Torture

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A drawing depicting someone being tortured via beating.

“	Of pain you could wish only one thing: that it should stop. Nothing in the world was so bad as physical pain. In the face of pain there are no heroes.	„
	~ Excerpt from 1984 by George Orwell.

Torture is a vast and complex phenomena that spreads across countless societies and time-periods, having long been used as a tool for both misguided "good" and unredeemable evil. It has claimed the lives of untold victims across the world and scarred many more, it is also a device that appears many times in fiction - the use of torture was once considered an acceptable and even honorable thing but in the modern world people who utilize torture are seen as brutal, sadistic and criminal.

This does little to stop tyrannical regimes or terrorists from utilizing torture and many of these groups find the fear torture inspires to be beneficial in their overall plans - criminals also utilize torture quite often either to intimidate rivals or for personal enjoyment.

Often torture results in the death of the victim, but not always.

Torture can be roughly put into two main categories:

• Physical (designed to break the victim through physical pain)
• Psychological (designed to drive a victim insane (sometimes regarded as worse than Physical Torture) )

Torture methods (Physical)

• Thumb Screws <intimidation - death rare>
• The Rack <intimidation - death could occur>
• Iron Maiden <intimidation - death could occur>
• Flogging <disciplinary - death rare>
• Keelhauling <disciplinary - death could occur>
• Bronze Bull <execution method>
• Crucifixion <execution method>
• Stoning <execution method>
• Skull Crusher <torture but results in death>
• Slow slicing <execution method>
• Waterboarding <torture but can result in death>
• Blood Eagle <execution method>
• Judas Cradle <execution method>
• Foot roasting <torture - death rare>
• Scaphism <execution method>
• Female genital mutilation <torture - death could occur>
• Necklacing <execution method>
• Male genital mutilation <torture - death could occur>

Torture methods (Psychological)

• Rape
• Chinese Water Torture
• Solitary Confinement
• Starvation
• Stocks
• Tar and Feathering
• Russian Roulette

Torture murder

A subset of torture is a torture murder, which is a murder where death was preceded by the torture of the victim. In many legal jurisdictions a murder involving "exceptional brutality or cruelty" will attract a harsher sentence if the killing is not sanctioned by authorities or carried out by state security forces themselves.

