The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings - The Antiquarium of Sinister Happenings Presents: Creepy Places

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

With new episodes every week, Creepy's Jon Grilz guides you on an excursion through the world's most haunted places. Explore grizzly murders and the historical context behind each crime. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.Episode 1 : BathoryJoin us as we discover the horrors of one of the worst alleged killers of all time, The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory and the trail of terror she left behind.Narration by Jon Grilz (featuring Danielle Hewitt and Joe Stofko)Script by Jeff WhiteheadIntro and Outro Music by Brandon BooneProduced by Natalie Brown Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hi, hello friend. Thanks for coming by. Turns out I'm just about to close the shop for the day, as we're having a little pest issue. Nothing the exterminator can take care of, but nothing you want to be around for either. Out of personal safety concerns. Not to worry, however. My friend John Grills just opened up a travel agency

a few doors down from here. He deals in what you might call dark tourism. Every week guiding you through the world's most famous haunted places, as he explores grisly murders and the historical context behind each crime. He also tells me you can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. It's called creepy places. And I believe they're just about to depart to discuss. the horrors of one of the worst alleged killers of all time.

The Blood Countess, Elizabeth Bathory. It's the final boarding call, and they have a seat up front just for you. The Antiquarium will be back open in a few days once our little problem is dealt with. Meanwhile, Bon voyage, as they say.

Round us every day. A stark reminder that life is fleeting, and that being at the wrong place at the wrong time can lead to its untimely end. Faster than a blink of an eye, there's some crimes so heinous and gruesome that they reverberate through the fabric of society, leaving impressions that can last decades, even centuries. These crimes imprint themselves onto the buildings in which they were committed, and under the objects used in the axe. Some of the connections are so strong that the victims and perpetrators are rumored to have become trapped inside,

left to linger forever. My name is John Grills, and you are listening to creepy places, a podcast where we explore true crimes that have led to a legacy of supernatural sightings, hauntings, and lurking evil. Castle Chequitza, 1610. Most of Europe is just beginning its transition from the Middle Ages to its rebirth.

It's artistic, philosophical, literary, political, and cultural renaissance. The memory of the past swept clean. Modernization, exploration, and science begin to occupy the minds of Europe's great thinkers. But, situated between the Danubian lowlands and Little Carpathians in what is now the modern Slovak Republic, something far more sinister would grip a population, crimes so horrifying that they would be passed down by generations as legends. The air is dank, metallic with the stale scent of blood. The descent into the darkness of the bowels of the castle seemingly endless. The heavy air stirs with muffled wines and cries from below.

Stifled almost as soon as they are ushered. Droplets dripped from above, echoing in the cavernous dungeon along with the footsteps. The enveloping dark soon stifles the echoes until only the flat clop. Clop, claw of feet and heavy breathing remain. Suddenly the ground shifts, flattening. The castle bowels swallowing the shadowy figures who descend upon it. Torches survey the desolate space, revelatory in their exposure of the horrors within.

The sight and unspeakable spectacle of evil. Cry in the darkness. Faint. Followed by a whisper, your torso emerges from the darkness. The torch's flames flickering off of his stunned face. Elizabeth Bathory was privileged from birth, a fact that helped her hide her vices from society as she grew to adulthood in a sheltered aristocratic world.

By the time of Elizabeth's birth in 1560, the Bathory family held high-ranking positions across Europe, Her most prominent relative was her uncle, Stephen Bathory, who was the king of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Prince of Transylvania. As was very common among nobles in the Habsburg Empire, Elizabeth's parents were related, a marriage practice that was encouraged to further centralize the power dynamic on a once-fractured continent. Elizabeth's noble birth afforded her luxuries and an enviable social standing that the general population of the time did not enjoy. As was customary among nobles in the Habsburg Empire, she was raised multilingual, including Hungarian, her mother tongue, as well as German, Latin, and Greek.

