The Most Torturous and Most Peculiar Deaths Ever

Throughout history, humans have displayed their savagery, evidence than we are indeed animals. We have witness the unimaginable and cruelest forms of punishments. Here’s a list of popular personalities in history who suffered the most painful and most inhuman punishments.

1.) William Wallace – hanged, drawn and Cut into Pieces

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If you have seen the film Brave Heart, you’ll probably remember Sir William Wallace. The leading star on the said film is Mel Gibson. Wallace, born in 1272 or 1273, was a Scottish knight and landowner who became one of the main leaders during the War of Scottish Independence.

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He, along with Andrew Moray, defeated the English Army at the Battle of Sterling Bridge in 1297 and many other battles and was called the “Guardian of Scotland. He was finally defeated at the Battle of Falkirk. In 1305, he was captured and handed over to King Edward I of England. He was hanged, drawn and quartered for treason in August 23, 1305. He was fastened to a wooden hurdle and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was hanged and quartered (chopped into four pieces).

2.) Gyorgy Dozsa – Roasted Alive

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Gyorgy Dozsa who lived about the 15^th was a man-at-arms and peasants’ revolt leader in Hungary. Because his revolt was unsuccessful (he could have been a hero if the revolt succeeded), he was condemned to sit on a red-hot iron throne with a red-hot iron crown on his head and a red-hot scepter in his hand (mocking at his ambition to be king), by Hungarian landowners in Transylvania on July 20, 1514. To make things crueler, while he was still alive, he was set upon and his partially roasted body was eaten by six of his fellow rebels, who had been starved for a week beforehand.

3.) Hypatia of Alexandria – Skinned Alive

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Isn’t it madness to murder a woman as beautiful as Hypatia? Hypatia of Alexandria, who was born about 350 CE, was a Greek mathematician and pagan philosopher. She was murdered by a mob that ripped her skin off with sharp sea-shells such as clams, oysters, abalones, etc. Other sources claim tiles or pottery-shards were used. She was considered the first notable woman in mathematics, who also taught astronomy and philosophy. She was accused of causing religious turmoil.

4.) Saint Antipas – Burn Alive

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Non-Christians during the early days were so cruel. Saint Antipas, Bishop of Pergamum, was roasted to death in a brazen bull during the persecutions of Emperor Domitian in 92 C.E.   Some Catholics pray to this saint for ailments of the teeth.

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The brazen bull, bronze bull, or the Sicilian bull was a torture and execution device designed in ancient Greece. It’s a new means of executing criminals during that time. The bull was made entirely of bronze, hollow, with a door in one side. The condemned were shut inside and a fire was set underneath, heating the metal and roasting the person inside to death.

5.) Herod the Great – Died of Bizarre Multiple Unexplained Reasons

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Herod the Great was not punished or tortured. He died in 4 BC after suffering from fever, intense rashes, colon pains, foot drop, and inflammation of the abdomen, a putrefaction of his genitals that produced worms, convulsions, and difficulty breathing before he finally expired. Herod I or Herod the Great was born in 73 or 74 B.C.E. This king of Israel was described as "a madman who murdered his own family and a great many.

6.) Prince Popiel – Eaten by Mice Alive

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Prince Popiel of the proto-Polish Goplans and Polans encountered death in the most unusual manner. Popiel and his wife were eaten alive by mice in the Kruszwica Tower in the 9^th century. This curse was a consequence of his lack of hospitability or obeying traditions. He was the ruler of the West Slavic and as a consequence of bad rule he was deposed, besieged by his subjects. Prince Popiel was a cruel and corrupt ruler who cared only for wine, women, and song. He was greatly influenced by his wife, a beautiful, but power-hungry German princess. His twelve uncles conspired to depose him. However, at his wife's instigation, he had them all poisoned during a feast (she might have done it herself). Instead of cremating their bodies, as was the custom, he had them cast into Lake Goplo.

7.) Hatto II

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Hatto II was the Archbishop of Mainz. He was a crooked ruler who oppressed and exploited the peasants in his domain. He used the Mouse Tower as a platform for crossbow men and demanded tribute from passing ships. The crews of those who refused to pay were shot. During a famine in 974 CE, the poor people were without food, and Hatto, having all the grain stored up in his barns, used his monopoly to sell it at such a high price that most could not afford any.

The peasants were getting angry and organizing to rebel, so Hatto devised a cruel trick. He promised to feed the hungry people and told them to go to an empty barn and wait for him to come with food. The peasants were overjoyed and praised Hatto heartily, and all of them journeyed to the barn to await his coming. When he showed up with his servants, he ordered the barn's doors shut and locked, then set the barn on fire and burned the peasants to death, derisively commenting on their death cries with the words "Hear the mice squeak!"

When Hatto retired to his castle, he was instantly besieged by an army of mice. He fled the swarm and took a boat across the river to his tower, hoping that the mice could not swim. The mice followed him and rushed into the river by the thousands. Many of them drowned, but even more crawled onto the island. There, they ate through the tower's doors and crawled up to the top floor, where they found Hatto and ate him alive.

