The Breast Ripper
Used as a way to punish women, the breast ripper was a painful and cruel way to mutilate a woman’s breasts.
This instrument was mostly reserved for women accused of conducting a miscarriage or those accused of adultery.
The claws were used either hot or cold on the victim’s exposed breasts. If the victim wasn’t killed she would be scarred for life as her breasts were literally torn apart.
A common variant of the breast ripper is often referred to as “The Spider” which is a similar instrument attached to a wall. The victim’s breasts were fixed to the claws and the woman was pulled by the turturer away from the wall; successfully removing them.
grim-fascination:
The Nazi Experiments
There’s a reason the Nazi’s are such effective villains in so much of our culture. It’s very easy to forget some of the shit they did, which was downright torture, in the name of science. The experiments they ran on the people in concentration camps are terrifying and disturbing. Prisoners were dunked in ice water for hours, to see how long downed pilots would survive in the North Atlantic. Decompression chambers were used to test the effects of high altitude, usually followed by live brain dissections to see what happened; they were forced to drink salt water as their only source of fluids; war wounds were inflicted and deliberately infected in order to test new treatments; and TB was brought into the population. These people died under horrific circumstances. Yet these are the only clinical information we have about certain conditions. The hypothermia data in particular is far beyond any other study that could be attempted, which puts researchers in a dilemma. Is it ethical to use data gathered by such disgusting means in order to work on treatments that may save lives? (via)
(via dahmersfishisnamedalbert)
The Pear of Anguish was used during the Middle Ages as a way to torture women who conducted a miscarriage, liars, blasphemers and homosexuals.
A pear-shaped instrument was inserted into one of the victim’s orifices: the vagina for women, the anus for homosexuals and the mouth for liars and blasphemers.
The instrument consisted of four leaves that slowly separated from each other as the torturer turned the screw at the top. It was the torturer’s decision to simply tear the skin or expand the “pear” to its maximum and mutilate the victim.
The Pear of Anguish was usually very adorned to differentiate between the anal, vaginal and oral pears. They also varied in size accordingly.
This torture very rarely provoked death, but was often followed by other torture methods.
Saw Torture
The Saw was widely used throughout the Middle Ages, mainly because the tools required were found in most houses and no complex devices were required. It was a cheap way to torture and kill a victim who was often accused of: witchery, adultery, murder, blasphemy or even theft.
The victim was tied to an inverted position. This had several “benefits”: first, it assured sufficient blood diverted to the brain, second, it slowed down the loss of blood and third, it humiliated the victim.
Depending on the victim and torturer, this torture could last several hours. When a confession was required, the victim was frequently forced to watch someone else be subject to this method. If he didn’t confess, he’d be slowly cut in half.
During the Inquisition, this method became even more popular as the inquisitors traveled from village to village often without any torture devices at their disposal.
While some victims were cut completely in half as a symbolical gesture, most had only up to their abdomen cut, this was done to prolongue the time of death.
The blood eagle is known to us through ancient Nordic legends. When a person is to be executed in this way, they are forced to lie face down on a table while the execution cuts a slit in their back giving access to the ribcage. The ribs are then cut so they expand out into the shape of wings. The executioner then removes the lungs of the (still living) victim and sprinkles salt in the wounds. There is debate about whether or not this method was used in reality or in fiction, but many historians do believe it was real. Some of the alleged victims of this manner of execution are King Edmund of East Anglia, and King Ella of Northumbria.
(via serial-killers-101)
The Iron Maiden, otherwise known as the Virgin of Nuremberg, was a device used from the XVI century to torture criminals.
It stands 7 feet tall and is able to accommodate a man. The victim was tied inside the Maiden and one of the two doors was shut, penetrating the victim’s flesh with the strategically-placed spikes that didn’t penetrate any vital organs. When completely closed, the screams from the victim could not be heard outside, nor could the victim see any light or hear anything. This increased the psychological pain. Additionally, the spikes blocked the wounds so it took many hours - or even days - for death to occur.
If the door was opened, the victim would stand in the exact same position so if the torturer chose to close the door again, the spikes would penetrate the exact same wounds. Sometimes the door was intermittently closed to maximise the victim’s pain without delivering death.
Torture by exposure
As its name implies, this method consists of exposing a victim to the elements. The victim could be buried up to his neck letting any animals, insects or other people kill him slowly.
In some towns there were chains, stocks or ropes used to quickly restrain someone. In many cases, the victim was simply left to die of hunger and thirst.
Due to its cost efficiency and cruelty, the exposure torture was very widespread in medieval Europe. The victim’s remains often served as a warning to the population.
In many cases, the victim was sentenced to a short period of exposure, depending on the crime. However, death was frequent since they were completely defenseless.
The brazen bull is an executionary device first invented in Ancient Greece.
Its inventor, Perillos of Athens, proposed to Phalaris; a tyrant, the need of a more painful way to kill criminals. This was done hoping to disuade the poor population from committing any more crimes.
As the story goes, when Perillos finished the brazen bull, Phalaris asked Perillos to try it out by himself. He then ordered him locked inside the brazen bull and set a fire underneath it. He was very pleased with the results. Being burned alive was a very exciting act to watch.
When a victim is placed inside the brazen bull, he or she is slowly burned to death. This device gradually became more sophisticated until the Greek invented a complex system of tubes in order to make the victim’s screams sound like an infuriated ox.
Even though this torture was not used as frequently during the Middle Ages as it was used earlier by the Greek and Romans, it was still used in Central Europe. This torture is similar to being boiled alive.
The Coffin Torture was feared throughout the Middle Ages. It is enough for one to look at the picture to the left to realize the reason.
The victim was placed inside the “coffin”. Torturers were well-known for forcing overweight victims into the device, or even making the “coffin” slightly larger than normal to make the victims more uncomfortable.
The period of time a victim was to be kept inside the coffin was determined by his or her crime. Very serious crimes, such as blasphemy, were punished by death inside the coffin where the victim was to be kept inside under the sun with animals eating his or her flesh.
The coffin was sometimes placed in a public plaza so the local population would congregate around it and mock the unlucky victim. Sometimes death occurred because of the hatred towards the person as others often threw rocks and other objects to further increase the pain.
