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I have been listening to the Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club, which actually Elena recommended to me.
She did not listen to it, but she said, girl, this title sounds so you.
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Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid.
The full-length edition. Full. Length. And it's just making that face again and it's freaking me out.
It's cute. So we don't have a whole lot of business to get to this time around, even though it's been a minute.
I know, it has been a minute. It's been a minute.
And Ash is here. She's alive, everybody.
I'm in one piece. And you are all so sweet.
Guys, seriously, thank you so much for all your messages and your kind words.
You guys are the best. You really are. I was like, oh my God, there's a lot of people that care about my well-being.
I knew it too. I was like, I know our weirdos will just surround you with love.
And weirdness. I'm fine. No major injotties.
She's alive. She's breathing, so that's good.
She's in one piece. But she had some well-needed rest before we recorded again.
Rest and relaxation. Because we wanted to be 100% for you.
I wanted to be a thousand percent. Whoa.
Over fucking achiever. Here I am. Over here.
Here I am. Besides that... The only thing that really happened this week that was crazy is, and everybody has been messaging us about it because they know how much it pissed us off, is the Chris Watts thing.
I read most of it, and then I had to stop.
I didn't read it. Because it is... one of the worst things i've ever read i don't know if i could ever read it i also think he's full of shit yeah and i think that he's telling a different narrative Because, I mean, just starting off with him straddling his pregnant wife and, like, them talking for a while, like...
No, like that didn't happen. Like when you're pregnant, you're like, no.
She also wasn't lying on her back. I doubt that.
No, because you know what? Here's a fact, a little science fact for you.
When you are pregnant, laying on your back, compresses your thoracic aorta.
Thoracic. Or excuse me, your abdominal aorta.
Abdominal. Abdominal. And when you compress your abdominal...
It makes you nauseous. Nausea. Nausea. So no pregnant woman. laying on her back for any length of time if she doesn't have to because even when you get like ultrasounds done and stuff you can get nauseous just by laying on your back for that long and then you barf on the ultrasound so that already was bullshit.
And then he had to add in this whole big thing about his poor little daughter's last words to him and shit.
Which I'm like, you're, and then he's like, I just, and he's trying to put it on his wife for saying that you'll never see the kids again.
Okay, well, first of all, a lot of divorced people have heard those words before, and they don't murder their spouse.
And also, if you were so upset about not seeing your kids again, how come you murdered them, asshole?
Like, what? That doesn't make any sense.
Like, you're just a vicious murderer who wanted to start a new life with your mistress.
That's all it was. How do you first of all- Like just come forward and say it.
How do you first of all kill your wife? Like that, I can't wrap my head around.
But how do you murder your children? You created them.
That's half of you. You created these human beings.
I don't get that. These human beings look to you for everything.
Everything. And they trust you implicitly. it just like that thing blew my mind so did he ever i i know there's no reasonable explanation whatsoever But in that confession, did he say why he killed the kids?
Like, did anybody ask him that? No, he just said he snapped.
He doesn't understand why he did it. So basically, he's totally... removing responsibility from himself.
And he's going to say that he just snapped and he was in a blackout state.
But somehow he remembers every horrible detail of it.
Interesting. Weird how that can happen. Cool.
So literally, Chris Watts, burn in hell.
And besides that... I'm sure where I know a lot of people have been asking about the Colorado mom, Kelsey Barrett.
For updates on that, I think we might do maybe a mini episode on that because a lot has come out.
So I'm not going to touch upon it now because...
People get mad when we talk before the case.
So I'll cut it now and we'll just go into the case and you'll get that in a mini episode.
So yeah, so let's just get into this is going to be a big episode, guys.
Hopefully we can get through it in an appropriate amount of time.
Also, let's just apologize ahead for any mispronounced words.
Yeah, there's a lot of Hungarian stuff in here.
And I myself am not Hungarian. Nor am I. Ash is not either.
We're related. We're very American. So I am doing my best.
I know I have a couple of them correct. but there's going to be a lot that are incorrect.
And if we have any Hungarian listeners or people who just know more about Hungarian language than I do, Feel free to tell me.
I always appreciate when people tell me what, you know, the things I've pronounced wrong because I really do appreciate it because I learn things.
So today's episode, today's very Hungarian episode is brought to you by Elizabeth Boutry.
She's a murderer. Now I know some people might be saying, Elizabeth Boutry?
Who's that? It's Elizabeth Bathory. I thought her last name was pronounced Bathory, and I'm sure a lot of other people do.
But thanks to Aaron Manke. Of lore. Yeah.
He taught me. Not me, like, by my... No, he literally called me.
He didn't give me, like, a private lesson about this.
It was like... But on his podcast, I learned that it is actually pronounced Boutry.
Bautry, which is interesting because Hungarian language, you kind of like say the two parts of Bathory separately.
That's how you get Bautry. Oh, Boutry. Yeah.
Cool. So it's interesting. So Elizabeth Boutry, also known as the Blood Countess.
The original Dracula and the Bloody Lady of Kachtis.
That's how I'm known. Yeah. The Bloody Lady of Kautis.
I think it's The Bloody Lady of Catch Tease.
Catch Tease. Yeah. That sounds better. That's my title.
I might be saying that wrong. Um, so just to start this off, I know a lot of, um, well...
I say a lot of people. I mean a lot of true crime fans know who Elizabeth is.
I don't. Ash does not. But I think a lot of people... Because a lot of people were psyched to hear this episode, so people have an idea.
We got a ton of emails. A lot of people know... one main fact about or one they think they know one main fact about her because i also thought that this was like indisputable fact but it's not so a lot of things that are said about her are completely true and they're backed by multiple witnesses records all kinds of stuff but The idea that she bathed in blood has never been confirmed.
No witnesses claimed it. But has it been denied?
And it would actually require like a lot of work for just one bath.
I would think so. You want to know how I know that?
You tried it. I did the math. Okay. That makes me a little more settled.
I should have just been like, yes. No, get ready because I'm going to hit you with some science right now.
Oh, yay. Because whenever I can do that, I do it.
Science slash math? Yeah, science slash math.
So, a standard bathtub holds about 80 gallons of water.
Wow, that's a lot. I'm not sure if this was the same kind of thing back in Elizabeth's bathroom, but she was rich as fuck. certainly would have a nicer bathtub than most anyone else at the time so it even could have been larger because even on the larger side bathtubs can be like 100 to 110 gallons well So sticking with the average 80 gallons, there are eight pints in a gallon.
There are about 9 to 12 pints of blood in a woman human body depending on body weight and mass.
It's 9 to 12. Okay. If you're a little larger, you're going to have 12.
Heights of flood. Yes. I bet I have 14. No.
I'm kidding. So any average-sized woman would have about nine pints of blood in their body.
Wow. This means that you would need roughly eight or nine average women's entire supply of blood to fill one tub.
That's a lot. Yeah. Of course, Elizabeth wasn't killing average age women.
Right. So that doesn't quite work. She was killing young girls.
She liked them around the ages of like 10 to maybe... at the eight, oldest maybe 17 at the time from what I've found.
Most of them were in the 10 to 14. Your bracket.
And how much blood does that person have?
Well, this would put their blood volume somewhere around seven pints.
