TSD: Impaling yesterday and today
From ForensicWiki
EVERYTHING WE CAN IMAGINE DOES EXIST
The Transylvanian Society of Dracula
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Impaling: Yesterday And Today
Slide Show at the Transylvanian Society of Dracula (TSD) Dracula Congress, May 9-11, 2001, Sighisoara, Transylvania, Romania
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by Mark Benecke
International Forensic Research & Consulting, forensic@benecke.com, http://www.benecke.com/
Abstract: A Forensic View on Impaling
Mark Benecke, Ph.D., International Forensic Research and Consulting, Cologne
From a forensic point of view, impaling in quite an unusual method of killing. As much as crucification, it might be intended to kill fast, or to kill slowly to torture the victim. In both cases, the executioner would need special knowledge about the means of using the killing method of his, i.e., his leader's, choice.
For example, it is unlikely that regular soldiers would be able to impale persons without some training and advice, especially when it comes to impaling on thick wooden stakes, or poles, as frequently seen in more recent vampire movies but also in old woodcuts.
To illustrate the different causes of death that can be observed after impaling injuries, we present some forensic cases where impaling did, or did not lead to death, either voluntary or unvoluntary. We will also mention modern impalers, and their method of work. Finally, the question of how impaling must have been performed at Vlad's time is addressed.
More about impaling
Mark Benecke, Ph.D., International Forensic Research and Consulting, Cologne
This is a raw version of an article for BITE ME Magazine, Scotland, Issue 4, Summer 2001
From a forensic point of view, impaling in quite an unusual method of killing. As much as crucification, it might be intended to kill fast (not the best idea), or to kill slowly to torture the victim. It also seems to be a method of choice when it comes to killing of large numbers of people on a restricted area. A good description of the latter idea of this is given at http://www.shootingiron.com/chamber/church/impale.htm (see also fig. 1):
One of the most popular forms of mass execution, for many can be performed and displayed in a small area due to its vertical nature. It will consist of a long spike, either wood or iron, being inserted into your anus. It will then either be forced in further by method of rope and pulley, or by having the spike tilted to an upright state. In this instance, your body's own weight will cause further impalement, until at last the spike's tip exits the body. Commonly shown are visions where the pole will exit through a victims mouth, but due to the precision of such a feat, it is more like ly that this will not be the case with you. You can expect for the exit puncture to be around your shoulder, as is most common. Depending upon the entry angle, and the movement of your body after the spike is erected, however, it is not unlikely that it will exit through the abdomen. Because of the resulting muscle contractions, the tip will enter your body again through the chest, piercing your heart or lungs. If you have survived for this long, you can know peace that it will not last much longer.
An obvious implication of impaling enemies is that this will show resoluteness, cruelty, and ruthlessnes of the person applying the method, most likely a military leader. Impaling might as well cause unnecessary pain which was frequently not intended, not even in past centuries. E.g., professional executioners did in many cases kill convicted persons either very fast (by sword, hanging, etc.; this was considered to be "fair"), or by using a symbolic method of killing (e.g., pyre, breaking people on the wheel) whilst in fact killing the convicted person immediately before in a comparably more human manner, usually by manual strangulation (the audience would not realize this). Impaling was also an improper method for torture in European juridical proceedings since a basic concept of torture was to promise partial or even complete relief from bodily pain after a confession. Any form of proper impaling, however, would cause massive damage to the intestines that in earlier times would definitely have lead to death due to inner bleeding, or due to an massive infection with bacteria. This explains why impaling is recorded nearly nowhere as a "regular" killing or torture method since medieval times in central and northern Europe.
Impaling of vampires as we know it from the movies (stake through heart method) works quite different from the ancient war impaling routine and has a more symbolic meaning: The heart was (and sometimes still is) considered to be the source of life, also in the spiritual sense. This, by the way, is another clue that the association of Vlad the Impaler with the whole vampire biz is imagination: If there was a connection, one might feel that proper impaling through the anus should have made it to Hollywood.
