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Instruments of Torture
Instruments of Torture The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg, The Hanging Cage, urning at the Stake and more. Adults only.
 Torture and death penalty instruments from the Middle Ages to the Industrial Era The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg is part of a Picture Gallery of Torture Instruments 21 photos: Head Crusher; Chastity Belt; Breaking with the Wheel; The Iron Maiden of Nuremberg, Thumbscrews; Hanging Cages, Stocks or Pillory; The Heretic's Fork; Cat's Paw; Oral, Rectal and Vaginal Pear; Saint Elmo's Belt, a Breast Ripper, Branks or scold's bridles.
Middle Ages Torture
".... The Medieval period of the Middle Ages was violent and blood thirsty. In barbarous times the cruel and pitiless feeling which induced legislators to increase the horrors of tortures, also contributed to the aggravation of the fate of prisoners. Torture chambers were included in many castles. Law or custom did not prescribe any fixed rules for the treatment of hapless prisoners who faced torture. Different types of torture were used depending on the victim's crime and social status. Torture was seen as a totally legitimate means for justice to extract confessions, or obtain the names of accomplices or other information about the crime. Torture was a legitimate way to obtain testimonies and confessions from suspects for use in legal inquiries and trials during the Middle Ages. Facts and information about various forms of tortures and executions can be accessed from the following links..."
Instruments include: The Rack Torture,
Scavengers Daughter,
The Brank or Scold's Bridle,
Ducking Stool,
Torture by Dislocation,
Iron Balls Torture,
Water Torture,
The Boot Torture,
Brodequins,
Thumbscrews,
Pillory,
Burned at the Stake. Branding and Burning Tortures,
Execution by Quartering,
Execution by the Wheel,
Execution by Hanging,
Hung, Drawn and Quartered
Photos of Various Torture Instruments
Drawings of Various Torture Instruments and Methods
The Torture Methods of the Inquisition
The Torture Chamber Many illustrations of various torture implements
Angelo Clareno on an Inquisitorial Torture Session "Angelo Clareno joined the Franciscan order around 1274, just in time to become involved in the first serious confrontation between spiritual Franciscans and their leaders. It was in the province of Ancona, and by the 1280s things were bad enough there so that Angelo and others were thrown in prison for several years...."
Help Prevent Torture of Women and International Sex Slavery... First, By Becoming Aware of It... and then Taking Action.
Helo Stop Human Trafficking by Signing a petition to protect the rights of trafficked women in Greece... or other abuses against humanity at Amesty International.
Violence against Tibetan women: Torture and sexual abuse of women activists and those in custody "Addressing the drastic human rights abuses committed against Tibetan women in Tibet including rape, physical violence, and the denial of fundamental reproductive, religious and political freedoms..."
International Sexual Slavery "...The international problems tend to be more disturbing to most individuals because these women are powerless to escape and may be forced to endure the slavery until they die. Sexual slavery can be particularly fatal today due to the global epidemic of AIDS, as these enslaved women are forced to have unprotected sex with a large number of men every day...".
Malevolent Bargains: Slavery Continues in the Form of Forced Prostitution "... “I realized that slavery was still alive,” said John Miller, Director of the U.S. State Depart-ment’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. He was telling World magazine about the arrest of men who trafficked in sex slaves. “I’m reading about how they lured these girls from Asian nations, promised them restaurant jobs, modeling jobs, … seized their passports, beat them, raped them, moved them from brothel to brothel,” he said...."
Rescued from Sex Slavery: 48 Hours Goes Undercover into the International Sex Slave Trade "... (CBS)
At night, the rooms above a building in downtown Bucharest resemble a scene straight from the 18th century slave trades, and it's taking place in front of 48 Hours' hidden cameras. There, Correspondent Peter Van Sant is negotiating to buy a human being – not for an hour, but forever. In this 48 Hours report, Van Sant infiltrates the billion-dollar business of human trafficking, a business that is worldwide. Hundreds of thousands of young, desperate girls are trafficked each year as sex slaves. Some are lured overseas with the promise of a good job, only to be enslaved once they arrive. Others are simply abducted..."
