All language subtitles for Dark.Marvels.S01E04.720p.WEB.h264-EDITH

Tonight, the truth the
behind the origin stories

of some of the most brutal torture
methods ever created by man.

You’re literally being ripped
apart while someone is in your face

demanding that you confess.

It would be opened up,

and then it would
stretch the tendons,

it would stretch the muscles.

It might break teeth.

Dark devices meant to deliver

unbearable pain and suffering.

From a mysterious
metal maiden...

There would be 20
strategically placed spikes

that were meant
to impale the body.

To a terrifying bronze beast.

The people inside
would be cooked alive.

When and where did these
cruel contraptions emerge,

and do they prove that there
can be a fate worse than death?

"Stop ripping my body apart.

I will do whatever
you want me to do."

Not all inventions are
made with good intentions.

Unlock the twisted history

behind the world’s
darkest marvels.

The period of European history

between the 5th
and 14th centuries

is known as the Dark
Ages for a reason.

It’s an era rife with
political rivalries,

religious intrigues,
and cruel devices

used to extract
information and cause pain.

Torture devices are
interesting to people

because they’re the
stuff of nightmares.

The purpose of torture
was not to kill the person

that was being tortured.

You wanted something
from that person.

You wanted information,
you wanted a confession,

you wanted to extort
money from them.

You didn’t get
that if they died.

Among the most notorious devices

said to hail from the Dark Ages,

none captures the
imagination more

than the infamous iron maiden.

A metal casket towering
nearly seven feet tall,

its exterior features
a woman’s face,

one allegedly inspired
by the Virgin Mary.

And when it’s opened,
there’s an unholy surprise.

There would be 20
strategically placed spikes

that were meant
to impale the body,

but in such a way that it
wouldn’t kill the human inside,

only prolong their agony.

It would go into places
that were very painful

but not particularly deadly.

These spikes, because
they’re stabbed in,

you’re actually causing some sort
of blockage of the blood coming out.

You’re going to bleed
and get ooze around it,

but it’s actually going to take
a lot longer to, say, bleed out.

Stick them in a box,

make them really,
really uncomfortable

so that they cannot sleep,

they cannot move,
they cannot breathe,

until they give in and
give you what you want.

So, who first deploys
this vicious device?

Curiously, the first mention
of any medieval iron maiden

doesn’t appear in the Dark Ages.

It surfaces hundreds
of years later

in the late 18th century.

In 1793, German
philosopher Siebenkees

tells of the execution
of a coin forger in 1515

who was put inside
this iron maiden form,

and spikes driven into it,

and it took him two days to die.

The spikes only went so far,

just enough to draw enough
blood that he eventually bled out.

The story gains traction

because people want to believe
that they are more evolved,

that they’re more progressive than
the people who came before them.

Ironically, the legend
of the iron maiden

actually begins about
2,000 years earlier

during Rome’s vicious 3rd
century B.C. war against Carthage

with a Roman politician
named Regulus.

Regulus was a Roman consul

during the First Punic War.

He attempted to capture
they city of Carthage itself,

and he ended up being himself
captured by the Carthaginians.

The Carthaginians had sent
Regulus back to the city of Rome

in order to negotiate
a peace treaty,

keeping his army as hostages.

Now being a true Roman,
he tells the Romans

don’t do anything the
Carthaginians want.

Just don’t give in.

Out of honor, he
goes back to Carthage,

and they are so incensed that
he has not delivered their terms

and that he’s counseled Rome not to
follow them, not to give in in any way,

that he is put into
a wooden casket.

Theologian St. Augustine

details the account in
his book "The City of God."

In this box, the Carthaginians
installed some nails

and some spikes.

Regulus would have
been in complete darkness.

Whatever direction he leans,

something is jabbing him,
something is poking him.

Imagine being
trapped in this box,

and you’re stuck
in there for days.

You’d be so surprised how
resilient the human body is.

The amount of damage
that an individual can take

and still be awake, alive,
and suffering is immense.

You can have a
ton of broken bones,

you can have lacerations, cuts,

all of these different things

and still suffer
and feel the pain.

You would think at some point
you’re going to stop feeling pain

because you’re in shock
and don’t feel it anymore.

That is a misnomer.

