Bloomin' Legends with Johnny Vaughan & Gavin Woods

She spoke four languages, owned more land than the King of Hungary, and may have tortured and murdered up to 650 young women over 25 years. When they finally caught her, she was so powerful they couldn't even put her on trial - so they bricked her up inside her own castle and left her there until she died.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods tackle Elizabeth Báthory - the 16th century Hungarian countess considered the most prolific female serial killer in recorded history, and the first true villain Bloomin' Legends has ever covered.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
🏰 The Blood Countess – how one of Europe's most powerful noblewomen allegedly used her wealth, land, and total impunity to torture and kill for over two decades
🐴 The most horrific execution ever? – as a child, Báthory witnessed a man sewn alive into a dying horse with his head left poking out, and it may have shaped everything that followed
🩸 The blood-bathing myth – did she really bathe in the blood of virgins? Almost certainly not — that detail was invented by a Jesuit writer over 100 years later
🤴 Too powerful to punish – why the King of Hungary wanted her gone, how her downfall was probably motivated by debt, and why she never stood trial
🧱 Bricked up alive – her final punishment: walled into a room in her own castle with no doors, no windows, and no sunlight for three and a half years until she died
If you love true crime, dark history, serial killers, medieval horror and comedy, this episode of Bloomin' Legends is for you.
Got a legend you want us to cover?
📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com
📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends
🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Ben Fairclough
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

A night out turns into a beachside evacuation. Thirty Royal Marines charge into the dark wearing boots, body armour and ballistic helmets, armed with whatever they could find in the galley, including a two-handled boiling pot.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the unhinged, moving and brilliant stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The Royal Navy Run Ashore That Got Out of Hand – Gareth remembers his late dad Sean: a teenage Navy recruit, a police-car-light heist in Pensacola, and the Caribbean night a beach bar bust-up required a full Marine rescue mission.
Can a Dickhead Still Be a Legend? – Mary asks the big question: can one heroic act outweigh years of being difficult? Johnny answers with a surprisingly profound passage from Tolstoy about why human beings are like rivers.
Uncle Dave, the Christmas Plumber – Jason nominates the man who has spent 40 years keeping elderly customers warm, fixing boilers for free and quietly being a bloomin legend.

🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

He was 4 foot 11, weighed eight stone, came from a mountain village with no electricity, no roads, and no running water… and then held off 200 Japanese soldiers in a Burmese jungle trench after a grenade blew his hand off.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on take on Lachhiman Gurung, the Gurkha rifleman who became one of the most decorated soldiers of the Second World War. Four days after VE Day, while Britain was celebrating in the streets, Gurung was still fighting in the Burmese jungle. Half blind, badly wounded, and down to one usable hand, he spent four hours holding off wave after wave of Japanese attackers with a bolt-action rifle, a kukri, and pure bloody-minded courage.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The trench stand - the astonishing night Gurung threw back grenades, lost his right hand, and still refused to give an inch
“Come and fight a Gurkha” – the battle cry he reportedly shouted into the dark as 200 enemy troops closed in
The quiet hero – how one of the bravest men of the war went home, farmed in silence, and barely spoke about what he’d done...bloomin legend.

🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

His grandfather was told to move a train up the line. The driver had wandered off, so he thought, how hard can it be? Twenty miles later, he found out.
The Extra Legendary Bit is the bonus episode where Johnny Vaughan and Gavin "The Woodman" Woods leave the history books behind and dive into the gloriously unhinged stories sent in by you, the listeners.
What You'll Hear in This Episode:
The Man Who Accidentally Stole a Train – A 1960s signal technician gets an empty locomotive rolling with zero training and absolutely no idea how to stop it. Land Rovers give chase. His response when they finally catch up is magnificent.
The Tightest Man Who Ever Bought a House – Uncle Ray never spent a penny in his life. Same flat for 40 years. Fiver in every birthday card. Then the solicitor's letter arrived.
The Ford Focus of Justice – Someone parks across Dave's driveway. Dave parks directly behind them and puts the football on. Three hours later, he delivers one line that ends the whole situation.
🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!

He was a lawyer by 17, a priest who once fainted in the pulpit from a hangover, a professional violinist, a government spy, a prison escape artist, a con man, a duellist, and the man whose name became shorthand for the world’s greatest seducer.
He blagged his way through 18th-century Europe, convinced a Venetian senator he had mystical powers, escaped from an “inescapable” prison through the roof, invented the French state lottery, and somehow still found time to get exiled from half the continent.
In this episode, Johnny Vaughan and Gavin “The Woodman” Woods take on Giacomo Casanova, the Venetian adventurer whose real life was far wilder than his reputation.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
The man behind the name - how Casanova became synonymous with seduction, even though his real life was much madder than just his love affairs
The prison break – Casanova’s legendary escape from Venice’s supposedly inescapable Leads prison by climbing out through the roof and strolling out dressed as a nobleman
The great European blag – how he convinced a senator he had magical powers, worked as a spy, and charmed his way into courts and palaces across the continent
Casanova’s seduction formula – Johnny breaks down the four-act game plan that made him history’s most famous romantic operator

🎥 Watch the full episode now on the Bloomin' Legends YouTube channel!
Got a legend you want us to cover? 📩 Send it to: bloominlegends@global.com 📲 Follow us on TikTok & Instagram: @BloominLegends 🎥 Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bloominlegends
Listen to all episodes on Global Player, download the app, or visit www.globalplayer.com
Bloomin' Legends is a Global production
Produced by Cassie Merritt
New episodes are released every Wednesday & Sunday. Subscribe to never miss an episode!