Death by burning

"Burned at the stake" redirects here. For the 1981 horror film, seeBurned at the Stake.

"Burned alive" redirects here. For the book about honor killing, seeBurned Alive.

Death by burningis anexecution,murder,orsuicidemethod involvingcombustionor exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of publiccapital punishment,and many societies have employed it as a punishment for and warning against crimes such astreason,heresy,andwitchcraft.The best-known execution of this type isburning at the stake,where the condemned is bound to a large wooden stake and a fire lit beneath. A holocaust is a religious animal sacrifice that is completely consumed by fire, also known as a burnt offering. The word derives from the ancient Greek holokaustos, the form of sacrifice in which the victim was reduced to ash, as distinguished from an animal sacrifice that resulted in a communal meal.

An 1892 painting showing the 1682 burning ofOld BelieverleaderAvvakumand others inPustozersk,Russia

Effects

In the process of being burned to death, a body experiences burns to tissue, changes in content and distribution ofbody fluid,fixationof tissue, and shrinkage (especially of the skin).Internal organs may be shrunken due to fluid loss. Shrinkage and contraction of the muscles may cause joints to flex and the body to adopt the "pugilistic stance" (boxer stance), with the elbows and knees flexed and the fists clenched.Shrinkage of the skin around the neck may be severe enough tostranglea victim.Fluid shifts, especially in theskulland in the hollow organs of theabdomen,can cause pseudo-hemorrhages in the form ofheat hematomas.Theorganic matterof the body may be consumed asfuelby a fire. The cause of death is frequently determined by the respiratory tract, whereedemaor bleeding ofmucous membranesand patchy or vesicular detachment of themucosamay be indicative of inhalation of hot gases. Completecremationis only achieved under extreme circumstances.

The amount of pain experienced is greatest at the beginning of the burning process before the flame burns thenerves,after which the skin does not hurt.Many victims die quickly from suffocation as hot gases damage the respiratory tract. Those who survive the burning frequently die within days as thelungs'alveolifill with fluid and the victim dies ofpulmonary edema.

Historical use

Antiquity

Old Babylonia

The 18th-century BCE law code promulgated byBabylonian KingHammurabispecifies several crimes in which death by burning was thought appropriate. Looters of houses on fire could be cast into the flames, and priestesses who abandoned cloisters and began frequenting inns and taverns could also be punished by being burnt alive. Furthermore, a man who began committingincestwith his mother after the death of his father could be ordered to be burned alive.

Ancient Egypt

InAncient Egypt,several incidents of burning alive perceived rebels are attested to.Senusret I(r. 1971–1926 BC) is said to have rounded up the rebels in campaign, and burnt them as human torches. Under the civil war flaring underTakelot IImore than a thousand years later, theCrown Prince Osorkonshowed no mercy, and burned several rebels alive.On the statute books, at least, women committing adultery might be burned to death.Jon Manchip White,however, did not think capital judicial punishments were often carried out, pointing to the fact that thepharaohhad to personallyratifyeach verdict.Professor Susan Redford speculates that after theharem conspiracyin which pharaohRamesses IIIwas assassinated, the non-nobles who had participated in the plot were burned alive, because the Egyptians believed that without a physical body, one could not enter the afterlife. This would explain whyPentawere,the prince whose mother instigated the would-be coup, was most likely strangled or hanged himself; as a royal, he would have been spared this ultimate fate.

Assyria

In theMiddle Assyrian period,paragraph 40 in a preserved law text concerns the obligatory unveiled face for the professional prostitute, and the concomitant punishment if she violated that by veiling herself (the way wives were to dress in public):

A prostitute shall not be veiled. Whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her... and bring her to the palace entrance.... they shall pour hotpitchover her head.

For theNeo-Assyrians,mass executions seem to have been not only designed to instill terror and to enforce obedience, but also as proof of their might. Neo-Assyrian KingAshurnasirpal II(r. 883–859 BC) was evidently proud enough of his executions that he committed them to monument as follows:

I cut off their hands, I burned them with fire, a pile of the living men and of heads over against the city gate I set up, men I impaled on stakes, the city I destroyed and devastated, I turned it into mounds and ruin heaps, the young men and the maidens in the fire I burned.

Hebraic tradition

InGenesis38,JudahordersTamar—the widow of his son, living in her father's household—to be burned when she is believed to have become pregnant via extramarital sexual relations. Tamar saves herself by proving that Judah is himself the father of her child. In theBook of Jubilees,the same story is told, with some differences. In Genesis, Judah is exercising his patriarchal power at a distance, whereas he and the relatives seem more actively involved in Tamar's impending execution.

InHebraic law,death by burning was prescribed for ten forms of sexual crimes: the imputed crime of Tamar, namely that a married daughter of a priest commits adultery, and nine versions of relationships considered as incestuous, such as having sex with one's own daughter, or granddaughter, but also having sex with one's mother-in-law or with one's wife's daughter.

In theMishnah,the following manner of burning the criminal is described:

The obligatory procedure for execution by burning: They immersed him in dung up to his knees, rolled a rough cloth into a soft one and wound it about his neck. One pulled it one way, one the other until he opened his mouth. Thereupon one ignites the (lead) wick and throws it in his mouth, and it descends to his bowels and sears his bowels.

That is, the person dies from being fed molten lead.

Ancient Rome

Nero's Torches

According toChristian legend,Romanauthorities executed many of the earlyChristian martyrsby burning, including thewarrior saintTheodoreandPolycarp,the earliest recorded martyr.Sometimes Roman immolation was carried out using thetunica molesta,a flammable tunic:

... the Christian, stripped naked, was forced to put on a garment called the tunica molesta, made of papyrus, smeared on both sides with wax, and was then fastened to a high pole, from the top of which they continued to pour down burning pitch and lard, a spike fastened under the chin preventing the excruciated victim from turning the head to either side, so as to escape the liquid fire, until the whole body, and every part of it, was literally clad and cased in flame.

In 326,Constantine the Greatpromulgated a law that increased the penalties for parentally non-sanctioned "abduction" of their girls, and concomitant sexual intercourse/rape. The man would be burnt alive without the possibility of appeal, and the girl would receive the same treatment if she had participated willingly. Nurses who had corrupted their female wards and led them to sexual encounters would have molten lead poured down their throats.In the same year, Constantine also passed a law that said if a woman had sexual relations with her own slave, both would be subjected to capital punishment, the slave by burning (if the slave himself reported theoffense—presumably having beenraped—he was to be set free).In 390 AD, EmperorTheodosiusissued an edict againstmale prostitutesand brothels offering such services; those found guilty should be burned alive.

In the 6th-century collection of the sayings and rulings of the pre-eminent jurists from earlier ages, theDigest,a number of crimes are regarded as punishable by death by burning. The 3rd-century juristUlpiansaid that enemies of the state and deserters to the enemy were to be burned alive. His rough contemporary, the juristical writerCallistratus,mentions that arsonists are typically burnt, as well as slaves who have conspired against the well-being of their masters (this last also, on occasion, being meted out to free persons of "low rank" ).The punishment of burning alive arsonists (and traitors) seems to have been particularly ancient; it was included in theTwelve Tables,a mid-5th-century BC law code, that is, about 700 years prior to the times of Ulpian and Callistratus.

