Boiling to death

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Boiling to death is a very slow and painful form of execution by torture.

1 Methodology
2 Historical usage
- 2.1 In Europe
- 2.2 In Asia
3 Modern usage
4 In fiction
5 External links

[edit] Methodology

The condemned is either plunged into already boiling liquid or tied up and placed in a giant cauldron of cold liquid, under which the executioner then lights a fire, which heats the liquid until it boils. The liquid used may be water, oil, acid, or even molten lead.

[edit] Historical usage

While not as common as other methods of execution, boiling to death has seen widespread use in Europe and Asia over the past two to three thousand years.

[edit] In Europe

For example, it was a legal form of capital punishment during the reign of Henry VIII,^{[citation needed]} reserved for poisoners. In parts of the Low Countries this form of capital punishment was reserved for counterfeiters during the middle ages. In the old town of Deventer the boiling kettle can still be seen today.

[edit] In Asia

The Chinese imperial court used boiling as a form of capital punishment and torture. The Mongol warlord Jamuqa boiled some generals of his rival Genghis Khan alive around the year 1200.

[edit] Modern usage

In recent times, Idi Amin of Uganda and the government of Uzbekistan under the regime of Islam Karimov are alleged to have boiled a number of political dissidents, such as Muzafar Avazov by the latter^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] In fiction

A cliche depiction of cannibals is of them cooking people alive to eat them.
In James Clavell's novel Shōgun, one of the crew members of the Erasmus is boiled to death in a cauldron.
In the manga Fullmetal Alchemist, one of the Homunculi, Greed was killed by being dropped into a pot of boiling oil.