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That's BlueNile.com. Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Who they were, what they did, and I am your Norwegian host. And tonight, we remain in early Renaissance Hungary. We are not finished with our dear blood countess.
And last week, we left Erzsabet as she was just beginning to find the beauty benefits of bathing in the blood of young girls. Tonight, we continue our sojourn into the madness of the Countess Bathory as we close in on her final days of murder. This episode is, thanks to you, dear listener, 100% sponsored ad-free.
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Feel free to post reviews, comments or questions there. Let us for a moment speed up time, not all the way up to our own postmodern worlds, but about one century after Countess Bathory met her end. We find ourselves in the old stronghold of the Palatine Thurzo, Bytcha Castle in Slovakia.
In the old attic there, with perhaps the cold winter wind blowing hard outside, a bright Jesuit priest named Laszlo Turocci was looking through very old manuscripts and documents. Among the dusty old papers, he found the sealed trial documents relating to the Bathory case. This was perfect material for his book,
called Hungary, a dated compendium with its kings, along with stories he collected from locals living in the villages surrounding Castle Cece. In the priests' era, the 1720s, tales of vampires were sweeping Europe in a proper vampire mania. The villagers near Erzsébet's old Castle Cece
gleefully shared their fascinating legends with the priest about the vampire countess, who had bathed in the blood to look beautiful. The priest's work, and the priest's name was Turochi, was then adapted by Matej Bell in his Encyclopedia on Hungarian History and Geography.
Because Matai Bell was an academic and his work considered credible, the story of the vampire countess went unchallenged. The European fascination with vampires only increased as the years went by.
And in 1796, German writer Michael Wagner continued to spread the blood-bathing legend in his work called Articles on Philosophical Anthropology. He was the one who gave me the story of how Erzsébet had once hit a young maiden girl so hard her blood had splattered on the countess's face.
thus creating an anti-aging treatment for the aging lady wagner's story was brought to the english-speaking world in eighteen fifty four when sabine bering gould wrote the book of werewolves being an account of a terrible superstition
In chapter 9, Natural Causes of Lycanthropy, she credited Wagner for the tale in a section titled A Hungarian Bather in Blood. Here she writes, and I quote, Elizabeth was wont to dress well in order to please her husband, and she spent half the day at her toilet.
on one occasion a lady's maid saw something wrong with her head-dress and as a recompense for observing it received such a severe box on the ears that the blood gushed from her nose and spurted on to her mistress's face
When the blood drops were washed off the face, her skin appeared much more beautiful, whiter, and more transparent on the spots where the blood had been. End quote. What follows has given rise to the blood-bathing legends all the way up until our 21st century. Sabine writes,
Elizabeth formed the resolution to bathe her face and her whole body in human blood, so as to enhance her beauty. Two old women and a certain Fishko assisted her in the undertaking. This monster used to kill the luckless victim, and the old woman caught the blood, in which Elizabeth was wont to bathe at the hour of four in the morning.
After the bath, she appeared more beautiful than ever. As the centuries rolled by, Hungarians themselves loved to embellish stories about the Countess. At the time of her death, locals referred to Elisabeth Bathory as the infamous lady or notorious lady. Two hundred years later,
She had become the Vampire Lady. Does this case of local legends embellishing and creating vampire myths mean that Countess was perhaps innocent or simply misunderstood? No, far from it. The contemporary court documents the Jesuit priest found was quite detailed in their record regarding Lady Bathory's crimes.
One of her servants, who had participated in the torture and murder, explained to the court how Erzsébet had beaten and murdered girls so brutally that it had drenched her clothes in blood. She often had to change her shirt after administering a beating. If her henchman, Dorka Schentzes, beat girls, Erzsébet stood alongside and ordered girls to be stripped, thrown to the ground and lashed.
or beaten so hard that a person could scoop up their blood by the handful. Trial testimony does show one thing. While the countess did cause the girls to lose massive amounts of blood, she herself cared very little for the red stuff, other than making sure not walking around covered in it.
To be precise, if the purpose of killing those young girls was to deliberately collect enough blood so as to bathe in it, she would have had made sure to collect the blood in enough quantities to bathe in it. Given the cubic volume of a normal bathtub, this would have required all the blood of nearly 30 victims for one bath.
According to the accomplice Ilona Jo, however, Erzsébet threw off her blood-sodden clothing, let blood wastefully sop into beds, and even ordered it washed off the stone pavements and floors. This is hardly the actions of someone who is deliberately collecting precious virgin blood to bathe in.
No contemporary witnesses describe anyone collecting the massive amounts of blood that had to be cleaned off Erzsébet's castle's stone floors. The vampire part of the legend does have a contemporary beginning though. Witnesses did testify at her trial that Erzsébet in a red rage bit her victims.
