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pulled off, buried alive or beheaded – the Countess was imprisoned for life, proclaiming her innocence throughout. King Mathias had wanted her to be executed, but before he could have such a sentence pronounced, she would have had to be stripped of her royal immunity.
    She was kept locked up in a small suite of rooms in her own castle at Cahtice, with the walls and windows bricked up, claiming all the while that she was innocent of all charges, blaming the girls’ deaths on a whole range of illnesses from disease to blood poisoning. She lasted only three years in captivity, dying in either 1613 or 1614.
    Countess Erzsébet Báthory is fairly unique in the annals of criminal history in being a woman who indulged in cannibalism and vampirism. However, if she did take such an unhealthy interest in the blood of her victims – she was even said to bathe in it – it was more than likely because she thought that by doing so she could somehow preserve her looks.
    Whatever the reason, whether she used the blood because she thought she was ‘worth it’ or merely got a sexual thrill from spilling it, she was one of the most prolific psychopathic women killers who ever lived.

Ivan The Terrible

     
    Ivan the Terrible did everything to excess – drinking, worshipping, loving, hating and especially, killing.
    The 16th century in Russia was a violent time when life was cheap, especially if you were a Tsar, trying to hold power against rival nobles and external forces. Ivan’s childhood was traumatic and possibly holds the secret to his later personality. That, coupled with an attack of what was probably encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that can lead to confusion, hallucinations and altered states of consciousness following the death of his first wife, Anastasia, in 1560 probably contributed to the mood swings, the violent rages and the psychopathic tendencies that he would display throughout his life.
    In 1533, when he was aged just three, his father, Tsar Vasili III, died from blood poisoning following the development of a boil on his leg. Ivan’s mother became regent for the young Grand Prince of Moscow, as Ivan was titled at the time. As was often the case in those perilous times, however, she was poisoned five years later. It was no great loss to the then eight year-old Ivan, in some ways, as his mother had never been that close to him. What was more of a loss to him was the removal of his beloved nurse, Agrafena, who was forced to retire to a convent. At this point, a powerful Moscow family, the Shuiskys, seized power, reigning until 1544. It was a terrible time for Ivan and his younger brother, Yuri. They were molested and ignored and had to scavenge for food in their own palace, dressed in rags and uncared for.
    The Shuiskys were involved in a feud with rival noble family, the Belskys and the fighting would often be brought into the royal palace, gangs of armed men bursting into the young prince’s quarters, causing damage and stealing whatever they could get their hands on. The palace seethed with intrigue and murders and beatings became commonplace. Ivan witnessed horrendous sights such as the skinning alive of his loyal advisor, Fyodor Mishurin.
    Ivan, retreating into his own world, took out his frustrations on birds – he would mutilate them, pulling out their feathers, gouging out their eyes and dissecting them while still alive.
    By the age of thirteen, Ivan had had enough of the Shuiskys and ordered the arrest of Prince Andrew Shuisky. He was thrown to a pack of hungry dogs and the nobles got the message; Ivan was in charge.
    He indulged some of his basest instincts over the next few years. He was in the habit of throwing cats and dogs from the high walls of the Kremlin and roaming, roaring drunk, through the streets of the capital with his equally drunk cronies, beating up whoever got in their way and raping any woman unfortunate to bump into them. As if that was not enough, he often hanged, strangled