This Weeks Top 5 in Torture.

NUMBER FIVE: The Brazen Bull. 

This pretty little number is called The Brazen Bull as the title suggests, or it is also known as Bronze Bull and Sicilian Bull. This beauty was designed in Greece by a metal-worker known as Perillos of Athens, designed for criminals. This bull is made out of bronze, is completely hollow and has a door on one side. The accused was put inside of the bull with the door locked and a fire was lit underneath the bull's belly. This would go on until the criminal was completely cooked to death. Inside of the bull's head is a network of tubes and stops, these would alter the victim's screams to sound like a roaring bull. An interesting quote from Perillos to Phalaris (the big guy in charge at the time) "His screams will come to you through the pipes as the tenderest, most pathetic, most melodious of bellowings." Phalaris was disgusted by this and ordered Perillos to be the first victim of his own twisted design. However before Perillos could be fully cooked Phalaris ordered him out and threw him from the top of a hill to finish him off. There are scholars who believe the bull was inspired by statues of Moloch, which held infant sacrifices, these statues had a cow's head and the live infants were placed on the statue's hands to slide into a bronze furnace, the screaming however was drowned out by drums and other various celebrating noises.

NUMBER FOUR: Heretic's Fork.

Ah, The Heretic's Fork. This is number four on our countdown. This tool was placed between the victim's chin and breast. It was attached via leather strap tied around the victim's neck. This fork was used in cases of heresey and witchcraft. Any movement of the head would force the fork into them, very painfully. This allowed the victim to only barely speak. Some victims were made to hang from a ceiling so suspended in some way to prevent sleeping, and as I stated before any movement of the head caused the fork to enter the breast and chin so sleeping was not an option. This tool was used usually after a confession so the victim could no longer speak.

NUMBER THREE: The Judas Cradle.

The Judas Cradle, also known as the Judas Chair or the Guided Cradle. In this fun looking toy, the victim was placed in the harness seen above the pyramid. The victim was then lowered slowly and forced to sit on the point until they were torn open, most victims of the Judas Cradle died due to infection caused by this device being unwashed and them being left with there for extended periods of time. This torture would go on from anywhere between a few hours to several days. Torturers would sometimes add weight to this in order to speed up the process. Other torturers would cover the device in oil, or repeatedly raise and lower the victim.

NUMBER TWO: The Rack

Ever see a rack this fine? Dirty jokes aside, this was a very nice, brutal way to execute someone. The victims ankles would be tied to the bottom ropes and the wrists on the top. As an interrogation would linger, the torturer would use a lever to add tension to the ropes or chains that were tied to the victim. This would induce excruciating pain. This could go on and on until the victim's limbs were torn off. One of my favorite parts about The Rack is how the joints and bones would make loud snapping and popping noises as they were slowly ripped apart. Part of the torture that even worked sometimes was just simply forcing the next in line to watch the man before him get torn apart by this glorious machine of pain.

NUMBER ONE: Slow Slicing

Unfortunately there were no pictures I could come up with that weren't full of mutilated bodies. I assumed this would be appreciated if I skipped out on a picture this time around. However, slow slicing is my favorite method of torture. A victim was taken and tied down to something to keep their body still. Then, the torturer would make small cuts on the victim, they were always non fatal as to keep the victim alive. Every slice of meat chopped off was laid infront of the victim so he could watch himself be sliced into bits. Some torturers would keep victims alive with drugs, critics argue if this was an act of mercy to decline the pain or if it actually increased the pain. Sadly, I can not test this, even for science. this concludes my Top 5 Torture Methods of the week. 

The Reason I Chose Torture for My Blog

A lot of people probably wonder why, of all things, would I choose to blog about torture. Well torture devices and methods have always been a great fascination to me. It all started back when I was about 14. I was watching the History Channel with a few friends when a segment on old torture methods was announced as the next show. Everyone in the room groaned and tried to change the channel, but my desire had already set in and since it was my house, my rules. We grabbed some sandwiches and chips then sat down to watch. At the end of the program it seemed like everyone was about to vomit up their food, then there was me sitting in my chair laughing to myself about how fun some of these methods sounded. The looks I received were priceless and I realized wait, this makes a lot of people uncomfortable...perfect. Since then I've done a lot of fictional writing with use of very descriptive gore and I have done a lot more research on torture. When I read about a form of torture I hadn't known about previously, my tummy is filled with butterflies and I feel my face crack and force into a smile. If you come up to me and strike up a conversation about torture I get all flustered and its hard to speak at first, but I become very eager to share my knowledge. The more I think about it, I have a crush on torture. The method that REALLY got me into torture was death by sawing. There are a few different ways to execute this method, but my favorite one (the version I saw on the show I was watching) was to saw a person in half, vertically. The person would be hung upside down to allow the blood to drain to their head, and they'd be cut from bottom up to keep them alive as long as possible. This is just a short example of what my blog is going to about, I will be going into detail about these torture methods, include a few every week and rate it on how awesome the method is.