Ahh, torture. That timeless art of inflicting pain on someone in terrible and creative ways. As a people we’re very good at being awful and our seemingly endless torture techniques have proven this time again. While many kinds of torture are well known or at least obvious, no one needs to claim to have invented burning or beating someone, others are far more obscure and unexpected.

10 Things You Might Not Expect As Torture Devices

10 The US Has Used Countless Bands As Musical Torture

There’s a good chance you’ve heard of music being used as a torture device. The stories actually get a decent amount of play in the media and the rest of us treat them like jokes because it’s silly to hear that Eminem, Drowning Pool, Skinny Puppy or Barney have been used to torture terrorism suspects or to make hostage takers give up.

In reality, when you dig deeper into how music is used in torture, it’s much darker and more disturbing than you’d think. Chilean prisoners under Pinochet were subjected to musical torture, including a song called Gigi L’Amoroso or Gigi the Ladies Man. Guards would sing it and the music would be played when they engaged in other acts of torture, especially against women. The song describes a ladies’ man, so the song as torture added an explicit layer of sexual humiliation.

The CIA has used Rawhide by the Blues Brothers as torture. Prisoners would be held in dark rooms and the song would play endlessly, preventing sleep and increasing confusion and disorientation. It was also used as a trigger for some. A prisoner in a silent room would suddenly hear the music and know a fresh round of torture was about to begin, thus the music itself became a punishment as it instigated the fear and anxiety of what was to come.

9 Treadmills Were Once Used To Torture Prisoners

In 2017 there were about 53 million treadmill users in the US. It’s safe to say they’re one of the most popular machines in any gym. They were also meant to be torture devices, so keep that in mind if you ever get fed up with your workout.

Treadmills date back to 1818 when William Cubitt invented the “everlasting staircase.” Like a modern treadmill you got on and walked while the floor kept rolling out beneath you. Unlike modern treadmills these were designed for prisoners and could hold 40 men at a time. They kept walking forward while their effort turned a mill and grind corn or pump water. It would also put the prisoners through endless agony as they walked for hours and hours a day without stopping.

By 1898 the laws changed and prisoners were no longer forced to walk the endless staircase, though the idea still seems popular with hamsters.

8 Prisoners Will Sometimes Make “Napalm”

Not all torture is developed by a governing body and it’s hard to say if that makes it better or worse. Sometimes everyday people come up with a way to inflict pain on others and it’s very impromptu in nature. Take prison napalm, for instance.

Real napalm is an incendiary gel. It’s made with various chemicals but it’s thick so it sticks to what it’s burning to increase damage and, if you’re unlucky, pain. Prisoners don’t have any of the chemicals needed to make napalm, but they have found a DIY version that’s just as insidious.

The basic principle is just something that burns and is thick and sticky. Inmates in an Irish prison took exception to a fellow prisoner who was convicted of killing a 16‑year‑old girl. They cornered him with a mixture of sugar and boiling water, a syrup but scalding hot. Reports say they added so much sugar it was close to a paste. They poured it down the man’s throat.

Research has shown that increased sugar levels create more intense burns and that prison napalm absolutely will produce severe and painful burns, much more than boiling water alone.

7 In The Spanish Civil War, Modern Art Was A Torture Device

We saw music used as torture, but it’s not the only art form that has been weaponized. The Spanish Civil War got a little esoteric and used modern art as torture. Prison cells in the 1930s were designed by anarchists with disorienting and “degenerative” art that was, at the time, the subject of the ire of many people, but most notably Adolf Hitler.

Hitler once stated, about modern art, that it’s “not the function of art to wallow in dirt for dirt’s sake” and like‑minded, terrible people across Europe, including in Spain, had adopted those same ideas.

The cells were designed by a man named Alphonse Laurencic, who called it “psychotechnic torture” but later said, when he was put on trial, that he was forced to make the cells. They made use of abstract and surreal shapes and patterns, colors and even bothersome layouts like beds placed at 20‑degree angles and blocks placed irregularly on the floor to make walking difficult.

6 White Torture Is An Extreme Sensory Deprivation

There are actually several definitions of the term “white torture” which can include any kind of torture that doesn’t physically harm a victim, as in they aren’t being beaten or cut or anything. One definition is oddly literal.

