This Week's Top 3

I apologize there are only 3 this week, I know I have a few people who look forward to reading these every week. I will try my best to get 5 for next week.

Number 3: Waterboarding: This week we're going to start off with waterboarding, this week is also going to feature torture still used in current times or used in recent times. 

First thing, tie your victim down tightly onto a raised table. Then you wrap or hold down a piece of cloth on the person's face. Lastly, pour water onto the mouth and nasal cavities. Really this is a simple form of torture I can find the things I need for this one in a quick walk through of my home. However the damage it does is astounding. Basically it completely mimics the sensation of drowning. It will usually create brain damage, cause dry drowning (the lungs cannot extract oxygen from the air due to an outside purpose), or it may break the victim's bones due to them fighting the restraints. Another kind of damage this causes is mental damage. Dr. Allen Keller, the director of the Bellevue/ NYU Program for Survivors of Torture claims to have treated victims who had mental problems years after their torture. This included not being able to shower due to panic attacks and a severe fear of the rain.

Number 2: Tucker Telephone: This device I didn't believe was real until I did some research mainly based of its odd name. I wondered "How do you torture with a telephone?" well I was very happy to learn about this Tucker Telephone. The telephone got it's name because it was invented in Tucker State Prison Farm, Akransas. They have been reported to be used even in the Vietnam war on Viet Cong prisoners. 

The Tucker Telephone was built from old parts of crank phones. The telephone is wired to two dry cell batteries so it can administer shocks to another person. A prisoner would be brought to the room and strapped into a chair. The ground wire would be wrapped around the big toe, and the hot wire to the victim's genitalia. The phone would then be turned on and send shocks to the victim until they passed out. 

Number 1: Strappado: Also known as Reverse Hanging or Palestinian Hanging. This method of torture seemed extremely popular in 1692, the Salem Witch Trials. This was again made popular in a Nazi concentration camp.  The last known report of a Reverse Hanging was in 2008. I WAS going to provide a picture for this one, until I found out every picture on google no matter what I typed was A) indecent women B) really gorey or C) ...an exercise technique which is interesting because that could be considered torture to some of us less than fit people. Anyway the victim's hands are tied behind their back. Then they are suspended in the air via a rope tied from their wrists. This eventually leads to the dislocation of the shoulders. Weights were occasionally added to intensify pain and quicken torture. In the last decade other methods have also been added to the torture including: Shock torture, high pressure water blasting the victim, sexual assaults and even beatings.

This weeks, top 5 torture.

Number 5: The Scavenger's Daughter. 

This device was invented in the time of Henry the 8th of England. It's  been reportedly rarely used, despite how interesting it is.  The victim's head and limbs were all strapped to various parts of this mechanism. The way you the man above strapped in is a good example, they were forced in a crouching position. This position forced blood to flow mainly to the nose and head. An interesting note is the fact that its main concept is actually the opposite of and an earlier posted device, the rack. Instead of forcing limbs to be stretched it forced you to be crushed. A screw would be used to tighten and tighten the device slowly. Eventually all of your blood would come gushing out of your eyes ears and nose, like squeezing those fruit snacks Gushers.

Number 4: The Head Crusher. 

I immediately had to choose this device as it is named after one of my favorite songs. So basically just take a person and place their chin on the bottom flat metal part. The screw would put the cap shaped part down onto the head and turned to apply more and more pressure. To give this little toy more enjoyment the torturer would sometimes hit the cap with and object at certain points. This would send shocks of intense pain throughout the body. The victim usually wouldn't die until their jaw was crushed and eyeballs popped out as well.

Number 3: Necklacing. Everyone knows what a tire looks like. Just imagine any old tire. Now, imagine having one forced around your body. Then they fill it was gasoline and light it on fire. You might endure this for up to twenty minutes before you finally die. This is a method that became widely known in Africa during the 80s. Reports of necklacing were still coming in as late as 2006. 

Number 2: Rat Torture. 

Rats rats rats. Everyone's favorite pest. The geniuses who make torture methods and devices could probably find a torture like use for anything. So what happened is a jar or pot basically anything that could hold rats in it was placed above your stomach for example. Now the special thing about these containers is the fact that they are holding rats inside. The container with one or more rats was then heated with by placing red charcoals on it. The rats would try escaping the heat by gnawing and clawing their way into your innards. This would happen slowly and you would just be left there. Rats chewing and eating through your bowels until you died.

