HANGED, DRAWN AND QUARTED

 

The victim's will suffer horrendous pain

Hanging, drawning and quartering, at its most simple, could be seen as a means to an end: a way of producing the most bloody and visible death possible. And yet, under that first simplistic layer, there are other interpretations which throw a little more light onto the importance of the various acts. It must be remembered that the people of the 14th century were immersed, through the dominance of the church, in a culture of symbolism and ritual: for example, the practice of heraldic display included much symbolism that was tied up with rank and status. 

Once there, the prisoners were hanged in the normal way in example without a drop to ensure that the neck was not broke but cut down whilst still conscious. The penis and testicles were cut off and the stomach was slit open. The intestines and heart were removed and burned before them. The other organs were torn out and finally the head was cut off and the body divided into four quarters. The head and quarters were parboiled to prevent them rotting too quickly and then displayed upon the city gates as a grim warning to all. 

Various Englishman received such a sentence, including over 100 Catholic martyrs for the "spiritual treason" of refusing to recognize the authority of the Anglican Church. Some of the more famous cases are listed below.

1)      Prince David of Wales

2)      Sir William Wallace

3)      English Tudors

4)      William Collingbourne

KNEE SPLITTER

 

The spikes will cut the victim's legs

The knee splitter, a terrible torture, was mostly used during the Inquisition. What this instrument accomplished was to permanently render the knees useless. Even though the name implies that this instrument was only used for "splitting" knees, it was also used in other body parts including: the elbows, arms and even the lower legs. As the torturer turned the handle, the claws slowly slammed against each other mutilating any skin in between. The number of spikes the knee splitter contained varied from three to more than twenty. 

The Knee Splitter was comprised of two wooden blocks lined with very large, very menacing looking spikes. The blocks were connected by two large screws. I think you can guess what would happen next. The victim’s leg was inserted between the two spiked blocks and the screws were then turned, causing the blocks to close toward each other. It would effectively maim a person and forever cripple them–if they were lucky enough to not die of infection or blood loss.

Another technique was blunting the spikes and making them wider so that they penetrated the flesh slower, thus maximizing pain. There were many variants to this instrument. Some claws were heated beforehand to maximize pain - others had dozens of small claws that penetrated the flesh slowly and painfully. Even though this method very seldom provoked direct death, it was often followed by other more painful methods if the victim refused to cooperate.

FLAYING

 

The executioner will removed the skins from the body

Execution by Flaying is when the skin of the criminal is removed from their body with the use of a very sharp knife. Attempts are made to keep the skin intact. This is a very ancient method of execution. The apostle Bartholomew was flayed and crucified upside down. His skin and bones are kept in a Cathedral in Sicily.

There are accounts of Assyrians flaying the skin from a captured enemy or rebellious ruler and nailing it to the wall of his city, as warning to all who would defy their power. The Aztecs of Mexico flayed victims of ritual human sacrifice, generally after death.

While this method of execution is not lawful in any country, in 2000, government troops in Myanma (Burma) allegedly flayed all of the males of a Karenni village.

NECKLACING

The rubber tire is putted on the victim's neck

Necklacing is a type of execution in which a rubber tire is filled with gasoline, forced over the arms and chest of the victim, and set alight. It was a common practice in South Africa during the 1980s and 1990s anti-apartheid struggle.

Necklacing sentences were sometimes handed down against alleged criminals by “people’s courts” established in black townships as a means of circumventing theapartheid judicial system. Necklacing was also used to punish members of the black community who were perceived as collaborators with the apartheid regime. These included black policemen, town councilors and others, as well as their relatives and associates. 

But some research stated that "it has been some of the necklace were not in fact necklace murders but were only meant to look like that." They also stated that "Necklacing is not always the methods of execution used in punishment by a People's Court. There are other ways, simply executing them with a gunshot in the back of the head, slitting their throats with a knife or beheading with a bushknife (panga)"

The practice was frequently carried out in the name of the African National Congress (ANC), and was even endorsed by Winnie Mandela, then-wife of the imprisoned Nelson Mandela and a senior member of the ANC, although the ANC officially condemned the practice Necklacing has also occurred in Brazil, and Haiti, and at least one person was killed by this method in Nigeria during Muslim protests over the Muhammad Cartoons.

BRAZEN BULL

 

The scream from the victim's will sound like the roar of  bull

The Brazen Bull was invented by Perilaus of Athens (a Brass worker) in the 6th Century BC and offered to Phalaris, Tyrant of Agrigentum, as a gift. It was a large brass bull that was completely hollow inside with a door on the side large enough for a man to enter. Once the man was inside the bull, a fire would be lit beneath it in order to roast him to death. In the head of the bull, Perilaus put a series of tubes and stops that were designed to amplify the screams of the victim and make them sound like the roar of a bull. Not having to see the victim, onlookers could more easily separate themselves from the torture taking place.

Interestingly, Perilaus was the first person to feel the pain of the Brazen Bull. Perilaus was removed from the Bull before he died and Phalaris had him thrown off a cliff. The Brazen Bull became one of the most common methods of execution in Ancient Greece.

The writer Lucian of Samosata claims that "Phalaris reacted so harshly to Perillos because even he ‘loathed the thought of such ingenious cruelty’, and vowed to punish its inventor. Ironically it was the bull that killed Phalaris when he was overthrown around twenty years later: a mob seizedhim and bundled him inside Perillos’s invention." He was roasted alive.

SAWING

The saw will cut the victim's body into half

Execution by sawing, the criminal would be hung upside-down and a large saw would be used to cut their body in half, starting with the groin, all the way to the head. Because the person was hanging upside-down, the brain received sufficient blood to keep them alive until the saw finally reached the main blood vessels in the abdomen. In the Asian version of this execution, the victim would stand upright and the sawing would begin at the top of the head.

Some traditions state that the Prophet Isaiah was executed by the saw. It is believed that Saint Paul is making reference to this in his Epistle to the Hebrews 11:37.They were stoned, they were cut asunder, they were tempted, they were put to death by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted.

This method of execution was used in the Middle East, Europe, and parts of Asia. It was also used in the Roman Empire and was considered to be the favorite punishment dished out by Emperor Caligula