by Anonymous on October 6th, 2006
Past a certain point, they all suck. Being drawn and quartered sounds pretty bad, although that wood chipper/feet first thing sounds worse.
EDIT: Then there was Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, a feudal warlord of Wallachia, an ancient region of what is now Romania. Vlad, is, of course, Bram Stoker's inspiration for "Dracula", although Vlad Draculya differed markedly from the rather urbane, polished, Hollywood Bela Lugosi version.
In her wonderful book, "The Historian", Elizabeth Kostova" describes Vlad as "...the Wallachian prince, a fifteenth-century ruler, hated by the Ottoman Empire and his own people - both. Really among the nastiest of all medieval European tyrants. It's estimated that he slaughtered at least twenty thousand of his fellow Wallachians and Transylvanians over the years....Actually, there is evidence that Dracula's father gave Dracula over to the Turks when he was a boy as hostage in a political bargain, and that Dracula acquired some of his taste for cruelty from observing Ottoman torture methods."
Vlad (or his henchmen) burned whole families alive. He buried people naked up to their navels, and shot at them until they died. His nickname, Vlad the Impaler, comes from the grisly torture of impalement - shoving a sharpened wooden stake up through the body's genital or anal area with such force that it emerges from the victim's mouth or the top of his/her head.
by Halskiisaklink on April 28th, 2007
American television. No thank you.
by Emmagirl wants to leave and not leave... on April 28th, 2007
Yanni!
by RFlagg on September 23rd, 2006
I'm just kinda winging it here, but I'd have to say having you're skin peeled of and then being rolled in salt.
by gung-ho on August 29th, 2006
According to an exhibit I saw (I think it was at the Amsterdam Torture Museum, or it could have been the Clink Prison museum in London), the most painful torture method was being boiled alive. I'm not sure how they knew this, maybe they boiled people and asked them how painful it was on a scale of 1 to 10?
Here are a few interesting sites about medieval torture (gruesome! don't read it while you're eating your breakfast)
http://www.livescience.com/history/top10_medieval_myths.html
http://medieval-castles.org/index.php?cat=31
http://www.fidnet.com/~kawlaw/medieval.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torture#Torture_in_the_past
http://quizilla.com/users/mylove.myarsenic/quizzes/What%20Medieval%20Torture%20Device%20Are%20You%3F/
Footnote- I have made this post mostly about medieval torture because they were (IMO) the most imaginative when it came to inflicting pain. My eyes are watering just reading some of those links!
by Anonymous too on September 23rd, 2006
Crucifixion.
by Anonymous on September 15th, 2006
Uday and Qusay Hussein fed people into a wood chipper, feet first. Compared to that boiling is mild.
by Mr. Meaulnes on April 28th, 2007
Hmmm...
Well, there's physical pain, which is bad, and then there's psychological pain, which is always much worse.
The worst form of mental torture I can think of is to be strapped down and forced to watch while all your closest friends and loved ones are tortured and killed in the most physically agonising way possible.
Or worse yet, being forced to inflict that torture upon them yourself.
by Scubabob on August 28th, 2006
My Exwife fed me chicken for 5 years straight. Ask Answer Bagger Davoomac, it's scarred me for life.
by urk on July 18th, 2008
Reality TV.
by anonymous on August 29th, 2007
My neighbour was a POW in a Japanese camp WWII and he said the worst torture was when they force-fed the prisoner rice until his stomach was full and then force-fed him water so that the rice expanded.
by Grammy Robin on April 28th, 2007
Being forced to watch Reno 911 or The Office.
by ngi112 on October 28th, 2006
Well http://www.medievality.com/torture.html has the answer, I think. They say it's the rack: http://www.medievality.com/the_rack.html. Very painful if you ask me.
by Yospos on October 20th, 2008
Reading your posts.
by Aero the lifeguard on October 20th, 2008
I'd have to go with the rack because you can control the amount of pain and prolong it. Also, it wasn't meant to kill, but to cripple for life.
by tricon7 on December 2nd, 2008
I agree that a psychological torture can be as bad as physical.
