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Welcome to the Serial Killer Podcast, the podcast dedicated to serial killers, who they were, what they did, and how. I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Weyborg Thun. The first welcome you heard was my idol, Orson Welles, in his excellent performance in the film Macbeth. I found it rather apt.
We are nearing the end of our stay in early 16th century Hungary. The walls around our blood countess are closing in on her, and she grows ever more desperate. But we are not finished with our dear Lady Bathory. 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. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, the castle Chechi looming over you and your traveling companion. You're sitting on horseback with two other men. The nobleman, Janos Belashki, and his friend, Martin Shanadi, Janos' sister,
had not too long ago been admitted to Countess Bathory's Gynosaeum for young girls of noble birth. But, since entering Aershebet's supposed school of etiquette, the young girl had given no word of her stay there. The castle, silhouetted against the grey sky, is very impressive.
It has a large central tower, where you can see the yellow light of perhaps a fireplace. The castle is situated on a top of a peak above the local village, and the stone walls rise up from the mountain rock, as though part of the mountain itself.
The road you're on is narrow and winding like a snake, up the mountainside towards the heavy iron gate in the foundation wall. You are allowed entry by one of the castle's unhappy servants, and are greeted by a very grumpy countess. Janos demands to see his sister at once.
But the lady refuses. The girl is tired from studying and chores, and simply cannot be disturbed, she states. However, Janosch is relentless, and your party is told to wait in the courtyard. It's cold, and it's miserable. There aren't many people to see. Most of the windows and doors are shuttered, and the few servants you do see scatter like rats.'
After over an hour, the girl is finally brought out. She is a shadow of her former beautiful self. She can hardly walk and hold out her bruised and scabbed arms for her dear brother, who catches his beloved little sister. She cries miserably in his arms, but is soon left behind.
Later, at the trial of the Countess, Martin Shanadi recounts that after they had left, the poor girl was tortured to death. It is quite odd that the men would leave the poor girl alone in such a state, but probably the Countess managed to convince the men that girl was simply weak and needed discipline.
It is also quite possible that monetary reasons doomed the young girl. Noblewoman Anna Zaleshchay also testified that her daughter, Zhushka, had been given to the court where she had been so badly beaten and tortured that the flesh literally fell from her bones before she died. How she knew this
is not discussed in her deposition, nor whether she did anything to attempt a rescue. Nobles Melchior and Paul Nagivathi testify that their sister had been entrusted and passed on to the Gynosaeum. The brothers made extensive inquiries regarding her, but learned only later that she had died there.
Nobleman Gaspar J. de Béjaille lost his sister Anna for Georgios Kukunsky, Benedict Barbel and Dorothea Jezhernitsky. It was a daughter. Michael Hervoit, provisor of Setche Castle, said that one could hear every day the sounds of beatings being heard from her gyneceum.
including the crying and lamenting of the beaten girls. The fact that they were beaten more and more often, and that they could be heard crying, changed nothing. The Castellan at Cheche, Michael Horvath, stated that he knew of seven girls who had died at the gynoceum, and that they had been buried in the little garden behind the courtyard at Cheche.
Unfortunately, the bodies were not buried deeply enough. Dogs promptly dug up the corpses and carried body parts around the yard. Even the relatives of faithful servants were not exempt from a fate of torture and death. Janos Deseo, castellan of Castle Karestur, testified that his niece, Kata Berenyi, had been accepted at the countess's court.
Rumors quickly circulated, however, that the girl was being beaten severely. He went first to one of Archibet's accomplices, asking to see his niece and perhaps give her a little money. The following is an account of what happened. The old woman told him, "'If you value your head, you should not dare to try this without the knowledge of her grace.'
De Seo next learned that the countess was planning an extended trip to Cheche. She intended to take his niece with her for an unknown period of time, and he wished to intercept the traveling party before they left. As the horses were being fixed to the carriages, he met up with the countess. "'Your Grace,' he said, bowing to her,
"'Might I please see my niece before you take your leave? I hear you are going to take her along to Cheche, and no one knows when I might be able to see her again.' He added breathlessly. "'I also want to give her some money.' Avoiding eye contact, the lady replied evenly, "'You definitely cannot speak with her now. But if you want to see her, you can see her when she climbs into the carriage.'
She then hurried to her coach. At this point only two horses had been hitched, yet the countess still ascended the carriage, believing the entire team to be ready. Meanwhile, De Seo caught sight of his niece. She was freezing and in tears, and seeing her in this condition brought him to tears as well.
