This is the short story about Elizabeth Bathory taken from Wikipedia. I have a book about her but it would take me ages to translate the best parts in English, so here is little something I find on the web.

Countess Erzsébet Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová (-Nádasdy in Slovak, Elżbieta Batory in Polish,august 7?,1560 – august 21, 1614), the Bloody Lady of Čachtice (Csejte), was a hungarian countess who lived in the Čachtice castle near Trenčin (Trencsén), in Royal Hungary, in present-day Slovakia, relative of king of Poland and prince of Transylvania, Stefan Bathory.

She is considered the most infamous serial killer in Hungarian and Slovak history. She spent most of her life at the Čachtice Castle. After her husband's death, she and her four alleged collaborators were accused of torturing and killing dozens of girls and young women. In 1611, she was imprisoned in Čachtice Castle, where she remained until her death three years later. Her nobility allowed her to avoid trial and execution. Three of her four alleged collaborators were put to death.

It is believed that Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed an unknown number of young women, though it is often cited as being in the hundreds, between the years 1585 and 1610. Although her husband and her relatives knew about her sadistic inclination, they did not directly intervene. After her husband's death any restraints he may have imposed on her (or she on herself) seemed completely removed. It should be noted that besides supporting Giorgio Basta's marauding in Transylvania, the Habsburg King also refused to pay her the debt he had owed her fallen husband, this may have caused a change in her already violent character.

Her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to Čachtice by offers of well-paid work as maids in the castle. Later she may have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her castle by their parents to learn high society etiquette by the opportunity to attend a sort of 'finishing school'. Abductions seem to have occurred as well.

Testimonies collected in 1610 and 1611 contain a total of over 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four persons indicted, as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Eye-witnesses include the castellan and other personnel of Báthory's Sarvar castle.

Some witnesses named relatives that died while in Báthory's gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations.

The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described most consistently included:

• 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.

Biting and the use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.

In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Báthory with young girls. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force.

One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Báthory herself. This book was never mentioned anywhere else, nor was it ever discovered. However, this number became part of the legend surrounding Báthory.

The estimated number of victims differs greatly. Szentes and Fičkó reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Sárvár castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 and 200.

Emperor Matthias II urged Thurzó to bring Báthory herself to trial. The same two notaries were sent to collect further witness accounts. Letters exchanged between the Emperor and his Palatine from 1611 to 1613 suggest that Thurzó was not keen to advance the case against Báthory herself, and she was never brought to court.

On August 21, 1614 Báthory died in her castle. She was buried in the church of Čachtice.

The emergence of the bloodbath myth coincided with the vampire scares that haunted Europe in the early 18th century, reaching even into educated and scientific circles. The strong connection between the bloodbath myth and vampire myth was not made until the 1970s. The first connections were made to promote works of fiction by linking them to the already commercially successful Dracula story.

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