Notable torture murderers

• Empress Lü Zhi (Han Dynasty, 241 to 180 BC)
• Emperor Caligula (Rome, 12 to 41 AD)
• Gilles de Rais (France, 1435 to 1440)
• Vlad the Impaler (Wallachia, 1444 to 1476)
• Elizabeth Báthory (Kingdom of Hungary, 1602 to 1610)
• Delphine LaLaurie (New Orleans, Louisiana, 1775 to 1842)
• Jack the Ripper (London, England, 1888 to 1891)
• H. H. Holmes (Chicago, Illinois, 1893 to 1895)
• Peter Kürten (Düsseldorf, 1913 to 1929)
• Albert Fish (New York City, New York, 1910 to 1936)
• William Hickman (Los Angeles, California, 1927)
• Hisao Tani (Nanjing, Republic of China, 1938 to 1945)
• Ilse Koch (Auschwitz, Nazi Germany, 1940 to 1945)
• Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (Moors murders) (Greater Manchester, England, 1963 to 1965)
• Gertrude Baniszewski (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1965)
• John Norman Collins (Michigan, 1967 to 1969)
• Charles "Tex" Watson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Bobby Beausoleil (The Manson Family) (Los Angeles, California, 1969)
• Sam DeStefano (Chicago, Illinois, 1950s to 1970s)
• José Paz Bezerra (Brazil, 1960s to 1970s)
• Dean Corll and Wayne Henley (Houston, Texas, 1970 to 1973)
• Dale Pierre, William Andrews and Keith Roberts (Hi-Fi murders) (Ogden, Utah, 1974)
• Hamida Djandoubi (Marseille, France, 1974)
• John Wayne Gacy (Chicago, Illinois, 1972 to 1978)
• Ted Bundy (United States, 1974 to 1978)
• Rodney Alcala (California, 1971 to 1979)
• Rosemary and Fred West (Gloucester, England, 1973 to 1979)
• Kang Kek Iew (Tuol Sleng, Democratic Kampuchea, 1975 to 1979)
• Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono (Metropolitan Los Angeles, California, 1977 to 1979)
• Lawrence Bittaker & Roy Norris (Metropolitan Los Angeles, California, 1979)
• Richard Kuklinski (Metropolitan New York, United States, 1960s to 1980s)
• Richard Cottingham (New York City, New York, 1967 to 1980)
• Werner Kniesek (St. Pölten, Austria, 1980)
• Randy Kraft (California, Michigan, Oregon, 1970s to 1980s)
• William Bonin (Metropolitan Los Angeles, California, 1978 to 1980)
• Lenny and John Murphy, William Moore, Robert Bates, and Sam McAllister (The Shankill Butchers) (Belfast, 1972 to 1982)
• Carl Eugene Watts (United States, 1974 to 1982)
• Robin Gecht, Edward Spreitzer, and Andrew and Thomas Kokoraleis (The Ripper Crew) (Chicago, Illinois, 1981 to 1982)
• Paul Luckman and Robin Reid (Kingscliff, New South Wales, Australia, 1982)
• Theresa Knorr (Sacramento, California, 1982 to 1983)
• Christopher Wilder (United States, 1982 to 1984)
• Larry Eyler (Midwestern United States, 1982 to 1984)
• Bobby Joe Long (Florida, 1984)
• Charles Ng and Leonard Lake (Calaveras County, California, 1983 to 1985)
• Richard Ramirez (California, 1984 to 1985)
• Donna Hylton (New York, 1985)
• Gary Heidnik (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1986 to 1987)
• Robert Berdella (Kansas City, Missouri, 1984 to 1988)
• Kerry Lyn Dalton (Live Oak Springs, California, 1988)
• Pietro De Negri ("Er Canaro") (Rome, Italy, 1988)
• Adolfo Constanzo (Mexico, 1986 to 1989)
• Robert Ben Rhoades (United States, 1975 to 1990)
• Andrei Chikatilo (Soviet Union, 1978 to November 1990)
• Prince Johnson (Monrovia, Liberia, 1990)
• Hissène Habré (Chad, 1982 to 1990)
• Phillip Carl Jablonski (Utah and California, 1970 to 1991)
• Dennis Rader (Wichita, Kansas, 1974 to 1991)
• Jeffrey Dahmer (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1978 to 1991)
• Mel Ignatow & Mary Ann Shore (Lousiville, Kentucky, 1988)
• William Suff (Riverside County, California, 1989 to 1991)
• Kenneth McDuff (Texas, 1966 to 1992)
• Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka (St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, 1990 to 1992)
• Melinda Loveless, Laurie Tackett, Hope Rippey, and Toni Lawrence (Madison, Indiana, 1992)
• Scott Erskine (San Diego, California, 1989 to 1993)
• Robert Thompson and Jon Venables (Kirkby, England, 1993)
• Jason Massey (Ellis County, Texas, 1993)
• Georges Rutaganda (Rwanda, 1994)
• Antonio Anglés and Miguel Ricart (Alcasser, Valencia, Spain, 1994)
• Veselin Vlahović (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1992 to 1995)
• Jack Spillman (Washington, 1994 to 1995)
• Christa Pike (Knoxville, Tennessee, 1995)
• Uday Hussein (Iraq, 1986 to 1996)
• Daniel Conahan (Charlotte County, Florida, 1994 to 1996)
• Chevie Kehoe and Daniel Lewis Lee (Arkansas, 1996)
• James Patterson Smith (Manchester, 1996)
• Andrew Cunanan (Chicago, 1997)
• Junko Ogata and Futoshi Matsunaga (Japan, 1996 to 1998)
• John William King, Lawrence Russell Brewer, and Shawn Allen Berry (Jasper, Texas, 1998)
• David Parker Ray (Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, 1950s to 1999)
• Ershad Sikder (Bangladesh, 1991 to 1999)
• Luis Garavito (Colombia, 1992 to 1999)
• John Bunting and Robert Wagner (Snowtown murders) (Adelaide, South Australia, 1992 to 1999)
• Sam Bockarie (Sierra Leone, 1992 to 2000)
• Gary Ridgway (Washington, 1988 to 2001)
• Pedro Rodrigues Filho (Brazil, 1967 to 2003)
• Charles Taylor (Liberia, 1997 to 2003)
• Yang Xinhai (China, 1999 to 2003)
• Huang Yong (China, 2001 to 2003)
• Yoo Young-chul (South Korea, 2003 to 2004)
• Joseph E. Duncan III (Idaho, California, 1996 to 2005)
• Raul Osiel Marroquin (Ciudad de Mexico, 2005)
• Volker Eckert (Europe, 1974 to 2006)
• Daniel Petry (Brazil, 2007)
• Viktor Sayenko and Igor Suprunyuk (The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs) (Metropolitan Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, 2007)
• Edgar Valdez Villarreal (Mexico, 1992 to 2010)
• Brittany Norwood (Bethesda, Maryland, 2011)
• Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (Mexico, 1998 to 2012)
• Isauro Aguirre (California, 2012 to 2013)
• Daniel William Marsh (Davis, California, 2013)
• Peter Scully (Philippines, 2011 to 2015)
• Blake Leibel (West Hollywood, California, 2016)

