by Devon Lee

Created on: November 07, 2008

When I say the name Elizabeth Bathory, does it ring any bells? For those of you who have never studied the real evil people in our world, it probably wouldn't. I felt compelled to share her story. Although she is not as well known as Dracula (Vlad Tepes), her crimes are nonetheless gruesome.

Bathory was born in 1560 in Ecsed, Transylvania to a noble family who dominated the southeast of Hungary, which is now a part of Romania. It was said that she was a beautiful child with a great temper. (Spoiled is what we call em now a days) At the young age of 14 she became pregnant by a peasant man she was sequestered until she gave birth. At the age 15 she married a wealthy man, who was many years older then her. She went to live in Castle Savar, Count Ference Nadasdy's family estate.

She soon became sadistic to servants and peasants. Elizabeth enjoyed greatly tormenting pretty girls. It was reported that a cousin of her husband's got caught stealing fruit and for punishment had her tied to a tree and smeared with honey to attract insects. Her husband had also taught her to torture the servants by putting oiled paper between their toes and setting the paper on fire.

By the age of 25 Elizabeth was terrified of losing her beauty. This was a fear that grew more and more every year. After her husband's sudden death Elizabeth began to lead a very twisted double life. She had dabbled in many of the black arts (magic) and befriended a woman by the name Anna Darvulia who brought out her worse.

It wasn't long before Bathory was introduced to the benefits of blood. She punished a clumsy maid she took a pair of scissors and struck the girl in the face causing the girls blood to splash upon Elizabeth's hand. She then believed that the blood helped her skin look young and refreshed.

She concluded this theory with Anna and was told that bathing in the blood of virgins would indeed keep her young and beautiful. And thus is how the Blood Countess got her name. At four in the morning, every morning, Elizabeth would bath in the fresh blood of a virgin girl. Serving girls were fattened up, tortured, bled and killed. The victims were procured by two old woman and an individual named Fitzko. Bathory would have the girls tied up so tightly that their blood would spray out when they were cut with scissors or pricked with pins. She would also have hot pokers stuck into their mouths and when she was done bleeding them she had them beaten to death with a whip. This was not only the horrific acts of

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