All language subtitles for Dark.Marvels.S01E04.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH

Narrator: 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.

Larissa Tracy:
It would be opened up,

and then it would
stretch the tendons,

it would stretch the muscles.

It might break teeth.

Narrator:
Dark devices meant to deliver

unbearable pain
and suffering.

From a mysterious
metal maiden...

Daniel Dickrell:
There would be 20
strategically placed spikes

that were meant
to impale the body.

Narrator:
...to a terrifying
bronze beast.

Daniel Dickrell: The people
inside would be cooked alive.

Narrator: 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."

Narrator:
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.

Aaron Irvin: 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.

Narrator: 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.

Daniel Dickrell:
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.

Jordan Wagner: 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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Larissa Tracy: 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.

Narrator: 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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Narrator:
The effects of constant pain

and blood loss are maddening,

and ultimately lead
to the consul’s death.

Jordan Wagner: 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.

Joyce Salisbury:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Narrator: Nabis creates a
twisted tribute to his wife,

a spiked instrument
of torture

known as the Iron Apega.

Rebecca Simon: 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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Larissa Tracy:
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.

Narrator:
Hidden under robes,

the Iron Apega’s arms,
hands, and chest

are all covered
with sharp spikes.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator: 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.

Larissa Tracy:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Larissa Tracy: 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.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Aaron Irvin: 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."

Narrator:
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.

Cord Whitaker: Very often,
they would stop the racking

before they got to
the point of death

in order to then apply
other tortures.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Larissa Tracy:
Nero was very sadistic.

His public spectacles
of punishment and torture

were meant to reinforce
his own authority.

Aaron Irvin: 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.

Narrator:
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.

Michael Young: 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.

Cord Whitaker: 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.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator: During the 16th
and 17th centuries,

England hits new heights

of political
and religious unrest.

Rebecca Simon:
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.

Cord Whitaker:
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.

Narrator: One of the most
notorious victims,

the Catholic rebel
Guy Fawkes.

Michael Young: Guy Fawkes
came from Northern England,

and he was a zealous,

determined Catholic
from an early age.

Rebecca Simon: 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.

Narrator:
When Queen Elizabeth I
dies in 1603,

the son of Scotland’s
Queen Mary,

James I,
inherits the English crown.

Larissa Tracy: 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.

Narrator: To help restore
the Catholics to power,

Guy Fawkes orchestrates
an attempted attack

on Parliament in 1605,

known as the Gunpowder Plot.

Michael Young: 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.

Narrator: But just days
before the planned attack,

authorities receive
an anonymous letter
revealing the plot.

Michael Young:
The night before
the opening of parliament,

the basement of
the House of Lords was searched,

and Guy Fawkes
was found and arrested.

Dan Dickrell: 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.

Narrator:
Fawkes is interrogated,

and when he refuses to talk,

he’s dragged off to
the dreaded torture dungeon

at the Tower of London.

Michael Young: 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.

Rebecca Simon: 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.

Narrator:
Fawkes confesses,

but he’s left a broken man.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Rebecca Simon: 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.

Narrator:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Cord Whitaker: 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.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Cord Whitaker:
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.

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

Larissa Tracy: 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.

Narrator: The impact
on Artemisia however,

is far more severe.

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

Larissa Tracy:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Rebecca Simon: 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.

Narrator:
It’s estimated that a person

could survive inside the bull

for up to 20
excruciating minutes.

Jordan Wagner:
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.

Narrator:
The bull is also almost
entirely soundproof,

except for two holes
drilled into the nose.

This is where the device
becomes even more diabolical.

Rebecca Simon:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Aaron Irvin: 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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Eileen Joy:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator:
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.

Aaron Irvin:
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.

Narrator: 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.

Larissa Tracy:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Jordan Wager: 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.

Narrator:
As the only known victim

is about to discover.

Narrator: 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.

Narrator:
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.

Eileen Joy:
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.

Narrator: 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."

Aaron Irvin:
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?

Michael Young: 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.

Larissa Tracy:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Rebecca Simon:
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.

Narrator:
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.

Narrator: 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.