Execution Through Out The Centuries
Throughout the history, people have been punished for the crimes that they have committed by horrific methods of torture and execution. Today, this punishment seems so cruel that it's hard to believe that they were used for centuries. So without wasting anytime, let's jump to the Top 10 most gruesome execution ever.
1. Colombian Necktie
During the 10 year long civil war in Colombia, also known as La Violencia, there was a method of execution so terrifying that instilled fear into the hearts of all human being, it was called the Colombian Necktie. The executioner would first make a cut under the convict's chin using a blunt knife and then cut of his tongue and sticking it into the victim's chin, leaving the victim choke to death. This method is often associated with the Colombian King Of Cocaine, Pablo Escobar. He was considered to be its creator, but that couldn't be possibly true because he wasn't even born when the civil war occurred.
2. Iron Maiden
This method comes out from the end of the 18th century. It's an iron cabinet designed so that a person can stand inside of it. It had a small door loaded with a sharp spikes on the inside, usually made of nails or knives. This device is called the Iron Maiden, so it's not surprising that a famous British heavy metal group decided to use it as their band's name. The device was used for interrogation and torture to suspect so they would confess their crimes. When the victim was inside the cabinet, the executioner would close the cabinet's door. However, the torture didn't just stop there, because the spikes were designed so that its sharp tips couldn't pierced through the victim's vital organs. In that way, the victim would stay alive and die slowly unless they answered the executioner's question. Most of the victim didn't get to confess since they would bleed to death too quickly.
3. Bamboo Torture
Bamboo is the fastest growing evergreen plant from the grass family. Some types of bamboo can grow up to 20 - 40 inches in only a day. During the WWII, the Japanese used this plant to torture their prisoners. They would tie a victim above a young bamboo shoot and the fast growing sharp plant would penetrate the victim's body, eventually growing through them in a couple of days. Many people are skeptical about this, so the popular "Mythbuster" created a replica of a human body out of a material with a high resemblance with a human flesh. They proved that the bamboo took only 3 days to penetrate their replica.
The Brazen Bull
In a Greek colony in Sicily, the criminals were punished in an unusual and extremely painful method. There was a brazen device shaped like a life sized bull, hollow from the inside and with door on its side large enough for a grown person to go through it. The prisoner would be locked inside the bull and then the executioner will light a fire under it. The fire would burn until the bull turn red, or the temperature went over 700 degrees. The victim would die a slow and painful death. The interior of the device had a special pipes constructed so that they made the prisoner screams sound like a roar of a raging bull. The interesting thing is that the inventor of this device bragged so much about his invention that the ruler tricked him into going inside to prove his invention worked. They lit the fire and let him scream to test if it really sounded like a raging bull. When they saw that everything working properly, they opened the door and let the half roasted man out.
5. Slow Slicing (Lingchi)
Another method which required the victim to stay alive as long as possible, this comes from China. This kind of torture was intended to those who committed the heaviest crime, such as murder and treason. This torture method was named Lingchi, which translate to "slow slicing". The victim was tied to a tree in a public place, and the executioner would start by slicing the victim's fingers and toes, moving to hands, feet, ears, nose and eventually cutting off the whole limbs. After all of that, the convict would be killed by a stab to the heart. This method is also used as a spiritual punishment because according to Confucius, if the body wasn't whole, the soul also wouldn't be whole in the afterlife.
6. Sawing
This incredibly cruel method of execution was used during the middle ages in Europe, and it was often connected with the Roman emperor, Caligula, since it was popular during his reign. He was so inclined to this method of torture that he even used this method to execute some of his family members. The victim would be hang on a tree by their feet, then the executioner would cut the victim from the crotch to the head with a saw. Since the victims were hanged upside down, there was enough blood flowing to their brains to stay alive and conscious until the saw hit the main artery in the abdomen. The executioner would sometimes pause when reaching the abdomen so the victim would experience even more pain.
Rat Torture
This particularly horrendous method of execution originating from medieval China is described as the most brutal type of torture ever created. Rat torture included placing live rats on a prisoner's naked body, usually the abdomen, and then covering them with a ceramic bowl. A vast amount of burning charcoal was then placed on the bowl, heating it gradually. The rats, terrified by the heat, would instinctively start trying to find a way out by clawing and biting through the victim's flesh. An extremely small numbers of victim would survive this, most them would die of intense internal bleeding. or blood poisoning from the infected wounds.
8. Blood Eagle
The Blood Eagle method is mostly associated with Nordic countries. The executioner would stab the victim from the back , then carefully slice through their ribs and pull the lungs through them, after which they would look like wings. They were extremely cautious while pulling out the lungs so they wouldn't damage them. They wanted the lungs to remain function and the achieve the look of fluttering wings. To increase the pain, they would even put salt onto the wounds. The victim would die in agony shortly after being tortured like this.
9. Impalement
Impalement was a common way of performing death sentences in Turkey. The victim was laid down facing the ground, and their hands and feet were tied with ropes. The executioner would then grease up the stake, its end wasn't sharp so it wouldn't damage the vital organs and cause immediate death. The stake was slowly inserted through the anal cavity, which was stretched beforehand so the stake would be able to fit inside. The executioner would then slowly hit the bottom of stake with a mallet, impaling the victim. Their body and spine would bend under the pressure, but the executioner would use ropes to keep them in a straight position. They kept doing that until the stake went through the victim's mouth, and then they would raise the stake vertically and leave it in that position while the victim was dying in agony. The person most famous for using this method was Vlad, the Wallachian Duke, who earned the name Tepes, which translate to Impaler because of how he dealt with the Turks. He first saw this method when he was imprisoned in Istanbul. A well-known legend says he cut down a whole forest and used the woods as stakes, committing mass impalement of 20,000 Turks and leaving them like that to intimidate the enemy. Upon seeing this horrifying scene, the Sultan of Turks who marched on defeating Vlad, with 5 times more soldiers than him, immediately ordered his army to retreat.
10. Scaphism (The Boats)
Scaphism was invented by the ancient Persians, and it's one of the most brutal methods on this list. The victim was placed inside of a small boat, and another boat was screwed on top of it. The victim's torso was inside the boat, while their arms, legs and head were sticking outside through specially designed holes. Executioners would then force feed the victim with milk and honey in order to induced violent diarrhea, which would eventually fill the boat's interior, enabling insects and parasites to feed on the victim's flesh. This led to gangrene, since the insects would penetrate to victim's body and cut off the blood flow. The body was also covered with honey, especially sensitive body parts such as the face, eyes, ears and mouth, in order to attract even more insects. The victim was then left to decay exposed to the sun. This process was lengthy and could be prolonged if the executioner wanted. According to some sources, a famous Persian soldier was executed by this method, but before he died, he survived the terror of Scaphism for a whole 17 days.