Not only was she learned, but she was also reportedly very beautiful. with, quote, astonishingly white flesh, almost translucent, through which one could see clearly the delicate blue veins beneath. Long, shimmering silken hair. Black is the plumage of a raven. Sensual scarlet lips. Great dark eyes capable of a dough-like tenderness, but sometimes igniting into savage anger.

and at other times glazing over with the abandoned somnolence of intense sexual passion. While accounts are difficult to substantiate, as much of Elizabeth's personal history now borders on folklore, it has been reported that several family members, including one of her aunts and uncles, were responsible for early influences in Satanism and sadomasochism. Additionally, her parents were reported to have been exceedingly cruel to their servants, perhaps setting a tone for the years to come, often punishing and even killing their servants in front of her. Elizabeth suffered from seizures from an early age.

She also had violent mood swings and migraines. In the 16th century, doctors treated patients with seizures, then known as falling sickness, in a variety of ways. One of the treatments included drawing blood from an individual who did not suffer from epilepsy and rubbing it onto the lips of the epileptic person. Perhaps this form of treatment was a deep psychological root for Elizabeth's future atrocities. Whatever the case, as Elizabeth grew, so too did her infatuation with blood.

In 1573, Elizabeth became engaged to Count Ferenz Ndazdi, a largely political arrangement designed to further solidify land and titles among a small aristocratic circle, as was customary. Upon their engagement, Elizabeth was invited to stay with the Nadasni family in their castle in Sarvar. Ferenz was a complete opposite of Elizabeth, rugged, uneducated, who could neither read nor write, and while still an aristocrat, Feren's mother was responsible for the arrangement, using her ties to Hungarian noble families to help achieve a higher social rank. Elizabeth's youth is checkered with unsubstantiated scandal, including the prospect that she gave birth to the child of a peasant boy. Accounts are conflicting as to whether this occurred at all, or whether it was before or during

her engagement to Forens. Some of the more gruesome accounts indicate that Elizabeth did indeed give birth to the child while engaged to Forens, and that he was so enraged that he castrated the peasant boy and had him torn limb from limb by his hounds. The baby narrowly escaped, the Bathory family concealing it with a trusted servant to hide it deep in the countryside of Wauakia. If true, this event did not stop their marriage from moving forward. And there was no indication that it was without some affection and duty to one another. Upon their marriage in 1575, their union yielded a joint ownership in lands throughout the Kingdom of Hungary.

which in the 16th century stretched from what is now modern-day Croatia to Romania. Ferenz was 19, Elizabeth 14. Ferenz wedding present to his new wife included castle of Chiquita, a country house, and 17 villages across the countryside. This landholding would prove to be of tremendous geopolitical importance just a few years into their marriage. and true to her character, Elizabeth remained independent and outspoken, refusing to take the Nadasdi last name given the long and storied history of the Bathory name and the fact that their family ranked higher in the social hierarchy than did Nadazdi. So she proudly remained a Bathy, even despite being referred to as Lady Nidazdi at court.

After the wedding, Elizabeth and friends moved in her. to castle Chakitza and made their life and home together. However, both of their lives were far from ordinary. Varenz was a driven military man, gripped with the prospect of promotion and power. He became known among his men as Black Bay or Black Knight or Black Hero. After only three years of marriage, he took over command of one of the flanks of the Hungarian army. His ascension was decisive, and given his position, he became one of the most powerful people in the country. However, such power and ambition carried a high cost, and he was away from Elizabeth for long periods of time, so much so that they did not welcome their first child until 15 and 15.

By the end of the 16th century, Hungary's Black Knight helped win decisive battles against the Ottoman Empire during the Ottoman-Hungarian wars, conquering castle after castle, seizing land and pushing the Ottomans back. His reputation grew as an extremely gifted strategist and tactician in battle, but he also became known for his horrific treatment of Ottoman prisoners. despite frequent lengthy absences. Elizabeth and friends welcomed at least five additional children to their family from 1590 to 1598, and perhaps more. Of these five children, three survived to adulthood. During his visits home, it is also possible that he fueled an already burgeoning desire in Elizabeth to learn about the torture that Ferens bestowed upon his Ottoman prison.

