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History’s Top Executioners of All Time

Khalid Elhassan June 5, 2020 34 min

20. Getting Away With Murder

Cachtice Castile, where Elizabeth Bathory was imprisoned. Guide to Slovakia

Scholars do not know the exact number of people killed by Countess Bathory, but some estimates go as high as 650 victims. Rumors of the goings-on at her castle eventually got out, and the Hungarian authorities conducted an investigation. In December, 1610, the sadistic Countess and four of her accomplices were arrested.

Bathory’s accomplices were tried, and three of them were convicted of murder and sundry crimes, and executed. Elizabeth was connected, however, so she got off light. The authorities reasoned that trying and executing a member of a prominent family like hers would cause too much of a public scandal and bring the aristocracy into disrepute. So she was quietly imprisoned in Cachtice Castle, Slovakia, until her death of natural causes in 1614.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.