10 Absolutely Horrific Torture Methods Used In History    

It never ceases to amaze us that humans from every culture have always dreamed up new and incredibly brutal ways to torture and kill one another. Human torture has gone on from the time that men and women first walked the earth, and will always continue to. It is a fact of life that many people simply do not want to realize, yet it is a large part of our history. It is incredible that people have the mental ability to come up with some amazing inventions whose only intent is to hurt others. So without further ado here are the top 10 absolutely scary torture methods that happened throughout history.

#10  Scaphism

Scaphism is indeed a nasty form of torture. The victim would be stripped naked and forcibly fed large amounts of milk and honey. Additional honey was applied to their naked body. He or she would then be bound in place between two boats or hollowed out tree trunks with only their head, hands, and feet exposed. The contraption would then be left out in the hot sun or floated in a stagnant pond. The victim would eventually develop diarrhea from the mild and honey and as they sat in their own filth it would attract insects that would eventually entirely cover their body and eat their flesh.

#9  Rat Torture

In the medieval ages an extremely brutal way to torture someone was through the use of rats, the kind that run around city streets to this very day. Here’s how it would work. The victim was tied to the ground or any other horizontal surface that happened to be handy. A rat or multiple rats were placed on the person’s stomach and held there in a metal cage or container. The container was slowly heated unit the rat looked for a way to escape. That would always end up being through the victim’s body. The rat or rats would eat through their intestines causing a painful an disgusting death.

#8  Gibbet

Gibbet rhymes with exhibit and for good reason. In essence it is a human form that is constructed or iron bands. The Gibbet was designed in order to hold a human body of an executed victim in order to display said person for all in the town to see. The device actually held the rotting corpse together for several weeks. In medieval times bodies were displayed in order to warm others that they would die for their crimes, which included insulting the wrong person at the wrong time. The Gibbet was truly a form of pain torture.

#7  Scavenger’s Daughter

The Scavenger’s Daughter is not a beautiful maiden in distress. It is actually a torture device that was used against people who were accused of high treason during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. It was comprised of a hoop of iron with a hinge in the middle. Victims were physically forced to sit on one half while the other was placed over their back. In essence it was much like sitting in a giant pair of iron dentures. The person in charge of performing the torture would tighten the hinge forcing the victim to be crushed.

#6  Spanish Donkey

Although the Spanish Donkey may sound like a quaint restaurant where you can grab a bite to eat it is anything but pleasant. In fact the Spanish Donkey was one of the most brutal forms of torture and execution known to humankind. A naked victim was forced to straddle a vertical wood board with a sharp V-shape wedge on top of it. Weights were attached to the victim’s ankles and feet, which pulled them down onto the wedge until they were literally split in half. Margaritas anyone?

#5  The Rack

The Rack is perhaps the absolute most painful form of medieval torture ever invented. It is comprised of a wooden frame that has two ropes fixed to the bottom, and two more ropes tied to a handle at the top of the device. The torturer would turn the handle thereby causing the ropes to pull the victims arms until they were dislocated. If the torturer kept turning the victims arms would be torn off of their bodies. The longer the victims failed to confess to their crimes the longer amount of time they would spend on the rack.

#4  Water Torture

Water Torture includes a large variety of techniques that incorporate the use of water in order to inflict physical or psychological torture to a victim through the use of water. That being said when most people think of water torture the first thing that comes to mind is the evil Chinese Water Torture. Starting in the 16th Century this method of water torture was used to literally drive victims insane. Water was slowly dripped onto the forehead for extremely long periods of time until the victim snapped.

#3  Choke Pear

If the first thought that popped into your head when you read Choke Pear was about the delicious fruit that grows on trees in the Autumn than it’s time to think again. The Choke Pear was actually a torture device that was used in a few different ways. The pear shaped device has the body of a pear that was constructed with four metal leaves joined by a hinge at the top, and a crank on one end. It was inserted into the throat, vagina, or anus of the victim depending on their crime. Turning the crank opened the leaves and causes a tremendous amount of internal damage.

#2  Heretic’s Fork

The Heretic’s Fork was typically used during the Middles Ages, mainly during the time of the Spanish Inquisition as a means of providing real torture to people. This torture device consists of two forks that are set against each other in order to penetrate the flesh located under the chin on one end and the flesh of the upper chest on the other end. This torture device typically did not cause fatal injuries, as it was mainly used as a painful device that forced the victim confess to his or her crimes without killing them. Heretic’s Fork was a device that lead to many torture survivors being able to tell their own tale.

#1  Dunking Cage – Absolutely Scary Torture Methods That Happened Througout History

No one likes to be put in a cage, just ask any criminal that has ever gone to jail. Prison torture is no joke. That being said the dunking cage took it to an entirely new level of torture during the medieval times. People would be placed in the cage that was typically attached to a lever and pulley system. They were rolled down to the nearest deep body of water, such as the ocean, a river, or lake and dunked in and out unit they either confessed their crimes or eventually died.