What if the justice system decided the best way to get a confession was to introduce you to a very determined wheel?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan take a look at one of history’s most brutal methods of torture and execution: the Breaking Wheel. From 18th century Paris to ancient Greece, the Breaking Wheel was used in a variety of horrifying ways, from crushing limbs with iron clubs to literally rolling victims to their deaths.

We begin with the brutal executions of the Chevalier de Milhe and Count Antoine de Horn in 1720, before moving on to the infamous highwayman Cartouche and his very public encounter with the wheel. From there, we trace the practice across Europe and beyond, including Germany, France, Scotland, the Americas, and India.

We’ll also look at the alleged use of the wheel in ancient Rome, the story of Saint Catherine, the execution of Jean Calas, and one very unusual case in 1788 when an angry crowd decided they had seen quite enough and literally tore apart the scaffold to save a condemned man.

And of course, Kevin and Dan will bring their dark sense of humor to the subject, because apparently there is no shortage of things to joke about when the subject is a giant wheel designed to ruin your day. Along the way, we’ll look at some of the strangest variations of the punishment, the stories surrounding its use, and the surprising connection between the Breaking Wheel and the invention of the guillotine.

It’s torture history, brutal executions, dark history, and one very unfortunate wheel.

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What if they tried to get you to confess with a glorified kitchen utensil?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan take a look at the Heretic’s Fork, a medieval torture device supposedly used against heretics and witches during the Spanish Inquisition and later witch trials across Europe and colonial America. With sharp prongs pressing beneath the chin and into the chest, the device was designed to make sitting, sleeping, or even lowering your head incredibly painful.

But there’s a problem. Despite centuries of stories about the Heretic’s Fork, there is surprisingly little documented evidence that it was ever actually used. We dig into where the stories came from, how the device supposedly worked, and whether this infamous torture instrument was a genuine tool of torture or another example of history making a terrifying device even more terrifying.

And naturally, Kevin and Dan spend entirely too much time imagining what kind of night’s sleep you get when your bed is basically an instrument of religious compliance.

It’s the Spanish Inquisition, witch trials, torture, questionable historical evidence, and two guys asking the most important question of all: "Who the hell designed this thing?”

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What happens when the punishment for treason is being sealed inside a pair of boats, covered in milk and honey, and left for nature to slowly finish the job?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan travel back to ancient Persia to explore scaphism, one of the most horrifying forms of execution ever attributed to the ancient world.

We’ll break down the gruesome process, from the boats and forced feeding to the insects, exposure, and eventual death, while also examining why milk and honey supposedly played such an important role. We’ll look at the horrifying role that flies, bees, wasps, and maggots were said to play as the victim was left trapped in their own waste.

Then we’ll meet Mithridates, the only person actually recorded as suffering this punishment, at least according to the ancient sources. His story involves Cyrus the Younger, King Artaxerxes II, a battlefield killing, a boast after a few drinks, and a punishment that supposedly lasted seventeen days.

But there’s a problem. The story comes to us through Plutarch, who was writing centuries after the alleged execution, based on earlier accounts from Ctesias, a historian whose reputation for exaggeration makes the entire story difficult to verify. We’ll also look at the related Greek punishment of cyphonism and ask whether scaphism was a real Persian execution method or one of antiquity’s particularly nasty pieces of propaganda.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their usual dark and twisted humor to an episode where the phrase “being eaten alive” is taken literally.

If you’re interested in scaphism, ancient Persian torture, Mithridates, Artaxerxes II, Cyrus the Younger, Plutarch, Ctesias, cyphonism, ancient executions, maggot therapy, insects, and the darker side of ancient history, this episode is going to leave you seriously reconsidering boats, honey, and picnics.

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What happens when a prison uprising turns into a standoff, negotiations break down, and the state decides to take the prison back by force?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan continue the story of the Attica Prison uprising, picking up with the prisoners in control of D Yard and negotiations beginning with Commissioner Russell Oswald and a group of outside observers.

We’ll follow the prisoners’ demands for better food, medical care, religious freedom, political rights, and protection from retaliation, with one demand remaining above everything else: amnesty. We’ll also look at the role of the observers, the treatment of the hostages, the growing rumors and misinformation outside the prison, and the increasingly desperate attempts to convince Governor Nelson Rockefeller to come to Attica.

Then everything falls apart.

