What was the most painful form of execution in history?

Question

My choice is broken on the wheel.

Answer 1

Crucifixion. First, you would have to drag the crosspiece of your cross to the site. Then, they would nail your wrists to it. In order to get both, they usually had to dislocate your shoulder. Then, they would flip you over (shock wave) and pound the backs of the nails. Another flip, then they would stick the upright piece in the hole.

Now the real torture begins. The positioning of your body makes it impossible to inhale, coupled by the constant pain in your wrists and your shoulders. Sometimes, there was a peg just below your feet, so you could push yourself up and take in a gasp of breath. Exposure, infection, bleeding, and asphixiation eventually led to a long, lingering death. Jesus Christ, most scholars believe, was on the cross for three hours, but some have been recorded to survive for two days. Sometimes, the Roman soldiers watching this would get fed up with waiting and break the victim's legs so he couldn't push himself up anymore.

Answer 2

Crucifixion was probably the longest, and therefore the most painful in a manner of speaking. Impaling and being skinned alive have to be high on the list. The Viking’s “ blood eagle”, where the victim has his lungs cut out ( while alive) and his ribcage spread to give the appearance of an eagle, probably would ruin your day. Being drawn and quartered had to be a tad uncomfortable. However, the worst of all time had to be being burnt at the stake. Ever burn your finger with a match? Imagine that 100 times more intense and over your whole body. Ouch. Maybe we should bring some of them back.

Answer 3

Drawn and Quartered - By Far the Worst, read summary below and also refer to more information in the source link.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Until 1814, the full punishment for the crime was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the convict would be:

1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible meaning of drawn.)

2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. (hanged).

3. Disembowelled and emasculated, and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes.

4. Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).

Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e. the four quarters of the body and the head) were gibbeted (put on public display) in different parts of the city, town, or, in famous cases, country, to deter would-be traitors who hadn't seen the execution. Gibbeting was abolished in England in 1843. After 1814 the convict would be hanged until dead and the mutilation would be performed after death. Drawing and quartering was abolished in 1870.

There is confusion among modern historians about whether "drawing" referred to the dragging to the place of execution or the disembowelling, but since two different words are used in the official documents detailing the trial of William Wallace ("detrahatur" for drawing as a method of transport, and "devaletur" for disembowelment), there is no doubt that the subjects of the punishment were disembowelled.

The condemned man would usually be sentenced to the short drop method of hanging, so that the neck would not break. The man was usually dragged alive to the quartering table, although in some cases men were brought to the table dead or unconscious. A splash of water was usually employed to wake the man up if unconscious, then he was laid down on the table. A large cut was made in the gut after removing the genitalia, and the intestines would be spooled out on a device that resembled a dough roller. Each piece of organ would be burnt before the sufferer's eyes, and when he was completely disembowelled, his head would be cut off. The body would then be cut into four pieces, and the king would decide where they were to be displayed. Usually the head was sent to the Tower of London and, as in the case of William Wallace, the other four pieces were sent to different parts of the country.

Answer 4

Actually when quartered the practice began with the idea of four horsemen, a Bible notion, who roped certian parts of the body and at a sudden gallop yanked the body apart and continue riding to the for corners or quarters of the relm. There is some confusion as to the meaning of drawn which some say was dragging and others say is the practice of removing the genitalia. This practice was for males found guilty of treason, women were burned at the stake.

The Apachi wanted their victums to feel the pain so they would bury a man up to his neck somewhere out in the desert at a short distance from a Red Ant Hill, then they would coat the mans head with oils to make sure the ants would know where to look, sun burnt and sweaty being bitten to death with pin-pricks. This is so painful and slow that many were said to go mad first!

Answer 5

Crucifixion, followed by being "Pressed".
Crucifixion relies on asphyxiation and is excruciatingly slow (often days). Sometimes people would find they could "pump" air into their lungs by flexing their arms and legs, so the Romans would smash their kneecaps.
Pressing was a form of torture, a board was placed on the victims chest (the victim being tied spread eagled to the floor) and weights were then placed on the board, reducing the victims capacity to breathe. (when someone says they have to "press you for an answer", it comes from this.)
However, in Malaya, a victim is tied to a tree with wet leather thonging. As the leather dries, it shrinks and crushes the chest cavity, suffocating the victim.

Answer 6

Burning at the stake while alive and crucifixion are probably tied for the most painful. All the other types cited would have caused unconsciousness as a way for the body's nervous system to adapt to the pain.

Answer 7

In Vietnam, some soldiers would torture for information, though highly illegal and always denied participation. One of their favorite forms was Bamboo Torture:

The victim is taken outside and either strung between two posts or trees or strapped to a base composed of widely separated slats. The aim is to have the victim suspended horizontally with access to his or her torso from below.

This takes place directly above a patch of young bamboo plants, a plant which is very strong and grows rapidly reaching staggering heights. Hence as the victim lay suspended in mid air the bamboo would begin to grow towards them.

The pain and discomfort at being held in such an unnatural position for several days was in itself a bad experience. However the torturers would also cut the tips of the stems to ensure a sharp point as they grew towards the victim. When the bamboo reached the victims skin the real pain began as the sharp points dug in.

If the victim refused to cooperate at this point (or if the torturer was particularly sadistic) they were left there as the bamboo continued to grow. Owing to the incredible strength of the bamboo stem and the sharpness of the tip, the plant would on most occasions pierce the skin and continue to grow through the abdomen, and organs, causing severe infection and organ failure, and eventually death. It could take up to 9 days to die from this type of torture.

Answer 8

I vote for flaying alive. They remove all the skin from the body, while the prisoner is still conscious. I looked into the blood eagle thing and yeah, not nice.

Or I was reading about Vlad the Impaler, who other people mentioned and he was killed by scalping, which at the time meant cutting a circle around the face and pulling it off, while the victim was still conscious. How about that one?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_impaler

Answer 9

I went to Italy and there was this small town with a torture museum and there were two I couldn't get out of my head: filling boots with hot metal then pulling the boots off with all of the skin and allowing the person to just bleed and having goats lick the bottom of the persons feet until the bone began to show then allowing the goat to move elsewhere until they too bled to death...ew!

Answer 10

After Marcus Licinius Crassus was captured by the Parthians following the disastrous Battle of Carrhae, they executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.

That's one I haven't seen mentioned yet. Drawn and Quartered would have been my next worse death.