Erzsébet [Elizabeth]

Legend has it that Erzsébet punched one of her maids after he pulled her hair a little too hard while combing it. At this stroke, a drop of blood remained on Erzsébet's hand. As the drop slowly crept down her skin, Erzsébet noticed that the blood made her skin look much younger and more vital. This gave her the idea that the blood of young virgins gave her the key to eternal youth. In the years that followed, she tortured and murdered more than 600 young girls in order to bathe and drink their blood. This earned her the nicknames "Blood Countess" and "Countess Dracula". When Count Palatine György Thurzó invaded and arrested Báthory Castle by order of the king in 1610, Erzsébet was saved from the death penalty by her family's reputation. She was locked up in some rooms of her castle for life. Her four main officers were sentenced to death. The trial of Báthory was substantiated by many gruesome testimonies. However, much of the testimony came from her heirs who obviously benefited from her death. Some maids, by the way, testified that there were never any murders. Torture of domestic servants by the rich was an everyday phenomenon in those days. In fact, there is even evidence that Erzsébet did not torture the young girls, but offered them medical help. And the massacres were no more than herbs that colored the bath water red. The fact remains that Erzsébet was convicted and died in solitude. But was she really the most bloodthirsty serial killer of all time? The truth died with her in the room complex.