All language subtitles for The UnBelievable With Dan Aykroyd s02e13 Peculiar Punishments.eng

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Imagine being found guilty of a crime
and your sentence is hard time in a

chicken suit.

Motorists are met with a crazy sight.

You might think that he is advertising
for a new fried chicken restaurant.

But that's actually not what's happening
at all.

Or finding your executioner is an
elephant.

Asian elephants can weigh up to 15 ,000
pounds.

An elephant will crush a person's skull
easily and quickly as it would a

cantaloupe. How about a night at the pub
that ends in a bizarre walk of shame?

They devise a punishment for public
drunkenness meant to humiliate.

You're not just trying to shame one
person. You're trying to shame the

community.

These are the punishments so peculiar.

They are truly unbelievable.

There is seemingly no end to the ways
one can punish someone who has done you

wrong. But King Xerxes of Persia has to
get creative when that certain someone

isn't a someone at all.

In the 5th century BC, the leader of
Persia, which is modern

-day Iran, is Xerxes the Great, who is
in warfare with surrounding nations,

including Greece.

Xerxes has a bit of beef with the Greeks
at the time, because in a previous

battle against his father, Darius,

the Greeks defeated him.

So Xerxes is on a mission to avenge his
father's fall at the hands of the Greek

forces. To do this, though, Xerxes and
his army has to cross this body of water

known as the Strait of Dardanelles.

He has a massive army, and he has to get
them across this water.

And remember, this isn't modern
mechanized warfare. This is going to

of work, and most importantly, this is
going to take a bridge.

Not just any bridge.

Xerxes orders his men to build a large
floating overpass nearly a mile long,

something difficult to pull off in even
perfect conditions.

They gather about 600 ships to bridge
the gap across the strait. They are

together with ropes of flax.

logs or other debris, and then it acts
like a pontoon, and the forces can walk

across it to get to the other side.

They're all ready to cross it, and then
a massive storm sweeps in

before one troop can even cross it.

Xerxes is infuriated.

Now he's being stopped from being able
to avenge his father, Darius.

So, naturally, he turns his ire towards
the offending party. Someone has to be

held responsible for this bridge not
holding up. And for Xerxes, there's only

one culprit.

The sea.

Xerxes has a plan on how to set the sea
straight.

He looks at the sea as he would any
other enemy.

Be brutal.

Be decisive.

He has his soldiers line up all along
the edge of the Strait of Dardanelles.

And he gives them all a heavy, mighty
chain. And he orders each soldier to

the sea 300 times each.

It's ridiculous.

We know that. I know that. You know
that. But who's going to tell Xerxes

If he's crazy enough to order soldiers
to whip the ocean...

What's he going to do to you if you say
no?

But as Xerxes' men punish the water, it
starts to fight back.

This punishment doesn't seem to be
working on the Strait of Dardanelles,

naturally this pisses Xerxes off even
more, so he now ups the ante.

Next, each man is compelled to poke the
sea with red -hot pokers, and they are

met with nothing but, well... the sizzle
of the iron immediately cooling under

the water's touch.

But Xerxes isn't done, so he says, we
are going to throw shackles into the

and then it will learn who's boss.

But the sea just, you know, kind of
keeps on being the sea.

Also, as a side note, every engineer who
built the bridge was ordered to be

decapitated.

Xerxes orders the bridge rebuilt.

But he's killed all his engineers, so
he's got to get new engineers.

And he builds a brand new pontoon bridge
so that he can exact his vengeance on

the Greeks.

Tragically, Xerxes' great feat in
crossing the strait is all for naught.

Despite their massive numbers, they had
bad intel on the terrain, and their army

is ineffectual.

They are defeated.

They have to turn tail and return to
Persia.

When Xerxes returns to the Dardanelles,
he finds another storm destroyed the

bridge. There's nowhere for the Persians
to run to, and so they have to be

brutalized even further.

It's not a happy ending for the Persians
via the hands of the Greeks.

It's clear the sea just can't learn its
lesson.

Next up, a judge who some might say
takes his punishment a bridge too far.

It's a beautiful sunny spring day in
Painesville, Ohio, and motorists are met

with a crazy sight, a full -grown man in
a chicken suit.

