Countess Erzsébet Báthory (or Elisabeth Bathory, as she is more widely known) was born around 1560 and went to her ifamous reward in 1614. She was descended from a powerful Hungarian noble family.

Elisabeth Bathory has gone down in the annals of infamy as one of the most prolific serial muderesses in Hungarian and Slovak history. She is remembered as the Bloody Lady of ?achtice, after the castle near Tren?ín, in present-day Slovakia, where she spent most of her life.

After her husband's death, pervasive evidence from as many as 300 witnesses of the Countesse's multiple cruelties came to the attention of Hungarian King Mattias. She and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women. In 1610, she was imprisoned in ?achtice Castle, where she remained until her death three years later. Her nobility allowed her to avoid trial and execution, though three of her four collaborators were put to death.

Following are a few of the atrocities with which she is credited:

* severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death,
* burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia,
* biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other bodily parts
* freezing to death
* starving of victims.

In the 18th and 19th century, folklore about Elisabeth portrayed the countess as bathing in her victim's blood to retain her beauty as the likely motive, because women were not supposed to be capable of sadistic pleasure. These legends gave rise to the association of Elisabeth Bathory with vampire myths.

However, legend pales next to the horrific reality of this infamous woman of history!

— Source: Wikipedia