Ritual child sacrifice in Carthage

Further information:TophetandMoloch

Tanit with a lion's head

Beginning in the early 3rd century BC, Greek and Roman writers commented on the purported institutionalizedchild sacrificethe North AfricanCarthaginiansare said to have performed in honour of the godsBaal HammonandTanit.The earliest writer,Cleitarchus,is among the most explicit. He says live infants were placed in the arms of a bronze statue, the statue's hands over a brazier, so that the infant slowly rolled into the fire. As it did so, the limbs of the infant contracted and the face was distorted into a sort of laughing grimace, hence called "the act of laughing". Other, later authors such asDiodorus SiculusandPlutarchsay the throats of the infants were generally cut before they were placed in the statue's embraceIn the vicinity of ancient Carthage, large scale graveyards containing the incinerated remains of infants, typically up to the age of 3, have been found; such graves are called "tophets". However, some scholars have argued that these findings are not evidence ofsystematicchild sacrifice, and that estimated figures of ancient natural infant mortality (with cremation afterwards and reverent separate burial) might be the real historical basis behind the hostile reporting from non-Carthaginians. A late charge of the imputed sacrifice is found by the North African bishopTertullian,who says that child sacrifices were still carried out, in secret, in the countryside at his time, 3rd century AD.

Celtic traditions

An 18th-century illustration of a wicker man. Engraving fromA Tour in Waleswritten byThomas Pennant

According toJulius Caesar,the ancientCeltspractised the burning alive of humans in a number of settings. In Book 6, chapter 16, he writes of theDruidicsacrifice of criminals within hugewicker frames shaped as men:

Others have figures of vast size, the limbs of which formed ofosiersthey fill with living men, which being set on fire, the men perish enveloped in the flames. They consider that theoblationof such as have been taken in theft, or in robbery, or any other offence, is more acceptable to the immortal gods; but when a supply of that class is wanting, they have recourse to the oblation of even the innocent.

Slightly later, in Book 6, chapter 19, Caesar also says the Celts perform, on the occasion of death of great men, the funeral sacrifice on the pyre of living slaves and dependents ascertained to have been "beloved by them". Earlier on, in Book 1, chapter 4, he relates of the conspiracy of the noblemanOrgetorix,charged by the Celts for having planned acoup d'état,for which the customary penalty would be burning to death. It is said Orgetorix committed suicide to avoid that fate.

Baltic

Throughout the 12th–14th centuries, a number of non-Christian peoples living around the EasternBaltic Sea,such asOld PrussiansandLithuanians,were charged by Christian writers with performing human sacrifice.Pope Gregory IXissued apapal bulldenouncing an alleged practice among the Prussians, that girls were dressed in fresh flowers and wreaths and were then burned alive as offerings to evil spirits.

Christian states

The burning of theCatharheretics

Eastern Roman Empire

Under 6th-century EmperorJustinian I,the death penalty had been decreed for impenitentManicheans,but a specific punishment was not made explicit. By the 7th century, however, those found guilty of "dualist heresy" could risk being burned at the stake.Those found guilty of performing magical rites, and corrupting sacred objects in the process, might face death by burning, as evidenced in a 7th-century case.In the 10th century AD, theByzantinesinstituted death by burning forparricides,i.e. those who had killed their own relatives, replacing the older punishment ofpoena cullei,the stuffing of the convict into a leather sack, along with a rooster, a viper, a dog and a monkey, and then throwing the sack into the sea.

Medieval Inquisition and the burning of heretics

Burning of theKnights Templar,1314

The first recorded case of heretics being burnt in Western Europe in theMiddle Agesoccurred in 1022 atOrléans.Civil authorities burned persons judged to behereticsunder themedievalInquisition.Burning heretics had become customary practice in the latter half of the twelfth century in continental Europe, and death by burning became statutory punishment from the early 13th century. Death by burning for heretics was made positive law byPedro II of Aragonin 1197. In 1224,Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor,made burning a legal alternative, and in 1238, it became the principal punishment in the Empire. InSicily,the punishment was made law in 1231.

In England at the start of the 15th century, the teachings ofJohn Wycliffeand theLollardsbegan to be seen as a threat to the establishment, and draconic punishments were enacted. In 1401, Parliament passed theDe heretico comburendoact, which can be loosely translated as "Regarding the burning of heretics." Lollard persecution would continue for over a hundred years in England. TheFire and Faggot Parliamentmet in May 1414 atGrey Friars PrioryinLeicesterto lay out the notoriousSuppression of Heresy Act 1414,enabling the burning of heretics by making the crime enforceable by thejustices of the peace.John Oldcastle,a prominent Lollard leader, was not saved from the gallows by his old friend KingHenry V.Oldcastle was hanged and his gallows burned in 1417.Jan Huswas burned at the stake after being accused at the Roman CatholicCouncil of Constance(1414–18) of heresy. The council also decreed that the remains ofJohn Wycliffe,dead for 30 years, should be exhumed and burned. Thisposthumous executionwas carried out in 1428.

Burnings of Jews

Representation of a massacre of the Jews in the 1349 Anti-Jew riots, that was justified by allegations that Jews were behind theBlack Death Epidemic.Antiquitates Flandriae(Royal Library of Belgiummanuscript 1376/77).

Several incidents are recorded of massacres onJewsfrom the 12th through 16th centuries in which they were burned alive, often on account of theblood libel.In 1171 inBlois,51 Jews were burned alive (the entire adult community). In 1191, KingPhilip Augustusordered around 100 Jews burnt alive.That Jews purportedly performedhost desecrationalso led to mass burnings; In 1243 inBeelitz,the entire Jewish community was burnt alive, and in 1510 inBerlin,26 Jews were burnt alive for the same crime.During the "Black Death"in the mid-14th century a spate of large-scalemassacresoccurred. One libel was that the Jews hadpoisoned the wells.In 1349, as panic grew along with the increasing death toll from the plague, general massacres, but also specifically mass burnings, began to occur. Six hundred Jews were burnt alive inBaselalone. A large mass burning occurred inStrasbourg,where several hundred Jews were burnt alive in what became known as theStrasbourg massacre.

A Jewish man, Johannes Pfefferkorn, met a particularly gruesome death in 1514 inHalle.He had been accused of having impersonated a priest for twenty years, performinghost desecration,stealing Christian children to be tortured and killed by other Jews, poisoning 13 people and poisoning wells. He was lashed to a pillar in such a way that he could run about it. Then, a ring of glowing coal was made around him, and gradually pushed ever closer to him, until he was roasted to death.

Lepers' Plot of 1321

Not only Jews could be victims of mass hysteria. The charge of well-poisoning was the basis for alarge-scale hunt of lepers in 1321 France.In the spring of 1321, inPérigueux,people became convinced that the local lepers had poisoned the wells, causing ill-health among the normal populace. The lepers were rounded up and burned alive. The action against the lepers had repercussions throughout France, not least because KingPhilip Vissued an order to arrest all lepers, those found guilty to be burnt alive. Jews became tangentially included as well; atChinonalone, 160 Jews were burnt alive.All in all, around 5,000 lepers and Jews are recorded in one tradition to have been killed during the Lepers' Plot hysteria.

The charge of the lepers' plot was not wholly confined to France; extant records from England show that onJerseythe same year, at least one family of lepers was burnt alive for having poisoned others.

Spanish Inquisition

Further information:Auto-da-fé

The burning of a 16th-century DutchAnabaptist,Anneken Hendriks,who was charged with heresy

TheSpanish Inquisitionwas established in 1478, with the aim of preserving Catholic orthodoxy; some of its principal targets were "Marranos",formally converted Jews thought to have relapsed intoJudaism,or theMoriscos,formally converted Muslims thought to have relapsed intoIslam.The public executions of the Spanish Inquisition were calledautos-da-fé;convicts were "released" (handed over) to secular authorities in order to be burnt.

