It is no coincidence that Steven Seagal, in the movie Under Siege, was a chef; neither can it be that in Oz, the memorably brutal first-ever outing for HBO, set in the fictional Oswald Penitentiary, the kitchen was the most sought-after assignment for the opportunist convicts. It is not just the extra food that entices the military or the criminal mind.

See Also: 10 Modern Torture Chambers

All guns, knives, explosives, bats, and poisons have the drawback that possession of them can immediately convince a jury of intent. A well-stocked kitchen, on the other hand, is going to look good for you. After all, can you imagine Martha Stewart going to jail?

Obviously you can cut your fingers with a sharp (or blunt) knife, you can drop a chopping board on your foot, or any one of many possible injuries from a multitude of slapstick-type mishaps. Here though, we are going to look at some things you may know and just do not pay enough attention to, and some things that you would not have thought about in a hundred years.

So just be aware of these things and keep you and your loved ones/employees/colleagues safe. There are life-changing and life-ending accidents possible in every kitchen. So keep vigilant. Some of these are minor painful injuries, but some are final.

10 Chilis

Crushed chili peppers will leave a paste, liquid, and oil. There are hundreds of types and strengths of chili peppers . Ranging up from the Jalapeno (approx 10,000 SHU Scoville-Heat Units) to the Carolina Reaper (approx 2 million SHU units). Also they can come in many forms. They can be dried, powdered, whole, pastes, and seeds. All will cause you some severe problems when they get into a sensitive part of the body. Most importantly they will all cause temporary blindness and agonizing ocular pain. If you have touched any of them wash your hands thoroughly. Use a good quality washing up liquid for more effective cleansing. Then rinsing with milk is recommended, although not particularly practical, not to mention unpleasant if you don’t like milk! The other choice is not touching anything, which is almost impossible. All it takes is one scratch to the inside of your nose and you may find yourself inserting a yogurt-soaked Q-tip in your nostrils!

9 Sea Bass fins

Are you a fish fan? If so, look for whole-fish Bass. The fins at the top of the European Sea Bass are razor-sharp with between eight and nine spiny rays at the front (dorsal) fin. Not only that, there is an oil that is agonizing if it gets into a cut. If you go to any fish market or fishmongers you will see the thickness of the gloves they use. This is for a very good reason. Particularly tricky with a Bass as its front fin folds down, so when you pick it up and they are flattened down it will be fine. Then you pick it up from the other side and…OWWWW! Not a mistake you will make twice.

8 Moka Coffee Pot

The heat a Moka pot gives off is immense. The coffee/water is heated to 205deg and the pot itself is then a dangerous item. If the base made contact with skin it would sear the flesh and cause unbearable pain. It would also almost guarantee to be infected, a gaping wide burn of approximately 4 inches, unless treated instantly could be a real problem. It has been receiving constant high-heat to a metal surface for usually about ten minutes. Try dipping a freshly made Moka pot into a bowl of water, see the reaction and imagine that on your skin. Not an injury anyone wants.

To make matters worse, many think that these devices are dangerous and have the potential to explode. If the mistake of tamping-down the grounds has occurred, the pressure the pot creates will often not be enough to push through the compressed grounds, even with a release valve. This can cause an explosion with piping hot liquid and hot metal sent flying. Err on the side of caution.

7 Castor Beans/Ricin

As many will remember from the daring revenge plot to poison a brutal drug-baron in the TV series Breaking Bad, one of the most deadly poisons on the planet is Ricin. A plant found in tropical locations all over the world. Exceptionally deadly due to its innocent source. The castor bean. A product turned into Castor oil. A widely beneficial product used in birth health for centuries, as well as having medicinal, cosmetic, nutritional, and industrial uses. However, the seeds used to make the oil can be lethal. The beans do have a thick skin if eaten and can travel through the digestive system quite harmlessly if swallowed. However, if chewed, the mastication can release the deadly toxin Ricin. Not something to toy around with. No pranks, no experiments. You could end up dead or in jail.