True white torture can involve being trapped in a literally white room. The white lights blaze all the time, the victim only has white clothes. One victim even said he was fed white rice on white paper plates.

In time, the lack of stimulation becomes unbearable. It has been described by those who have endured it as being worse than beatings that end in broken bones. It’s a kind of extreme sensory deprivation that the human mind cannot endure. Guards wear padded shoes so they make no sound and the prisoner is just lost in perfect, horrible white nothing. After 8 months, one prisoner was freed and could no longer even remember what his parents looked like.

5 The “Tucker Telephone” Electrocute The Genitals Of Prisoners

The Tucker Telephone does not sound dangerous, and that was probably the point. It’s an innocuous name for a homemade torture device that was used at the Tucker State Prison Farm in Arkansas and it was insidious.

The Tucker Telephone was a hand‑cranked generator in a box. It saw use at the facility back in 1967 and prison trustees, men who were actually inmates but put in charge of guarding and punishing others, would use it to torture inmates. All of it was sanctioned by prison officials.

A pair of wired clamps were attached to the generator. These would be applied to the victim, and the preferred sites would be a finger and the inmate’s genitals. Then the crank was turned and an electrical current would run through the victim.

4 Bamboo Shoots Would Grow Right Through A Torture Victim’s Body

Bamboo torture is one of those things that sounds like an urban legend but there is some evidence it was actually real. It was also plausible since the Mythbusters tried it out and proved it was scientifically sound, if nothing else.

Bamboo is incredibly fast‑growing and also strong. The idea of the torture, which has murky origins, is that a victim is staked out on the ground above bamboo buds. One source said it was a punishment for criminals in Ceylon. Left for days, the bamboo shoots grow up and right through the victim.

The most popular version of the story suggests it was used by the Japanese during WWII. Even if there are few reports of it happening to Allies, the other references to it and the fact it can really happen certainly lend it some credence.

3 The Stasi Engaged In A Psychological Torture Called Zersetzung

From 1950 to 1990 the Stasi were East Germany’s secret police, an all‑around terrible organization that engaged in espionage, kidnapping and all manners of psychological warfare under the guise of stamping out Nazism in Germany. One of their most unbelievable tactics was a psychological torture called zersetzung. It translates to something like “decomposition” or “biodegradation” and was an elaborate gaslighting technique.

Some of the process involved spreading rumors. Believable ones, nothing too out there, but also ones that couldn’t be refuted. This was to ruin credibility. They would organize “professional and social disappointments.” If you were waiting for permits and paperwork, you’d discover it was late or even misfiled. If you wanted a job, they would tell the potential employer lies to ensure you didn’t get it.

Personal damage could come as making it look like you’re cheating on a spouse, maybe. And one of the final phases made you feel like you were going crazy. They’d secretly break into your house and move things. They’d steal your socks, move some of your furniture, or stop your clocks.

2 Saddam Hussein Was Tortured By Making Him Watch The South Park Movie

During the time of the first Gulf War no one in the world was more infamous than Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The dictator was finally captured by US forces and taken into custody in 2003. It wasn’t until 2006 that he was executed however, and in the three years he was in custody the man was tortured in one of the most bizarre ways imaginable.

Let’s go back to 1999. That was the year South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut came out. Hussein was one of the characters in that film and he has a toxic, sexual relationship with Satan because that’s how South Park works.

When US forces had Hussein in custody, someone came up with the idea to show him the movie. Then they showed it to him again and again. There’s no word on what he thought of his depiction as being both gay and worse than Satan, but it’s probably safe to assume he wasn’t a fan.

As for the creators of South Park, the army gifted them with a signed Saddam Hussein photo.

1 A School In The US Is Legally Allowed To Shock Students

Most torture victims are people who the torturer deemed worthy of that torture. They “deserved it,” so to speak. But sometimes you hear of an even more insidious kind of torture, one conducted on someone innocent, for the sadistic pleasures of the torturer. This one seems to be closer to that because the justification for this being needed is very hard to swallow.

In the US, right now, there is a facility called the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center. It is a private residential school and many of the students there are autistic or have developmental and emotional issues. The school uses a GED or graduated electronic decelerator on students. It sends an electric shock through the skin by way of electrodes wired to a battery and it can be controlled remotely by a teacher.