So that means that Elizabeth would need about 11 and a half servant girls in their entirety to fill one bathtub.
And how many people did they think she killed?
Well, she killed, I mean, that number...
So it fluctuates and we'll get into that more.
But like some people say she killed 600.
Oh, shit. She was officially convicted for 80.
Wow. That they could, that people, witnesses were able to like actually say that it happened.
So she would need seven girls per one tub.
But that's, it's one tub. No, she would need 11 and a half servant girls for just one tub.
Oh, wow. so that's a lot of work for one fucking tub and that would mean she only took about eight or nine tubs exactly And that's absurd and would also mean that she couldn't torture them first, which was her thing.
Her thing was torture and pain. That's horrific.
It wasn't just dead. people. Like that wasn't... It wasn't just dead.
It wasn't just death. It was torture. So...
Because to lose any blood through torture before emptying it into the bath would mean that she would need even more girls to fill just one tub.
So I guess she could suspend them above the bathtub and have them tortured so that all the blood fell directly into the tub.
But that's... I mean, that's just me coming up with something.
I don't know. There's also the problem of viscosity of blood versus water.
I'm doing these calculations based on the viscosity of water, but blood has a viscosity that is likely three to four times higher.
So that changes the volume. And viscosity is just thickness, right?
Yeah, and how it flows when met with a certain velocity.
Okay. So this whole thing would take a variant amount of time as well, because depending on the artery you slice, the blood will flow faster or slower.
So if she cut the aorta, then sure, they would drain quick and she would get her bathtub.
But if she didn't... It might be slower and slower from there.
And who the fuck has time for that? Right.
You're just going to sit there for like hours while this person bleeds out over your tub.
So that's just something to me that says she probably didn't bathe in blood.
Yeah. Maybe she smeared it on her skin. Maybe she did put it in like bottles like some people think and like put it on her skin to keep herself beautiful because that's the whole thing.
Blood facial is a thing. Yeah. So maybe she did that.
I could see that because there are and we're going to see it later in some of the testimonies I have that were on record. that she did torture women, girls actually, to the point where they said that you could scoop the blood off the floor in like handfuls.
So it is possible that she had people scoop up blood for her and put them in bottles.
I mean, who knows? I really like true crime a lot, but blood makes me, like, queasy.
I don't mind blood. Well, you're a fucking mortician, obviously not.
I'm not a mortician. What are you? Autopsy technician.
Same deal. No, very different. Two opposite sides of the death pool.
What's a mortician do? A mortician prepares the body for burial.
So they embalm. Oh. I was thinking. They don't do like all the.
I was thinking what I would do. There you go.
And I also was thinking that people call you Morticia.
They do. That's true. So let me start this off just to give you the I'm going to give you I'm going to do that thing where I give you the end of the story.
Oh, I like I like story set up like that.
Yeah, with this one it's like a good... It's fun.
Yeah. So let me start this off with an actual letter written by Count...
Hjorhi. Hjorhi. Hjorhi. There's a lot of Hjorhis in this.
We practiced. We did. It goes Hjorhi. Hjorhi.
So this is written by Count Hjorhi Thurzo.
Excuse me. I don't know why I said excuse me.
What time period is this? This is in the 1500s.
Okay. Yeah. Excuse me? To the 16, like early 1600s.
Okay. who was sent by the King of Hungary to investigate the many rumors and claims surrounding Elizabeth.
Bouteries, sadism, and love of torture and murder.
Great. My greetings and update. Beloved heart, I arrived here at...
Yule-y, I think. Yule-y. Yes, yesterday evening, in good health, thank God, I apprehended the Natasty woman.
That's Elizabeth. Does that mean nasty? The nasty woman.
No, the reason that she's called the nasty woman is because that was her husband's Last name.
She actually didn't end up taking his last name because her rank in society was higher than his.
So she was like, bitch, I'm a stay aboutery.
Which I was like, good for you. Until she became a murderer.
I mean, she's a dick, but like, good for her.
I mean, she's a dick. All right. By now, she has been led away to the castle above.
Now those who tortured and murdered the innocent, those evil women in league with that young lady who in silent cruelty assisted them with their atrocities, were sent to Bitka.
They are under guard and will be held in strict captivity until, God willing, I arrive home to bring the strong justice they deserve.
The women can remain imprisoned in the town, but the young lady must be confined at the castle.
As for our people and servants that I brought with me, When my men entered Sistia Manor, they found a girl dead in the house.
Another followed in death as a result of many wounds and agonies.
In addition to this, there were also a wounded and tortured woman there.
The other victims were kept hidden away where the damned woman prepared these future martyrs.
I am just waiting until this cursed woman is brought to the castle and the other's destination is determined.
And then I break away in hope. if the way permits, that I make it home by tomorrow.
May God grant it, I have written this in the greatest haste.
30th December, 1610 Your loving lord and spouse, Count Hjorhi Thurzo.
Hjorhi. So this takes place in the 1500s to the early 1600s.
Okay. Fun little fact, Bautary means good hero.
I doubt she was. The word for brave in Hungarian is also Bautar.
So that's just a little fun fact that her last name means good hero.
So this is just going to be a tiny bit of history about.
Elizabeth and her family, just so you have an idea of how huge this was that she was such a fucking maniac.
The Bautari family was divided into two different branches, the Bautaris of Smolyo and the Bautaris of Exed.
In the 16th century, Hungary was divided into two competing claims to the throne, which was the Exed branch of the Bautry family, They sided with the Hadsburgs.
The Hadsburgs organized the election of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria as King of Hungary.
So that's who said they were on. Okay. So they recognized him as like the rightful king.
Yeah. Like they were, they were trying to get him as the king.
Got it. But the Somalian branch supported Janus Cispolia.
I believe it is. And he had been elected king by the Hungarian nobles.
Okay, so this means that the Exed branch and the Smolyo branch of the Bautari family were basically against each other.
Okay. For who was going to take control of Hungary.
Got it. Now this seems like it's going to be like fucking crazy, like a war.
But the two branches of the Bautry family became united.
And it was a political thing by... Now, Elizabeth's name in Hungarian is Erzsébet.
Cool. Just as a little factoid. So they became united politically by Elizabeth's parents.
Hjorhi and Anna. Got it. So see, we got to Elizabeth.
They united because Hjorhi of the Exed branch... decided to change his allegiance from the Hadsburgs to the Suspolia.
So he changed allegiances. Yes, he changed allegiances.
So he decided to go with the guy that most of the nobles wanted as the king.
Okay, which seems like a good way to go.
Exactly. Always go where the nobles go. It is said that he renounced this allegiance because he wanted to marry his, quote, Transylvanian cousin, Anna, of the Somolio branch.
Oh, they were cousins. Lots of inbreeding in the... um boutery family yeah which caused a lot of fucked up shit to happen with elizabeth's mind Clearly.
As you'll see, because she started being kind of like cuckoo nut man early.
Oh, that's my favorite expression. That's a cuckoo nut lady.
So here he... was really looking to strengthen his alliance with Anna's brother Istvan, because he had been appointed Voidvad of Transylvania. under the systolia branch.
So a void VOD is like, A leader of a force, like an army.
Like a military force. Yeah, like a military force.