The effects of constant pain

and blood loss are maddening,

and ultimately lead
to the consul’s death.

Not only are you
going to be in agony,

you’re going to be tired, you’re
having muscle cramps, muscle spasms,

you’re going to try
to reposition yourself.

Then you’re getting pierced by
either metal or maybe wood spikes,

and so there’s an
increased risk of infection.

As time progresses,
you’re actually potentially

gonna to start hallucinating,
or if you get to a level

of decreased blood volume,

than you now become
confused, lethargic,

and you’re basically in a coma,

and then that will
actually lead to death.

However Marcus Regulus died,

these stories, that
were widely read,

introduced the idea
of a box with spikes

that would torture and kill

into the consciousness
of Western Europe.

50 years after Regulus,

a notoriously cruel leader

adds a sinister
visual twist to the idea.

Under the Roman
occupation of Greece,

the city of Sparta was
run by a local tyrant

by the name of Nabis.

Nabis was a horrible
man, even on a good day.

And what he wanted to do was
force the Spartans to pay him.

Nabis had a wife by
the name of Apega,

who was known throughout Greece,

praised throughout
Greece for her beauty

as well as her
cruelty and nastiness.

Apega enjoyed inflicting pain
onto people for punishments.

She enjoyed watching
people being tortured.

She enjoyed causing
people distress.

Nabis creates a
twisted tribute to his wife,

a spiked instrument of torture

known as the Iron Apega.

So it makes sense
that Apega was used

as a muse when designing
this particular torture device

because she was the one who was
representing this pain and cruelty.

The story goes is that Nabis

would invite people
over to the palace,

he would get them
good and drunk,

and then ask them if they
wanted to meet with the queen,

if they wanted to
meet with Apega.

And he would lure people in

and the arms of the
Apega would be open.

And as they drew closer, he would
put his hand on the back of the machine,

and the arms would
close around the person,

and they’d be crushed
in her embrace.

Hidden under robes,

the Iron Apega’s
arms, hands, and chest

are all covered
with sharp spikes.

It was at that point

that Nabis would begin to demand

whatever it is he wanted
from the individual.

And as the individual resisted,

the arms would get tighter
and tighter and tighter,

squeezing the victim as well as
forcing them forward into the spikes.

Spikes, a deadly cabinet,
an alluring female form.

Could these elements inspire the
eventual tale of the iron maiden?

Whether fact or dark
fiction, the legend endures.

Europe, the late 1400s.

As religious intolerance
and dynastic wars escalate,

a powerful wing of
the Catholic Church

is tasked with rooting out
heretics and punishing enemies.

In Spain, this fervor
becomes known

by a terrifying,
singular name...

The Inquisition.

In the 15th century,
we see the emergence

of what becomes
known as the Inquisition.

This is one of the
darkest periods of history

because it was a period of
time of rounding up anyone

who did not practice the
Christian or Catholic religion.

We see the church losing
its grip on people a little bit.

The advent of the printing
press has started spreading ideas

about questioning the church, and so
this is a way to try to establish control.

The Spanish
Inquisition is founded

by King Ferdinand
and Queen Isabella.

And the Spanish Inquisition
was designed to reconquer Spain

and bring it under totalitarian
and authoritarian rule.

And so, the public
displays of torture

are used as a means of
forcing the Jews to convert,

and the Jews who
convert to Christianity

are referred to as Converso.

The Muslims who
are forced to convert

are referred to as Morisco.

And very often, they would
be tortured to prove that

that conversion was real.

In 1483,

an influential Dominican friar

named Tomas de Torquemada

is appointed to the
role of Grand Inquisitor.

Even speaking the name
conjures up the impression

of a very cruel and
frightening figure,

and that’s what Torquemada was.

To extract his confessions,

Torquemada and
the Spanish Inquisitors

employ an arsenal
of torture tools,

including one that takes a
deceptively comforting form...

A large wooden statue
of the Virgin Mary.

It’s with Torquemada that
we really begin to see the idea

of the image of the Virgin Mary

with individuals brought
before it, asked to pray,

and then it turns into
this horrific torture device.

They’re kind of put into an embrace,
similar to the Apega machine.

