Why The Spanish Garrote Execution Device Used A Screw JJ

Among the many execution methods used throughout history, few seem as strange as the Spanish garrote. Unlike the guillotine, which used a very heavy blade to remove the head, or the gallows, which relied on a rope and a drop, the garrote often killed by using a metal collar tightened around the prisoner’s neck.

At the back of the collar, too, sometimes was a large screw that the executioner turned with a handle. As the screw moved forward, it crushed the neck and damaged the spinal cord, eventually causing death. To modernize, it seems like an unnecessarily complicated design. Why would anyone choose a screw instead of a sharp blade? The answer lies in the nature of history, technology, religion, law, and changing ideas about what was considered a humane execution.

The garrote was not simply invented because people lacked better ideas. Instead, it reflected the values of the society that created and used it. The word garrote comes from the Spanish word garrotvil, meaning stick or club. Long before the famous metal execution chair appeared, strangulation had been used as a method of execution in many parts of Europe.

During ancient and medieval times, prisoners could be strangled with ropes, cords, and wooden sticks twisted behind the neck. These methods required very little equipment and are often seen as practical alternatives to hanging or beheading. Over time, Spanish authorities wanted a more controlled and reliable method. Manual strangulation depended heavily on the strength and skill of the executioner.

If the rope slipped or was tightened unevenly, the prisoner could suffer for a long time before dying. Officials, therefore, looked for a device that produced more consistent results. This led to the development of the execution chair fitted with an iron collar and a threaded screw. Instead of relying on muscle alone, the screw converted the turning motion of the executioner’s hands into steady forward pressure.

This simple mechanical principle allowed enormous force to be applied with very little effort. The use of a screw also reflected advances in metal working. By the 16th and 17th centuries, blacksmiths could produce large iron screws strong enough for heavy industrial and military purposes. The same technology could easily be adapted into an execution device.

A blade, by contrast, required careful forging, sharpening, and maintenance. The screw mechanism was durable, reusable, and less likely to fail if properly constructed. Another important reason for using a screw instead of a blade was the Spanish attitude towards bloodshed. Throughout much of European history, spilling blood carried symbolic meaning.

Certain forms of execution were considered more honorable than others. Noblemen might receive death by sword, while ordinary criminals could be hanged. The garrote was unusual because it generally caused very little external bleeding. The prisoner’s body remained largely intact with no severed limbs or decapitated head.

In deeply Catholic Spain, where religious rituals surrounding death remained important, many people regarded an intact body as more dignified than one which had been violently cut apart. This did not mean though that the execution was gentle or painless. In reality, death by garrote could be extremely unpleasant.

To many 19th century observers, the absence of blood made it appear more civilized than chopping someone’s head off with an axe or allowing a crowd to watch blood flow across a scaffold. Spain also preferred the garrote because it offered greater control. A guillotine blade falls only once. If something goes wrong, there’s little opportunity to correct the mistake.

Although guillotines were generally reliable, early execution machines elsewhere occasionally experienced mechanical failures. With the garrote, the executioner remained in control throughout the process. He could tighten the screw gradually until sufficient pressure was achieved. This mechanical control reduced the chance of equipment failure, although it also meant the executioner’s skill remained extremely important.

Exactly how the garrote killed has long been debated. Older descriptions often claimed that the screw instantly broke the neck, producing a rapid death. Modern historians believe the reality was much more complicated. Many garrotes featured a rounded metal point attached to the advancing screw. As it pushed into the back of the prisoner’s neck, it could damage the upper spinal column or force the head sharply forward.

At the same time, the iron collar compressed the airway and the major blood vessels supplying the brain. Depending on the precise design of the garrote, the prisoner’s size, and the executioner’s technique, death could result from spinal injury, strangulation, restricted blood flow to the brain, or a combination of all three.

