The Blood Countess: Elizabeth Bathory

Born in Hungary in 1560 Countess Bathory was a noblewoman who, with her son, two sons-in-law and several female helpers, got young girls to come to her castle on the pretext of finding them work and then tortured and killed them. She was eventually found out and died virtually walled up in her castle. It is claimed that she killed 600 victims, making her the most prolific female serial killer of all time. A myth grew up that she bathed in her victims' blood to stay young, a fact used in the horror film 'Countess Dracula', starring Ingrid Pitt, one of the programme's talking heads.