So they led the army. So it's like a big, powerful position.
Voidvod. Voidvod. This is very confusing, I know.
Sure is. But in the way he accomplished this was he married Anna.
That's how he was going to get Istvan, her brother, on his side.
Okay. And when he did this, he united the two branches of the Bautari clan.
So this is where they came together. Anna Bautry was originally the widow of the last descendant of the Dragphy family.
So the two of them took over the Dragfee castles when they got married because those were hers.
Unfortunately, the Hadsburgs, who he removed his alliance from, ended up taking those castles eventually.
So Hjorhi and Anna had to go run to the Sits... Sitsva?
Yeah. Yeah, to the Sitzwe Castle in the county of Zemplen.
And later, they also had the Bautry family estate in Exed.
Those two estates are important just because Elizabeth eventually will take control of these things.
Got it. The Hadsburgs and the Bauteries, because the Hadsburgs at one point had like an alliance with part of the Bauterie family. clan right but in marrying anna he fucked them he took that allegiance away so now the hadsbergs are out on a limb And it's the Hadbergs against the Bautries.
So this tension would keep going for like generations.
It was a long running feud because they're all vying for power in Central Europe.
Like this is all a power thing. And it's all who they think is the rightful king.
Exactly. So this is like a huge conflict.
And born in the middle of all this was...
Elizabeth. Erzabeth Boutry. Erzabeth. That's a cool way to say it.
So, Erzabeth Boutry was born August 7th, 1560.
She was born at the Exed family estate, which is located in what today would be known as Negexed?
Yeah. But in those days, they called it Exit.
Got it. And it's not far from Nirbator, Hungary.
It's near Bator. Near Bator. So, Erzabeth came from a very powerful family, obviously.
Right. Because her parents were... from the two separate sides of the Bautry family.
You know, Georgi, like we said, from the Aksed branch, and Anna from the Smolio branch. side of the family so they were like smacked out right in the middle yeah so she was born into wealth power and all that comes with it In fact, just to put it into perspective, her uncles on both sides of the family were Voidvods of Transylvania and Voidvods.
Her maternal grandfather was also Voidvod of Transylvania.
Her uncle Istvan was also the king of Poland.
Oh, shit. Her cousins, Andras, Gabor, and Zigmund, would also eventually become Transylvanian princes.
Wow. Yeah. Zigmund is a cool name. I know, that is a cool name.
So she comes from a big, powerful family.
You don't say. She also had an older brother Istvan, a brother Gabor, and two younger sisters Zofia and Clara.
Not a lot is known about her siblings. Because they're probably like, we don't know her.
Meanwhile... So, meanwhile, Turkish invaders were, like, coming into Europe by, like, the millions.
Yeah. During this time Hungary was divided into three portions.
Southeastern Hungary, and a large part of Transdanubia were under the control of the Turks.
Western Hungary fell under the Habsburg control.
And then Transylvania remained pretty like neutral like transylvania the people the ruling people in transylvania were basically like uh we'll just like go with whatever we need to at whatever time right So in addition to the tension between all of these three ruling powers, there was also like a huge Protestant Reformation in Europe.
So... There was Islamic Turks clashing with European Christians.
Catholic and Protestant Europeans were also going at each other.
So it was just like a big religious just shit fest.
Yeah. So there's a lot of shit going on with when Elizabeth is young.
And she's seeing a lot of it. And like a lot of violence.
A lot of violence, a lot of just like brutality, a lot of just war and like fighting.
And she's like, cool. And she witnessed brutality and chaos from a very young age.
And mental illness did run in her family because of the intense inbreeding.
Yikes. So around the age of four or five, Elizabeth had pretty violent seizures.
Oh. She was obviously never diagnosed because at that point they don't know what that is, but she definitely had epilepsy.
Oh, wow. That is for sure. Can that cause brain damage?
I mean, if you have, if it's left untreated.
Yeah. And later in adulthood, she would write in journals and letters about head and eye pain that was very severe, which to me says probably migraines.
Yeah. So she probably had epilepsy and suffered from severe migraines.
That's horrible. Early in her childhood, it's said that...
This is a pretty crazy story that a lot of people who have read about her probably have seen.
It said that Elizabeth witnessed a peasant being punished.
By being sewn alive inside the belly of a dying horse.
Wait, excuse me, what? Yes. They sewed...
Him alive. To a horse. Inside the belly of a dying horse.
They'd say so to the horse. I'm like, the fuck?
They sewed that motherfucker to a horse?
I'm like, what does that do? No, they sewed him inside the horse. cut the belly of the horse open, shoved him in there, and then sewed it up.
So he was just in a horse's belly. What the fuck?
Who comes up with that? Indeed. Why didn't we talk about that in our menu for torture?
I know. Well, and by all accounts, young Elizabeth giggled uncontrollably at the sight of the man's head sticking out of the horse's belly before it was sewn up completely.
Yeah, that's not funny. She thought it was a fucking knee slapper.
She was like, this is great. Can't. So there's that.
In 1514... She also witnessed Hyori Dosa's execution.
Hyori is like a very big name here. I was like, her dad?
Dosa was, and I'm probably saying that wrong, so I apologize.
Was the rebel leader of the group of peasants who were rising up against the nobility at this time.
Hell yeah. Yeah. When he was caught by the crown, he was dealt with in a pretty nightmarish manner.
I would assume so. And she watched. What was it?
He was executed by being roasted alive. Oh, no.
An illustration from a 16th century Hungarian almanac. actually shows this as his reveling captors placing a red-hot metal crown on his head.
He's bound half-naked to an iron throne And hot coals were being shoveled beneath his seat to ignite the throne and heat it up.
And he's naked sitting on it with a, like... you know, burning lava hot crown on his head like in Game of Thrones.
They literally were like, oh, you want to be king?
I swear, he must have got a lot of, George R.R.
Martin got a lot of shit from this case.
Ouch. So he had a lot of accomplices and they were all around him.
Some of them were being impaled and the ones that weren't being impaled were being force-fed his flesh.
Before being broken on the wheel and hanged.
Ew, I just got nausea. Little Elizabeth watched.
It was like, cool. This is like last week how you were like, people used to bring their kids to fucked up shit.
This is what I'm saying. And then sometimes you get Elizabeth Boutry out of it.
Yeah, like, what could you expect? Yeah.
Now, interestingly, it is fact that Elizabeth received an amazing education.
Oh, wow. So she was growing up. Her family strongly believed, which is kind of crazy for the time. that a girl should be as educated as a boy wow that's which is nuts for the time in fact she was trained in you know, the classics, mathematics.
She could read and write in Hungarian, Greek, Latin, German, and even Slavic.
Shit. Yeah. And she also appears to have been interested in like religion and occultism.
But on the other side of that, she was really into sciences, astronomy, botany, biology, anatomy.
Like she was into, she was really well, she was brilliant.
Right. And you see it later. And this was something she did throughout her life.
Like, she was a full, like, I want to learn until I die kind of person.
I mean, she ordered various books from merchants.
She would ask fellow nobles to lend her books, which is crazy for like a woman of that time.
Definitely. They weren't allowed to do this.
And it's said in her last years spent under house arrest, which we'll get into that later, she passed time by writing on the walls when parchment paper ran out.
