Summit Gist

KILLING ME SLOWLY: 7 OF THE LONGEST EXECUTIONS IN HISTORY Today, if you are unlucky enough to be sentenced to death, in many parts of the world you would have the small consolation that it would be (most of the time) swift – firing squad, electrocution, hanging, or lethal injection. For much of history, though, many people suffered protracted, agonising, drawn-out deaths. Some of these killings took hours, others days, and some even weeks. Here we look at seven of history’s most interminable terminations, with examples of extended executions, and stories of savagely spun-out slayings. Hang 'em High: 7 of history's most famous executioners 1. Brickin’ It - Immurement From the Vestal Virgins of Ancient Rome to 19th-century Persia (where criminals were known to have been bricked up alive into city walls  head downwards ) the ‘walling in’ of the condemned has a long history. The Vestal Virgins, immured in an underground chamber when breaking their vows, were given a small amount o...

The remains of a fallen Austro-Hungarian soldier in the Alps, discovered from a melting glacier in 2012.  Today 107 years ago, on December 13, 1916, the "White Friday" avalanche took place near the Mount Marmolada in the Dolomite mountains, killing some 10,000 Austro-Hungarian and Italian soldiers in the second worst avalanche-related disaster in history. During the First World War, a front opened up in the.Dolomite mountains between Italy and Austria-Hungary, fighting for control over each mountain peak. The cold, rocky and vertical terrain exposed the Italian and Austrian soldiers to difficult living conditions and severe dangers, such as high altitudes, snowstorms, strong winds, freezing temperatures, rock- and snow avalanches. Mount Marmolada was the highest mountain of the Dolomites, which the Austrians held the control of by late 1916. The Austrians had built wooden barracks on the Gran Poz Summit of Mount Marmolada, in which Austrians Mountain Troops werehoused. The ba...

Shortly before being executed for the murder of Deputy John Murphy, Dennis Dilda was granted the opportunity to pose for a photograph with his wife and two children. Shortly before being executed for the murder of Deputy John Murphy, Dennis Dilda was granted the opportunity to pose for a photograph with his wife and two children. His final words before the execution were, "Goodbye, boys!" The Hanging of Dennis Dilda In September 1885, Dilda got a job helping to manage William Hamilton Williscraft’s farm. The farmhouse came along with the job and Dilda and his wife and children moved in. Williscraft went to live elsewhere but kept one room in the farmhouse for himself. The room was always securely locked and inside was a locked trunk. Dilda was supposed to have worked alongside the farm’s general caretaker, “General Grant” Jenkins. By December, however, Jenkins had disappeared, and Williscraft noticed the lock had been pried off the door of his reserved room, the trunk had bee...

"Female prisoners who are virgins must be rap£d before execution, to prevent them from entering heaven." In Iran, they rap£d female prisoners they believed to be virgins before they killed them so that they would not be allowed into "Heaven' as part of their punishment. In Iran, Girls "Married" Before Being Executed  "In the lslamic Republic it is illegal to execute a young woman, regardless of her crime, if she is a virgin, he explained. Therefore a "wedding" ceremony is conducted the night before the execution: The young girl is forced to have sexual intercourse with a prison guard - essentially raped by her "husband." "I regret that, even though the marriages were legal" he said. "Because" he went on, "I could tell that the girls were more afraid of their 'wedding' night than of the execution that awaited them in the morning. And they would always fight back, so we would have to put sleeping pills...

A Pakistani soldier examines whether a man is circumcised or not during Bangladesh's War of independence, 1971 A Pakistani soldier during Bangladesh's war of independence in 1971 checks to see if this  man is circumcised. (Hindus were usually not circumcised). That must have been so embarrassing! In 1971, West East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) fought to seek independence from East West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan). The war lasted nine months and saw the exodus of 10 million refugees, the displacement of 30 million, and the deaths of 3 million. As with many wars and conflicts, rape was widespread with estimates of between 200,000 and 400,000 women being raped. Bengali speaking Muslims were by far the greatest casualties, but Hindus were also targeted by the Pakistani forces, and as such, soldiers would routinely check whether men were circumcised to determine whether they were Muslim or not. At checkpoints where soldiers would force the men to prove whether they were cir...

