Countess Elizabeth Bathory was born in a Noble family on August 7, 1560. Her father George Bathory was a very powerful man and the family owned land in the kingdom of Hungary.
Elizabeth grew up in wealth and power. Her life was almost perfect but throughout her life she suffered from severe seizures. So to treat her, many doctors back in the day performed some very disturbing treatments on her. Such as feeding her another healthy person's blood mixed with a part of their skull.
Many historians believe that these encounters with the doctors as a child turned her into the blood thirsty adult that she became later on.
The Bathory family took marriage inside the family very seriously to maintain their royal bloodline. Even her parents were blood relatives.
So, at the age of 10 Elizabeth was set to marry a man by the name of Ferenc Nadasdy. Imagine everyone's surprise and disappointment when, before the marriage, at the age of 13, she gave birth to a child and the father wasn't her Fianc. Regardless, Elizabeth was forced to give away the child to a local woman.
In 1575, through a royal wedding they were married. After the marriage, they moved into Ferenc's family castle where he built a torture chamber for all her victims. When her husband would be away for work it was said that Elizabeth brought in many lovers to keep her company.
After 25 years of marriage, in 1604 Ferenc passed away. Which gave full freedom to Elizabeth to go on a murder spree.
Elizabeth would torture and kill her victims in very creative ways. Her victims were mostly young girls from the ages of 10-14. These girls were poor and were lured into her castle with promises of a better life or sometimes abducted. Once in a while she would even prey on the daughters of the upper class.
So Elizabeth would bring these girls to her torture chamber and brutally torture them. The tortures included beating, burning, biting and even cannibalism sometimes. These were her source of pleasure and satisfaction, something to do in her leisure time.
After she was done with all that, she would drink the blood of her victims and even bathe in it. She believed it was good for her health and also would keep her youthful forever.
Elizabeth is estimated to have killed hundreds of women from 1590-1610. In her journal she stated to have tortured and killed 650 girls in the span of 20 years. For years she did whatever her heart desired and got away with it for her high social status and power.
But in 1610, all that came to an end when Elizabeth made a bold move. Elizabeth, through the help of her servants, began abducting the daughters of the Nobles. When their daughters started to go missing, the nobles did not sit quietly and started putting the pieces together.
Count Thurzo jumped on the case and began investigating. When he went into her castle to investigate, he ended up walking into Elizabeth torturing a girl who was tied up and there was another girl who was already dead.
So Elizabeth along with her servants got arrested. They brought everyone in custody and many people started coming forward. Many servants even stated that they saw her preying on her victims but couldn't say anything, well because they were her servants.
Almost everyone received a death sentence, except Elizabeth herself. Because she was member of a royal family. So instead they built a prison for her inside her own castle.
After living in house arrest for years, in 1614, at the age of 43, this vicious serial killer passed away in her sleep.
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