Death by boiling

In England, the use of boiling alive as a method of execution was rare. The ninth statute passed in 1531 (the 22nd year of the reign of King Henry VIII) made boiling alive the prescriptive form of capital punishment for murder committed by poisoning, which by the same Act was defined as high treason.Anno 22 Henry VIII (1530–31), Chapter 9, in The Statutes of the Realm Vol. 3: The Statutes of King Henry VIII (By Command 1817), Reprint (Dawsons of Pall Mall, London, 1963), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915533;view=1up;seq=382 p. 326] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615204232/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000017915533;view=1up;seq=382 |date=2020-06-15 }} (HathiTrust). This arose from a February 1531 incident in which the Bishop of Rochester's cook, Richard Roose, gave several people poisoned porridge, resulting in two deaths.Kesselring, K.J. (September 2001), A Draft of the 1531 'Acte for Poysoning', The English Historical Review Vol. 116, No. 468, pp. 894–899, JSTOR [https://www.jstor.org/stable/579196?seq=1 579196] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200621063103/https://www.jstor.org/stable/579196?seq=1 |date=2020-06-21 }}. A partial confession having been extracted by torture, the sentence was thus imposed by attainder and without benefit of clergy. His execution took place on April 15, 1532, at Smithfield. A contemporary chronicle reports the following:{{Cite book |last=Burke |first=S. Hubert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b58HAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA240 |title=The Men and Women of the English Reformation |publisher=R. Washbourne |year=1870 |location=London, United Kingdom |pages=240 |language=en |access-date=2023-03-13 |archive-date=2023-06-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612042157/https://books.google.com/books?id=b58HAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA240 |url-status=live }}

{{blockquote|He roared mighty loud, and divers women who were big with child did feel sick at the sight of what they saw, and were carried away half dead; and other men and women did not seem frightened by the boiling alive, but would prefer to see the headsman at his work.}}

Boiling to death was employed again in 1542 for a woman, Margaret Davy,{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Boiling to Death|volume=4|page=153}} who had also used poison.{{Citation | last = Newlin | first = George | year = 2000 | title = Understanding Great expectations | pages = [https://archive.org/details/understandinggre00newl/page/136 136] | isbn = 978-0-313-29940-7 | publisher = Greenwood Press | location = Westport, Conn. | oclc = 41488673 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/understandinggre00newl/page/136 }}Leslie, Frank, Frank Leslie, and Ellery Sedgwick. 1876. Frank Leslie's popular monthly. [New York]: Frank Leslie Pub. House. p 343 During the reign of Edward VI, in 1547, the 1531 act was repealed.

Numerous people have been boiled to death in Scotland. For example, with the consent of Jon Haraldsson, the "Bloody Earl" of Orkney, the bishop of Caithness, Adam of Melrose, and a monk named Surlo are said to have been boiled to death by angry husbandmen in 1222 over the bishop's aggressive means of collecting tithes. Alexander II is said to have executed upwards of eighty persons as a punishment for killing the bishop and monk, and the earl fled his lands.John Pinkerton: "[https://books.google.com/books?id=mFJBAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA158 A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages], Volume 3", London 1809, p. 158. The same tradition is transmitted in {{cite journal |year = 1842 |journal = The Scottish Journal of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions |page = 248 |publisher = Stevenson and Menzies |location = Edinburgh }} But according to the Melrose Chronicle, Adam of Melrose was "burned alive", rather than boiled, and Alexander II executed up to 400 for the crime against the clergy.Soc. Diff. Use. Knowl. (1842), [https://books.google.com/books?id=f5VUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA310 p. 310] in {{cite book |author = Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowledge |year = 1842 |title = The Biographical Dictionary |page = 310 |publisher = Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans| location = London }}

File:Deventer ketel.jpg (Netherlands)]]

William de Soules, a nobleman involved in a conspiracy against Robert the Bruce, was reputed to be a sorcerer consorting with evil spirits, and was boiled alive in 1321 at Ninestane Rig."[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_yRMeAAAAMAAJ/page/n227 The Complete Works of Sir Walter Scott], New York, 1833, p. 216. Around 1420, Melville, the sheriff of the Mearns and laird of Glenbervie, who was resented for his strictness, was apprehended by some other nobles and thrown into the kettle. The nobles are said to have each taken a spoonful of the brew afterwards."[https://books.google.com/books?id=6NE9AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA34 The new statistical account of Scotland, Volume 18]", Edinburgh 1838, pp. 34-35.

