Whether they like the macabre or enjoy the shiver they get when they see them, torture devices have always fascinated the public. Perhaps thats why novels and movies are full of the most inventive torture methods that a writer can conjure up. But then again, so is history.Klaus D. Peter/Wikimedia CommonsThe alleged torture device known as the pear of anguish, also referred to as the choke pear.People have applied their imagination to inflicting pain in new, horrifying ways for thousands of years. But sometimes, when it comes to torture, reality and fantasy can get mixed up. In fact, many of the most famous torture devices from history actually seem to have only seen use in our collective imagination. The Iron Maiden, for instance, was probably nothing but a hoax dreamed up by someone who knew that the more disturbing a torture device is, the more people will pay money to see it.But few torture devices, real or imaginary, are as disturbing as the pear of anguish.How The Pear Of Anguish Allegedly WorkedTo conceive of the horrors of the pear of anguish, also known as the choke pear, imagine a lump of cold metal being slowly forced into your anus. Its shaped like a pear, with a bulbous head on one end and a narrower stem on the other, and attached to the stem is a screw.Your torturer now asks for information, a confession, or whatever it is he wants to get out of you.Wikimedia CommonsA pear of anguish in Lubuska Land Museum in Zielona Gra, Poland.You see, as he turns the screw, the head of the pear of anguish begins to expand. The metal presses against the walls of your rectum. The pressure begins to build and it feels like the metal is going to rip through the delicate tissue. And in fact, it might.But the goal of the pear of anguish is not to puncture the flesh, which could quickly lead to fatal bleeding. Instead, the choke pear is meant to stretch the anus as far as possible. As it stretches and rips the skin, it overloads the sensitive nerve endings and produces searing agony.How long could you hold up under such an interrogation with the pear of anguish? Minutes? Seconds? Its hard to imagine a more effective way to torture someone. Considering that, its easy to see how the choke pear might have been used frequently during the days when torture was a vital part of the justice system.Did The Pear Of Anguish Actually Exist?But surprisingly, that doesnt seem to be the case. The choke pear probably didnt exist before the 17th century at the earliest or at least, not in the way we imagine it.According to contemporary written accounts, if the pear of anguish saw any use at all, then it actually went into the body at the other end. The few sources from the period that make any mention of it usually call it the choke pear and it wasnt a torture device in the usual sense.Instead, the pear of anguish might have been used to keep robbery victims from calling for help. The device was pushed into the mouth and expanded. The victim was then unable to get it out without a key, preventing them from calling for the police. It also meant that they had to pay a bribe to the criminals to get the key.Wikimedia CommonsA choke pear torture device on display alongside a chastity belt at the Museo de la Inquisicin in Crdoba, Spain.Of course, there are examples of these kinds of devices in museums and private collections. However, most of the evidence suggests that these were either gags used by criminals or, more likely, imitations of the classic pear of anguish that only existed in the imagination.Why The Story Of The Choke Pear Lingers OnSo, where did the idea of the choke pear come from?It could be that people, seeing these metal gags, imagined the worst possible use it could be put to based on the shape. Or perhaps some particularly imaginative person tried to come up with the most horrific torture device they could, and the result was the pear of anguish.After all, the choke pear is a truly devious idea. It fills that extra element our minds look for when it comes to the grotesque and it adds a sexual violation to the physical pain of torture. Luckily, the pear of anguish doesnt seem to have really existed, except in our minds.Enjoy learning about the horrifying pear of anguish? Next, read about the brazen bull, another torture device straight from your nightmares. Then check out some of historys worst ways to die.The post The Pear Of Anguish And Its Alleged Use As A Torture Device In Early Modern Europe appeared first on All That's Interesting.

