THE WORLD'S MOST EVIL PEOPLE (True Crime) by Rodney Castleden Page B
Authors: Rodney Castleden
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and preserve it for ever.
At night, Elizabeth and her deadly witch-band rode about the countryside looking for girls. When they found one, they took her back to the castle and drained off her blood for the countess to drink and bathe in. The countess carried on like this for five years before she realised that the blood cure was not working. She assumed it was because the blood was from peasant girls. What she needed was blood from virgins of her own class. In order to gain access to the girls she wanted, she opened a finishing school and took in 25 girls at a time to teach them the social graces. She treated her aristocratic pupils with the same ruthless cruelty that she had dealt out to the peasant girls before, but now she grew careless. The bodies of four of the girls were thrown over the castle walls. The villagers took them away for identification, and Elizabeth Bathory’s secret was a secret no more.
Once the authorities knew what had been happening, the Hungarian Emperor, Matthias II, was informed. He ordered that the countess must be made to stand trial for her crimes. As the law then stood, she could not be arrested because she was an aristocrat, so a new law had to be passed to enable her to be arrested. At her trial in 1610 it was alleged that she had killed as many as 600 girls. Dorotta Szentes, known as Dorka, was the procuress who had supplied first the peasant girls, then the girls of higher class. She was sentenced to be burnt at the stake along with the whole band of witches.
The countess herself could not be sentenced to death because of her class. She was, even so, sentenced to be imprisoned in a small room in her own castle and fed only on scraps. She died four years later.
La Voisin
(about 1620–1680)
Catherine Deshayes Voisin, Madame Deshayes, who was better known as La Voisin, was the Queen of the witches in France at the time of Louis XIV. It was known, even at the time, that many of the most famous women in France sought her out for help. She was supremely confident of her abilities. ‘Nothing is impossible to me,’ she boasted to her clients. She only came to grief when it seemed that her evil-doing might harm the King himself. Then she was brought to justice.
La Voisin was a small, dumpy woman. She was not unattractive, apart from the disconcertingly piercing eyes. Her abilities as a witch were apparently inherited or learnt from her mother, who was also a famous sorceress, consulted by kings. She lived in the St Denis district of Paris with her husband, her daughter and their lodger, an executioner called Levasseur. She officially claimed that she was a practitioner of chiromancy and a student of physiognomy. She was a gifted fortune teller, not least because she relied on a network of informants in French high society. She was also able to crystal gaze, read Tarot cards, read palms and read faces. She said that reading the lines in a person’s face was easier than reading the lines in their hand; passion and anxiety were easy to read there.
La Voisin made happiness powders and love potions, selling them in silk pouches. She also supplied aphrodisiacs and herbs for ending pregnancies. She visited the Sorbonne to discuss astrology with some of the academics there and made sure, for form’s sake, that she was seen regularly at Mass at her parish church.
She was, nevertheless, queen of a coven of witches that was the most powerful coven in Paris. To begin with, she had sought clients where she could get them, people of any class. But as she became better known as a sorceress, she became more and more ambitious and cultivated her court contacts. Morality fell away as people became richer and more powerful, and she found that rich people would pay almost anything to get rid of an unwanted wife, husband or rival.
La Voisin specialized in poison. She subcontracted the manufacture of the poisons to two women who were experts. They were able to provide her with over 50 different sorts
At night, Elizabeth and her deadly witch-band rode about the countryside looking for girls. When they found one, they took her back to the castle and drained off her blood for the countess to drink and bathe in. The countess carried on like this for five years before she realised that the blood cure was not working. She assumed it was because the blood was from peasant girls. What she needed was blood from virgins of her own class. In order to gain access to the girls she wanted, she opened a finishing school and took in 25 girls at a time to teach them the social graces. She treated her aristocratic pupils with the same ruthless cruelty that she had dealt out to the peasant girls before, but now she grew careless. The bodies of four of the girls were thrown over the castle walls. The villagers took them away for identification, and Elizabeth Bathory’s secret was a secret no more.
Once the authorities knew what had been happening, the Hungarian Emperor, Matthias II, was informed. He ordered that the countess must be made to stand trial for her crimes. As the law then stood, she could not be arrested because she was an aristocrat, so a new law had to be passed to enable her to be arrested. At her trial in 1610 it was alleged that she had killed as many as 600 girls. Dorotta Szentes, known as Dorka, was the procuress who had supplied first the peasant girls, then the girls of higher class. She was sentenced to be burnt at the stake along with the whole band of witches.
The countess herself could not be sentenced to death because of her class. She was, even so, sentenced to be imprisoned in a small room in her own castle and fed only on scraps. She died four years later.
La Voisin
(about 1620–1680)
Catherine Deshayes Voisin, Madame Deshayes, who was better known as La Voisin, was the Queen of the witches in France at the time of Louis XIV. It was known, even at the time, that many of the most famous women in France sought her out for help. She was supremely confident of her abilities. ‘Nothing is impossible to me,’ she boasted to her clients. She only came to grief when it seemed that her evil-doing might harm the King himself. Then she was brought to justice.
La Voisin was a small, dumpy woman. She was not unattractive, apart from the disconcertingly piercing eyes. Her abilities as a witch were apparently inherited or learnt from her mother, who was also a famous sorceress, consulted by kings. She lived in the St Denis district of Paris with her husband, her daughter and their lodger, an executioner called Levasseur. She officially claimed that she was a practitioner of chiromancy and a student of physiognomy. She was a gifted fortune teller, not least because she relied on a network of informants in French high society. She was also able to crystal gaze, read Tarot cards, read palms and read faces. She said that reading the lines in a person’s face was easier than reading the lines in their hand; passion and anxiety were easy to read there.
La Voisin made happiness powders and love potions, selling them in silk pouches. She also supplied aphrodisiacs and herbs for ending pregnancies. She visited the Sorbonne to discuss astrology with some of the academics there and made sure, for form’s sake, that she was seen regularly at Mass at her parish church.
She was, nevertheless, queen of a coven of witches that was the most powerful coven in Paris. To begin with, she had sought clients where she could get them, people of any class. But as she became better known as a sorceress, she became more and more ambitious and cultivated her court contacts. Morality fell away as people became richer and more powerful, and she found that rich people would pay almost anything to get rid of an unwanted wife, husband or rival.
La Voisin specialized in poison. She subcontracted the manufacture of the poisons to two women who were experts. They were able to provide her with over 50 different sorts
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