Thumb Screwing In Medieval Europe

Thumb screwing was first used in medieval Europe. The victim’s thumbs or fingers get placed in the vice and are slowly crushed. The thumb screw was also used to crush the victim’s big toes. Sometimes the crushing bars were lined with sharp metal points to puncture their fingers and inflict more pain. Thumb Screwing was inflicted on people to get confessions out of them. An example is was in 1956 two victims were accused of witchcraft and they used the thumbscrew to make their mother confess to the crime. The thumbscrew is also referred to as a