Brutal Historical Punishments Unveiled

Throughout history some punishments were so brutal they seem impossible to believe.

These medieval and early modern penalties reveal just how creative humans could be with cruelty.

In medieval Germany a law demanded tree bark thieves face an unthinkable fate. Officials would

slice open the criminal's stomach, nail one end of their intestines to the stripped

tree, then force them to walk circles around it until their guts completely

wrapped the trunk. A Teutonic knight supposedly died this way in 1248. Scotland had a simpler

but deeply humiliating device called the jougs. This metal collar chained to church

walls held petty criminals in place for hours while neighbors jeered at them.