See also 

• The 12 Most Absurd and Weirdest Acts of World Leaders and Their Obscure Deaths
• The Most Peculiar and Unusual Ways on How People Were Killed by Machines
• The 13 Most Horrifying and Ridiculous Deaths Ever
• 12 Absurd and Strange Ways To Die
• The Most Excruciating, Brutal and Cruel Punishments in History
• 10 Weirdest and Bizarre Causes of Deaths 
• 15 Most Notable Crucifixions in History 

Famous People Who Died of Eating and Drinking

Is it a shame to die because of eating and drinking? Scroll down and find out who were the popular people in history who died of drinking and eating.

1.) Tycho Brahe

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Some etiquette kills!

Tycho Brahe is one of the most famous astronomer and alchemist during his time. But because of etiquette, he died at the age of 55 on October 24, 1601 due to complications resulting from a strained bladder at a banquet. Considered extremely bad etiquette to leave the table before the meal was finished, he stayed until he became fatally ill. He suddenly contracted a bladder or kidney ailment after attending a banquet in Prague, and died eleven days later.

2.) Adolf Frederick

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Gluttony kills!

Adolf Frederick was king of Sweden from 1751 until his death in 1771. He died at the age of 60 on February 12, 1771 of digestion problems. What are the foods he ate? Well, he consumed a meal of caviar, lobster, sauerkraut, smoked herring and champagne. He topped it off with 14 servings of semla, his favorite dessert. Today, he is well remembered by Swedish schoolchildren as “the king who ate himself to death”.

3.) Julien Offray de La Mettrie

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Overeating is dangerously deadly!

Julien Offray de La Mettrie is a popular materialist and sensual philosopher during his time. He is the author of L'Homme machine or Machine Man. Like King Adolf Frederick of Sweden, he also died of overeating at a feast given in his honor on November 11, 1751 at the age of 41.

4.) Marcus Licinius Crassus

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Greediness will kill you!

How does gold tastes? Marcus Licinius Crassus is known in the Roman Empire as a wealthy man. This Roman general and consul was reported to have been put to death in 53 BCE by the Parthian General Surena after losing the battle of Carrhae. Crassus was forced to drink a goblet of molten gold, symbolic of his great wealth.

5.) Lucius Fabius Cilo

Watch out with the milk you drink!

This is ridiculously absurd. In 212, Lucius Fabius Cilo, a Roman senator of the 2nd century, died of choking by a single hair in a draught of milk.

6.) Len Koenecke

Too much drink will kill you!

It has been proven time and again that too much drink will kill you. In 1935, Baseball player Leonard George “Len” Koenecke died at the age of 34 due to excessive alcoholic drinking. While on a plane he drank a quart of whiskey and became very drunk. He then harassed other passengers and hit a stewardess. He was removed unconscious from the flight in Detroit and after sleeping on a chair in the airport he chartered a flight to Buffalo. While flying over Canada he had a disagreement with the pilot and a passenger and attempted to take control of the aircraft. In order to avoid a crash he was hit over the head by both the pilot and the other passenger with a fire extinguisher.

7.) Basil Brown

Carrots are healthy but they can be deadly!

In 1974, Basil Brown, a 48-year-old health food advocate from Croydon, drank himself to death with carrot juice. Anything that is too much will kill you.

8.) Maximo Rene Menendez

Be careful of soft drinks especially if it’s from Colombia!

Twenty years ago, Maximo Rene Menendez, a 25-year-old man from Miami, Florida, USA, fell into a coma after drinking “Pony Malta de Bavaria”, a Colombian soft drink. The bottle had been laced with cocaine in an apparent smuggling scheme. Menendez was declared brain dead and died after doctors disconnected his life-support equipment in 1991.

See also 

• 10 Weirdest and Bizarre Causes of Deaths
• 12 Absurd and Strange Ways To Die 
• The 13 Most Horrifying and Ridiculous Deaths Ever

The Most Peculiar and Unusual Ways On How People Were Killed By Machines

Millions of people have been killed since the invention of machines. As a matter of fact, the leading cause of death in the world is due to vehicular accidents. Here’s a list of people who were killed by machines in the most unusual ways.

1.) Isadora Duncan – Killed by a Scarf

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Isadora Duncan is a dancer who is regarded as the creator of modern dance. She was very fond of flowing scarves and this fondness of her was the cause of her death in 1927 in a bizarre automobile accident in Nice, France. Her large silk scarf, while still draped around her neck, became entangled around one of the vehicle’s open-spoked wheels and rear axle, breaking her neck.

2.) Gustav Kobbe – Killed by a Landing Plane

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Gustav Kobbe, a writer and musicologist from the United States, was killed in 1918 when the sailboat he was on was struck by a landing seaplane off Long Island, New York.

3.) William Huskisson – Killed by Stephenson’s Rocket

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In 1830, William Huskisson, a statesman and financier, was crushed to death by a locomotive known as Stephenson’s Rocket, at the public opening of the first mechanically powered passenger railway in the world.