One student described being eight years old and getting hooked up to the device. They attached electrodes to his legs that were connected to a car battery. The car battery was placed in a backpack he had to wear. If he misbehaved, the teacher would press a button and shock him.

In 2020 the FDA banned the device but the school appealed and actually won, because it was outside the FDA’s authority and the device is medical in nature. The school defends this by saying it’s a last resort and those who get it are at risk of grievous bodily harm or even death without it. They claim it curbs aggression and self‑harm.

In the past, students have been repeatedly shocked after prank calls ordered staff to do so. In another case a student was shocked multiple times for not taking his jacket off.

Are you dealing with odd‑ball symptoms like off‑kilter frequencies, sluggish cellular voltage, or even psychic hiccups? Kick back, relax, and let us introduce a wellness gizmo that might just tickle your fancy—whether or not you think you’re ill.

10 quack wellness devices await the daring buyer

10 Spooky2

Ever heard that every ailment hums at its own electromagnetic pitch? If that rings a bell, you’ve probably stumbled across the Rife contraption. Cooked up in the roaring ’20s, it supposedly blasts disease‑causing frequencies straight into your body. The poor inventor, Royal Raymond Rife, met a tragic end—penniless and embittered—after the scientific mainstream gave him the cold shoulder. Snake‑oil peddlers have since hijacked his legacy, turning it into a carnival of false hope.

Fast‑forward to the COVID‑19 frenzy: Spooky2 resurfaced, plastered across Facebook as “the affordable Rife device for every home.” The marketing spiel promised protection against the virus, a magic frequency to halt its spread, and a claim that “scalar energy” will boost your immune system. The Federal Trade Commission, however, wasn’t buying it and issued a stern warning. Still, the starter kit—priced at a modest $1,600—arrives in a rugged briefcase featuring a smiling ghost logo.

9 Electropsychometer

Contrary to what some sci‑fi cults tell you, the famed E‑meter wasn’t cooked up by L. Ron Hubbard. Its true origin lies with Volney Mathison, a chiropractor who originally christened it the Electropsychometer for psychotherapy work. Ironically, Hubbard co‑opted the gadget for his own agenda—using it to supposedly flag “discreditable reads” and weed out undesirable individuals.

The Church builds its versions at the fortified Gold Base in California, guarded like a vault. A brand‑new unit can fetch about $4,000, but you can still snag a non‑affiliated version or a second‑hand FreeZone model on eBay for less. Technically, it’s a rudimentary galvanometer with tin‑can electrodes, measuring skin resistance with leaky batteries.

Hubbard claimed (or pretended) the device could cure illness—a stance that landed him in legal hot water. Even the Church now concedes it does nothing on its own. Yet, in the hands of a crafty entrepreneur, it becomes a cash‑cow: you can’t help anyone until you’ve helped yourself get rich.

8 BioResonance Machine

Feeling like your internal organs are throwing a tantrum? Don’t wait—scan them for frequency imbalances and run a non‑linear statistical analysis right now! Supposedly, every tissue emits its own electromagnetic wave, and disease shifts those frequencies. Each condition supposedly has a unique “signature resonance frequency,” making it theoretically possible to detect any ailment without a scalpel.

Originally drafted by Russian scientists in the 1990s, the tech was allegedly refined by OBERON in Florida. The claim? The BioResonance Machine can both diagnose and heal from the comfort of your couch, simply by tweaking frequencies through headphones. No chemicals, no side‑effects—just pure, non‑invasive wizardry.

While the company touts placebo‑free results, critics point out the lack of peer‑reviewed evidence. One competitor, Rayonex Biomedical, does claim clinical proof for cervical spine syndrome, but that study was self‑funded and limited. Still, the promise of a needle‑free scan keeps the hype alive.

7 Stimulations VII

Tiny cup size dragging you down? Forget the scalpel—Stimulations VII claims a non‑invasive vacuum that can boost breast volume by up to four cup sizes, even regrowing tissue after mastectomy. The device promises a permanent, painless transformation.

In practice, finding a working unit is a nightmare. In the early 2000s, a disgruntled customer sued the Iowa‑based maker, New Womyn, after the company refused a $2,000 refund. The fine print read “18‑month money‑back guarantee,” meaning the buyer had to use the contraption for a year and a half before qualifying for a return—plus a mandatory monthly doctor visit.