Frozen Soviet Soldier: Body of frozen Soviet soldier propped up by Finnish fighters to intimidate Soviet troops, 1939 The Finnish were no fans of the invading Soviet troops from Russia. They decided to use this frozen Soviet soldier's body as a scare tactic to demoralize the approaching Soviet troops. It was not a war between Russians and Finns, officers of hte Russian All-military union took a part in that war on the side of Finns, it was a war of a free nation against communist tyranny. The commander of the Finnish military resigned in protest aftr the government rejected 2:1 territorial concessions being offered by the USSR before the war because he knew what it'd lead to The Finns before it all broke loose-"They are so many, and our country is so small, where will we find room to bry them all?" The Russians after the war - "We've won just about enough ground to bury our dead." Finnish defenders sometimes, though very rarely, took fallen frozen Russia...

Soviet soldiers openly sexually harass German woman in Leipzig After the fall of 0f the city, a Russian general said that there will be a million Russian babies born in Berlin next year. the Germans murdered a lot of us and then starved our families to death, so we marched on Germany by months, sleeping in the frozen mud, eating just crackers and drinking foul water, only revenge on our minds... and then we reach this German town. And it was surreal, the place was never touched by war, there was gardens and flower pots in the windows".. Soviet Soldier Stalin, on the topic of Russian soldiers being accused of 2 million raped in Berlin, supposedly said, "What's wrong with a man having fun with a woman?" Germany supposedly killed 20 to 30 million Soviets This whole "What about" propaganda line is getting tired. There's already a word for it. It's called "hypocrisy," and Europeans are guilty of it "In his analysis of the motives behind th...

ldi Amin Dada sent love letters to the Queen ElizabethIl of England and asked her to marry him. He wanted to be the King of Scotland Idi Amin Dada a great warrior, once asked the queen of England to marry him, very bold. History: TIL that Ugandan Dictator ldi Amin Dada laid claim to the Scottish throne and offered to marry Queen Elizabeth to lead the Commonwealth. When she refused, he had four local British businessmen carry him around in a sedan chair at a diplomatic conference in Uganda. The Love Letter Idi Amin Dada, President Of Uganda Sent To Queen Elizabeth Of England . An African despot, Idi Amin Dada laid claim to the Scottish throne and offered to marry Queen Elizabeth to lead the Commonwealth. Mad at the Queen of Britain for her refusal to marry him, Idi Amin Dada had four local British businessmen to carry him around in a sedan chair at a diplomatic conference in Uganda. To mock the people who pointed out Uganda's crippling famine, Idi Amin Dada created the "Save Br...

Horrific Death of Mary Turner In 1918 Mary Turner, a young, married black woman and mother of two was lynched by a white mob in Lowndes County, Georgia, for protesting the lynching and murder of her husband. Mary Turner, who was eight months pregnant, was tied and hung upside down by the ankles, her clothes soaked with gasoline, and burned from her body. Her belly was slit open with a knife until her unborn child fell to the ground. Its little head was crushed by a member of the mob with his heel, and the crowd shot hundreds of bullets into Mary's body.....  Read story Racially motivated mob violence by whites against black people in the American South was commonplace between 1880 and 1930, the lives of thousands of individuals including at least 159 women, lost. When I first read about Mary Turner it sent me searching for more information. I became obsessed with the horrid details, unable to comprehend that level of cruelty. I wondered about the white men and women who stood by an...

A Turkish peasant performs his last prayer before being executed by Bulgarian soldiers, Cisr-i Mustafapaşa (Svilengrad), Bulgaria, 1913 The claim that the photo shows people executed for not wearing hats "two Turks who were tried at the Bulgarian Military Court allegedly were found guilty of shooting at a Bulgarian unit passing outside their village, another allegedly killing Bulgarian soldiers entering their homes. On one hand, they are guilty of armed resistance while not wearing a uniform (from the Bulgarian perspective). On another, they simply tried to defend their homes from an invading army (from the Turkish perspective). This is one of those grey areas, but these two seem to be more the victims than the guilty. By comparison, the soldiers in similar situation would be handled better (either shot on sight or taken as POWs). Both Bulgaria and Turkey were signatories to the First Geneva Convention (though it did not cover much). Someone not in uniform but with weapons was oft...

