Dark History: Where The Darkness See’s The Light
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Dark History: Where The Darkness See’s The Light
S2 E18: Spooky Season Special: History’s Worst Execution
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We bought this run-down house, my missus and I. While I started working on converting the kitchen into the main bedroom, she insisted on removing the old wallpaper. The previous owner papered every wall and ceiling in the house! It’s a lot of work to remove, but it feels so good to get rid of it. The best feeling is getting a long peel, like when your skin peels after a bad sunburn. She’d turned it into a game, on the hunt to rip the longest piece possible.
She shouted to me when she noticed there was a person’s name and date under a corner section of paper in every room. I couldn’t help but investigate and Googled those names. What I discovered left me speechless. The names all belonged to missing people, and the dates matched the day of their disappearance! We notified the police, who sent the crime scene team. I overheard one of them say, “Yeah, it’s human.” Wait, what’s human? “Sir, where is all the material you removed? This isn’t wallpaper…..its skin”
Hi everyone and welcome back to the dark history podcast where we explore the darkest parts of human history. hope everyone is well I’m Rob your host as always. Welcome to the new episode, again I hope you enjoy our short little ghost story to start, This if the second instalment of our spooky season special. Today we will be looking into some of histories most gruesome executions, I don't think I need to tell you that this could get a little disgusting so for people with a weak stomach or people who get distressed when listening to descriptions of torture or suffering this is your warning.
So without further ado please turn off those lights sit back and relax under the blanker for more dark history.
We start our descent into the bloody and sickening rabbit hole that is today's episode with a Hungarian rebel named György Dózsa and believe me this story is not for the faint-hearted.
Dozsa was born born in Dálnok (today Dalnic) around 1470. Not a lot is know of his younger years but what we do know is he became attracted to the military career, and wanted to follow in his father's footsteps after his father death.
Dózsa served in several fortresses and became known as an excellent duelist. He took part as a cavalry captain in the 1513 campaign against the Ottomans. After the campaign he remained on guard in Belgrade. But Dózsa's desire for glory grew, he challenged the feared Ottoman champion Ali of Epeiro to a duel. Ali was the leader of the Ottoman Spahi cavalry who had already caused the death of many Hungarian during duels. Ali immediately accepted the challenge, the duel was held on the field between Belgrade and smedervo on 28 February 1514. After a desperate long but fierce struggle, Dózsa cut off one of Ali's arm, and finally beheaded the Ottoman champion. With this victory, Dózsa won a nation-wide reputation and fame. For this brave deed, György Dózsa was knighted by King Valdislaus.
The Hungarian chancellor, Tamás Bakócz, on his return from the Holy See in 1514 with a papal bull issued by Leo X authorising a crusade against the Ottomans. He appointed Dózsa to organize and direct the movement. Within a few weeks he had gathered an army of some 100,000 so-called kuruc, consisting for the most part of peasants, wandering students, friars, and parish priests - some of the lowest-ranking groups of medieval society. They assembled in their counties, and by the time Dózsa had provided them with some military training, they began to air the grievances of their status.
No measures had been taken to supply these voluntary crusaders with food or clothing; as harvest-time approached, the landlords commanded them to return to reap the fields, and, on their refusing to do so, proceeded to maltreat their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the local peasantry.
The rebellious, anti-landlord sentiment of these “Crusaders” became apparent during their march across the Great Alföld, and Bakócz canceled the campaign. Instantly, the movement was diverted from its original object, and the peasants and their leaders began a war of vengeance against the landlords.
The rebellion spread quickly, principally in the central or purely Magyar provinces, where hundreds of manor houses and castles were burnt and thousands of the gentry killed by impalement, crucifixion, and other methods. Dózsa's camp at Cegléd was the centre of the rebellion and all raids in the surrounding area had it as their starting point.
In reaction, the papal bull was revoked, and King Vladislaus II issued a proclamation commanding the peasantry to return to their homes under pain of death.
By this time Dózsa had captured the city and fortress of today's Cenad, and signaled his victory by impaling the bishop and the castellan.
Subsequently, at Arad, Lord Treasurer István Telegdy was also seized and tortured to death. After this Dozsa rebellion was beinning to wear thin, he was routed at Timişoara by an army of 20,000 led by John Zápolya and István Báthory. He was captured after the battle, and condemned to death.
On the 20th of June 1514 Dozsa was condemned to to sit on a smouldering, heated iron throne, and forced to wear a heated iron crown and hold a heated sceptre mocking his ambition to be king. While he was suffering, a procession of nine fellow rebels who had been starved beforehand were led to this throne. At the front was Dózsa's younger brother, Gergely, who was cut in three despite Dózsa asking for Gergely to be spared. Next, the executioners removed some pliers from a fire and forced them into Dózsa's skin. After tearing his flesh, the remaining rebels were ordered to bite spots where the hot pliers had been inserted and to swallow the flesh. The three or four who refused were simply cut up, prompting the others to comply. In the end, Dózsa died from the ordeal, while the rebels who obeyed were released and left alone.
