All language subtitles for The.UnBelievable.with.Dan.Aykroyd.S02E13.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

- Warning, what you
are about to see

could be disturbing
to some viewers.

Viewer discretion is advised.

[ominous music]

Imagine being found
guilty of a crime

and your sentence is hard time

in a chicken suit.

[ominous music]

- [Adam] 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.

[ominous music]

- [Austin] 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.

[elephant trumpeting]
[ominous music]

- 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 entire community.

[ominous music]

- These are the
punishments so peculiar

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic eerie music]

[music fading]

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.

[ominous music]

- In the fifth century BC,

the leader of Persia,

which is modern-day Iran,

is Xerxes the Great

who is in warfare with
surrounding nations,

including Greece.
[ominous music]

- And 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
take a lot of work

and most importantly, this
is gonna take a bridge.

- [Dan] Not just any bridge.

[dramatic music]

Xerxes orders his men to build

a large floating overpass
nearly a mile long,

something difficult to pull
off in even perfect conditions.

[tense music]

- They gather about 600 ships

to bridge the gap
across the strait.

They're lashed 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.

[tense dramatic music]

- They're all ready to cross it

and then a massive
storm sweeps in.

[thunder rumbling]

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.
[dramatic music]

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.
[tense music]

- 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 whip the sea 300 times each.

[dramatic music]

It's ridiculous, we know that,
I know that, you know that,

but who's gonna
tell Xerxes that?

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

what's he gonna do
to you if you say no?

- [Dan] 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,

and so 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.

[dramatic music]
[water sizzling]

- But Xerxes isn't done,

so he says, "We are gonna
throw shackles into the sea

and then it will
learn who's boss."

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

[dramatic music]

- Also, as a side
note, every engineer

who built the bridge was
ordered to be decapitated.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Xerxes orders
the bridge rebuilt.

- But he's killed
all his engineers,

so he's gotta 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're 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.

[music fading]

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

Next up, a judge
who some might say

takes his punishments
a bridge too far.

[expectant music]

- 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.

[expectant music]

- 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 Cicconetti.

Judge Cicconetti is famous for
handing out unusual sentences

where the punishment
fits the crime.

- [Dan] You might be wondering,

what did this man
do to end up here?

- 2007, Fabian Rodriguez-Ramirez

thinks he's soliciting
prostitution from a sex worker,

but it's actually an
undercover police officer.

[sirens blaring]
- Judge Cicconetti

gives Rodriguez-Ramirez
a choice,

either 30 days in the slammer

or wear a chicken suit out
in public on a busy street.

[tense music]

- [Dan] Rodriguez-Ramirez
takes the chicken suit

and Cicconetti adds an
intriguing side order.

- It seems the Judge
Cicconetti 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
Chicken Ranch in our city,"

which alludes to the Chicken
Ranch brothel in the movie.

- [Dan] But does this bizarre

kind of punishment
actually work?

- Judge Cicconetti has
an amazing track record

of these unusual and
peculiar punishments

that also seem to
be quite effective.

So much so that he has a 10%
recidivist re-offending 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 as Mary and Joseph

and walk through
town with a mule.

[playful music]
- With roughly 40 cases a day

being adjudicated
in his courtroom.

Judge Cicconetti is
sort of single-handedly

overhauling the
Ohio judicial system

and helping with
jail overcrowding.

[music ending]

- Just like when
your mom pulls out

an embarrassing baby photo,

some experiences
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? [ethereal
music] [birds calling]

- In ninth 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.
[dramatic music]

- Asian elephants can
weigh up to 15,000 pounds.

They're industrious,
they're intelligent,

they're excellent
at following orders,

and they're ubiquitous
on the subcontinent.

- The elephant's
trainer, or "mahout",

can teach them to do
any number of things,

to entertain an audience or
to crush a person to death.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] 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.

[dark music]

- It's an enforcement tool.

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

It's the people
with the elephants.

[dark music]

- When given a
command by a trainer,

an elephant will
crush a person's skull

as easily and quickly as
it would a cantaloupe.

[dark music]

- 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.

[dark music]

- In some traditions, the
prisoner is forced to undergo

what might be called
trial 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.

- [Dan] This form of
punishment becomes so popular

it begins to spread,

with each country adding
their own local flare.

- 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 the beast to
tear apart the prisoner

as if he's in a food processor.

[dark music]

- 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 prisoner,

slowly increasing
the sense of dread

before crushing them to death.

- Not to be outdone, in
Vietnam, criminals are condemned

to Gunga Rao 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 eminent.

[dramatic music]

- Death by elephant.

One of the more
unbelievable ways

society has meted out justice.

But what happens when
it's not the executioner,

but the accused
that is an animal?

[ominous music]

- It's December, 1457,
in Savigny, France.

A five-year-old boy
has been brutalized

and will end up dying
from his wounds.

[ominous music]

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.

