carolina