Erzsébet

The legend says that Erzsébet slapped one of her maids after she pulled her hair too hard while combing it. With this slap, a drop of blood stayed on Erzsébet's hand. As the drop slowly crawled down her skin, Erzsébet noticed that her skin looked much younger and more vital because of the blood. This gave her the idea that the blood of young virgins gave her the key to eternal youth. In the following years, she tortured and murdered more than 600 young girls with the goal of bathing in and drinking their blood. This earned her the nicknames "Blood Countess" and "Countess Dracula". When Palatine György Thurzó invaded Bathory's castle on orders from the king in 1610 and arrested her, Erzsébet was rescued from the death penalty by the good name of her family. She was imprisoned for life in several rooms of her castle. Her four main servants, however, received the death penalty. The case against Báthory was supported by many gruesome testimonies. However, a large part of the testimonies came from her heirs who obviously benefitted from her death. Some maids even testified that there was never any talk of murders. Torture of domestic staff by the rich was a common phenomenon at the time. Moreover, there's even evidence that Erzsébet didn't torture the young girls but rather offered them medical help. And the blood baths were nothing more than herbs coloring the bath water red. The fact remains that Erzsébet was convicted and died in solitude. But was she really the most bloodthirsty serial murderer of all time? The truth died with her in her suite of rooms.