He was rumored to have danced with their corpses and kicked their severed heads. Friends regularly wrote to Elizabeth, and some of the surviving letters were quick to provide advice on disciplining the servants. During these years, there were murmurs of abuse among the family servants, but they were regularly brushed aside given Elizabeth's power and privilege. It is unsurprising that no punishment was ever brought against Elizabeth for abusing servants, as her family functionally ran the governance and penal system of the area. If a complaint were to be lobbied, it would be lobbied to Forens or Elizabeth herself

as highest-ranking nobles in the area, as had Elizabeth before them. All of Elizabeth and friends' children are raised by governesses, allowing Elizabeth, to focus on her civil and societal responsibilities. With Varennes on the battlefield for months and sometimes years at a time, those responsibilities were weighty and serious. Elizabeth was left to govern and protect their lands. Their geopolitical location was enviable as the holdings lay on the route to Vienna from the Ottoman lands and had been conquered previously.

The Nadasdi family holding, were also located on the border of the lands occupied by the Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire, and thus put both those holdings and the villages around them in constant, grave peril, whether it was from witnessing cruelty from her own family, the medical treatment she received for her childhood seizures, or influence from her husband. The rumbling surrounding her treatment of servants grew more pervasive and darker, but the full extent would not be unleashed yet for several years.

By the end of the 16th century, Forens had fallen ill, returning to the family of states. As a century turned over, Forens' illness progressed, and an affliction that began as staggering pain in his legs led to permanent disability by 1603. He suffered for years. and rumors of horrible cruelty toward and the disappearance of her servants began to churn in high society. Again, they were largely ignored due to the family status. Elizabeth's position changed considerably upon Feren's death on January 4, 1604. When Ferenz died, all of his lands and holdings were bequeathed to Elizabeth, including those who were in his debt.

Elizabeth would not cede the lands, nor would she marry another, instead choosing to hold power and influence, governing her lands herself. And she was a very capable ruler. Letters and records recording that she owned thousands of acres of land, towns, and 20 castles. Her holdings were in and of themselves a mini-kingdom. In her ruling, she could be fierce. On one occasion a neighboring noble seized some of her land. She wrote to him. So, my good sir, you have done this thing.

You have occupied my small possessions because you are poor. But I do not think that we will leave you to enjoy them in peace. Yet there are numerous written accounts to suggest that Elizabeth concerned herself. with the well-being of her serfs, even intervening on their behalf. This provides a very different picture of Elizabeth than that which will be painted once her abuses were made public. As her husband fell ill, and it became increasingly clear that he would not recover, she brought a servant named Anna Dorvolia, known as Darvulia, into her inner circle.

Darvulia had been in the family employ for some time, but once she gained Elizabeth's confidence and trust, Elizabeth changed, becoming crueler and crueler. Anna was rumored to be a witch, and there is some suspicion that if Forens was curbing and containing Elizabeth's penchant for torment, his death left Elizabeth without any inhibitions, and in the full influence of Darvins was curbing. What began as rumors at the turn of the 17th century quickly became fierce accusations, spreading to the far reaches of the kingdom. But what was actually happening behind the closed doors of Castle Chiquita? Reports indicate that Elizabeth's cruelty began as small punishments to disobedient servants, perhaps learned from her family and the treatment of their servants. Elizabeth was rumored to have stripped young women or girls naked, leaving them outside in the snow,

possibly to their frozen fate. Elizabeth and Ferenz also allegedly bound and covered servants in honey, leaving them to be eaten alive by surrounding insects. Perhaps a device that Ferenz used to extract information from Ottoman soldiers. Elizabeth also reportedly jammed pins and needles under the servant's fingernails for seemingly innocuous infractions in her strict rule of order. Her punishments far exceeding the merit of the crime. Some sources indicate that Forens was a willing participant, that the Black Knight's reputation for torture extended past the battlefield and into his home.

There is some evidence that he aided Elizabeth in her proclivity to inflict pain on her servants, including producing a spiked glove for her with which she could strike any servant that she deemed to be getting out of hand. After Friends' death, Elizabeth spiraled, and the accounts of abuses worsened. On his deathbed, Ferenz called upon his friend, Count Dior Torzo, a fellow noble and Elizabeth's cousin to watch over the family. Torzo agreed, but, Little did he know that soon, he would be called upon for an investigation that would shock the region and leave a lasting impression for centuries. The most harrowing fact of this case is that it may have all gone unnoticed had Elizabeth

