Click2History - Instruments of Torture - Chapter 4

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff> <tr> <td align=center valign=top> <tr> <td> <div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE</p> <p><font size="4">CHAPTER 4 - BREAKING WITH A WHEEL</b></font></p> </div>  <center> <table width="90%"> <tr> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">To us, "the wheel" may seem like an ordinary wooden device that moves a carriage. To a medieval person, this <a href="javascript:Start('http://www.cecut.org.mx/galeria/tortura/08.htm')" ;><b>wheel</b></a> was a feared device that produced unbelievable, staggering torture.</p> <p align="justify">The wheel was a favored instrument of terror in Germany during the Middle Ages. According to a German chronicler, victims of "breaking with a wheel" became</p> <blockquote><b><i><font face="times new roman" size=3 color=000000>...a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones.</font></i></b></blockquote> <p align="justify">But that wasn't the end of it. Limbs were woven around the <a href="javascript:Start('http://www.goth.net/~shanmonster/witch/torture/wheel.html')" ;><b>spokes</b></a> and the wheel was hoisted up so birds could peck away. Death was usually <a href="javascript:Start('http://www.theelectricchair.com/wheel.htm')" ;><b>slow</b></a> in coming.</p> <p align="justify">St. Catherine of Alexandria (to whom Joan of Arc prayed) died this way. So did lots of other folks. But breaking a person with the <a href="javascript:Start('http://www.torture-museum.com/martyr4.htm')" ;><b>wheel</b></a> was just one barbaric method of extracting confessions. Another device was the "Judas Cradle."</p> </div> <p align="center"><font size="2"><a href="torture_ch3.htm">GO TO LAST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="torture_ch1.htm">BACK TO FIRST CHAPTER</a>   <a href="torture_ch5.htm">GO TO NEXT CHAPTER</a></p><br> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </body>