Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Blood Countess” - Elizabeth Bathory

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, young peasant girls who went to the Castle Cachtice were being led to death at the hands of the Blood Countess. Although much of her life is shrouded in mystery, it’s no secret that Elizabeth Bathory was a sadist responsible for dozens, perhaps hundreds of murders. Her position as one of the most blood-thirsty, notorious killers of all time has influenced stories for centuries, including the classic Dracula. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. When Janash Uwivarya came to the Hungarian villages surrounding castle Chakitza, peasant families hid their daughters. When you think of a terrifying Hungarian villain, he's probably not what you picture. Janash was a young man, disfigured and small. Amongst the villagers and castle occupants alike, he was more commonly known as Fitsko, or Little Fellow.

And yet, he was the last person you wanted to see if you were a Hungarian peasant during the late 16th and early 17th century, especially if you were a young virgin girl. Because more often than not, when young girls went up to castle Chakitza with Fitsko, they never came back. But while Fitsko may have been the one to bring the girls, to the castle, he was not the one who kept them there. That would be the woman he worked for, the Blood Countess, the Beast of Jacques Tizza. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to take a deep dive into the life of Elizabeth Bathory, the Blood Countess of Hungary, a woman responsible for dozens, if not hundreds, of murders. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa

Richardson. Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for the show. Hi, everyone. We'd like to ask a quick favor. Would you leave a five-star review of serial killers on your favorite podcast directory? It seems so simple, but it really helps us out. And don't forget to subscribe while you're there, because a new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast. And on Twitter at Parcast Network. Now, let's get back to the case of Elizabeth Bathory. For most Hungarian peasants, receiving a coveted position as a servant to a wealthy noblewoman was their ticket to a better life. But unfortunately for the young women in this story, the Blood Countess was no regular noblewoman.

The Blood Countess's real name was Elizabeth Bathory, and she is truly one of history's greatest enigmas. a dutiful daughter, a respectable wife, a loving mother, and one of the most brutal and notorious serial killers of all time, male or female. She was officially charged with the murders of 80 young women, but some put the count as high as 650 victims. What drives a woman like Elizabeth to become a killer? She was a privileged, noble woman from an extremely wealthy family.

A family so wealthy, the Hungarian crown actually owed them, money. There was practically nothing out of her reach. When examining a serial killer, the first thing anyone looks for is the motive. It's what we do as humans to try to understand the world around us. What's so frustrating about Elizabeth is that the motive was unclear, and it remains a topic of debate today. One theory used to explain her actions, perhaps the most famous and controversial of the theories, was that she did it all in the name of chasing eternal youth and beauty. The one thing money couldn't buy.

In 1760, a Jesuit priest named Laslo Tirozzi published the first public account of Elizabeth's life. In his book, he claimed that she bathed in the blood of virgin girls. This apparently kept her skin youthful. Oof, talk about a gruesome beauty regimen. Seriously. But this claim started the obsession with Elizabeth Bathory, and the legend only grew from there. Over the years, she became known as the Blood Countess. And if any of that sounds a little bit like a Hollywood story, you're not the only one.

She's also become known as Countess Dracula. She was, after all, one of Bram Stoker's inspirations for his classic Dracula. There's something about the vampire myth that has fascinated audiences for ages. Time and time again, we tell stories about vampires. I think it's the mystique of not having fear. That's what I personally think it is. Vampires seem to not have a fear because they're dead already. so they know the unknown and that whole thing.

And so if I'm a vampire and you're human, you're just attracted to that. It's just like when a person walks in a room and they just have that, they exude power. People sense it. That was Omar Epps, an actor from Dracula 2000, one of the many pieces of entertainment that have been inspired by the Dracula legend. He taps into many of the reasons that both the vampire myth and the legend of Countess Dracula have captivated people for centuries. While most historians now agree that Elizabeth Bathory never actually bathed in blood,

she did possess many of the characteristics that make vampires so fascinating. She was powerful, seemingly fearless, and had a mystique about her that's affected people for centuries. Dracula is a terrifying villain, but he's got nothing on Elizabeth Bathory. The crimes she actually committed far surpassed that of any vampire myth. She tortured, mutilated, and murdered servant girls for the sheer pleasure of it. A lot of what's been said about Elizabeth Bathory in the four centuries since her reign of terror has been fictionalized, exaggerated, and straight out fabricated. Unfortunately, most of Elizabeth's personal writings were destroyed before she could even reach trial. And anything that's left from that time period had to be translated from 16th century Hungarian.