Estimates of how many were executed on behest of the Spanish Inquisition have been offered from early on; historianHernando del Pulgar(1436–c. 1492) estimated that 2,000 people were burned at the stake between 1478 and 1490.Estimates ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 burnt at the stake (alive or not) at the behest of the Spanish Inquisition during its 300 years of activity have previously been given and are still to be found in popular books.

In February 1481, in what is said to be the first auto-da-fé, six Marranos were burnt alive inSeville.In November 1481, 298 Marranos were burnt publicly at the same place, their property confiscated by the Church.Not all Marranos executed by being burnt at the stake seem to have been burnt alive. If the Jew confessed his heresy, the Church would show mercy, and he would be strangled prior to the burning. Autos-da-fé against Marranos extended beyond the Spanish heartland. In Sicily, in 1511–15, 79 were burnt at the stake, while from 1511 to 1560, 441 Marranos were condemned to be burned alive.In Spanish American colonies, autos-da-fé were held as well. In 1664, a man and his wife were burned alive inRío de la Plata,and in 1699, a Jew was burnt alive inMexico City.

In 1535, five Moriscos were burned at the stake onMajorca;the images of a further four were also burnt ineffigy,since the actual individuals had managed to flee. During the 1540s, some 232 Moriscos were paraded in autos-da-fé inZaragoza;five of those were burnt at the stake.The claim that out of 917 Moriscos appearing in autos of the Inquisition inGranadabetween 1550 and 1595, just 20 were executedseems at odds with the English government's state papers which claim that, while at war with Spain, they received a report from Seville of 17 June 1593 that over 70 of the richest men of Granada were burnt.As late as 1728 as many as 45 Moriscos were recorded as having been burned for heresy.In the May 1691 "bonfire of the Jews", Rafael Valls, Rafael Benito Terongi andCatalina Terongiwere burned alive.

Portuguese Inquisition at Goa

In 1560, thePortuguese Inquisitionopened offices in the Indian colonyGoa,known asGoa Inquisition.Its aim was to protect Catholic orthodoxy among new converts to Christianity, and retain its hold on the old, particularly against "Judaizing" deviancy. From the 17th century, Europeans were shocked at the tales of how brutal and extensive the activities of the Inquisition were.Modern scholars have established that some 4,046 individuals in the time 1560–1773 received some sort of punishment from the Portuguese Inquisition, of whom 121 persons were condemned to be burned alive; 57 actually suffered that fate, while the rest escaped it, and were burnt in effigy instead.For the Portuguese Inquisition in total, not just at Goa, modern estimates of persons actually executed on its behest is about 1,200, whether burnt alive or not.

"Crimes against nature"

Burning of twohomosexuals,Richard Puller von Hohenburgand Anton Mätzler, at the stake outsideZürich,1482 (Spiezer Schilling)

From the 12th to the 18th centuries, various European authorities legislated (and held judicial proceedings) against sexual crimes such assodomyorbestiality;often, the prescribed punishment was that of death by burning. Many scholars think that the first time death by burning appeared within explicit codes of law for the crime of sodomy was at the ecclesiastical 1120Council of Nablusin thecrusaderKingdom of Jerusalem.Here, if public repentance were done, the death penalty might be avoided.In Spain, the earliest records for executions for the crime of sodomy are from the 13th to 14th centuries, and it is noted there that the preferred mode of execution was death by burning. The Partidas of KingAlfonso "El Sabio"condemned sodomites to be castrated and hung upside down to die from the bleeding, following the Old Testament phrase "their blood shall be upon them".AtGeneva,the first recorded burning of sodomites occurred in 1555, and up to 1678, some two dozen met the same fate. InVenice,the first burning took place in 1492, and a monk was burnt as late as 1771.The last case in France where two men were condemned by court to be burned alive for engaging in consensual homosexual sex was in 1750 (although, it seems, they were actually strangled prior to being burned). The last case in France where a man was condemned to be burned for a murderous rape of a boy occurred in 1784.

Crackdowns and the public burning of a homosexual couple sometimes led others to flee out of fear of a similar fate. The travellerWilliam Lithgowwitnessed such a dynamic when he visitedMaltain 1616:

The fifth day of my staying here, I saw a Spanish soldier and a Maltezen boy burnt in ashes, for the public profession of sodomy; and long before night, there were above an hundred bardassoes, whorish boys, that fled away to Sicily in a galliot, for fear of fire; but never one bugeron stirred, being few or none there free of it.

In 1409 and 1532 inAugsburgtwopederastswere burned alive for their offenses.

Penal code of Charles V

In 1532, Holy Roman EmperorCharles Vpromulgated his penal codeConstitutio Criminalis Carolina.A number of crimes were punishable with death by burning, such as coinforgery,arson,and sexual acts "contrary to nature".Also, those guilty of aggravated theft of sacred objects from a church could be condemned to be burnt alive.Only those found guilty ofmalevolentwitchcraftcould be punished by death by fire.

Witches and heretics

Burning of three witches inBaden(1585), from theWickianaCollection

Burning was used during thewitch-hunts of Europe,although hanging was the preferred style of execution in England and Wales. The penal code known as theConstitutio Criminalis Carolina(1532) decreed that sorcery throughout theHoly Roman Empireshould be treated as a criminal offence, and if it purported to inflict injury upon any person the witch was to be burnt at the stake. In 1572,Augustus, Elector of Saxonyimposed the penalty of burning for witchcraft of every kind, including simplefortunetelling.From the latter half of the 18th century, the number of "nine million witchesburned in Europe "has been bandied about in popular accounts and media, but has never had a following among specialist researchers.Today, based on meticulous study of trial records, ecclesiastical and inquisitorial registers and so on, as well as on the utilization of modern statistical methods, the specialist research community on witchcraft has reached an agreement for roughly 40,000–50,000 people executed for witchcraft in Europe in total, and by no means all of them executed by being burned alive. Furthermore, it is solidly established that the peak period of witch-hunts was the century 1550–1650, with a slow increase preceding it, from the 15th century onward, as well as a sharp drop following it, with "witch-hunts" having basically fizzled out by the first half of the 18th century.

Jan Husburnt at the stake

Joan of Arc's Death at the Stake,byHermann Stilke(1843)

Notable individuals executed by burning includeJacques de Molay(1314),Jan Hus(1415),Joan of Arc(1431),Girolamo Savonarola(1498),Patrick Hamilton(1528),John Frith(1533),William Tyndale(1536),Michael Servetus(1553),Giordano Bruno(1600),Urbain Grandier(1634),andAvvakum(1682).Anglican martyrsJohn Rogers,Hugh LatimerandNicholas Ridleywere burned at the stake in 1555.Thomas Cranmerfollowed the next year (1556).

Denmark

In Denmark, after the 1536Reformation,Christian IV of Denmark(r. 1588–1648) encouraged the practice of burning witches, in particular by the law against witchcraft in 1617. InJutland,the mainland part of Denmark, more than half the recorded cases of witchcraft in the 16th and 17th centuries occurred after 1617. Rough estimates says about a thousand persons were executed due to convictions forwitchcraftin the 1500–1600s, but it is not wholly clear if all of the transgressors were burned to death.

England

Mary Iordered hundreds ofProtestantsburnt at the stake during her reign (1553–58) in what would be known as the "Marian Persecutions"earning her the epithet of" Bloody "Mary.Many of those executed by Mary are listed inActes and Monuments,written byFoxein 1563 and 1570.