In 1725, a Russian peasant gave birth for the first time. That alone would not be worth noting except that she purportedly went on to have 26 more pregnancies. In all, Valentina Vassilyev is believed to have had an eye-popping 69 children thanks to births of twins, triplets, and quadruplets.Today, Vassilyev even holds the the Guinness World Record as the worlds Most Prolific Mother. The site notes that this seemingly improbable and statistically unlikely story is true based on contemporary sources which seemed to have documented her many pregnancies.Wellcome ImagesLittle is known about Valentina Vassilyev even her real first name.But is it even physically possible for a woman to have nearly 70 children?The 27 Labors Of Valentina VassilyevAccording to the BBC, the records of an 18th-century Russian monastery reported that Valentina Vassilyev gave birth 27 times between 1725 and 1765. Those 27 labors left the Russian peasant with 69 children because Vassilyev had several multiple births.Over a 40 year period, Vassilyev purportedly had 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets, and four quadruplets. That adds up to an astounding 69 children. And if its true, then Vassilyev spent much of her life pregnant. Wellcome ImagesValentina Vassilyev reportedly gave birth to seven sets of triplets.According to Guinness World Records, Vassilyev gave birth for the first time around 1725 and for the last time around 1765. That means she would have spent 18 of 40 years pregnant before she died around the age of 76.Perhaps even more incredibly, almost all her children are believed to have survived. In a 1782 report to Moscow, the the Monastery of Nikolsk noted that just two of her many offspring died in infancy.So is any of this true?Are These The Most Children Born To One Woman? Heres The EvidenceAs incredible as Valentina Vassilyevs story may seem, there are a number of sources which suggest that she had the most children born to one woman. In addition to the monastery records cited by both Guinness World Records and the BBC, there are also contemporary press accounts of Vassilyevs 69 children. In 1783, The Gentlemans Magazine discussed the claim that Vassilyevs husband Feodor had not only had 69 children with her, but 18 more children with his second wife. In an original letter now before me, the magazine writer noted, dated St Petersburg, Aug 13, 1782, O. S. Feodor Wassilief [sic], aged 75, a peasant, said to be now alive and in perfect health, in the Government of Moscow, has had by his first wife 4 x 4 = 16, 7 x 3 = 21, 16 x 2 = 32, 27 births, 69 children. By his second wife 6 x 2 = 12, 2 x 3 = 6, 8 births, 18 children.The writer continued: The above relation, however astonishing, may be depended upon, as it came directly from an English merchant at St. Petersburg to his relatives in England, who added that the peasant was to be introduced to the Empress.By todays standards of evidence, a second-hand story from an English merchant may seem dubious. But many other contemporaneous sources mention Vassilyevs many children as well. Wikimedia CommonsRussian peasant families were often large but a family of 71 was unheard of.In the day of 27 February 1782, the list from Nikolskiy monastery came to Moscow containing the information that a peasant of the Shuya district, Feodor Vassilyev, married twice, had 87 children, one author reported in an 1834 book. His first wife in 27 confinements gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets. His second wife in eight confinements gave birth to six pairs of twins and two sets of triplets. F. Vassilyev was 75 at that time with 82 of his children alive.However while Feodors name was attached to these stories, Valentina often went unnamed. In fact, there is some doubt about what her first name even was. And despite the sources about her pregnancies, many also doubt that its possible for one woman to have 69 children. So is it?Valentina Vassilyev And The Limits Of NatureWould it be physically possible for a woman to give birth to 69 children, especially in the era before modern medicine?From a scientific perspective, its certainly possible for a woman to be fertile for 40 years. It is also not impossible for a woman to have 27 pregnancies during her fertile years, although Vassilyevs final pregnancy took place after the average age of menopause. Wellcome ImagesChildbirth was often deadly for mothers, leaving some wondering if Valentina Vassilyev could have survived 27 labors.And its also possible to have multiple sets of multiple births. A condition called hyper-ovulation causes some women to release several eggs during each menstrual cycle, which increases the odds of a multiple birth. Perhaps Vassilyev had such a condition though, given her husbands track record, it also seemed that multiple births ran in his family. That said, could a 18th century Russian peasant survive 27 high-risk pregnancies, including several at advanced maternal age? Nature would want to make limits, Stanford obstetrics professor Valerie Baker said according to History Daily. Pregnancy is the most physically rigorous thing a womans body ever goes through.James Segars, Director of the Division of Reproductive Science and Womens Health Research at Johns Hopkins University, agreed in a BBC interview. In the past, every pregnancy was a risk