The Most Horrifically Cruel and Insane Things Uday Hussein Ever Did

Uday attended a wedding at Baghdad's Hunting Club in the late 1990s without an invitation. Reportedly, right after Uday left the hall, the bride vanished. Uday’s bodyguards blocked the doors, and the groom pulled out his pistol. He died from a self-imposed gunshot.

Uday abducted another bride in 2003. He had the 18-year-old forcefully brought to one of his guardhouses. A maid witnessed Uday's man rip the woman's dress off and lock her up. After Uday arrived, the woman’s cries reportedly became screams. The maid was later summoned to clean up the room. A bodyguard threatened her to silence: "Don't say anything about what you see, or you and your family will be finished."
 

The uprising against Saddam after the first Gulf War was not without consequences. According to Yahia, Uday paid a visit to the Shia prisoners and had half of them eradicated. Then, he told one prisoner that he wouldn’t die as quickly. Uday reportedly pulled out a drill and plunged it into the man’s skull. 

The remaining prisoners were left in their cells with the dead as a form of psychological torture. Those who survived were released only to spread the word of what they witnessed to scare other Iraqis and prevent future uprisings.
 

According to those who witnessed Uday’s actions, the heir behaved violently and erratically. Reportedly, he had a habit of snapping: he would beat, shoot, and even eliminate people on a whim. In 1988, he once fatally attacked his father’s bodyguard with a carving knife. In another instance, Uday shot one of his uncles in the leg.

Saddam thought his son was too unstable and exiled him to Switzerland for a while as a sort of timeout. The Swiss kicked him back to Iraq less than a month later because he was volatile.

Uday found out that a friend of his - who knew compromising information - was planning an unexpected move out of the country. Uday concocted a plan to make sure his associate would never be able to tell the Hussein secrets. 

Uday invited him to his 37th birthday party. He then had the man apprehended by authorities and taken to prison. There, he cut off the man’s tongue.
 

In addition to perusing the Internet for posh Italian clothes and exotic vehicles, Uday enjoyed looking up various torture methods throughout history. An associate of the family remarked that the day Uday learned how to use the Internet became known as a "black day for Iraqis." 

After Uday discovered the methods, he reportedly tried them. He lopped off ears, took welder’s torches to people’s faces, and even locked people in coffins.
 

When Uday discovered Internet access and began collecting methods of punishment, his favorite was the foot-whipper. An article in Time magazine describes the medieval-era falaqa as "a rod with clamps that go around the ankles so that the offender, feet in the air, can be hit on the bare soles with a stick." 

According to top officials in the Hussein administration, Uday often issued beatings for simple mistakes or errors. One official recalled Uday ordering him to carry a personal falaqa as a symbol of the constant turmoil Uday felt the employee deserved. Reportedly, Uday inflicted the falaqa on his butler for using the wrong kitchenware.
 

Reportedly, a friend of the Hussein family admitted both Saddam and Uday had each member of their staff weighed. These measures were conducted to prevent theft, and the Husseins assumed the employees were stealing if they were amassing pounds.  

As punishment, Uday allegedly sent the staff suspected of using unaccounted funds to purchase food to a “discipline” facility.
 

According to Time, Uday's demanding demeanor extended to leisure and frivolity. At parties, he demanded others match him in drinking, and his tolerance was notoriously high. He also had a pet monkey named Louisa, and when he got drunk, he'd force other inebriated party-goers and friends alike into the animal's cage. Reportedly, Louisa also imbibed and would attack the guests tossed into her cage.  

Former bodyguards also detailed a cage of monkeys Uday kept at his club specifically so that the animals could witness him assaulting women.