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Rack Torture

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The muscles tighten, the face is distorted! The body suffers from sweat drops! The mouth is screaming!
Actually, I am not sure about the mouth necessarily screaming. IIRC, Amy Hesketh said after she produced and starred in Malifecarum, in which she was stretched out on a rack, that, when she was stretched out fully on the rack, she had problems breathing enough to make a sound.
 
During the time of Queen Maria Theresa, the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana 1768 presents an interesting version of the torture!
The pictures are real curiosities!
 

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During the time of Queen Maria Theresa, the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana 1768 presents an interesting version of the torture!
The pictures are real curiosities!

Very clever, a sort of controlled strappado.
 
Very clever, a sort of controlled strappado.
An interesting aspect being that at the time of the Theresiana that book of rules about torture was a key element in its abolition. With Teutonic thoroughness everything was specified, the number of weights and their size for strappado, the degree of stretching on the ladder which is shown in the sequence, the number of wax candles and their length to used on sensitive parts of the body, etc. Maria Theresa as empress of the Austrian Empire to all appearances was opposed to the use of torture in criminal trials. Particularly noteworthy was her involvement in a case of witchcraft in Croatia in 1758. A woman named Magda Herucina Logomer had been accused and undergone torture. The Empress took a personal interest in the case and ordered Logomer to be brought to Vienna, were Maria Theresa' personal physician treated her injuries that were inflicted during the examination. Soon afterwards the government of Austria imposed restrictions on local courts which brought to an end the trials, especially in their limitations on torture.
 
Austrian ladder torture: The racks described so far have been either horizontal, in the form of a bench, or vertical, such as the wheel mounted on an axle. However, one differently angled device existed, the Austrian ladder, its use being authorised by Empress Maria Theresa in 1768.
It consisted of a wide ladder leaning at an angle of 45°, its lower end fixed to the ground, its upper end secured to the wall, and between the feet of the ladder was a short axle, similar in operation to that of the windlass on a conventional rack. The victim was then forced to mount the first few steps of the ladder and to turn around so that he faced outwards.
His arms, tied behind his back, were then secured to one of he rungs, his ankles being tied to a rope, the other end of which was connected to the axle.
The executioner then rotated the axle, drawing the victim down the ladder by his ankles and thereby twisting his arms up behind, so that he was forced to lean forward in a vain attempt to alleviate the agonising strain that was being imposed on his shoulder-blades and arm muscles. And should he be recalcitrant, the executioner’s assistants would hold lighted candles under his armpits as extra persuasion. In extreme cases, where the victim was left in this position for some time, death could bring merciful relief.
Particularly, the 48 is astonishing! Nikolai Bessonov's work!
 

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Austrian ladder torture: The racks described so far have been either horizontal, in the form of a bench, or vertical, such as the wheel mounted on an axle. However, one differently angled device existed, the Austrian ladder, its use being authorised by Empress Maria Theresa in 1768.
It consisted of a wide ladder leaning at an angle of 45°, its lower end fixed to the ground, its upper end secured to the wall, and between the feet of the ladder was a short axle, similar in operation to that of the windlass on a conventional rack. The victim was then forced to mount the first few steps of the ladder and to turn around so that he faced outwards.
His arms, tied behind his back, were then secured to one of he rungs, his ankles being tied to a rope, the other end of which was connected to the axle.
The executioner then rotated the axle, drawing the victim down the ladder by his ankles and thereby twisting his arms up behind, so that he was forced to lean forward in a vain attempt to alleviate the agonising strain that was being imposed on his shoulder-blades and arm muscles. And should he be recalcitrant, the executioner’s assistants would hold lighted candles under his armpits as extra persuasion. In extreme cases, where the victim was left in this position for some time, death could bring merciful relief.
Particularly, the 48 is astonishing! Nikolai Bessonov's work!
 
I certainly have to agree with you that picture 48 by the late Nicolay Bessonov is the best of the lot, and probably one of the best drawings every made showing the ladder in operation. From what I've read on the subject the ladder seemed to be most commonly used instrument in the north of Germany during the time of the witch trials while the strappado seemed to be most common in the southern German states and in other countries. When you read the legal treatises which can be found in places such as Google Books the courts used certain formulas when giving approval to local authorities to proceed with torture which ran to phrases such as "to lead the accused to the ladder" or to "strip and take to the ladder" which would certainly imply that the ladder was the most common instrument and central to the process of examination with the use of torture. In Bessonov's picture the accused witch has the Spanish boot applied as well as the stretching on the ladder. And she also appears to be pregnant. In most places pregnant women (and sometimes those who were nursing babies) were not allowed to be tortured until 40 days after giving birth, but it was not a universal rule and in some unusual instances pregnant women were tortured.
 
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