The lawsuit ended with a $90,000 civil penalty for CEO Dan Kaiser. So, while the promise sounds dreamy, the reality is a legal quagmire and a hefty price tag.

6 BioPhotonic Scanner

Curious how many carotenoids you’ve stored in your skin? The BioPhotonic Scanner tells you just that. Carotenoids—those orange, red, and yellow pigments—are antioxidants linked to lower disease risk. The gadget claims to measure your skin’s carotenoid level, a handy proxy for overall antioxidant status.

Skeptics argue the device only gauges skin carotenoids, not your whole‑body antioxidant capacity, and point out the glaring lack of rigorous scientific validation. Yet, the promise of a quick glance at your nutritional health (and the potential to save on grocery bills) keeps enthusiasts buying.

If your scan reveals low levels, the same company will happily upsell you a suite of antioxidant supplements—convenient, if a bit circular.

5 BioCharger

Sometimes the answer is “more subtle energy.” Invented by Jim Girard, the BioCharger beams pulsed harmonics—at a frequency you choose—into cells that are supposedly vibrating weakly, re‑energizing them, aligning mind and body, and boosting cellular voltage. Yes, you could walk barefoot or drink alkaline water, but this machine does it for a price.

According to the company, over 90 % of our day is spent indoors, cutting us off from nature’s vital forces. The device, a sleek red‑glowing contraption with plasma tubes, costs about $15,000, plus a non‑refundable $250 shipping fee. It comes with a 45‑day guarantee—so you’ve got essentially nothing to lose, except a small fortune.

Testimonials abound, and some users even charge friends for sessions, turning the BioCharger into a side‑hustle. Fecal‑transplant aficionado Michael Nguyen admits it’s “as effective as journaling,” yet he swears by it—so should you, if you enjoy paying for placebo‑powered glow.

4 Electro Physiological Feedback Xrroid

In 2005, an Oklahoma woman with joint pain placed her faith in the EPFX quantum biofeedback gizmo. Her husband, battling cancer, also used the device, blaming chemotherapy side‑effects on the hospital rather than the machine. Both eventually passed away, but the EPFX narrative persisted.

Developer William Nelson—a self‑styled genius who once helped NASA rescue Apollo 13—boasts a portfolio of eight doctorates and a multi‑million‑dollar empire. He claims the EPFX cures cancer and AIDS, sells 17,000 units at $20,000 each, and even stars in movies demonizing the FDA.

The device supposedly monitors electrical imbalances—voltage, amperage, electron pressure—and corrects them in real time. A screen displays “healing” as white blobs shrinking, mimicking the BioResonance Machine’s claims.

3 Zapper

Finally, a device that doesn’t hide behind a fancy scientific name. Hulda Clark, a zoologist‑turned‑physician, invented the Zapper to annihilate parasites, bacteria, and viruses with low‑voltage jolts via handheld electrodes. For the extra‑wealthy, there’s an Orgone Zapper that claims to both zap and “heal” with orgone energy.

If you have a pacemaker or are pregnant, steer clear—Clark warned against those scenarios. Some users swear by an “aura‑boost” after half‑hour sessions, even though the original protocol suggested only seven‑minute bursts. Burn marks are a warning sign; stop if you see them.

You might think a car battery could do the trick, but Clark’s version includes a “positive offset square wave,” a technical term most of us can’t decipher—yet it sells like hotcakes.

2 Ozone Generator

The ozone layer’s hole? Bad. Ozone itself? Good. Hence the logic behind home‑installed ozone generators: pump pure ozone into your living space and watch toxins vanish. The Environmental Protection Agency, American Lung Association, and FDA all warn that high indoor ozone levels can be hazardous.

Proponents argue that if ozone harms humans, it certainly harms microbes—bacteria, viruses, and the like—making it a surefire way to eradicate pathogens. The device works by drawing in ordinary air, applying a high‑voltage discharge, and converting oxygen into ozone, promising a cleaner, healthier home.

1 Hyper Dimensional Resonator

This one veers into sci‑fi territory. The Hyper Dimensional Resonator is a radionic time‑travel gadget that allegedly aids astral projection by flooding you with limitless white chi. Conceived on a Nebraska farm in 1981, it upgrades the earlier Sonic Resonator with a caduceus‑coil electromagnet.

