Elizabeth Bathroy  7 August 1560 – 21 August 1614 was a countess from the renowned Báthory family of Hungarian nobility. Although the number of murders is debated, she has been labeled the most prolific female serial killer in history and is remembered as the “Blood Countess.”

Later writings led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins to retain her youth and also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.