LADY BATHORY "COUNTESS OF BLOOD"

   Lady Bathory, "Countess of Blood", the first female vampire, may have been the bloodiest of all.  She married into nobility and was the distant cousin of the vampire that started it all in modern time, Vlad Dracula, "Vlad the Impaler".  She lived a life of leisure and peace in her Hungarian castle home.
   That is until, so they say, a servant girl spilled a drop of her own blood upon her while bathing and grooming her.  The countess noticed how the young servants blood made her skin seem rejuvenated and fell in love with its hypnotic effect.
   Soon the countess was luring more and more local females to her mountain perch to be sacrificed to her.  When the local flesh started drying up, the countess started a so-called "finishing school" for daughters of nobility and continued her reign of terror until she was caught in the early 1600's.
   She devised many ways to make this harvest of blood more painful and efficient, she did this by including tools that pulled chunks of flesh from victims that were hoisted high above her bath.  She did this all with the help of her four loyal servants.
   Though there is some confusion on why she killed the girls, it was rumored that they were all killed so that the countess could bathe in their blood.  It was said that the town's people hated her so much that she seldom left the confines of the castle.
   When brought to trial most of her co-conspirators were found guilty and sentenced to death but Elizabeth because of her nobility was allowed to escape the executioner.  She died a couple of years later.  It is rumored that she was allowed to live out her life in the castle with no sunlight or mirrors and it was boarded up with only a small slot where food was placed once a day.
   Tales of the pealing of flesh from live victims and the feasts of blood have added much to folklore, movies and dime novels for centuries, how much if it is true is hard to say.
   Much of this tale is shrouded in folklore and fact, so details are hard to uncover, it is best just to say that the lady was truly depraved.