Elona Jo stated that the countess bit out pieces of flesh from the girls, but she also attacked them with knives. Dorca corroborates this story and added that Bathory bit out pieces of flesh from the young girls' faces. This might indicate that although the countess did not use the young girls' blood to look younger,
She was perhaps very jealous of their youthful beauty and might have wanted to destroy it. Witnesses also testified as to how Archibald shoved needles under the girls' fingernails before cutting off the fingers of those girls who desperately tried to remove the needles. If you, dear listener, have ever torn a nail or had a splinter lodged under your nail—
You know just how painful the smallest wound at the fingertips can cause. So imagine having several long needles purposefully forced under your nails and left there for several hours. The countess was obviously sadistic.
and even showed psychopathic tendencies. But no witnesses at her time has given us any reason to think she was any sort of vampire. So, let us return to the 17th century and the fragile peace now reigning in the Holy Roman Empire. The rumors and stories of Elizabeth Bathory has reached more and more people, and eventually the crown—
For a long time, her late husband Ferenc's excellent reputation and finances served as a shield against anyone who thought to challenge her. But now that her finances were in dire straits, and her husband was dead, she held no strings over the emperor, crown, or church.
Worse, her royal debtors knew that with her out of the way, they would not have to repay their enormous loans to her. Indeed, Erzsébet began to refer to herself now as the Nadasti Relic. But although the net was closing in all around her, she continued to play the part of the Grand Dame. Outwardly, she carried herself with confidence. But inside—
She was suffering a mental breakdown. Once she was behind closed doors, she did not care what happened to her, unless her carnal desires completely take over. She indulged herself in any way she could, and if anyone annoyed her or stood up to her, she lashed out in murderous rage. It is hard to comprehend, especially considering her extensive crimes,
But Countess Bathory was a very religious person. She was well versed in Calvinism, Catholicism, and Lutheranism, the latter being what her children were brought up as. She stuck to her childhood faith of Calvinism, and took it to heart. For a Calvinist, not everyone would go to heaven, even if they had followed the teachings of Christ. Only the preordained, elect, or chosen would pass through the gates of heaven.
and no amount of prayer, fasting, good deeds, confession, or otherwise, could change that fate. It is thus entirely possible that Elisabeth had come to a conclusion that she was not one of those elect few, and thus, why bother engaging in any further pretenses? If she was destined for hell, then she might as well do as she pleased in life.
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That's BlueNile.com. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. As a family man with three kids, I know firsthand how extremely difficult it is to make time for self-care. But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh. For others, it might be an eating night.
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Visit BetterHelp.com slash SerialKiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash SerialKiller. With the exception of winter months spent at Sarvar, the Countess established her new permanent residence at Cheche.
With her moving in, a reign of terror thus began for the inhabitants of the nearby villages of Ujeli, Verbo and Trencin. In addition to rumors of torture and murder, talk of witchcraft began to surface as well. Cecil lies in the Carpathian Mountains, in what is today western Slovakia, near Trenceni, Trencin. In those days, however, it was part of Hungary.
Cheche Castle was surrounded by a village and farmland bordered by the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains. Ottoman Turks plundered the village in 1599 and in 1605, as we talked about last time, and in 1606 a flood washed away bridges and homes. But by 1609 the region was quiet once again.
The court at Tietje was much smaller and less distinguished than that of Sarvar. Approximately twenty-five people cared for the surrounding fields and vineyards, and according to records, the agriculture was organized and run exceptionally well. The countess had brought with her only the best people from Sarvar, and records give us their names. They are
Courtmaster Benedek Deseo, Assistant Manager Michael Horvath and Janos Andashi, Stablemaster Daniel Vaz, Provisor Michael Hervoit, Cellarmaster Macias Sakathjarto and Steward Jacob Shilvazi. Istvan Vagi also assisted the main staff, as did Bathisar Pobi.
The countess also maintained her own small personal retinue of accomplices. Anna Darvoglia, Dorothea Sentes, Ilona Joe, and Katalin Beneski. Janos Uzhvari supervised the ladies' staff of kitchen workers, seamstresses, maids, waterwomen, and female attendants.
For the local families, raising their daughters to hold a position as a court seamstress, maid or household assistant was a great honor. Each applicant had to be personally recommended for her skill. Sadly, most of those who were tortured and murdered at Cheche would be taken from this female staff.
Sometime around 1609, Anna Darvoglia would suffer a blinding stroke that ultimately proved fatal. A year later, the remaining four would all be brought in in chains to Bitsha, to defend themselves on the criminal charges of torture and murder. As we started our tale a few weeks back...