I read once where in the Middle Ages, a corrupt, sadistic ruler - for whatever twisted reason - sentenced the small child of a woman to death. She was forced to watch as they used the cat-o-nine-tails to flog the child to death (like they did to Jesus in the movie "The Passion"). Having to hear the piercing shrieks of one's precious child as his/her back is brutally ripped apart by inhuman animals must be sheer torture, especially when the child is begging for the mother to stop the agony, but she's powerless to stop the proceedings.
by the missing link on March 5th, 2009
The ancient Roman practice known as the radish and the fish ("percurrent raphani mugilesque," Catullus), reserved for adulterers. The victim was suspended by the thumbs from a horizontal bar, and then had inserted into his anal cavity first, a large radish, and then, a spiny mullet (fish). He was then force-fed rich, oily foods until his abdomen was bloated, and left in that condition until his innards ruptured and he literally exploded. This usually took three or four days.
The Russian Soviet tyrant Nikolai Bulganin reportedly dealt with his political enemies by splitting their feet open with an axe, packing the wound with rock salt, tying it up with a dirty rag, and then forcing them to run twelve miles. How many of them survived is not known, but it can be safely assumed that they never walked again.
by bobbob on October 20th, 2008
looking at you
by Stillme FBB on October 24th, 2009
Being boiled alive feet first.
To watch a loved one being tortured would have to come in at #1.
by ani3000 on December 2nd, 2008
Has to be japans History of unit 731, you'll find it on youtube It is soooooooooooo shocking and disgusting what they did to those people. you gotta watch it.
by Anonymous on July 21st, 2008
In terms of frequency used, the wheel was second only to hanging as the most common form of execution in Germany during the Middle Ages. First, the victim (usually naked) had each of his limbs spread apart and tied to the ground. However, wooden crosspieces were placed under each major joint such as the wrists, ankles, knees, hips and shoulders. The torturer would then smash each limb and joint with the heavy, iron-enhanced wheel. But that was just the beginning of the nightmare. Once the limbs were reduced to gelatinous appendages of mashed bones, blood and flesh, each arm and leg was braided into the spokes of the wheel and then hoisted upright for display. The agonizing victim would remain in this position for days as crows and insects feasted on him or her until death.
by Norman_Outside the lines on April 28th, 2007
Being married to my EX wife ! ouch.
by scarlett on April 28th, 2007
what a horrible question. the answers are endless. being drawn and quartered had to be pretty bad, but of course it was relatively quick. i would hate to have my fingernails/toenails pulled out.
by BrokeDog on April 28th, 2007
I would go with the pulling your teeth, (or fingernails), with pliers, one at a time, as pretty bad.
by Lindzdog on April 28th, 2007
hmmm i ahve heard the chinese have some pretty intesne tourture methods, things where they dont kill you (straight away)...i think there was one where they slowly nailed thin bamboo sticks under your finger nails and stuff like that, i also think being skinned or burnt would be super bad.
by Zibbys Mind Is In the Gutter Today on April 28th, 2007
Slowly having your intestines pulled out through your rectum sounds pretty bad in my opinion.
by KG408 on January 25th, 2010
Hey guys and gals, can you help me out here?
A couple of months ago, I read a wikipedia.com page on a punishment / torture with a name that started with an s, but none of my guesses for the full name hit on either google or wikipedia.
A few centuries ago in some European military outfit, it was not uncommon to use s* as official punishment for a junior officer who was sufficiently bad (insubordination I think qualified). One finger was tied to a tree branch above him, but somehow his other fingers and other hand could not help carry any of his weight. One bare foot rested on wood, shaped into a rounded off cone, but somehow the other foot could not help carry any of his weight. For somewhere between a couple of hours and a couple of days, his punishment gave him the choice of putting more of his weight on that thumb or more on that foot. He could not escape pain but he did have to choose which part of his body hurt how much. Obviously he probably worried about the part he chose getting a lasting injury.