So there's been some room for embellishment. Like, for example, the story that she bathed in her victim's blood like a real-life vampire. These accounts of Elizabeth's life have to be taken with a grain of salt. Western authors and historians often imposed Western beliefs about women in power onto their explanation of Elizabeth. They tried to explain her motives as stemming from the societal pressure she felt as a woman. Which is where the vampire myth came from. That's right. The whole tale about her bathing in blood really seemed to come from historian's desire to assign a compelling motive to Elizabeth as a woman

without really making an attempt to understand her as a person. So they tried explaining her behavior by imposing on her a uniquely feminine vice, vanity. In truth, Elizabeth Bathory's tendency for torture was less about her vanity and more about the pleasure she derived from it. She was a sadist, plain and simple. She enjoyed other people's pain.

She may not have bathed in people's blood, but she did mutilate her servants with heated iron rods because it made her feel better. Which is much, much worse. This behavior didn't come out of nowhere. The cultural context of the time, Elizabeth's own genetic makeup, and her exposure to violence from a young age. These were all factors that would lead her down her eventual path to becoming a serial killer. Let's take a closer look.

It's the year of 1560 in what is now hungry. It was here that Elizabeth was born into the wealthy, influential, and noble Bathory clan. The Bathories were one of the most powerful families in Hungary. Their clan was filled with respectable men, including kings, cardinals, knights, and judges. In fact, Elizabeth's cousin was the king of Poland. So it's safe to say they were pretty well regarded. Yeah, they were. But like most families, they had a few black sheep.

those who lived their lives constantly shrouded by rumors, such as Elizabeth's Aunt Clara, who had been labeled as a witch, a bisexual, and a sadist. Now, as cool as it might be for magic to actually exist, we can pretty much rule out the witch accusation. And, luckily for Clara, Hungary wasn't affected by the same witch-hunt hysteria as Western Europe, so she never had to confront that rumor. That's lucky for her. The other two charges, however, seemed to be rooted in fact.

We can't know for certain due to the lack of records from the time. But most historians agree Clara was both bisexual and a sadist. She was also most likely the one who introduced the idea of sadism to a young Elizabeth. Specifically, Clara passed along a morbid love of flagellation as a torture technique. In the years to come, this foundation would no doubt influence Elizabeth. On top of all that, some historians believe that Elizabeth was also bisexual and that she, Clara had an incestuous relationship. Elizabeth's true sexuality is highly debated, and unfortunately, there's no definitive proof one way or another. So much of Elizabeth's life has been shrouded in

mysteries, and that's partly why she's such an intriguing figure. Now, if Elizabeth and Clara were both bisexual, then it's not a far stretch to imagine an incestuous relationship. Elizabeth herself was the product of inbreeding. Both of her parents came from the Bathery line. Which was all well and normal for the time, but her parents' inbreeding did have some unintended consequences. Namely, Elizabeth suffered from epilepsy, which likely was the result of her parents' incestuous relationship. The condition may have frustrated Elizabeth and affected her to the point that she needed some emotional outlet for it. But it's important to note that throughout her life, she appeared to have her wits about her. The epilepsy may have been an added stressor, but it doesn't mean she was insane or that the epilepsy was.

