# What was the iron maiden **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 10, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451 "2004-03-10T07:49:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/1 "2004-03-10T07:49:04Z")
I saw something on the history channel about this torture device, but they gave vague details about it. I just want to know exactly what this thing did to the unlucky victims. ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/2 "2004-03-10T07:52:37Z")
And I’ll beat you to the punch, “The greatest '80’s heavy metal band that ever…” ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/3 "2004-03-10T07:53:47Z")
It’s a metal coffin with spikes in it. A quick [Google](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=iron+maiden+torture&sa=N&tab=wi). ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/4 "2004-03-10T07:54:30Z")
> [@](#): > > It was a box big enough to admit a man, with folding doors and its interior studded with sharp iron spikes. When the doors were closed these spikes were forced into the body of the victim, who was left there to die in agony. From [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_maiden) ---
**Author:** ![cw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71c47a/32.png) [@cw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cw)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/5 "2004-03-10T08:01:38Z")
> [@Bromley](#): > > It’s a metal coffin with spikes in it. A quick [Google](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=iron+maiden+torture&sa=N&tab=wi). Yeah, but how long did it take to die and how did you die from this device (I suppose bled to death). ---
**Author:** ![slipster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@slipster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slipster)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/6 "2004-03-12T01:02:02Z")
Bram Stoker, best remembered as the author of **Dracula** , wrote a short story entitled **The Squaw** in which an Iron Maiden exhibited at Nuremberg Castle figures prominently. It is suggested that death was immediate, and that the torture consisted in having to watch the door slowly close on one. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/7 "2004-03-12T01:20:05Z")
OK I thought it was something else. But then again what is this device: Basically a metal ‘cage’ that is the basic shape of a man standing upright, big enough to allow a man to stand up but not much more. ??? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/8 "2004-03-12T01:24:43Z")
[The Iron Maiden](http://www.angelfire.com/goth/nitecreatures/torture.html) > [@](#): > > The history of torture records many devices that worked on the principle of the anthropomorphic container with two doors, fitted with spikes on the inside that pierced the victim upon the doors being shut. The most famous example has always been the so called “Iron Maiden of Nuremberg”, destroyed in the air raids of 1944. > > It is difficult to separate legend from fact concerning this contrivance because most published material is based on nineteenth century research distorted by romanticisms and by fanciful popular tradition. The first reference to an execution with the Maiden that has yet come to light stems from August 14, 1515, although the instrument had been in use for several decades by then. That day a forger of coins was placed inside, and the doors shut “slowly, so that the very sharp points penetrated his arms, and his legs in several places, and his belly and chest, and his bladder and the root of his member, and his eyes, and his shoulders, and his buttocks, but not enough to kill him; and so he remained making great cry and lament for two days, after which he died”. Probably the spikes of that time were movable among various sockets drilled into different places on the inside, more or less lethal, more or less mutilating, according to the requirements of the sentence. > > Investigative torture fell slowly into disuse in Nuremberg with the passing of the eighteenth century, so that a tourist guide of 1784 speaks of “the Iron Maiden, that abominable work of horror (dieses abscheuliche Greulwerk) that goes back to the times of Frederick Barbarossa”, an error of almost four centuries but one that proves that the Maiden had already been relegated to the museum. Site includes a picture. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/9 "2004-03-12T01:26:37Z")
Are you talking about a Jibbet cage? [http://www.macallenarmourers.com/images/Jibetcage-72-a.jpg](http://www.macallenarmourers.com/images/Jibetcage-72-a.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/10 "2004-03-12T01:27:56Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Are you talking about a Jibbet cage? > > [http://www.macallenarmourers.com/images/Jibetcage-72-a.jpg](http://www.macallenarmourers.com/images/Jibetcage-72-a.jpg) That was for **Kanicbird** ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/11 "2004-03-12T01:35:50Z")
These torture devices always seem to end in death till quite recently. Whats wrong with pummeling a suspect for a while then releasing him, eh?? ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/12 "2004-03-12T04:08:38Z")
What, and let the guy go sue you? You think medieval torturers were tough, you’ve never heard about the lawyers… ---
**Author:** ![BlackKnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eb8c5e/32.png) [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/13 "2004-03-12T06:51:47Z")
My favorite has to be the pear. Such an innocent name. Such a horrific device. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/14 "2004-03-12T12:30:56Z")
> [@](#): > > Are you talking about a Jibbet cage? That might be another form of it, and if not still is very close and looks like it serves the same purpose. The one I was thinking of actually was somewhat curved so the area by the legs were smaller then the area by the chest/arms, and the head area was smaller again. I thought, before this thread, that was the iron maden since it had a basically human form, and looked a bit more female. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/15 "2004-03-12T12:54:15Z")
My favourite is the [comfy chair](http://www.ai.mit.edu/people/paulfitz/spanish/t12.html). (Warning, photo of the device being used in torture). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![curly\_chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ba0ec/32.png) [@curly\_chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curly_chick)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-iron-maiden/233451/16 "2004-03-12T12:56:02Z")
> [@BlackKnight](#): > > My favorite has to be the pear. > > Such an innocent name. > > Such a horrific device. That’s your **favourite**?!?!?!? Eeeeek! Remind me never to cross you, **BlackKnight** , you scary article! 😃