Prevent Torture
Amnesty International: How to STOP TORTURE
Association for Prevention of Torture
World Organization Against Torture (WOAT)
Donate to Human Rights Watch
Survivors International "... non-profit organization dedicated to providing essential psychological and medical services to survivors of torture who have fled from around the world to the San Francisco Bay Area. SI aims to help survivors put the pieces back together by providing the support they need to re-establish healthy and productive lives after their experiences of torture...."
A Study of Torture
Research and Investigations: Torture
Torture in the News
Abu Ghraib
Americans Have Given Torture a Bad Name UK's Daily Telegraph "The pictures, and now videos, recording the activity of some US soldiers inside Abu Ghraib prison seem to provide a definitive answer to the question of whether torture can ever be justified. The answer is an emphatic no."
Blogging About Torture
Organized Evil: Torture in the Middle Ages, Stanley Milgram's Obedience Experiments, and the Power of Authority Over Conscience "... In 1983, an exhibition of torture instruments from the Middle-Ages and the industrial era opened in Florence, Italy. The exhibit, called "Inquisition," was one of the first attempts to display these horrible instruments of human torture, and presented an appalling and profoundly disturbing story of human cruelty throughout the ages. The exhibit became internationally famous almost overnight, and by the time it closed in Barcelona, Spain, in 1986, the gruesome images of these devices were familiar to millions around the world. In addition, the exhibit has been revived and is currently on display at the San Diego Museum of Man, entitled Inquisition: Torture and Intolerance. "While its contents are horrifying, the exhibit offers an important indictment against torture and tyranny," says Museum Director Douglas Sharon. "And its overall purpose is to convey a powerful message against any kind of inhuman treatment."..."
Political
Torture
The Real Issue Is Israel's Human Rights Record:
A statement by Norman G. Finkelstein upon publication of Beyond Chutzpah
Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard University is currently best known for his advocacy of the "most excruciating" torture against terrorist suspects such as a "needle being shoved under the fingernails." The alleged purpose of this torture is to extract a truthful confession but its real consequence, as human rights organizations have pointed out, is to produce whatever statements are necessary to end the suffering. For 15 months Dershowitz has applied a variant of this truth-seeking technique -- less physically painful but no less excruciating -- to prospective publishers of Beyond Chutzpah, which offers a critical examination of Israel's human rights record and Dershowitz's defense of it. Enlisting one of the most powerful law firms in the country after his personal initiatives proved unsuccessful, Dershowitz has repeatedly threatened to bankrupt highly respected publishers with litigation if they didn't cancel publication of my book. He could then proclaim that the cancellation confirmed the "truth" that Beyond Chutzpah didn't meet scholarly standards.
Tales
of Torture: Torture in Tibet
The Free Tibet Campaign: Stop the Torture in Tibet
The Government of Tibet in Exile's summary of Torture in Tibet "... The single example of prosecution for acts of torture in Tibet stands in stark contrast to the overwhelming number of reported cases. Torture and maltreatment remain the norm for political detainees in Tibet. According to a 1997 report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), 94 percent of interviewees who had been detained for political activities also suffered torture. Even among non-political detainees, torture is far from uncommon..."
Confessions
at Any Cost: Police Torture in Russia
Torture
in Sri Lanka
Torture in Sri Lanka "... Torture is an enabled tool in the Sri Lanka government's war against the Tamil people. Tens of thousands of Tamils have been tortured and killed in Sri Lanka since 1975...."
Israel's
Torture Ban
Torture, “disappearances,” and extrajudicial executions in Mexico "...
Police
Torture in Chicago
Execution
by Electrocution
America's
Excellent Electric Chairs
Bungled
Electrocution: Florida Spurns Own Natural Sponge
Florida's
August 3, 1999 Judicial Order Upholding the Constitutionality of
the Electric Chair "The
order contains expert testimony and technical information on the
execution of Allen Davis, the execution process and the
operation of the electric chair. It is recommended reading for
those who want to learn more about this subject...."
