Museum of Industry and Technology

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Many common forms of torture involved the crushing of an appendage. No portion of the body was prohibited, and the decision regarding what to crush was dependent upon the crime committed. The Foot Screw was designed to crush the foot. Early versions allowed the foot to be inserted and then an arched bar was screwed down onto the foot until the bones were crushed and broken by the pressure. Later versions added spikes which perforated the foot as it was crushed.

Finger crushing was also common. This small device was used to crush fingers into useless appendages which were usually cut off using the Mutilation Shears.

The Spanish Crusher was essentially a modified pair of hinged tongs that could crush anything you could put between the ribbed jaws. This included fingers, toes, ears, thumbs, and very sensitive parts of the male anatomy.

The Spanish Boot on the other hand was designed to crush the lower leg. There were innumerable variants of this tool, but the end result was always the same. The lower leg was crushed, and usually amputated due to the severity of the crushing of the bone. It consists of two semicircular pieces of wood held together either using iron bands or rope. During interrogation, when ever the victim refused to provide the correct answer, another bit of wood or iron was added, which resulted in tightening the boot around the leg. Some variants also had spikes on the inside which would slowly be driven into the leg as the boot was tightened.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Drawing and quartering was reserved only for males. It was used as punishment for treason until 1790. Females found guilty of treason were burned at the stake. This punishment and execution were:

Until 1814, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:
1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible meaning of drawn.)
2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead. (hanged).
3. Disembowelled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes (This is another meaning of drawn — see the reference to the Oxford English Dictionary.)[2]
4. Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).

Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e. the four quarters of the body and the head) were gibbeted (put on public display) in different parts of the city, town, or, in famous cases, country, to deter would-be traitors who had not seen the execution. After 1814 the convict would be hanged until dead and the mutilation would be performed after death. Gibbeting was abolished in England in 1843. Drawing and quartering was abolished in 1870.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Iron Collars constitute the next case. These are metal rings that are placed around the victim’s neck. This is then tightened until the metal teeth are just beneath the chin. The victim is then hoisted into the air, leaving just their toes touching the ground. The teeth bite into the chin and throat. The victim is left suspended thusly.

A Chinese variant of this device had the prisoner’s head stuck through a hole in the top of a sturdy wooden box, with the feet barely off the ground.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

The Iron Gag, or Mute’s Bridle was designed to stifle the screams of a victim. The oblong box was forced into the mouth, and the metal collar was tightly fastened around the neck. A small hole in the front allowed air to the victim, but muffled all attempts to scream. An added advantage of the single air hole was that the torturer could and in fact did often take the victim to the brink of asphyxiation.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Along the far wall are four examples of the Garrotte. These devices were used to execute criminals and heretics. The simplest forms were simply an upright plank with a hole drilled through that had a rope fed through. The rope was looped around the victim’s throat, and then pulled until the victim had been choked to death. Later variants included an iron collar that was drawn back wards using screws and asphyxiated the victim. Others used leather straps that held the head still while a sharpened screw bored into the back of the neck and severed the spinal chord.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Hanging Cages, or Gibbets were very common sights in Europe. They were made out of slats of wood or iron, and served as a simple punishment where the victim was displayed and eventually freed, up to the ultimate punishment where the victim was left to die inside the cage. The bodies of executed highwaymen were covered in tar and left along rural routes as a deterrent to other would be highway men.

The cages often were studded in nails to discourage friends and relatives from trying to retrieve the body.

The last gibbeting in England was for two murderers in 1832.

[Azjah von Drachen Walde]

Head Crushers were popular methods of execution. This device consists of a lower bar where the chin rested, and an iron cap attached to a screw mechanism. The screw was slowly turned, which results in the compression of the skull. The first things to fail are the teeth, which are shattered and splintered into the jaw. Next the eye sockets fail and the eyes are squeezed from the eye sockets. Some head crushers had special receptacles to catch the eyes as they fell out of the head. Ultimately the skull fractures and the contents of the head are forced out of the broken cranium