2. Torture Of The Feet & Legs
The aim of torture wasn’t always to kill the perpetrator, although this would often happen, so to avoid death they would often concentrate on less lethal areas. Because of this the feet and legs would often get a fair bit of work done to them in the dungeons. One variant of leg and foot torture were the so called Spanish Boots. Spanish Boots were high and made of spongy leather and were placed on the victim’s feet – so far so good, until it takes a marked turn for the worst. The torturer would then pour boiling water over the boots so that it steadily ate through the the leather and slowly burrowed into the flesh and bones of the victim.
Foot roasting was a popular way of extracting a confession. You simply apply a liberal amount of lard to the feet and put them right by a fire or red hot coals. If the chap is not willing to talk, blow some bellows on the coals or fire to get it roaring and he’s sure to crack.
During the persecution of the Knights of Templar (a group of wealthy Christians), their leader – Jacques de Molay – had his feet so badly charred that his toe bones (metatarsals) actually fell on to the floor.
Other foot and leg action involved putting the guilty man into iron boots and steadily hammering in more and more lengths of wood so that all of the bone and tissue is crushed to bits. Or, alternatively, the metal boots could be filled with boiling oil, molten lead, or room temperature liquid that they brought to the boil over an open fire.
Another simple but effective favourite was the knee splitter. This consisted of a couple of planks with some spikes in between them that could be slowly and painfully pressed around the knee until it was completely destroyed.
As I’m writing this I can feel myself dissociating with what I’m actually putting into words. People actually did this? To other humans. Regularly. Jeez.
☛ More Sickos: A Ku Klux Klan Photo Collection: Dark Images Of Small Minds
