Who Was Countess Elizabeth Báthory? And Was She Really a Serial Killer as Depicted in 'Monster'?

Calling all true crime fans! Netflix’s latest addition of the Monster anthology series is here, bringing to our screens a dramatization of the life of Lizzie Borden, who was accused of murdering her parents with an ax.Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story dropped on Netflix on September 17, and following in the tradition of the previous Monster series, it explores Lizzie's alleged crime and the lead-up that caused her to enact her revenge.For those not familiar with Lizzie's tale, Lizzie Borden was a woman in her early thirties in 1892 when she allegedly brutally killed both her father and stepmom with an ax in their Massachusetts home. While put on trial for their murders, she was not found guilty and went on to live her life until her death at age sixty-six.However, Andrew and Abby Borden's savage deaths have lived on in public imagination, as has Lizzie's status as a killer, despite being found innocent. The Monster series imagines what could have led Lizzie to kill her family. Early on in the series they show Lizzie hearing a story from her maid Bridget about a female serial killer from the sixteenth century—Elizabeth Báthory.But was this Countess actually a murderer? Here's the true story behind the tale.NetflixWho is Elizabeth Báthory in Netflix's Monster? During the first episode of Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, after new maid Bridget (Vicky Krieps) moves into the Borden household, she tells Lizzie (Ella Beattie) the story about a Countess called “Elizabetta Comtesse de Sang” aka the Blood Countess.In these scenes, Elizabetta (played by Krieps) is the richest woman in her kingdom in Transylvania and was obsessed with maintaining her beauty. She would bathe in gallons of cow's milk in order to smooth her complexion.However, she wasn't satisfied with milk and so she invited a group of the town's most beautiful virgins to dinner, feeding them meat in order to make their blood full of iron before killing the women in order to bathe in their blood. It's a story that then inspires Lizzie to bathe in a bath of cherry juice.Who was the real Elizabeth Báthory? Er, so did this Countess really bathe in the blood of virgins? Well, we do know for sure that the Countess existed and lived from 1560–1614.She was born in Transylvania (now part of Romania) to a wealthy family and was exposed to violence at a young age, with one source claiming she watched a public execution at age six. During her childhood she was also said to have suffered from "epileptic seizures, violent mood swings, as well as painful migraines," according to National Geographic.When she was fifteen, she got married to Count Ferenc Nádasdy, lived in western Hungary and the pair had four children.According to reports, Elizabeth’s husband encouraged cruelty to their servants and would set up various tortures for Elizabeth to watch, enjoy and take part in. This continued for years, with the pair indulging in torture, and their notoriety became so widespread that villagers were said to have hidden their daughters.After her husband died in 1604, Elizabeth continued her torture, but also extended her victims to those of the noble class and it was after this that investigations began on behalf of the king into the high number of deaths at her castles.She was later arrested and imprisoned for the murder of eighty women, however, some argued it was closer to 600 but she was never convicted. Instead, she spent her remaining days locked in a prison cell, where she eventually died in 1614.However, some scholars believe the reports of Elizabeth’s crimes are unsubstantiated and in fact were "political slander" by members of her family who were intent on getting their hands on her land and fortune, which they would be able to do if she were imprisoned.As for bathing in the blood of virgins, there is no historical evidence to suggest this happened for certain.Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story is available to stream on Netflix now.