Paris 1875. Dr. Frank James knew that his love for Chantelle his mistress was too great to risk loosing her. He must somehow get rid of his wife Anna, but how. As a respectable doctor he could not afford the scandal of an illicit affair becoming public. As he sat there at his desk trying to think of a way out of his predicament, his mind drifted to his favorite fantasy, tickling. Then suddenly it came to him, he must tickle his wife Anna into insanity then have her committed. A plan was hatched in his mind that day.

For the next several weeks Dr. Frank spent the best part of his days preparing the old wine cellar for his dastardly plan. No expense was spared, although the house was detached and set in its own grounds, he had employed builders from a neighboring town to build three brick walls within the old walls of the cellar and the ceiling had been reinforced with two layers of 8 inch thick oak beams with a 4 inch layer of compressed goose feathers sandwiched in between. He had told the builders that he was preparing the room as a strong room to secure his valuables.

Dr. Frank tied the cord around the trigger of the loaded gun which he had set in a vice for safety, although it was only loaded with blanks. Then he proceeded up the stairs to the heavy 6 inch thick steel door which the builders had installed. There was a very small gap under the base of the door which would be filled with a wooden plinth later. He threaded the cord under the door then shut the door. As he pulled on the cord he expected to at least hear a muffled bang as the gun went off, but no he did not hear a thing. He went down into the room to inspect the gun. To his surprise and glee the gun had fired, a smile came upon his face, the room was totally soundproof !

Frank stepped back a few paces to admire his work. The 6 foot by 3ft wooden table like device resembled a table except for the wooden ankle stocks at the end. There were a multitude of thick heavy duty leather straps attached to the table, also some thinner smaller heavy duty straps attached in unusual places...