Episode 13: Bloodsucking Broads! A Very Gory Halloween Special, Feat. Elizabeth Bathory, Mercy Brown, and Female Vampires Galore!

Do female vampires exist? Are they bloodier than their male counterparts? And if the answer to those first two questions is yes: should we race to the grocery store RIGHT NOW to stock up on garlic?! Join me as we travel through the long, dark, decomposition-ridden history of female vampires, from ancient Assyrian myths to New England vampire panics to Hungarian countesses with bad reputations. We’ll talk about lady vamps in legend, in pop culture, and—eek!—in real life. Happy Halloween!

Sources:

“The Blood Countess: Erzsébet Báthory,” from Lady Killers by Tori Telfer
Dracula Was a Woman: In Search of the Blood Countess of Transylvania, by Raymond T. McNally
Food for the Dead: On the Trail of New England’s Vampires by Michael Bell
“The Great New England Vampire Panic,” Smithsonian, October 2012
“Grave of Mercy Brown,” Atlas Obscura
“Not All Fangs Are Phallic: Female Film Vampires,” by James Craig Holte, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Vol. 10, No. 2
“Vampire ASMR Roleplay: Meeting the Countess” by Stephanie Swan Quills
“2 Guilty in ‘Lesbian Vampire Trial,’” The Ottowa Citizen, 16 Feb 1991
“Woman wondered if lover was a vampire, court told,” The Age, 7 Feb 1991
“Blood-drinking devil worshipers face life for ritual Satanic killing,” The Guardian, 1 Feb 2002
“German killing shines light on Satanism,” Calgary Herald, 20 Jan 2002
“Flirting with Hitler,” The Guardian, 16 Nov 2002
“2 middle school girls waited in a bathroom and planned to cut up their classmates, police say,” CNN, 26 Oct 2018

Music:

“Guilty,” by Ruth Etting, via archive.org
“Ghost Surf Rock,” by Loyalty Freak Music via freemusicarchive.org