Wow. And various documents written by her prove that she could write fluently, which is huge because a lot of people are illiterate around here.
That's crazy. So she was really interesting before she started being a vicious beast.
Yeah, she probably could have been cool if she didn't... kill everyone I mean she was as a child she was a tomboy she enjoyed dressing as boys playing with boys and playing games typically reserved for boys at the time mhm But as she grew older, she kind of also liked dressing like a lady in big gowns. adorning herself with tons of jewels and diamonds and doing lady things who doesn't love adorning yourself with jewels and diamonds Well, and she had this, like, cool, like, I can be a tomboy, but I can also put myself in a ball gown and feel great.
Like, I can do both of these things. It reminds me of Ever After.
Drew Barrymore? It's exactly that. This is the ever after story.
It's not. Spoiler alert. It's literally not at all.
This is Cinderella. No, it's not. She marries the prince at the end.
Don't lie to me. I mean, all that's really cool, but she was also known to throw eggs. insane fits of rage when she was little.
Same. I'm kidding. When she was younger and it went obviously to her adulthood.
She literally, if you pissed her off, it was like all bets are off.
So they could not hold her down when she got angry.
I think she had generations of inbreeding that probably gave her some kind of mental illness that was untreated.
Yeah. And she was also having migraines.
Migraines will make you want to fuck shit up.
I get migraines. They really suck. So I think she just, and I think she witnessed a lot of violence, aggression, and brutality, and that's how she knew how to deal with things.
Okay. Now, in 1571, 11-year-old Elizabeth was forced to become engaged to Count Natasty. who was 16 years old at the time.
Okay. This was very common, and it was always used to solidify political... bonds between families and shit it was always for some reason it wasn't like they were like we love each other hashtag history In 1574, 14-year-old Elizabeth became unexpectedly pregnant.
Uh-oh, and she wasn't married yet? With a child fathered by a Peasant boy.
Oh, no. Yes. Scandal. It's like Mulan now.
She brought shame to her family. It's like Mulan got pregnant by a peasant boy?
Yes. I was like, whoa. I gotta watch that again.
You're bringing shame to the family. It's exactly that.
See, you're nailing these. I guess I'm in a Disney mood, which never happens.
It's weird that Disney is, like, being brought into your mind with Elizabeth Bountry.
I know. Now, of course, this was the 16th century.
What'd they do? So she was moved to a home to have the child in secret because you don't bring shame upon your family.
Did they lie and say that it was her man's?
No, they just didn't tell anybody. Nobody's going to know about it.
And her fiancé, his name was Count Ference.
That's his first name. Like Terrence, but with an F. Exactly.
He tracked down... While she was giving birth to this...
He tracked down the baby daddy. He tracked down this peasant boy for punishment.
Oh, no. And as we'll see later, Count Ference really loves punishment, too.
Oh, no. So what was the punishment? A match made in hell.
He was castrated. And then a pack of wild dogs was let loose on him to shred him into bits.
Bye. I got to go. My ride's here. So I bet Elizabeth was like, hmm.
Do you know that one of mine did me up? what in game of thrones i know that's exactly yeah that's what i'm saying i'm pretty sure george rr martin like strictly looked at elizabeth boucher's life and was like game of thrones Now even though this was because of her, this event apparently intrigued Elizabeth, who was only 14 at the time, and she found pleasure in it.
The idea that this boy was castrated and then shred to bits by wild dogs.
Now she reminds me of Cersei. She's real weird.
That's what I'm saying. This is Game of Thrones in 1575.
14-year-old Elizabeth married Count Ference.
Because she was like, yeah. She was like, cool.
That was great. who was 19 years old at the time.
The wedding was straight up Game of Thrones.
Funny fact, before the wedding ceremony, Ferenc would have to prove his loyalty and love for his new bride.
Yeah, because she was loyal. And the way they did this was they had Elizabeth along with all the members of her bridal party.
Pouty. Her bridal party. It's not bridal pouty.
Cover their faces with veils. And then each girl had to parade around him in like a sexy way.
And he had to choose, like, and they all had to pretend to be Elizabeth.
And he had to, like, it was like a comic show.
Figure out which one was her. And they all imitated her and like were very dramatic and like theatrical and everything.
And he had to select the true bride over the imitators.
Shit, that will never happen at my wedding.
Thank you, next bye. And he did. He got her, right?
He got her, right, yeah. What did she have to do to prove her loyalty?
Nothing. Just make a baby. Yeah, she just had to consummate that shit.
Got it. Sounds about right. So, and I mean, that was just one part of the wedding.
They had jousting. Like, they had the whole... Think of, like...
Joffrey Baratheon's wedding. Up until he dies.
And that was pretty much their wedding. Like any Game of Thrones like huge wedding.
Right. That's what it was. Cool. So they moved into the castle Kastis, which lies over the northwestern part of Hungary.
Four years after they were married, Count Ferenc was named the chief commander of all Hungarian troops.
So he was in charge of leading all of the troops through the battle against the Ottoman Empire all throughout the long war.
It was called the Long War. What was that?
Um, the word called? Voidvad. Was he a Voidvad, essentially?
I guess that would be exactly what he was, yeah.
They just said that he was like the chief commander, but...
If that's what Voidvod actually translates to.
It's pretty much the same exact thing. So I would say Voidvod, yeah.
You're right. Voidvod. So he was in charge of leading the battles against the Ottoman Empire throughout the long war, which was like 13 years long.
It would have been funny if you were like, which only lasted three weeks.
The long war, which was four days. Now he was known to be particularly cruel to the enemy.
He was? Yes. No way. When he captured Turks in war, He was known to dance with their dead bodies and play catch and football and kickball with their severed heads.
Great. Yeah. So he was a cool guy. Totally.
Now, her husband was obviously away a lot now because he's off being a void bot.
And it was up to Elizabeth to run the castle and all the lands surrounding the castle.
Oh, and I bet she did. Did that damn thing.
And Elizabeth. So Elizabeth was one of like the first women who was really in like full power.
Power. Now, also during this time, staff from the castle would go down into the village surrounding the castle and basically recruit young girls to come work in the castle because She needed a lot of help now.
And I would say to that, I'm busy that day.
Except you would definitely be like, I will come because you would think that you were working for a countess.
So because these were poor villagers, families were more than happy to have their child work for the Count and Countess.
Because it meant they were going to, I mean, she had like a finishing school.
They were going to learn to be ladies. They were going to make a ton of money to bring back to the family and they were going to make connections.
So it was like a big deal. The problem arose when it began to become clear that these young girls were not coming back.
Oh. Now, it was pretty common knowledge that the Count and Countess treated their servants and staff horrifically oh good so it's kind of a testament to how bad life was Back then because these people were still willing to send their girls to this hellhole.
That's really sad. Just to make some money.
Now, Elizabeth hired an older Croatian woman pretty early on.
Her name was Anna Darvulja. She worked with Elizabeth from 1601 to 1609, and according to official Hungarian court documents and testimony, Anna was known to be a witch and Elizabeth became really into the idea of like black magic.
I was going to say Elizabeth wasn't a witch.
No, she just started getting like super into it.
Anna was also known to be very violent and a really fucking scary person.
