[from 'Suffering Up Close' #2]
The Blood Countess: Elizabeth Bathory
by Meffista Fellayne

Fourteen years before her birth in 1560 Vlad Dracula visited her homeplace while on an expedition to claim Prince Steven Bathory's throne. Dracula was certainly a cruel man (although he was in keeping with his time) but if anyone deserved to be made immortal (in literature anyway) it was Elizabeth Bathory, the aptly named 'Blood Countess'.

Elizabeth was famous for her captivating beauty and infamous for causing the deaths of 650 young women. Elizabeth certainly had an imagination when it came to murder and torture which today's serial killers have not surpassed. Born of a notorious family known for it's lesbians and witches and in an era in which cruel tortures were common place for those who were poor and suspected of crime, Elizabeth was under the impression that anything was forgivable if one was rich and powerful enough.

A close influence was her aunt Karla who encouraged her to participate in all-women orgies, in which Elizabeth discovered she enjoyed producing pain in buxom and beautiful young girls. These explorations helped tide over boredom while her husband Count Ferencz Nadasdy (also known as the Black Hero of Hungary) was away for long periods during the war. Another occupation for her mind was a developing interest in the black arts. She was encouraged by Thorko, a servant in her castle, who instructed her in the ways of witchcraft and at the same time encouraged her sadistic tendencies.

It was with the help of Thorko, Ilona Joo (Elizabeth's former nurse), the witches Dorottya Szentes and Darvulia, and the dwarf Johannes Ujvary that Elizabeth "punished" her servant girls in an underground chamber where she used branding irons, molten wax and knives to shed the unlucky girl's blood. She is told to have once torn the clothing from a girl, covered her in honey and then turned her into the woods to be attacked by insects. The Countess attacked her bound victims with her teeth, biting chunks of flesh from their necks, cheeks and shoulders. Her obsessions with blood were aided by razors, torches, and her own custom made silver pincers.

A woman of exceptional beauty, she was terrified of becoming plain in old age and as years passed the need to protect herself from this fate became more urgent with each new (or imagined) wrinkle. A servant girl brushing the Countess's hair one day hurt her by accident. Elizabeth responded by slapping the girl hard enough to make blood spurt from the girl's nose across her face. It seemed to Elizabeth that everywhere the blood had touched her was rejuvenated.

Encouraged by Darvulia, the Countess became convinced that the secret of youth lay in the blood of those who were young and beautiful. The witch instructed her to kidnap virginal girls and to collect their blood in which she could bathe. Among the many stories of Bathory's practices it is said that within her chambers she had a cage suspended from the ceiling which she could stand under while a girl within the cage was tortured until she bled to death over her naked body.

As time went by the none too subtle Elizabeth earned the fear of the villagers who had noticed strange happenings about the castle. They believed she was a vampire. Potential victims were hired to be servants only to be found as bloodless corpses outside the castle. Being rich and titled though, Elizabeth was right in believing that hiding her practices was not necessary. No one bothered her until she began to believe that the blood of noble beauties would be more effective.

It was on New Years Eve of 1610 when the castle was finally investigated. The underground torture chamber was discovered, the hideously mutilated bodies of a number of girls and the bloody Countess herself. It was not required of Elizabeth to attend her own trial and on all counts she was treated preferentially.

All of her fellow torturers were beheaded, except for Ilona Joo and Dorottya Szentes, whose fingers were pulled off before they were burnt alive. The Countess, on the other hand, was found to be criminally insane and was bricked into a room in her castle. Her guards passed food to her through a small hatch, the only other opening in the room was a tiny 'window' to the outside through which even a hand would not fit.

It was almost four years after her imprisonment on August 14th of 1614 when Elizabeth Bathory was found dead. Most accounts will claim that she had remained a bewitching beauty to the end. Some though less romantically say that she was haggard and looked as old as she truly was. *

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