Edward Wightman,a radical Anabaptist fromBurton on Trent,who publicly denied the Trinity and the divinity of Christ was the last person burned at the stake forheresyin England inLichfield, Staffordshireon 11 April 1612.Although cases can be found of burning heretics in the 16th and 17th centuries in England, that penalty for heretics was historically relatively new. It did not exist in 14th-century England, and when the bishops in England petitioned KingRichard IIto institute death by burning for heretics in 1397, he flatly refused, and no one was burnt for heresy during his reign.Just one year after his death, however, in 1401,William Sawtreywas burnt alive for heresy.Death by burning for heresy was formally abolished by Parliament during the reign of KingCharles IIin 1676.

The traditional punishment for women found guilty of treason was to beburned at the stake,where they did not need to be publicly displayed naked, whereas men werehanged, drawn and quartered.The juristWilliam Blackstoneargued as follows for the different punishments for females and males:

For as the decency due to sex forbids the exposing and public mangling of their bodies, their sentence (which is to the full as terrible to sensation as the other) is to be drawn to the gallows and there be burned alive

However, as described in Camille Naish's "Death Comes to the Maiden", in practice, the woman's clothing would burn away at the beginning, and she would be left naked anyway.There were two types of treason:high treason,for crimes against the sovereign; andpetty treason,for the murder of one's lawful superior, including that of a husband by his wife. Commenting on the 18th-century execution practice, Frank McLynn says that most convicts condemned to burning were not burnt alive, and that the executioners made sure the women were dead before consigning them to the flames.

The last person condemned to death for "petty treason" was Mary Bailey, whose body was burned in 1784. The last woman to be convicted for "high treason", and have her body burnt, in this case for the crime of coin forgery, wasCatherine Murphyin 1789.The last case where a woman was actually burnt alive in England is that ofCatherine Hayesin 1726, for the murder of her husband. In this case, one account says this happened because the executioner accidentally set fire to the pyre before he had hanged Hayes properly.The historianRictor Nortonhas assembled a number of contemporary newspaper reports on the actual death of Mrs. Hayes, internally somewhat divergent. The following excerpt is one example:

The fuel being placed round her, and lighted with a torch, she begg'd for the sake of Jesus, to be strangled first: whereupon the Executioner drew tight the halter, but the flame coming to his hand in the space of a second, he let it go, when she gave three dreadful shrieks; but the flames taking her on all sides, she was heard no more; and the Executioner throwing a piece of timber into the Fire, it broke her skull, when her brains came plentifully out; and in about an hour more she was entirely reduced to ashes.

Scotland

James VI of Scotland(later James I of England) shared the Danish king's interest in witch trials. This special interest of the king resulted in theNorth Berwick witch trials,which led more than seventy people to be accused of witchcraft. James sailed in 1590 to Denmark to meet his betrothed,Anne of Denmark,who, ironically, is believed by some to have secretly converted to Roman Catholicism herself fromLutheranismaround 1598, although historians are divided on whether she ever was received into the Roman Catholic faith.

The last to be executed as a witch in Scotland wasJanet Hornein 1727, condemned to death for using her own daughter as a flying horse in order to travel. Horne was burnt alive in a tar barrel.

Ireland

Petronilla de Meath(c. 1300–1324) was the maidservant of DameAlice Kyteler,a 14th-centuryHiberno-Normannoblewoman. After the death of Kyteler's fourth husband, the widow was accused of practicingwitchcraftand Petronilla of being her accomplice. Petronilla was tortured and forced to proclaim that she and Kyteler were guilty of witchcraft. Petronilla was then flogged and eventually burnt at the stake on 3 November 1324, inKilkenny,Ireland.Hers was the first known case in the history of theBritish Islesof death by fire for the crime ofheresy.Kyteler was charged by theBishop of Ossory,Richard de Ledrede,with a wide slate of crimes, fromsorceryanddemonismto the murders of several husbands. She was accused of having illegally acquired her wealth throughwitchcraft,which accusations came principally from her stepchildren, the children of her late husbands by their previous marriages. The trial predated any formal witchcraft statute in Ireland, thus relying onecclesiastical law(which treated witchcraft asheresy) rather thancommon law(which treated it as afelony). Under torture, Petronilla claimed she and her mistress applied a magical ointment to a wooden beam, which enabled both women to fly. She was then forced to proclaim publicly that Lady Alice and her followers were guilty of witchcraft.Some were convicted and whipped, but others, Petronilla included, were burnt at the stake. With the help of relatives, Alice Kyteler fled, taking with her Petronilla's daughter, Basilia.

In 1327 or 1328,Adam Duff O'Toolewas burned at the stake in Dublin forheresyafter brandingChristian scripturea fable and denying theresurrection of Jesus.

The brothel madamDarkey Kellywas convicted of murdering shoemaker John Dowling in 1760 and burned at the stake in Dublin on 7 January 1761. Later legends claimed that she was aserial killerand/orwitch.

In 1895,Bridget Cleary(née Boland), aCounty Tipperarywoman, was burnt by her husband and others, the stated motive for the crime being the belief that the real Bridget had been abducted byfairieswith achangelingleft in her place. Her husband claimed to have slain only the changeling. The gruesome nature of the case prompted extensive press coverage. The trial was closely followed by newspapers in both Ireland and Britain.As one reviewer commented, nobody, with the possible exception of the presiding judge, thought it was an ordinary murder case.

Greece

TheGreek War of Independencein the 1820s contained several instances of death by burning. When the Greeks in April 1821 captured acorvettenearHydra,the Greeks chose to roast to death the 57Ottomancrew members. After the fall ofTripolitsain September 1821, European officers were horrified to note that not only were Muslims suspected of hiding money being slowly roasted after having had their arms and legs cut off but also, in one instance, three Muslim children were roasted over a fire while their parents were forced to watch. On their part, the Ottomans committed many similar acts. In retaliation they gathered up Greeks inConstantinople,throwing several of them into huge ovens, baking them to death.

Last judicial burnings

According to the juristEduard Osenbrüggen,the last case he knew of where a person had been judicially burned alive on account of arson in Germany happened in 1804, inHötzelsroda,close byEisenach.The manner in which Johannes Thomaswas executed on 13 July that year is described as follows: Some feet above the actual pyre, attached to a stake, a wooden chamber had been constructed, into which the delinquent was placed. Pipes or chimneys filled with sulphuric material led up to the chamber, and that was first lit, so that Thomas died from inhaling the sulphuric smoke, rather than being strictly burnt alive, before his body was consumed by the general fire. Some 20,000 people had gathered to watch Thomas' execution.

Although Thomas is regarded as the last to have been actually executed by means of fire (in this case, through suffocation), the couple Johann Christoph Peter Horst and his loverFriederike Louise Christiane Delitz,who had made a career of robberies in the confusion made by their acts of arson, were condemned to be burnt alive in Berlin 28 May 1813. They were, however, according toGustav Radbruch,secretly strangled just prior to being burnt, namely when their arms and legs were tied fast to the stake.

Although these two cases are the last where execution by burning might be said to have beencarried outin some degree, Eduard Osenbrüggen mentions thatverdictsto be burned alive were given in several cases in different German states afterwards, such as in cases from 1814, 1821, 1823, 1829 and finally in a case from 1835.

Colonial Americas

Execution ofMariana de Carabajal(converted Jew),Mexico City,1601

North America

Native Americans scalping and roasting their prisoners, published in 1873

IndigenousNorth Americans often used burning as a form of execution, against members of other tribes or white settlers during the 18th and 19th centuries. Roasting over a slow fire was a customary method.(SeeCaptives in American Indian Wars.)

