The Most Excruciating, Brutal and Cruel Punishments in History

If you were sentenced to die for committing a capital offense and were given the chance to choose which method you would want to encounter death, which one will be your choice?

Here are the 16 most painful and excruciating methods of putting people to death as punishment for capital offenses in the past.

1. Sawing

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Sawing is a method of torture and execution. It is one of the most inhuman methods of punishment. The condemned was hung upside down and then sawed apart down the middle, starting at the crotch. Since the condemned was hanging upside-down, the brain received a continuous blood supply in spite of severe bleeding. The condemned would remain alive and conscious until the saw severed the major blood vessels of the abdomen, and sometimes even longer. In Asian countries, the condemned stood up while constrained and sawing started at the head. According to some religious histories, the prophet Isaiah was executed in this manner.

It was said that the Roman Emperor Caligula particularly enjoy giving out this method of torture.

2. Hanged, Drawn and Quartered

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Have you seen the movie "Brave heart"? The most famous victim of this method was Sir William Wallace, he was hanged, drawn and quartered on August 23, 1305.To be hanged, drawn and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for the crime of high treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of cruel punishment, and was reserved only for this most serious crime, which was deemed more heinous than murder and other capital offences. It was applied only to male criminals.

3. Dismemberment

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Imagine how cruel this method of punishment is. Once the horses run, it's unimaginable what happens next. Dismemberment is the act of cutting, tearing, pulling, wrenching or otherwise removing, the limbs of a person. Dismemberment was carried out in the Medieval era by tying a person's limbs to a chain or other constraint, then attaching the restraint to two separate movable entities (e.g. a vehicle) and moving them in opposite directions

4. Flaying

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This method of punishment could be the most painful of them all. Flaying is the removal of skin from the body. Generally, an attempt is made to maintain the removed portion of skin intact. Examples of flaying include;

• Yahu-Bidhi, ruler of Hamath, was flayed alive by the Assyrians under Sargon II.
• According to Herodotus, Sisamnes, a corrupt judge under Cambyses II of Persia, was flayed alive for accepting a bribe.
• Tradition holds that Saint Bartholomew was flayed before being crucified.

5. Impalement

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This method is yet another inhuman way of punishing people. Impalement as a method of torture and execution involves a person being pierced with a long stake. The penetration could be through the sides, through the rectum, through the vagina, or through the mouth. This method leads to a painful death; sometimes taking days. The stake would often be planted in the ground, leaving the impaled person suspended to die.

6. Crushing

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Even animals were not spared in executing criminals. Animals had been trained in the past to kill people. Death by crushing or pressing is a method of execution which has a long history during which the techniques used varied greatly from place to place. This form of execution is no longer sanctioned by any governing body. A common method of death throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years of recorded history, and perhaps before that, was crushing by elephants. The Romans and Carthaginians also used this method on occasion.

7. Disembowelment

This method is one of the most torturous punishments. Disembowelment (evisceration) is the removing of some or all of the vital organs, usually from the abdomen. Virtually all cases are fatal. It has historically been used as a severe form of capital punishment. The last organs to be removed were invariably the heart and lungs so as to keep the condemned alive (and in pain) as long as possible.

8. Garrote

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(A 1901 execution at the old Bilibid Prison, Manila, Philippines)

Scores of Filipino patriots have been executed by Spanish authorities during their colonization of the Philippines for more than 300 years. Most famous of the victims were Fr. Burgos, Fr. Gomez and Fr. Zamora. A garrote or garrote vil is a handheld weapon, most often referring to a ligature of chain, rope, scarf, and wire or fishing line used to strangle someone to death. The term especially refers to an execution device A garrote can be made out of many different materials, including ropes, tie, fishing lines, nylon, and even guitar strings and piano wars.

9. Crucifixion

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Crucifixion is an ancient method of execution, whereby the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross (of various shapes) and left to hang until dead. It was in use particularly among the Persians, Carthaginians, and Romans from about the 6th century BC to the 4th century AD, when in the year 337 Emperor Constantine I abolished it in his empire, out of veneration for Jesus Christ, the most famous victim of crucifixion. It has sometimes been used even in modern times. The length of time required to reach death could range from a matter of hours to a number of days, depending on exact methods, the health of the crucified person and environmental circumstances.