"Old
Sparky" (photo) "...
the electric chair that fried 361 men between 1924 and
1964.... Feel the effect of sitting in an electric chair."
Used in the movie 'Lepke,' it's an exact replica of the Illinois
State Penitentiary chair. People who sit on its pressure
sensitive seat are given a mild shock...."
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Religious Torture
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Tortured for their Faith "Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority police are conducting a violent campaign against Muslim Arab converts to Christianity in recent months. In late July, the Digest heard first-hand accounts revealing that a number of Christian Arabs near Nablus (Samaria) have been threatened, imprisoned, interrogated, beaten and tortured by the PA security services for the "criminal" behaviour of professing their new-found Christian faith." |
Museums and Exhibits
 Torture: Inquisition
Capital Punishment
"... The collection is owned by Italian independent scholars who have made these instruments available for traveling exhibits on the subject of TORTURE. This collection shown for the first time in the U.S., in the city of San Francisco co-sponsored by Fort Mason Foundation.
Shown in many historical and prestigious venues all over Europe, in Tokyo, in Argentina and Mexico, the exhibit has always raised the interest of millions of visitors and the press, not only for its great visual impact, but also for its clear message against the violation of human rights.
Such violations have given rise to a great amount of resistance throughout the centuries and in the most diverse cultural contexts, and unfortunately continue to be very topical today.
Our commitment, which we share with all who are interested in combating violence, torture, and capital punishment against living beings, is to show how throughout the centuries human beings have been tortured, both in body and soul, in the name of the truth, its only justification often being submission to the authorities.
All over the world, in the past and in the present, torture has been practiced both against the body and the mind of the victim.
It is devastating and inhuman, in its effect. It certainly cannot be called a punishment , but is merely an exercise in brutality and savagery, akin to the crime often only allegedly committed by the offender.
Today society should have the power to produce a new code of justice based on recognizing human dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of every individual.
Let those who are reading this view for themselves the "instruments' shown in this exhibit ; observe in silence, interpret with freedom of thought, conscience, religion, etc, and express their conclusions exercising their freedom of speech...."
Instruments of Torture |
Middle Ages Torture Museum "Come and view the instruments used for torture in the middle ages. Learn about the methods of torture, witches, funeral piles, witch-hunts, witchcraft, the Inquisition, and the Medieval punishments." In this instructional exhibition you will see: Whipping posts, gallows, stretching ladder, knee screws, breast talons, heretic forks, guillotine, iron lock jaw, iron collars of thorns, chastity belts, thumb screws, head presses, pendulums, storks, three beamed harrow, barrel pillory, humiliation masks, wheels, garrotes, tongs, interrogator's chair, hanging cages, Judas scale, the rack, executioner's axe, and lots more. More information including colored photos of interrogation chair and humiliation masks.
The Medieval Crime Museum "... It is the only museum of law in the European area, and is the most important collection of the history of rights there is. On 4 floors, about 2000 square-meters, and in more than 130 glass-cases we give you a unique and complete glance at more than thousand years of legal history. Shown is the development of jurisprudence to the 19th century. In addition to state and constitutional law, of prime interest to us are civil degradation penalties and police laws, which are very revealing with respect to the notions, laws, customs and cultures of our forefathers. Additionally, these exhibits include instruments of torture, items used in the execution of sentences, costly books, graphic arts, documents of emperors, princes, the nobility and towns. Also included are coats of arms, seals, crafts, trades and patents of the nobility; caricatures of the judiciary, juristic ex libris, schools and their punishments, medals of law and justice, and legal symbolisms from seven centuries..."
Museum of Torture "... provides one hundred grisly exhibits of mankind's cruelty to one another. Ten wax figures are placed in torture instruments so nasty that you are glad they feel no pain. The highlight of the museum is the audio-visual extravaganza of a witch burning and a sword execution...." Cheesy!
