PUNISHMENTS WORSE THAN DEATH: Brutal Torture Methods Through The Ages

Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories

Throughout history, humans have devised punishments so agonizing that victims would beg for death's mercy — from the Assyrians who draped flayed skin on city walls to Civil War soldiers forced to ride wooden horses until they split apart.
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IN THIS EPISODE: If you are concerned about a family member’s excessive drinking, what do you do? Hold an intervention? Call Alcoholics Anonymous for advice? Perhaps confide in a close friend who might know what to do. In the case of teenaged sisters Sandra and Elizabeth Andersen, they were so frustrated with their mother’s drunken ways they decided to kill her. (Murderous Sisters) *** One reason people don’t like going to dentists is pain – even if there is no pain, just the idea of pain is enough to keep people away. But in the early 1900s there was a dentist so confident he could give you a painless tooth-extraction that he even changed his name to “Painless Parker”. But did his name live up to his claim? (A Dentist Named Painless Parker) *** Cliff Taylor reported seeing not just one, but two UFOs – and even more interesting, one of his sightings sounds like an extraterrestrial mothership… which appeared right next to his own house. And his was only a fraction of the hundreds of sightings that took place in 2008 just north of Philadelphia. (The Bucks County UFO Encounter) *** Of all the sites that are unexplained, the Bermuda Triangle is usually the first one that comes to mind. Located in the Caribbean, it is renowned for the ships and radio signals that have disappeared without explanation in recent years. Yet, there is another, perhaps lesser known region in which the inexplicable occurs. This location is often referred to quite simply as Mexico's Zone of Silence. (The Mexican Zone of Death) *** The definition of “punishment” is, “the infliction of some kind of pain or loss upon a person for a misdeed.” In most cases we look to serve punishment in proper proportion to the crime being committed – reserving the most severe punishments for the worst of the worst. But that has not always been the case – and there have been a lot of punishments doled out that we would consider worse than death – and for crimes we might not even consider crimes today. (Punishments Worse Than Death)
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.
DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = Lead-In
00:01:15.011 = Show Open
00:04:20.335 = Punishments Worse Than Death
00:23:51.258 = Murderous Sisters
00:36:06.832 = The Mexican Zone of Silence
00:41:21.201 = The Bucks County UFO Encounter
00:56:45.356 = A Dentist Named Painless Parker
01:03:07.059 = Show Close
SOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…
BOOK: “The Jesuit Relations” by Allan Greer: https://amzn.to/441pgd9
BOOK: “Torture And Democracy” by Darius Rejali: https://amzn.to/3OseYgr
BOOK: “The History of Torture” by George Ryley Scott: https://amzn.to/44XZA2l
BOOK: “Execution” by Geoffrey Abbott: https://amzn.to/3KtWUS3
ARTICLE: “Bermuda Triangle Explained?” https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/3n4u8knf
“Murderous Sisters” by Trilby Beresford for Ranker: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8wvcj8; and A.W. Naves for Medium: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/59bek3w6
“The Bucks County UFO Encounter” by Marcus Lowth for UFO Insight: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/46jx9md6
“Punishments Worse Than Death” by Christopher Myers for Weird History: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc3kbzp8; and Marco Margaritoff for All That’s Interesting: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/cfh4a9jc
“The Mexican Zone of Silence” by Riley Winters for at Ancient Origins Unleashed: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yht827h6
“A Dentist Named Painless Parker” by Kaushik Patowary for Amusing Planet: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ycknn9ar
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Originally aired: August 08, 2023
NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.
EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources):
https://weirddarkness.com/PunishmentsWorseThanDeath