9. A Countess Who Killed Hundreds in a Variety of Cruel and Fiendish Ways
Elizabeth Bathory was a vicious piece of work. Witnesses saw her stab victims; pierce their lips with needles; burn them with red hot irons; bite their breasts and faces; and cut them with scissors. Some of her victims were beaten to death, while others were starved. In winter, she sent serving girls out in the snow, where she had water poured over them and watched them turn into human icicles. In summer, she coated her victims in honey, and watched them get tormented by ants, bees, and other insects. She drank her victims’ blood in the belief that it would preserve her youth, and bathed in their blood for the same reason.
The exact number of Bathory’s victims is unknown, but estimates range as high as 650. Rumors of the goings-on at her castle eventually got out, and the authorities conducted an investigation. In December, 1610, she and four accomplices were arrested. The accomplices were tried, and three were convicted of murder and sundry crimes and executed. However, justice in the 1600s was even more elusive than it is today, and punishment for crimes depended on the culprit’s standing. Elizabeth Bathory was a countess, and her family was powerful and influential. Despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt, she never faced trial. Instead, she was quietly sent to a castle in today’s Slovakia, where she was confined to a windowless room until her death, five years later.