6 Oven rack

A heated grill or oven rack will give off an agonizing burn that is likely to infect, due to residue of foodstuffs searing into the flesh. Especially if it has traces of garlic. Garlic gets into a cut or a burn and its filmy residue means rinsing the burn under cold water will give relief only while doing it. Honey is said to help. This is okay but it is still instantly agonizing and happens in the matter of a second. If you are in the middle of a cooking project, maybe you have guests, or worse you are being paid to cook and you have to now do it with an unrelenting burn-sting that incessantly throbs and the heat of continued kitchen duties is a catalyst for the already considerable discomfort. Use oven gloves! That is all it takes.

5 Hot Cooking Oil

This is an obvious one and a total no-brainer. Yet in no way is it to be skimmed over of given to complacency. If you have deep-fried something, particularly if you do not have a fryer and have done it in a pan or a wok, you are left with an unsecured quantity of skin-melting oil. An accident that could cause life-changing injuries to a child or pet. Always keep it away from a tipping point and dispose of safely. Many professional kitchens insist on oil being left to cool, then carried and safely disposed of. However, this is still a potential for serious injury. It could still be very hot, or there could be spillage, causing others to slip, these others may be carrying hot produce also. The statistic shows us these accidents still happen. Anyone in an environment should treat this as a warning to never take a relaxed approach to hot-oil storage and disposal. Two out of three of the top causes of accidents in the kitchen are accidents that can be caused by oil (slips and burns).

4 Fish Teeth

Various fish have sharp teeth. Fish available from any respectable mongers. Caution must be applied when removing from packaging, moving to storage and disposing of unused cuts and pieces of the fish. However, whilst people all know they are safe, they do not know that sharpness is the only potential to cause danger and pain. Many fish have teeth, fins, and skin that are impregnated with an anticoagulant that will cause profuse bleeding. Examples are fish such as Pike and Barracuda and some Hake as well as the Lamprey. It is not likely to matter to a healthy person, but if taking blood thinners or suffering for blood-based diseases, it could cause problems. A fact worth remembering if whole-fish are a particular favorite of yours. It is also worth remembering that the Lamprey is the only fish than can claim to have been a suspect in the killing of a ruling European monarch and the subsequent cause of much violence and bloodshed. While it is not guaranteed, it was written that the death of King Henry I of England in 1135, was caused by gorging on the Lamprey, which he was said to have been warned against doing by his physician. This is by no means unchallenged as hard fact but it was reported by a 12th-century historian. Sadly, the British monarchy did not listen and was said to have continued gorging on the rather unsightly delicacy throughout the ages.

3 Lima beans

Another entry for beans & pulses. This can be the case of many other types, however, it is particularly the Butterbean (also known as the Lima bean). If eaten raw, the beans contain cyanide, a well-known poison present as part of the bean’s defense mechanism. Cook them first and drain the water, you will be fine. If in doubt, throw them out. Always be careful when using a ceramic slow-cooker if using beans. Kidney beans, for example, can cause poisoning from Lectin. Whenever cooking fresh beans, always google to find out the safe way of preparation. As well as being dangerous, the poisons ingested in such situations are agonizing and sometimes fatal.

2 Pets

Many hidden dangers will cause no suffering to a human and will be nothing more than a tasty addition to a delicious meal. However, for your happy-hound or main-moggy, vigilance is a must. Grapes, chocolates, onion, chives, macadamia nuts and leeks have all been reported to have caused accidental poisoning of household-pets. This list is not exhaustive. We all love our pets but must realize that letting them snuffle through the bin for leftovers can turn from cute and funny to tragic and final.

1 Food Poisoning from meat

Especially if more than one of you is cooking. Some chicken that was being fried is left on a plate before you chopped it up. Then you take the meat off and move the plate aside. There is no visible evidence that something was on that plate. After all salmonella is not color-coded. When finished you put your portion on what you think is a clean plate. Cooked meat on top of raw meat juices. Ii would sooner take a burn or cut or even a slip than a week of salmonella. I can nearly finish you off change that, it CAN finish you off. Never risk it. If you think contamination it is possible, throw the whole thing away and make a sandwich, regardless of how long you spent on it. Three days into the hell of food poisoning will be plenty of time to wish you had not chanced it.

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. 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, is 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, in particular against women. The song describes a ladies’ man, so the song as torture had an explicit layer of sexual humiliation to it.

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 and the floor kept rolling out under you. Unlike modern treadmills these were designed for prisoners and could hold 40 men at a time. They kept walking forward while their effort would turn 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 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 discovered 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 attacked 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.

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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