Serial Killer of the 1600's - Elizabeth Bathory

This woman is a woman of many accusations. No matter what is thought of her, her crimes were horrendous. The innocent slaughterings of over 600 young women of her time, all to retain her beauty. What a selfish and vein act, for a woman of such high standards as Elizabeth was. At fifteen, Elizabeth was married off to give her family political gain. She had five children, two of which died at a young age. Her husband, who was following the career path of a soldier, was gone most of the time, and so, Countess Bathory had to entertain herself with "minor" things. She has a cruel, sick and twisted mind, for what she did to entertain herself. She hunted down many people, all of which hideously worshiped the devil himself. These people included sorcerers, witches and alchemists. These people were frowned upon in Elizabeth's days, and were hunted and burned at the stake in the Inquisition. Elizabeth found these people, and like the cruel woman legend makes her out to be, offered them stay at her castle, so that they wouldn't be found by the Inquisition, in turn for them teaching her their ways. Through this, Countess Bathory learned the ways of the seers, witches, alchemists and sorcerers alike. This all helped her in the long run, to her at least, so that she could murder countless young woman.

Countess Bathory had an aunt, according to legend, that aided her in her sick ways. Taught her the act of flagellation and sat back to watch as the Countess wreaked havoc on her town. While the aunt was teaching Countess Bathory the tricks of flagellation, Elizabeth's husband was creating a gadget of torture to use on the captured men that the soldiers found during the war. Three metal claws attacked to the end of a whip, something even the cruelest of men threw to the side, all for the fact that it was a sick, twisted, cruel and terribly disgusting. Her husband left it behind as he went back into the war, hoping that it wouldn't be used for the whole fact of it being one of the cruelest devices he had ever seen, and this man was one of the cruelest of his time. Somewhat like Vlad the Impaler, who Bram Stoker used as his main inspiration for the novel Dracula. Upon Elizabeth's discovery of the device that her husband had created, she found more pleasure in the act of flagellation that ever.

Flagellation is the act of whipping a human being's body, usually on the buttock, back or shoulders, and only in punishment. Countess Bathory used this as her form of entertainment as she found herself without something to do quite often with her husband at war. Unlike most people, Countess Bathory enjoyed to humiliate her victims, whipping the front of their naked bodies, to watch their faces contort in horror at their upcoming demise. Along with this humiliation, she added the disgusting device that her husband had created. Making this act much more fun for Bathory, as she forced her victims to shed their blood, most likely causing many deaths, all so that she could have something to entertain herself with.

Not long after her discovery of this act, in about 1602-1604, Elizabeth's husband passed away from injuries sustained in war. Just like her personality before his death, she hardly cared for his death, already in search of someone to replace him with. Due to her disgusting past time, the murdering of many people through flagellation, Bathory then noticed that her beauty had started to fade. She was getting older, and with time, her complexion faded and her beauty melted away into something different. Something that showed the true Elizabeth Bathory, the one that tortured people in her dungeon for her own entertainment. This fact disgusted Elizabeth to the point of anger. She would not lose the longing for another love, no, that thought was just put on hold as she searched the world for something to make her beautiful again. The death of her husband brought opportunities that she would never have dreamed of, yet she wanted them badly. New husbands for her awaiting pleasure, yet all they wanted was to be married into the Bathory family, then eliminate Countess Bathory, so they could gain her wealth. Along with new husbands, came the job of King of Poland, which Bathory wanted terribly.

Things fell into Elizabeth's favor, like the fact that she was well educated. Really outstanding for her time, because she could read and write in four different languages. The fact that she knew these languages prior to her becoming King, not that I'm saying she did become King, weighed better in Elizabeth's favor, for her competitors were not well educated. Her youth was much more important to her now than it had been before, so that she could rule longer, and to gain the attention of the Prince of Poland, who was an illiterate fool, though he bathed regularly, once a year, every year.

If she gained her youth, she would gain political power, a lover and quench her vanity. That is what she thought as she still sought out a cure to her aging body. Yet, she knew that if she lost her beauty completely, she would lose her chance at being King and lose the chance of a new lover. This thought enraged the Countess whenever she thought it, so she would end up taking her frustrations out on her servants and other victims. One time, and one time only, as she lashed out at her little servant, the Countess's nail broke the skin on the child's cheek. This wound was not serious, but it did draw blood, which Bathory, at the time, dismissed as nothing, and wiped it off of her hand. Later though, as she looked herself over, Bathory thought that the place where her servants blood had landed on her hand looked fresh and revitalized. This thought triggered a thought in the already demented mind of the Countess. Soon after this discovery, Elizabeth sought out one of her alchemists, and demanded for his opinion or theory on the matter.