continued to solicit peasant girls and young women to be her servants. But the landscape somehow changed, and in addition to the lower class women that had always served in her ranks. She began recruiting young noble women and girls. Perhaps she could no longer find enough peasant girls to serve her. Or perhaps her tastes changed. Whatever the case, she had established a perfect lure. Some reports suggest that Elizabeth's thirst for recruits led her to open a school for young girls

to help reform them and prepare them for society. Other wild reports speak to a ring of nobles helping to gather servants for Elizabeth. It is possible that her school was opened solely to perform its stated purpose, a finishing school that would prepare young girls for life in high society. But perhaps her wealth had dwindled from the upkeep of the castle and lands, as we know that the Bathory family was owed significant sums of money by, reluctant debtors within the nobility. This will force important choices toward the end of Elizabeth's life. But by all accounts, Elizabeth was recruiting and grooming young girls to be her

servants across her vast holdings. Once they were her servants, she could commit any form of corporal punishment she chose. Area religious leaders became increasingly suspicious after being called to perform funeral rights for Elizabeth's servants. The frequency with which they were called, and apparently the circumstances under which they were called, led individual religious leaders to challenge Elizabeth. One such leader testifying that he noted that, quote, Your grace should not have acted so, because it offends the Lord, we will be punished if we do not complain to you and criticize you.

Your grace, in order to confirm my words are true. We need only to exhum the body, and you will find that the marks identify the way in which the death occurred. According to the account, Elizabeth lashed out with threats before storming away from the accuser, while peasant families had a more challenging time making a case about Elizabeth. Once the children of noble families, albeit within the lesser gentry, began to disappear or enter seemingly endless servitude without any contact. These same noble families began to appeal to the new Holy Roman Emperor, Matthias II, who had assumed command over the Kingdom of Hungary as a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Additionally, given the complaints among the church leaders, the Lutheran minister, East Van Magrari, began a very public campaign against Elizabeth, becoming so vocal that he reached the courts in Vienna. Elizabeth rebuked every charge made against her, providing explanations that ranged from simple and believable to a story about a young noble girl who had murdered several of her classmates and had then taken her own life. However, the noble families were unwilling to believe Elizabeth's stories. They claimed that her atrocities were well known, but that they had been ignored for years

given her family's direct control or influence over the local government and penal systems. Relentless, the noble families who had lost loved ones to Bathory's servitude continued their appeals, to help assuage the irritated nobles, perhaps to continue their allegiance and ward against the rebellion. Matthias II deployed E.R. Torzo to conduct a full inspection of the castle in its grounds. Thoroness was the mandate, so that the matter could be settled once and for all. Sources debate exactly what Torzo found in the dungeons of Castle Chiquetza. Some purport that Torzo discovered Bathory in the full throes of torturing a victim.

Others indicate that was merely at dinner when Torzo arrived and permitted him to search the entire premises unmolested. Wilder accounts suggest that she was in the full throes of a holiday orgy, and that many of the crimes to which she would soon be attributed were sexually motivated. Given that many of the accounts were written years, if not centuries, after her death, it is impossible to know exactly what happened when Torzo walked down those. cold, dark steps, and into the dungeon. Albeit likely fictitious, one particularly detailed account indicates that Torzo found two servants in one of the main halls of the castle. One dead, the other pierced with holes, blood draining

from her body. The deeper Torzo and his soldiers went, the greater the horrors they found. In the first floor of the dungeon, they found several girls, all of whom had been stabbed, left dying. Further below, they reportedly exhumed the bodies of more than 50 young women and girls. Some accounts exclaimed that Torzo had caught her red-handed. Torzo's own letter to his wife, however, indicated that they arrived at the castle while Elizabeth was having dinner, and that they found one dead girl and another living prey. Although they ranged in severity and grotesqueness, all accounts indicate that Thorzo found or materialized enough evidence of abuse

among those that he began to conduct a thorough investigation among those that lived on Elizabeth's lands. And Torzo left no stone unturned. By the end of 1610, There were more than 50 statements by supposed witnesses against Elizabeth. 1611, there were more than 300. However, none of the witnesses could provide any substantiative proof. Every story, save for one, was a piece of hearsay.