You might think that he is advertising
for a new fried chicken restaurant or

he's one of those sign spinners trying
to get people to go inside.

But that's actually not what's happening
at all.

Oddly enough, the man in the chicken
suit is serving a very unusual sentence

from Judge Mike Cicanetti.

Judge Cicanetti is famous for handing
out unusual sentences where the

fits the crime.

You might be wondering.

What did this man do to end up here?

2007, Baby and Rodriguez Ramirez thinks
he's soliciting prostitution from a sex

worker, but is actually an undercover
police officer.

Judge Chicanetti gives Rodriguez Ramirez
a choice.

Either 30 days in the slammer or wear a
chicken suit out in public on a busy

street.

Rodriguez Ramirez takes the chicken suit
and Chicanetti adds an intriguing side

order.

It seems that Judge Chickenetti is also
a bit of a movie buff.

So inspired by the 1982 film Best Little
Whorehouse in Texas, he declares

Rodriguez Ramirez, in addition to the
chicken suit, must have a sign, no

ranch in our city, which alludes to the
chicken ranch brothel in the movie.

But does this bizarre kind of punishment
actually work?

Judge Chickenetti has an amazing track
record of these unusual and peculiar

punishments. that also seemed to be
quite effective.

So much so that he has a 10 % recidivist
reoffending rate compared to the

national average of 75%. Most states
allow judges to put their own spin on

sentences, especially if it's for low
-level misdemeanors.

But some states even allow it for more
serious types of crimes.

So in the past, this judge has sentenced
a man who called a police officer a pig

to stand next to a pig pen with a sign
that says, this is not a police officer.

He even sentenced a couple guilty of
stealing a baby Jesus statue to dress up

Mary and Joseph and walk through town
with a mule.

With roughly 40 cases a day being
adjudicated in his courtroom, Judge

is sort of...

single -handedly overhauling the Ohio
judicial system and helping with jail

overcrowding.

Just like when your mom pulls out an
embarrassing baby photo, some

never leave you.

Capital punishment is sometimes seen as
a necessary evil in many societies, past

and present.

And it's also often considered inhumane.

But what happens when the executioner
isn't actually human?

In 9th century India, officials began to
look for a more spectacular and

terrorizing way of executing wrongdoers.

They decide to use one of their most
abundant natural resources,

the elephant.

Asian elephants can weigh up to 15 ,000
pounds.

They're industrious, they're
intelligent, they're excellent at

and they're ubiquitous on the
subcontinent.

The elephant's trainer, or mahout, can
teach them to do any number of things,

entertain an audience or to crush a
person to death.

They call their new form of punishment
gunga rao, and it quite literally means

casting beneath an elephant's feet.

This new method of execution becomes
very popular among elites who often had

large menageries of elephants.

It's an enforcement tool. It separates
and makes people know who's in charge.

It's the people with the elephants.

When given a command by a trainer, an
elephant will crush a person's skull as

easily and quickly as it would a
cantaloupe.

or they can engage in a much slower form
of execution, instructing the elephant

to break limbs one at a time, avoiding
the vital organs, trying to draw out the

length of the death, the agony, the
pain, the suffering, and then finally

finishing them off.

In some traditions, the prisoner is
forced to undergo what might be called

by ordeal.

The elephant is instructed to roll over
him, puppy dog style, crushing him to

death. But if the prisoner survives,
he's set free.

This form of punishment becomes so
popular, it begins to spread, with each

country adding their own local flair.

The neighboring country of Sri Lanka
adopts this practice, but they bring a

particular twist to it. They affix
blades to the elephant's tusks, allowing

beast to tear apart the prisoner as if
he's in a food processor.

In Siam, what we now call Thailand, they
introduced an element of psychological

dread and suspense by having the
elephant walk three times around the

slowly, increasing the sense of dread
before crushing them to death.

Not to be outdone in Vietnam, criminals
are condemned to gongarau by being tied

to a stake.

and having an elephant run them down.

In essence, it's like an entire city bus
coming straight at you.

Death is imminent.

Death by elephant.

One of the more unbelievable ways
society has mated out justice.

