TORTURE: ASIAN AND GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | OCTOBER 2013
Sometimes the crushing was achieved by hammering wedges into constrained spaces where the limbs were confined (see Boot).
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A crueller variant used in medieval Spain introduced a sharp wedge of wood or metal between the flesh and each nail. The wedge was slowly hammered ever further under the nail until it was torn free. Medieval German witch-hunters conducted this torture with rough wooden skewers dipped in boiling sulphur. A number of skewers were slowly driven into the flesh under the prisoner’s toenails. Alternately, the skewer could be dipped in boiling oil, which served a dual purpose of burning the incredibly sensitive flesh and lubricating the skewer so that the torturer could more easily explore the surface area beneath the nail. When enough skewers had been driven home to pry each nail loose from its bed, the nail was torn out at the root with a pair of pliers.
Tools resembling nut crackers could also inflict significant pain when applied to various parts of the body. This torture device was used to crush the victim’s knees Denailing Devices Denailing, the forcible extraction of the fingernails or toenails, or both, was a favourite method of medieval torture, the quicks under the nails being particularly sensitive. In its simplest form, the torture is conducted by constraining the prisoner on a tabletop and using a metal forceps or pliers (often heated red-hot) to grasp each nail in turn and tear it from the finger or toe.
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Medieval Pliers
Drugs Although poorly documented, it is clear that some torturers were familiar with a range of drugs that could elicit confessions even when physical torture failed. Medieval monasteries were expert in all kinds of herb, including toxins and hallucinogens.