Vampires of History and Legend

Vampires chaff our corporate imaginations. The stars of books, movies, and even function playing games, they are at once both unsafe and alluring. No Halloween jubilation would be complete without wax teeth, bogus blood and a black cape.

But were there ever any existent Vampires? Probably not, although there are any figure of historical figs whose murderousness may have got provided a footing for the legend.

Countess Elizabeth Ii Bathory certainly stand ups as a premier example.

Born in Republic Of Hungary in 1560, Bathory was married at age 15 to a warlord who apparently spent much of his time away fighting the Turks. Left at home, Bathory satisfied her ain bloodlust by torturing and violent death immature girls.

Her victims at first were peasants, but as her sadistic urges on grew, Bathory expanded her quarry to include the girls of minor gentry.

It was this that proven to be her undoing. Missing peasant misses is one thing, but the aristocracy were affluent and educated. Local priests brought their intuitions to Emperor Matthias II, and an probe was launched.

George Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, led the inquest, and on December 29, 1610, caught Bathory in the act. The Countess and four suspected confederates were arrested.

Over the adjacent three years, more than than 300 people were interviewed and a scarey story emerged. Always a rough mistress, Bathory apparently came to truly bask the hurting she inflicted on her servants. Her inhuman treatment was regrettable, but certainly not unheard of.

One day, a retainer pulled Bathory's hair while brushing it. The Countess raked the girl's cheeks with her long nails, spilling blood on her wrinkled hand. Bathory imagined that the driblets of blood smoothed away her wrinkes, and concluded that the blood of immature misses could reconstruct the beauty of her youth.

That's when the horror really began. Bathory began to kill immature misses to bathe in, and drink their blood. Evidence at the trial set the organic structure count at more than than 600.

Following the trial, Bathory's confederates were burned alive. Because she was nobility, Bathory escaped execution, and was instead walled up in a room in her ain castle, where she died three old age later.

But atrocious as it is, Bathory's story is usually overshadowed by that of another Eastern European noble.

Vlad three was a Rumanian Lord who lived from 1431 to 1476. Held surety by the Turks as a child, Vlad later came to rule his father's kingdom, which have variously been identified as Transylvania and Wallachia. He was also known as the Son of the Dragon (Dracula) in mention to his father's place as a Knight of the Order of the Dragon.

Because his kingdom served as a buffer zone between Muslim Turkey and Christian Europe, Vlad's life was one of changeless warfare. Lead frequent forays into Turkish territory, he burned crops, pillaged, and poisoned wells. Legend have it that one of these jaunts resulted in the deceases of 20,000 Turks.

Both place and abroad, Vlad gained a repute for inhuman treatment and ruthlessness. His male parent was murdered in a political intrigue, and Vlad apparently was determined not to endure the same fate.

In one story, he is said to have got invited his political enemies to a meeting at his castle. Vlad then locked the doors and burnt it to the ground.

Another story tells of the visit of an Ottoman ambassador. When the embassador refused to take his turban as a mark of respect, Vlad had it nailed to the mediocre man's head. That surely did not make anything to improve dealings between his Kingdom and the Turks.

But the inhuman treatment for which Vlad is best known also gave him his nickname: Tepes, which intends "impaler."

To function as a warning to his enemies, Vlad would impale his captives on long poles, leaving them to jerk and putrefaction in the sun. It is said that the roadstead to his kingdom were lined with these mediocre unfortunates.

So much of Vlad's history is mixed with fable that it is imposible to cognize how many of these narratives are true. But modern-day studies look to verify many of them.

Accounts change as to the fortune of Vlad's death. Tradition holds that he died in conflict with the Turks and that his caput was sent as a gift to the Sultan of Turkey. Another version claims that he was killed by the Hungarians. It's also possible that he was killed accidentally by his ain troops.

Strange as it may seem, Vlad Tepes is seen as a common people hero to many in that portion of the world.

Vlad may have got been lost to history, except for the research of a author named Bram Stoker. Planning a novel on vampires, Bram Stoker rediscovered Vlad and made him the cardinal figure in the novel that bears his name: Dracula.

In more than modern times, respective series slayers have got been dubbed "vampires" by the press.

Fritz Haarmann committed at least 24 homicides in Federal Republic Of Germany between 1919 and 1924. He killed his victims by barbed their necks. During his trial, which became a mass media circus, Haarmann was variously called a wolfman and a vampire. He was beheaded in 1925.

Haarman wasn't the lone "vampire" in Federal Republic Of Germany at that time. Simon Peter Kurten, a series slayer who was beheaded in 1932, was known as the "Vampire of Dusseldorf." He was charged with nine homicides and a assortment of other offenses, including sexual assaults.

It is said that Fritz Lang's film "M" was based on the Haarmann and Kurten stories.

In England, Toilet Saint George Haigh, the ill-famed "Acid Bath Murderer," also was known as the "Vampire of London." Haigh, who was hanged in 1949, claimed to have got drunk the blood of his victims before destroying their organic structures in a VAT of sulfuric acid.

Are there existent vampires?

Again, probably not. But there are those whose monstrous law-breakings do us inquire about the awful animals of nighttime and legend.

More on the obsessed history of Halloween can be establish at Top Halloween Golf Course at www.thingsinthebasement.com .

This article is derived from his talks on the obsessed history of Halloween.