He ran back after the countess. "'Merciful lady,' he begged, "'please, do not take my niece with you. I implore you, in the name of God, not by me alone, but on behalf of all my relatives.' The countess pretended not to hear. Deseo persisted, "'We indeed see that she does not know how to serve the will of your grace.'
Ershabert turned to him now, furious. "'I certainly will not give her back, because she has already escaped from me three times. All the more will I kill her!' She cried to the coachman to hurry on now, while Janos Deseo grabbed onto the coach, weeping and begging. The horses secured, the coach lurched forward. Deseo recounted that his niece never returned.'
and that she was later beaten to death. By this time, the Countess was simply no longer caring what happened to her. So far, no one had any real evidence, and no proper investigation had been launched. It was an open secret that the Countess was torturing and killing her maiden servants, but it was still deemed rumors and not fact. However,
Since Bathory had moved on to torturing and killing young girls of noble blood, things quickly changed. The maids were now appearing in public with bandaged hands, welts, black and blue marks on their faces, and burn scars. And efforts to keep the beatings a complete secret were also failing. For example,
When the countess went to Trenschen in early 1610, Georgi Pellio, a young man from town, watched as one of the girls was bound and then violently beaten and lashed near the river. The girl was then forced into icy water, in her clothes, and not permitted to remove them when taken out. Another local, Georgios Habedak,
testified under oath that he had seen girls shackled by the creek, who were cruelly shattered and covered in bleeding wounds. Witness Mikhail Peblishki said that in the autumn of 1610, when the countess came to Sece, he saw two ladies from her entourage with bruises and black and blue marks, and their faces scratched as if by nails.
Another local man, Martin Gonda, said that he himself often saw virgins with swollen faces and hands covered with blue patches. Andreas Zomogi, a city official in Uzhely, observed two girls whose hands were so badly burned that they needed help ascending into their carriage, and Judge Tomasz Jaworka,
had frequently seen the faces of the virgins in her retinue, disfigured and covered with blue spots from numerous blows. When craftsman Adam Pollio was called to the castle to do a job, he actually witnessed a naked girl with her feet shackled to a table.
Perhaps the worst slip occurred when a tortured servant girl managed to escape and make her way back to town with a knife still buried in her foot. The most powerful designer drugs are the digital ones we use daily, and we get high off them when touch, tap, like, scroll at a time.
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Get your personalized plan today at Noom.com. Real Noom user compensated to provide their story. In four weeks, the typical Noom user can expect to lose one to two pounds per week. Individual results may vary. 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. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it.
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Janosz Palenik saw for himself the bodies of the girls who died during the wedding celebration of Katalin and Georgi Homonai, covered with horrible wounds, their faces crushed, burned, and full of blue spots. The sexton at the church in Kosztulany, Georgi Mladys, added that they were disfigured, shattered, and covered with stains.
and his assistant, Mikhail Palanyuk, testified to the same. Even the household staff was now seeing direct evidence of these crimes. Sarvar's servant, Ferenc Torok, testified to seeing girls with their arms tied up such that their hands were blue and blood came from their fingers.
The knight Ferenc Bornemige said that once, as he arrived into the house of the lady, he witnessed girls with their hands bound, wrapped with rain-straps and hanging from the iron lattice at the window by their hair. Details of how the noble girls were being tortured also soon became public knowledge. But what was perhaps most shocking—
were allegations of exactly how these girls were being tortured and killed.
washed with and made to roll on the floor in nettles, pins stuck into their lips and under the fingernails, needles jabbed into their shoulders and arms, floggings on the breasts while held in chains, their hands, arms and abdomens scorched with burning irons, chunks of skin drenched from their backs with pliers, no
noses lips tongues and fingers pierced with needles mouths forced shut with clamps flesh cut out from the buttocks and from between the shoulders then cooked and served to them
Flesh and private parts singed with candles, knives plunged into arms and feet, hands crushed and maimed, fingers cut off with scissors and shears, red-hot pokers shoved up vaginas, bodies beaten to death with cudgels, lashings until flesh fell from the bones, and girls made to stand naked in the winter cold, doused with water.
or submerged up to the neck in icy rivers. In a matter of weeks, in fact, the entire gynoceum had been wiped. Instead of using her usual excuse of a cholera epidemic, commentators say that this time, Ershibeth concocted an elaborate explanation. According to the lady, one of the girls had murdered all the rest because of her greed for their jewelry.