Rumors circulating around the populace. The one genuine account was lodged by a clerk, Andrea Somagy, who claimed, that he had seen a servant girl who had had her hands badly burnt. No one else had personally witnessed any torture. Additionally, although the castle had secret rooms, as was common in medieval castles, everyone who was allowed into the rooms found no evidence that they had been used for torture. Even doctors who had visited the castle to treat the ill denied finding any signs of abuse on their patients.

though they had admitted that they were only permitted to see the servant's faces. The accounts vary widely in terms of the number of individuals that fell victim to Elizabeth's torture. Torzo himself attributed 80 counts of murder, though rumors suggested that this number was more than 600. The accounts were horrifying, incriminating Elizabeth to unspeakable crimes. These included tales of Elizabeth biting a servant until she died, forcing a servant to cook and eat her own flesh, heating coins to searing temperatures and making her servants hold them in their fists, searing their skin. She deployed torture tactics such as kicking stars.

A technique whereby rolled pieces of oil doused parchment or cloth were shoved between the toes of the toes of, victims and lit on fire. While their feet burned, Elizabeth reveled as they kicked, trying to extinguish the flames. Elizabeth also reportedly hung servants from cages in her dungeon and stabbed at them, showering in their blood. It is from torture techniques such as this, that her moniker, Countess of Blood, or Blood Countess, originated. Story of the continued to circulate after her arrest, becoming wilder and wilder. Some indicating that she bathed in the blood of her victims, seemingly to try to preserve her youth. Perhaps a continuation of the treatment she had received for the seizures of her youth. Others described her as a vampire,

cavorting with witches, using magic, and having sex with the devil himself. Despite the serious allegations leveraged against her, given her societal prominence, Elizabeth was never charged, tried, or convicted. Instead, despite both Elizabeth and Matthias wanting a trial, Torzo thwarted it, convincing the Bathory nobles to petition against it, persuading Matias that it would have done more harm than good. After all, as Torzo argued, Ferenz, a national hero, would be discredited,

along with all of those he served who had done nothing against the accusations and rumors. That included the Crown. Four of her servants, however, were, three of which were immediately sentenced to death. The fourth burned alive after a brief period where they had escaped capture. The servants all denied having taken part in the torture and murder, several of which were themselves tortured to the point of confession. In fact, even the young girl that Torzo found alive but wounded in the castle changed her story as the events unfolded. When first questioned, she claimed that Elizabeth had beaten her, but that another servant had severely injured her,

destroying her right arm. Once questioned, she claimed that the act had been entirely committed by Elizabeth. The girl was then awarded money and a farm for her confession. Understanding the gravity of her situation, in September of 1610, she smartly carved up her vast land holdings and possessions among her children, an arrangement which was fully ratified and signed by that December.

By doing so, she guaranteed that if she was to be found guilty and killed, the lands and holdings could not be surrendered to the crown, but instead were already in the hands of her children. On January 25, 1611, Elizabeth became confined within the castle. She remained there, locked away, for the rest of her life. On August 21st, 1614, she passed away, having been complaining that evening before of cold hands. Various rumors surrounded her burial. Some indicating she was buried in a church in the town of Chocteus He, others that she was interred within the castle itself. Still others insist that the locals did not want her body buried in Choctece for fear of the abominable. rumor is still widely circulating.

Some believe she was taken to the historic Bathory homeland and achieved. But there are no known markings for her grave in any of these locations. Political intrigues surrounded Elizabeth while she was confined in the castle. Some modern scholars have now looked back at the historical accounts with suspicion. Perhaps King Matthias II had conspired against Elizabeth in order to seize her lands and titles. The political motivation is possible, given her extraordinary wealth and vast land holdings. In fact, throughout his life, Varence had loaned large sums of money to the crown, and Matthias had done nothing to repay them.

Upon his death, Elizabeth pressed for repayment, shrewdly reminding the crown that it owed the Bathory clan. If convicted, the entire debt would have been forfeited. an argument to suggest that there could have been at least geopolitical underpinnings to the accusations. But Elizabeth was never convicted. Instead, Torzo helped to orchestrate a way out, saving the family from public embarrassment and disgrace. He convinced the remaining Bathory and Adaz de Nobles to forgive Matisse's debt. They did.

