Talk:Rack (torture)

Jasher
It should also be mentioned thatygb the rack was said to exist in the city of Sodom in the book of Jasher. The reference is Jasher 19:3-6 as follows:

"And by desire of their four judges the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had beds erected in the streets of the cities, and if a man came to these places they laid hold of him and brought him to one of their beds, and by force made him to lie.

"And as he lay down, three men would stand at his head and three at his feet, and measure him by the length of the bed, and if the man was less than the bed these six men would stretch him at each end, and when he cried out to them they would not answer him.

"And if he was longer than the bed they would draw together the two sides of the bed at each end, until the man had reached the gates of death.

"And if he continued to cry out to them, they would answer him, saying, Thus shall it be done to a man that cometh into our land."

This is from the website http://www.ccel.org/a/anonymous/jasher/19.htm. If the account is accurate then the rack has a history going back at least 4,000 years, and may have been invented in Sodom and Gomorrah.TurtleofXanth 03:25, 24 March 2007 (UTC)


 * The Book of Jasher is largely considered to be a medieval forgery. Also, the historical accuracy of the biblical story of "Sodom and Gommorah" is generally considered more myth than literal history. Peter G Werner 06:42, 24 March 2007 (UTC)

Picture
should we maybe have a picture of someone getting tortured with the rack? we have nudity in a lot of the articals why not torture? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.136.171.242 (talk) 21:56, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Well a) since the rack stopped being in general use prior to the advent of photography, there aren't a lot of photos available; and b) there's nothing about nudity inherent in the rack. TJRC (talk) 23:51, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
 * Wait, what? "Jeez, if people can run around nude, surely they can be tortured to death!" What is... what? What kind of connection are you making here? If you can see a penis, you might as well see someone in being tortured to death? What kind of unimaginably awful confusion has led you to connect these two things? (Yes, I know I'm 3 years late to the party, but I'm still flabbergasted.) Dr.queso =  talk 17:46, 3 June 2012 (UTC)

When outlawed?
Why doesn't this have any info about when the rack was made illegal? 114.77.6.119 (talk) 11:13, 1 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the  link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills.  New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). TJRC (talk) 17:53, 2 November 2009 (UTC)

In England, according to Blackstone, it was never actually legal, but happened just the same by Royal Prerogative. It was held illegal in 1628 to rack John Fenton and was made illegal by statute in 1640 --Streona (talk) 18:36, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Guy Fawkes
This article states that Guy Fawkes had the rack used on him, however the Guy Fawkes article states that there is no evidence to suggest that it was used on him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.9.103.6 (talk) 12:58, 1 July 2010 (UTC)

(No) evidence of use
Various Wiki-articles claim without citation that the rack was used in England on identified victims. People were simply tortured or Put to the Question in many ways, but I see no evidence that they were racked, an unusually complicated form of torture. The statutory Hanging, Drawing and Quartering needed only a rope and blade. I am deleting unverified assertions, pending citation.Jezza (talk) 20:38, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Inquisition
Inquisition didn't use the device shown in the picture (in fact that's from London). By the same name of rack goes another method of torture, rather similar to the Russian suspension. I corrected.--Avemundi (talk) 17:48, 13 May 2011 (UTC)

Sus[pension is a very common form of torture but it is quite distinct from the rack Streona (talk) 18:09, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

add "More citations needed" template
This article does not have a lot of citations, I suggest adding the "more citations needed" template. Poopykibble (talk) 04:22, 25 February 2022 (UTC)