World's Most Prolific Serial Killer
Friday, November 7, 2008
Believe it or not, a woman is the most prolific serial killer of all time. Erzsébet (Elizabeth) Bathory, a Hungarian countess, is considered to have murdered as many as 650 people during the 54 years she lived. Moreover, precisely how the world's most prolific serial killer took the lives of her victims has proven grisly fodder for storytellers. Bram Stoker is thought to have been inspired by the countess: His Count Dracula is purportedly a hybrid of Wallachian prince Vlad Tepes and Bathory.Elizabeth Bathory, the woman who came to be acknowledged as the "Blood Countess," was born into Hungarian aristocracy in 1560. She is said to have sustained from fits and outbursts of madness -- possibly even epilepsy. From an early age, she found her father's officers torturing the peasantry that lived near her family's estate. Most historical analysis of the countess includes young Elizabeth as witness to a captured thief being sewed into the stomach of a dying horse and left to perish.
Bathory had a penchant for torturing immature girls in particular -- historians posit that she was bisexual person. The acts she perpetrated ranged from driving needles through her servants' lips and fingernails, to leaving her victims naked in the snow, submersing them with water and letting them freeze to death. One servant girl was battered by Bathory and an accomplice for stealing a pear. The clubbing was so bloody that Bathory had to switch her shirt. The girl was beaten for hours and at last stabbed to death with a pair of scissors.
Late in 1610, Elizabeth's cousin carried on a raid on Bathory's castle. Inside, there were already dead victims and some captives, supposedly awaiting death. Bathory's confederates were arrested and put on trial -- she never was. Instead, she was walled into her room, with just adequate space for air and food to pass through. She spent the remaining four years of her life there, until she was found dead on the floor in 1614. Her bloody life, whether amplified or factual, had come to an end -- and Bathory entered the realm of legend.
Posted byParvez Ahmed at 3:17 AM
Labels: crime and criminals, People
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