After Officer William Quinn dies from his injuries, tensions inside and outside the prison reach a breaking point. As negotiations collapse, hundreds of armed law enforcement officers gather outside Attica. On September 13, 1971, tear gas fills D Yard and the assault begins.

What follows is chaos, gunfire, humiliation, and brutality. 

Then comes the cover story, the aftermath, the McKay Commission, the criminal prosecutions, the decades long civil rights lawsuit, and the eventual settlements that finally acknowledged the enormous human cost of what happened at Attica.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their own dark and uncomfortable humor to one of the most horrific chapters in American prison history, while digging into the violence, misinformation, political fallout, and decades long fight over what really happened inside Attica.

If you’re interested in Attica, prison uprisings, American prison history, Nelson Rockefeller, Russell Oswald, Frank “Big Black” Smith, Richard X Clark, prison reform, police brutality, prisoner abuse, civil rights, political history, and one of the darkest days in American history, this is where the Attica story reaches its devastating conclusion.

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What happens when years of overcrowding, abuse, neglect, and growing tension finally push thousands of prisoners to the breaking point?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan begin the story of the Attica Prison uprising, one of the most infamous prison revolts in American history.

We’ll travel back to the late 1960s and early 1970s to look at the conditions inside Attica Correctional Facility, where more than 2,200 prisoners were packed into a prison designed for 1,200. Poor food, inadequate medical care, overcrowding, harsh discipline, racial inequality, censorship, and brutal working conditions created an environment where tensions were constantly building.

We’ll meet the prisoners organizing for change, including the Attica Liberation Faction, and follow their attempts to negotiate reforms with prison officials and New York State Commissioner Russell Oswald. Then, after the death of George Jackson and a series of increasingly tense confrontations between prisoners and guards, one incident in A Block finally pushes Attica past the point of no return.

On September 9, 1971, the prisoners take control of the prison.

But this isn’t simply a story about prisoners versus guards. Inside the uprising, prisoners protect hostages, organize medical care, establish leadership, and try to create some kind of order while the state prepares to take the prison back.

And that’s where we leave things.

Because the negotiations, the hostages, the deaths, the retaking of Attica, and the massive coverup that followed are still to come.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their usual dark humor to an incredibly serious chapter of American prison history, while telling the story of the people who found themselves trapped inside one of the most important prison uprisings in American history.

If you’re interested in Attica, prison riots, American prison history, the War on Crime, prison reform, civil rights, political prisoners, Richard X Clark, Frank “Big Black” Smith, Sam Melville, the Attica Liberation Faction, and the darker side of American history, this is only the beginning.

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What happens when someone decides that the best way to get a confession is to slowly smash your feet?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan explore the brutal history of the Boot, a family of torture devices designed to crush, break, burn, and otherwise make the victim very interested in confessing.

We’ll begin in 17th century Scotland with James Mitchell, whose attempted assassination of Archbishop James Sharp led to repeated sessions with the infamous Scottish Boot. From there, we’ll travel across Europe and beyond, looking at the different variations of the device, including the foot press, the Spanish Boot, the French brodequin, and the terrifying practice of roasting someone’s feet inside a heated boot.

We’ll also meet Archbishop Dermot O’Hurley, whose refusal to abandon Catholicism led to a particularly horrific interrogation, and Urbain Grandier, the controversial French priest whose alleged involvement in witchcraft accusations would eventually bring him face to face with the brodequin.

Then we’ll look even further back, including Chinese variations of foot crushing torture, British reports of torture in colonial India, and the strange possibility that similar devices appeared in other parts of the world under remarkably similar names.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their usual dark and twisted humor to an episode that proves the phrase “Give 'em the boot” can be considerably more horrifying than you might think.

If you’re interested in the Boot, Spanish Boot, Scottish Boot, brodequin, foot torture, James Mitchell, Dermot O’Hurley, Urbain Grandier, the Spanish Inquisition, witch trials, medieval torture, and the wonderfully terrible ways humans have found to destroy someone’s feet, this episode is going to hurt.

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What happens when the simplest way to torture someone is to tie their hands behind their back and let gravity do the rest?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan are joined by Patreon supporter and super fan Sam Brears to explore the brutal history of the strappado, a torture method designed to put incredible stress on the shoulders, arms, nerves, and entire upper body.

