Halloween Week: The Blood Countess - Elizabeth Bathory

We are down to the final two days of Halloween week with Wicked and Grim. Welcome. My name is Jacko and I will be your master of ceremonies for the remaining two days. We hope you enjoyed last episode as we conversed and dove into the world of the Black Eyed Children. Hopefully it didn't entice any to come visit you, but if they haven't, maybe they will. On All Hallosy today, however, we are talking about something much more sinister then children.

Thanks Jacko again for that awesome introductions.

Jacko is getting some stellar reviews.

He is like, people are fucking loving jack He's going to be missed, I think so. I'm like already a little bit heartbroken knowing that.

He's actually just saying that. My heart going to say, right.

Well, I mean the time with Jacko has been pretty awesome. I'm sure he'll come back next year.

Oh, I'm sure he'll grace our presence again at one point.

I'm sure he will. I don't think we would be allowed to get Jacko's flame snuffed out eternally now by the listeners.

I don't think it could happened. No, I don't think he would allow it.

I don't think so. I am like willing to bet that he would. Yeah, so black Eyed Children, that was that was a ride?

Well, yeah, that intro like, holy shit, holy no one has seen any of them, that little episode. That's a little bit much.

So what have we covered so far? What have we gotten? We got Robert the Dahl nineteen eleven, the baseball game, we got the three epic urban legends, Mary Shelley, Mary Shelley, Yes.

Black Eyed Children? How many is that that we just listed?

Five?

I don't know.

Well, we're moving on today to a crazy story.

It just gets worse and worse here, or better and better, whichever way you want to look at.

Well, it's more entertaining, but it's much more sinister as we go for this one. Like few women's crimes have gone through history as much as those as the Countess Elizabeth Bathory a k a. The Blood Countess, which is who we're talking about today. This is a fucking holy This is a this is a tale. Let me tell you that. Yeah, are you ready for this.

I am.

As you're drinking red wine, I think, well, no.

It's not even red wine. It's actually raspberry cider.

Okay, but it's.

Very I was, and I'm like, sweet, I should have maybe picked a different color.

Well, if you're familiar with this case, you know what we're about to dive into. But even if you are unfamiliar with the with the case and with the name Elizabeth Bathory, the chances are you've actually heard the stories about her legendary sadism period. Perhaps you're aware that she holds maybe the honor of being the world's most prolific female murderer. Oh yeah, as dictated by the Guinness Book

What oh yeah? Really?

Oh yeah?

Oh my goodness.

This sounds intriguing, and some even argue that she is the legendary Bloody Mary herself.

Wow.

Now, Bloody Mary, of course, being the infamous urban legend where you go into a dark bathroom approach the mirror holding a lit candle, chant bloody Mary a number of times, and there in the mirror she will appear covered in blood.

I've tried that before.

Were you successful?

No? And I think I, like fall didn't follow the steps completely right because I actually was like subconsciously not wanting to see the shit.

Well, who would want to see some scary bitch appeared in a mirror covered in blood?

I definitely didn't do it right. Well, I was like a child, and I was like, oh, I'll try this.

It's probably a good thing you didn't do it right because could you imagine if she appeared, Oh, I.

Would have been scarred for life. Yeah, like I think my whole life would probably have changed it. I wouldn't be weird right now.

Well, chances are you might have not have survived that encounter because there's like there's stories of her like viciously attacking or gouging your eyes out and shit like. It's of course the accounts vary, but oh my gosh, yes, sometimes she's nice, sometimes she's mean, Sometimes she's a witch, sometimes she's a zombie. Urban legends they go.

Along the place, right, Okay, I'm pop, this is gonna be a good one.

All right, we'll buckley your seatbelts because this is the tale of the blood Countess. Let's dive in. So Elizabeth Bathory was born on a family estate in Hungary on August seventh, in fifteen sixty.

Hotly, Yeah, it's a long time ago.

She was the daughter of Baron George's fifth Bathory and Baroness and Bathory. She descended from multiple noble lineages, including the King of Poland and the Prince of Transylvania. Like we're talking fucking high up, like fancy dancing motherfuckers here. The said bloodline was actually also a result of generational inbreeding as well, so they kept it within the family, which was not abnormal for that time, like royal with royal, keep the royal bloodline clean, you know sort of thing.