Number 1: Scaphism. This is a supposedly Persian torture method. Which made me ask myself how come I haven't come across anything cool that was started in the good ol United States? Anyways the torturee was stripped naked and tied to the inside of two row boats stacked. So imagined one sitting normal and the other upside down so both interiors are facing each other. Then the individual was forced to eat honey and milk until they had diarrhea. Then more honey would be applied to exposed parts of the body to attract insects. After this you were put out in the sun or out to float on a still pond. After a long time of sitting out the victims feces would accumulate in his putrid container and attract more insects to eat and mate in his flesh. Death was prolonged only because the one thing to kill them would be starvation or dehydration. This is why Scaphism is this week's number 1 in torture.

THIS WEEK'S TOP FIVE TORTURE

Number Five: Glasgow Smile. This weeks first pick is the Glasgow Smile. I thought I would start this week's post with a nice easy one. This fun little method supposedly originated in Glasgow, Scotland hence the name Glasgow smile. However it became popular with a lot of gangs in England. Basically the victim would have the sides of their mouth cut into in order to form the "smile". Imagine how the joker's mouth looks better yet a picture of his mouth.

So now you have the smile image in your head. The next step in this method is to torture the victim via, beatings, burning, stabbing until the muscles in the face contract forcing the smile to rip itself open more. Beautiful. This doesn't kill the victim either unless other measures are taken to make sure the victim dies OR the wound is left untreated and they bleed out. Most victims are just left with a scar, that looks just like the joker's.

Number Four: Colombian Necktie. For this one my friends I strayed off the path of torture and this is simply murder. However, I bring it to this blog because it is an old, old favorite of mine. This method of murder came to be during "La Violencia" a 10 year period of civil war in Colombia. Alright so I'm sure you are all just dying to know how one gives another this "colombian necktie" so let me tell you. It's a fairly simple, effective technique. You make a horizontal slash across the victims throat, and pull the fool's tongue out through the wound you just created. This was actually used more as a tool of intimidation rather than real execution method. No pictures for this one sorry folks.

Number Three: Denailing. This is another one of those methods that gives me goosebumps and a smile. As the name would suggest, it is the forced removal of toenails and fingernails, fun. Denailing is a method that is still popular to this day. It is considered to be one of the most highly efficient and effective methods as well. First step is to secure the torturee to a table, hands and feet chained down. Then pliers, usually red hot are used to slowly pry the nail from the nailbed until it has been removed from the toe or finger. In medieval spain a small wedge of wood was put between the flesh and nail, then hammered until the nail came off. Another form of this uses skewers dipped in boiling oil, the skewer is placed under the toe or finger and drilled until it has removed the nail.

Number Two: Force-feeding. Force-feeding may not sound like a method of torture to some people. Sometimes it is used in hospitals medically, or in prisons when prisoners went on hunger strikes. However for those people who believe it isn't torture, can't utilize what they have properly. First off, let us take a look at what Force-feeding is. It is simply the act of feeding someone against their will, usually with a small plastic tube that goes from nose or mouth to the stomach. Sounds yummy right? However take a look at this, according to the Declaration of Tokyo: it may be extremely painful and result in severe bleeding and spreading of various diseases via the exchanged blood and mucus, especially when conducted with dirty equipment on a prison population. Still not satisfied? How about someone giving a description of a first hand experience? "The feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I could not with the pipe in my throat. I could breathe neither in nor out at first; I wheezed like a drowning man — my lungs felt ready to burst. The doctor also seemed ready to burst into tears, but she kept shoving the pipe farther and farther down. Only when it reached my stomach could I resume breathing, carefully. Then she poured some slop through a funnel into the pipe that would choke me if it came back up. They held me down for another half-hour so that the liquid was absorbed by my stomach and could not be vomited back, and then began to pull the pipe out bit by bit."- Vladimir Bukovsky. In some Serbian countries, prisoners were force fed soap and paper. It is also reported Muslims have been forced to eat pork and drink alcohol. Two things Islam strictly forbids.

Number One: Prematue burial. For those of you who already know what premature burial is, you probably shudder a little when you read the name. Not I however, this method of torture is also a fear many people claim. Premature burial is the act of burying someone when they are still alive. Imagine it, waking up to find yourself locked in a coffin and all you can do is scratch at the wood until your fingers bleed and you have no nails. Most death from premature burial is either from asphyxiation (no oxygen down in a coffin), dehydration, starvation or hypothermia. You will most likely only live for an hour or two before your oxygen is gone, you lose consciousness and finally die three minutes later. Even if rescued from the coffin depending on how long you were down there you may have brain damage from the lack of oxygen. The only way to escape asphyxiation is if you have fresh air coming in from somewhere, but even then most would rather die from that. The longer you are buried the more time your mind has to lose itself. This is why, Premature Burial is the weeks; Number One.