But what happens when it's not the
executioner, but the accused that is an

animal?

It's December 1457 in Seven Year
Friends.

A five -year -old boy has been
brutalized and will end up dying from

This is an outrage to the people in the
town.

They demand justice.

The people in the town start combing the
town, trying to find the person who

would dare commit a heinous act like
this to such a small child.

Eventually, the crowd finds the suspect
and brings them before a judge.

But this suspect...

Not like other murder suspects.

The accused is a pig, actually a sow,
and she and her six little

piglets have been accused of murdering
this boy.

And the court takes this very seriously.

One of the more interesting aspects of
medieval life is that animals could be

put on trial.

Both the pig and the pig's owner are
dragged off to jail.

But this little piggy lawyers up.

The thinking is at the time that because
animals are considered God's creatures

that they are entitled to have
representation.

And these animals don't just have
lawyers. Sometimes they have the best

that are in town.

So at the trial, despite the accused
being a pig and her piglets, everything

seems like oddly normal.

Witnesses are called to testify, and
they're talking about how heinous of an

this is, and how terrible this pig is.

It's a full -on trial.

And on top of that, the animal is put in
human clothes, because they have to be

presented well in court. And if the
animal really needed it, because, you

they're on the witness stand, they would
be given, like, a little booster seat,

you know, just to prop them up so that
everybody could see them.

After closing arguments, the sow's fate
lies in the hands of the judge.

The judge considers the sow to be the
ringleader of this heinous attack.

And, as per the sentencing guidelines of
the day, says that the sow must be hung

by her hind legs from a tree until she
is dead.

The judge decides to spare the six
little piglets.

deciding that they were young and they
were simply products of their poor

environment.

Today, we'd think that this situation is
totally outlandish. But the spectacle

of an animal being brought to justice is
surprisingly not uncommon in medieval

England and Europe.

There are roughly 100 known cases of an
animal being brought before a court of

law and being accused of a certain
offense.

And it wasn't limited to pigs. But it
seems that people just need an outlet

for their anger. And if they can't take
it out on Mother Nature, they take it

out on the agent of Mother Nature.

These days, we've gotten past putting
animals on trial, even for high crimes,

like eating your favorite slippers.

Public humiliation.

It's a punishment employed for centuries
to chastise wrongdoers.

But few have done it better or more
unbelievably than the folks of 16th

England.

In 16th century England, it was far more
common to drink beer than water,

especially in cities like London.

Anyone can brew their own ale and serve
it and sell it.

It's the Wild West of pub culture.

And because beer is so common, it's not
unusual to see people staggering drunk

in the city.

So you have an outbreak of public
drunkenness that becomes a real problem

community. Then Parliament decides they
must do something about it.

The 16th century killjoys in Parliament
come up with the Alehouse Act of 1551.

It makes public drunken disorderly
conduct...

A civil offense.

The way it works is that the first time
you are drunk in public, you have to pay

a fine. And it's five shillings, which
is about eight days worth of wages for a

skilled trade person.

As painful as it is to cough up that
kind of cash, repeat offenders face

a much higher price.

Their dignity.

The act is difficult to enforce.

Because public drunkenness is common.

But repeat offenders are nailed with
what is called the drunkard's

cloak.

The drunkard's cloak is a beer barrel
with a hole in the top for your head. It

comes down over your shoulders. And if
you're lucky, there'll be holes in the

sides for you to put your arms through.

The offender would be forced to wear
this barrel.

and parade through the town, and then
people could throw things at them and

insult, basically humiliate them with
the idea that this would prevent the

person from becoming drunk in public
again.

It becomes the original walk of shame.

The drunkard's cloak punishment is used
so often in the hard -drinking town of

Newcastle -upon -Tyne that it's...
sometimes called the Newcastle cloak.

You're not just trying to shame one
person. You're trying to shame the

community out of public drunkenness
because they're going to see people

up and down in this perpetual
drunkenness walk of shame and say, I

be like that. I don't want to wear the
drunkard's cloak.

Once the drunkard's cloak takes off
across England, it spreads into other

countries across Europe.