Okay, I kind of snubbed it, but I guess that's a long time ago.

I mean, it's still nasty, but that's just what the time.

Is worse, what happened.

Yeah, So, yeah, her parents were actually closely related, and it's thought that this may have actually been the source of number of health problems that Elizabeth had as a child. She suffered from severe epileptic seizures that led to an array of like pseudo cures that inspired many of the

Okay, what like they would kill people to do this?

Then, yes, and they would take a piece of the skull with their blood and rub it on her lips.

Oh my gosh, in what right mind would you think that would work?

I don't know. This is the fifteen hundreds. It's quite a cracky cure where it's like, I don't know, you got ghosts in your blood? Try cocaine. That's sort of that type of stuff, you know. But wow, So these are speculative stories. We don't know. Or another one is that she was taught at a young age the cruelty that she knew so well by her parents directly and was introduced to witchcraft.

So the family had some things going on, is what you're basically saying. Well, they might not have been the best of people.

They're not. However, these stories. We don't know if they're true. None of these stories can be backed up. What we do we don't know much about her young age. This is just urban legends that have gone on through the age of sort of thing like documentary documentation is extremely hard to come by, So anything that we do know regarding her younger age is strictly theories. Basically.

Well, I've done cases that are from like the early nineteen hundreds and I have found it hard. So yeah, that's like way gone back.

What we do know about her younger years though, that she was raised in luxury and had a level of privilege that was denied to the vast majority of the Hungarians citizens. I was going to say civilizations and citizens at the same time, it just came out civilis. So at the age of ten, Elizabeth was engaged to Phenic nad Dasdy, a nobleman, an heir to one of the

And this was a man, yes.

Well it wasn't a man, it was They weren't that far apart in age. Actually, they married when she was fifteen and he was nineteen, so he's only four years older than her. Yeah, so he would have been fourteen, she would have been ten when they were engaged.

Okay. Could you imagine, though, Hey, like a fourteen year old asking n ten year old to marry them. I don't that's playground.

I don't know if that's like how this would work. I think yeah, it would have more been like your son will marry my daughter. Of course, cheers over this elaborate dinner that we will have for the next ten days, you know, like that sort of shit.

That's fair.

Yeah, that's true. So when they did get married, though, his wedding gift to Elizabeth was his household. Whoa, but it wasn't just it was not just a house. It's not not even just a fucking mansion either, for that matter. It was a fucking castle. A castle.

Well, I feel like I got jipped on the wedding gift department.

Then the same it's castle and I'm gonna probably pronounce this wrong. I had to look up phonetically how to say it. Kachi check, but it's spelt really weird because another language. But castle kuchi check. Which is located on the lower end of Carpathian of the Carpathian Mountains. During their marriage, they conceived at least five children. There's a rumor of a sixth, but only three survived infancy. Okay again, fifteen hundreds weird times. People die all the.

Time, right, Well, yeah, they didn't have like the means of saving people really to the extent we do today.

Anyway, Yeah, Frenick was a part of many Hungarian wars. He had a thirst for blood, and it's often said that on the battlefield he would take the wounded soldiers and impale them onto wooden stakes to watch them writhe and scream in pain while they slowly died, a painful death, much like that of someone who is said to be related to Elizabeth Vlad the Impaler, who was the original inspiration for Dracula.

Oh my gosh, I'm sorry, but like, who on earth would enjoy watching something like that?

Yeah? No, shit, Uh, there's clearly some people.

Oh well, yeah, clearly there are.

Yeah, times have definitely changed, though there still are people. Though there still are some, but I mean out there, I'm sure. Like back at that time, it was like people hanging from the gallows all the time. Yeah, and like the townsfolk would come and watch like it was a pastime activity, you know. Oh, anyways, hangings and imhalings aside.

It also sounds like he's an asshole.

Yeah, but I don't know which one sounds more badass, the Black Night of Hungary or the Blood Countess. Probably the Blood Countess. That's that sounds really fucking dope.

Yeah.