But what happens is that
swords come out of her,

and thus injuring the victim
through pain, torture, humiliation,

through a symbol of the ultimate
forgiveness, of ultimate mercy.

The sinister
statue’s angelic face,

along with the spiked coffin
from the story of Regulus

and the female form
of the Iron Apega,

are all believed
to be inspirations

for the legendary
iron maiden’s design.

But as sadistic
as this device is,

there’s another that’s
even more feared,

one intended to inflict
both terror and pain.

Known as the rack, the mere
sight of it often elicits a confession.

We have bones popping,

joints ripping, tendons
coming undone,

individuals who even after
they’re released from torture,

they never walk
the same way again,

they’re never able to stand upright
again for the rest of their lives.

This is a means of torture
that is permanently damaging

to the people that
it is inflicted on.

The rack is an elevated
wooden frame with spokes.

A victim’s ankles and wrists
are attached with ropes.

Poles are inserted into sockets,

and when pulled, turn the axles,

slowly tearing the victim apart.

When somebody’s
attached to a rack,

what you hear is the
popping sound of their joints

and the cartilage as
they are slowly dislocated.

You’re gonna start
having some bleeding

into the muscle, and
the muscles might rip.

And your muscles are
attached by tendons,

so tendons can
then start ripping.

Then as you continue, your
ligaments are gonna start going,

and when ligaments
like that pop,

what happens is then you can
cause a dislocation of the joint.

If you pull hard enough,
there is enough force probably

that you can
actually rip limbs off.

You’re literally
being ripped apart

while someone is in your
face asking you questions,

demanding that you confess,

telling you at any
moment this can stop,

just do what we want you to do.

It’s not about guilt, it’s
not about innocence.

It’s about, "Stop
ripping my body apart.

I will do whatever
you want me to do."

The machine is so powerful,

the force it uses
to break a spine

is equal to a
500-pound wrecking ball

crashing through a
wall at 30 miles per hour.

Very often, they
would stop the racking

before they got to
the point of death

in order to then
apply other tortures.

- They might cut them.
- They might try to stab them.

Might try to light a small
fire underneath their bodies.

All these different ways
to cause harm and injury.

But this terrible torture
method is allegedly employed

much earlier than
the Middle Ages.

It’s also used during the rule

of Ancient Rome’s
infamous emperor... Nero.

Nero was very sadistic.

His public spectacles of
punishment and torture

were meant to reinforce
his own authority.

In 65 A.D.,

a conspiracy was discovered
among Nero’s closest,

most trusted advisors.

And in the aftermath
of this discovery,

Nero decided to just start
torturing everybody he could find.

We in fact have an 18th
century etching of this.

The etching is titled
"The Man on the Rack."

This barbaric device goes
on to become an essential

torture tool for centuries.

But it’s most famously used

inside the Tower of
London’s notorious dungeons.

The history of the rack at the Tower
of London is a really interesting one.

People often turn to John
Holland, Duke of Exeter,

for introducing the rack
in the early 15th century.

And in fact, it
came to be called

the Duke of Exeter’s daughter.

John Holland came from a family

that had been disgraced
in earlier generations.

And he seems to have been
determined to regain that reputation.

And he did it at the Tower of
London, where he was constable.

John Holland turned his concerns

toward making sure that
when people looked up

and saw the white tower
of the Tower of London

that they would feel
the weight of the state

and its ability, if they crossed it
in any way, to make them pay.

The dreaded rack
tortures suspected traitors

for the next 200 years,

throughout the
reigns of monarchs,

including Henry VIII, Edward VI,

Mary I, and Elizabeth I.

But its most prolific use
happens under James I.

During the 16th
and 17th centuries,

England hits new heights

of political and
religious unrest.

What we need to understand

about England during this time

is that the country has
been going back and forth

between Catholicism
and Protestantism

in kind of a power struggle.

The importance of the state
is what matters above all,

so anyone who is seen

as an enemy of the state

is certainly cannon
fodder for torture.

One of the most
notorious victims,

the Catholic rebel Guy Fawkes.

Guy Fawkes came
from Northern England,

and he was a zealous,

determined Catholic
from an early age.

He was actually
raised as a protestant.

But then after his
father passed away,

his mother remarried
to a Catholic,

and so Guy Fawkes
actually transitioned

from Protestantism
into Catholicism.

