Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (19 page)

Second:
From that time until now, how many girls and women has she (have been) killed.

Answer: He doesn’t know about any women, but girls, he knows 37, while he was with her. In addition, when the Palatine traveled to Bratislava, he (or she) buried 5 in a pit, two in a small garden, and one beneath the eaves/gutter. (
A girl whom they found there and she placed before them and) [t]wo (others) were taken at night into Leceticz
(a small village, known today as Podolie) to the church where they buried the same; they brought down the same from the castle, because Mrs. Dorka killed them.

Third:
Who were those whom they killed, and where (did it take place)?

Answer: He did not know whose daughters they were (
to whom the girls belonged
).

Fourth:
In what ways were these same women and girls enticed (lured) and brought to the castle, (what was their lineage, and who brought them over)?

Answer: Six times, the declarant went looking for girls with Mrs. Dorka; they attracted them with the promise that they would either marry a merchant or that they would be brought somewhere (to work) as a chambermaid. The now-deceased girl was brought from a Croatian village beyond (
somewhere in the neighborhood of
) Rednek, (
hence her trust
); the girl worked for (the Lady) for a month, and then they killed her (she (likely Dorka) had been there with her and later killed her (or was “involved with her death”; the Hungarian causative verb is also unclear)). Others who looked for girls, along with Mrs. Dorka were: Mrs. (the wife of) János Bársony, who lives near (
next to the
) Gyöngyös in the town of Teplanfalva, except for once at Sárvár; they found a Croatian woman living with Matthias Otvos, who lives at Sárvár, Mrs. Matej, who lived across from Ján Szalay. Also, Mrs. (the wife of) Ján Szabo procured girls and even brought her own (
a daughter to her
(either Dorka or Báthory)), who was also killed, and though she certainly knew it, she still brought more and turned them over. Also, the wife of György Szabo gave (the Lady) her own (
their
) daughter at Csejthe, who was also murdered (
where she died
), but she did not bring anymore. In addition, Mrs. (the wife of) István Szabo also brought in many. Mrs. Ilona also brought enough. Kata never brought any but merely buried those whom Dorka had killed.

Fifth:
By what torture and what manner did they kill these poor (unfortunates) (How were they treated/handled, in what fashion were they tortured, and how were they killed)?

Answer: They were tortured thus: their arms were bound with Viennese cord (woven cotton?). When she lived at Sárvár, (
the one called
) Mrs. Anna Darvolia tied their hands backwards (
behind their backs
). The hands turned deathly pale (
the color of death
), and they were whipped until their bodies burst (
covered in gaping wounds
). They were beaten on the flat of the hands and the soles of feet, as many as 500 strikes in a row (
wounds
). They learned this torturing style first from Darvolia, how to beat the same so long until they died. Dorka cut off their hands with sheers (
scissors
), which at Csejthe is no different (
also killing them at Csejthe
).

Sixth:
Who else assisted with (who were the instruments of) the torture and murder?

Answer: In addition to these three women at Csejthe, is a lady, who is known as Mrs. Ilona, the wife of the bald coachman, who also tortured maids (
martyred girls
). She herself stabbed them with needles if their needlework wasn’t done well. If they didn’t take off their hair covering, if they did not start the fire, if they did not lay the apron straight: they were immediately taken to the torture chamber by the old women and tortured to death. The old women burned them with the fire iron and she herself stuck pins into the mouth, the nose, and the chin of the girls. She stuck her fingers in the mouth and tore it apart. (
By this means they were tortured and starved
.) If their needlework was not completed by 10:00 p.m., so they were also brought into the torture chamber. They were taken to be tortured even ten times in a day; (
they were delivered
) like sheep. Sometimes four or even five girls stood naked there (
before them
), and in this way they had to sew or knit, accused, always suddenly, and would then have to embroider or knit lace and complete their labor or be punished later. The Sittkey girl (
Sittkey’s daughter
) was killed because she stole a pear; in the same way, she was tortured and murdered in Pieštány with an emaciated old woman, by Ilona. (
They tortured her in the town called
Pieštány
, along with the old woman, and later on, murdered the two
). The milliner Modli from Vienna was killed at Keresztúr (
they also murdered the Viennese girl, Miss Modl (or Modli), at a location called Keresztúr
).

Seventh:
Where were the dead bodies buried or where were they taken? Who hid the same corpses and where were they buried (where were the dead buried and how were they hidden)?

Answer: The old woman hid and buried the girls (
tended to hiding and burying girls here at Csejthe
). He, the accused (Confessant), helped bury (
hide
) four here and in Csejthe (
of the dead
), two at a location called Leceticz (Lesticze), one at Keresztúr, and one at Sárvár. The others were buried with singing at the three last-named places
(All the rest were buried at Sárvár with singing, also at Keresztúr and Leceticz
). When the old women murdered a girl, they were given gifts by the Lady (
When the baby of one of the girls was murdered by the women, the Lady rewarded them (paid their wage
)). She herself even tore the girl’s face and scratched it all over (
girls’ cheeks and stabbed them below the fingernails
). Then, the tortured girl was made to stand in the frost and splashed with water by the old women; also the Lady herself poured water on her until she froze and died. (
Later on, all of the murdered girls were doused with water. Even she herself doused them until they froze to death
.) When she was here at
Byt
ča,
she was ready to depart when one of her girls escaped to Ilava, but was brought back, put up to her neck in water and doused; she died afterward at Csejthe.
(
Now once, when leaving from
Byt
ča
and driving across Predmier, a girl had been put into water up to her neck and then had water poured over her. This happened when she was captured, after having escaped. She later died at Csejthe
.)