After that terrible end it a wonder how we can top it, but unfortunately we can with the tale of the Dutch prime minister Johan De Witts lynching and subsequent canabalisation at the hand of his people.
Johan de Witt was born in 1625 in the Netherlands. His father was a distinguished man and the burgomaster, or mayor, of their native town Dordrecht.
Witt was well educated and showed strength in mathematics early on. When he came to power, his used his math skills to handle the republic’s financial and budgetary matters.
Johan de Witt’s father was strongly opposed to the House of Orange, a branch of Europe’s aristocratic dynasty called the House of Nassau. The Orange monarchists and the Republican merchant class had a long-running conflict.
Johan de Witt followed his father’s lead, and while becoming more and more politically influential, he remained stringently anti-Orange. His intelligence and eloquence, in addition to his father’s status, helped Johan de Witt become the ruler of Holland. He was named councilor pensionary (the political leader) in 1653 when he was 28-years-old.
At the time he took power, the United Provinces, the predecessor state to the Netherlands, was at war with England. But with his keen political skills, de Witt was able to negotiate peace talks.
De Witt was reelected to the position three times – in 1658, 1663, and 1668.
As councillor pensionary, de Witt made great strides in securing and maintaining peace with other European countries. He also managed to pit the Republic’s enemies – England and France – against one another.
Through all of this, he still opposed the Orange monarchy and refused to let the Prince of Orange hold a political position.
in 1672, things wouldn’t work out so well: political chaos caught up with the Dutch Republic when Louis 14th of France suddenly declared war.
The Franco-Dutch war became known as the Dutch rampjaar, meaning the disaster year, as both England and France attacked and were able to effortlessly invade the Dutch Republic. While the Dutch navy was strong, their army had been largely overlooked. The Dutch people suffered defeat after defeat at the hands of the French.
Johan de Witt’s power collapsed. In the aftermath, the Dutch blamed de Witt and his inattention to the Dutch land army. Many thought he failed and wanted stronger leadership.
That’s where William III of the House of Orange came in. The people called on William III to take over while they demonstrated against de Witt. De Witt’s brother, Cornelius, was arrested for treason for conspiring against William III. After he was subjected to torture, Cornelius was put in prison. Having resigned on Aug. 4, 1672, Johan de Witt went to visit his brother at the Gevangenpoort (the prison) at The Hague.
What de Witt didn’t know was that an organized lynch mob, knowing he was visiting his brother, was waiting in the wings.
With no guard in sight, the crowd burst in and dragged the brothers out. The mob then ripped them to pieces. Literally.
The mob broke into the prison and accosted the two brothers. Dragging them into the streets, they hung them by their feet in the city’s public gibbet, one of the most humiliating forms of punishment and execution of the 17th Century. mob ripped the flesh from the bodies and began selling and eating the remains, both of the brothers livers were taken out roasted and eaten. Limbs and clothes belonging to the brothers were apparently sold to bystanders in auctions, while pieces of the bodies were proudly put on display in pubs. Believe it or not, some of Johan’s and Cornelius’ body parts still survive today and are preserved in the Historical Museum of The Hague where the prison gates stand.
Unfortunately, these don't get any better and for our next story we stay in the Netherlands. The Dutch really do have some interesting methods of execution.
Balthasar Gérard was a stornch Catholic born in 1557 in Vuillafans which is in modern day France. A lawyer by trade, Gérard was a fervent Catholic and supporter of the Spanish crown, which controlled the territory up the coast through the present-day Netherlands. At the peak of its power
On 15 March 1580 Phillip of Spain placed a bounty on the head of the Dutch revolts leader Prince William the silent. On July 10, 1584, after dinner in his home, William went downstairs, where Gerard suddenly stepped out and fired one of two wheel lock pistols at William’s chest. He collapsed and died on the spot, and Gerard fled. But as he made his daring escape our fleet footed assassin tripped over some rubbish and was caught. He did not deny his actions and was tried and found guilty.
The court ordered that Gerard be tortured for three days.
On the first, he was hung with his hands tied behind him on a pole and raised and dropped, dislocating his shoulders. Then he was flogged with a bullwhip. The wounds were smeared with honey, and a goat was brought to lick them with its rough tongue, but it would not approach, so his wounds were rubbed with salt. The next day he was hung on the pole again, and three hundred-pound weights were tied to each of his big toes for thirty minutes.
Shoes made of uncured leather were put on his feet, and he was placed by a fire, the heat of which contracted the shoes, crushing the bones of his feet. The next day they were ripped off, taking his cooked flesh with them.
Then branding irons were pressed into his armpits. His pectoral muscles were cut out, the wounds were rubbed with salt, and pins were shoved under all his fingernails and toenails. Then he was fitted in a shirt soaked in alcohol, and burning bacon grease was poured over him.