4.) John Godfrey Parry-Thomas – Decapitated by Drive Chain

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Driving is one of the most dangerous human activities. In 1927, the Welsh racing driver J. G. Parry-Thomas was decapitated when the drive chain of his car snapped and whipped into the cockpit.

5.) Thomas Maldwyn Pryce – Struck by a Fire Extinguisher

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In 1977 at the South African Grand Prix, the Welsh Formula One driver Thomas Pryce was killed when he was struck in the face by a track marshal’s fire extinguisher. The marshal, Frederick Jansen van Vuuren, was running across the track to attend to Pryce’s team-mate’s burning car when he was struck, and killed instantly, by Pryce’s car.

6.) William Payne Stewart – Died of Fatal Hypoxia

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In 1999, the Professional golfer Payne Stewart died when the airplane he was on lost cabin pressure in-flight, causing fatal hypoxia. The aircraft continued on auto-pilot for several hours, carrying the deceased passengers several hundred miles off course before running out of fuel and crashing in South Dakota. Five other people were with him during the incident. They lost their lives too.

7.) Gregory Biggs – Struck by a Car and Lodged in the Windshield

Gregory Biggs was a homeless American from Texas, USA. In 2001, he was struck by a car being driven by a drunkard and drug addict named Chante Jawan Mallard. Biggs’ torso became lodged in Mallard’s windshield with severe but not immediately fatal injuries. Mallard drove home and left the car in her garage with Biggs still lodged in her car’s windshield. Biggs died of his injuries several hours later

8.) Four Divers – Died of Decompression

Four Divers and a tender were killed in 1983 on the Byford Dolphin semi-submersible, when a decompression chamber explosively decompresses from 9 atm to 1 atm in a fraction of a second. The diver nearest the chamber opening literally exploded just before his remains were ejected through a 60 cm opening. The other divers’ remains showed signs of boiled blood, unusually strong rigor mortis, large amounts of gas in the blood vessels, and scattered hemorrhages in the soft tissue

9.) Robert Gary Jones – Hit by a Small Plane

Robert Gary Jones was a 38-year-old man from South Carolina, USA. In 2010, he was jogging and listening to his iPod when he was hit from behind and killed by a small plane making an emergency landing on a beach in Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.

10.) David Phyall – Cut His Own head With a Chainsaw

David Phyall was a 58-year-old man from England, UK. He was the last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Hampshire, England. In 2008, he cut his own head off with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out.

11.) Vic Morrow – Decapitated by a Helicopter Blade

Vic Morrow was an American actor. In 1982, during the filming of “Twiligh Zone: The Movie”, he was decapitated by a helicopter blade. Two child actors were also killed; Myca Dinh Le, who was decapitated, and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, who was crushed

12.) Clarabelle Lansing – Suck Out of the Boeing 747

Clarabelle Lansing was an Aloha Airlines Flight 243 flight attendant. In 1988, she was sucked out of the Boeing 747 when a large section of its fuselage tore off in mid flight.

13.) Thomas Midgley, Jr – Strangled With Cord of His Own Invention

Thomas Midgley, Jr was an American inventor and chemist. In 1944, he accidentally strangled himself with the cord of a pulley-operated mechanical bed of his own design and died.

14.) Robert Williams – Killed by a Robot

Robert Williams was a worker at a Ford Motor Co. plant in Michigan, USA. In 1979, the arm of a one-ton factory robot hit him in the head. Williams was the first known human to be killed by a robot.

15.) Kenji Urada – Killed by a Robot

Yes, robots kill not only in the movies but also in real life. Kenji Urada of Japan was one of the first individuals killed by a robot. In 1981, this 37-year old maintenance engineer at a Japanese Kawasaki plant, failed to turn off completely a broken robot he is working on. This resulted in the robot pushing him into a grinding machine with its hydraulic arm causing his death.

16.) John Bowen – Struck by a Model Plane Shaped Like Lawnmower

John Bowen was a 20 year-old from New Hampshire, USA. In 1979, while he was attending a halftime show at a New York Jets football game at Shea Stadium when a custom-made remote control flying machines, a 40-pound model plane shaped like a lawnmower accidentally dived into the stands, striking Bowen and another spectator, causing severe head injuries. He died in hospital 4 days later while the others survived.

17.) James Frederick Polley – Died While Riding Fire In The Hole

James Frederick Polley was a 23-year-old from Missouri, USA. In 1980, he died while riding the “Fire In The Hole” ride at Silver Dollar City Theme Park. The train of cars he was riding in was mistakenly switched to enter the maintenance and storage area of the ride. The door to the maintenance area had a low-hanging bay door and his head got caught between the door and the train.

18.) Boris Sagal – Decapitated by the Tail Rotor Blade of a Helicopter

Boris Sagal was a Russian-born American TV and film director. In 1981, he died while shooting the TV miniseries “World War III” when he walked into the tail rotor blade of a helicopter and was decapitated.

See also

• 10 Weirdest and Bizarre Causes of Deaths
• 12 Absurd and Strange Ways To Die
• The 13 Most Horrifying and Ridiculous Deaths Ever