17. Getting Away With Murder
The exact number of Countess Bathory’s victims is unknown, but some estimates range as high as 650. Rumors of the goings-on at her castle eventually got out, and the Hungarian authorities conducted an investigation. In December of 1610, she and four of her accomplices were arrested. Her accomplices were tried, and three were convicted of murder and sundry crimes and executed.
However, in the 1600s, justice was even more elusive than it is today, and punishment for crimes depended on the culprit’s standing. Elizabeth Bathory was a countess, and her family was one of the most powerful and influential in the realm. Despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt, she never faced trial. Instead, she was quietly sent to a castle in today’s Slovakia, where she was confined to a windowless room until her death, five years later.