Elizabeth Bathery, a Murderess

Thurzo and his men dug up the body, still fairly well preserved. Elizabeth was forced to stand there in full view, a punishment of public humiliation. She wasn't permitted to make a defence or speak on her own behalf. Thurzo continued to claim that it was a mercy that if she went to trial, she would be put to death instead. Without a verdict, she was merely detained under house arrest at the castle for the rest of her life. Visiting priests at the castle would write and remark that she actually moved freely about the castle until she died three years later at age 54.