She was the one who helped guide Elizabeth through her love and fascination of torture and pain, basically.
She was the one that kind of just like held her hand through this.
Anna's favorite method of torture included beating someone repeatedly up to 500 times in some cases until death just happened.
500 times. She served as, quote, gatekeeper for Elizabeth as well as her personal advisor.
So she was the closest to her. And she, in fact, was the one who reportedly advised the countess to take on only peasant girls who, quote, had not yet tasted the pleasures of love.
So virgins. Okay. This is when we're going to start now.
This is, Elizabeth is a around in her 20s and we're gonna go up to like her 40s 50s damn she lived a long time for back then she really did So one day just as a little anecdote Elizabeth wrote to her husband about Anna quote she has taught me a lovely new one.
"'Catch a black hen and beat it to death with a white can.
"'Keep the blood and smear a little of it on your enemy.'
If you get no chance to smear it on his body, obtain one of his garments and smear it.
And that was supposed to be like a spell. of some sort like a hex or a curse but it just proves it's like in an official letter that she wrote her husband like so it proves that she was like really into the black magic One document even says that Elizabeth and Anna would take servant girls outside in the dead of winter and force them to lie in the snow naked.
If that wasn't fucked up enough, they would then pour cold water all over them. and wait for it to freeze on their skin.
Once they figured the girls were frozen, they would just leave them there to die.
Oh my god. Yeah. While he was home, Count Ferenc would torture the servants and give Elizabeth lessons. from what he learned at war because he tortured prisoners of war.
So he was like, let me, let me help you.
That's what we do. Yeah. Like I got stuff to show you.
One particular gift that he was supposedly brought home to his wife from war is... was a device that resembled a hand of sharp claws that could be fitted over the fingers to cut, slash, and stab the victim.
So the Freddy Krueger hand. Oh, my God.
Who else had that that we talked about? Somebody that had that.
Oh, I think. Was it the Toy Box Killer? The Toy Box Killer had one of those.
Yeah. Yeah. Dude, that's how you know you're straight up evil.
Right? That's fucked. You thought that springtime brought any sort of reprieve from the outdoor torture sessions?
You are wrong. In spring, Elizabeth's husband taught her a new method.
He would drag a servant girl into the midday heat, strip them naked.
After this, they would cover them in honey and tie them to something to make sure they were completely helpless, but still standing up.
They were then left that way for a day, a night at least.
Elizabeth would watch as insects would be drawn to the honey and swarm the girl's body.
Oh my God. When the girl would drop to the ground from exhaustion and pain, Frerink showed her that you put oiled paper between the girl's toes and light them on fire to... revive her oh my god elizabeth watched this and participated in it oh my god my toes hurt yeah And sometimes they would just tie them down while they were covered in honey and just leave them out there for animals and insects just to eat alive.
I need a deep breath. Because it can be limiting to torture using such seasonal devices as ice and honey.
Elizabeth eventually had a room in the basement of the castle set up to torture her servant girls whenever she wanted to, which was a lot. witnesses claimed that in the room servants girls mouths were sewn shut and various things were shoved under their fingernails oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god yeah that was One of her favorites.
Even her youngest daughter, Catelyn, apparently took place in at least one torture session.
Oh, she made her? Yeah. The event occurred before Catelyn's wedding.
Two young girls were tortured and burnt so badly that they later died during the marriage festivities.
Yeah. She was really mostly into young virgins, but there is one case where she, that I had to include because it was so brutal.
Where she brutally tortured an older married woman working for her.
Jesus. So at the time. People would use unmarried virgin girls to work like as table attendants during a certain festival.
Okay. Being a virgin back then was like a big deal.
Shit was fucking weird. When she didn't have enough young virgins on hand, she...
Countess Elizabeth ordered this older woman to pretend to be one of the virgins and dress up like a young girl.
The lady's name was Modley, I think it was.
And up until this point, she had actually been a favorite of the Countess and worked for her and like...
Various capacities. Uh-oh. According to witnesses, however, the woman said, quote, I cannot be a girl since I already have a husband and a son, my little Ferenc.
So the late Elizabeth... went fucking nuts at this because how dare you tell me no.
And so she went outside, got a small log. commanded this woman, Maudly, to put diapers on the log and carry it around with her in the castle.
And she was yelling at her, Suckle your child, you whore.
Don't let it cry. And Elizabeth would even wake her up at night and like violently shove the wood into her face and be like, like suckle, let your child suckle. this fucked up weird, like, here's your baby.
And witnesses later said that she tortured her after that in various ways until she finally died.
That stresses me out. Yeah. Isn't that weird and fucked up?
Yeah, like it's just a log, lady. Like she made her put a diaper on a log and then called her a whore and told her to let your baby drink from it. shame i can't shame now the thing is this wasn't just punishment it was not always or even mostly due to some infraction elizabeth claimed these servants had committed like I said earlier she was bored no it was literally just to give Elizabeth pleasure like something to do she just liked pain and suffering not even that it's not boredom She likes pain and suffering.
I hate that. It gives her pleasure. This is, it's not because she's bored.
It's because she's like, I need pleasure.
This is my hobby. This is how I get it. In 1604 after being sick for some time, her husband ended up dying.
Bomber. He left the care of his wife and his children, which I guess was a common thing.
You like leave the care of your wife and children into somebody you trust.
Sure. to Elizabeth's cousin, Jorge Torzo, which is who wrote that letter in the beginning, was everyone in their family named Jorge.
Well, Jorge was the one who wrote that letter in the beginning.
I was like, yeah, my cousin was fucked up.
Yeah. He was the Count Palatine of Hungary.
So Elizabeth was at this time, Elizabeth was already pretty prone to feelings of like depression, isolation and loneliness.
Mm hmm. And so when he died... AKA guilt.
Well, not even that. She just didn't like being alone.
You're giving her way too much credit. I'm just, no, I'm just a normal ass human.
You're giving her too much credit. No, she just didn't like being isolated in the castle.
That's all. She didn't feel any fucking guilt.
I can't wrap my head around that. I'm not giving her any credit.
So when he died... That was a really tough one for her because now she really was alone.
So she quickly became deeply depressed. I mean, they were married for almost 30 years, so... you know and and he was her partner in torture like i'm gonna say he was kind of the perfect partner like he liked what she was so lonely she was like i'm high to do this shit alone where am i going to get my ideas exactly and she responded to these feelings of depression by staying in her bedroom for long periods of time In late July of 1605, she received the news that her older brother, Istvan Bauteri, had died.
Oh, no. So she made the journey back to the Exed family estate. for the funeral.
According to witnesses, during the ride there in the carriage, She fucking snapped.
Viciously started attacking her handmaids who were riding with her.
And three of these attendants were tortured so severely during the trip that they died.
Oh my God. The countess ordered their bodies buried along the way.
What? Yeah. One of the girls who managed to survive the trip to Exed, she was a young noble by the name of Ziki?
Zishi? Zicky? Did she die there when they got there?
She was later killed when they got there.
When her relatives came to Elizabeth and were like, how the fuck did she die? they she came back and said oh she passed away from cholera which was a very common illness at the time you felt like on the Which you'll see she used that as an excuse for a long time before she got caught.
It was like, oh, they're all dying of cholera.