Boiling as an execution method was also used for counterfeiters, swindlers and coin forgers during the Middle Ages.{{cite book|last=Monter|first=E. William |title=A bewitched duchy: Lorraine and its dukes, 1477-1736 |publisher=Librairie Droz |year=2007|page=163|isbn=978-2-600-01165-5}} In the Holy Roman Empire, for example, being boiled to death in oil is recorded for coin forgers and extremely grave murderers. In 1392, a man was boiled alive in Nuremberg for having raped and murdered his own mother.Mayer, M.M: "[https://books.google.com/books?id=HS1BAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA102 Kleine Chronik der Reichsstadt Nürnberg: Mit einem Grundrisse], Nuremberg 1847 p. 102, Coin forgers were boiled to death in 1452 in DanzigKrüger, J.G: "[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_RnMAAAAAcAAJ/page/n99 Die beglückte und geschmückte Stadt Lübeck]", 1697, p. 20. and in 1471 in Stralsund.

von Klemptzen, N.:"[https://books.google.com/books?id=OldFAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA37 Nicolaus Klemzen vom Pommer-lande und dessen fürsten geschlecht-beschreibung]", Stralsund 1771, p. 39. Even as late as 1687, a man in Bremen was boiled to death in oil for having been of valuable help to some coin forgers who had escaped justice."[https://books.google.com/books?id=BnIDAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA116 Blätter für literarische Unterhaltung, Volum 1], p. 116, review of "Taschenbuch für vaterländische Geschichte", Berlin 1843.

In the Dutch town of Deventer, the kettle that was used for boiling criminals to death can still be seen.{{cite web|url=http://www.planetware.com/deventer/weigh-house-nl-ov-dwh.htm|title=10 Top Tourist Attractions in Arnhem & Easy Day Trips - PlanetWare|website=planetware.com|access-date=2008-04-26|archive-date=2011-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111029004635/http://www.planetware.com/deventer/weigh-house-nl-ov-dwh.htm|url-status=live}}

File:Excecution of Goemon Ishikawa.jpg and his son]]

In 16th-century Japan, the semi-legendary Japanese bandit Ishikawa Goemon and his son were boiled alive in the 1590s by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.{{Cite book |last=Botsman |first=Daniel V. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ctsDAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA41 |title=Punishment and Power in the Making of Modern Japan |date=2013-10-24 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-1-4008-4929-1 |language=en}} In 1675, a Sikh martyr called Bhai Dayala was boiled to death in Delhi after he refused to convert to Islam. He was put into a cauldron full of cold water which was then heated to boiling point. Sikh scriptures record that Dayala recited the Japji of Guru Nanak and the Sukhmani of Guru Arjan as he died.{{cite book|last=Singha|first=H. S. |title=The encyclopedia of Sikhism|publisher=Hemkunt Press|year=2000|page=56|isbn=978-81-7010-301-1}}

Thomas Ewbank relates in his 1856 book Life in Brazil that he was told of an enslaved Afro-Brazilian being publicly boiled to death by a plantation owner as punishment for acts of insubordination.Ewbank, Thomas. (1856) [https://books.google.com/books?id=NZfZ6e8UH58C&pg=PA439 Life in Brazil]. New York: Harper & Brothers. p 439.

