Method of Torture: Rope and Strappado

Rope torture

Of all the torture devices, the rope is the easiest to use and the easiest to find. An example of a rope torture would be to use it to tie the victim to a tree, leaving him exposed and defenseless from animals and other humans. Another would be to hang the victim at the gallows while ultimately inflicting death. It could also be used to restrain the victim's limbs while attaching the other end of the rope to horses which would be then made to run, consequently severing the victim's limbs. The rope was an instrument of torture used by the Huguenots in their persecution of Catholics, and involved sawing the human body with a hard-fibered rope. The victim would be stripped naked, and dragged back and forth across the rope while the fibers cut into the flesh

Strappado

One of the most frequent tortures was certainly the Strappado. How was it done? The main method was the following: the victims had his hands tied behind his back, then another rope was passed between the arms and was tied. The end of the rope was attached to a pulley and the victim was held a few meters from the ground, therefore all his weight was on his shoulders. The prisoner was then left in this position, perhaps with some weights attached to the foot in order to cause more pain on the shoulders, or the rope was stretched. The rope the victim was tied on was loosened briefly, plunging the prisoner. Before he fell to the ground, however, the rope was stopped abruptly, causing a sharp pain on the shoulders and very often dislocating them. The prisoner was thus left hanging with his shoulders dislocated for up to an hour, or until the law allowed it. Then his shoulders were fixed and a new session could be done in the following days. From Father Labat’s evidence, a Dominican who traveled to Italy on behalf of the Holy Office, we understand that some of the people subjected to the Torture rack experienced almost no pain at all. This is because they were “trained” and knew how to move in order to avoid dislocation or experience the least possible pain.

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