It is adopted in Spain. It's adopted in
Denmark. In Germany, it's now known as

the Schandmantel, or literally, the coat
or the cloak of shame.

Now, German authorities add a particular
twist.

They line the barrel with sheet metal so
that wearing it becomes

not only personally embarrassing, but a
physical affliction as well.

If you're wearing the shond mantle in
public, get ready for some rotten

vegetables because your peers and your
neighbors are encouraged to hurl rotten

refuse at you while you take your walk
of shame.

The practice even makes its way to
America.

In 1863, in the state of Maine, a Civil
War -era lieutenant forces two of

his recruits to walk around wearing the
barrel of shame and also carrying signs.

saying, I'm wearing this for being
publicly drunk.

The men are mercilessly razzed by their
peers and fellow soldiers.

According to the lieutenant, they'll
never get drunk in uniform again.

Turns out wearing a barrel is the
universal drunkard's walk of shame.

Centuries later, public shaming still
proves an effective form of punishment,

especially when one Texas judge opts for
something unbelievable.

It's 2010 in Texas, and Eloise and
Daniel Morales are in a courtroom

for their sentence.

Eloise is an employee of Harris County.
She and her husband have taken over $250

,000 from a fund set aside for victims
of crime called the Harris County Crime

Victims Fund.

As an employee of Harris County, Eloise
identifies a loophole.

that allows her to divert money orders
and cashiers' checks away from the crime

victims' fund and into her personal bank
account.

She's taking money from people who do
need the money, and she's using it to do

nights on the town, buy new clothes.

Her and her husband are having a ball.

In this case, the judge, Kevin Fine,
orders them to pay back the $255 ,000

they took over a period of 10 years and
to also serve 180 days in the Harris

County Jail.

But Judge Fine is not done serving out
his justice yet. He also says, since you

stole from the people of your community,
we also want the people in the town to

know what exactly it is that you did.

Then the judge adds something bound to
make them unpopular with their

He orders them to place this giant sign
in front of their house, which reads,

the occupants of this house, Daniel and
Eloise Morellas, are convicted thieves.

He also says that the couple, for five
hours on the weekend, for six years

straight, must wear a sign that says, I
am a thief.

I stole $250 ,000 from the Harris County
Crime Victims Fund.

They have to wear sandwich board signs
over their bodies and walk around

public streets at busy intersections, in
busy shopping districts, in fact,

some of the same places where they might
have spent some of this pilfered money.

This is a really personal sentence.

And the judge does build in a failsafe.
If they fail to complete any part of

their sentence, if they take the sign
down, if they miss a weekend, they will

have to go to prison for up to 10 years.

Newspaper articles report that every
single weekend, this couple can be seen

wandering the busy intersection of Post
Oak and Westheimer with nothing but

their signs and just these sullen
grimaces on their faces.

But at the same time, one could also
argue it is still better than prison. At

least you get to be outside.

You know what they say.

The couple that's shamed together stays
together.

These days, anyone can showcase their
perceived talents online and at worst be

hit with an unfollow or a few nasty
comments.

But back in medieval times, musicians
performing off -key were met with

something much more brutal.

We like to think that we take our music
seriously these days, right? We've got

the Grammy Awards, you've got the
Billboard Awards, you've got CMAs. All

of accolades are placed upon musicians
that we love because they make good

music. But back in medieval Europe, it
is actually considered a crime to play

music badly.

Enter the shame flute for the aspiring
but terrible musician in your life. The

shame flute is an... actually an
instrument at all.

The idea is that it is this massive
instrument that is bolted around the

a person who did a terrible job playing
music.

And their hands are clamped to it,
giving the impression the musician is

playing, yet no sound comes out, which
is probably a good thing if they're a

musician in the first place.

Then this awful musician is paraded
through the town where they are regaled

insults, jeers, rotting fruit being
thrown at them.

Heckling is actually encouraged.

How does one avoid a session on the
shame flute?

Practice, practice, practice.

If poor musicians are forced to wear the
shame flute, then aspiring musicians

are much less likely to play an
instrument in public until they're

at it, which helps you to understand
that the real offense here isn't playing

bad music.

It's playing bad music where you can be
heard.

