Decidedly Grim

Today’s Muffled Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

When English prison reformer John Howard visited the prison in Hanover, Germany, in 1778, he found each prisoner secured to the walls by chains around their ankles, their wrists manacled to each end of a two-foot long bar of iron. And on going to Munich he inspected La Prison de la Cour. This he found to incorporate fifteen cells, each about twelve feet by seven. An adjoining room was, conveniently, the torture chamber within which, on a raised platform at one end, stood a table draped with black fringed cloth. Behind the table were placed six black chairs for the magistrates and secretaries, while the rest of the room contained instruments of torture, some stained with blood. Shutters to muffle victims’ cries covered the windows, and two crucifixes mounted on the wall doubtless brought some little solace to those poor wretches being put to the question.

Culled from: Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers

Somehow, I think that Mel Gibson would give anything to be one of those magistrates overseeing the torture, don’t you?

Facts