InMassachusetts,there are two known cases of burning at the stake. First, in 1681, anenslaved womannamed Maria was accused of trying to kill her enslaver by setting his house on fire. She was convicted of arson and burned at the stake inRoxbury.Concurrently, an enslaved man named Jack, convicted in a separate arson case, was hanged at a nearby gallows, and after death his body was thrown into the fire with that of Maria. Second, in 1755, a group of enslaved people accused of having conspired and killed their enslaver, Mark and Phillis were executed for his murder. Mark was hanged and his bodygibbeted,and Phillis burned at the stake, atCambridge.

InMontreal,then part of the colony ofNew France,Marie-Joseph Angélique,an enslaved woman, was sentenced to being burned alive for an arson which destroyed 45 homes and a hospital in 1734. The sentence was commuted on appeal to burning after death by strangulation.

InNew York,several burnings at the stake are recorded, particularly following suspectedslave revoltplots. In 1708, one woman was burnt and one man hanged. In the aftermath of theNew York Slave Revolt of 1712,20 enslaved people were burnt (one of the leaders slowly roasted, before he died after 10 hours of torture)and during the allegedslave conspiracy of 1741,at least 13 enslaved people were burnt at the stake.

In 1731, 51-year-oldDelawarehousewife Catherine Bevan was burned for murder, and in 1746, Esther Anderson was burned inMarylandfor another murder.

87% percent of the women executed by burning at the stake in the USA between 1608 and 2002 were Black.

South America

The last known burning by the Spanish colonial government inLatin Americawas of Mariana de Castro, during thePeruvian InquisitioninLimaon 22 December 1736after she had been convicted on 4 February 1732 of being ajudaizante(a person who was privately practicing the Jewish faith after having publicly converted to Roman Catholicism).

In 1855 the Dutchabolitionistand historianJulien Wolbersspoke to the Anti Slavery Society in Amsterdam. Painting a dark picture of the condition of slaves inSuriname,he mentions in particular that in 1853, "three Negroes were burnt alive".

West Indies

In 1760, the slave rebellion known asTacky's Warbroke out inJamaica.Apparently, some of the defeated rebels were burned alive, while others were gibbeted alive, left to die of thirst and starvation.

In 1774, nine enslaved Africans inTobagowere found complicit of murdering a white man. Eight of them had first their right arms chopped off, and were then burned alive bound to stakes, according to the report of an eyewitness.

InSaint-Domingue,enslaved Africans found guilty of committing crimes were sometimes punished by being burnt at the stake, particularly if the crime was attempting to foment a slave rebellion.

Islamic countries

The sources may manifest religious, legal, and political ideas quite an evolution from the chronological aspect and different from those that prevailed in earlycaliphatessince the practice of burning convicted person is forbidden in theSharia Law.

Followers of a false claimant of prophethood

The Arab chieftainTulayha ibn Khuwaylid ibn Nawfal al-Asadset himself up as a prophet in 630 AD. Tulayha had a strong following which was, however, soon quashed in the so-calledRidda Wars.He himself escaped, though, and later was reconverted to Islam, but many of his rebel followers were burnt to death; his mother chose to embrace the same fate.

Catholic monks in 13th-century Tunis and Morocco

A number of monks are said to have been burnt alive inTunisandMoroccoin the 13th century. In 1243, two English monks, Brothers Rodulph and Berengarius, after having secured the release of some 60 captives, were charged with being spies for theEnglish Crown,and were burnt alive on 9 September. In 1262, Brothers Patrick and William, again having freed captives, but also sought toproselytizeamongMuslims,were burnt alive in Morocco. In 1271, 11 Catholic monks were burnt alive in Tunis. Several other cases are reported.

Converts to Christianity

Apostasy,i.e. the act of converting to another religion, was (and remains so in a few countries) punishable with death.

The French travellerJean de Thevenot,traveling the East in the 1650s, says:"Those that turn Christians, they burn alive, hanging a bag of Powder about their neck, and putting apitchedCap upon their Head. "Travelling the same regions some 60 years earlier,Fynes Morysonwrites:

A Turke forsaking his Fayth and a Christian speaking or doing anything against the law ofMahomettare burnt with fyer.

Muslim heretics

Certain accursed ones of no significanceis the term used byTaş Köprü Zadein theŞakaiki Numaniyeto describe some members of theHurufiyyawho became intimate with the SultanMehmed IIto the extent of initiating him as a follower. This alarmed members of theUlema,particularly Mahmut Paşa, who then consulted Mevlana Fahreddin. Fahreddin hid in the Sultan's palace and heard theHurufispropound their doctrines. Considering these heretical, he reviled them with curses. The Hurufis fled to the Sultan, but Fahreddin's denunciation of them was so virulent thatMehmed IIwas unable to defend them. Farhreddin then took them in front of theÜç Şerefeli Mosque,Edirne,where he publicly condemned them to death. While preparing the fire for their execution, Fahreddin accidentally set fire to his beard. However, the Hurufis were burnt to death.

Barbary States, 18th century

John Braithwaite,staying inMoroccoin the late 1720s, says that apostates from Islam would be burnt alive:

THOSE that can be proved after Circumcision to have revolted, are stripped quite naked, then anointed with Tallow, and with a Chain about the Body, brought to the Place of Execution, where they are burnt.

Similarly, he notes that non-Muslims entering mosques or being blasphemous against Islam will be burnt, unless they convert to Islam.The chaplain for the English inAlgiersat the same time,Thomas Shaw,wrote that whenever capital crimes were committed either by Christian slaves or Jews, the Christian or Jew was to be burnt alive.Several generations later, in Morocco in 1772, a Jewish interpreter for the British, and a merchant in his own right, sought from theEmperor of Moroccorestitution for some goods confiscated, and was burnt alive for his impertinence. His widow made her woes clear in a letter to the British government.

In 1792 inIfrane,Morocco, 50 Jews preferred to be burned alive, rather than convert to Islam.In 1794 inAlgiers,the Jewish Rabbi Mordecai Narboni was accused of having maligned Islam in a quarrel with his neighbour. He was ordered to be burnt alive unless he converted to Islam, but he refused and was therefore executed on 14 July 1794.

In 1793,Ali Pashamade a short-livedcoup d'étatinTripoli,deposing the rulingKaramanli dynasty.During his short, violent reign he seized the two interpreters for the Dutch and English consuls, both of them Jews, and roasted them over a slow fire, on charges of conspiracy and espionage.

Persia

During a famine inPersiain 1668, the government took severe measures against those trying to profiteer from the misfortune of the populace. Restaurant owners found guilty of profiteering were slowly roasted on spits, and greedy bakers were baked in their own ovens.

Dr C. J. Wills, a physician traveling through Persia in 1866–81, wrote that:

Just prior to my first arrival in Persia, the "Hissam-u-Sultaneh", another uncle of the king, had burned a priest to death for a horrible crime and murder; the priest was chained to a stake, and the matting from the mosques piled on him to a great height, the pile of mats was lighted and burnt freely, but when the mats were consumed the priest was found groaning, but still alive. The executioner went to Hissam-u-Sultaneh who ordered him to obtain more mats, pournaphthaon them, and apply a light, which 'after some hours' he did.

Malaya

Although not burning with the use of fire, a practice was documented in 19th-century Malaya of sewing a live human in a buffalo hide and left it exposed to the burning sun which caused the hide to shrink and led the person to be squeezed to death.

