Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – One of the well-known legends from the Western world is related to vampires. Vampires are said to come out of their graves at night only to bite and suck people's blood.

Who would have thought that a story similar to vampires had actually happened in the real world? In fact, it was the inspiration for the process of creating the famous fictional character, Dracula. This story involves one of the richest women in the world, Elizabeth Bathory, who has habits similar to vampires: killing people and bathing in blood.

What's the story?

Elizabeth Bathory was born in 1560 and grew up in a noble family in the Transylvania region, which is now part of Romania. Coming from a noble family made him rich from birth.

Quote Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (2009), Elizabeth is entitled to hundreds of hectares of land, various jewelry such as gold and diamonds, and dozens of palaces throughout Transylvania. This makes her one of the richest women from the royal family in the world. Elizabeth's wealth became even more abundant when she married Ferenc Nádasdy in 1575 or at the age of 15 years.

A new vampire-like story enveloped Elizabeth when her husband left her to go to war and live a phase of life alone in a super-large castle. Quoting the site History Extra, He was known to often torture female staff at the Palace Čachtice.

Usually, Elizabeth targets poor girls as victims. They were enticed to be given jobs at the palace. In fact, when they were at the palace, they were killed by Elizabeth. The way the woman born in 1560 ended the victim's life is also quite cruel.

He did not hesitate to carry out torture using various media, such as sticks, immersing him in ice water, and even being burned alive. Apart from that, he was also reported to have committed mutilation and cannibalism. There were also accusations that he often bathed in fresh blood from the victims to stay young.

This cruel act got worse and was often carried out when her husband died. In that condition of being alone, no one could stop Elizabeth from killing the victims. According to Rachael Bledsaw who researched Elizabeth said that the habit of killing staff in lower positions was not prohibited at that time. It's just a matter of humanity and ethics.

This inhumane treatment was finally exposed when Elizabeth targeted noble families because there was no longer anyone from poor families. At this point, the then King of Hungary, Matthias II, launched an investigation.

As a result, Elizabeth was proven to have killed 80 young women. In fact, other sources say up to 600 people. As a result, he was locked up in a castle until he died at the age of 54.

However, the story does not end here. In later years many historians became curious about Elizabeth's behavior.

He is already very rich, has a lot of wealth without being taxed and lives a respectable life but why kills people?

Some say Elizabeth suffers from epilepsy and severe migraines. So, murder became his means to overcome the recurrence of his illness. Apart from that, there are also those who say that Elizabeth's behavior is caused by environmental factors.

Citing studies Vampire or Megalomaniac Serial Killer?: The Bloody Countess Elizabeth Bathory (2012), it is known that at that time he grew up when magic developed. As a result, he saw that torture for magical purposes became normal. There is also a belief in magical purposes such as blood baths to stay young. Of course nowadays all of that cannot be accepted as true.

However, all of that is just conjecture. No one knows for sure the richest woman's motive for committing murder. Until now, this is still a mystery produced in the form of a popular story. In fact, this murder incident made Elizabeth one of the most prolific killers in the world.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(mfa/sef)