to the mothers life, he said.But while its possible that Vassilyev survived 27 pregnancies, its statistically unlikely that she would have had so many multiple births. Northeastern University professor Jonathan Tilly, who researches womens fertility, says Even just the 16 sets of twins? Id be shocked.Wellcome ImagesMultiple births caused complications for mothers and infants. The high survival rate of Valentina Vassilyevs children is almost as stunning as the sheer number of children.And its also unlikely that so many of her children would have survived. By the end of the 18th century in Russia, over a quarter of children died in infancy. Given this, Vassilyevs children had a surprisingly good mortality rate. Thats especially true since twins, triplets, and quadruplets have an even higher mortality rate than single babies, because they are often born prematurely. Even if you had four sets of quads today, Im not sure theyd all survive, Segars explained in 2015.So is it possible that Valentina and Feodor Vassilyevs children had such a low mortality rate in a time where more than 25 percent of Russian children did not survive infancy? Once again, its possible but unlikely. Despite these doubts, however, Valentina Vassilyev does hold the world record for Most Prolific Mother. Valentina Vassilyevs World RecordAs Guinness World Records notes: Numerous contemporaneous sources exist, which suggest that this seemingly improbable and statistically unlikely story is true and [Vassilyev] is the woman with most children.Why? As the site notes, both monastery records and contemporary press reports seem to back up the story that Valentina Vassilyev and her husband had 69 children (and that he went on to have even more). Of course, records can be inaccurate, as can reports from merchants in distant lands. Historical sources that mention Vassilyev do not definitively prove her story. After all, during Vassilyevs prolific childbearing era, a British woman reportedly gave birth to rabbits. That story quickly appeared in magazines and newspapers across the country.Wikimedia CommonsIn 1726, Mary Toft convinced Britain that she was giving birth to rabbits.Plus, the physical challenges of birthing 69 children in the 18th century also creates doubt about Valentina Vassilyev.So is the story real? Was Vassilyev the woman who had the most children in world history? Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And perhaps well never know for sure.After reading about Valentina Vassilyev and her 69 children, learn about the many children of Genghis Khan. Or, discover the disparate fates of King Henry VIIIs children.The post The Story Of Valentina Vassilyev, The 18th-Century Russian Woman Who Reportedly Gave Birth To 69 Children appeared first on All That's Interesting.

On June 30, 1999, the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick was discovered in a cornfield 20 miles outside of St. Louis, Missouri. Because he was poor and likely suffering from mental health issues, McCormicks death might have gone unnoticed except for the two pages of notes in his pockets.Written in intricate, unbreakable code, McCormicks notes have stumped elite and amateur codebreakers for years. Though his family insists that he could hardly spell, let alone develop a secret code, many are convinced that the notes found on McCormicks body hold the key to his mysterious death.Indeed, theres more to the case of Ricky McCormick than meets the eye. According to those who knew him, Ricky McCormick was possibly involved in drug trafficking, and he was known to work with several dangerous figures in St. Louis.But who killed him and why? This is the baffling story of Ricky McCormick.The Boy With A Brick Wall In His BrainSt. Louis Police DepartmentRicky McCormick seemed to struggle with mental health issues all his life.Born on June 14, 1958, Ricky McCormick seemed to struggle with mental health issues from a young age. The River Front Times reports that he stood alone at recess, acted strangely, and told odd stories. McCormicks mother, for her part, came to believe that her son was retarded.[A psychiatrist] said Ricky had a brick wall in his mind, his favorite aunt, Gloria Cookie McCormick explained to the River Front Times. He said Ricky refused to break that wall. He didnt like the life of living poor and had an active imagination.By the time McCormick dropped out of high school, he could barely read or write. His family later stated that McCormick couldnt spell, and instead would scribble according to KMOV. His cousin remembers that McCormick talked like he was in another world and may have been schizophrenic.Lacking a high school degree, McCormick worked a number of menial jobs, usually on the night shift. He subsisted on his meager paychecks as well as the disability payments he received for his chronic heart issues. But in 1992, McCormick got in trouble with the law.At the age of 34, McCormick was charged with statutory rape for having two children with a girl known to his family only as Pretty Baby younger than 14. Though his public defender believed that McCormick was suffering from some mental disease or defect, he was found fit to stand trial.Ricky McCormick plead guilty and spent thirteen months at the Farmington Correctional Center. But when he emerged, his troubles would only deepen.The