Thumbscrews


Despite their size and simplicity thumbscrews are very effective little instruments. The thumbs or big toes are placed in position and then the vice part is screwed down onto them. It is a slow and gradual process most often used at the start of interrogations.


The pressure exerted at the base of the thumb or toenail by the fully closed apparatus would cause the collected blood at the tip of the digit to rupture the skin and spurt out.

The inner edges of thumbscrews can be plain, serrated or lined with studs.
"And then came also - God in highest heaven have mercy - the executioner and put the thumbscrews on me, both hands bound together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere, so that for four weeks I could not use my hands"
Johannes Junius, Mayor of Bamburg, Germany, Extract from his Letter 1628




Thumbscrews were one of the methods used when the accused was said to have "confessed without torture" as their use was seen more as a form of coercion rather than torture.


Although demonstrated here in the wrong position on the thumbs
this picture shows just how "pocket-sized" thumbscrews could be.

Sadly thumbscrews are not confined to the pages of history like so many other torture instruments. Thumbscrews are illegal in most countries in the western world. However, despite being in contravention of Human Rights, they are still used by police forces in some places.


Amnesty International is campaigning to stop countries like America from exporting torture tools such as thumbscrews as "police equipment" and "anti-terrorist training tools" to police state countries that are their allies.


Back to History Index

Back to Main Index