Elisabeth Barthory (Countess of Blood)
Elisabeth Barthory, killed other women, hundreds of them. She is not only the deadliest female serial killer we know of, she may be the most prolific serial killer of all time. She was Hungarian by birth, born in the town of Nagyecsed in the Nyirbator region of the country on 7 August, 1560. She was of royal blood, her family being one of the most powerful and influential in central Europe. She was elegant, sophisticated, courtly and well-educated. She could speak four languages and was an enthusiastic student of the sciences and astronomy. At the age of 15 she was betrothed to Ferenc Nadasdy, a marriage that would cement her dynastic ties. As a wedding gift he presented her with the impressive Csjete Castle (though it wasn't at the time his to give away) and its immediate surroundings which included a country house, lush agricultural land, and 17 nearby villages. Soon after their wedding, however, Nadasdy was made Commander of the Hungarian forces opposing the Ottoman Turks and for the remainder of their marriage he was to be absent for long periods of time, sometimes for years. This was particularly the case during the Long War of 1593 to 1606. In her husbands absence, Elisabeth was charged with running and protecting the families estates. She proved to be an efficient and effective administrator earning a reputation for kindness as she provided medical care for the poor and intervened on behalf of wrongly accused and arrested peasants. From 1585 onwards young women started disappearing from the local area. This continued for a number of years. Rumours persisted that they had been lured to the Castle by the prospect of work. If this was so, they never returned. Suspicions were aroused but little was done. It was only when the daughters of the local gentry, who had been sent to the Castle to learn courtly manners, began to go missing that anything was to done to find out was going on. Between 1602 and 1604, investigations were carried out by a Lutheran Minister, Istvan Magyari. He believed the Countess to be responsible in some way for the disappearances and took his suspicions as far as the Imperial Court in Vienna. He was listened to, if not entirely believed. In any case, the Countess was far too powerful a figure for his suspicions to be taken any further. In 1604, however, Elisabeth's husband died, officially in battle, but more likely at the hands of a disgruntled prostitute. With his death, however, died also Elisabeth's political protection. In 1610, King Matthias of Hungary, appointed Justice Juraj Thurzo to collate evidence against Elisabeth and initiate proceedings. But it was a tricky case. Elisabeth Barthory's family were rich and powerful with one branch of it ruling Transylvania. He would have to tread carefully. Conspiring with Elisabeth's estranged son Paul, Thurzo decided to arrest her accomplices. On 30 December, 1610, in his official capacity of Investigating Judge, Thurzo paid a visit to Csejte Castle. What he found there horrified him. He found one woman dead and another dying. A young girl was chained to a wall, pale and near death, her body drained of all blood. Others were
found in cellars beneath the Castle bound and chained, some dead, some alive, many had had their breasts bitten, and they all bore the marks of beatings and whippings. One body was even found in the fireplace. A colleague of Thurzo's reported that "We watched in horror as dogs ran around with body parts in their mouths." Outraged, Thurzo arrested Elisabeth, but the Authorities delayed proceedings against her, postponing her prosecution indefinitely. Her accomplices, however, were not so fortunate. They were tortured and under torture they confessed all. The Countess Barthory, they said, would bind her victims and then beat them into senselessness before mutilating and burning their bodies, particularly the face and genitalia. Many of the bodies found in the grounds of the Castle had the marks of torture upon them. Elisabeth Barthory was notoriously vain and obsessed with her own beauty. She would change her clothes repeatedly sometimes six or seven times a day. Mirrors adorned every available space in the Castle and she liked nothing more than to have her servants massage oils into her naked body. It was claimed that as she got older she would lie in her bath as one of her servants held the severed head of a victim over her. The blood would mingle with the water and she would discover the elixir of eternal youth by bathing in the blood of virgins. Many other witnesses now came forward eager to reveal what they had seen at the Castle, and in the surrounding villages. Elisabeth, accompanied by a shadowy figure named Anna Darvulia, who was probably her lover and disappeared soon after, would visit the local villages late at night and forcibly abduct young girls, taking them to the Castle against their will. The evidence against Elisabeth was damning. Just how many young women were tortured and killed? No one can say for sure. Two of her accomplices, Dorrotya Szentes and Janos Flicko, provided the figures of 36 and 37. But around 200 bodies were recovered from the Castle grounds. On 7 January, 1611, Judge Theodosius Symiensis de Szulo, passed sentence on Elisabeth Barthory's accomplices in murder. Her maidservants, Dorrotya Szentes and IIona Jo, were executed immediately by being burned alive, but only after their fingernails had been pulled out. Janos Flicko, was deemed less culpable, and merely beheaded. Kathleen Bernicka, a simple girl who had been bullied by the others, was sentenced to life imprisonment. But what of Elisabeth Barthory herself? Despite being charged on 80 counts of murder she was never brought to trial. Instead she was placed under house arrest and confined to a series of small rooms in the Castle Csejte where she was walled in. She was not permitted to communicate with anyone and her food and water was delivered through a hatch. She was never to emerge from her incarceration. She was found dead four years later on 21 August, 1614. But she may have died much earlier. She was aged 54. Elisabeth Barthory proclaimed her innocence throughout the proceedings. The women she said had died of illness and disease. She could not, she said, be held responsible for the whims of nature. Later documents were found listing the names of 650 women and a written curse damning all those who had accused her and summoning animals to gouge out their eyes and eat their hearts.