Roasting by means of heated metal

The previous cases concern primarily death by burning through contact with open fire or burning material; a slightly different principle is to enclose an individual within, or attach him to, a metal contraption which is subsequently heated. In the following, some reports of such incidents, or anecdotes about such are included.

The brazen bull

Perillos being forced into the brazen bull that he built for Phalaris

Perhaps the most infamous example of abrazen bull,which is a hollow metal structure shaped like a bull within which the condemned is put, and then roasted alive as the metal bull is gradually heated up, is the one allegedly constructed by Perillos ofAthensfor the 6th-century BC tyrantPhalarisatAgrigentum,Sicily.As the story goes, the first victim of the bull was its constructor Perillos himself. The historian George Grote was among those regarding this story as having sufficient evidence behind it to be true, and points particularly to that the Greek poetPindar,working just one or two generations after the times of Phalaris, refers to the brazen bull. A bronze bull was, in fact, one of the spoils of victory when theCarthaginiansconquered Agrigentum.The story of a brazen bull as an execution device is not unique. About 1,000 years later in 497 AD, it can be read in an old chronicle about theVisigothson theIberian Peninsulaand the south of France:

Burdunellusbecame a tyrant in Spain and a year later was... handed over by his own men and having been sent toToulouse,he was placed inside a bronze bull and burnt to death.

Fate of a Scottish regicide

Walter Stewart, Earl of Athollwas a Scottish nobleman complicit in the murder of KingJames I of Scotland.On 26 March 1437 Stewart had a red hot iron crown placed upon his head, was cut in pieces alive, his heart was taken out, and then thrown in a fire. A papalnuncio,the later PopePius IIwitnessed the execution of Stewart and his associateSir Robert Graham,and, reportedly, said he was at a loss to determine whether thecrimecommitted by the regicides, or thepunishmentof them was the greater.

György Dózsa on the iron throne

Dózsa's execution (contemporary woodcut)

György Dózsaled a peasants' revolt inHungary,and was captured in 1514. He was bound to a glowing iron throne and a likewise hot iron crown was placed on his head, and he was roasted to death.

The tale of the murderous midwife

In a few English 18th- and 19th-century newspapers and magazines, a tale was circulated about the particularly brutal manner in which a French midwife was put to death on 28 May 1673 in Paris. No fewer than 62 infant skeletons were found buried on her premises, and she was condemned on multiple accounts of abortion/infanticide.One detailed account of her supposed execution runs as follows:

A gibbet was erected, under which a fire was made, and the prisoner being brought to the place of execution, was hung up in a large iron cage, in which were also placed sixteen wild cats, which had been catched in the woods for the purpose.—When the heat of the fire became too great to be endured with patience, the cats flew upon the woman, as the cause of the intense pain they felt.—In about fifteen minutes they had pulled out her entrails, though she continued yet alive, and sensible, imploring, as the greatest favour, an immediate death from the hands of some charitable spectator. No one however dared to afford her the least assistance; and she continued in this wretched situation for the space of thirty-five minutes, and then expired in unspeakable torture. At the time of her death, twelve of the cats were expired, and the other four were all dead in less than two minutes afterwards.

The English commentator adds his own view on the matter:

However cruel this execution may appear with regard to the poor animals, it certainly cannot be thought too severe a punishment for such a monster of iniquity, as could calmly proceed in acquiring a fortune by the deliberate murder of such numbers of unoffending, harmless innocents. And if a method of executing murderers, in a manner somewhat similar to this was adapted in England, perhaps the horrid crime of murder might not so frequently disgrace the annals of the present times.

The English story is derived from a pamphlet published in 1673.

Pouring molten metal down the throat or ears

Molten gold poured down the throat

In 88 BC,Mithridates VI of Pontuscaptured the Roman generalManius Aquillius,and executed him by pouring molten gold down his throat.A popular but unsubstantiated rumor also had theParthiansexecuting the famously greedy Roman generalMarcus Licinius Crassusin this manner in 53 BC.

Hulagu(left) imprisons Caliph Al-Musta'sim among his treasures to starve him to death (medieval depiction from "Le livre des merveilles", 15th century)

Genghis Khanis said to have ordered the execution ofInalchuq,the perfidiousKhwarazmiangovernor ofOtrar,by pouring molten gold or silver down his throat inc. 1220,and an early-14th-century chronicle mentions that his grandsonHulagu Khandid likewise to the sultanAl-Musta'simafter thefall of Baghdad in 1258to the Mongol army.(Marco Polo's version is thatAl-Musta'simwas locked without food or water to starve in his treasure room)

Theodor de Bryengraving of a Conquistador being executed by gold

The Spanish in 16th-century Americas gave horrified reports that the Spanish who had been captured by the natives (who had learnt of the Spanish thirst for gold) had their feet and hands bound, and then molten gold poured down their throats as the victims were mocked: "Eat, eat gold, Christians".

From the 19th-century reports from theKingdom of Siam(present-dayThailand) stated that those who have defrauded the public treasury could have either molten gold or silver poured down their throat.

As punishment for inebriation and tobacco smoking

The 16th-/early-17th-century prime ministerMalik Ambarin theDeccanAhmadnagar Sultanatewould not tolerate inebriation among his subjects, and would pour molten lead down the mouths of those caught in that condition.Similarly, in the 17th-centurySultanate of Aceh,SultanIskandar Muda(r. 1607–36) is said to have poured molten lead into the mouths of at least two drunken subjects.Military discipline in 19th-centuryBurmawas reportedly harsh, with strict prohibition of smokingopiumor drinkingarrack.Some monarchs had ordained pouring molten lead down the throats of those who drank, "but it has been found necessary to relax this severity, in order to conciliate the army."

ShahSafi Iof Persia is said to have abhorredtobacco,and apparently in 1634, he prescribed the punishment of pouring molten lead into the throats of smokers.

Mongol punishment for horse thieves

According to historian Pushpa Sharma, stealing a horse was considered the most heinous offence within the Mongol army, and the criminal would either have molten lead poured into his ears, or alternatively, his punishment would be the breaking of the spinal cord or beheading.

Chinese tradition of Buddhist self-immolation

Apparently, for many centuries, a tradition of devotionalself-immolationexisted amongBuddhistmonks inChina.One monk who immolated himself in 527 AD explained his intent a year before, in the following manner:

The body is like a poisonous plant; it would really be right to burn it and extinguish its life. I have been weary of this physical frame for many a long day. I vow to worship the buddhas, just like Xijian.

A severe critic in the 16th century wrote the following comment on this practice:

There are demonic people... who pour on oil, stack up firewood, and burn their bodies while still alive. Those who look on are overawed and consider it the attainment of enlightenment. This is erroneous.

Japan

While the earliest record of death by burning in Japan appears in "Nihonshoki",onIshikawa no TateandIketsuhimeduring the reign ofEmperor Yuryaku,the contemporary code of law hasn't survived and the historical authenticity of this event is uncertain. The oldest preserved written code,Yōrō Codedidn't mention death by burning. It still included capital punishment but it was either death by strangulation or death by cutting with sword.

The historically reliable earliest record of death by burning was ruled byOda Nobukatsu.

In the first half of the 17th century, Japanese authorities sporadically persecutedChristians,with some executions seeing persons being burnt alive. AtNagasakiin 1622 some 25 monks were burnt alive,and inEdoin 1624, 50 Christians were burnt alive.

Tokugawa Shogunate included death by burning alive into their criminal code. Arsonists were often sentenced to death by burning but not always. They might be sentenced to exile instead.

AtMeiji Restorationdeath by burning was abolished in 1868[3].