50 good karma points for anyone who can give me the correct spelling of the name of this punishment.
Oh yeah, back on the original topic:
I saw a show on the History Channel or Discovery Channel in which a team built replicas as authentically as possible of historical torture devices. For many of them, a team member volunteered to be subjected to it. If I remember correctly, they had an MD say that death in the Roaring Calf would come quite quickly due to asphyxiation. However, there was at least one famous person who was put into it with his wife and kids.
by KG408 on February 2nd, 2010
I found it.
Look on wikipedia for picquet.
You probably have to spell it exactly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picquet
gary
by Witz_N_Charm on September 24th, 2006
Inlaws
;)
joking!!!!
(Some) Hospital Emergency Room Staff
I beleve.
by ann12456 on August 29th, 2007
hanging a man by his penis or balls. i understand this method has been in use for hundreds of years. it was used in medieval times, during the pirate days, in the old south etc.
by CuriousFrank on August 29th, 2007
Fat March on television.
by -Freedom Issues- Minnesota nice on July 18th, 2008
The Iron Maiden.
by WoOZackWoO on July 18th, 2008
There is no "most horrendous" there are a lot of absolutely horrible ones.
by Anonymous on July 21st, 2008
the most painful tourture i think would have been what the mafia used to do to get information they would take a sewer rat put it on ur belly put a bucket over it and heat the buckets top matking it wear the rat is getting to hot and looking for somewhere to get out so they chew a whole slowly in ur stomatch and u can live from it being done 3 times becuase after 3 times it gos all the way through
by Tallyman on July 18th, 2008
Rap Music!
by cdiddy on July 18th, 2008
I believe that the russian mafia has the two most horrendous. First, they will strap an iron onto your body, turn it on, and then leave for about ten minutes. Then they come back, give you time to recover, and then do the same thing on a different part of the body. You could imagine that you would be a well done steak all over in no time. Second method is that they will cut off your appendages one by one, but after each one, they sear off the wound either with a blow torch or an iron. After each toe and finger has been removed, they go for bigger things like hands, forearms, and lower legs. However, they usually don't make it that far since you will give up the dirt long before that. Lastly, this one is medieval. I think it was called scarphism. First they force feed you with enough milk and honey to induce severe diarrhea. Then you are strapped face up on a boat and set afloat in a pond. Beforehand, they put honey on your genitals, armpits, and face. Then insects are attracted by the diarrhea and honey. Next, they eat at your skin, burrow in, and breed on the inside. I don't think anyone has topped any of these.
by Da Azian Boi on August 29th, 2007
I will go with the Iron Maiden. It gives me the chills just thinking about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_maiden
by Dimples on August 29th, 2007
Stuff from that Hostel movie.... ugh!
by Nelson - Jetpacking from bed on August 29th, 2007
Depends on the person. Some people have a higher tolerance for pain than others, so an emotional torture might be worse to them. That is why torture is a progressive thing. You find the persons weakness, then exploit it.
by jaydee on December 21st, 2009
The "Roaring Bull"..a cast brass bull with a large door designed to accomodate the victim who is then roasted alive inside by a fire built underneath. Either that or listening to an Obama speech while he describes all the wonderful things he and the dems are doing for us. Almost a tie..not quite.
Was there a German telegram offering to give some U.S.A. states back to Mexico if they declared war on the United States?
by shamancharrua on February 4th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
How was the holocaust was reported during World War 2?
Please provide sources, such as showing articles from newspaper archives. Thanks.
by abagg 3 days ago
| 1 person likes this
How did Sulla change the Roman constitution?
by Some Guy 2 days ago
| 1 person likes this
AMERICA, What is your definition of AMERICA...???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUnLiVEddI
by ZenaY 2 days ago
| 1 person likes this
Why is the Second American Revolution (1812 - 1815) never discussed?
by SpoonerIsGoingGreen on February 4th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
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Comments
That's pretty funny! Fargophobia.
by Stableboy on October 19th, 2006