And he became a
very staunch Catholic,

and this is what motivated him

to try to bring Catholicism
back into England.

When Queen
Elizabeth I dies in 1603,

the son of Scotland’s
Queen Mary,

James I, inherits
the English crown.

When James I
comes to the throne,

he’s protestant even
though his mother

Mary Queen of Scots
had been Catholic.

So, there was a lot
of religious confusion,

and that affects Guy
Fawkes’ ideology

when he decides
that James is a tyrant.

To help restore the
Catholics to power,

Guy Fawkes orchestrates
an attempted attack

on Parliament in 1605,

known as the Gunpowder Plot.

The plan was to blow
up the House of Lords

on the opening day of parliament

when all the protestant
elite would be present,

and, of course, the royal
family and the king himself.

The basement of
the House of Lords

came up for lease at this time,

and Fawkes and
his co-conspirators

were able to lease
that storage area

and smuggle 36
barrels of gunpowder

under the House of Lords.

Guy Fawkes was positioned there,

ready to light the match,

and then presumably
run like hell.

But just days before
the planned attack,

authorities receive an
anonymous letter revealing the plot.

The night before the
opening of parliament,

the basement of the House
of Lords was searched,

and Guy Fawkes was
found and arrested.

He was found with
two tons of gunpowder.

Unleashing that amount
of explosive energy

underneath the building
would have definitely

blown out most of the structure.

And then what
would have remained

likely would have collapsed,

so even if you had
survived the explosion,

you would have been
trapped under the rubble

and probably
perished afterwards.

Fawkes is interrogated,

and when he refuses to talk,

he’s dragged off to the
dreaded torture dungeon

at the Tower of London.

King James gave
specific orders that,

although he was authorizing
the torture of Fawkes,

he wanted them to start
with the mildest tortures,

and only proceed if
necessary to the most extreme,

which was the rack.

Guy Fawkes is a tough prisoner

because he’s refusing to
give up any of the names

of the people involved.

But eventually, as his arms are
becoming dislocated, that’s enough.

He can’t withstand it
anymore. Nobody could.

Fawkes confesses,

but he’s left a broken man.

The consequences
of all of the trauma

and injuries that occurred
during this rack process

and event can totally be
devastating to one’s life.

Are you able to get
up, walk around?

Not really. Your
fine motor skills

and your function of
your arm is going to be off.

So you can significantly
have a lifestyle change

after these events
have occurred to you.

The best way to
understand the torture

and psychological trauma
that Guy Fawkes went under

is by comparing his signatures

from before and after
his experience on the rack.

Guy Fawkes’ signature
was very clear,

very readable in general.

But after he was
tortured on the rack,

his signature on the confession

has been reduced to a scrawl.

After Guy Fawkes
is put to the rack,

he’s supposed to be
hung, drawn, and quartered.

He basically gets the full suite

of punishments for treason.

However, before
this could happen,

he either fell or
jumped from the gallows

and died by breaking his neck.

Personally, I believe he jumped.

I think that would have been

the wise decision
in that moment.

In either case,
the fall or the jump

prevented the authorities
the pleasure of hanging him,

although they still
proceeded to quarter him...

Cutting the four quarters
of his body to be dispersed

and put on display
throughout the kingdom

as a warning to any
other would-be traitors.

The rack eventually
falls out of favor in Europe

in the 17th century,
crossing over with another

excruciatingly
painful torture device

that mutilates without mercy.

Medieval Europeans
devise some of the world’s

most punishing forms of torture.

Many of these devices
are complex in their cruelty,

but one is wickedly simple.

The thumbscrews
are pretty aptly named.

The goal is to mangle the hand

by putting it in a vice

and using what are
essentially screws

to apply pressure
to the thumb joints,

both smashing them
and pulling them away

from the rest of the
hand at the same time.

You’re causing a significant

amount of soft tissue pain.

The nail actually might
crack under that pressure.

But if you continue
to have the pressure,

you actually have the
ability to break the bones.

Traditionally, thumbscrews
contain two metal bars.

A screw on the center
post, when turned,

brings the bars
together with great force,

crushing whatever is
placed between them.

