Brutal History : 5 Craziest Torture Methods of All-Time

Humans have long came up with methods of punishing criminals, villains, or anyone who’s unlucky enough to mess with the wrong people, at the wrong place and time. Hanging, burning, stoning, caning, those are among the popular ones, the ones we are all familiar with. But what about the ones that are just plain mad and cruel, the craziest ones? These are torture method that causes not only physical pain, but is psychologically destructive, leaves deep mental scar if not crippled for the rest of their lives or worse, death.

5. Ling Chi - Death by 1000 cuts

  

Also known as “Slow slicing” or “Death by 1000 cuts”. The convict was tied to a post and small slices are carefully made, ensuring that vital organs and arteries are not cut. Then, bits of skin and limbs were removed one at a time, slowly to ensure that they suffer through the process.

Some records state that salt is poured on the wounds to make it worse for the convict. Used in China from as early as the 10th century and was banned in 1905 - a thousand years later.

4. Crocodile shears

Yeah, as the name suggests. Note the shears with crocodile-shaped head and teeth, those are first heated up until they are glowing red. Then they’ll be used to clamp the unlucky man’s genitals, where they’ll be snatched with brute force.

Rarely do the men die because of this alone, death was often a slow one due to the infection. They’ll also rip off the finger, toes, ear or other body part that can be ripped apart. This punishment was specifically for those who had attempted to assassinate the king.

3. Brazen Bull

The next torture methods came around in Greece in which was designed to torture criminals. It is a huge bull with a hollow inside that can fit a person in it. The bull was made out of bronze and has a door at the side - to shove the unlucky criminal inside.

Fire is then lit under the bull, cooking the person inside, alive. It is interesting to note that the contraption was fitted with pipes in such a way that the screams of the dying person would resemble the bellowing of an angry bull as onlookers will be hearing the person inside scream till he’s cooked - we mean, dead.

2. Rat Torture

A torture method that is considered both ingenious and disgusting due to its simplicity and effectiveness. A steel bucket containing rat(s) is placed on the exposed torso of the victim, and heat applied to the base of the bucket.

What happens next is, the rat, going crazy from the heat and trying to escape, will gnaw their way into the victim’s abdomen, clawing and ripping through their skin and organ trying to run away from the heat.

You might be thinking that a rat is just as harmless, but Possessing the most powerful biting and chewing motion of any rodent, rats are able to make short work of a human stomach. Victims will suffer unimaginable pain and horror as they die from the rats writhing in their guts.

1. Scaphism

And for the last one, one that is considered by many to be the worst torture method of all time. A Persian method of execution where victims are forced to eat milk and honey until they throw up. They are then stripped naked, their bodies covered in honey - especially the eyes, nose, mouth, genitals and anus. They will then be tied between two boats with holes so that the limbs can pass through.

What happened was the victim will throw up, and defecate inside the boat. which will attract insects that will feast on the victim’s flesh. They will then be left in stagnant shallow water to die of either starvation, dehydration, septic shock or all of those 3. Incredibly painful.

There you have it, the craziest methods that were once used to torture people. Modern torture methods are also crazy, but we’ll leave those for another day.