the reason she became a murderer. In fact, the stress derived from it is the much more important aspect. Stress itself was something that plagued Elizabeth and would be a driving force all her life. The epilepsy was the first major stress point. The second was the death of her parents when she was 10 years old. How did that impact her young developing brain? Well, of course, the loss of a parent is a traumatic experience for pretty much anyone. There are no records detailing Elizabeth's exact reaction to her parents' passing, but it's safe to say that without parental figures guiding her, she was left to figure things out on her own, and that probably caused her quite a lot of stress. Well, besides the epilepsy and her parents' early passing, though, she had a relatively

normal upbringing, at least normal for a Hungarian noble. She was well-versed in Latin and German, handwriting, and running a household. And even when she differed from other noble girls, she still wasn't showing many red flags. She was often found dressed as a boy, but this wasn't seen as something to be too alarmed about. All in all, she was a rather ordinary child, as far as anyone around her was concerned. In order to understand where her violence came from,

it's important to look at the context of the time. In 16th century Hungary, there was a clear distinction between the ruling and servant classes, and noble on peasant violence was not uncommon. Technically a noble could kill a servant, without any repercussions. Peasants had no protections under Hungarian law, which meant violence against peasants was practically sanctioned.

So she was brought up in a violent culture. But Elizabeth would eventually surpass the typical violence inflicted on servants. She would take it to another level. There are hints of this when she was younger. During her childhood and young adult years, Elizabeth had extreme outbursts of rage, which more often than not were directed towards whichever service. happened to be nearby.

But this alone wasn't grounds for her turning into a serial killer. She was a noble, and the people on the receiving end of her rage were all peasant servants. This was still well within the realm of normal for the time. More than anything, the cultural context explains how Elizabeth was able to operate for so many years later in life without ever being stopped. She took advantage of the law, which favored people like her. Speaking of people like her, Elizabeth was about to meet an incredible incredibly influential man in her life, her new betrothed, Francis Nadasdi.

Francis was equally cruel to his servants. He was a soldier, known for disemboweling, impaling, and torturing his Turkish opponents on the battlefield. So it seems Elizabeth may have met her match, or in terms of an arranged marriage, a perfect match in her eyes. I think most of us would balk at the idea of marrying someone as violent as Francis, but for Elizabeth, it's safe to say she saw herself in him. Francis was the son of Baron Thomas Nadosti, a powerful Hungarian statesman. Francis and Elizabeth were engaged in 1571, but weren't married until four years later. In the time in between, it's rumored that Elizabeth had an illegitimate child with another lesser nobleman.

When Francis found out about this, he sent Elizabeth away to his secluded location while he went to deal with the man. When he found him, it said that Francis castrated him. him and then let a pack of dogs loose on him. The dogs tore him apart. Instead of being turned off by this form of torture, it said that Elizabeth was intrigued, fascinated in fact. Could this have been the spark that led to her even more heinous crimes later in life? It very well could have been. There are a number of alternative events that have been suggested as her triggering moment, but this one seems to be the most likely, or it at least proves that she liked and gravitated towards violence. There's an even earlier incident that may have sparked something at her. As a child, Elizabeth

saw a gypsy arrested for selling children and then sewn up into the stomach of a horse as punishment, which was actually a common form of execution at the time. Yikes, can you even imagine? No, but it certainly left a mark on Elizabeth. So why do you say that this incident with Francis is the most likely to be the triggering moment for her? Well, if this incident with Francis did, indeed happen. Elizabeth could have seen it as permission to act upon her own violent tendencies. She was about to move away from her family to live with a man who was practically a stranger to her, and yet here she was, realizing that they had one very important thing in common. They both enjoyed torturing people. It's a pretty sick thing to bond over with your fiancé, if you ask me,

but bond they did. In 1575, Elizabeth and Francis finally married, and more than you. And we're move to Castle Chakitza. Together, they would spend the next three years torturing their servants. And that was the start of Elizabeth Bathory's descent into becoming the Blood Countess. We'll return to our story in just a moment from the Pardcast Network.

And now, let's continue our story. For three years, Elizabeth Bathory and Frances remained happily married and living in Castle Chaktsa. During this time, Francis taught her how to use various torture devices. and techniques he had picked up from his time as a soldier. He also taught her revival methods to keep the servants alive and conscious during torture sessions, such as placing paper in between the toes of victims and lighting the paper on fire to force the victim to stay conscious.