[pig snorting]
[dramatic music]

- The accused is a pig.

Actually, a sow.
[tinkling music]

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.

[eerie music]

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

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] 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
lawyers that are in town.

[somber music]

- 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 act this is

and how terrible this pig is.

It's a full-on trial.

[somber music]

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 know, if
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.

[tense music]

- [Dan] After closing arguments,

the sow's fate lies in
the hands of the judge.

[tense music]

[gavel banging]

- 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.

[tense music]

- The judge decides to spare
the six little piglets,

deciding that they were young

and they were simply products
of their poor environment.

- [Dan] 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 century England.

[ominous music]

- In 16th century England,
it was far more common

to drink beer than water,

especially in
cities like London.

[ominous music]

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

[cups clinking]

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 in the community.

[dramatic music]

- [Dan] Then parliament decides

they must do something about it.

[dramatic music]
[cups clinking]

- The 16th century
killjoys in parliament

come up with the
Alehouse Act of 1551.

It makes public drunken
disorderly conduct

a civil offense.
[expectant music]

- 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 trades person.

- [Dan] As painful
as it is to cough up

that kind of cash,

repeat offenders face
paying 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".

[somber music]

- 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 yell insults.

Basically humiliate
them with the idea

that this would prevent
the drunk 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 entire community

out of public drunkenness

because they're going to see

people walking up and down

in this perpetual
drunkenness walk of shame

and say, "I don't
wanna be like that.

I don't wanna 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
Schandmantel 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.

- [Dan] 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.

[dramatic sting]

- Centuries later, public
shaming still proves

an effective form of punishment,

especially when one Texas judge

opts for something unbelievable.

[ominous music]

- It's 2010 in Texas and
Eloise and Daniel Mireles

are in a courtroom waiting
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 cashier's 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.

[gavel banging]
[somber music]

In this case, the judge,
Kevin Fine, orders them

to pay back the
$255,000 that they took

over a period of 10 years

and to also serve 180 days
in the Harris County jail.

[gate clanging]

- 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."

- [Dan] Then the
judge adds something

bound to make them unpopular
with their neighbors.

[tense music]

- He orders them to
place this giant sign

in front of their house,

which reads, "The
occupants of this house,

Daniel and Eloise Mireles,
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."

[dramatic music]

- 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 fail-safe

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.

[gate clanging]

- 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.

[music ending]

- 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.

[ominous music]

- 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,

you got all manner 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.

- [Dan] Enter the shame flute.

[ominous music]

For the aspiring but terrible
musician in your life.

- The shame flute isn't
actually an instrument at all.

[ominous music]

- The idea is that it is
this massive instrument

that is bolted around
the neck of a person

who did a terrible
job playing music.

[ominous 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 bad musician
in the first place.

[bell tolling]
- Then this awful musician

is paraded through the town

where they are
regaled with insults,

jeers, rotting fruit
being thrown at them.

Heckling is actually encouraged.

- [Dan] 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 really good 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 Rothenberg,

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?
[bell tolling]

- While these tone
deaf-culprits are silenced,

this next set of offenders
long for some quiet.

- It's a warm summer
evening in 2008

and 24-year-old
student Andrew Vactor

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.

[intense rock music]

- 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 middle of the night.

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

- [Dan] Despite the commotion,

Andrew continues
to cruise around

enjoying his mobile concert,

oblivious to the outside world.

[intense music]

- He's got the volume up to 11.

It's so loud, Andrew fails
to hear the police sirens

as he's pulled over.
[sirens blaring]

- When Andrew finally
gets pulled over,

he's cited for
public disturbance

due to the loud beats
emanating from his ride.

- And eventually
Andrew finds himself

at the Champaign
County Courthouse

in front of Judge Susan
Fornof-Lippencott.

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 an 80% reduction, a $35 fine.

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

- [Dan] Andrew decides
to take the deal.

20 hours of music
doesn't sound so bad.

But this DJ's not
taking any requests.

[tense music]

- Judge Fornof-Lippencott
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 hear,

she's gonna subject him to music

that he might not wanna hear.

- Instead of the deep, urban,
bass music which Andrew loves,

the judge orders that he
listen to classical music,

which she also hopes might
broaden his horizons.

- So Andrew settles in
to fulfill his sentence

and the classical music begins.

[light classical music]

So we can imagine him
sitting there listening

as the orchestra begins to swell

and the room fills with the
sounds of Beethoven, Mozart,

and it drives him to
the point of madness.

[music ends]

Andrew only lasts
about 15 minutes.

[light classical music]

Andrew decides to
pay the $150 fine

rather than be subjected
to what he considers to be

cruel and unusual punishment
by classical music.

[classical music
swelling and ending]

- [Dan] 15 years
later, a man in Wales

takes a similar
tactic when his ears

are accosted by his
noisy neighbors.

[tense music]

- It's Swansea, Wales in 2023

and a man is at his wits 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
in his home is shaking.