When servants discovered what she had done, the child committed suicide. This time, the countess had simply gone too far. Nearly a dozen complaints from the families flooded both the palatines and king's courts, specifically accusing the countess of torturing and murdering young girls from the Hungarian aristocracy.
When news reached the king that noble girls had been murdered, he finally had what he needed to seek a criminal conviction. Like other clergymen in his situation, the elderly pastor at Cecce, ninety-year-old Reverend Andras Barotius, was concerned over the countess's bizarre and repeated requests for burials. When his questions went unanswered,
He began to keep a detailed record of the bodies, and this document eventually made its way into the hands of both Palatine and King. Erzsébet had dealt with this type of situation before, at Sarvar, under Pastor Magyari. In those days, however, Ferenc Nadasti was there to protect her.
Whether through charm, reputation, or simple bribery, the Count had always managed to extricate himself and his wife from harm. Appeasing the clergy every time, questions arose over mysterious deaths. Now, however, the Countess was on her own, and this time the clergy was beginning to speak out, stand up,
to her, wherever the killings were taking place. And so it is that we find ourselves in the year 1610. It began with a wedding. Ershabed's daughter, Catelyn, was set to marry Lord Georgi Drugueth de Homonai on January the 6th. The wedding was to be held at Chechikassou, and Countess Bathory planned a lavish event.
Despite the political intrigue beginning to swirl around her like a hurricane of vengeance and justice, the Countess temporarily put all of it out of mind. Catelyn was the youngest and supposedly favorite child of Archibet, and she had participated in her mother's torturing sessions on several occasions. The soon-to-be Countess of Homini—
was spending time with Erzsbet at Cheche, just before her wedding day. And what better way to celebrate a wedding than by sexual torture and murder? Both Katalin and the lady were reputed to have tortured and burned two servant girls in their chamber the night before Katalin's wedding. The girls had been burned,
and Erzsbet had again put a red-hot iron fireplace poker into their vaginas. The two girls later died while the wedding festivities were going on, and numerous servants and townspeople were aware of how their bodies were taken away to Kostolany for what was supposed to be a secret burial.
The church sextant at Costolani, as well as two gravediggers, testified under oath that the bodies were also covered in welts, and their faces were mangled. The witnesses to these murders were no mere peasants, but clergy and nobility, and Erzsébet had finally gone too far. The first legal steps taken against the countess began in February,
On the 5th of March, Georgi Thurzo dispatched two letters, one to Chief Notary Andras of Kereshtur, and the other to Deputy Notary and Judge Moses Zhiraki. Thurzo stated,
You know how, both in the past and present time, several serious complaints have come to us regarding the noble Lady Archibald Bathory.
namely, that she, through some sort of evil spirit, has set aside her reverence for God and man, and has killed in cruel and various ways many girls and virgins and other women who lived in her gynoceum."
By June, with the proceedings well underway and evidence piling up against their mother-in-law, Counts Miklosz Zrinyi and Georgi Drugeth de Homonai met with Georgi Thurzo for a round of secret negotiations. Oh, they wanted to know. Could they keep this scandal from getting out of control? Thurzo was already contemplating a plan.
and asked the younger men if he could count on their loyalty. They agreed. Around this time, the Countess was likely receiving word that a formal inquest or even trial against her was only months away. She might also have received word that her sons-in-law were actively conspiring with Thurzo.
On the 3rd of September, 1610, she wrote her last will and testament, declaring that all of her assets pass equally to her three children, son Paul, and daughters Anna and Carta.
Meanwhile, she also began corresponding with her younger cousin, Gabor Bathory, voivode of Transylvania, regarding the legal status of her holdings, and, possibly, a political alliance with him, one month later.
She returned to Sarvar, where she collected most of her jewelry and other personal valuables, and then ordered it all sent to Tsetse Castle, officially establishing Tsetse as her new court. She likely knew the walls were closing in on her.
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As dawn broke over the seven seas, the pirates of the Crimson Galleon set sail for adventure. But there was one problem. Paperwork. Mountains of it. Filing, invoices, you name it. This work ain't fit for a pirate. Luckily, their captain had an idea. She used the smart buying tools on Amazon Business so they could work more efficiently and get back to doing what they do best. I know, right? Amazon Business. Your partner for smart business buying.
And so we come to this evening's conclusion. Next week I will tell you about how the blood counters met her end in the final episode of this series. 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 my 16 most loyal patrons. They have contributed for at least the last 13 episodes and their names are Sandy,
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 at facebook.com slash the SK podcast or Reddit. And please do subscribe to the show if you enjoy it. Thank good night and good luck.