Torture murder victims

• Consort Qi (Han Dynasty, 194 BC)
• Jesus of Nazareth (Jerusalem, between 30 and 33 AD)
• György Dózsa (Transylvania, 1514)
• Matija Gubec (Zagreb, Croatia, 1573)
• Balthasar Gérard (Dutch Republic, 1584)
• Sambhaji (Tulapur, 1689)
• Giles Corey (Salem, Massachusetts, 1692)
• John B. McClelland (Wakatomika, Ohio, 1782)
• Jesse Washington (Waco, Texas, 1916)
• Lation Scott (Dyersburg, Tennessee, 1917)
• Jim McIlherron (Estill Springs, Tennessee, 1918)
• Aurore Gagnon (Quebec, 1920)
• Pamela Werner (Beijing, 1937)
• Frank Pickersgill (Buchenwald, Nazi Germany, 1944)
• Elizabeth Short, "The Black Dahlia" (Los Angeles, 1947)
• Emmett Till (Mississippi, 1955)
• William "Action" Jackson (Chicago, 1961)
• Sylvia Likens (Indianapolis, 1965)
• Pierre Mulele (Zaire, 1968)
• Donald Shea (Chatsworth, California, 1969)
• Alex Rackley (Connecticut, 1969)
• Rubens Paiva (Brazil, 1971)
• Dolores Della Penna (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1972)
• Stanley Walker, Sherry Michelle Ansley, and Carol Naisbitt (Ogden, Utah, 1974)
• Carla Walker (Texas, 1974)
• Vladimir Herzog (São Paulo, 1975)
• Hu Nim (Tuol Sleng, Democratic Kampuchea, 1977)
• Gordon Sanderson (Alberta, 1977)
• Archimedes Trajano (Manila, Philippines, 1977)
• Stephanie Roper (Maryland, 1982)
• Lisa Ann Millican (Alabama, 1982)
• Danny Katz (Israel, 1983)
• Enrique "Kiki" Camarena (Mexico, 1985)
• Hugo Spadafora (Panama, 1985)
• Junko Furuta (Tokyo, 1989)
• Mark Kilroy (Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico, 1989)
• William R. Higgins (Lebanon, 1990)
• Samuel Doe (Monrovia, Liberia, 1990)
• Leslie Mahaffy (St. Catharines, Ontario, 1991)
• Thomas Oliver (Belleeks, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, 1991)
• Shanda Sharer (Madison, Indiana, 1992)
• Kristen French (St. Catharines, Ontario, 1992)
• Miriam García Iborra, Antonia Gómez Rodríguez, and Desirée Hernández Folch (The Alcàsser Girls) (Valencia, Spain, 1992)
• Suzanne Capper (Manchester, 1992)
• James Bulger (Kirkby, England, 1993)
• Charlie Keever and Jonathan Sellers (San Diego County, California, 1993)
• Kelly Anne Bates (Manchester, 1996)
• Mohammad Najibullah (Kabul, Afghanistan, 1996)
• Pai Hsiao-yen (Taipei, Taiwan, 1997)
• Lee Miglin (Chicago, 1997)
• Mun Song-sul (North Korea, 1997)
• James Byrd, Jr. (Jasper, Texas, 1998)
• Matthew Shepard (Laramie, Wyoming, 1998)
• Fan Man-yee (Hong Kong, 1999)
• Saurabh Kalia (Kargil, 1999)
• Jesse Dirkhising (Rogers, Arkansas, 1999)
• Victoria Climbié (London, 2000)
• Chester Poage (Spearfish, South Dakota, 2000)
• Tim Lopes (Brazil, 2002)
• Romona Moore (New York City, 2003)
• Kriss Donald (Glasgow, Scotland, 2004)
• Akku Yadav (India, 2004)
• Ilan Halimi (Paris, France, 2006)
• Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom (Knoxville, Tennessee, 2007)
• Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel, and Tilmann Geske (Malatya, Turkey, 2007)
• Gabriel Kuhn (Blumenau, Santa Catarina, Brazil, 2007)
• Gibson Nyandoro (Zimbabwe, 2008)
• Donna Jones (Ottawa, 2009)
• Jennifer Daugherty (Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 2010)
• Gemma Hayter (Rugby, Warwickshire, England, 2010)
• Tia Rigg (Manchester, England, 2010)
• Hamza Al-Khateeb (Daraa, Syria, 2011)
• Muammar Gaddafi (Sirte, Libya, 2011)
• Jourdan Bobbish and Jacob Kudla (Detroit, Michigan, 2012)
• Gabriel Fernandez (California, 2012 to 2013)
• Claudia Maupin and Oliver Northup (Davis, California, 2013)
• Giulio Regeni (Egypt, 2016)
• Iana Kasian (West Hollywood, California, 2016)
• Zainab Ansari (Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan, 2018)
• Anthony Avalos (Lancaster, California, 2018)
• Jamal Khashoggi (Istanbul, Turkey, 2018)
• Richard Huckle (Ashford, Kent, England, 2019)
• Genivaldo de Jesus (Umbaúba, Sergipe, Brazil, 2022)