WATER TORTURE, FORCED INGESTION A man suffers the torture of water. Water torture is a form of torture in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time, resulting in gastric distention, water intoxication, and possibly death. Often the victim has the mouth forced or wedged open, the nose closed with pincers and a funnel or strip of cloth forced down the throat. The victim has to drink all the water (or other liquids such as bile or urine) poured into the funnel to avoid drowning. The stomach fills until near bursting and is sometimes beaten until the victim vomits and the torture begins again. The first use of wartime water torture by Americans occurred during the Philippine-American War of 1899 to 1902, when American soldiers and their indigenous minions used the “water cure” to extract information from Filipinos who resisted the occupation of their land, and to punish them. The practice, in which a prisoner was held down and forced to ingest large quan...

Sixteen blindfolded partisan youth await execution by German forces in Smederevska Palanka, Serbia A German soldier was widely reported to have been executed along with the partisans for refusing to take part in the action. However, in actuality he died from wounds he suffered the previous day. On October 21,1941, Nazi soldiers killed about 4,000 people as part of an "atonement exercise" in occupied Serbia. The victims came from all walks of life. Children were among them. Serbia does not play much of a role in Germany's historical recollection of World War II. That is despite the fact that from April 6, 1941, when the Nazis invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, until their full retreat in 1945, hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were stationed in the Balkan country. The remains of more than 15,400 slain Germans are buried at 719 cemeteries across Serbia. Evidence of atrocities committed by occupying German forces can be found in the countless graves that hold the rema...

A Senior Aum Shinrikyo official Hideo Murai just after being stabbed by the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza Seo Yoo-hyeng. Japan, 1995 The cult this dude belonged to was ridiculously evil. The level of killing they attempted to pursue could have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths, had they had proper scientific training. In regards to this particular guy, he had helped kill a lawyer, the lawyers wife, and the couples ONE year old baby. He built chemical and biological weapons, and took part in other murders of cult members as well. He.also helped produce massive amounts of drugs, be it Meth (super dirty meth, but it was still meth) and LSD Aum Shinrikyo was a cult in Japan (they still exist but in a smaller form) with teachings ranging from elements of Hinduism and Buddhism, and a few other teachings. The cult also took on a few interesting elements, like using yoga to spread its teachings and making its own anime as cult l propaganda. The cult's founder, Shoko Asahara, also declare...

Arizona inmate takes nearly two hours to die in execution An Arizona inmate took almost two hours to die by lethal injection and his lawyers said he "gasped and snorted" before succumbing in the latest botched execution to raise questions about the death penalty in the United States. The execution of convicted double murderer Joseph Wood began at 1:52 p.m. local time at a state prison complex, and the 55-year-old was only pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m., the Arizona attorney general's office said. During that time, his lawyers filed an emergency appeal in federal court that sought to have the execution halted and their client given life-saving medical treatment. The appeal said Wood had been "gasping and snorting for more than an hour," and that the procedure violated his constitutional right to be executed without suffering "cruel and unusual punishment." Wood had been one of six death row inmates who sued Arizona last month arguing that secrecy surround...

A young and unknown communist facing his execution. Munich 1918 or 1919 “Zum ewigen Andenken an den Spartakisten Krieg in München Bayern”. English: “As an eternal memento of the Spartacist War in Munich, Bavaria”. According to some sources, this is a real situation, other sources claim that this is a staged photograph. It’s most likely to be a staged event due to the various discrepancies in the photo. First, this does not look like an actual execution. They are too close to the wall to shoot without ricocheting and they’re not aiming or shouldering their guns in such a way that would indicate a readiness to fire. The guy on the far right is the biggest giveaway. His stance is all wrong for shooting, his grip on the rifle is incorrect, and he’s looking at the camera. Also, the officer is looking directly into the camera. Two of the guys in the back rank appear to be unfamiliar with their Mauser 98’s. Take a look at the guy who’s supposed to be executed, he got: defiant attitude, stylis...

Alabama is preparing to use a new method of execution on death row inmate later this month Nitrogen hypoxia, which is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, has been authorized by Alabama and two other states for executions but never used. MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama could be ready to use a new, untried execution method called nitrogen hypoxia to carry out a death sentence later this month, a state attorney told a federal judge Monday. James Houts, a deputy state attorney general, told U.S. District Judge R. Austin Huffaker Jr. that it is “very likely” the method will be available for the execution of Alan Eugene Miller, currently set for Sept. 22 by lethal injection. The final decision on whether to use the new method is up to Corrections Commissioner John Hamm, he said, and litigation is likely. Nitrogen hypoxia, which is supposed to cause death by replacing oxygen with nitrogen, has been authorized by Alabama and two other states for executions but never used. Con...