Lingering Death or Slow Slicing

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Slow slicing (ling chi, alternately transliterated Ling Chi or Leng T'che), also translated as the slow process, the lingering death, or death by a thousand cuts, was a form of execution used in China from roughly AD 900 to its abolition in 1905. In this form of execution, the condemned person was killed by using a knife to methodically remove portions of the body over an extended period of time.

11. Burning

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John Hus burned at the stake

Execution by burning is one of the most brutal ways of punishing offenders. It has a long history as a method of punishment for crimes such as treason, heresy and witchcraft.  This method of execution fell into disfavor among governments in the late 18th century; today, it is considered cruel and unusual punishment. The particular form of execution by burning in which the condemned is bound to a large stake is more commonly called burning at the stake.

12. Boiling to Death

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Boiling to death is a crude and torturous method of execution. This penalty was carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tallow or even molten lead. Sometimes the victim was immersed, the liquid then being heated, or he was plunged into the already boiling contents, usually head first. The executioner could then help speed their demise by means of a large hook with which he sank the criminal deeper. An alternative method was to use a large shallow receptacle rather than a cauldron; oil, tallow or pitch then being poured in. The victim was then partially immersed in the liquid and fried to death.

13. Breaking Wheel

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This one really hurts in every sense. The breaking wheel was a torturous capital punishment device used in the Middle Ages and early modern times for public execution by cudgeling to death. Breaking on the wheel was a form of torturous execution formerly in use, especially in ancient Greece (where it originated), France, Germany, Sweden, and Russia.

The wheel itself was typically a large wooden wagon wheel, with many radial spokes, but a wheel was not always used. In some cases the condemned was lashed to the wheel and beaten with a club or iron cudgel, with the gaps in the wheel allowing the cudgel to break through. Alternatively, the condemned was spread eagled and broken on a Saint Andrew's cross consisting of two wooden beams nailed in an "X" shape, after which the victim's mangled body might be displayed on the wheel.

14. Burial or Pit

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(Vitalis of Milan being buried alive)

Burying a person alive? That's very cruel. In ancient Rome a Vestal Virgin convicted of violating her vows of celibacy was "buried alive" by being sealed in a cave with a small amount of bread and water, ostensibly so that the goddess Vesta could save her should she have been truly innocent. According to Christian tradition, a number of saints were martyred this way, including Saint Castulus and Saint Vitalis of Milan.

15. Scaphism

This method is absolutely absurd. Scaphism is an ancient Persian method of execution designed to inflict torturous death. The naked person would be firmly fastened within a back-to-back pair of narrow rowboats, the head, hands, and feet protruding from this improvised container. The condemned was forced to ingest milk and honey to the point of developing severe diarrhea, and more honey would be rubbed on his body so as to attract insects to the exposed appendages. They would then be left to float on a stagnant pond. Death, when it eventually occurred, was probably due to a combination of dehydration, starvation and septic shock. Insanity would typically set in after a few days.

In other recorded versions, the insects did not eat the person; biting and stinging insects such as wasps, which were attracted by honey on the body, acted as the torture. Death by scaphism is painful, humiliating, and protracted. Plutarch writes in Artaxerxes that Mithridates, sentenced to die in this manner for killing Cyrus the Younger, and survived 17 days before dying.

16. Iron Maiden

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Another frightening and severe method to die is through the iron maiden. An iron maiden is a torture device. It usually has a small closable opening so that the torturer can interrogate their victim and torture or kill a person by piercing the body with sharp objects, while he or she is forced to remain standing. The condemned bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly, eventually dying because of blood loss, or perhaps asphyxiation. Most iron maidens were made so the sharp points did not pierce vital organs, thus not immediately killing a person, in order to drag out the torturous death. The process involved the victim being locked inside the device by heavy padlocks, and was usually checked on every few hours to see whether the victim had died.

Which method on the list have you chosen? Because there is no easy way of dying on any of the list, I would rather choose the swiftest method which is crushing. Ouch, I think they are all equally grueling and gruesome.

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