To operate, you strap on a headband, spit into a “witness well,” add a quartz crystal, position the electromagnet between your legs, and dial the date you wish to visit (both dials go up to 10). Meditate while rubbing the plate, and you may be whisked away—astrally, unless you’re perched on a grid point, in which case you might physically relocate.

Users report UFO rides, trips to parallel dimensions, and even missing cookie dough after a session. One anecdote recounts a user hearing altered dialogue in a classic Western after a trial in 1989, claiming the experience was “scary as hell.” The device’s creators warn against blood in the witness well, lest you summon demons.

There’s nothing like a thrilling spy film. Whether it’s a gritty true‑story or the glitzy world of James Bond, we’re hooked on the covert craft. Our fascination grew during the Cold War, when the globe seemed to need a daring figure to stand up to looming threats. We craved a hero bold enough, and perhaps a little unhinged, to confront anyone bent on world domination. Enter the legend himself: Bond, James Bond.

10 Innovative Devices That Changed Spycraft

10 Lipstick Pistol

You recall the iconic scene—Helga Brandt and James Bond sharing a cramped plane. Helga daintily applies lipstick, sighs, “I’m terribly sorry to leave you, but I must get off,” then drops a lipstick that releases a disorienting gas, parachutes away, leaving Bond trapped in a doomed aircraft. Who would suspect a tiny tube of lipstick could double as a lethal weapon? It makes for a perfect distraction. From Rita Hayworth’s seductive smile to Claire Standish’s iconic lip‑application moment in The Breakfast Club, lipstick has always captivated the male gaze.

In reality, a 1960s KGB operative could turn that glamour into a death‑sentence. Female Soviet agents carried 4.5 mm single‑shot “lipstick” pistols, ominously dubbed the “Kiss of Death.” While exact casualty numbers remain a mystery, the International Spy Museum showcases a confiscated example from a mid‑1960s KGB agent, underscoring the lethal blend of style and steel.

9 Shoe Heel Transmitters

What can a shoe do besides walk? In the realm of espionage, a shoe heel can whisper secrets. During the 1960s‑70s, Romania’s secret police teamed up with the national postal service to slip tiny transmitters into the heels of Western diplomats who ordered shoes from abroad. Agents also infiltrated hotel rooms housing American envoys, gaining access to their footwear. Inside the heels, battery‑powered microphones and transmitters silently recorded conversations until the batteries died.

The devices proved effective until a sweep revealed a puzzling signal that vanished whenever diplomats left a room. That clue led investigators to discover the hidden transmitters tucked inside the diplomats’ shoes, exposing a clever, if invasive, listening operation.

8 Pigeon Cameras

It’s rare to applaud pigeons, yet these feathered couriers earned Medals of Honor for their wartime valor. While not high‑tech, pigeon‑borne cameras played a pivotal role in gathering and sharing intelligence.

In 1908, Dr. Julius Neubronner patented a portable pigeon camera, initially marketing aerial postcards. During World War I, the German National Pigeon Service strapped miniature cameras onto birds to locate enemy positions, assess weaponry, and draft topographical maps. Pigeons also ferried messages when radio waves were jammed, saving countless lives.

These avian agents boasted a 95 % success rate even under fire. Their heroism earned them the Dickin Medal—an animal analogue to the Victoria Cross. Of the 54 medals awarded, 32 went to pigeons, including The Scotch Lass, who flew injured to deliver crucial micro‑photographs to Allied troops in the Netherlands.

7 Bulletproof Headphones

Imagine a dimly lit room in an abandoned building or the cramped back of an unmarked van. An operative, headphones snug over his ears, monitors chatter, relays intel, and triangulates locations. It sounds routine—until disaster strikes.

In 2009, a CIA officer found himself cornered in an Afghan alley by an armed gunman. Two rifle rounds struck his headphones, one on each side, sparing his skull from direct hits. While the headgear wasn’t truly bulletproof, the serendipitous placement of the rounds prevented fatal injuries, hinting at the untapped protective potential of such gear.

6 Dog Doo Transmitter

Officially labeled T‑1151, this gadget earned the nickname Doo Radio Transmitter. Shaped like animal feces—whether canine, feline, or primate—it covertly tracked Viet Cong troop movements and supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Both the military and the CIA monitored its signals, using the unassuming disguise to avoid detection, as few would willingly pick up a piece of poop.