And instead of facing criminal charges, Elizabeth was confined to her windowless, room in her own castle. Further to this, in the early 17th century, religious politics were also a consideration as the Catholic Habsburgs asserted their power over contentious Protestant populations. As Elizabeth was raised a Calvinist and her accusers were Lutheran, it is plausible that the Holy Roman Empire decided to play a game against two of their larger religious foes, hoping to topple Elizabeth to gain influence over the populations within her domain. Additionally, most of the accounts of Elizabeth's atrocities were written decades, and sometimes centuries after her death. The first account was written by a Jesuit scholar, who performed

research by speaking with the locals across the historic Bathory lands. By this time, 100 years had passed. In fact, blended with fiction, so that the accounts became glorified folklore, more fiction than fact. The locals accused her of vampirism, sadism, and heinous crimes, including bathing in a bathtub full of the blood of virgins to preserve her own youth. While these accounts were the result of 100 years of oral history, they were published in his book, and readers believed the stories. The myth grew.

oral history furthering the stories into hedonistic nightmares. It was not until 1817 that the records of Elizabeth's trial were finally published. In these records, there is no mention of bathing in blood. The accounts are, however, deeply incriminating, and suggest that Elizabeth became more violent in situations where she was angry, depressed, and under pressure. Despite their publication, future works in the 19th century largely ignore these primary course materials, and instead continued to latch on to Elizabeth's relation to Transylvania and its vampire tradition, bloodlust and blood bathing.

They added additional elaborate torture devices, such as the Iron Maiden. According to the historical record, all of these later records have little, if any, basis in fact. What the record does show, however, is that Elizabeth was cruel to her servants, and that a mysteriously high number of them died within the castle walls. Furthermore, although torture and bribery seem to have played a role in some of the testimony, the rumors and reputation of both Ferenz and Elizabeth indicate that there must have been some truth

to the horrifying tales. If all of the accounts are true, Elizabeth Bathory is one of the most prolific serial killers in the history of the world. When combined with the 400 years of stories that have been handed down from generation to generation, Elizabeth Bathory's influence in world criminal and popular culture is impossible to deny. Elizabeth has been featured in hundreds of novels, video games, comic books, poetry, plays, television, shows, toys, music, and movies. These works have deepened and crystallized Elizabeth's vampire lore, so that she is now more vampire than 16th century noblewoman. Even Bram Stoker's own great-grand-nephew used Elizabeth as a vampire device in his novel.

While this fictitious vampire version of Elizabeth is entertaining, the actual facts indicate a very different version, but still one that likely engaged in a plethora of very real crimes in a very real castle. Today, Castle Chiquita stands abandoned on a hill overlooking town, a ruined megalith that provided little more than a memory of the atrocities that occurred there 400 years ago. Upon her death, the castle was renovated. However, it was captured by rebels in 1708, fell into disrepair given neglect and economic downturn in the region,

and burned down in 1799. It has remained a demolished ruin ever since, a skeleton of its former glory. For the next 200 years, it became a place of dark solitude, individuals shying away from visiting its ruins giving Elizabeth's history. These centuries contributed to its decay, and it became an apparition itself, a ghostly blight on the hillside. But in the shadows of this once great structure, visitors have witnessed strange and disturbing things. There were reports of strange sounds, movements in the darkness, and legends of the ghosts of Elizabeth's.

victims clamoring to escape from the deep dungeons where they were kept. Some have claimed to see the tortured souls walking the grounds and hillsides, often appearing as the young girls died within the castle walls. Other visitors across history have reported hearing girls' voices deep within the ruined corridors. But most importantly of all, Many visitors have claimed to have seen Elizabeth herself haunting the castle grounds, sometimes described as faceless but content. She flits between the rooms of her castle,

seemingly as happy to torment the souls of those trapped in death as she was in life. There were so many reported sightings that the castle became the location for a ghost hunter's international episode. Castle at Chiquita was converted into a tourist attraction and now a visitor's flock from around the world to learn about Elizabeth to explore the grounds and to hopefully catch a glimpse of a ghostly soul still trapped there while we may never be able to prove that a direct connection exists between the real actions of killers and the supernatural imprint they leave behind

stories such as this have captured the imagination for centuries so that at least in this way their ghosts will live forever. Thank you for tuning in. I'm your host, John Grills. Join us next time as we explore more creepy places.