Eighth:
The Lady herself also tortured and murdered? And how did she torture the poor (ones) and kill them? (Did her Ladyship torture them herself, and what exactly did she do and how did they die?) (
In still another version, the question read
: “How did they torture and murder those poor creatures?”
This could mean that the writer loosely recorded the questions, or the sequence of questions aligned for the final version).

Answer: When she herself did not torture them, she transferred them to the old women who tortured the girls, whom they put in the coal storage for a week without food, and whoever gave them something to eat in secret was immediately punished. (
When the girls shamed themselves, they were made to stand naked. The girls were locked in the laundry for a week and allowed to starve. Anyone who brought them food in secret was immediately punished
.)

Ninth:
In what sort of places at Csejthe, Sárvár, Keresztúr, Beckov and elsewhere were the poor (ones) tortured and killed? (In addition to Csejthe, Sárvár, Keresztúr, and Beckov, where there any other places where these miserable beings were tortured and murdered?)

Answer: At Beckov, the same were tortured in the chamber next to the wash-kitchen (
at Beckov and Komna, they were tortured in the laundry
); at Sárvár in the interior of the castle where not everyone (
no one
) was allowed; at Keresztúr, in the latrine (
they were dragged into a secret room
); and at Csejthe, in the kitchen (
torturing took place at the laundry
). Even while we were traveling (
when on a trip
), her Ladyship tortured them herself in the coach. She hit them, (
would bite them
), and stick them in the mouth with needles.

Tenth:
Who, of important people, knew or saw the deeds of the Lady? (What other well-known persons were present or who knew about the acts of the Lady?)

Answer: The Court Master Benedikt Dezso (commonly spelled Benedikt or Benedek Deseö) knew best over the others (
knew about it the most, was into everything, and knowledgeable more than the rest
); however, no one ever heard him say anything about the Lady (
But he
(apparently the accused)
never heard the gentleman say anything about it
.) Also, the other servants knew about it in general, even the riff-raff. A certain “Obstinate” (
Iron Headed
) Stefan,” now beyond the Danube, who recently left the Lady’s service, knows everything better than even the witness. He also talked freely with the Lady, and carried several dead bodies away but, where? The witness does not know. (
There was here another fellow who called himself Stefan Iron Head who recently left the Lady’s service and headed out for Zadunajska
(the Transylvanian Danube).
The same knew about everything much better since he witnessed and even freely made jokes/played games with the Lady. He buried several girls, but the witness was unaware of where
.)

(Regarding the mysterious character Istaka (István or Stefan) called “Iron Head,” it may be that Ficzkó tried to pass off some of the guilt on him or, perhaps out of fear, even invented him. According to the court records, “Stefan Iron Head” disappeared into Transylvania. Oddly, no one else seemed to know anything about or mention him, unless he is the man referred to simply as “Kozma,” by the other defendants.)

Eleventh:
For how long have they known or learned that the Lady began committing these cruel deeds (How long did anyone know about the horrible deeds of this woman and did anyone do anything to prevent the murders)?

Answer: She had tortured the girls even during the lifetime of the late Lord, but not so often murdered them as now. The poor Lord spoke to her about it, but did not forbid it. (
Even the lord knew about the murders. The lord himself prohibited and disapproved of it; however, she ignored his complaints
.) Anna Darvolia came to her, and she (Anna) killed the girls, and also the Lady became more cruel. (
Later on, Mrs. Anna Darvulia arrived and, after that, she (Darvulia) began murdering girls. The lady herself became crueler and crueler and things got worse.
) Something like a pretzel was kept in a box, with a mirror in the middle, before which she prayed for two hours. (
She would conjure with the assistance of a small box and a braided mirror at which she sat
.) Item: the Mistress of Miava made some sort of water in the morning, and at approximately 4:00 p.m., the Lady bathed in a baking trough; then she poured the water in the creek. (
Majernicka of Myjavy
(Erzsi Majorova
) prepared some water and brought it around four in order for the lady to bathe herself in it. The water was discharged into the creek and, along with other mixtures, was blended in a washtub where something was put into it
.) She wanted to bake two cakes in the trough, of which she wanted to poison both the King, the Lord Palatine and Imre Megyeri. (
The mix from this was given at the table to the king, the palatine, and also to Imre Megyery in order to poison them
.) But these gentlemen became aware of it and bested the Lady with the physical; because once they had eaten the first baked item, they all got stomach aches, and so she dared not permit the second baked item to be prepared/served. (
They must have realized the lady was trying to poison them because they said so. It struck them badly and they complained about a foul stomach after eating the prepared baked items
.)

. . . .

The second defendant heard was Ilona Jó, widow of István Nagy. The woman whom the Countess trusted to serve as nursemaid for and raise her own children was now on trial for butchering young girls not much older than her noble charges. Like her accomplices, Ilona Jó attempted to place as much blame on others whenever possible, particularly on the deceased Anna Darvolia. Also like the other defendants, she was asked the same questions as Ficzkó. Her answers followed immediately after his in the following, abbreviated format:

Second: Ilona Jó, widow of István Nagy, testified on the above points in order, as follows:

Regarding No. 1: She lived ten years with the Lady and was the nursemaid for the three girls and also Pál Nádasdy.

2: She does not know the number of victims, but she has killed enough.

3. She does not know of which families they were; but she knows two Sittkey women; then a sister of Gregor Jánosi; also, two noble girls were brought to her from Vécsei, also two from Cheglét: the one she killed, the other is still alive. Also, the Lady Szell had brought a girl, and one was also brought from Poland. The (wife of) Janós Bársony also brought a large, tall girl, the daughter of a nobleman, from where Janós Poliani lived; she was also killed. In, she know fifty or more who were murdered.