You can actually see a real shame flute
in one of two places, either the

Medieval Crime Museum in Rothenburg or
at the Torture Museum in Amsterdam. It

might also make you start to think about
which musicians that are around today

should we be shackling.

To the shame flute.

While these tone -deaf culprits are
silenced, this next set of offenders

for some quiet.

It's a warm summer evening in 2008, and
24 -year -old student Andrew Vaktor is

driving around Urbana, Ohio.

He's taking in the nice breezes, his
windows are down, he's feeling the flow,

and he's blasting hip -hop.

Let's be clear. To those not interested
in what Andrew's playing, the music is a

nuisance. Some might even call it a form
of noise pollution that disturbs their

pets, unsettles their children, and
quite frankly, wakes them up in the

of the night.

And yet for Andrew, it's just a good
time.

Despite the commotion, Andrew continues
to cruise around, enjoying his mobile

concert, oblivious to the outside world.

He's got the volume up to 11.

It's so loud, Andrew fails to hear the
police sirens as he's pulled over.

When Andrew finally gets pulled over,
he's cited for public disturbance due to

the loud beat emanating from his ride.

And eventually, Andrew finds himself at
the Champaign County Courthouse in front

of Judge Susan Fornoff Lippincott.

In court, the judge hears Andrew's case,
and she actually offers the young man a

deal, a bargain, so to speak.

He can either pay a $150 fine or, at an
80 % reduction, a

$35 fine.

However, he'll be sentenced to listen to
20 hours of music.

Andrew decides to take the deal.

20 hours of music doesn't sound so bad,
but this DJ's not taking any requests.

Judge Fornoff -Lippincott decides to
give Andrew a taste of his own medicine.

Since he subjected so many people to
listen to music they didn't want to

she's going to subject him to music that
he might not want to hear.

Instead of the deep, urban bass music,
which Andrew loves, the judge orders

he listen to classical music, which he
also hopes might broaden his horizons.

So Andrew settles in to fulfill his
sentence, and the classical music

So we can imagine him sitting there
listening as the orchestra begins to

and the room fills with the sounds of
Beethoven, Mozart, and it drives him to

the point of madness.

Andrew only lasts about 15 minutes.

Andrew decides to pay the $150 fine
rather than be subjected to what he

considers to be cruel and unusual
punishment by classical music.

Fifteen years later, a man in Wales
takes a similar tactic when his ears are

accosted by his noisy neighbors.

It's Swansea, Wales in 2023, and a man
is at his wit's end.

His noisy neighbors, three young women,
are perpetually blasting music next

door. He has no peace and quiet. It's
nonstop music. It's so loud, everything

his home is shaking.

The windows are rattling, the pictures
on the wall are vibrating, and he

he's got to do something about it.

So the man conducts an experiment of his
own.

Just like Special Forces broke drug lord
Noriega with heavy metal, he's going to

black music of his own kind. He props
his speakers up against their common

and he turns the volume all the way up,
and he chooses.

One of the most metal classical music
pieces of all time.

Gustav Hulst, The Planet.

Specifically, Mars, The Bringer of War.

Puts it on loop and then leaves the
house.

After three days, he comes home, turns
off his stereo, and it's quiet.

Somehow the message has been delivered.

Let this be a lesson to the younger set.

Don't piss off your elders.

We've got classical music, and we're not
afraid to use it.

Perhaps no era is as synonymous with
punishment as the Spanish Inquisition.

Getting a confession is a requirement
for the Inquisitors, and should the

accused choose not to cooperate, their
punishment is nothing short of cruel and

unusual.

The Inquisition is a powerful office
established by the Roman Catholic Church

root out heresy during the 15th century.

At this time, the Catholic Church is the
ultimate authority.

There is no separation of church and
state.

The church law is the law.

And the church deemed that it's
acceptable to attack and torture anyone.

who doesn't follow the religious law as
they see it.

Now, just to make sure that Catholic law
is being upheld, there is a group of

people that are known as inquisitors.

The inquisitor's job is not to kill you.

No, no, that would be too quick.

It's to get you to admit your liaisons
with Satan.