Final Days Of Ricky McCormickFollowing his release from prison, Ricky McCormick found a graveyard shift job at an Amoco gas station in downtown St. Louis. There, he came across several shady figures who may have played a role in his mysterious demise.GoogleThe Amoco gas station in downtown St. Louis where Ricky McCormick worked.The Amoco was managed by two brothers from Palestine, Juma and Baha Bob Hamdallah. Both had violent reputations and, while in their employ, McCormick made a handful of mysterious trips to Florida. His girlfriend later told police that she believed he was smuggling marijuana for the Hamdallah brothers, and that he seemed scared.Indeed, shortly after his final trip to Florida in mid-June 1999, McCormick started acting erratically. Between June 22 and June 25, McCormick visited two different emergency rooms, according to KMOV, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath. He was admitted once, and turned away once, and was last seen on June 27 at the Amoco gas station.Then, Ricky McCormick disappeared.But no one noticed at first. No one reported him missing. No one knew he was dead until McCormicks already decomposing body was discovered in a field on June 30, 20 miles where from where he lived and worked.Though a medical examiner couldnt determine McCormicks cause of death, detectives suspected that hed been a victim of foul play.Its kind of a puzzling case, Captain David Tiefenbrunn, the Bureau Commander of Criminal Investigations for the St. Charles County Police Department, said according to KMOV. If I was to rely on my police instincts, there probably is some foul play. We just havent been able to prove it.With no leads, Ricky McCormicks death might have faded into obscurity. But then the police found something strange in his pockets.The Mystery Of Ricky McCormicks NotesWhen the police examined Ricky McCormicks body, they found two pages of handwritten notes written in some kind of code. They sent the notes to the FBIs Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) but the elite codebreakers couldnt crack the cipher.FBITo this day, no one has been able to crack the code found on Ricky McCormicks notes.It doesnt happen often that we have an unsolved cipher of this length and significance, CRRU chief Dan Olson told the River Front Times. The characters are not random. There are many Es, for example, that could be used as a spacer. There are many characteristics that suggest it could be solved, many patterns. The problem is we dont know why it is not solvable.As the FBI explains on their site, cracking a code takes four steps: determining the language, the system, the key (i.e., shifting each letter to the right in the alphabet), and reconstructing the text.But with McCormicks notes, the FBI could only get to step two.So, in March 2011, the FBI revealed the existence of McCormicks notes to the public and asked amateur codebreakers for help. Tips soon flooded in. According to Fox News, codebreakers suggested that McCormicks notes included reminders to take medication, the name Seth, and hospital terminology. But McCormicks family wasnt convinced.They had learned about the codes alongside the rest of the public and expressed their doubts that McCormick was capable of writing in code. One family member said that McCormick didnt write in code. He couldnt spell anything, just scribble, according to Esquire. However, other family members remembered that McCormick had written in codes as a child.FBIThe FBI insists that Ricky McCormicks notes are not gibberish but no one has been able to crack them.The FBI, however, is insistent that McCormicks notes contain some kind of message.We look at a lot of things that are gibberish, arbitrary strikes on a keyboard, Olson explained. This is not that case.To date, Ricky McCormicks code remained uncracked. Its unclear if he wrote the code, or if the code was written by someone else perhaps by his killer.Who Killed Ricky McCormick?Though Ricky McCormicks death remains unsolved, police have looked at a number of suspects. McCormicks old boss, Baha Hamdallah, was known to be violent. And police also heard in December 1999 that a local drug dealer, Gregory Lamar Knox, had allegedly murdered a Black man who worked at the Amoco gas station.Despite surveillance of both men, however, investigators could not link either Hamdallah or Knox to McCormicks death.As such, Ricky McCormicks death remains a mystery as does the context of the coded notes found on his body.Were the notes a clue to his killing, or something else entirely? Perhaps they were simply a shorthand that McCormick had invented, decipherable only by him. Whatever they are, the FBI still wants to solve them.Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter, Olson explained, we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher system we know nothing about.After learning about Ricky McCormicks death and the mysterious notes found on his body, go inside the mystery of the Somerton Man who washed up on an Australian beach with a strange note in his pocket. Or, discover the eerie details surrounding the death of Elisa Lam, whose body was found in the water tank of an L.A. hotel.The post The Baffling Story Of Ricky McCormicks Unsolved Death And The Cryptic Notes Found On His Body appeared first on All That's Interesting.