Of course, people
refer to thumbscrews

as "I’m going to put you to thumbscrews"
if I want information from you.

And at first, it doesn’t sound like
it would be terribly, terribly painful.

But if you think about smashing
your thumb with a hammer,

now imagine that
sustained pressure

being put onto your thumb,
crunching into the bone.

It is excruciatingly painful.

So the thumbscrew is actually

a rather horrific
torture device,

even though it’s a localized
one that only affects

one small part of your body.

The hands themselves have so
many nerve endings and receptors...

Over 3,000 different
receptors in the hands,

relating to touch, heat,

two-point discrimination, pain.

It’s equivalent to the
amount of nerve information

that you’re getting from,
like, your whole torso,

that are just in your hands.

So if your hands are mangled
from the thumbscrews,

people know that
you’ve been tortured.

And people know that that
perhaps means you deserved it.

Also, the mangling of the hands

makes it very difficult
for you to produce

in a largely
agricultural society.

Most people worked
with their hands.

So to make the hands unusable

is a theme that we see across
the panoply of forms of torture

in the Middle Ages.

Thumbscrews actually was
used to elicit a lot of information

because it hurt so much.

But this devious device
isn’t just used to punish.

One of the most unjust
applications of the thumbscrews

is that of Artemisia
Gentileschi.

She’s the daughter
of Orazio Gentileschi,

a Renaissance painter
who had a very large studio

and lots of students.

Now, Artemisia
was an artist herself,

and she studied under
her father’s tutelage,

but she very famously liked to
walk around the studio naked.

Her father encouraged
this free behavior,

but one of his students
took that as an invitation,

and when Artemisia Gentileschi
was 17, she was raped.

When she made a
public accusation,

the authorities subjected
her to the thumbscrews

to establish the
veracity of her story.

Now, 1612 in Italy,

you have local authorities
who have no problem

using physical pain to extract
confessions from criminals.

But in this instance, in
order to prove her story,

as a woman, her
word was not enough.

And so she’s subjected
to the thumbscrews

in order to prove that she had
in fact been sexually assaulted.

The man who assaulted
her was found guilty,

but he only serves
a year in prison.

The impact on Artemisia however,

is far more severe.

The result of being tortured
greatly alters her ability to paint.

As an artist, when you
hold your paintbrush,

you have to be able
to grip that paintbrush,

and you need your thumbs.

So having been
subjected to thumbscrews,

she would have been
in excruciating pain.

Excruciating and
portable thumbscrews

are popular far and wide,

from witch trials to
slave ship uprisings.

But in the long history
of torture devices,

perhaps none is more diabolical

than one designed
not to crush, tear,

or pierce, but to roast.

One of the most
sadistic torture devices

to come out of the ancient world

was from the 6th
century B.C.E. in Sicily

known as the brazen bull.

Also known as
the Bull of Phalaris,

named after the
Tyrant of Sicily.

Phalaris the Tyrant

was known as being
excessively evil.

There are even stories that
he engaged in cannibalism.

The bull itself was actually
invented by someone named Perilaus,

and Perilaus wanted
to invent a device

that would be meant to
torture and also kill people,

but in a very symbolic way,

placing them into a
large hollow bronze bull,

where a fire would
be lit under it.

The brazen bull is essentially
just a pressure cooker, right?

So, inside there is an
enclosed cavity of air

that as that air heats,

the people inside
would be cooked alive.

It’s estimated that a person

could survive inside the bull

for up to 20
excruciating minutes.

You’re touching hot metal,

so you’re actually
getting burns,

anywhere between first, second,

third, and even
fourth-degree burns,

which ends up burning into
the muscle and the bone.

But on top of all that, you’re
being heated from the inside.

A normal body temperature
of a human being

should be about
37 degrees Celsius

or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

When you get into
severe hyperthermia,

you’re going to die
once your temperature

gets over 42 degrees.

The brazen bull,
think about it this way.

It’s like being
cooked in an oven.

A modern example is
our saunas that we have.

And actually every year,
they do sauna competitions

where they put the
sauna temperature

up to over 200
degrees Fahrenheit.

And so they find out how
long somebody can last

inside there before
they need to get out.

And typically, on average
it’s about six minutes.

Versus in the brazen
bull, it’s been thought

that they leave people
in there for 20 minutes.