It's crazy. and she's like yet i'm not and she would and we're gonna get into this in a minute she would make sure nobody could see the bodies because she was like obviously these bodies were like beaten up and they were maimed beyond recognition and she couldn't be like oh it's the cholera they're like that's not a cholera slit her throat I don't know it's weird During the return trip back, the coachman, whose name was Petrus... said that when the countess traveled from Exed back home, she tortured the young daughter of a nobleman the entire time.
The girl died and was buried midway. Holy shit.
Yeah. So she killed like seven people during that whole fucking trip?
Like she's a fucking savage. Like, you can't even take a break?
No, you can't. Most serial killers take a break.
Yeah. I'm saying. When she later attended the coronation of King Matthias of Hungary, which he's going to be important later.
Okay. She burned several of her attendants with molten iron on the trip home and tortured some of them to near death. as well why did she just have that laying around well what what we're gonna see too is that she it seems like when she was going to big social events she would get stressed i was gonna say did she get like anxiety she responded to this murdering people like it's bizarre you know some people down the breathe app on their phone and other people fucking torture torture serving girls on the way there Those in her circle who later testified against her said she would often be so saturated with blood after torturing someone that she would have to change halfway through.
I was thinking this whole time, I was like, this lady must have had to get, like, new dresses made all the time.
Which she can, because she's, like, gone through it.
But damn. And she always ordered her lackeys, basically. to beat and whip and cut the girls so that there was enough blood on the floor to scoop up with their hands.
So maybe she did bottle it up and put it on herself.
I believe, honestly, I'm willing to believe she used it.
Yeah. In some way. Especially because of that letter where she was like smeared on your enemy.
Exactly. So it's like but I don't think she bathed in a bathtub of it.
As cool as that sounds. Maybe she like splashed in the puddles.
As like metal as that sounds. It's still like legend.
I mean, it's there. We don't know. You never know.
I mean, I tried to prove it wrong through science, but I don't know.
She also could have had like a special tub that she went into.
And maybe she just filled it a little bit.
Yeah. We just won. I mean, that doesn't seem... Or maybe she just like laid down in it and that's why she wanted them to be able to scoop it up.
There you go. Because she just like rolled around.
I wouldn't fucking put it past her. I wouldn't either.
There are your theories. Exactly. So another member of her inner circle, Courtmaster Dezio, testified later when all this shit went down. that, quote, she withheld water from many of them until they became very thirsty.
And he said when she would eventually allow them to have something to drink.
It was her ordering the girls to urinate, cup their hands below to catch the flow, and then drink it from their hands.
Yeah. And he swore on his honor that this was true.
That's so fucked up. And when asked by court officials what else he knew...
He said that he heard how the wide fire iron was heated.
The girl's arms were burned to smoke and ash.
And the smaller round fire iron was also heated.
And he said, quote, until very hot and on my honor shoved into their vaginas.
What? A hot tire iron, like fire iron. Oh my god, oh my god, no.
Okay, palate cleanser here. No more, no more, no more.
I think this is where the palate cleanser needs to go.
This is your palate cleanser with Annie.
Did you know that almonds are part of the peach family?
This has been your palate cleanser with Annie.
So just because she wasn't traveling outside to torture servant girls doesn't mean she slowed down.
In fact, this is when the idea of young blood being like a youth serum came into play.
Great. It's not known exactly how she came up with this idea.
But there are a couple of theories. One is that her husband's recent death just left her to kind of like face her own.
Aging and mortality. And she kind of desperately clung to any kind of legend or myth about blood being a remedy, you know.
The other one that's like the persistent theory about how she came up with this. is that she struck a servant girl one day for brushing her hair too hard and a splatter of the servant girl's blood like hit her own skin.
And it appeared to smooth and purify her complexion.
So that's how she was like, oh, I'm going to kill you now and use your blood because you made me look pretty.
Great. Either way, she decided young blood is what she needed to stop the aging process.
Yo, but she did live a long time. She did.
So everybody go, you know, kill servant girls and bathe in their blood.
Or just get blood facials because that's your own blood.
But this is the whole point. It's not her own blood.
It's young, virginal blood. Shit. That's the whole point.
Now, she was having Anna Darvulia, her like witch assistant.
Bring her servants to her bedroom now. Because again, remember, she was depressed.
She wasn't going outside. That's why she had to have it brought to her now.
Once in there, she would bite them, cut them, or burn them with hot molten metal and gather their blood to use on her skin.
Now, one story that started some of the rumors that would later take Elizabeth down was was a young servant girl died suddenly in the night.
Her body was placed in a casket. And the local pastor Istvan, it's a lot of Jorjis and Istvans, Magyari was called to come get the casket.
Did they just have caskets lying around back then?
When he got there, he was a little surprised because the girl had already been put into the casket and the lid was already sealed. oh so sealed yeah so ordinarily he would come and the girl would be lying in her bed he would do his thing and then they'd put her in the casket it was kind of already in there and it was sealed.
So the Countess Boutry took him aside and said, I'm afraid that we have a case of cholera on our hands.
And he was like, oh, okay. Like, cool. Within days, another casket was brought to the church by Elizabeth's servants.
Sealed and closed. This one... was way bigger than the usual casket.
And rumors had already started going around that three girls had been nailed inside.
So asking the servants to wait a second, the reverend went to the castle to find Elizabeth, and he said...
Why are the three, like, can I ask you if there are three bodies in that casket?
Because that's what I'm hearing. And she said there are only two.
So she admitted there's two bodies in that casket.
And when he said what happened to them, how did all three of them die so quickly?
She said... One had already died and the other one was near death.
So we waited it out and put them together in a single coffin.
And she was like, reduce, reuse, and recycle.
She was like, I'm all about the environment.
So because she was using young girls like tissues, she suddenly it became an issue finding new ones from poor families in the village.
Because they were like, no thanks. She basically did.
This is when she made a huge mistake that would lead to her.
They always make a huge mistake. She made a huge mistake.
She started bringing girls of noble birth to satisfy her needs.
She didn't go to the tippity top aristocratic, but she went to like the lowest noble birth she could, but still noble.
The way she did this was in 1610 when Lady Bautry opened a, it's called a gynoceum, which is like a finishing school for noble women.
Oh. I wonder if gynecology came from this.
Because I was like, uh... She opened up a gynecologist's office.
And suddenly... A bunch of noble girls were dying to come to this finishing school because it was so prestigious.
She's a countess. She's Countess Bountry.
She's like it. She is like it. Of course, rumors are she really is.
Yeah, it is. Of course, rumors were now swirling about what the fuck was going on in this castle.
Yeah. So their families decided to take the matter up with King Matthias of Hungary.
We mentioned earlier. Was she related to him?
No, but she went to his coronation and on the way she murdered some people, like just a few.
Yeah. Now after hearing one of these rumors from a member of his royal court, the king of Hungary sent an advisor to investigate what the fuck was going on.
Okay. This advisor was Jorge Torso. Jeez Louise.
The same one. who is in the letter in the beginning.
Oh, okay. The same one who was left to care for Elizabeth and the kids.
I thought this was another Hjorhi. No, this is the same Hjorhi.
