The Glasgow smile, also known as the Cheshire grin among London street gangs, originated in its namesake Glasgow, Scotland. If you’ve ever seen The Dark Knight, you may have left the theater pondering the unanswered question: What was the deal with the Joker’s permanent smile? We have a pretty good guess as to what caused it. Prisoners were often made to watch other prisoners experience the rack to speed up the interrogation process. Not only was the prisoner exposed to unspeakable pain, but they also had the displeasure of hearing cartilage, ligaments, and bones snap due to the tension. Too many wrong answers and the ropes would pull the limbs until joints were dislocated and severed. For every wrong answer the prisoner submitted, pulleys and levers would allow the roller to rotate on its axis causing the ropes to pull the victim’s limbs.
The person being interrogated had all four limbs strapped to the ends of a rectangular wooden slab with rollers at both ends. FlickrĪ popular method of torture employed in Russia, France, and Medieval Britain, the rack was used to pull (literally) answers out during the interrogation process.
Water intoxication, also known as overhydration, can lead to fatal consequences by throwing off the body’s balance of water and sodium. Although you may be familiar with waterboarding, which refers to the torture technique of continually pouring water over the victim's face or head to elicit the fear of drowning, forced water ingestion was force feeding water down the victim’s throat until water intoxication occurred. Water TortureĮver wonder how much water you would have to drink to kill you? Water has actually been used in various forms of torture and execution throughout history. Eventually, they would die due to a combination of dehydration, starvation, and septic shock. While floating (not so) merrily down a stream surrounded by their own feces, insects feeding on the victim’s flesh would cause severe infection while they were repeatedly fed more milk and honey to prolong death by dehydration or starvation. After consuming a large amount of milk and honey that resulted in diarrhea, they were covered with more honey to attract insects. Enemies were bound to the inside of two rowing boats that covered everything save for their head, hands, and feet. Documented by Greek historians, scaphism - from the Greek word skáphe, meaning “anything scooped or hollowed out - was used by Persians to apply as much torture while prolonging the victim’s eventual death. It’s quite a surprise the first torture/execution method up on this list wasn’t featured in either of the 300 movies. WARNING: This article is not for the faint of heart. Here are some of the most brutal torture and execution methods that will leave you grateful for living in the 21st century. Different forms of torture and executions are an unfortunate reality of every culture’s bloody past. Thankfully, some of history’s most barbaric inventions have fallen by the wayside and can only be found at museums specializing in the macabre. History is filled with famous inventions that we still use today in some capacity.