Báthory has been labeled by
Guinness World Records as the most prolific female
murderer,
[2] though the precise number of her victims is debated. Báthory and four collaborators were accused of
torturing and killing hundreds of young girls and women between 1590 and 1610.
[3] The highest number of victims cited during Báthory's trial was 650. However, this number comes from the claim by a servant girl named Susannah that Jakab Szilvássy, Báthory's court official, had seen the figure in one of Báthory's private books. The book was never revealed, and Szilvássy never mentioned it in his testimony.
[4] Despite the evidence against Báthory, her family's importance kept her from facing
execution. She was imprisoned in December 1610 within
Čahtice Castle, in
Upper Hungary (now Slovakia).
The stories of Báthory's
sadistic serial murders are verified by the testimony of more than 300 witnesses and survivors as well as physical evidence and the presence of horribly
mutilated dead, dying and imprisoned girls found at the time of her arrest.
[5] Stories describing Báthory's
vampiric tendencies, such as the tale that she bathed in the blood of virgins to retain her youth, were generally recorded years after her death, and are considered unreliable. Her story quickly became part of national
folklore, and her infamy persists to this day.
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