Scariest shit though, so after twenty nine years of marriage, however, So this is a little A little while later, Frennick was stricken with an unknown disease. Maybe it was karma for you know, all the shit he did in the battlefield, or maybe it was just the odds weren't in his favor because disease wasn't exactly a thing that they could cure or take care of in you know, sixteen hundred sort of, yeah, regardless. On the fourth of January sixteen oh four, at the age of forty eight, after twenty

Oh wow, yes, a whole year, the.

Whole year of mourning, yes, which I.

Mean, grant you, it does take that long. But it's just like interesting that they're not supposed to be seen kind of thing.

Well, I'm sure you could be like seen, but like generally you just not doing much, you know.

Well, and you have all the help at home and stuff.

So sure, if you want to go for a stroll in the park or something, I'm sure that's acceptable, but you're not out doing political things or whatever. Like Elizabeth was right, Okay, So, like I said, she's out doing other stuff. Clearly she didn't do this. She in fact, first off, took a trip to Vienna and went on elaborate shopping spree, buying fine clothing and weares for herself as well as her servants.

Yeah, that's honestly one way to mourn. I mean that's a huge distraction.

Yeah, that's true. It's definitely a distraction. You know, fucking makeover man, let's do it.

Yeah.

Yeah, so yeah, that's that's what she did immediately.

Good for her. Really, I don't know, I think that's not I don't know. I don't think that's a terrible thing.

It's definitely a coping mechanism. Whether she was coping or not, that would definitely be a means of it. Yeah. So when she got back, she stayed a public figure. Like I said, she was involved in many political affairs. Her and her late husband were actually owed several debts that she wasn't about to uh you know, forget.

Oh she means business, yeah, this woman.

Yeah. It was about this time, however, that rumors of Elizabeth's thirst for blood began to spread. Word of her capturing young girls and torturing them. But these were just rumors, right were they doubtful are infamous? Dun, dun, dun.

I'm doubting they're just rumors.

Well, given the name or title she has and the Guinness Book of Record thing, yeah, I'm pretty sure you can guess. The rumors kept growing and kept spreading and it eventually began became too much to be ignored. In sixteen ten, King Matthias the Second would assign two individuals to collect evidence on the allegations and rumors made again her. I think this is like interesting because these rumors went on for like, was it like eight years before anything.

Was done about it.

Yeah, and it was six It wasn't even it was like maybe like it was within the year. It was still sixteen oh four when these allegations started spreading. Okay, so her husband died, she went on this trip, she was still doing stuff in the public eye, still within that year, and all this is happening, and then rumors began to spread the same year. And now we're at sixteen ten and they're finally looking into it, actually.

Doing something about it. That's actually yeah, that's a long time it is, I.

Mean fair enough. I understand she's a quite like high wealth and status.

Yeah, that would be almost like a Rocky might not want to turn over.

Yeah, but it's it's still just interesting to me that they let it go for that long, Like, oh, she could potentially be murdering children, Eh, she's rich, you know, children young girls, yes, so like and stuff. Yeah, that's the allegation. Young girls.

Oh geez, okay, not that it would be any better if those older women, but I don't know. Lots of times when they're young, like I mean, they just have their life ahead of them, right, and then it taken away. It's just extra.

Shitty, definitely, because I mean, they didn't get to live really, you know, their potential nothing exactly. So hundreds of testimonies were collected from townspeople, Elizabeth's staff members, and even apparent survivors from her dealings. What they revealed was nothing short of horrifying. Elizabeth was in fact abducting young girls on average, apparently by the age of ten. They were anywhere from

Six geez, oh my gosh. Okay.

Yeah. So she would abduct these young girls and she would hold them up in her property. There the girls would be beaten severely and repeatedly by her. By her, they would be mutilated, and they would be put into freezing temperatures. And they would be left to starve to death. Some girls were allegedly burned again repeatedly with hot tongs and other burning pieces of iron. Others had parts of

Holy crap, that's like some brutal.

Shit she enjoyed inflicting pain.

Wow.

And those are children, yeah, on average between the age of six to fourteen, from what I could find.

Okay, Like I just couldn't imagine just watching, like because that's like a kid, yeah, struggling.