So you can just think about
what happens to the body.

Very sadistic.

The bull is also almost
entirely soundproof,

except for two holes
drilled into the nose.

This is where the device
becomes even more diabolical.

The brazen bull was
specifically designed

so that the screams
of the person

would actually almost sound
musical to people’s ears.

So rather than hearing
the tortured, horrific,

pained screams of a victim,

they’re listening to kind
of the musical sounds

coming from a large animal.

Making this musical
conversion possible

is a system of pipes and reeds

that transforms the
anguished screams

into sounds made by
brass or wind instruments.

And in a sick twist of fate,

its first victim is the
man who invented it.

Something inside the
Tyrant Phalaris snapped.

Perhaps it was being
confronted by another sociopath.

Perhaps he was angry that Perilaus
was more creative than he had thought.

But he invited Perilaus to
climb inside the bull himself

and show the Tyrant Phalaris

how exactly did
these pipes work?

He’s happy to
test out his device.

He’s very proud of
what he’s created.

What he does not
know is that Phalaris

is going to slam the door shut,

trapping Perilaus
in the brazen bull,

and then having a
fire lit underneath.

Perilaus cannot escape,

and he is forced to
stay inside the bull,

literally becoming the actual
test subject of this torture device.

The death of Perilaus is
kind of a standard trope

in Greek tragedy,
in Greek storytelling.

You have the
sociopath, the sicko,

who creates the
horrible, awful thing,

and then of course
becomes destroyed

by the horrible, awful
thing that he created.

Although the brazen bull
is most closely associated

with the Ancient Greeks...

the Romans later
borrow the invention

to torture Christians
in the second century,

including a legendary
Roman general

who becomes
known as St. Eustace.

He’s hunting one day.

He sees a stag that appears
to have a kind of burning cross

in between its antlers,

and it’s a miracle.

So he converts to Christianity,

which doesn’t sit well
with his neighbors,

his boss, et cetera,

so he has to go into hiding.

Exiled to Egypt,
destitute and alone,

Eustace clings to his faith.

But 15 years later,

he’s called back
into battle for Rome.

Eustace comes home because
his country has asked for his help,

and it’s the right thing to do.

And he probably assumes it’s
okay, you know, to be who he is.

Then the new emperor, Hadrian,

who basically hates
him, says, you know,

"I’m just going to
insist on you converting

back to Paganism or
I’m going to kill you."

Eustace refuses.

And the first thing that happens

is he and his family
are fed to the lions.

According to the legend,

the lions don’t harm the family.

They instead bow
at Eustace’s feet.

Enraged, Emperor
Hadrian sends them all

to the Colosseum to be tortured

inside the brazen bull.

The story goes, though,
that after some time

of complete and utter
silence from the bull,

it was opened up again
and the body of Eustace

was found completely intact.

Eustace himself had died,

but not even the hairs on
his body had burned away.

He was completely
untouched by the incredible heat

and flames that were designed
to strip flesh from bones.

This was seen as a miracle,

and Eustace is even
still honored today

within the Catholic
Church as a saint.

The brazen bull
is a larger-than-life

instrument of torture.

But there’s one seemingly
innocuous device

that hides an excruciating

and disturbing
form of punishment.

There’s an old French
proverb that states

to eat an anguished pear
is to cause pain and misery.

And this will be made
true with the invention

of a device called
the pear of anguish.

Now, this is quite an
unassuming device.

If you take a look at it,
it’s almost quite beautiful.

The surviving examples
of the pear of anguish

are intricately worked.

They are carved. They’re etched.

The metal is filigreed.

And so it’s almost
impossible to imagine

something that beautiful being
used in any way for torture.

But looks can be deceiving.

The pear-shaped machine is
placed inside a part of the body.

Then with the turn of a
key, the metal petals expand.

The pear of anguish was
interpreted to be a device

that would be inserted
into the orifice of an offender

based on the crime that
they might have committed.

Whether it was prostitution
or blasphemy or adultery,

it was a device that
would specifically punish

the part of the body
that had been used

in order to commit the crime.

If it was used as a form
of punishment for sodomy,

then it was inserted
into the rectum.

And the idea is it
would be opened up,

and then it would
stretch the muscles.