5 Insectothoper

Bugging a conversation often calls for literal bugs. In the 1970s, the CIA engineered the Insectothoper—a dragonfly‑shaped micro‑robot with a tiny engine and microphone housed in its head. It could fly roughly 650 feet for half a minute, enough to perch near a target and capture audio. Indoors, it performed admirably; outdoors, however, even a light breeze rendered it uncontrollable.

The concept intrigued the KGB, which attempted a replica in 1976—though its success remains debated. Modern CIA units now field remote‑controlled, miniaturized insectothopers far smaller than the original dragonfly prototype.

4 A Fish Called Charlie

In the 1990s, the CIA’s Office of Advanced Technologies unveiled “Charlie”—a remote‑controlled robotic catfish. Much like the canned tuna mascot, this underwater device housed a microphone and mimicked a real catfish so convincingly that it could blend into aquatic environments. Initially designed to collect water samples near nuclear facilities, Charlie paved the way for subsequent unmanned underwater intelligence platforms used by academic researchers.

3 Scrotum Concealment

Creative concealment is a hallmark of spycraft, and this device showcases the CIA’s ingenuity. When a fighter pilot ejects, he needs a covert way to signal his location for rescue without risking discovery during a search. The solution? A miniature radio hidden inside a faux scrotum that could be glued onto the pilot’s body and later removed.

The device, dubbed Scrotum Concealment, housed a tiny transmitter. Though the concept was technically sound, the mortifying nature of the disguise led to the project never receiving official approval.

2 Bulgarian Umbrella

In the film For Your Eyes Only, Q presents Bond with an innocuous umbrella that, when closed, deploys lethal spikes. In real life, a similar weapon sealed the fate of Georgi Markov on September 7, 1978.

Markov, a Bulgarian dissident who defected to Italy in 1968, worked for the BBC World Service in London. The Bulgarian Communist regime, under Todor Zhivkov, ordered his assassination. While strolling in broad daylight, Markov felt a sharp sting in his leg, turned, and saw a man with an umbrella dart into a taxi.

Forensic analysis revealed a hollow metal pellet lodged in his thigh, distinct from conventional bullet wounds. The pellet delivered ricin—a potent toxin derived from castor beans—causing multi‑organ failure over several days. The assassin’s umbrella, modified to inject the ricin pellet when triggered, proved both discreet and deadly.

KGB defectors Oleg Kalugin and Oleg Gordievsky later confirmed the weapon was supplied by the Soviet Union to the Bulgarian secret service, where agent Francesco Gullino executed the hit. A cache of such umbrella guns was uncovered in Bulgaria in 1991.

1 The Rectal Tool Kit

Every spy needs a reliable toolkit, but the CIA’s Technical Division took concealment to an extreme with the Rectal Tool Kit. This sealed, oblong case housed an array of escape‑aid items—lock picks, drill bits, knives, miniature saws—designed to be hidden where no search would think to look. Issued to agents in the 1960s, the kit could be slipped into a rectal cavity, providing a discreet means of escape if captured.

These gadgets represent just a fraction of the clandestine arsenal on display at institutions like the Deutsches Spionagemuseum in Berlin, the KGB Espionage Museum, Spyscape in New York City, and the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC. With countless devices still classified, the true breadth of spy ingenuity remains a tantalizing mystery.

Throughout history, human beings have created extremely cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. While some of these devices were designed to face a slow, painful death, many inflicted so much pain and left such damage that the victims died of blood-loss or infections. Many torture methods and contractions, like the head crushers, breast ripper, or crocodile shears, which were designed to deform the victim, but ended up killing the victim. But many torture devices left the victim to deal with lifelong agony and deformity. Let us take a look at Cruel Torture Devices Designed to Cause Huge Pain.

10 Most Cruel Torture Devices of All Time:

10. Scold’s Bridle

16th century Scotland and England used Scold’s Bridle on women considered as witches, shrews or scolds, particularly for public humiliation. It was an iron mask which attached to a helmet. The contraption was attached to the head of the woman, and the bridle-bit, which measured 2” long and 1” wide, and was studded with spikes, would be inserted into the mouth. This effectively stopped the person from speaking or even moving the tongue, or she would undergo cause immense pain.

