The Blood Countess of Cachtice: Elizabeth Báthory — Monster, Myth, or Misogyny?

Hey hey, my lore-loving fiends — tonight we’re heading back to 16th-century Hungary, where leeches were skincare, torture was trending, and one noblewoman’s beauty routine allegedly involved… her staff.

Elizabeth Báthory — better known as The Blood Countess — has been called history’s most prolific female serial killer, accused of torturing and murdering hundreds of girls to preserve her youth. But how much of it is true… and how much was cooked up by jealous nobles, political rivals, and a patriarchal empire that didn’t love a woman with her own money and opinions?

In this full-bodied (and occasionally blood-soaked) deep dive, we unravel the legend — from her aristocratic upbringing and dark castle years, to the sensational trial that never was, and the centuries of myth-making that turned her into the world’s most infamous vampire countess.

Was she a monster? A myth? Or just a woman whose story bled out of control?
 Pour a glass of red — preferably cabernet, not chambermaid — and join host Dayna Pereira for a hilarious, horrifying, and historically accurate descent into the legend of Elizabeth Báthory.

Primary Sources:
• The Trial of Erzsébet Báthory (Hungarian State Archives, 1611)
• Letters of György Thurzó to King Matthias II (1610–1611)
• Jesuit tracts: Tragoediae Epistolae de Crudelissima Bathoryana (1729)

Secondary Sources:
 • McNally, Raymond T. — Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania (McGraw-Hill, 1983)
• Craft, Kimberly L. — Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (2009)
• Penrose, Valentine — The Bloody Countess (Creation Books, 1996)
• Nagy, László — A History of Hungary (Corvina, 1998)

Pop Culture & Media:
 • Countess Dracula (Hammer Films, 1971)
• The Countess (Julie Delpy, 2009)
• American Horror Story: Hotel (FX, 2015)
• Castlevania (Konami Series)