Imagine youre part of a military force outflanked by the enemy on a tropical island. You have to rendezvous with another group of soldiers on the other side of the island but the only way to do so is to traverse a thick swamp filled with deadly crocodiles. While it may sound like something out of a horror movie, this is precisely what happened during the Ramree Island massacre.If the soldiers didnt attempt the crossing, theyd have to face the enemy troops closing in on them. If they did attempt it, theyd face the crocodiles. Should they risk their lives in the swamp or put their lives in the hands of the enemy?These were the questions facing the Japanese troops occupying Ramree Island in the Bay of Bengal during World War II in early 1945. Those who survived the battle reportedly didnt fare well when they chose the doomed escape route across the crocodile-infested waters.Wikimedia CommonsBritish Marines landing on Ramree Island in January 1945 at the beginning of the six-week battle.Though accounts vary, some say that as many as 500 retreating Japanese soldiers perished in grisly fashion during the Ramree Island crocodile massacre. This is the horrifying true story.The Battle Of Ramree Before The Beasts AttackedAt the time, British forces needed an airbase in the area of Ramree Island in order to launch more attacks against the Japanese. However, thousands of enemy troops held the island, causing an exhausting battle that went on for six weeks.The two sides were stuck in a standoff until the British Royal Marines along with the 36th Indian Infantry Brigade outflanked a Japanese position. The maneuver split the enemy group in two and isolated about 1,000 Japanese soldiers.The British then sent word that the smaller, isolated Japanese group should surrender.The unit was trapped and had no way to reach the safety of the larger battalion. But rather than accept surrender, the Japanese chose to make an eight-mile journey through a mangrove swamp.Wikimedia CommonsBritish troops sit near a temple on Ramree Island.Thats when things went from bad to worse and the Ramree Island massacre began.The Horrors Of The Ramree Island Crocodile MassacreThe mangrove swamp was thick with mud and it was slow-going. British troops monitored the situation from afar at the edge of the swamp. The British didnt pursue the fleeing troops closely because the Allies knew what awaited the enemy inside this natural death trap: crocodiles.Saltwater crocodiles are the largest reptiles in the world. Typical male specimens reach 17 feet long and 1,000 pounds and the largest can reach 23 feet and 2,200 pounds. Swamps are their natural habitat, and humans are no match for their speed, size, agility, and raw power.Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesBy the end of the Ramree Island crocodile massacre off the coast of Myanmar in February 1945, as many as 500 Japanese soldiers were allegedly devoured.The Japanese understood that saltwater crocodiles have a reputation for eating humans but they went into the mangrove swamp of Ramree Island anyway. And in an incident not unlike the infamous U.S.S Indianapolis shark attack that befell American troops later that year, many of these troops didnt survive.Soon after entering the slimy mudhole, Japanese soldiers began to succumb to diseases, dehydration, and starvation. Mosquitoes, spiders, poisonous snakes, and scorpions hid in the thick forest and picked off some troops one by one.Crocodiles appeared when the Japanese got deeper into the swamp. Even worse, saltwater crocodiles are nocturnal and excel at taking prey in the dark.How Many Actually Died In The Ramree Island Massacre?Wikimedia CommonsBritish troops make their way ashore during the Battle of Ramree Island on January 21, 1945.Several British soldiers said that the crocodiles preyed on the Japanese soldiers in the swamp. The most prominent firsthand retelling of what happened comes from naturalist Bruce Stanley Wright, who participated in the Battle of Ramree Island and gave this written account:That night [of February 19, 1945] was the most horrible that any member of the M.L. [motor launch] crews ever experienced. The crocodiles, alerted by the din of warfare and smell of blood, gathered among the mangroves, lying with their eyes above the water, watchfully alert for their next meal. With the ebb of the tide, the crocodiles moved in on the dead, wounded, and uninjured men who had become mired in the mudThe scattered rifle shots in the pitch black swamp punctured by the screams of the wounded men crushed in the jaws of huge reptiles, and the blurred worrying sound of spinning crocodiles made a cacophony of hell that has rarely been duplicated on Earth. At dawn the vultures arrived to clean up what the crocodiles had left.Of the 1,000 troops who entered the swamp on Ramree Island, only a reported 480 survived. The Guinness Book of World Records listed the Ramree Island massacre as the largest crocodile attack in history.However, death toll estimates vary. What the British do know for sure is that 20 men came out of the swamp alive and were captured. These Japanese troops told their captors about the crocodiles. But exactly how many men died in the maws of the mighty crocs remains up for debate because no one knows how many troops succumbed to disease, dehydration, or starvation as opposed to predation.One thing is for certain: When given the choice of surrendering or taking chances in a crocodile-infested swamp, choose surrender.After this look at the Ramree Island Massacre, see some of the most powerful World War II photos ever taken. Then, read up on Desmond Doss, the Hacksaw Ridge medic who saved dozens of soldiers lives during World War II.The post A Cacophony Of Hell: Inside The Ramree Island Crocodile Massacre appeared first on All That's Interesting.

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