Your victim I am and I enjoy it
Love me in ravenous desire
My longed for death prolong
If you…
By my side you're
The night turns gray
The smell of panic
To blood
Our toast
Our death
The Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Ecsed(1560-1614), a Hungarian aristocrat belonging to one of the most influential families in Transylvania, went down in history as the 'Blood Countess' for being the most prolific serial killer of all time.
She was accused of being responsible for approximately 650 murders of young women. But what was behind the Countess's behavior? Elizabeth used to bathe in the blood of her victims, since she believed that this would help her to keep her skin always young.
Elizabeth was born on August 7, 1560 in the bosom of one of the most powerful aristocratic families in Hungary. she have received a good education, although he also showed interest in alchemy and witchcraft.
"She spoke Hungarian, Latin and German perfectly, while most of the Hungarian nobles could neither spell nor write, even the prince of Transylvania was practically illiterate..." said a chronicler of the time.
In 1575, he married Count Ferencz Nadasdy, with whom he went to live in the castle of Cachtice, located in present-day Slovakia. Ten years later -because the husbands barely saw each other due to Ferencz's military activities-, Elizabeth had her first daughter, Ana, and in the next 13 years she gave birth to three more children.
On January 4, 1604, Count Nadasdy died, leaving Elizabeth widow. This was the turning point for the countess. Thus, with the help of his accomplices Darvulia, Jo Ilona and Dorko mounted a torture chamber in the basement of the castle where he lived.
The woman - who allegedly suffered from epilepsy and psychopathy - used numerous torture machines to violently kill adolescent maids. Among the mechanisms he kept in his 'sadistic laboratory' there was also an instrument called 'the iron maiden', a sort of chest shaped like a female body, whose interior was lined with sharp nails.
The Countess wanted to stay young and beautiful forever, so she drank the blood of young girls and took baths in it.
More and more girls began to disappear from the villages around the castle. But after Darvulia's death, Elizabeth also began to attract members of upper-class Hungarian families. The bloody countess continued her sadistic practices with impunity until 1610, when the rumors of the chilling murders committed by Elizabeth finally reached the ears of the Hungarian king Matias, who sent his assistant, Georgy Thurzo, to investigate the case. When the king's men crossed the walls of the castle of Cachtice, they witnessed a horrendous spectacle of corpses tortured everywhere and the same Elizabeth Báthory, already with 40 years old, enjoying a blood bath to recover her youth.
In April 1611, the woman was sentenced to life imprisonment, while her accomplices were all executed. The countess lived incarcerated in her own room in Cachtice for almost four years. She died on August 21, 1614, "abandoned by all..."
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sources
Rebecca Johns (2010) The Countess: A Novel of Elizabeth Bathory
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