All this is not to say that impaling does not occur any more. In contrast, there is a never ending list of people who get accidently impaled through any part of their body. Here are just a few recent examples:
Newsday,Feb 1998: `Brave Little Girl' / Recovering after tree limb impaled her in windstorm. An 11-year-old Elmhurst girl was in stable condition last night after a falling tree limb impaled her during Tuesday night's violent windstorm. (...) The firefighters estimated the tree limb that impaled Gafrin was more than 14 feet long. They said it entered her lower back just above her hip, and emerged right next to her navel.
The Dominion (Wellington, New Zealand), Oct. 2000: Deer hunter impales arm. A 52-YEAR-OLD deer hunter walked for four hours through dense bush in the Kaweka Range after his right arm was impaled on a three-centimetre- wide manuka branch. The Auckland man was hunting along the Mohaka River, between Turangi and Napier, on Tuesday when he stumbled down a bank and impaled his arm on the branch. He freed himself and walked to a hut to use a radio to call for help.
AAP General News (Australia), March 1999: NSW: Soldier tells of pain after backside impaled on rifle. A soldier suffered excruciating pain when he fell off an army truck and his backside was impaled on the end of a rifle, a Sydney court was told today. David Andrew Brodie, who was 21 at the time, is seeking an extension of time to sue the Commonwealth over the accident which took place on November 2, 1972 at the Bandiana Army Base in Victoria.
Maybe the most bizarre cases (if there is a any comparison) were several impalements with dive sticks (fig. 2) in the U.S.:
DIVE STICKS RECALLED AFTER KIDS ARE IMPALED
By Catherine Holahan, The Record (Bergen County, NJ), June 25,1999
If those little neon "dive sticks" were on your summer shopping list, don't bother searching the shelves of Toys "R" Us, or any other toy store. More than 19 million of the popular children's toys were recalled by the government Thursday because of reports they have impaled children who have landed on them. Dive sticks are hard, plastic cylinder-shaped objects that stand upright on the bottom of pools so children can dive down and retrieve them. They have been sold for about 20 years at various retail stores. "I never used those diving sticks," said Linda Bober, a mother of three from Fair Lawn. "They looked fine, but when you felt them they felt hard. They weren't flexible like these things," she said, pointing to a foam pool toy called the Funnoodle. "I was at a neighbor's house and I saw them in her pool. I wouldn't let my kids swim in there." (...) In four of the six incidents documented, the children required surgery and hospitalization. (...) One of the two models subject to the recalls is the Darth Maul Double-Bladed Lightsaber, which has retractable red plastic "light blades" on both sides of a metallic-gray hand grip. When the blades are fully extended, the toy is 5 feet long. The other is the Qui-Gon Jinn Lightsaber, which has a single retractable "light blade" made of green plastic that extends from a metallic-gray hand grip to about 3 feet.
For forensic scientists and medico-legal doctors it is always interesting to ask why a person actually dies. It seems quite obvious that one would not survive impalment with a 14 feet tree limb but as you saw, a pool stick might be more deadly. I don t want to go deeper in this subject here but it is an amazing field of research, and every time a country decides to perform autopsies of all deceased persons (not only of the ones where an unnatural death seems likely straight away), it is found that causes of death frequently would have impossible to determine without a proper opening of the body.
Now, it doesn t always have to be that gruesome. Modern aspects of impaling involve voluntary body modification (figure 3 -- be glad that I don't show you the hardcore stuff), music (fig.4 -- be glad that I don t show you the adolescent band members), and also beer (fig. 5). If you want to know more, let me know (forenic@benecke.com). Meanwhile, grab a bottle of Impale Ale and think about how dangerous life can be. Cheers!
Pics (available only in BITE ME Magazine)
- "Impaled man on tree (unknown original source)" à impale. jpg
- "Dive sticks that recently impaled a number of children in the U.S." à pool sticks.jpg
- "The Impaled by Shiny Things website" à impaledby.tif.
- "Impale music (hardrock of course; however, I save the readers the look(s) of the juvenile band members)" à impalemusic.tif
- There is even an Imapled Beer available. Cheers! à impaledale.tif.
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