10 Worst Ways People Have Been Tortured To Death

6. Rat Torture

Ishikawa Goemon
HBO

If you're all caught up on Game of Thrones, you have witnessed a number of torture methods mentioned here on that show. Flaying was seen on the show, but beyond that, the use of rat torture was employed in a rather historically accurate depiction.

Rat torture involves torturing a person with rats... that's rather clear, but the means by which a skilled torturer might accomplish this were varied and horrific. The Tower of London famously had a "Dungeon of Rats," which used the animals to bite and claw at prisoners as a means of having their "alarm excited", keeping them under constant stress.

More deadly arts required a bowl or bucket like the one shown in the gif above. Rats would be placed inside against the naked body of the victim. Heat would be applied to one end, which encouraged the rats to tunnel into the victim to try and escape the heat.

Because rats are equipped with sharp teeth and claws, they made short work of a person's belly and would dig through the bowels trying to find their way out of their predicament. The pain and damage caused death relatively quickly, but some unfortunate victims might hold on for several hours or even days.

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Jonathan is a graphic artist, illustrator, writer, and game designer. Jonathan retired from the U.S. Army in 2017 and enjoys researching and writing about history, science, theology, and many other subjects. He writes for ScreenRant, CBR, NerdBastards, Listverse, Ranker, WhatCulture, and many other sites online. You can check out his latest on Twitter: @TalkingBull or on his blog: jonathanhkantor.com