He was the greatest enabler of Elizabeth. He was well aware of her affinity for torture, encouraged it, and even joined in at times. Those first three years were relatively calm, though. The two of them may have occasionally tortured a servant, but Elizabeth hadn't begun her killing spree yet. That's right. It appeared that while Francis had no issue with violence, he seemed to have a calming effect on Elizabeth. While he was around, she didn't feel the urge to torture quite as often. That would all change once Francis left. At the time that he and Elizabeth were married, Hungary was at war with the Ottomans to the south. Three years after their marriage, Francis became the chief commander of the Hungarian truth.

leading them to war and leaving Elizabeth behind to run the castle and oversee the surrounding villages. For someone like Elizabeth, losing the one constant, positive person in her life was likely another trigger for her. Francis's absence seems to have exacerbated her violence. She also had a lot more on her plate now that he was gone. She had to learn how to run the castle, oversee the villages, and correspond with a variety of men who were used to dealing with her husband instead of her. She struggled with this, and she had no one to turn to for help. Her parents were dead, the rest of her family, far away, and she knew very few people in her new home.

The stress weighed on Elizabeth, and when she was stressed, she lashed out at her servants. Exactly. She was driven by whatever pent-up aggression was inside of her, so the outbursts often came in the same way they had when she was a child. Only, instead of just hitting a servant, Elizabeth had now graduated to the big leagues. There's no record of when Elizabeth first started killing peasant's servant girls, but it started around the time that Francis left for war in 1578. Over the course of her time at Castle Chaktizza,

Elizabeth was accused of viciously torturing her servants until their death. She employed a variety of methods. In the winter, she forced her victims to undress, then drenched them in cold water and left them out in the cold to freeze to death. In the summer, she would douse them in honey and leave them out in the sweltering heat for the insects. But most of her torture techniques involved her actually doying out the punishment by her own hand. She would burn her servants with metal sticks or iron the souls of their feet.

She would stitch servants' lips and tongues together or simply just cut them up. This is one of the most interesting things about Elizabeth as a serial killer. While her victims all remained the same, young servant girls, mostly virgins, her methods were constantly in flux. She was a spontaneous killer. So what exactly is a spontaneous killer? A spontaneous killer is driven generally by anger or passion. It doesn't mean they aren't organized in general, but when it comes to actually committing the crime, it comes about spontaneously. The torment Elizabeth inflicted upon her victims was a result

of her own anger and hatred stemming from the issues in her own life. On top of that, Elizabeth was a bit of a perfectionist and a control freak. However, as a noble woman, she was never given a true education. So when her husband left her to manage the estate, she was essentially handed over a business that she didn't know how to run. She had to teach herself, and she hated making mistakes. And when she got stressed, her release was to torture servants. Her crimes themselves were chaotic, differing entirely on the time of year, the victim, and even Elizabeth's mood. There never seemed to be a method one way or another, except to inflict the most amount of pain possible. There was also perhaps a sexual motivation to her crimes as well. This is a question

that has come up time and time again. If all she desired was the pleasure of torture, then why be so consistent with her choice a victim? Well, it is possible that her choice in targeting young peasant girls was simply because they were the easiest target, and she had plenty of them at her disposal. That said, it seems pretty clear that Elizabeth had an issue with women in some form or another. Before we go any further, please note that some of the images described are graphic. Often, Elizabeth's torture involved mutilation of her victim's genitalia. She would stick burning iron rods into their vaginas, or sometimes she'd use needles, knives, knives, candles, or even her own teeth to lacerate servants' genitals.

This is where the suspicion that Elizabeth was a lesbian or a bisexual often comes into question. It would make sense if some internal fight over her own sexual identity was manifesting itself in her crimes. As the Hungarian noble during that time, that would definitely have made her life a lot more complicated. To try to understand Elizabeth a bit more, we might want to turn to Freud. Now, we're not sure about the exact relationship Elizabeth had with her parents, but her anger towards her own gender definitely seems to have stemmed from somewhere, most likely her childhood. Throughout her life, Elizabeth seemed to have very stable relationships with all the men in her life. She admired the men who surrounded her, even going so far as to emulate them.