Not wanting her wrath, the alchemists searched their records of anything similar to what was happening to their Countess. They soon recalled a distant memory of something quite similar to Elizabeth's situation, yet there was a grand difference, that she overlooked. The person before, was generous and noble, unlike Elizabeth, who was conceited and vain. The recovery of this memory opened new doors for Elizabeth, which she was quite intrigued by. She had found a way to prolong her youth and bring back her beauty. This opportunity was all that Elizabeth wanted and all the she thought she needed. She consulted Katarina, whom she thought of as her beauty consultant, who eagerly agreed to Elizabeth's discovery.

Elizabeth's thoughts were cruel and sick. They were thoughts that brought on the ideas of vampires. She thought that if she bathed in the blood of young virgins, then she would be beautiful and strong again. If it was a particularly beautiful virgin that she happened upon, she would literally drink their blood. Nothing would stop her from gaining back her beauty, and that is all she thought about through these times. Her beauty.

This quest was one that she required help with. So she had a few of the witches that she let stay in her castle, help her on her nightly quests to seek out young virgins ripe enough to be taken back to her castle. Once there, she would take them down to her dungeon, hang them, with chains wrapped around their ankles, above a tub. Once hung, she would slit their throats and let their blood drain into her tub. As their life blood dribbled away into her bath, they would turn pale and after a long time of not being able to breathe and lack of blood, they would die. If the witches turned up a virgin that was prettier, by far, than the rest, she would still hang her, yet let her blood dribble into a gold goblet, which she would then drink from. Elizabeth's thirst grew as she drank more, and soon enough, she was drinking right from the child's neck, bringing death upon the poor child that much faster. To Elizabeth, this would gain her youth.

There was a flaw though. She was taking peasant woman, and the blood of these woman was helping, but not much. So she longed for the blood of people with richer blood, and richer families. This was after five years of indulging herself in the blood of peasants. An opportunity presented itself soon enough. The families with high political status wanted more political gain. These families wanted their children well educated so that they could jump at a chance for political gain if one presented itself. Here was the answer to Elizabeth's new quest. She would take these woman under her wings, in order to educate them. That's what their parents thought as they rushed their children off to Elizabeth. Yet, they didn't truly know what she had in store for their beautiful daughters. This is how she would gain the woman, to bathe in their more... Important... blood.

This is where Elizabeth made her mistake. She would take in twenty-five woman of proper families to finish their educations. Yet, instead, she bathed in their blood the same way she bathed in the blood of the peasants. The fact that Elizabeth was getting all that she ever wanted was enough to make any woman of our time and age frenzied with pleasure. Not Elizabeth, she was only frenzied because she was bathing in their blood. Gaining back the beauty that the years of torturing debtors had forced upon her. Soon, she was frenzied enough to drop her guard... and four woman bodies over the wall of her castle, all of which were drained of their blood.

Peasants found these bodies, collected them, and brought them back to their villages for recognition. Soon enough, the identities of the young woman were being found, and the mysteries of the disappearing woman were being solved. Elizabeth noticed her mistake too late though, because she pulled through her frenzy as the identities of the women were being passed, by word of mouth, through the villages. Soon enough, as the word of the discoveries spread, it managed its way to the Hungarian Emperor, who immediately ordered a trial for the Countess. All of this would be made public in her trail, which he deamed a public trial, for any who wanted to attended as a jury. The only thing that kept her away from the hands of the Emperor as long as she had managed was her political status. This wrong was quickly righted by the parliament when they passed an act that allowed her to be arrested by the Emperor. She was put on trial in 1610. This trial, however, was being ignored by the authorities because of the fact that Elizabeth had used peasant women for the first five years of this long quest for youth.

After a count of how many woman had vanished, 600 were marked missing. Elizabeth still had yet to admit to anything that she had done, and so, no one really paid her any mind. The authorities got a hold of all of Elizabeth's "friends" (sorcerers, seers, alchemists, witches, and wizards) and burned them at the stake. Yet they could not execute Elizabeth because she was born into one of noble families of her time. Her noble birth prolonged her death, but it was still waiting on the horizon. They could not execute her, but they could put her in solitary confinement. This included them putting her into one of the closest of her castle and sealing her in there. Her sentence? She was damned to death alive. Four years after she was imprisoned in that closet, never to be let out, she died. Through this entire tragedy, she never spoke a single word of remorse or regret. From birth until death, she was a conceited and vain woman.