Yeah, and she would sit there, prod them with hot irons and do all this, watch the screaming and crying, and she would, I would assume, just laugh and keep going.

Holy shit, she's a monster. Yeah, Like that is a monster. Yeah, Oh my gosh.

Now there are, of course, the infamous allegations that Elizabeth would collect blood from her victims, and only virgin victims in fact, and that she would bathe in the blood to conserve her youth, you know, like putting moisturize here on your skin sort of thing. Same thing, And to be fair, you can't bathe in blood without also enjoying a nice tall glass of it for good metag.

Oh my gosh, are you serious?

So there is also those allegations. However, however, those two accounts, those stories didn't become part of her lore until she was already dead for over a century. The claim first appeared in print in seventeen twenty nine in the work of a Jesuit scholar by the name of this is can be really fucking hard to pronounce Laslow, but the

Okay, Well, just two really quick things. I just wanted to say that she was because back then, like they were like marrying really young and stuff. So that's why I was just going so young if she wanted them to be virgins or whatever, right, yeap? And then even with that whole thing you had said at the beginning where they were rubbing blood blood on her, she like almost grew up with maybe the taste of blood.

Well, that's where that theory comes in, is that she had this taste for blood. So this story is emerged that for her seizures, this was a treatment which gave her the development of a taste for blood. Yeah, However, there is no proof of that treatment for her seizures. That seems to strictly be legend and lore.

Oh okay.

As well as the consumption of blood. We don't know sure though that the consumption of blood might be plausible, but the bathing and blood there is zero evidence.

I'm really wishing that I brought a different drink choice because now, like every time I go to drink this, I'm just like, oh my gosh, Like does it need to be bright red? Like? Does it need to be?

I think you chose a good one for this.

Oh okay, okay, yeah, Well.

We're going to get into her number here. Her number, her body.

Count, oh boy, do we want to know?

Is said to be at least greater than eighty wow, but upwards of six hundred and fifty.

What yes, holy shit, six hundred and fifty children. Yes, did she like what kind of how many people lived in the town that she lived in?

You're just fucking stammering.

Like, well, I'm just like fla humbergasted. Yeah, you people lived in that fucking town.

I don't know, but now you understand the uh, the how she got her Guinness World records.

Yeah, and now I really don't understand why it took them so fucking long, because that is a lot of people to be going missing, that is.

But I mean, it's not like when people go missing in that day and age. It's not like you go to the police and report it and they write up a report and send it. It's like my kid is missing, Cool, lady, fuck off, we got some farmers we got to go get taxes from.

You don't know that they might have taken it more serious.

I'm sure if it's like peasants and stuff on the street, they don't give a fuck in that d age.

But if in a year's span there's like fucking thirty.

Or one hundred, I'm sure he just ran off. Oh jeez, I'm sure there were some reports, and some reports take it seriously. I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here and say that I'm sure majority of them they didn't give a fuck.

Well, I don't like that answer. I'm sorry, that's a bullshit answer.

I'm sorry. Well, it was on December thirtieth of sixteen ten that Elizabeth was arrested in her home along with four of her servants were who were allegedly a part of Elizabeth's crimes as they helped her carry him out.

Okay, which is kind of shitty for them because they probably didn't even have a.

Choice, probably, although I mean, she went out shopping and bought them a bunch of gifts and stuff and like clothes, and I'm sure they were, like, you know, pretty tight with her too, so maybe they.

Were willing participants.

Yeah, the trial itself was called into question. However, even at this time, like this day and age sort of thing, many witnesses could not actually offer firsthand evidence, but would insist that they heard from a friend of a friend or whoever, that Elizabeth was actually doing these things. Many servants did confess to the heinous crimes of their mistress, but only after long, intense torture.

Sessions, which you have to wonder if you can fully believe that or not.

Yep. Now, given her major social status that put off the investigation for like eight years. It was actually decided that a public trial and execution would have been too scandalous and would have such a severe impact on the Hungarian country, so instead she was put on house arrest.

Oh my gosh, you're kidding.

But house arrests in the sixteen hundreds is not the house arrest you would think of today.

Oh, Okay.

In her house she was bricked up where she had access to only a few rooms and was given a few small holes in the bricks for ventilation and access to food and water.

