A Horror Story
It seems appropriate as the dusk arrives and Halloween begins, to profile the infamous “Blood Countess,” Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614). Born into one of the richest and most powerful Protestant families in Hungary, Bathory was purported to have been a witch, vampire and werewolf.
According to legend, she bathed in the blood of young women in order to maintain her beautiful and youthful appearance. She was believed to have killed over 650 peasant girls and young noblewomen, making her the most prolific serial killer in history.
She may or may not have been bisexual or lesbian, but certainly reveled in sado-sexual experiences with young women. Her aunt Klara slept with women, perhaps even Elizabeth, and enjoyed torturing her servants. Elizabeth would have witnessed this during her visits while she was growing up. Elizabeth derived some deep sexual pleasure from torturing nude female servants. She was rumored to sometimes have bitten the necks and breasts of her victims.
Three of her four accomplises in the torture were women: her former nurse, and two widows reputed to be witches. A dwarf major-domo named Johannes Ujvary acted as chief torturer. A mysterious figure named “Stephen,” either a woman dressed as a man or a man, used to visit Elizabeth and join in the tortures.
Bathory was finally caught and tried in 1611. Her accomplises were punished by having their fingers torn off and thrown in bonfires or beheaded. Since she was noble, Elizabeth was spared death, but sentenced to be walled up in a tower in her castle. She died three years later, at age 54. A guard who wanted to see her reputed beauty found her instead lying face down on the floor. She never expressed any remorse or repentence for her acts.
The ruins of her tower still stand. In a photo they appear black even in the daylight.
The best book written on Elizabeth Bathory and her life was done by Dr. Raymond T. McNally, a professor of Russian and Eastern European History at Boston College. “Dracula was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania” was published in 1984.
Gives me the shivers…what evil. Wow.
