This works by placing a prisoner on a long bench, with a board against their back and head. Dunking for punishing witches Image Credit: Women accused of witchcraft were usually tortured using dunking. Chastity belts Image Credit: The torture methods for females listed today were basically meant for publicly shaming females for a variety of reasons. The most severe brutality he endured was the German chair. The shackles dug into her ankles so badly that her bones were visible by the end of the torture.
The hinged boards were placed around the ankles, and the feet of the person were usually bare. However, these devices do not seem to match the descriptions given by Calvi or the 19th century sources. As the name suggests it would slowly crush the victims head as the handle was turned. In reality though, it seems like anyone could end up being tortured in a shuanggui. While supposed witches were commonly tortured using this method, and could be subjected to it in order to extract a confession.
Unimaginably Horrific Medieval Punishments and Torture Devices
Most of the cages were hung from the ceiling, or sometimes, the victim would be just dumped into a cage on the floor bereft of attending a toilet. Since the beginning, many Falun Gong followers have been brutally punished. The telephone, which had been modified to send electric shocks, was then cranked, sending electricity right to the family jewels. For the record the main users of these forms of torture were the various churches of the day in the name of Christianity. It came in varieties, both of which caused pain using the victims own weight while spreading the legs.
As the name suggests, it involved boiling the victim alive, their skin stripped from their flesh in the most agonizing way possible. It was used in situations where the torturers needed to persuade children to testify against their parents for example. This instrument's strength lies primarily in the psychological fear caused to the victims. One of the scariest devices used to torture women was the saw. Things seemed to get worse as time went by culminating in the Black Death and the Spanish Inquisition, that orgy of sadism and torture. .
According to one 19th century account, the Pear of Anguish was used by Dutch robbers. The rack was constructed of a rectangular, iron or wooden, frame that was positioned at a particular angle from the ground. The amount of pain the device inflicted could be changed in several ways. This was also a form of sleep deprivation because they knew that if they fell asleep then their muscles would relax and they would slide deeper onto the device. Its use was very common in Ancient Rome, but it was stil a favorite form of punishment during the Middle Ages.
It had three holes, one for the head and two smaller holes for the wrists which were placed in front of the face. The prisoner is then and forced to lie in uncomfortable positions for long periods, with their hands and feet bound. They would get increasingly tired, steadily losing their mind and the will to live and wanting nothing more than to sleep, only to be stopped from expressing that release. The courts themselves even recognized, in their twisted way, that a confession given under torture held no legal meaning. Weighted suspension or hanging Image Credit: This was a very cruel and humiliating form of torture inflicted on women accused of witchcraft. One among these methods to torment wives and young girls was the chastity belt. A woman was pulled alongside the bars until her breasts were torn away.
This version was more a form of humiliation with the wearer being left to walk the streets wearing the barrel. Rapes were committed on women prisoners to get their confessions, like in prisons of Mexico and Iran. It was a very brutal and painful way of dying. The Water Wheel was simply a big enough wheel set in a pool of water. Fakhravar was forbidden to talk to anyone.
The Breast Ripper was made to rip-off the breasts of the woman who were sinners. Boiling to death was employed again in 1542 for a woman who also used poison. The victim can be rocked, or made to fall repeatedly onto the point. Once in place, the screw on the other end was slowly turned and tightened until the tongue of the victim was completely torn apart. It was commonly used in Spain. What strikes us most in considering the mediaeval tortures, is not so much their diabolical barbarity … as the extraordinary variety, and what may be termed the artistic skill, they displayed.