We know that the Countess herself was left in Chece in house arrest, awaiting her own fate. The justice system of Hungary in 1610 was usually not comparable to today's modern courtroom proceedings, with its constitutional rights principles of innocent until proven guilty and having to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
And for the common folk, justice was usually swift and brutal, ending with a short dance hanging from a gallows. But for someone as powerful, noble, and famous as Archibald Bathory, it was important for the crown to spare no expense. The authorities took three hundred and six depositions during the proceedings against the countess,
but only eight people had access to actually witness her private torturing sessions. These were the following. Among this gang of accomplices, Benedict is particularly interesting.
He is one of eleven men who witnessed and signed her will in 1610. Janus Fischko claimed under oath that Benedek, in fact, knew the most of anyone regarding what went on behind closed doors, though he never spoke of it to anyone. Years later, because this trial would indeed take several years, Benedek was called to testify.
On the witness stand, he admitted what he knew, and it likely shocked the court. Before we end tonight's episode, I would like to read to you this statement. It goes as follows. Having entered the lady's private chamber to report on castle business, I was somewhat startled to see the countess with one of her young maids in hand. I knew the girl, a child named Ilonka.
who was the daughter of the local shoemaker. The child was crying, evidently terrified. Somewhat embarrassed, I immediately turned back toward the door, when the countess called out to me. "'Don't leave us, Benedict. I want you to watch this.' I stopped and turned back around slowly. "'This girl,' the countess said testily, "'needs a lesson in discipline.'
The lady suddenly began tearing the clothing from the girl until she was stripped completely naked. Screaming now, the child huddled on her knees, begging and crying, while the countess retrieved a dagger. "'She is so clumsy with her hands,' the countess went on. "'She can't do anything right at all.' The lady grabbed first the right hand of the girl,
and then stuck the blade into each of the fingers one at a time she can't seem to use her fingers properly as the girl continued screaming and crying the countess grabbed her other hand
and again began stabbing each finger in turn maybe this will help loosen your fingers dear the girl fell to the floor clutching her bleeding hands as the countess slowly swirled around her i found myself inching back towards the door the countess mused
"'Maybe it's not your fingers, after all, is it, dear? Maybe it's your arms.' She appeared to study the sobbing girl for a moment, and then suddenly reached out and grabbed the child's right arm. She began plunging the knife repeatedly straight up the arm. Blood pooled around each wound as the girl struggled to get away.
The countess grabbed her hair, jerking her head back, and then began knifing her way up the other arm. Huddled on the floor now, the girl struggled to rise on her bleeding hands. "'Maybe it's not your arms after all,' the countess mused. Again pretending to study her, she then went and secured a long crop.
She stood over the girl for a moment and suddenly began lashing her violently and repeatedly on the back. "'Maybe the problem is right here!' she screamed. "'On the back of the lazy, good-for-nothing little whore that you are!' Each time the girl tried to crawl away, the terrible pain in her arms and hands caused her to stumble forward."
The countess grabbed her by the hair and began thrashing her again, this time on her legs, thighs, belly and breasts, wherever the crop happened to land in the bloody assault. She also leveled the blows directly into the wounds of the girl's arms and hands, causing her to scream until she lost her voice. Blood and chunks of flesh splattered the floor and walls.
Hair disheveled, eyes flashing white behind black pupils. The countess went and retrieved a burning candle next. The girl was lying on the floor moaning now, and on the verge of passing out. "'Don't give up the ghost yet, dear,' she said. "'We are not done with you.'
The countess pressed the flaming candle directly into the girl's hands, causing her to revive momentarily in a new wave of screams. When the child's eyes rolled back in her head, the countess held the flame to the hands again until they were burned black. I watched the torturing continue in this manner until the girl finally died." End quote.
I don't know.
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The story of Erzsébet Bathory is going to run every week until its conclusion. I really hope you enjoy it. It has taken quite a bit of research to find all the dates, names and details from this fascinating time in history. Next week we continue, and then we will see how the justice system prosecuted the Blood Countess, as well as even further details into her madness and crimes. So...
As they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. I have been your host, Thomas Weyborg Thun, and this podcast would not be possible if it had not been for my dear patrons who pledge their hard-earned money every month. There are especially a few of those patrons I would like to thank in person. These patrons are Sandy Maud Amber Anne Charlotte Christina
Claudette, Evan, Jennifer, Joe, Lisbeth, Mickey, Philip, PJ, Sarah, and Troy. You guys really helped produce this show, and you have my deepest gratitude. Thank you. As always, I thank you, dear listener, for listening. Please, feel free to leave a review on your favorite podcast app, my Facebook page, or
at facebook.com slash theskpodcast or reddit and please do subscribe to the show if you enjoy it thank you good night and good luck
