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dropped over them. The rats wouldn’t be too alarmed at this point, but had no way of escaping and so would be stuck on the prisoner’s belly.
 
    Now, this is where things start to get a little uncomfortable! The roof of the cage had a metal bowl incorporated into its design. Small pieces of burning charcoal would be placed into this bowl, which would obviously start to heat the cage; at this point the rats would start to become a little distressed, and would begin to scratch at the side of the cage, even tearing some of the flesh on the condemned man’s stomach in their bid to escape.
 
    More red hot charcoal would be placed into the bowl, and pretty soon the heat would start to get unbearable for both the rats and the condemned. Unfortunately, the prisoner was strapped to the table securely and had no method of escape; however, there was one way that the rats could escape their unfortunate predicament!
 
    The cage was made of metal, and by now would be burning hot, so the rats would be unable to break through that; the prisoner’s stomach was another matter entirely! Rats actually have reasonably sharp claws, and if they dig frantically enough, they are more than capable of opening up a person’s soft flesh around their stomach.
    The heat would force the rats to desperately burrow through the victim’s stomach and into his intestines to try to escape the heat. As they dug deeper, the heat would become slightly more bearable and their attention would begin to turn to their starving bellies. With nothing around to eat, they would begin to devour the person’s guts, all whilst the poor guy was still alive, and most definitely in agony. They would work their way down the intestines, commonly finding their way out of the body via the anus.
 
    This sounds like the sort of technique that could only possibly be thought up by one sick individual, however there is evidence that this method of execution was also employed in some form by the Dutch and the Chinese.

 
     
     
     
     
    4 – Skull Crusher

 
    When you hear the words S kull Crusher it probably evokes some pretty powerful, but very disturbing, imagery in your head. Unfortunately (for the condemned), what you’re picturing is probably quite accurate.
 
    Th e Skull Crusher was a mechanical device used in the middle ages to torture and execute condemned prisoners.
 
    In fact, t he use of the skull crusher was the final stage of a long, drawn out procedure, following the use of several torturous limb crushers — I love that there is no ambiguity at all in the names of these devices: you know exactly what you’re getting from them!
 
    There were several different limb crushing devices : some smaller ones were designed to fit individual fingers or toes; the bigger ones were fashioned to fit an arm or a leg. Despite being created to fit different parts of the body, the devices all had two things in common: they were made from steel, and they featured hundreds of sharp spikes (picture the spikes on two walls closing together that you see in horror films for an idea of how the spikes looked!).
 
    The spikes were used because a flat surface spreads the pressure over the whole of the surface are, whilst a spike will focus all the pressure on just a tiny area, making it more effective at crushing bone – they didn’t choose spikes to look intimidating; they put some thought into the performance too!
 
    The limb wou ld be put inside the device, which would be gradually tightened. You can imagine the pain the condemned must have felt, with the steel spikes gradually cutting through the flesh before hitting solid bone. The executioner, seriously lacking in compassion, would continue to tighten the device, and, inevitably, something had to give: unfortunately for the prisoner, bone gives way before steel. The bone would crack and eventually be turned to dust under the immense pressure from the limb crushers.
 
    The severity of the crime would determine how