Mughal Empire

Bhai Sati Das,aSikh martyrwas burned withcotton woolsoaked in oil on the orders ofEmperor Aurangzebafter he refused to convert to Islam.

Indian widow burning

Main article:Sati

AHinduwidow burning herself with the corpse of her husband, 1820s

Ceremony of Burning a Hindu Widow with the Body of her Late Husband,fromPictorial History of China and India,1851

Satirefers to afuneralpractice among some communities ofIndian subcontinentin which a recently widowed womanimmolates herselfon her husband'sfuneral pyre.The first reliable evidence for the practice ofsatiappears from the time of theGupta Empire(400 AD), when instances of sati began to be marked by inscribed memorial stones.

According to one model of history thinking, the practice ofsationly became really widespread with theMuslim invasions of India,and the practice ofsatinow acquired a new meaning as a means to preserve the honour of women whose men had been slain. As S. S. Sashi lays out the argument, "The argument is that the practice came into effect during the Islamic invasion of India, to protect their honor from Muslims who were known to commit mass rape on the women of cities that they could capture successfully."It is also said that according to the memorial stone evidence, the practice was carried out in appreciable numbers in western and southern parts of India, and even in some areas, during pre-Islamic times.Some of the rulers and activist of the time sought actively to suppress the practice ofsati.

TheEast India Companybegan to compile statistics of the incidences ofsatifor all their domains from 1815 and onwards. The official statistics forBengalrepresents that the practice was much more common here than elsewhere, recorded numbers typically in the range 500–600 per year, up to the year 1829, when Company authorities banned the practice.Since the 19th and 20th centuries, the practice remains outlawed in the Indian subcontinent.

Jauharwas a practice among royal Hindu women to prevent capture by Muslim conquerors.

InNepal,the practice was not banned until 1920.

The practice of burning widows has not been restricted to the Indian subcontinent; atBali,the practice was calledmasatiaand, apparently, restricted to the burning of royal widows. This practice is probably resulted from the spread of Hindu culture into Southeast Asia. Although the Dutch colonial authorities had banned the practice, one such occasion is attested as late as in 1903, probably for the last time.

Sub-Saharan Africa

C. H. L. Hahnwrote that within the O-ndnonga tribe among theOvambo peoplein modern-dayNamibia,abortion was not used at all (in contrast to among the other tribes), and that furthermore, if two young unwed individuals had sex resulting in pregnancy, then both the girl and the boy were "taken out to the bush, bound up in bundles of grass and... burnt alive."

Indigenous cannibalism

Americas

Even fateful encounters withcannibalsare recorded: in 1514, in the Americas, Francis of Córdoba and five companions were, reportedly, caught, impaled on spits, roasted and eaten by the natives. In 1543, such was also the end of a previous bishop,Vincent de Valle Viridi.

Fiji

In 1844, the missionary John Watsford wrote a letter about theinternecine warsonFiji,and how captives could be eaten, after being roasted alive:

AtMbau,perhaps, more human beings are eaten than anywhere else. A few weeks ago they ate twenty-eight in one day. They had seized their wretched victims while fishing, and brought them alive to Mbau, and there half-killed them, and then put them into their ovens. Some of them made several vain attempts to escape from the scorching flame.

The actual manner of the roasting process was described by the missionary pioneer David Cargill, in 1838:

When about to be immolated, he is made to sit on the ground with his feet under his thighs and his hands placed before him. He is then bound so that he cannot move a limb or a joint. In this posture he is placed on stones heated for the occasion (and some of them are red-hot), and then covered with leaves and earth, to be roasted alive. When cooked, he is taken out of the oven and, his face and other parts being painted black, that he may resemble a living man ornamented for a feast or for war, he is carried to the temple of the gods and, being still retained in a sitting posture, is offered as a propitiatory sacrifice.

Legislation against the practice

In 1790, SirBenjamin Hammettintroduced a bill into the BritishParliamentto end the practice of judicial burning. He explained that the year before, asSheriffof London, he had been responsible for the burning ofCatherine Murphy,found guilty ofcounterfeiting,but that he had allowed her to be hanged first. He pointed out that as the law stood, he himself could have been found guilty of a crime in not carrying out the lawful punishment and, as no woman had been burnt alive in the kingdom for more than half a century, so could all those still alive who had held an official position at all of the previous burnings. TheTreason Act 1790was duly passed by Parliament and givenroyal assentby KingGeorge III(30 George III. C. 48).TheParliament of Irelandsubsequently passed the similarTreason by Women Act (Ireland) 1796.

Modern burnings

In the modern era, deaths by burning are largelyextrajudicialin nature. These killings may be committed by mobs, small numbers of criminals, orparamilitarygroups.

The Holocaust and German war crimes

In 1941, Polish natives—in cooperation with German police—locked 340 Jews in a barn and set it on fire during theJedwabne pogrom.During the 1943Khatyn massacre,theSS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewangerand theSchutzmannschaft Battalion 118—a Germany-sponsored battalion of Ukrainian partisans—locked 149 villagers into a shed and set it on fire.TheWorld Jewish Restitution Organisationreported toThe Jerusalem Postthat the German staff ofAuschwitzburnt children alive in 1944.In another 1944 atrocity, theWaffen SSlocked 452 French women and children in a church and set it on fire.German prosecutors charged an alleged perpetrator of that massacre in 2014.SS-SturmbannführerAdolf Diekmann—commander of the 1st Battalion, 4th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment—ordered the massacre, claiming retaliation against French partisans for burning SS-SturmbannführerHelmut Kämpfe alive.In April 1945, theSS camp guardsofDora-Mittelbau—along with local civilian and military authorities—set a barn on fire with more than a thousand inmates trapped inside.

Revenge against Germans

Benjamin B. Ferencz,one of the prosecutors in theNuremberg trialsafter the end ofWorld War IIwho, in May 1945, investigated occurrences at theEbensee concentration camp,narrated them to Tom Hofmann, a family member and biographer. Ferencz was outraged at what the Germans had done there. When people discovered an SS guard who attempted to flee, they tied him to one of the metal trays used to transport bodies into thecrematorium.They then lit the oven and slowly roasted the SS guard to death, taking him in and out of the oven several times. Ferencz said to Hofmann that at the time, he was in no position to stop the proceedings of the mob, and frankly admitted that he had not been inclined to try. Hofmann adds, "There seemed to be no limit to human brutality in wartime."

Lynching of Germans in Czechoslovakia

During the post-World War IIexpulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia,a number of attacks against the German minority occurred. In one case inPraguein May 1945, a Czech mob hanged several Germans upside down on lampposts, doused them in fuel and set them on fire, burning them alive.The future literature scholarPeter Demetz,who grew up in Prague, later reported on this.

Japanese war crimes of WWII

The decaying corpse of a person burned to death inHebei,about 1938–1939

Immolation was a commonly reported execution method amongImperial Japanese troopsduringWorld War II.During theNanjing Massacreafter Japanese forcescaptured the city of Nanjing in 1937,immolation was a commonly used method of execution and brutality towards the Chinese people in Nanjing during the Imperial Japanese Army's occupation of the city.

