This legend appeared in print for the first time in 1729, in the Jesuit scholar László Turóczi's Tragica Historia,[1] the first written account of the Báthory case.
Modern historians Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally have concluded that the theory Báthory murdered on account of her vanity sprang up from contemporary prejudices about gender roles.
[4] In 1817, the witness accounts (which had surfaced in 1765) were published for the first time,[5] demonstrating that the bloodbaths or blood seeker for vanity aspect of Báthory's crimes were legend rather than fact.
Some versions of the story incorporated even more elaborate torture chamber fantasies than recorded history could provide, such as the use of an iron maiden, which were not based on the evidence from Báthory's trial.
In the book, she is cousin to Count Dracula and was the motive behind his decision to move to London in the original novel, as she was murdering women under the guise of Jack the Ripper and he swore to stop her.
The historical novel The Countess by Rebecca Johns tells a first-person fictionalized account of Báthory's life from her prison cell at Csejthe Castle.
The Countess' fortune was believed to be divided among the clergy, although some say that more remains unfound, still buried alongside the rotting skulls that bear mute witness to the inhumanity of the human creature.Báthory is featured in McFarlane Toys' 6 Faces of Madness series, a collection of action figures which also includes Jack the Ripper, Rasputin and Vlad the Impaler.