Show Notes
Elizabeth Bathory is one of pop culture’s favorite monsters. Accused of torturing and killing hundreds of young women, she’s inspired everything from Snow White’s evil stepmother to Lady Gaga. But the actual historical record shows almost none of it happened.
Josh Hutchinson and Sarah Jack sit down with Shelley Puhak, author of The Blood Countess: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster, to trace the documented history behind one of history’s most sensationalized witch trial-adjacent cases. From the fractured Kingdom of Hungary to a Lutheran minister’s invisible demonic cat army, this episode connects the Bathory case to the broader European witch trials and the religious and political warfare driving them.
What You’ll Learn
- What the preserved record actually shows
- The witchcraft and magic accusations woven into the case
- The political war that made Bathory a target
- What the Palatine of Hungary stood to gain from her downfall
- The one minister behind the witchcraft accusations
- Why no bodies were ever found
- What her own letters reveal about who she really was
- The role of ointments, alchemy, and antimony
- Why widowed noblewomen were especially vulnerable to accusation
- The tension between a pop culture monster and a real historical victim
- What justice could look like
About Shelley Puhak
Shelley Puhak is a poet, essayist, and historian from Maryland. Her previous nonfiction book, The Dark Queens (Bloomsbury, 2022), was a national bestseller and Goodreads Choice Awards finalist. Her essays have appeared in The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal, and Virginia Quarterly Review.
Links
- Buy the book: Blood Countess by Shelley Puhak
- Learn about the Author on ShelleyPuhak.com
- End Witch Hunts
- Salem Witch Trials History YouTube
