This Gruesome List Of Some Of The Most Horrific Torture Methods Will Make You Lose Your Appetite

Before Google search or truth or dare became a mainstream thing, people used other methods to extract information. But not everyone had the gift of subterfuge. Torture was a popular way of getting people to reveal information or confess to crimes (which they sometimes did not commit). While impaling people or crucifying them or even laying them on a torture rack was pretty common in history, there have been other methods that are so screwed up that simply reading about them might make you shudder. No, seriously, if you’re easily rattled, reading further might not be the best idea.

But for those who are still interested, here’s a list of some of the most gruesome torture (mostly followed by execution) methods ever recorded

1. Judas Cradle

You’d place the waist harness (attached to the ropes) around the victim and then slowly lower him/her onto the pyramid shaped seat with the pointy top inserted into their anus or vagina. With the downward pressure caused by the victim’s body, the muscles around the orifice would eventually tear thereby impaling the victim. It was also called the nightwatch because when pressure is applied to certain parts of the body, the person cannot fall asleep.

2. Blood Eagle

While the actual accuracy of this method of torture and execution is shrouded in mystery, the blood eagle has been mentioned in Norse literature. As the torturer/executioner, you’d cut open the back of the victim and expose his/her lungs by twisting the ribs outwards to make them look like wings. Very Hannibal- ish if you ask me.

3. Tickle Torture

Not all torture methods involved gore. In medieval China, especially during the reign of the Han dynasty, sometimes you’d have to torture someone for interrogation without actually leaving any scars. This used to be a common occurrence if the victim belonged to the royal or any other influential family. A variation of this in the Roman camps involved dipping the victim’s feet in salt solution and then have a goat lick the bottom of the feet. This would start out as normal tickling but then the pain that followed would be extreme.

4. Swedish Drink

Also called Schwedentrunk , this was the name given by German victims of the torture during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The Swedish soldiers and mercenaries didn’t receive any pay for fighting for their lords. Instead they were told, they could loot and plunder the regions they marched through, thus making life pretty shitty for non-

combatants. Speaking of shit, the ‘Swedish drink’ method involved forcing the victim to drink dangerous amounts of foul manure/urine/excreta, thus making the stomach bloat up to painful levels. But that wasn’t all – if the victims didn’t answer the interrogators’ questions, they’d stomp on their tummies and run horses over them

5. Brazen Bull

Philosophy wasn’t the only strong suit of the ancient Greeks; they dabbled in sadism too. Perillos of Athens designed it for Phalaris of Sicily as a new means of executing criminals. The Brazen Bull was a bronze hollow bull that could fit a person in it. Once the victim was locked inside, they’d light a fire under the bull, slowly roasting the victim inside. What was even more sadistic was 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, much to the amazement of the onlookers.

6. White Torture

Don’t we all feel tortured when someone gives us the ‘silent treatment’? Now expand that to its optimum scale and that is ‘white torture’. The victim is kept in long periods of solitary confinement in a white room without any windows. His clothes are white. He’s given white food on a white plate and the guards outside wear soft footwear to muffle their sounds. The idea is to cause massive sensory deprivation and isolation to the victim. Ebrahim Nabavi, an Iranian journalist who was subject to this kind of torture, said –

Since I left Evin, I have not been able to sleep without sleeping pills. It is terrible. The loneliness never leaves you, long after you are “free.” Every door that is closed on you … This is why we call it “white torture.” They get what they want without having to hit you. They know enough about you to control the information that you get: they can make you believe that the president has resigned, that they have your wife, that someone you trust has told them lies about you. You begin to break. And once you break, they have control. And then you begin to confess.

7. Breast Ripper

Isn’t the name pretty self-explanatory? Mutilation has always been a favourite go-to zone for torturers and if you were one in 16th century Bavaria, chances are you’d have used one of these on women who were accused of adultery or self-abortion. Breast rippers were usually made of iron and they heated before you’d use them to rip out the victim’s breasts.