9. Tongue Tearer

A Tongue Tearer looked like an extra-large pair of scissors. It was used to cut off the tongue of the victim without any effort. The mouth of the victim would first be forced open using a device called a mouth opener. After that the Tngue Tearer, made of iron, would be used to firmly clasp his tongue with the rough grippers of the device. The tongue of the person being tortured would then be twitched uncomfortably. Then, after tightening the screw, tongue would be torn out roughly.

8. Lead Sprinkler

A Lead Sprinkler was one of the cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. The device was usually filled with molten lead, though other liquids such as tar, boiling oil, water, etc., were also used, at high temperature, which could severely scald skin. The victim was tortured using this device by dripping the hot and burning content onto the stomach or other parts of the body, including the eyes. Even molten silver would be poured on the victim’s eyes, to produce the most fatal effects.

7. Knee Splitter

Knee Splitters were employed in the 12th century, during the Inquisition. The contraption had two wooded blocks with spikes. The number of spikes ranged from 3 to 20, and depended on the gravity of the crime committed by the person being punished. These spikes are driven into the flesh of the victim, and once the spikes are embedded into the victim’s leg, the blocks are drawn closer to each other using two large screws, to slowly pulverize the knee, just as the device’s name suggests.

6. Thumb Screws

Thumb Screws, also called Pilliwinks, were used in Medieval Europe as a cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain. It was used to crush the thumb, fingers and toes of the victim, which were inserted into the contraption, with screws cranking down to pulverize the digits. Sometimes, the crushing bars would have spikes to intensify the pain. Weirdly, during Renaissance eras of England, these were used to straighten and elongate a woman’s fingers, to make them elegant.

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5. Heretic’s Fork/Neck Torture

Heretic’s Fork was metal device with two bi-pronged forks attached to a belt strapped round the victim’s neck, with one fork pointed to the chin, and the other to the sternum, while the victim remained suspended. The device prevented sleep, because, the prongs would pierce their throat and chest if the head dropped. The Neck Torture worked similarly, with a metal or wooden device studded with spikes around the victim’ neck preventing eating, lying down, or any other activity.

4. Scavenger’s Daughter

Queen Elizabeth I used Scavenger’s Daughter, also called Skeffington’s gyves, invented by a Brit named Skevington, against Protestants accused of treason. The apparatus had an iron hoop. The victim had to to sit on one half of it, with the other half crushing him further into an involuntary rigid crouch, as the screw would tighten the hinge in the middle. This would eventually crack the victim’s ribs and breastbone and dislocate the spine. It could even lead to bleeding from fingertips and face.

3. Rack/Horse/Strappado

The Rack, used in Europe, came in many forms, like the Horse. Basically, the victim would be tied down, as a mechanical device, tightened the rope to dislocate the joints, often long enough to tear the limbs off. In case of a Horse, the victim was to the top of a beam, i.e. Horse-back, facing up, while, pulleys below tightened the ropes. The Strappado, used in Palestine, does not have a base for the body to lie on, but the tied arms were wrenched out of the joints of the hanging prisoner.

2. Pear of Anguish

Pears of Anguish were metal tools, mainly for women. Different kinds were inserted into the vagina of a woman, or the mouth or throat of the person being tortured. Shaped like a pear, the device had four ‘leaves’ which were operated by a screw at the top. Once inserted into the orifice of a person for abortion, witchery, miscarriage, homosexuality, adultery, blasphemy, lies, etc., to spread it open, tearing the muscles, causing permanent internal damage, or to dislocate or break jawbones.

1. The Judas Cradle

Judas Cradle was torture device, not designed to kill, but to inflict pain and humiliation. With a steel collar attached to the victim’s waist, a pyramid-shaped tool would be impaled into his intently stretched orifice. The pressure caused excessive pain. The torturer could lift the victim with rope and pulley system and lower him again, driving the penetrative part deeper into the victim. Torture sessions lasted for days. Also, the device was rarely washed, causing life-threatening infections.

The physical conditions in which the victims were left from the cruel torture devices designed to cause huge pain would not only incapacitate them, but also screamed of their criminal history, almost always, even if the crimes were as trivial as petty theft, or they were not criminals, at all, and yet were punished on the basis of just accusation, or for alternate sexuality. Though not a frequent happening, death occurred, too. If that didn’t happen, the torturers and punishers made sure that these torture devices were supplemented with other forms of painful torture and humiliation.

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