The most infamous case of the Imperial Japanese military utilizing this method of execution on Alliedprisoners of warwas thePalawan massacrein thePhilippinesin the midst of theUnited States military's campaign to retake the Philippines.To prevent the rescue of the POWs by liberating American forces, the 150 American POWs in the Palawan prison camp; Camp 10-Awere herded into air raid shelters viaair raid sirens.The Japanese guards, taking advantage of the POWs being confined in the shelters, then doused the shelter entrances with gasoline before lighting them on fire. They then fired a few shots into the entrances to hit the POWs standing near the entrances in order to use their bodies to trap the other POWs that were deeper inside the shelter and engulf them all in the inferno. Any POWs who did manage to dig themselves out of the trench and escape the flames were hunted down. At the end of the ordeal, only 11 POWs managed to escape to friendly lines.

Extrajudicial burnings in Latin America

InRio de Janeiro,Brazil, burning peoplestanding inside a pile of tiresis a common form of murder used by drug dealers to punish those who have supposedly collaborated with the police. This form of burning is calledmicro-ondas(microwave oven).The filmTropa de Elite(Elite Squad) and the video gameMax Payne 3contain scenes depicting this practice.

During theGuatemalan Civil War,theGuatemalan Armyand security forces carried out an unknown number of extrajudicial killings by burning. In one instance in March 1967, Guatemalanguerrillaand poetOtto René Castillowas captured by Guatemalan government forces and taken toZacapaarmy barracks alongside one of his comrades, Nora Paíz Cárcamo. The two were interrogated, tortured for four days, and burned alive.Other reported instances of immolation by Guatemalan government forces occurred in the Guatemalan government's rural counterinsurgency operations in theGuatemalan Altiplanoin the 1980s. In April 1982, 13 members of aQʼanjobʼalPentecostal congregation in Xalbal,Ixcan,were burnt alive in their church by the Guatemalan Army.

On 31 August 1996, a Mexican man, Rodolfo Soler Hernandez, was burned to death inPlaya Vicente,Mexico, after he was accused of raping and strangling a local woman to death. Local residents tied Hernandez to a tree, doused him in a flammable liquid and then set him ablaze. His death was also filmed by residents of the village. Shots taken before the killing showed that he had been badly beaten.On 5 September 1996, Mexican television stations broadcast footage of the murder. Locals carried out the killing because they were fed up with crime and believed that the police and courts were both incompetent. Footage was also shown in the 1998shockumentaryfilm,Banned from Television.

A young Guatemalan woman, Alejandra María Torres, was attacked by a mob inGuatemala Cityon 15 December 2009. The mob alleged that Torres had attempted to rob passengers on a bus. Torres was beaten, doused with gasoline, and set on fire, but was able to put the fire out before sustaining life-threatening burns. Police intervened and arrested Torres. Torres was forced to go topless throughout the ordeal and subsequent arrest, and many photographs were taken and published.Approximately 219 people were lynched in Guatemala in 2009, of whom 45 died.

In May 2015, a sixteen-year-old girl was allegedly burned to death inRío Bravo,Guatemala, by a vigilante mob after being accused of involvement in the killing of a taxi driver earlier in the month.

InChileduring public mass protests held against the military regime of GeneralAugusto Pinocheton 2 July 1986, engineering studentCarmen Gloria Quintana,18, and Chilean-American photographerRodrigo Rojas de Negri,19, were arrested by aChilean Armypatrol in theLos Nogalesneighborhood ofSantiago.The two were searched and beaten before being doused in gasoline and burned alive by Chilean troops. Rojas was killed, while Quintana survived but with severe burns.

Lynchings and killings by burning in the United States

Lynching of Jesse WashingtoninWaco, Texas,on 15 May 1916. He was repeatedly lowered and raised onto a fire for about two hours.

Burnings continued as a method oflynching in the United Statesin the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in theSouth.One of the most notorious extrajudicial burnings in modern history occurred inWaco, Texason 15 May 1916.Jesse Washington,an African-Americanfarmhand,after having been convicted of the rape and subsequent murder of a white woman, was taken by a mob to a bonfire, castrated, doused incoal oil,and hanged by the neck from a chain over the bonfire, slowly burning to death. A postcard from the event still exists, showing a crowd standing next to Washington's charred corpse with the words on the back "This is the barbecue we had last night. My picture is to the left with a cross over it. Your son, Joe". This attracted international condemnation and is remembered as the "Waco Horror".

More recently, during the 1980New Mexico State Penitentiary riot,a number of inmates were burnt to death by fellow prisoners, who threw flammable liquids into locked cells and ignited the fuel usingblowtorches.

Cases from Africa

InSouth Africa,extrajudicialexecutions by burning were carried out via "necklacing",wherein a mob would fill a rubber tire withkerosene(or gasoline) and place it around the neck of a live person. The fuel was then ignited, the rubber melted, and the victim burnt to death.The method was most commonly used during the 1980s and early 1990s by anti-Apartheidopposition. In 1986,Winnie Mandela,wife of the then-imprisoned ANC (African National Congress) leaderNelson Mandela,stated, "With our boxes of matches, and our necklaces, we shall liberate this country", which was widely seen as an explicit endorsement of necklacing.This caused the ANC to initially distance itself from her,although she later took on a number of official positions within the party.

It was reported that inKenya,on 21 May 2008, a mob had burned to death at least 11 accusedwitches.

Cases from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent

Immolation was a common execution method for Armenian children, particularly orphans, withOttoman troopsduring theArmenian genocide.Armenian children would be herded into a building to a secluded area outside the city in batches, doused in gasoline, and lit on fire. This practice took place inDer Zor,KharpertandDiarbekirprovinces, and most infamously, at a German run orphanage inMush.

Dr Graham Stuart Staines,an Australian Christianmissionary,and his two sons Philip (aged ten) and Timothy (aged six), were burnt to death by a gang while the three slept in the family car (a station wagon), atManoharpurvillage inKeonjhar District, Odisha, Indiaon 22 January 1999. Four years later, in 2003, aBajrang Dalactivist,Dara Singh,was convicted of leading the gang that murdered Staines and his sons, and was sentenced to life in prison. Staines had worked in Odisha with the tribal poor andleperssince 1965. Some Hindu groups made allegations that Staines had forcibly converted or lured many Hindus intoChristianity.

On 19 June 2008, theTaliban,at Sadda,Lower Kurram,Pakistan, burned three truck drivers of theTuritribe alive after attacking a convoy of trucks en route fromKohattoParachinar,possibly for supplying thePakistan Armed Forces.

In January 2015, Jordanian pilotMoaz al-Kasasbehwas burned in a cage by theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant(ISIS). The pilot was captured when his plane crashed nearRaqqa,Syria, during a mission against IS in December 2014.This became known on 4 February 2015 after ISIS published a 22-minute video online showing the burning of a Jordanian pilot.

In August 2015, ISIS burned to death four IraqiShiaprisoners.

In December 2016,ISIS burned to death two Turkish soldiers,publishing video of the atrocity.

Bride-burning

Main article:Bride burning

Bride burningis a form ofdomestic violenceinvolving burning. The wife is typically doused withkerosene,gasoline,or other flammable liquid, and set alight, leading to death by fire. Kerosene is often used as the cooking fuel for small petrol stoves, some of which being dangerous, so it allows the claim that the crime was an accident.

On 20 January 2011, a 28-year-old woman, Ranjeeta Sharma, was found burning to death on a road in ruralNew Zealand.The police confirmed the woman was alive before being covered in an accelerant and set on fire.Sharma's husband, Davesh Sharma, was charged with her murder.

See also

• Jungle justice
• Muath al-Kasasbeh
• List of people burned as heretics
• Relaxado en persona
• Self-immolation
• Spontaneous human combustion
• Witchcraft Acts
• Yaoya Oshichi

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External links

• CapitalPunishmentUK.org
• List of deaths by fire throughout history