John Gibson

Gripped by a fear that a secret conspiracy of evil doers killed children, destroyed food supplies, and, eventually would cause the destruction of civilization, the battle against terror used any means necessary to extract information from those it suspected of practicing evil. Torture was the order of the day.



Why? Well, because torture led to the highest form of truth—which was not evidence, but rather, confession. Hundreds of years of legal theories had led to the imposition of Roman law, in which the words forced from the lips of wrongdoers equaled justice, because justice was getting at the truth, and, once truth had been extracted, further evil could be prevented. 

And so, torture led to moments like this:

Many  hundred thousand good-nights, dearly beloved daughter Veronica. Innocent have I come into prison, innocent have I been tortured, innocent must I die.

Charles Krauthammer would no doubt have been pleased had he witnessed the methods used to extract Junius’s confession. As Junius tells it:

For whoever comes into the witch prison must become a witch or be tortured until he invents something out of his head and—God pity him—bethinks him of something. I will tell you how it has gone with me. When I was the first time put to the torure, Dr. Braun, Dr. Kotzendorffer, and two strange doctors were there. Then Dr. Braun asks me, “Kinsman, how come you here??? I answer, “Through falsehood, through misfortune.?? “Hear, you,?? he says, “you are a witch; will you confess it voluntarily? If not, we’ll bring in witnesses and the executioner for you.?? I said, “I am no witch; I have a pure conscience in the matter; if there a thousand witnesses, I am not anxious, but I’ll gladly hear the witnesses.?? Now the chancellor’s son was set before me … and afterward Hoppfens Elsse. She had seen me dance on Haupts-moor … I answered: “I have never renounced God, and will never do it—God graciously keep me from it. I’ll rather bear whatever I must.?? And then came also—God in highest heaven have mercy—the executioner, and put the thumb-screws on me, both hands bound together, so that the blood ran out at the nails and everywhere, so that for four weeks I could not use my hands, as you can see by my writing … Thereafter they first stripped me, bound my hands behind me, an drew me up in the torture. [strappado] Then I thought heaven and earth were at an end; eight times did they draw me up and let me fall again, so that I suffered terrible agony…