Hjorhi. So that's the same guy. He was supposed to be taking care of Elizabeth and the kids while her husband did the dead thing.
Cool. By this time, Elizabeth knew that she was probably on borrowed time.
Like she was seeing that ends were starting to loosen.
She was like, shit's going to happen. So she went crazy.
No, she started trying to plead her case subtly by claiming these girls died of natural causes or cholera.
And she even told Torso, because remember, she knew Torso.
Right. She was, in fact, I believe he was her cousin.
I think you did say that at one point. By some way, method.
Some inbreeding shit. I think you said that earlier.
Yeah. And so he would like come to the castle at times.
Like he wasn't there all the time or anything. right away but just dropped i think it was like when they were having tea once he she told him that one of the noble girls in her finishing school program murdered all the other ones in a jealous rage and he was like totally and he was like probably not but i'm not gonna question you And when none of this was sticking, she started making arrangements.
So in September 1610, she made up her will.
Oh. Who'd she leave everything to? Well, it was not just a statement about where to divvy up her goods after she died.
But it also transferred her estates and possessions during her lifetime.
So all of her estates, all the shit she had and it bequeathed everything to her three surviving children.
Okay. Anna, Catelyn, and Pal. The only thing that she wanted to keep was her wedding dress, which she said she intended to, quote, wear until my death.
Wow. And she did. Was it covered in blood?
No, because she didn't use it for that shit.
So sometime in the fall of 1610, Torso showed up completely unexpected at the village because he was sent by the king.
The village that surrounded the castle. And he wanted to see what the hell was going on while he was away.
Because, and at this point you said the king was starting to.
The king had heard rumors and he was like, go investigate. torso was one of his like royal court members so he was like because he's like a palatine a court paladin count palatine So he sent him to go find out what the fuck was going on.
Okay. So he showed up unexpectedly in the village and started talking to people.
And like tripped over a mountain. of dead girls yeah pretty much and once he arrived he assigned two people to gather evidence so witnesses started coming forward like fucking crazy uh-oh Over 300 people came forward on their own volition to testify against the Countess.
And the few people that I mentioned that she kept close enough to aid in this whole debacle.
Yeah. These witnesses were villagers, priests, nobles, and staff from a bunch of the countess's different estates.
So these were all people that could eyewitness testimony.
Right, right. Some of these people said they were there to watch the torture themselves and other people said they just heard things.
They all said that torture was the main focus of Elizabeth's methods.
Death was the end result, but it was always because of severe torture.
Nobody died quick or it was always severe torture was the cause of death.
Oh, my God. Bodies began being found now.
Some were in local graveyards, some were buried around the castle, and others were discovered in all the rooms of the castle, including fireplaces.
They were just in fireplaces? Well, I'm sure she tried to burn them.
Did the castle smell like shit? Probably, but a lot of things smelled like shit back then, I think.
Oh, I didn't think of that. It probably wasn't that big.
His investigation also turned up that Elizabeth had, like, a huge... posse of people in the village that would help to get the girls.
Initially, we thought that these girls were only being lured to the castle with the promise of work and such.
But he later discovered that some of them were just straight up abducted.
Damn. Yeah. In fact, nobles such as Lady Anna Welliker.
Lady Judith Pogan, Lady Zell, and others were supposed to have acted as, quote, girl catchers for her.
Oh my god. Yeah. This was like a mission.
Wasn't this fucked up? Yeah. Now was the trial time.
Yes! Because you have to remember that that letter in the beginning was what happened when Torzo entered the castle.
He literally tripped over bodies. So he just caught her, like, right-handed.
So now the trial came. Unfortunately, Anna Davulia, her right-hand woman.
Sure. Died. Died before Toa Zoko would arrest her.
Did she kill herself? No. She died of like a cancer or something.
Good. This was a big blow because she was thought to be the main person next to Elizabeth and even thought to possibly be her secret lover.
Oh, shit. Her testimony was going to be vital.
And since he couldn't get Anna anymore, he got the rest of the small amount of staff that was used to help in the torture.
They were all arrested on December 30, 1609.
Wow. In January 1610... The evidence was presented at trial.
You know, witnesses testified, all that shit.
And in the end, this group was convicted for the murder by torture of at least 80 girls.
Every one of them were executed in the end for their roles.
Good. One servant on the inside testified that she had...
Special access to Elizabeth's bedroom. That was her special privilege.
While Elizabeth was not in the room once, she noticed there was a diary laying there.
The diary contained a list of names. These names were belonging to every single one of the victim.
What was shocking was... The amount of names was not 80.
She claimed there were upwards of 650 names on the ledger, and the court initially only thought there were 80, which is still insane.
80 is still a It is huge. 650 is bonkers.
That's a small town. I don't even know what to say about that.
Benedict Dessio, who we mentioned earlier, was the Countess's court master.
He was the one that said that he watched them like have to drink their own pee.
Yeah. And he was the one that knew about the vagina thing.
Nope, nope, nope. He was the man that she held in like the highest trust.
Wow. Dessio was named during the torture and admitted to seeing everything, basically.
He described in court how she, quote, disciplined a young maid called Ilyanka.
For clumsiness. Oh, shit. I would have been fucked.
This girl apparently was young. Like she was like 11 maybe?
Like she was young. Elizabeth stripped the girl and then began stabbing her in the fingers.
It became more and more insane and she became more and more angry and frenzied and began moving up to her finger, from her fingers to her arms.
And then when her arms were done, she started stabbing her in the legs.
And the girl is literally like he said she was falling on the ground like crying.
And she's trying to get away and she just kept stabbing at her, stabbing at her.
And then she said she was so frenzied that she started whipping her violently and burned her hands with a nearby candle.
And she did not stop until the girl died right there. and he said he literally stood there and watched that how like how do you just stand there and watch that and not try to fucking stop it it's crazy like why did no one did anyone try to stop her No, because they were scared of her, I think.
She had a lot of power. I know, I get it, but damn.
I know. I know, because I agree. It's like...
These next ones are from record, so I'm going to read them as they are.
So this one is the first one. A 12-year-old girl named Pola somehow managed to escape from the castle.
But Dorca, who was the, she was, actually she was Elizabeth's kid's wet nurse.
Who helped her torture people. Aided by Helena Jo, caught the frightened girl by surprise and brought her forcibly back to Cashti's castle.
Clad only in a long white robe, Countess Elizabeth greeted the girl upon her return.
The Countess was in another of her rages.
She advanced on the 12-year-old child and forced her into a kind of cage.
This particular cage was built like a huge ball, too narrow to sit in, too low to stand in.
Once the girl was inside, the cage was suddenly hauled up by a pulley. and dozens of short spikes jutted into the cage.
Pola tried to avoid being caught on the spikes, but Fisco maneuvered the ropes so that the cage shifted from side to side.
Oh my god. That's from record. Another accomplice testified that on some days, Elizabeth had...
Stark naked girls laid flat on the floor of her bedroom and tortured them so much that she could scoop the blood up by the pailful afterwards.
And so she had servants bring up cinders in order to cover the pools of blood because it was so much. and a young maid servant who did not fare well during the tortures, died very quickly and was written by the Countess in her diary, with quote, she was too small.
Like she just wrote that? Yeah. Like that was her comment.
Next to her name was like, she was too small.