And they can do this any way they see
fit. So they want to develop devices and

types of torture that are truly...
horrendous to endure.

It's something one Dominican friar
learns in an excruciating way.

Giordano Bruno is a Dominican friar who
is very much seen as a heretic by the

Catholic Church and the Inquisitors. For
starters, he is someone that believes

in the Copernicus model, a .k .a.

the sun is what the earth revolves
around, not the opposite direction, not

sun revolves around the earth. The sun
is the center, not the earth.

And so naturally, he must be brought in.

to have his fins perched.

And they will proceed to torture the
friar using a very special tool

in the Inquisitor's toolbox. The
heretic's fork.

It's a fork with prongs on this end that
press right against your soft palate

and prongs on this end which poke right
into your chest attached with a leather

strap to keep your head faced upward as
if in prayer.

If you get tired and your head sags, you
stab yourself here or here or both.

As long as Bruno can keep his head and
jaw completely still, he's okay.

But that means not even swallowing your
own spit.

It's a punishment meant to cause mental
anguish as well as physical suffering.

And there's no way out.

How long can he keep this up for?

Bruno ultimately remains steadfast in
his beliefs. He never admits to heresy.

But his ordeal is far from over.

If you survive the heretics fort, you
get to be paraded in front of a long

inquisitor's tribunal where you will be
found guilty of heresy and burned at the

stake. Which is exactly what happens to
Friar Bruno.

You could say the rights of the accused
have come a long way since the Middle

Ages. Nowadays, most get to make a phone
call. And that's a good thing.

Unless... You're incarcerated at a
certain prison in Arkansas.

It's the 1960s in Arkansas at the Tucker
State Prison Farm.

Tucker State is not like the
conventional prison that you might think

is a 4 ,500 -acre farm.

It's a self -sufficient farm, and it is
a for -profit farm.

That which is grown there is sold to
profit the state of Arkansas.

and these criminals are doing hard labor
in the sweltering Arkansas heat.

The guards at this prison are remarkably
brutal, and they're going to use

violence and even torture to force these
inmates into the field, into the hot

sun. The worst of the guards jack money
from prisoners. The little amount of

money that prisoners make for their
labor is pilfered as a kind of

money. You pay up or you can be beaten,
tortured, deprived of rations. It's a

system of terror and usury and
extortion.

But by far the most brutal way guards
keep these prisoners in line is

that comes from the mind of a surprising
source.

Normally a prison doctor is there to
help inmates, but not Dr. A .E. Rollins.

In cahoots with the superintendent, Jim
Bruton, he uses his knowledge of the

body and anatomy to develop a new
monstrous torture device, what is known

Tucker Telephone.

The Tucker Telephone is a hand -cranked
telephone with its insides hollowed out.

When you crank the handle, you're
delivering an electrical charge to two

cell batteries, which in turn are hooked
up to wires, which send the charge

coursing through the body of the victim.

In the 1960s, the Tucker telephone is
quietly put into service, and one

prisoner is about to become its first
unfortunate victim.

It's the fall of 1964, and a 27 -year
-old inmate named Gordon Ray Ross Jr.

is at his breaking point with the
treatment at Tucker State Farm. He can't

handle the extortion, the torture, so
what he finally decides to do is rebel.

And he attacks another inmate. He
figures, if I kill him, they have to

me to another prison.

Gordon suffers some injuries in this
incident and is sent to the hospital.

So he thinks he's going to get his
wounds cared for, but instead he's taken

back room and he knows something's up.

Gordon is in a state of terror, forced
to strip,

laid down on a table as the guards
attach electrodes to bodily

parts, including his genitals.

Gordon, now restrained and unable to
escape his impending fate, braces for

what's to come.

The guard starts to crank the crank on
the telephone and a surge of electricity

pours into Gordon's body, sending him
into convulsions, causing him to scream,

to gasp for air, to shout for help.

He described it later as feeling like
muscles are being torn from the bones of

his body. This process would come to be
known among the inmates as a long

distance call.

These long distance calls...

bring the prisoner to the brink of
unconsciousness, but they keep them

so that they can feel the pain.

These types of shocks delivered to
sensitive body parts like the genitals

irreparable damage.