On July 14, pincers were used to tear his flesh off. Then his right hand was burned off with a red-hot iron. Then his belly was ripped open, his intestines pulled out, his genitals sliced off, and his arms and legs hacked off. His lips were seen to be trembling until his chest was cut open, and his heart was ripped out and flung in his face.
Our final story today takes us to Germany and The legends of Peter Niers. His legend may be lesser-known than those of Vlad the Impaler or Elizabeth Báthory, but they are no less horrifying.
Niers was born into a peasant family in 16th-century Germany. During the heyday of serfdom, Niers saw firsthand the struggles of rampant classism. No doubt the inhumane living conditions and treatment of the peasant class were a catalyst for his later sociopathy. Niers’ murder spree took place in the aftermath of a country-wide peasant uprising that began in 1525. Also known as the German Peasants’ War, this revolt was the largest uprising in Europe until the French Revolution. Peasant armies stormed the castles of wealthy landowners, monasteries, and cities.
The revolution naturally fostered a hostile environment in which groups of thieving highwaymen roved.
Niers formed a gang of his own in Alsace, France, a town situated in the middle of the conflict. It is believed Niers was inspired by fellow murderer Martin Stier, a shepherd and murderer who organized 48 fellow shepherds into a gang of bandits. Stier and his gang claimed to have traveled all the way to the Netherlands. After a 22-year crime spree, Stier was executed in 1572, but not before mentoring Niers.
Niers and his rotating group of 24 bandits terrorized the European countryside for years as they stole from and murdered travelers on remote highways.
The gang split up to target smaller attacks or banded together to take down larger ones. Eventually, the gang became emboldened enough to march into towns and villages to murder, rape, and attack citizens for their goods.
Niers’ gang traveled hundreds of miles across southern Germany, western France, the Rhineland, and Bavaria. The gang’s widespread network of crime extended the stories of their misdeeds across Europe and created the lore around Peter Nier and his crimes that persists today.
In 1577, Niers and members of his gang were captured for the first time after 11 years of crime. One of Niers’ accomplices had turned them in and Niers was consequently tortured. He reportedly confessed to 75 murders, some of which explained several accounts of missing local women. Niers somehow managed to escape his first imprisonment and avoid execution. Soon after, the stories of his terrors reached folklorish levels of gore. Pamphlets, books, and songs about him were circulated and featured cannibalism, black magic rituals, and supernatural abilities. Legend also maintained that cannibalizing fetuses could give one the ability to transform himself into a log, stone, or animal. As a black magician, it was believed that Niers acquired an appetite for infanticide.
Finally, in 1581, Niers’ tenure as a serial killer would come to an appropriately disturbing end. He was finally caught along with several other thieves and murderers in Neumarkt, where he stayed at an inn. During three days of torture, he eventually confessed to 544 murders and cannibalism. On the first day, pincers were used to tear strips of flesh from all over his body, and hot oil was then poured into these wounds. On the second day, his feet were smeared with hot oil and held over hot coals, thus roasting them to bones.
On the third day, he was broken on the wheel. The procedure of the breaking wheel varied over time and from place to place. In his case, he was tied face-up and naked to raised wood stakes on the ground, which elevated his limbs a few inches. A large, iron-rimmed wagon wheel was then lifted over him and slammed down on his arms and legs a total of 42 times, pulverizing the bones from the hands to the shoulders and the feet to the hips. Then, rather than twist his shattered limbs around and through the rim and spokes of the wheel, they were simply hacked off while he was still alive.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen to this dark episode. Well that was sickening, it really does amaze me how we as humans can devise some pretty horrible ways to kill our fellow humans.
The story of György Dózsa is probably the tames of all these believe it or not, but Jesus that must have been terrible to endure. He is treated as a kind of national hero now with a square, a busy six-lane avenue, and a metro station bear his name in the capital and it is one of the most popular street names in Hungarian villages. A number of streets in several cities of Romania are named Gheorghe Doja. Also, a number of streets in several cities of Serbia are named after him.
Johan De Witt’s end wow, I mean the poor guy was down on his luck by the end anyway, he lost hia job, his brother in prison then when he go to visit him in prison your literally Tore limb from limb by a crowd, have some parts of you eaten and displayed for people see that is just brutal.
Balthasar Gérard…. Shit You Dutch were inventive, a goat, a fucking goat, wow and when that didn't work they were like sod it stick salt in there that will do the trick. I mean there is no other word to discribe it then inventive, they broke his feet with shoes what the actual.
In the case of Peter Nierd It was said that Niers was a master black magician who could render himself invisible, transform into a cat, a dog, or a goat. It was said that he garnered these powers through the cannibalization of fetuses and he kept the severed hands and feet of infants in a leather pouch at all times.
It’s no wonder, then, why the German robber-bandit has since been solidly rooted among some of the worst serial killers in historyand he out of them all deserved what happened to him.
Before I finish I must apologise to everyone for me pronunciation I really do try to get them right but Hungarian is incredibly hard and I'd given up by the Dutch one.
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