Vampires lurk in our collective imagination. The stars of books, movies, and even role-playing games are both dangerous and attractive. No Halloween celebration would be complete without wax teeth, fake blood, and a black cape.

But were there ever real vampires? Probably not, although there are a number of historical figures whose bloodlust may have provided a basis for the legend.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory certainly stands out as a prime example.

Born in Hungary in 1560, Bathory was married at age 15 to a warlord who apparently spent much of his time fighting the Turks. Left at home, Ella Bathory satisfied her own bloodlust by torturing and killing young girls.

At first her victims were peasant women, but as her sadistic impulses grew, Bathory widened her prey to include the daughters of lesser nobility.

It was this that turned out to be his downfall. Missing peasant women is one thing, but the nobility was wealthy and educated. Local priests took their suspicions to Emperor Matthias II and an investigation was launched.

George Thurzo, the Palatine of Hungary, led the investigation and on December 29, 1610, caught Bathory in the act. The Countess and four alleged achievements of hers were arrested.

Over the next three years, more than 300 people were interviewed and a chilling story emerged. Always a tough lover, Bathory apparently came to truly enjoy the pain he inflicted on her servants. Her cruelty was regrettable, but certainly not unheard of.

One day a servant pulled Bathory’s hair while she was brushing it. The Countess scratched at the girl’s cheeks with her long nails, spilling blood onto her wrinkled hand. Bathory imagined that the drops of blood smoothed her wrinkles and concluded that the blood of the young could restore the beauty of her youth.

That’s when the horror really began. Bathory began killing girls to bathe and drink their blood. Evidence at the trial put the body count at more than 600.

After the trial, Bathory’s achievements were burned alive. Because she belonged to the nobility, Ella Bathory escaped execution and was instead locked in a room in her own castle, where she died three years later.

But horrific as it is, Bathory’s story is often overshadowed by that of another Eastern European nobleman.

Vlad III was a Romanian nobleman who lived from 1431 to 1476. Held hostage by the Turks as a boy, Vlad later came to rule his father’s kingdom, which has been variously identified as Transylvania and Wallachia. He was also known as the Son of the Dragon (Dracula) in reference to his father’s position 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 constant warfare. Leading frequent raids into Turkish territory, he burned crops, looted and poisoned wells. Legend has it that one of these excursions resulted in the death of 20,000 Turks.

Both at home and abroad, Vlad earned a reputation for cruelty and ruthlessness. His father was murdered in a political intrigue and Vlad was apparently determined not to suffer the same fate.

In one story, it is said that he invited his political enemies to a meeting in his castle. Vlad then closed the doors and burned it to the ground.

Another story tells of a visit from an Ottoman ambassador. When the ambassador refused to remove his turban as a sign of respect, Vlad had it nailed to the poor man’s head. That surely did nothing to improve relations between the Kingdom of him and the Turks.

But the cruelty for which Vlad is best known also gave him his nickname: Tepes, which means “impaler.”

To serve as a warning to his enemies, Vlad would impale his prisoners on long poles, leaving them to writhe and rot in the sun. It is said that the roads to his kingdom were full of these poor unfortunates.

So much of Vlad’s history is laced with legend that it’s impossible to know how many of these stories are true. But contemporary reports seem to verify many of them.

Accounts vary as to the circumstances of Vlad’s death. Tradition holds that he died in battle with the Turks and that his head was sent as a gift to the Sultan of Turkey. Another version states that he was killed by the Hungarians. It is also possible that his own troops accidentally killed him.

Oddly enough, Vlad Tepes is seen as a folk hero to many in that part of the world.

Vlad may have been lost to history, except for research by a writer named Bram Stoker. Planning a novel about vampires, Stoker rediscovered Vlad and made him the central figure of the novel named after him: Dracula.

In more modern times, several serial killers have been dubbed “vampires” by the press.

Fritz Haarmann committed at least 24 murders in Germany between 1919 and 1924. He killed his victims by biting their necks. During his trial, which turned into a media circus, Haarmann was called a werewolf and a vampire. He headed in 1925.

Haarman was not the only “vampire” in Germany at the time. Peter Kurten, a serial killer who was beheaded in 1932, was known as the “Düsseldorf Vampire.” He was charged with nine murders and a variety of other crimes, including sexual assault.

Fritz Lang’s film “M” is said to have been based on the stories by Haarmann and Kurten.

In England, John George Haigh, the infamous “acid bath killer”, was also known as the “London vampire”. Haigh, who was hanged in 1949, claimed to have drunk the blood of his victims before destroying their bodies in a vat of sulfuric acid.

Do real vampires exist?

Again, probably not. But there are those whose monstrous crimes make us wonder about the terrible creatures of the night and legend.

More information on the haunted history of Halloween can be found at Top Halloween Links at http://www.thingsinthebasement.com.

This article stems from his lectures on the haunted history of Halloween.