THE Rat torture was a method used in medieval times. It worked by putting a pot of hungry rats into a cage that was strapped to the victims stomach. Then the cage was slowly heated, making the distressed rats chew and claw through the victim, trying to escape.

Rat torture was used by several South American military dictatorships: in Brazil during the military dictatorship of 1964–1985, in Uruguay during the civic-military dictatorship of 1973–1985, in Chile during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990), in Argentina during the so-called National Reorganization Process (1976–1983). Amnesty International documented the case of a woman tortured by the Chilean CNI (National Information Center, successor to the DINA) in 1981, who described being kept in a room full of live rats during interrogation.

Serial killer Richard Kuklinski alleged in a series of interviews that one of his preferred methods of murder was to tie up a victim and leave them in a cave overnight so they could be eaten alive by rats. He would also leave a Super 8 camera in the cave to film the events. Like many of Kuklinski’s other claims, this has been disputed due to a lack of evidence.

On October 16, 2010 in Lakewood, New Jersey, David Wax was alleged to have threatened kidnap victim Yisrael Bryskman with rat torture unless he agreed to give his wife a get (Jewish divorce document). He was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for assisting in a kidnapping.