Some executions were relatively quick, while others lasted several minutes. Because the screw increased pressure slowly and steadily, the executioner could feel the resistance through the handle. This allowed him to continue tightening until death was certain. A blade offered no such feedback once it’d fallen.

The garrote became Spain’s principal civilian execution method during the 19th century. In 1820, King Ferdinand VII officially adopted it as a standard method of executions throughout Spain. The decision reflected changing attitudes towards punishment. Governments across Europe increasingly wanted executions to appear orderly, efficient, and carried out under legal authority, rather than becoming spectacles of public violence.

The garrote fitted this image perfectly. The condemned prisoner was seated in a sturdy chair, often dressed neatly and accompanied by clergy. The execution itself involved no swinging body, no severed head, and usually no large quantity of blood. To government officials, this projected the image of a disciplined state carrying out justice in a controlled manner.

Different versions of the garrote even reflected social class. During earlier periods, there were distinctions between the garrote noble, garrote ordinario, and garrote vil. Nobles might receive certain privileges concerning how the execution was carried out, while common criminals often received harsher treatments.

These differences gradually disappeared as legal systems became more standardized, but they reveal how execution methods often reflected the rigid social hierarchy of Spanish society. Spain also exported the garrote to parts of its empire. It was used in colonies including the Philippines, where several famous executions did take place.

But perhaps the best known execution that took place there was that of Jose Rizal, a Filipino nationalist and writer, in 1896. Rizal, though, himself was executed by a firing squad, but many other prisoners in the Spanish colonial system were put to death using the garrote, demonstrating how closely the method had become associated with Spanish justice.

Ironically, many officials believed the garrote was actually a humane improvement over older methods, but public opinion gradually moved in the opposite direction. >> [clears throat] >> As medicine advanced during the 19th and 20th centuries, doctors gained a better understanding of spinal injuries, strangulation, and suffocation.

They realized that death by garrote was often neither instant nor painless. Witnesses sometimes described prisoners struggling to breathe or remaining conscious for far longer than expected. Although a skilled executioner could shorten the process, the outcome was not always predictable. This growing medical knowledge undermined claims that the garrote represented a merciful form of execution.

By the 20th century, many countries were abandoning public executions altogether. Attention increasingly focused on methods believed to produce rapid unconsciousness with minimal suffering. Against this backdrop, the slow mechanical tightening of an iron screw appeared old-fashioned and cruel. Nevertheless, Spain continued using the garrote for much longer than many people realized.

During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, it remained the country’s official civilian execution method. Even as electric chairs and gas chambers appeared elsewhere in the world, Spain still relied heavily on a design where basic principle had changed little for centuries. One of the last executions by garrote took place in 1974, when the prisoner Salvador Puig Antich was put to death in Barcelona.

His execution attracted widespread international criticism and became a symbol of opposition to Franco’s dictatorship. On the same day, another prisoner, Heinz Schley, was also executed by garrote. The fact that such an ancient device was still being used shocked much of the world. After Franco’s death shortly after, Spain rapidly reformed its legal system.

Capital punishment was gradually abolished, and the garrote disappeared into history. Today, surviving examples can be found in museums where they serve as reminders of how society once viewed justice and punishments. The reason the Spanish garrote used a screw instead of a blade ultimately comes down to practical engineering and cultural beliefs rather than simple cruelty.

The screw provided controlled mechanical force, required relatively simple maintenance, and allowed the executioner to apply enormous pressure using basic technology. At the same time, it avoided the dramatic bloodshed associated with beheading, matching Spanish ideas about dignity, religious tradition, and orderly justice.

From a modern perspective, the garrote appears horrifying. Yet, those who designed and defended it often believed they were replacing older, even more brutal forms of execution with something much more controlled and much more humane. History shows that the ideas about mercy and justice change over time, but the Spanish garrote stands as a powerful example of how technology, culture, and law combine to produce an execution method that, although intended to be civilized, is now remembered as one of the most disturbing devices ever used by

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