The windows are rattling,

the pictures on the
wall are vibrating,

and he decides he's got
to do something about it.

[intense music]

- [Dan] So the man conducts
an experiment of his own.

- Just like Special Forces broke

drug lord Noriega
with heavy metal,

he's gonna blast
music of his own kind.

He props his speakers up
against their common wall

and he turns the
volume all the way up

and he chooses one
of the most metal

classical music
pieces of all time.

[powerful classical music]

Gustav Holst's "The Planets",

specifically "Mars,
the Bringer of War".

[powerful classical music]

Puts it on loop and
then leaves the house.

[powerful classical music]

After three days, he comes home,

turns off his stereo
and it's quiet.

[music ending]
Somehow the message

has been delivered.

[dramatic music]

- 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.

[dark music]

- The Inquisition
is a powerful office

established by the
Roman Catholic Church

to 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.

[dark dramatic music]

- 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 the sun revolves
around the Earth.

The sun is the
center, not the Earth.

And so, naturally,
he must be brought in

to have his sins purged.

And they will proceed
to torture the friar

using a very special tool
in the Inquisitor's toolbox.

The Heretic's Fork.

[sinister music]

- 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.

[sinister music]

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.

- [Dan] 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 heretic's fork,

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.

[dark music]

- It's the 1960s in Arkansas

at the Tucker State Prison Farm.

Tucker State is not like
the conventional prison

that you might think of.

This is a 4,500 acre farm.

It's a self-sufficient farm

and it is a for-profit farm,

that which has
grown there is sold

to profit the state of Arkansas.

And these criminals
are doing hard labor

in the sweltering Arkansas heat.

[dramatic music]

- The guards at this prison
are remarkably brutal

and they're gonna 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 protection money.

You pay up or you can
be beaten, tortured,

deprived of rations.

It's a system of terror
and usury and extortion.

- [Dan] But by far
the most brutal way

guards keep these
prisoners in line

is something 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 as the
Tucker Telephone.

[ominous music]

- The Tucker Telephone
is a hand-crank telephone

with its insides hollowed out.

When you crank the handle,

you're delivering
an electrical charge

to two dry cell batteries,

which in turn are hooked
up to wires which send

the charge coursing through
the body of the victim.

- [Dan] In the 1960s,
the Tucker Telephone

is quietly put into service

and one unlucky prisoner

is about to become its
first unfortunate victim.

[ominous music]

- 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 transfer
me to another prison."

- Gordon suffer some
injuries in this incident

and is sent to the hospital,

so he thinks he's gonna
get his wounds cared for,

but instead, he's
taken to a 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.

- [Dan] Gordon, now restrained,

and unable to escape
his impending fate

braces what's to come.
[eerie music]

- 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.

- [Dan] 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 conscious
so that they can feel the pain.

[ominous music]

- These types of
shocks delivered

to sensitive body parts
like the genitals,

create irreparable damage.

It also leads to intense
psychological damage.

[music ending]

- [Dan] 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 I have to think
felt almost as good

as hooking the superintendent
up to the telephone himself.

- 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 ensure

any number of
painful punishments.

[dark music]

- Salem Village,
Massachusetts, circa 1692.

In this village you have
a group of young girls

and women who claim that
they are being bewitched.

[dramatic music]

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 in this matter?"

[dramatic music]

- The allegations they level
are usually against neighbors,

claiming that their neighbors
are in league with the devil.

- [Dan] In need of a scapegoat,

the ladies point to a
man already unpopular

within the village.
[uneasy music]

- 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
gonna have a lot of people

sticking up for them
if they are accused,

which is exactly what happens,

the girls accuse
Martha of witchcraft.

[dramatic sting]

- [Dan] And at
Martha Cory'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.

[dramatic music]

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.

[tense music]

- [Dan] In order to
get Giles to plead out,

the judge makes a
fateful decision.

[gavel banging]

- There's only one way
that the judge sees himself

getting a plea from Giles Corey,

and that's a procedure
called "peine forte et dure"

which translates from Latin
into strong and hard pain.

[dramatic music]

- Giles is made lay
naked on the ground,

face up with a giant
board pressed on 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 Cory.

- [Dan] The torture
goes on for days,

but Cory doesn't cave.

- During this time,
the weight is so bad

that at one point apparently
his tongue has been

forced out of his mouth,

and the sheriff who
is 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 weight."

[tense music]

- 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.

- [Dan] But 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 sheriff's
subsequently for years

die of heart disease.

- It isn't until 1991,
almost 300 years later

when the sheriff's
office is moved

from Salem to
Middleton, Massachusetts

that this deadly
trend finally stops.

- Talk about your
afterlife sentence.

[eerie music]

From lawsuits to chicken
suits, instruments of torture

or tortured for playing
instruments poorly,

these are all
punishments so peculiar

they can only be
called unbelievable.