Elizabeth Bathory
Source: The Velvet Rocket
Inspiration for the Countess Dracula and a woman deemed one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, Elizabeth Bathory specialized in the grotesque and purely vile.
Born in 1560, she served as a countess in the Kingdom of Hungary but has since become known for her sadistic crimes. Though the number of her victims is disputed, it is believed that she was responsible for torturing and killing hundreds of girls between 1585 and 1610.
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Her execution methods were incredibly disturbing, as she would torture the girls while naked, forcing them to eat their own flesh, stabbing them with needles and burning parts of the face, genitalia and other bits of their flesh. Bathory would torture them for weeks, and many would starve or else be burned or frozen to death.
It is also widely believed that she would bathe in their blood under the delusion that it would help her retain her youth. She was eventually caught in 1610, but her affluence and power shielded her from any serious consequences. She was simply forced to while away the remainder of her life in a small set of rooms while guards watched over her until her death in 1614.