It also leads to intense psychological
damage.

Sadly, hundreds of inmates are put
through the ringer before the Tucker

telephone is disconnected in 1968.

One of the more sadistic devices used to
torture inmates by then -superintendent

Jim Bruton was the Tucker telephone.

The superintendent, Jim Bruton, is
sentenced to a year in prison and fined

for violating prisoners' constitutional
rights against cruel and unusual

punishment. And in fact, Gordon Ray Ross
Jr.

is one of the inmates who takes the
stand against the superintendent, which

have to think felt...

Almost as good as hooking the
superintendent up to the telephone

Thankfully, today, the Tucker telephone
is officially out of service.

The Salem witch trials came at a
peculiar time in American history.

It was a model of mass hysteria, where
simply being accused was enough to

any number of painful punishments.

Salem Village, Massachusetts, circa
1692.

In this village, you have a group of
young girls and women who claim that

are being bewitched.

We're talking about, of course, the
infamous Salem witch trials.

So during the course of these trials,
these young girls are being dragged into

these courts and being asked, who is
doing this to you? Who is making you act

this manner?

The allegations they level are usually
against neighbors, claiming that their

neighbors are in league with the devil.

In need of a scapegoat, the ladies point
to a man already unpopular within the

village.

Giles Corey is a successful farmer.

He's done well for himself, and that can
make people jealous, but he's also

extremely unpleasant.

He's a curmudgeon, the get -off -my
-lawn type.

He's managed to offend pretty much
everyone in his community.

He's on his third wife, Martha, and she
and he really don't get along and are

frequently seen arguing out in public,
which is a huge no -no in 17th

century Salem, Massachusetts.

They're not difficult people to dislike.
And also, they're not going to have a

lot of people sticking up for them if
they are accused, which is exactly what

happened. The girls accused Martha of
witchcraft.

And at Martha Corey's trial, even Giles
doesn't come to her aid. In fact, he

does the opposite.

He takes the stand and testifies against
her.

Apparently ready for wife number four.

He sort of throws her under the bus,
tells people, yes, she won't say her

prayers. She whispers her prayers under
her breath, which for some strange

reason is evidence of witchcraft.

But at some point in the trial, the
tables turn on Giles Corey.

It's not just Martha that's accused of
witchcraft. He's now being accused of

being a wizard.

And so he has to plea guilty or not
guilty.

The law at the time in Massachusetts
declares that you cannot have a trial if

the accused does not enter a plea one
way or another.

Giles Corey knows that either way, he is
most likely dead.

So he refuses.

to say whether he is guilty or not
guilty.

In order to get Giles to plead out, the
judge makes a fateful decision.

There's only one way that the judge sees
himself getting a plea from Giles

Corey, and that's a procedure called
pene forte et dure, which translates

Latin into strong and hard pain.

Giles is made to lay naked on the
ground, face up, with a giant board

his body.

And then the sheriff, a man by the name
of George Corwin, takes these incredibly

heavy stones and places them, one at a
time, on top of the wooden plank, on top

of Giles Corey.

The torture goes on for days, but Corey
doesn't cave.

During this time, the wait is so bad
that at one point apparently his tongue

been forced out of his mouth.

And the sheriff who was trying to get
him to enter a plea actually comes up,

shoves the tongue back in his mouth, and
then says, are you ready to plead one

way or another?

And according to legend, in response,
Giles Corey says, more wait.

And some say he also utters the words,
damn you, I curse you, and Salem, to

George Corwin before he passes, but we
will never truly know.

But what would be the ending to the
story is merely the beginning of a curse

that would haunt Salem for centuries.

Just three years later, in 1696, the
sheriff suddenly dies of a massive heart

attack, and it becomes part of a
disturbing pattern.

All the sheriffs subsequently, for
years, die of heart disease.

It isn't until 1991, almost 300 years
later, when the sheriff's office has

from Salem to Middleton, Massachusetts,
that this deadly trend finally stops.

Talk about your afterlife sentence.

From lawsuits to chicken suits,
instruments of torture, or tortured for

instruments poorly, these are all
punishments so peculiar they can only be

called unbelievable.

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