The government of Uzbekistan under Islam Karimov (1991–2016) has been alleged to have boiled suspected terrorists.{{cite news|title=Uzbekistan: Two Brutal Deaths in Custody|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/09/uzbekistan-two-brutal-deaths-custody|access-date=6 January 2015|publisher=Hrw.org|archive-date=29 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141229212031/http://www.hrw.org/news/2002/08/09/uzbekistan-two-brutal-deaths-custody|url-status=live}}

In a United States Department of State document from 2004, the following is written:{{blockquote|During the year, there were no developments or investigations in the following 2002 deaths in custody: Asilbek Sa’diyev and Shahzodjon Muzafarov, members of gang band who were tortured to death in Jaslyk Prison in Karakalpakstan resulting in extensive bruises and burns, the latter reportedly caused by immersion in boiling water.{{cite web|url = https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27873.htm|title = Uzbekistan|website = state.gov|access-date = 2019-05-25|archive-date = 2020-03-22|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200322005646/https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27873.htm|url-status = live}}}}Former ISIS commander Abu Abboud al-Raqqawi referred to ISIS's brutal execution methods, among which was boiling prisoners alive in engine oil:

{{blockquote|Some people were boiled alive in oil. Engine oil. They burned wood on a fire for an hour before throwing the victim into boiling oil. It's the Tunisians who were responsible for that.{{Cite web|url=https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/qs/avhoppade-ledaren-talar-ut-om-livet-med-is/|title=World-exclusive: Commander on the run tells of the terror inside ISIS|date=11 October 2017 |access-date=2017-10-14|archive-date=2017-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171014234512/https://www.expressen.se/nyheter/qs/avhoppade-ledaren-talar-ut-om-livet-med-is/|url-status=live}}}}

In the 2010 documentary El Sicario, Room 164, the masked sicario interviewee claims that the Mexican cartels boil in oil those found to be working for the police.

Early reports of cannibals from places in the Pacific, such as Fiji and Papua New Guinea, killing Western Christian missionaries were assumed to involve some form of boiling alive.{{cite web |url = http://www.thatsweird.net/news19.shtml |title = Villagers apologize for cannibal ancestors eating missionary: Weird News, Strange But True Stories, Odd Facts, Bizarre |website = www.thatsweird.net |access-date = 2010-07-23 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100719042651/http://www.thatsweird.net/news19.shtml |archive-date = 2010-07-19 |url-status = dead }} This became a fertile ground for film makers and especially cartoonists, whose clichéd depiction of tourists or missionaries sitting restrained in a large cauldron above a wood fire and surrounded by bone-nosed tribesmen was a staple of popular magazines and films for decades. Examples include the 1980 television miniseries Shōgun,{{cite web | url=http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/48560/shogun-30th-anniversary-edition/ | title=Shogun – 30th Anniversary Edition | publisher=DVDTalk | date=2011-03-14 | access-date=1 January 2015 | author=Mavis, Paul | archive-date=2015-01-02 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102081842/http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/48560/shogun-30th-anniversary-edition/ | url-status=live }} the 1985 film adaptation of King Solomon's Mines{{Cite web|url=http://www.indiefilm.com/cookbook/encyclopedia/ecmK.html|title=Encyclopedia of Cannibal Movies: K|website=www.indiefilm.com|access-date=2019-11-23|archive-date=2021-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803063647/http://www.indiefilm.com/cookbook/encyclopedia/ecmK.html|url-status=live}} and the dream sequence in the film Bagdad Café.{{cite web|url=http://www.indiefilm.com/cookbook/encyclopedia/ecmB.html|title=Encyclopedia of Cannibal Movies: B|author=Satellite Ground Systems|website=www.indiefilm.com|access-date=2010-07-23|archive-date=2023-06-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612042156/http://www.indiefilm.com/cookbook/encyclopedia/ecmB.html|url-status=live}}

Fromental Halévy's 1835 opera La Juive ends with Rachel (the title character) being boiled alive in a vat of oil after her relationship with the Christian prince Léopold is discovered by antisemitic state and church authorities.

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• [http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/27/china10549.htm#UZBEKISTAN Human Rights Watch: Torture Worldwide: Uzbekistan]

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{{Capital punishment}}

Boiling

Category:Water torture