Random Disturbing Facts About Elizabeth Bathory, History's Most Murderous Woman (15 items)

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  (#3) Her Aunt Was Rumored To Be A Murderous Bisexual Witch

  Elizabeth came from one of the most powerful noble families in Transylvania. Her uncle, Stephen Bathory, married the queen regnant of Poland and was a fierce warrior, but things went left when it came to her aunt, Klara Bathory. Contemporary accounts state Klara took a lover who killed her husband, but rumor has it she smothered her second husband herself. Other accounts have Klara as a bisexual murderess who practiced sorcery in her spare time and instructed Elizabeth in the dark arts. (Of course, the sexuality of powerful women has also been used to condemn them, so all of these rumors need to be taken with a grain of salt.)

  Eventually, Klara was imprisoned, but the legend grew: She became known as a sexually rapacious vixen who seduced her prison guards. Another story claims Klara and one of her male lovers were captured by an Ottoman pasha, who skewered the young man on a spit, and the Ottoman garrison repeatedly raped Klara.
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  (#2) She Had A Secret Love Child At 13 And Married A Sadistic Husband

  After taking a lover at age 13 and giving birth to a secret love child, Elizabeth was married shortly before turning 15 to a nobleman named Ferenc Nadasdy. He was allegedly as into dark stuff as his wife, cruelly torturing Ottoman captives and sticking pieces of paper between his servants' toes and setting them on fire. For his ferocity in battle against Ottoman Turks, he earned the nickname "The Black Knight."
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  (#13) Elizabeth Was Walled Up In Her Castle For Life

  In the fall of 1610, Thurzo began gathering testimony and evidence against Elizabeth. He raided Elizabeth's chief residence in December and found disfigured and dismembered bodies. The trial began quickly, in January 1611: The first only included peasant witnesses, which was a plus for Elizabeth. She wasn't allowed to represent herself, however, and she didn't appear in court, although her accomplices were tortured to admit her crimes. Her guilt was probably predetermined.

  Elizabeth was eventually convicted and walled up in her chamber at her family castle in Slovakia. She only survived for three more years, dying in 1614.
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  (#11) Elizabeth Tripped Herself Up When She Tried To Expand Her Torture Tactics

  For a number of years, Elizabeth was content to torture - and potentially bathe in the blood of - young peasant girls who came to serve her from nearby towns. But eventually the parents of local Average Janes caught on to her brutal ways and stopped sending their daughters up to her castle.

  In her later days, Elizabeth became more daring. She began fostering young noblewomen from poor families across Transylvania and even Croatia, offering to teach them at a school for girls supposedly run out of her castle. But the parents of aristocratic girls could and did make a political fuss that caught the attention of local authorities (although conflicting reports state she may have passed local peasant ladies off as noble girls).

  Elizabeth also gave herself away when she murdered a famous choir singer who couldn't - or wouldn't - belt out a tune for her. Unlike a poor peasant from the country, this well-known singer was immediately missed when she disappeared.
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  (#4) She Supposedly Bathed In Virgins' Blood To Keep Herself Young

  Elizabeth was reputed to have bitten her young female victims and sucked blood from their wounds, making her one of the inspirations for Bram Stoker's Dracula.

  Reportedly, later in her murderous career, she also bathed in the blood of the virgins she tortured, believing this would keep her forever young and beautiful. However, these stories of her literal bloodbaths come from a later account that mythologized and perhaps exaggerated her cruelty.
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  (#12) The King Of Hungary Finally Discovered Her Terrible Crimes

  Allegedly jealous of the Protestant Bathory-Nadasdy family's wealth, Matthias II, the Catholic king of Hungary, picked up on these allegations about Elizabeth and decided to get even. He and his parliament ordered the royal deputy in Hungary, Count George Thurzo, to investigate her. Perhaps they were suspicious because they believed in witchcraft, or perhaps a sexually powerful woman was threatening to their beliefs. Also, if Elizabeth - by now a widow - was tried and convicted, then all of her wealth would revert to the crown and all of the debts the king owed to Bathory would be erased.

  Thurzo was a friend to the Bathory family, however, and he helped Elizabeth escape prosecution. As a result, Elizabeth wasn't put on trial herself, but her accomplices were.

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