Heretic's Fork: Totes Converted

What if they tried to get you to confess with a glorified kitchen utensil?

In this episode of Torture: A Dark History, Kevin Young and Dan Hourigan take a look at the Heretic’s Fork, a medieval torture device supposedly used against heretics and witches during the Spanish Inquisition and later witch trials across Europe and colonial America. With sharp prongs pressing beneath the chin and into the chest, the device was designed to make sitting, sleeping, or even lowering your head incredibly painful.

But there’s a problem. Despite centuries of stories about the Heretic’s Fork, there is surprisingly little documented evidence that it was ever actually used. We dig into where the stories came from, how the device supposedly worked, and whether this infamous torture instrument was a genuine tool of torture or another example of history making a terrifying device even more terrifying.

And naturally, Kevin and Dan spend entirely too much time imagining what kind of night’s sleep you get when your bed is basically an instrument of religious compliance.

It’s the Spanish Inquisition, witch trials, torture, questionable historical evidence, and two guys asking the most important question of all: "Who the hell designed this thing?”

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