There is evidence that the sadist Elizaveta Bathory was distantly related to Count Dracula himself, and she was definitely not inferior to him in monstrous scope.
Not so long ago, the Russia-1 TV channel showed the heartbreaking story “The Bloody Lady”, based on the biography of the Russian landowner Daria Saltykova, who lived in the 18th century. However, she was far from the first in history to be "famous" for such atrocities. Serial killer Elizaveta Bathory (Erzhebet, Elisabeth, Elzhbeta) is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for her atrocities. The exact number of her victims is unknown. At the trial, it was said about 650 tortured in the period from 1585 to 1610. “The Bloody Countess,” or “The Chakhtitsa Monster,” as she was called, during her lifetime did not receive a punishment commensurate with her terrible crimes.
Bad heredity
The future serial maniac was born into a noble Hungarian family in 1560. Her ancestors were in incestuous relationships and, apparently, for this reason, many in the family suffered from mental disorders. Historians suggest that Elizabeth also had some kind of mental illness, which does not at all justify her terrible crimes.
Her uncle was known as a warlock, and her aunt became famous for cruel torture of a servant. In general, heredity left much to be desired.
The girl grew up smart, knew three languages (Latin, German, Greek), but, barely learning how to walk, she began to scoff at her maids, beating them with whips. At the age of 10, she was betrothed to the son of the baron, Ferenc Nadashdi, and at the age of 15 she became his legal wife. According to some sources, the Nadashdi family was related to the family that gave birth to Count Dracula.
Elizabeth Bathory. Unknown artist.
Promotional video:
As a wedding gift, the young wife received full possession of the Chakhtitsky castle at the foot of the Small Carpathians. The young countess found her abode, where no one could forbid her to mock the maids. Elizabeth took pleasure in piercing the bodies of her victims with needles, disfiguring them with scissors. She enjoyed watching the women bleed. When she learned to write and read, she began to keep a diary, in which she described in detail all the inhuman horrors that she did with the innocent.
Torture chambers
The husband of the Bloody Countess, as she was called, - Ferenc Nadashdi - was a match for his wife, but on the battlefield. He dealt with the captured Turks with excessive cruelty, striking even experienced warriors with his terrible "arts".
Elizabeth had four children in marriage. Motherhood, her icy heart, softened a little and not for long. For a while, she got along with pinches, slaps, a club, but again returning to her favorite torture. She took a break when guests came to her. The subjects, realizing this, committed sabotage: they hijacked the carriages of the arrivals and hid them in the woods so that they would linger in the castle. But everything returned to normal when Elizabeth was left alone with the people who depended on her.
After the death of her husband in 1604, the Bloody Countess fell into a frenzy. Together with her personal assistants - Dorka and the dwarf Fichko - she disappeared in the torture chambers, where she tortured girls and women to death. The most innocent punishment was when she stripped the maids naked, forcing them to work in this way. But more often she resorted to the most monstrous bullying: in the cold she poured water over her workers, who immediately turned into ice statues. For poorly ironed, in her opinion, linen was tortured with a hot iron. Caught in petty theft, she put red-hot coins in her palms.
She liked to rip off skin with fire tongs, cut with scissors, drive long sewing needles under her feet, chop off fingers, tear female flesh with her teeth.
Elizabeth Bathory. Author - Istvan Chok, published in the newspaper on September 29, 1895.
The demon has been walled up
The insatiable maniac no longer had enough of her people, and she began to look for them in the surrounding villages. The peasants willingly gave their daughters to the castle, believing that they would be better fed there. According to legend, Bathory killed young virgins and bathed in a bathtub filled with the blood of her victims. Allegedly, she was engaged in black magic and thus tried to preserve youth and beauty as long as possible.
To quickly collect the "life-giving liquid" the criminal used the "iron lady" - a hollow figure pierced from the inside with sharp needles. A martyr was placed there, who was rapidly bleeding. Bathory was called a vampire, but she never drank blood.
When Elizabeth, losing all caution, began to catch girls from the petty nobility, her bloody orgies finally drew attention. And two girls even managed to escape from the "castle of death", and they told about everything that Bathory did with them. The Countess did not manage to shut the mouths of those whom she had previously paid for silence - all the money was spent on forbidden pleasures.
The bloody countess was arrested, and in 1611 her castle was searched and several dozen corpses were found. The assistants admitted that they had helped their mistress in the murder of 37 girls and women. At the trial, the Bloody Countess's diary was read, which told about 650 victims. Dorka and several of Bathory's associate lovers had their fingers and toes pulled out and then fried on a wire rack. The dwarf was beheaded and burned.
Fragment of the painting by Istvan Chok.
The bloody countess was walled up in a cell in her own Chakhtitsa castle. For three years she received food through a small hole. On August 21, 1614, a new guard dropped in to look at the monster up close, and realized that Bathory had died.
