For years, the Hungarian aristocrat known as Countess Elizabeth Bathory had been shielded from consequences by her privileged bloodline and royal connections — even as horrifying stories circulated about her treatment of servants and peasants. That protection finally crumbled on either December 26th, 1609 or 1610 (the sources are conflicting), when Count Gyorgy Thurzo, acting on orders from King Matthias, arrived at Csejthe Castle in Hungary. What he discovered was chilling: Bathory herself, actively overseeing the torture of young women.
Her Disturbing History
Born into Transylvanian nobility in 1560, Elizabeth Bathory came from a powerful family whose ranks boasted judges, knights, monarchs, and cardinals. She shared ancestry with a number of well-known figures — yet the family lineage also harbored some deeply unstable individuals. An uncle introduced her to Satanism, while an aunt exposed her to sadomasochism. At just 15 years old, Bathory wed Count Nadady, and the couple eventually made their home at Csejthe Castle. There, the count allegedly had a torture room built to satisfy her every desire.
The Torture
Bathory devised ghastly methods of tormenting her servant girls — driving needles and pins beneath their fingernails, binding them, smearing them with honey, and abandoning them to the relentless assault of bees and ants. The count himself participated in his wife's cruelty, yet he may have also kept her most extreme impulses somewhat in check; after his death, her behavior grew markedly worse. With help from her former nurse, Ilona Joo, and the local witch, Dorottya Szentes, Bathory began abducting peasant girls from the surrounding area. She routinely tore off chunks of her victims' flesh and consumed them, and she supposedly forced one girl to prepare and eat her own flesh.
Finally, Caught
Because her family dominated the local power structure, Bathory's crimes went unpunished until 1610. What ultimately spurred King Matthias to intervene was the discovery that she had expanded her targets to include daughters of local nobles. On January 7th, 1611, Bathory and her accomplices were brought before a court to face eighty counts of murder. Every one of them was found guilty. Her accomplices received death sentences, but Bathory alone was spared that fate. Her punishment instead took a different form: she was sealed inside a room within the castle, with nothing but small holes in the walls to allow for ventilation and the passing of food.