Death penalty - unusual & obsolete methods

[Big Lin]

DEATH PENALTY: not very common or obsolete methods

If you like them, you must visit Europe: lots of towns and cities have ancient torture museums, the Mont St. Michel (France) and the Gand (Belgium) ones are very beautiful.
BEATING
The sentenced was struck to death, often with tools like cat-o'-nine tails; an example is when American slaves were beaten by their employer.
BEHEADING
A headman, usually hooded, cut the sentenced's head off with an axe. Very common in the United Kingdom in the 15th-16th century. The axe used for the last behading, which took place in 1747, can be seen at the Tower of London.
BLOWN FROM A CANNON
The sentenced was positioned across the mouth of a cannon, then a shot was fired, blasting through the person's body.
BOILING
The sentenced was put into a cauldron full of water which was heated. This method was used mostly in the Middle Ages.
BURYING
The sentenced was buried alive and left alone. This method was widely used around the world throughout the ages. For example, in India they buried women in sand up to their necks, then left them, head emerged only, to bake in the sun.
CAULDRON
A iron container, mouth down, was placed on the victim's stomach. The container was lifted a bit and some mice or rats slipped inside. Then the container was heated up from the outside with a flame. As it began to get hot, the mice wanted
to escape, but there was no way out except through the mouth of the cauldron. So they began to gnaw through the person's stomach and do so until the person died.
CRUCIFIXION
The sentenced was nailed to wrists and ankles to a cross. At the beginning practised on trees, this method was kept for ancient Rome's slaves.
DEATH BY INSECTS
There are many variations on the scenario in which the sentenced was staked to the ground, smeared with something sweet like honey, and left out to eventually be eaten by insects.
DROWNING
The sentenced was tied and thrown into the water, so that he couldn't swim. This method was used mostly in places on the sea. It was used to verify the guilty of a supposed witch: if she drowned, she was innocent; if the water rejected her
and she floated, she was guilty and was sent to the stake.
EATEN BY ANIMALS
The sentenced was thrown into an arena with lions. This method was used mostly in ancient Rome.
IMMERSION INTO SEWER
The sentenced woman (adulteress or prostitute) was tied to a board and immersed into the sewer; this technique has been improved later, putting the woman into a cage. This method was used mostly in the Middle Ages.
IRON BED (or chair)
Pieces of iron furniture were placed over a stoked fire and the sentenced was roasted to death.
IRON MAIDEN
It was a female effigy constructed of wood or iron with the inside hollowed out and filled with sharp iron spikes. The iron maiden would be opened up and the offender placed inside. The person would then be embraced by the iron maiden, being impaled by all the stakes.
PENDULUM
The sentenced laid on his back and a razor edged pendulum swung above him, slowly descending; like in Edgar Allan Poe's tale "The Well And The Pendulum".
PRESSING
The sentenced laid under some sort of slab-like surface and then heavy objects such as stones were placed on top until the person was crushed to death.
SHOT BY ARROWS
The sentenced was tied to a stake or a wall and some men shot him with arrows. This method was used by Indians and Vikings, who would aim at non-vital parts of the body in order to prolong agony as long as possible.
One of the most famous victim of the arrows is Saint Sebastian, lived in the 3rd century a.D., who was martyrized with arrows; being these token of the Black Death, the Saint was taken as a protector against this epidemic.
SKINNING
Sentenced's skin was removed in strips with various tools.
STAKE
The sentenced was tied to a pole, then this pole, at the feet of which there was something inflammable such as hay, was set on fire. This method was widely used during the heretic and witch hunt, when they weren't sentenced to be hanged.
STARVATION
The sentenced was put away in a cell or cage and not fed anything. There is a famous episode from Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy", the Count Ugolino one.
STONING
Rocks were thrown at the sentenced until he dies. Members of the commuity used to assist and to take part in the "show". Still in practice in some Islamic countries. Even the Bible and the Gospel referred to it about the punishment to be inflicted to adulterers.
STRETCHING
The sentenced was tied to wrists and ankles with ropes which were pulled to opposite sides with winches; in this way he was "streched" till death.
THROWN FROM A GREAT HEIGHT
The sentenced was thrown off a mountain or a high wall.
WHEEL
Wheels were used in a variety of ways. For example, the sentenced could be somehow attached to the outer rim of a wheel and then either rolled over sharp spikes or off a hill.
WOODEN HORSE
The sentenced sat astride a V-shaped structure as if on a horse; weights were increasingly attached to the person's feet pulled increasingly downward, until he was split in two.

[knittina]

Pity we have since become so civilized we think it cruel to dish out these punishments to people who treated their victims far more cruelly. Add impaling and breaking on the wheel to those methods that were extensively applied in front of a raucous public.

[Big Lin]

Oh, it wasn't meant to be an exhaustive list, Tina!

;D

[Big Lin]

Hanging in chains was one that was used occasionally up to the eighteenth century in England. The offender was placed alive inside a cage, heavily restrained with chains, and left there to die and have their flesh eaten by the birds!

[knittina]

So do we really think current sterile executions are better than the good old days, when people partied at the execution and afterwards?

[debs]

Aug 16, 2010 17:08:15 GMT knittina said:

So do we really think current sterile executions are better than the good old days, when people partied at the execution and afterwards?

'Chucky' holds relevance here. They removed the films from sale after the death of James Bulger, holding Venables and Thompson's viewing of the film as contributory to the murder. Suicide and choking websites have brought about the death of several teens in one town alone in Wales, and petitioners frequently complain about the influence of violence in games (GTA comes to mind), and in films. Public hangings would be a really bad move in the climate in which we live nowadays.

[knittina]

Debs, I am not sure about that. Those who do suicide or practice choking afterwards are prime examples of those unfit to survive. I apologize for sounding callous, but it seems we sometimes do go overboard in shielding ourselves from unpleasantness.

After all those watching a hanging will have realized there is nothing really humane about it, especially if the condemned are strangled by their own weight. If spectators do then choose to commit suicide, why not let them. And if they are dumb enough to play potentially lethal choking games, by all means let them.

[debs]

Can't agree with that. Had a friend who, at 15 years old, was temporarily locked in a hospital morgue with the body of a young woman who had committed suicide because of depression caused by her own diabetes. He had the same condition, and the following day he did the same. His father came home from work to find Steve hanging on the banisters, had hanged himself with his dog's choke chain. Was it sheer chance that he'd had that experience the day before and it had influenced him that badly? No-one will ever know, because there was no note left. Police theory was that he and a friend may have been playing at sexual asphyxiation games and it went wrong, because there were two mugs of tea in the kitchen, and the backdoor was wide open.

I don't think it's acceptable to say that it's okay for people to die because they have unstable minds, when not one of those who died in Wales was over seventeen. We have a duty to try to protect our kids until they grow past the stage of mental unstability, and if that includes preventing them from witnessing hangings, so be it.

[knittina]

Debs, but then let's restrict access to anything bad for the sweet darlings - drugs which have a far greater toll, booze from their parent or friends, medicines they can inhale or take in for the high. I think we go overboard on protection, and fail, especially these days with unrestricted Internet access.

[debs]

15yr-old in 1973. No drugs, no anything. Parents that were born in the 1920's, had five kids, but only two survived through lack of everything we take for granted nowadays. GOOD PARENTS. For two years, I spent every Friday night with them listening to their confusion and pain, trying to understand why it happened. Steve's dad would have whupped him around the floor if he'd found drugs or drink, they were strict. Best parents in the world - old style parents. Sorry to disappoint you but no Internet, no drugs, no booze - just one lonely mixed-up teenage boy. God help your kids if you have any.