She couldn't handle it. Like she died quickly.
It was annoying. Like she was too small.
At one point in her life. Elizabeth Boutry was very ill.
Good. And she couldn't move from her bed.
But that didn't stop her. She couldn't get up and torture her servant girls, so she demanded that one of her female servants be brought before her.
This is Dorothea Zentes, who's Dorka. They used to call Dorothy and Dorothea is known as Dorka back then.
Like in Salem, there was a Dorka. This woman was really strong.
And so she brought her in there and she was like...
Go drag a servant girl to me right now. I don't want to.
When she got brought over to her bedside, Dorka held her up there.
Elizabeth sat up in her bed and quote, like a bulldog, she opened her mouth and bit the girl first on the cheek.
Then she went for the girl's shoulders where she ripped out a piece of flesh with her teeth.
After that, Elizabeth proceeded to bite the girl's breasts.
Ow. Like she literally was like, bring me a servant girl so I can chew on her.
Like literally. Did she have like sharpened teeth or some shit?
No, she was just a fucking raging... beast that's what it's it's crazy what you can your mouth is one of you know the strongest things on your body Oh, if you're really mad and you want to rip some flesh out of someone.
I could say some mean things when I'm mad.
There you go. Couldn't mouth bite anybody like that.
Now, you're probably wondering where Elizabeth is in this trial.
Like what was her? Everyone else got executed.
Yeah. What happened to Elizabeth? Well, she never went to trial.
Her noble birth made it illegal to try her without an act of parliament.
Couldn't the king just write some shit up? if they had done this, it would have set a precedent that would have put a lot of noble assholes in a hot seat potentially.
So they all wanted to avoid it. Oh, no.
Even Torzo. He could have been put somewhere for any number of things.
So he was like, yeah, let's not do that.
So. to make sure this thing never entered that situation, Thorso reminded King Matthias that a public trial would not only discredit Bauterine Ferencz, her husband, who was from another noble family,
And he was known as a revered war hero. Sure.
So they also said it was going to discredit the nobility in the crown by... by association so either we're like we can't drag her in a trowel this is going to take us all down So the Bauteri family and the Natasti family agreed to cancel Matthias's debts that he had. which he owed to elizabeth elizabeth had lent him money lent the king money yes lent the crown money before oh wow So these two families agreed to cancel that debt, and Matthias decided that Elizabeth wouldn't stand trial, but instead would receive a very specific punishment.
So Thorso is known to have said to Elizabeth before her punishment was doled out, quote, you, Elizabeth, are like a wild animal.
You do not deserve to breathe the air on earth or see the light of the Lord.
You shall disappear from the world and never reappear in it again."
So remember, Elizabeth is prone to bouts of depression, isolation, loneliness.
She does not like being alone. So don't worry, she didn't get out scot-free.
She was put into her bedroom and every single window and door was bricked shut.
She was sealed inside of her torture quarters forever.
The only passage to the outside world was a small slot used to pass her food through.
She shouldn't have even gotten that. She ended up living there for four more years, and she died on August 14, 1614.
Some believe this was actually Thurzo fulfilling a promise to Elizabeth's husband about taking care of her and her kids. is by making this serpent because he was like at least you're not being executed because by doing this he also spared them a huge public execution that would have been like a fucking carnival Right.
So her kids would have been totally shamed.
Not that they weren't already, but like a public execution would have made it way bigger of a thing.
Yeah. So she was like OG grounded. That's where she ended up in the end.
She was real grounded. She was like heavy duty grounded.
For real. Yeah. Now, as a compelling side story, there were reasons that the King of Hungary, King Matthias, wanted to see this powerful lady taken down.
I mean, she was definitely a sadist and a murderer and a torturer, but it's interesting to see how convenient her capture and downfall were for a lot of people around her.
Like for years, her husband had been lending money to the Hungarian crown, like I said.
The crown made no effort to pay that debt back.
Because they didn't have to. Yeah. And Elizabeth, who is now a widow, she was like, you got to pay me back.
Right. So King Matthias was already like, okay, bitch.
Stop. You're annoying. Like he was mad. So King Matthias knew if he could convict her of a capital crime, he would not only wipe out his debt to her, but he could also claim her estates.
Oh, and he would also take out a very powerful woman.
Yeah. just interesting to see that those two not that that takes away the fact that she did all this but i'm just saying it was very convenient for him to be like Yeah, we won't execute her.
We'll just do this. So, and that is it. That is the story of... What happened to her kids?
Elizabeth Boutry. Not a lot is known about her kids.
Oh. Her kids and her siblings. Because they probably were like, that's not my mom.
Yeah, they were like, no. Like, I don't, what's a boundary?
Yeah, no. Never heard of it. My last name is Jones.
Don't worry about it. Yeah. What a fucking doozy, bro.
That's the story of Elizabeth Boutry. Oh, wow.
And again, super sorry about the way I pronounced everything.
I feel like you did a good job. You can totally yell at me for it.
I know we said Hjorhi, right? Because we looked it up.
Yeah. And I think I got like Istvan, right?
Yeah. And Boutry, I know it was right. You know what?
I think you probably got right, too. anna anna i bet i did that watch it's probably anna so yeah that's a crazy story and i was really excited that was a good one but like also like wow I know this is an intense one.
Yeah. So I hope you guys dug it. And we'll let you know what next week's case is.
And in a couple of days, you have... Elena's mini-sode coming up, so look forward to it.
Yeah. And I also have an idea for a Patreon bonus episode.
What is it? So I'm not going to tell you what it is yet.
Okay, tell me off air. But it's a crazy one.
Crazy. And I think we will probably give it to you soon because you deserve it.
So we'll do that. So we hope you enjoyed this trip to the Middle Ages, the brutal Middle Ages.
Yeah. We also hope that you can follow us on Instagram at... Morbid Podcast.
We hope that you can follow us and tweet us at... Amorbid Podcast.
We hope that you send us a Gmail. Morbidpodcast.gmail.com.
I know you guys think that we get a lot of emails and we totally do, but we've been reading all of them.
We really have. We read every message. We do.
Every tweet, every Instagram message, every Instagram DM.
All our emails, we read them all. And we are working on a system to get back to you.
We are. We are making our way. So everything you have said, we have seen.
And you've made us laugh. you've made us cry you've made us feel things and we're gonna be getting back to you as as much as we can yeah seriously thank you guys so much yeah You can also join the Facebook group at morbid colon a true crime podcast.
And you can check out the lovely website that my lovely co-host so beautifully designed at... Heyo!
Morbidpodcast.com. Minus the heyo. We hope you keep listening.
And we hope you keep it weird. But not so weird that all your cousins' names are Jorge and that you start to literally murder everyone in your sight and just, like, douse their blood on top of you and then you get locked in your bedroom forever and ever in eternity and you only get to eat sandwiches and like Right on the walls and stuff.
We just hope that you don't keep it that weird.
Definitely don't do that. The sandwiches is the worst part.
I just made that up. No you didn't. Well, cause like when you said that she got to have food, I just pictured like a sandwich, like a tuna fish sandwich, but with the celery in it.
Cause those ones suck. And I hope she had to eat millions. of them so don't do it gross tuna bye bye Thank you.
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