As Erzsebet aged and her beauty began to wane, she tried to conceal the decline through cosmetics and the most expensive of clothes. The story says that one day a servant girl accidentally pulled her hair while combing it and Erzsebet slapped the girl’s hand so hard she drew blood, which fell onto her own hand. She immediately though her skin took on the freshness of that of her young maid. She thought she found the secret of eternal youth.
Following the witch’s instructions, Erzsebet had her evil henchmen kidnap beautiful young virgins, slash them with knives and collect their blood in a large vat. Then the Countess proceeded to bath in the virgin’s blood. When she emerged from the blood she had seemingly regained her youth and radiance.
Erzsebet’s minions procured more virgins from the neighbouring villages on the pretext of hiring them as servants. As the body count grew, Bathory’s servants dumped the corpses outside the castle. When local peasants found the dead bodies, drained of blood, rumours quickly spread that vampires inhabited the old fortress.
When Darvulia died or disappeared, Erzsebet almost fifty found herself aging even more, complained to her new witch about the uselessness of the blood baths.
In fact, more than complain, she threatened to kill her if she did not stop at once the encroaching and execrable signs of old age. The sorceress named Erzsi Majorova argued that Darvulia’s method had not worked because plebeian blood had been used. She assured that changing the colour of the blood, using blue blood instead of red, would ensure the fast retreat of old age.
She managed to attract twenty-five impoverished noblewomen in 1909 who in exchange for happy company, would receive lessons in fine manners and learn how to behave exquisitely in society. A fortnight later, only two were left.
Erzsebet accused one of them of killing others for jewelry and then committing suicide. But even though Erzsebet tortured young noblewomen and accompanied the blood baths with witchcraft rites, she could not retrieve her lost youth. For over a decade she perpetrated her acts of vampirism, mutilating and bleeding dry 650 maidens.
Reverend Andras Berthoni, a Lutheran pastor of Csejthe, realized the truth when Erzsebet commanded him to bury secretly the bloodless corpses. He set down his suspicions regarding Erzsebet in a note before he died.
The Countess was becoming so notorious that her crimes could no longer be concealed. In 1610, the Bathory family secretly decided to spirit the Countess off to a convent for the rest of her days, but before this could be accomplished, Megyery deposed a formal complaint against her before the Hungarian Parliament.