Okay okay, now for some december holiday fun. We have a collection of historic torture devices, bloody too, how about that?

The Rack

The Rack was an instrument of torture often used in the Middle Ages, and a popular means of extricating confession. The victim was tied across a board by their ankles and wrists, rollers at either end of the board were turned, by pulling the body in opposite directions until dislocation of every joint occurred. According to Puigblanch, quoted in Mason's History of the Inquisition, "in this attitude he experienced eight strong contortions in his limbs, namely, two of the fleshy parts of the arms above the elbows, and two below; one on each thigh, and also on the legs."

The Pear

The pear was a torture device highly used on females. This device was inserted into the orfices, including the rectum, vagina, or mouth of the victim and then expanded by force of the screw to the maximum aperture setting of the victims cavity. The antrum would then irremediably become mutilated, nearly always fatally so, ripping the tissue, flesh and membranes within the body.
The insertion of the pear depended on the crime the victim was accused of. While slanderers and blasphemers would have their mouths mutilated, homosexuals would suffer the same fate on their anuses. It would be used on the vaginas of women who had induced a miscarriage or been accused of witchcraft and carnal knowledge of demons.

The Wheel

The wheel was one of the most popular and insidiously methods of torture and execution practiced in medival Europe. The giant spiked wheel was able to break bodies as it rolled forward, causing the most agonizing and drawn-out death. Other forms include the "braided" wheel, where the victim, would be tied to the execution dock or platform. There limbs were spread and tied to stakes or iron rings on the ground. Pieces of wood were placed under the main joints, wrists, ankles, knees, hips, and elbows. The executioner would then smash every joint with the iron-tyred edge of the wheel--however the executioner would avoid fatal blows to give the victim a painful death. According to a German chronicler, the victim was transformed into a huge screaming puppet writhing in their own blood. It looked like a sea monster with four tentacles, and raw slimy shapeless flesh, mixed with splinters of bone. After the smashing had taken place the victim would literally be "braided" into the wheel and hung, horizontally, at the top of the pole, so that ravens can peck at the victim. The wheel could be refined, too, to include other torturous aspects. A suspended wheel might be turned over a fire or a bed of nails. In any event it meant unbearable suffering for the victim.

The Interogation Chair

An inspiration for the modern comfy chair. Frequently the chair was built of iron and could be heated up from the back side . The chair, as we can see, is embedded with about 2000 or so spikes. The victim, usually naked, was strapped to the chair using tight leather straps. The initial pain of hundreds of sharp rusty spikes penetrating the flesh can always be increased by the torturer by tightening the straps, forcing the prisoner down or back against the spikes.

The Judas Cradle


Another anal invasion device, the Judas Cradle is a medieval torture device, created as a 'humane' replacement for other bone-breaking, blood-letting and flesh burning instruments of torture. This procedure has remained essentially unchanged from the Middle Ages until today. The victim is stripped, placed inside the iron harness and hoisted up in the manner shown in the accompanying illustration, and lowered onto the point of the pyramid in such a way that his weight rests on the point positioned in the anus, in the vagina, under the scrotum or under the coccyx (the last two or three vertebrae). The executioner, according to the pleasure of the interrogators, can vary the pressure from zero to that of total body weight. The victim can be rocked, or made to fall repeatedly onto the point.
Nowadays this method enjoys the favour of not a few governments in Latin America and elsewhere, with and without improvements like electrified waist rings and pyramid points.

The Iron Maiden

And finally, the lovely Iron Maiden. The Iron Maiden was used primarily in Germany, the most famous version being the Iron Maiden of Nuremberg. This apparatus was essentially a large container, shaped like a woman, equipped with two doors with adjustable iron spikes. Legend has it that a German who had forged coins was shut inside the Iron Maiden on August 14, 1515. His arms, legs, belly, chest, bladder, genitals, eyes, shoulders and buttocks were slowly pierced by the spikes causing excruciating pain and subsequent death after 2 days. The Iron Maiden's embrace, much like many other investigative methods, was designed not to execute but to torture. One would think that in the 21st century, these machines would have ceased to be operational. Not true. One of the girls was found in Uday Hussein's backyard in Iraq just 2 years ago.