When Francis left for war, Elizabeth spent the majority of her time filling his shoes. From her letters, it's clear that she was trying to be as confident and sure of herself as he was. She said, quote, You are well aware that if God's peace brings my husband back, you will have to answer and explain what you are doing. Sir, you well know that this is the second or third letter I have sent. I am highly angered and do not wish to take issue, end quote. Elizabeth was often described as a woman who had male-like inclinations.

she herself gave such an impression to a squatter trying to claim part of her land. Quote, do not think I shall leave you to enjoy it. You will find a man in me, end quote. In the 21st century, that statement would roughly translate to, I will crush you. But the sentiment remains the same. She was willing and ready to do a man's job with a man's attitude. Right.

And there's a possibility that those male-like inclinations could have been what Freud called penis envy. This is where a young girl can develop a complex wherein she desires to be male like her father and has tense relationships with the women in her life. Did Freud say that penis envy leads to someone becoming a serial killer? Not at all. And that's why it's important to remember that Freud cannot fully account for Elizabeth's violent nature, and his theory doesn't even begin to explain how she could have become such a prolific killer. What his theories do help explain are some of her more sexually motivated crimes. According to the testimony that would come later,

not all of Elizabeth's victims were sexually assaulted. That said, she did display hatred toward female genitalia. And this might have been a part of the internal conflict we've been discussing, one in which she was grappling with the fact that she was a woman, whether she was struggling with her sexuality as a woman or her identity as a woman is not clear. But either way, she was struggling, and she was taking it out on virgin servant girls.

Okay, so now that Francis is gone, and Elizabeth has been left alone in Castle Choctitsa, she soon recruits a small team of servants who would become her accomplices over the next two decades. These included her former wet nurse, Elena Yo, another servant named Dorothy Ascentesh, the little fellow Fitsko, and most infamous of all, Anna Darvulia.

Anna has almost as many lasting rumors surrounding her, as Elizabeth does, mainly that she was a witch and a lesbian and Elizabeth's lover. Is there any truth to any of those claims? Well, like Elizabeth's Aunt Clara, it's safe to say Anna was not a witch. Her sexuality, however, is a different story. We can't say definitively one way or another, but most historians agree that Anna was a lesbian. But she probably wasn't Elizabeth's lover? Well, since we don't know the truth about Elizabeth's own sexuality, it's unclear.

What we do know is that Anna was Elizabeth's closest servant and not only encouraged the torture and murder, but taught Elizabeth new techniques. Some of those techniques even involved the dark arts, or witchcraft. At one point, Elizabeth wrote a letter to Francis while he was away, describing a new spell she had learned that involved her beating a hen to death and smearing its blood on the clothing of one's enemies. That sounds an awful lot like the tendency of serial killers to murder animals before they start killing people.

And that's just what Elizabeth started doing. When she first began her torturous spree, her victims were the servants already working in the castle. If a young girl made some small mistake, it would be grounds for Elizabeth to do what she wanted with her, mainly torture and murder her. Her choice of victim here shows that she knew exactly what she was doing. As a noble woman, no one would bat an eye at servants disappearing while working for her.

And even if someone did raise her, an issue. There was nothing a peasant could do against her. This was not an irrational woman who lashed out at anyone. She was methodical and very aware of the law. So Elizabeth would lash out at young servant girls and brutally torture and murder each of them under the protection of Hungarian law. And she would continue to do so, always within the confines of her own home. That was until 1604 when her husband Francis Nodazdi died of an unknown illness. That's when Elizabeth Bathory started kidnapping and murdering peasant girls from outside the castle walls. We'll return to our story in just a moment.

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And now back to serial killers. On January 3, 1604, Francis Nadosdi wrote a letter to Lord Georgi Thurzo, a powerful Hungarian magnate. Francis wrote to inform Thurzo of his possible death and asked Thurzo to watch over and protect Elizabeth and their children in his absence. This was either a letter written between two good friends who had fought on the battlefield together, or this was a strategical letter sent with the hopes of preventing Thurzo from ruining Francis's family's good name. Little did Francis know just how big a role Thurzo would play in Elizabeth's life, but we're not quite there yet. As expected, Francis did pass away soon after he sent that letter, leaving behind Elizabeth