We’ll travel from the Medieval Inquisition and Renaissance Italy to Auschwitz, Turkey, Iraq, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the American War on Terror, looking at the different forms of the strappado and the real people who endured them. Along the way, we’ll meet Niccolò Machiavelli, Richard Belmar, Mykola Slyvotskyy, and Manadel al Jamadi, whose death at Abu Ghraib showed just how deadly suspension torture could become.

We’ll also look at the infamous squassation, the use of weights, the devastating injuries caused by prolonged suspension, and the surprising ways this centuries old torture method continued to appear in the modern world.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin, Dan, and special guest Sam bring their own dark and twisted humor to a subject that proves sometimes you don’t need complicated machinery to make someone’s life absolutely miserable.

If you’re interested in the strappado, squassation, Machiavelli, the Inquisition, Auschwitz, Abu Ghraib, torture history, psychological torture, prisoner abuse, and some of the darkest methods humans have used to hurt one another, this episode won't leave you hanging.

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What happens when a woman who becomes a widow decides that revenge is best served with a little creativity?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan tell the story of Olga of Kyiv, one of the most fascinating and ruthless rulers of medieval Europe. But before we get to Olga, we have to go back to the Varangians, the rise of the Kievan Rus’, and the man whose death would set Olga on a path of revenge.

After her husband Igor is brutally killed by the Derevlians, Olga is left ruling the Kievan Rus’ on behalf of her young son. The Derevlians think they have found the perfect opportunity to take control. Unfortunately for them, they severely underestimated Igor’s widow.

What follows is a series of increasingly horrifying acts of revenge involving buried diplomats, a burning bathhouse, a funeral feast that goes very, very wrong, and one particularly creative use of pigeons and sparrows.

We’ll also look at Olga’s conversion to Christianity, her relationship with Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII, and how this ruthless pagan ruler eventually became a Christian saint.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their usual dark and twisted humor to the story of a woman who proves that sometimes the person you really should not piss off is the widow.

If you’re interested in Olga of Kyiv, Kievan Rus’, Viking history, medieval Russia, Byzantine history, revenge, torture, executions, Christianity, and some of the most brutal stories from medieval history, this episode is one hell of a history lesson.

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What happens when one of humanity’s most beloved animals becomes a weapon of punishment, torture, and execution,?

Season 3 of Torture: A Dark History kicks off with Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan exploring the surprisingly brutal history of horses and the many ways humans have used them to hurt, kill, and punish other humans.

We’ll travel from 18th century Chile and the alleged dragging of a Franciscan friar to the infamous punishment of being hanged, drawn, and quartered. Along the way, we’ll meet William de Marisco, David ap Gruffydd, William Wallace, François Ravaillac, and Robert François Damiens, whose executions showed just how horrific the practice could become.

Then we’ll leave Europe behind and look at the Mongol Empire, including the execution of Caliph Al Musta'sim by Hulegu, before getting into the less obvious ways horses have been involved in torture and execution, including one particularly disturbing practice involving a dead horse.

We’ll also look at why horses are measured in hands, just how strong they actually are, and how an animal that has carried armies, pulled carriages, and helped build civilizations became such an effective tool for punishment.

And because this is the Season 3 premiere of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their usual dark and twisted humor to an episode that may permanently change the way you look at these beautiful animals.

If you’re interested in horses, historical torture, executions, medieval punishment, and the darker side of history, Season 3 starts with one hell of a ride.

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What happens when a woman survives nearly two weeks of torture and sexual violence, only to be so terrified that she can’t identify her attacker when police finally catch him?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan continue the story of Robert Ben Rhoades with the horrifying ordeal of Shana Holt, an 18 year old woman who accepted a ride from Rhoades and soon found herself chained, beaten, sexually assaulted, and held captive inside his truck.

To Regina Kay Walters, a 14 year old girl whose disappearance would eventually connect Rhoades to one of the most disturbing crime scenes in Illinois.

We’ll also meet Lisa Pennal, whose encounter with Rhoades finally led to his arrest when an Arizona highway patrolman discovered her chained and injured inside his truck. That arrest would open the door to a much larger investigation.

And because this is Torture: A Dark History, Kevin and Dan bring their own dark humor to an incredibly difficult story, while remembering that sometimes the most important part of true crime is simply listening to the people who survived it.

If you’re interested in serial killers, kidnapping, torture, sexual violence, and some of the darkest true crime in American history, this is the darkest chapter yet in the story of the Truck Stop Killer on our Season 2 finale.

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