History of Torture and Execution : A Journey Through the Dark Side of Justice

by Jean Kellaway

• ISBN13: 9781585741458
• ISBN10: 1585741450
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: The Lyons Press

Summary

Throughout history, cultures around the world have found justice for the most extreme crimes by condemning the guilty to death. Retribution has been sought by many methods, from beheading, garroting, entombment, and burning to modern means such as electrocution and lethal injection. For the infliction of torturous pain, even more ingenious devices have been employed. While torture has usually been carried out behind closed doors, it is only recently that executions have ceased to be a popular public spectacle.

"The History of Torture and Execution" examines these fascinating but grisly subjects by time, region, and method. Beginning with the often crude methods of meting out justice used by early and first-millennium civilizations, and evolving from the sadistic tools of the medieval age to the modern search for humane execution methods, controversial issues are authoritatively covered. More than 180 black-and-white and color images illustrate the many and varied engines of this final punishment, and the inclusion of stories told by the victims themselves giv

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(8)
Early Civilization	8	(14)
Death by the Nile	10	(2)
Tyranny of the Greeks	12	(2)
Martyrs of the Arena	14	(2)
Stoning	16	(2)
Crucifixion	18	(2)
Roman Torture	20	(2)
First Millennium	22	(14)
The Vikings	24	(2)
The Druids	26	(2)
Slow Death in China	28	(2)
The Anglo-Saxons	30	(2)
The Bog Bodies	32	(2)
The End of the Millennium	34	(2)
Before the Age of Reason	36	(52)
Ax and Block	38	(2)
Victims	40	(2)
Swordsmen	42	(2)
The Bloody Codes	44	(2)
Traffic at Tyburn	46	(2)
A Festival of Death	48	(2)
Hanged, Drawn and Quartered	50	(2)
The Gibbet	52	(2)
Burning	54	(2)
Execution Devices in Europe	56	(2)
Water Torture	58	(2)
Amputation	60	(2)
Branding	62	(2)
The Pillory	64	(2)
Whipping	66	(2)
Torture Chamber	68	(2)
Pressed to Death	70	(2)
Witch Hunts in Europe	72	(2)
Witch Hunts in England	74	(2)
The Salem Sensation	76	(2)
Papal Inquisition	78	(2)
Knights Templars	80	(2)
The Stifling of Science	82	(2)
Dungeons	84	(2)
Jails	86	(2)
A New World	88	(46)
Poor Houses	90	(2)
Clapped in Irons	92	(2)
Asylums	94	(2)
Prison Reforms	96	(2)
Silent and Solitary Confinement	98	(2)
Transportation	100	(8)
Hulks	108	(2)
Hangmen	110	(2)
Cheating the Gallows	112	(2)
Hanging: The Drop	114	(2)
Hangings Behind Closed Doors	116	(2)
Penalties for Piracy	118	(2)
Slavery	120	(2)
Slave Punishment	122	(2)
Army Discipline	124	(2)
Navy Discipline	126	(2)
Forerunners of the Guillotine	128	(2)
The Guillotine's Innovators	130	(2)
Guillotine in Overdrive	132	(2)
The 20th Century	134	(54)
Execution in the 21st Century	136	(2)
Last Days of the Guillotine	138	(2)
Electric Chair	140	(2)
Gas Chamber	142	(2)
Lethal Injection	144	(2)
Firing Squad	146	(2)
Hanging and the Judicial System	148	(2)
Death Row, USA	150	(2)
A View from Death Row	152	(2)
Death Row, Asia	154	(2)
Drug Offenders and Their Fate	156	(2)
State-Sponsored Torture	158	(2)
Chain Gangs	160	(2)
Bloody Money	162	(2)
Prison Conditions	164	(2)
Crimes Against the State	166	(2)
Lynchings	168	(2)
Concentration Camps	170	(2)
War Crimes of the First World War	172	(2)
Gulags	174	(2)
War Crimes of the Second World War	176	(2)
War Crimes in Asia	178	(2)
Justice at Nuremberg	180	(2)
Ethnic Cleansing	182	(6)
Conclusion	188	(2)
Glossary	190	(1)
Index	191