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Witch
Hunts
The
Witch Persecutions
Witch
Hunt "The following are
all documented incidents in the killings of
"witches."
Execution by Lethal Injection
Death by Lethal Injection: What REALLY Happens
How Lethal Injection Works
Execution by Gas Chamber
Colorado Territorial Prison Museum
contains...." the actual hangman's noose of the last man to have
his neck stretched in Colorado, prison contraband, a scale model
of a gas chamber, and disciplinary paraphernalia used from 1871
to the present.... An actual gas chamber sits on the lawn
in front of museum, a little weather-worn, but nonetheless
impressive...."
Wyoming Frontier Prison and State Gas Chamber
"....staffed by enthusiastic youngsters who happily allow all to
sit inside the gas chamber where five lawbreakers were executed.
They'll strap you in, and even shut the door if you so desire.
Three times a week, night tours are offered in pitch
darkness...."
Cyanide, Consciousness and Pain: Is Execution by Lethal Gas
Cruel? (photo of San Quentin Gas Chamber) "In 1993
Judge Marilyn Patel of the San Francisco Federal Court agreed
and just recently, on February 22, 1996 the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld her decision as follows: '...we conclude that
execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is
unconstitutionally cruel and unusual and violates the 8th and
14th Amendments. The district court's permanent injunction
against defendants is AFFIRMED'."
Execution by Hanging
Warning: ALL
of the following links contain ACTUAL AUTHENTIC PHOTOS of REAL
HANGINGS. Do NOT click if you will be offended by what you
see. ADULTS ONLY.
The
Last Public Execution in America "On August 14, 1936, Rainey Bethea was hanged in Owensboro,
Kentucky, before a crowd of 20,000. The public outrage which
followed resulted in the complete abolition of public executions
in the United States. This site provides the complete text of
the book, The Last Public Execution in America, as well
as numerous photographs taken at the time of the hanging." FREE
Downloadable Book and Photo.
Public Hanging of Four Lincoln Assassins "... George Andreas Atzerodt (June 12, 1835 – July 7, 1865) was a conspirator with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Atzerodt as well as three other convicted conspirators (Mary Surratt, Lewis Payne and David Herold) were hanged in Washington, DC on July 7, 1865. George Atzerodt's last words were: "May we all meet in the other world. God take me now."
Hanging
of the Convicted Conspirators July 7, 1865 "....Roughly 1,000 people, viewing from windows,
walls, the courtyard, and buildings, witnessed the affair.
(Because such a large number of people wished to view the
execution, tickets had been issued to limit the actual number in
the courtyard). At approximately 1:26 P.M., July 7, 1865,
General John F. Hartranft clapped his hands together three
times. After the third time two soldiers underneath the gallows
knocked away the supporting posts with long poles and the trap
doors snapped downward. The bodies of the four victims dropped
about 5 to 6 feet and then came up with a sharp jerk at the end
of each rope. After the hanging about 25 minutes elapsed, and
the bodies were cut down...."
Library of Congress Photo of 4 men hanging
Adjusting
the Ropes Prior to Hanging
Library of Congress Photo
A
Very Rare Photo of Lewis Paine on the Gallows
Photo from old stereograph
Three
of the 19 camp guards tried and convicted by a general military
court at Dachau (separate from the Nuremberg one) for atrocities
committed at Mauthasen await execution by hanging at Landsberg
prison Warning:
graphic Nazi death camp photo on same page.
History
of the Sierra Country Sheriff's Gallows
Execution by Guillotine
The Guillotine Headquarters
Take a jump back in time to see the History of the guillotine, or learn more about the Construction. You can also see more pictures of the guillotine in the Gallery. Under Names you will find information on people related to the guillotine in one way or another.
Wikipedia on the Guillotine Includes historic photos and photos of replicas of guillotines.
History of the Guillotine
Interesting Prisons
Old Adelaide City Gaol
Death
Penalty and Capital Punishment in the U.S.
Information
on the Death Penalty
Death
Penalty Information Center
ACLU
Freedom Network
Innocence
and the Death Penalty
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