Countess of Blood

Another possible person to influence Bram Stoker in the creation of Dracula was Countess Elizabeth Bathory the "Blood Countess."

At a young age Elizabeth was exposed to torture methods and bloodshed. Her father would allow her to witness the beatings of people when his army would capture others. She was known to have violent fits of rage as a child and possibly epilepsy. At the age of 15 she was married. It is said that her husband may have introduced her to new ways of torture that would later cause her wickedness to grow, others have said that her husband had no idea.

The abuse that she caused on others happened mainly when her husband was away from home. She was known to torture young girls for the most part. Driving needles through their lips and fingernails, dousing them with water then throwing them in the snow to freeze and even beating them within an inch of death only to finally stab them with scissors.

 The total number of victims at the hands of Elizabeth Bathory was 650. Many testimonies exist from when her castle was raided and prisoners were found among the mass amount of dead bodies.

It is said that she would bathe in her victims blood because it would keep her skin young and clear. Because of this ritual, she was seen as a vampire even though she never drank the blood.

Towards the end of her life she stayed locked in her room with only a small area for food an water to pass through the door, until she eventually died.

She is another prime example of the origin of Dracula, even though she never actually drank blood. Her targets were young girls and her quest was to ultimately keep herself young for forever. This also seems to tie into the new Snow White movie starring Charlize Theron, whose character sucked the beauty out of young girls to keep her immortality. Interesting how one person can be linked to so many myths and stories.



The information on this page was gathered from http://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/hungarian-countess-serial-killer1.htm