Also an amazingly
cruel and horrific
torture device. The
Catherine Wheel was a favored instrument of
terror in
Germany during the
Middle Ages. After completely
crushing the limbs of a
victim with vices and blunt objects, the remains of the person’s arms and legs were woven through the spokes of the
wheel. Afterwards the wheel was hoisted into the air where
birds could pluck away at the body.
Death was extremely slow in coming.
St. Catherine of Alexandria, for whom the wheel gets its name, was martyred in this fashion.
I just found this
quote. According to a German chronicler, victims of "breaking with a wheel" became:
...a sort of huge screaming puppet writhing in rivulets of blood, a puppet with four tentacles, like a sea monster, of raw, slimy and shapeless flesh mixed up with splinters of smashed bones.
Writing about this is making me ill...