Crushing: Wikis




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Louis Rousselet described this Central Indian execution in "Le Tour du Monde" in 1868.

A common method of death throughout South and South-East Asia for over 4,000 years was crushing by elephants. The Romans and Carthaginians used this method on occasion. In Roman mythology, Tarpeia was a Roman maiden who betrayed the city of Rome to the Sabines in exchange for what she thought would be a reward of jewellery. She was instead crushed to death and her body cast from the Tarpeian Rock which now bears her name.[1] The method was also used extensively by the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam to punish their enemies during the early 19th century.

Crushing is also reported from Pre-Columbian America, notably in the Aztec empire.[2][3]


Crushing under common law



Many defendants charged with capital offences nonetheless refused to plead, since thereby they would escape forfeiture of property, and their heirs would still inherit their estate; but if the defendant pleaded guilty and was executed, their heirs would inherit nothing, their property escheating to the Crown. Peine forte et dure was abolished in the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1772, although the last known actual use of the practice was in 1741.[4] In 1772 refusing to plead was deemed to be equivalent to pleading guilty. This was changed in 1827 to being deemed a plea of not guilty. Today, in all common law jurisdictions, standing mute is treated by the courts as equivalent to a plea of not guilty.

The elaborate procedure was recorded by a 15th-century witness in an oft-quoted description: "he will lie upon his back, with his head covered and his feet, and one arm will be drawn to one quarter of the house with a cord, and the other arm to another quarter, and in the same manner it will be done with his legs; and let there be laid upon his body iron and stone, as much as he can bear, or more ..."[5]

Giles Cory was pressed to death during the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690s.

The most famous case in the United Kingdom was that of Roman Catholic martyr St Margaret Clitherow, who was pressed to death on March 25, 1586, after refusing to plead to the charge of having harboured Catholic (then outlawed) priests in her house (in order to avoid a trial in which her own children would be obliged to give evidence). She died within fifteen minutes under a weight of at least 700 pounds (320 kg). Several hardened criminals, including William Spigott (1721) and Edward Burnworth, lasted a half hour under 400 pounds (180 kg) before pleading to the indictment. Others, such as Major Strangways (1658) and John Weekes (1731), refused to plead, even under 400 pounds (180 kg), and were killed when bystanders, out of mercy, sat on them.[6]

The only executee of peine forte et dure[citation needed] in American history was Giles Corey, who was pressed to death on September 19, 1692, during the Salem witch trials, after he refused to enter a plea in the judicial proceeding. According to legend, his last words as he was being crushed were "More weight", and he was thought to be dead as the weight was applied. This is referred to in Arthur Miller's political drama The Crucible, where Giles Corey is pressed to death after refusing to plead "aye or nay" to the charge of witchcraft. In the film version of this play, the screenplay also written by Arthur Miller, Corey is crushed to death for refusing to reveal the name of a source of information.

Portrayal in fiction

  • In Austin Powers, a security guard is accidentally crushed under a steam roller by the protagonist, but this is for a humorous effect.
  • In Bayonetta, one of the torture attacks depicts certain angels being crushed by a large torture device composed of two clasping hands.
  • In Dante's Inferno, the demonic giants (ie. the beasts and Phlegyas]] kill enemies by crushing them.

External links

See also


  1. ^ Sanders, H. (1904). Roman historical sources and institutions. Macmillan. pp. 1–47. 
  2. ^ Summerson, Henry (1983). "The Early Development of Peine Forte et Dure."
  3. ^ Law, Litigants, and the Legal Profession: Papers Presented to the Fourth British Legal History Conference at the University of Birmingham 10-13 July 1979 ed E. W. Ives & A. H. Manchester, 116-125. Royal Historical Society Studies in History Series 36. London: Humanities Press.
  4. ^ Drug Control and Asset Seizures: a review of the history of forfeiture in England and colonial America
  5. ^ Curiosities of Cowell's "Interpreter"
  6. ^ "Mackenzie, The Practise of Peine Forte et Dure in 16th and 17th Century England". 

Further reading

  • McKenzie, Andrea. "'This Death Some Strong and Stout Hearted Man Doth Choose': The Practice of Peine Forte et Dure in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century England". Law and History Review, Summer 2005, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 279-313.[1]

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