Europe's most prolific female serial killer strikes again

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 2008-12-19 16:33

Story here. Excerpt:

'The woman identified only as Diana P, 45, was found dead by walkers in a ditch near her Fiat Panda car in October.

Extensive DNA testing came back this week on both the corpse and the car, implicating the predator known as the 'woman without a face' who has eluded police for 15 years.
...
The killer first struck in May 1993 when she turned up on the doorstep of churchwarden Lieselotte Schlenger in the town of Idar-Oberstein clutching flowers.

Having bluffed her way into the 62-year-old woman's home, she used the wire that bound the flowers to strangle her.'

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This reminds me of the recent DNA evidence on Jack the Ripper that led some to look again at the one female suspect, a midwife who was convicted and executed for killing a romantic rival in exactly the way Jack the Ripper committed the murders. This has been posted previously at MANN.

"Was Jack the Ripper Female?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/was-jack-the-ripper-a-woman-478597.html

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Submitted by Marc A. on Fri, 2008-12-19 21:32

From Wikipedia:

'Countess Elizabeth Báthory (Báthory Erzsébet in Hungarian, Alžbeta Bátoriová in Slovak, Alžběta Báthoryová in Czech, Elżbieta Batory in Polish, 7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614), was a Hungarian countess from the renowned Báthory family. She is possibly the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the "Blood Countess" and as the "Bloody Lady of Čachtice", after the castle near Trenčín, at that time in Kingdom of Hungary, where she spent most of her adult life.

Accusations:

In 1610 and 1611 the notaries collected testimonies from more than 300 witness accounts. Trial records include testimonies of the four defendants, as well as 13 more witnesses. Priests, noblemen and commoners were questioned. Witnesses included the castellan and other personnel of Sárvár castle.

According to these testimonies, her initial victims were local peasant girls, many of whom were lured to Čachtice by offers of well-paid work as maidservants in the castle. Later she is said to have begun to kill daughters of lower gentry, who were sent to her gynaeceum by their parents to learn courtly etiquette. Abductions were said to have occurred as well. At the trial there were accusations of pagan practices and witchcraft.[citation needed] The trial did not follow modern judicial standards and the processes included intimidation and torture.

The descriptions of torture that emerged during the trials were often based on hearsay. The atrocities described most consistently included:

severe beatings over extended periods of time, often leading to death.
burning or mutilation of hands, sometimes also of faces and genitalia.
biting the flesh off the faces, arms and other bodily parts.
freezing to death.
bad surgery on victims, often leading to death.
starving of victims.
The use of needles was also mentioned by the collaborators in court.

Some witnesses named relatives who died while at the gynaeceum. Others reported having seen traces of torture on dead bodies, some of which were buried in graveyards, and others in unmarked locations. According to testimonies by the defendants, Elizabeth Báthory tortured and killed her victims not only at Čachtice but also on her properties in Sárvár, Sopronkeresztúr, Bratislava, (then Pozsony, Pressburg), and Vienna, and even between these locations. In addition to the defendants, several people were named for supplying Elizabeth Báthory with young women. The girls had been procured either by deception or by force. A little-known figure named Anna Darvulia was also rumored to have influenced Báthory but apparently died long before the trial.

The number of young women tortured and killed by Elizabeth Báthory is unknown, though it is often cited as being in the hundreds, between the years 1585 and 1610. The estimates differ greatly. During the trial and before their execution, Szentes and Ficko reported 36 and 37 respectively, during their periods of service. The other defendants estimated a number of 50 or higher. Many Sárvár castle personnel estimated the number of bodies removed from the castle at between 100 to 200. One witness who spoke at the trial mentioned a book in which a total of over 650 victims was supposed to have been listed by Báthory herself. This number became part of the legend surrounding Báthory. Reportedly, diaries in Báthory's hand are kept in the State Archives in Budapest. The diaries are difficult to read due to the condition of the material, the old language, the hand-writing and the horrific content.[11]

László Nagy has argued that Elizabeth Báthory was a victim of a conspiracy,[12] a view opposed by others.[13] Nagy argued that the proceedings were largely politically motivated. However the conspiracy theory is consistent with Hungarian history at that time.'

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Submitted by anthony on Fri, 2008-12-19 22:20