Boiling to death

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Boiling to death is a crude and torturous method of execution.

1 Methodology
2 Historical usage
3 In fiction
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Methodology

This penalty was carried out using a large cauldron filled with water, oil, tallow or even molten lead. Sometimes the victim was immersed, the liquid then being heated, or he was plunged into the already boiling contents, usually head first. The executioner could then help speed their demise by means of a large hook with which he sank the criminal deeper. An alternative method was to use a large shallow receptacle rather than a cauldron; oil, tallow or pitch then being poured in. The victim was then partially immersed in the liquid and fried to death.^[1]

[edit] Historical usage

While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has seen widespread use in Europe and Asia over the past two to three thousand years.

[edit] In Europe

In England, boiling was a legal form of capital punishment during the reign of Henry VIII, reserved for poisoners. On the continent this form of capital punishment was reserved for counterfeiters during the Middle Ages. These types of executions usually attracted larger crowds than for hangings or beheadings due to their novelty. In the old town of Deventer the kettle that was used for boiling criminals to death can still be seen today.^[2]

[edit] In Asia

The Chinese imperial court used boiling as a form of capital punishment and torture. The Mongol warlord Jamuqa boiled some generals of his rival Genghis Khan alive around the year 1200.

In the Japanese folk tale of Ishikawa Goemon, Goemon was said to have been boiled in oil as his punishment once caught.

In 1606, Guru Arjan of the Sikhs was boiled alive as a form of torture and subsequently died.

[edit] Recent events

In recent times, Idi Amin of Uganda^{[citation needed]} and the government of Uzbekistan under the regime of Islom Karimov are alleged to have boiled a number of political dissidents, such as Muzafar Avazov by the latter ^[3].

[edit] In fiction

A cliché depiction of cannibals is of them cooking people alive in a bubbling cauldron.
In James Clavell's novel Shōgun, one of the crew members of the Erasmus is boiled to death in a cauldron.
In the story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a slave girl kills thirty-seven thieves by pouring boiling oil into the oil jars in which they are hiding.