Oh so it actually is kind of like a jail thing.

Yeah, it's a prison in her own home.

Okay.

So there. She remained in the castle of Kachichek for the rest of her life, and then died in her sleep on August twenty first, sixteen fourteen, only slightly over three years later, at the age of fifty four. Her servants, however, who were involved with her, were not quite so lucky. They were put on trial and subsequently hung for witchcraft.

Wow, but like, they wouldn't probably have even hung her, or did they get hung before she passed, even like she probably wasn't even going to ever be hung.

They thought about it, but they thought, you know, it's just like too high profile and too scandalous, so they house arrest instead.

I don't like that.

But of course the servant's low profile enough. Wow, kill them.

I wonder what she died of.

Yeah, I'm not too sure.

Die peacefully in her sleep. I don't know if it's peacefully with fucking bitch fuck you.

I want to die peacefully one day, not right now, not.

Right now, but like, yeah, that's that would be the.

Way to go, really, mm hmm, just nice and quiet, just off in your own rather than I don't know, having some little black eyed children knock on your front door.

Oh my gosh, they will kill you, remember, okay, Or being strung up in a dungeon at the age of like six and being.

Prodded with hot iron and having your blood drained and eaten alive by ants.

Yeah yeah, no, yeah, oh yeah no for sure, eh yeah no.

So some actually believe that Elizabeth didn't really do any of these things that she's guilty of because there was such a lack of evidence. One theory is that the debts she was owed by many nobles and royalty was too great, and a way to discredit her and the debts and to sweep them under the rug was to chase the false accusations of murder and witchcraft that led to her being imprisoned in her home and all these

That people were just making this shit up to save themselves some money.

Yeah huh. I mean how often, like think back to like Salem witch trials. Someone didn't like someone witchcraft, she's a witch? Burn her?

That's true.

Actually, what's the difference?

Yikes?

So that is the story of the blood Countess.

Well then it's interesting Zizbeth pathy sorry brains still going that they would wait until like her husband almost wasn't the picture to do like this shit potentially too, Like if he was still alive, they wouldn't have probably been doing these things, you know.

Yeah, well very very likely actually, but they would have had to find some other way. They probably holding for him to die in the battlefield even mmmm.

And then this bitch was still collect wanted to collect their debts, and they're like no.

No, no, yeah, or maybe it could have just been that, you know, they weren't calling on the debts, and then when her husband died, she finally said, Okay, pay those debts back, and they're like wait seriously, She's like yeah, and then.

They panic yeah, or and then they're like, here's my young virgin children. You can have them.

Instead, maybe go bathing their blood.

Hate that. Well, I'm gonna go have a nice hot bath. Just kidding.

This is a story. You can go down the rabbit hole too. There's a lot of little bit of information. There's documentaries again, it inspired books, it's inspired movies. There's info galore out there. We only scratch the surface. I thought I thought about maybe not doing this for Halloween and doing a full app on it later.

But it's just too good.

It's too good.

Yeah. So oh no, that was awesome. That's fun.

It was good. Listen, So what do you got for us tomorrow on Halloween?

Oh my gosh.

A're you gonna tell us so you can make us weight and suspense.

I don't know what should I do.

That's up to you. I know what it is, but you do know.

What it is. It's like I don't know. I could say it's I don't even know how it Google. We'll go about doing a hand eat.

Okay, how's this? This is a paranormal case that has inspired several Hollywood blockbusters.

Yes, and it's like at true story. Yes, so I think actually people can guess it by that.

I think I think so. But it's it's good to look forward to a little bit too, and it can keep you guessing. Even if you guess it, you might be wrong.

You never know until you it could drops.

Yeah, but you'll have to find out tomorrow. And where can people find our socials?

Well? Ben, I was gonna say Benjamin. That name, well Ben, Facebook, I say a different order every time, Instagram, Patreon, and we have a website, which is the one I usually forget.

And where are they Wicked and Grim? But where can they find the links? I don't know the description of the podcast? Oh shit, yeah, there you go, ill the links in the show notes, the description down below. And of course you guys, thanks for listening, Thanks tuning in. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Them on all hallows

E yikes, that's exciting, And until then, stay wicked