and their children. All alone, now burdened with the stress of being a widow, Elizabeth's killing spree worsened. As Frances's widow, Elizabeth inherited a huge amount of land and responsibility. Not only did she have to deal with the stress of losing her husband, but there were also financial problems and political uprisings on the horizon. Any kind of stress can cause a once-organized killer to become disorganized, and these stresses hit that chord with Elizabeth. She said, started killing more frequently and more erratically. Elizabeth started looking for victims outside the confines of her own castle. She sent her personal assistance to the neighboring towns to bring back young girls under the pretense that they could be hired as servants. Elizabeth's servants were

constantly looking for new victims for their mistress. If she was riding in a carriage and felt the urge, they would facilitate a torture session right there in the carriage. So not only was she being more erratic with her victims, but she was changing up locations, committing her crimes in more public arenas. She was getting careless. Some criminologists believe that the death of a loved one can play a part in aggravating one's aggression to kill. For Elizabeth, Francis had always been a positive influence in her life, and once he was taken from her, she was pushed to the brink. Of course, Francis wasn't actually a positive influence on her. He had spent years enabling her torturous tendencies. That said, Francis seemed to have imposed a limit to the torture and murder going on

in Chakditsa, or at least he had a limit himself. Elizabeth, it seemed to not. But whether she had a limit or not, things were getting more difficult for Elizabeth Bathory. She had to work twice as hard to pull off her torture and murder at the increasing rate she had become accustomed to. With these new victims being brought in from outside the castle, Elizabeth was becoming reckless. Or she just thought she was invincible. She had been running this operation for years now without a single hiccup. As a noble woman, she felt she was protected by the law, as if it were practically her right to murder peasants. And so she did.

She killed whenever the mood struck her. And she did so in a brutal manner. That's atypical for female serial killers. Right. There are obviously a variety of ways to kill a person, but often women are associated with more discrete types of murder, such as poisoning. Of all the various techniques that Elizabeth used, I think poison is one of the few that she wasn't accused of.

She actually had a lot more in common with male 21st century serial killers. She was hands-on and physically violent. She conducted much of the torture herself. And her motivations weren't what we typically associate with female killers either. She wasn't seeking money or revenge. She wasn't suffering from Battered Wife Syndrome. which occurs in victims of domestic violence as a result of serious long-term abuse. There's no easy explanation for why Elizabeth was the way she was,

which brings us back to the legend of her bathing in her victim's blood to maintain her youth and beauty. The legend was an attempt to explain Elizabeth's motives, and it plays into the idea that she was doing this for the most feminine of reasons, vanity. It kind of makes it sound like a Disney villain. Somehow she's less terrifying if that was the reason. Perhaps, and it's important to note, most reputable historians have discounted this as a real possibility. It's all just a part of the legend.

The truth is, Elizabeth was a sadist. She found pleasure in torturing her servants, and it seems that this was her ultimate motivation. She enjoyed it, and she was a noble woman who was basically invincible from the law. So why not do what she enjoys? It seems that so much of Elizabeth's life has become the fodder of legends, of people grasping at straws, trying to explain how a woman could do such things, why she would do such things,

when really the most likely answer is that she just wanted to, and she was in a position of power where she could do whatever she wanted. But Elizabeth wasn't invincible, and she would come to realize that soon enough. As was custom, she started receiving the daughters of noble families at her court, They were expected to live there and learn courtly etiquette. But instead of teaching them how to be ladies, Elizabeth started taking them as her next victims. Eventually, the cry from noble families would grow too loud to ignore, and Lord Georgi Thurzo, the newly minted Palatine of Hungary,

would come to Castle Choctitsa to confront Elizabeth once and for all. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. If you want to listen to any previous episodes of serial killers, You can find them on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, SoundCloud, Stitcher and Spotify, or on our website, parkast.com, spelled p-a-r-c-a-st-com. If you like what you hear, please leave a five-star review or tell us what you think on social media. We're on Facebook and Instagram as at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. It seems simple, but it really helps our show.

Join us next Monday as we continue delving into the twisted cycle. of Elizabeth Bathory. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler and developed by Ron Cutler. It is a production of Cutler media and is part of the Pardcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Ron Shapiro, with production assistance by Joel Stein. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer.

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