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.

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.