Elizabeth Báthory, The ‘Blood Countess’ Who May Have Killed Hundreds Of Girls
Wikimedia CommonsElizabeth Báthory allegedly tortured and killed hundreds of young women and girls.
Elizabeth Báthory was not a vampire in the traditional sense. She was alive while she took her victims, for one, and though she did horrible things to them, she did not suck their blood. But Báthory did allegedly have vampiric tendencies like bathing in their blood in order to maintain her youth.
Indeed, the so-called “Blood Countess” seemed to have an obsession with violence. Between 1590 and 1610, she allegedly tortured hundreds of young women and girls from her lair in Čachtice Castle (in present-day Slovakia). Legend states that she started with servant girls, then targeted the daughters of the gentry, and finally resorted to kidnapping local girls.
Her victims were purportedly subjected to terrible torture. Báthory was rumored to burn and freeze them, beat them, and mutilate them with scissors. She allegedly covered them with honey and let bugs feast on their flesh, sewed their lips shut, and stuck needles under their fingernails.
Wikimedia CommonsČachtice Castle, where Elizabeth Báthory allegedly tortured her victims.
György Thurzó, an official who investigated the claims against Báthory, interviewed 300 witnesses who told him horrifying stories. Some claimed that she was a vampire, while others said she’d had sex with the Devil.
Thurzó eventually charged Báthory with the deaths of 80 girls — but some believe that she had as many as 650 victims.
For these crimes, Báthory was put under house arrest until her death in 1614. However, not everyone believes the incredible claims against her. It’s true that King Matthias II, who first sent Thurzó to investigate, owed Báthory a great debt. It could be that the charges against her were less of a vampire hunt and more of a witch hunt — and that the king merely wanted to remove Báthory from power to avoid paying the significant sums of money he owed.