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The human mind has long been capable of dreaming up new and terrible ways to punish alleged transgressors, villains, witches, and anyone else who was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. We’re all familiar with the old standbys: hanging, burning, stoning. Yawn. What if someone really wrongs you? Like steals your sheep or somehow must have caused a crop failure or something because they gave you a shifty look that one time?
Throughout the ages some extremely brutal methods of torture and execution have come and gone. And there are a few that have not yet gone, too. Read on about these 15 terrifying types of torture, but please don’t try this at home.
- The upright jerker was an interesting twist on a classic execution method. Hanging, while it is a true standby all around the world, leaves much to be desired in terms of effectiveness. Depending on the weight of the person, rope, trap door, and numerous other factors, it can be a very slow or awkward way to die. The natural solution? Do it backwards! The upright jerker was a modified hanging system that used heavy weights and pulleys to quickly jerk the condemned into the air. It was hoped this would be a more effective way to break the neck quickly…but it didn’t always work as planned.
- What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone wrongs you? Throw them off a cliff! This has been a simple solution to unwanted nuisances for centuries. While it’s largely fallen out of fashion, Iran still employs this method for state executions.
- This is a weirdly specific method of execution, but you can’t argue with its effectiveness. As you might guess, it was common in areas where elephants are naturally found, primarily in South and Southeast Asia. Elephants were often trained in order to ensure the trampling was as brutal as possible.
- Ling chi, also known as “slow slicing” or “death by a thousand cuts” was a method of torturous execution practiced in China. The condemned was tied to a post and bits of skin and limbs were gradually removed one by one, usually culminating in a final cut to the heart or decapitation. It was used as early as the 10th century, and continued for nearly a thousand years. Luckily it was banned in 1905.
