Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed: Serial Killer, Vampire?

Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed, also known as the Blood Countess was possibly the most prolific of all female murders. Although she was never convicted of any crime, mostly due to her royal status, her collaborators were convicted of torturing and killing 80 girls and young woman and some thought they killed over 600, 650 being the number of murders most connected with her. There were reports at that time of up to 200 bodies found in her castle at the time the authorities stopped her. She is best known for bathing in the blood of her victims in order to stay young. This is how she gets connected with vampires and is often called a better example of a real, historic vampire then Dracula because of this. However, this legend came out centuries after her life, making them unlikely to be true. But, even given that, with hundreds of gruesome deaths on her hands, the title Blood Countess is more then appropriate.