If it was used as a form of
punishment for blasphemers,

then it was inserted
in the mouth

and it might break teeth.

Now the idea of a torture device

that was inserted in
the mouth and left there

has its origins in
the Middle Ages

with scold’s bridles,

And these were almost
helmet-like implements

that had a tongue depressor.

And they’d be fitted
over the head of gossips,

blasphemers.

The metal piece is
inserted into the mouth,

and so they cannot speak.

And that’s their punishment

for having spoken too much.

The fact that your
jaw is opened so far,

you’re going to
cause a dislocated jaw,

and the jaw is just stuck open.

It is very painful.

As the only known victim

is about to discover.

It’s been described
as the device

that elevated torture
into an art form.

But the provocatively
named pear of anguish

is shrouded in mystery.

We don’t know a whole lot

about the origins of
the pear of anguish.

Some do say it was created
in the later Middle Ages.

Some believe it has something

to do with the period
of Inquisition in Europe,

and in Spain especially.

Among the catalog of
instruments of torture

associated with the
Spanish Inquisition

was the Pope’s Pear.

There was rumored to
be a pear that would fit

the description of
a pear of anguish

that was used to extract
confessions of heresy.

And so, like many of the
stories of the Spanish Inquisition,

which compounds instrument of
torture upon instrument of torture,

the story of the pear of
anguish may have its roots there.

There is, however,

one written example of
this depraved torture tool

from a 17th century book.

There is an account in
"The History of Thieves"

that describes a
French thief, Palioly,

who has a pear constructed,
a metal implement,

that was inserted into
the mouth of his victims.

And it would open, but
it would lock in place.

And it could only be
released with a key.

He inserts this pear into the
mouth of one of his victims,

Eridas, and he locks
the pear in place.

And Eridas nearly
starves to death

because he cannot get out of it.

He does not have the key.

The pear of anguish

apparently was
used by thieves to,

in a sense, clam
up people’s mouths

so that they wouldn’t
scream while being robbed.

You see this today
in every crime show

where victims are either taped

or something is stuffed
in their mouths like a cloth,

which I have always
thought has gotta be

one of the worst things
that could happen to you.

But with little else to go on,

some historians question
the pear’s true origin.

That’s why so many of these stories
appear later than the actual events,

because there’s a desire
to separate their society

from the darker aspects
of the Middle Ages.

So these stories
gain in grotesqueness.

They evolve into these
unbelievable horrors

of mechanized torture
and punishment.

And they are developed
as a means of saying,

"That’s not us.
We don’t do that."

We can certainly
call into question

some of the devices that
we see from the Middle Ages.

Are these accurate
representations

of what torture
devices were like?

Was there really something
like the iron maiden,

like the pear of anguish?

It’s possible that
the pear of anguish

is more a product of the
Romantic literary imagination

than a real device

that existed in
previous centuries.

The pear of anguish
doesn’t appear

in any medieval
literary sources.

There are no legal
references to it.

In all of the work I
have done on torture

and brutality in
literary sources

and in historical sources,

I’ve never come upon a
reference to the pear of anguish.

And yet, it becomes a showpiece

of so many museums of torture

because it’s a
fascinating object,

very similar to the iron maiden.

While the authenticity
of some devices

remains up for debate,

there are plenty of
real ones to point to,

some of which combine
a few gruesome methods.

Over the centuries, we’ve
seen a hybrid development

of various torture devices, such
as the iron chair for example.

The iron chair is
similar to the iron maiden

in that it is a chair
that is made of spikes

that the victim
is forced to sit on,

and then a fire is often
lit underneath this chair,

so it gets very hot.

So not only are you basically

getting stabbed to
death, you can’t move

because you are also
getting burned to death.

And this type of torture also
harks back to the brazen bull.

Seeing these tools of torture
feeds our morbid curiosity

about the brutality
of the distant past.

Regardless though as to the
specifics of the artifacts we have today,

we have plenty of attestation

that torture has been a constant

throughout human history.

From antiquity to
the modern day,

cruel inventors have
devised machines

that unleash boundless
capacity to inflict pain

and suffering on those
deemed deserving of such a fate,

proving mankind’s
creativity knows no bounds

when it comes to torture.