-He signed his name (vlad) Draculea or Draculya - the Devil's son -, a name which was distorted into Dracula.

-Some tell the story of how Vlad used the monastery as a prison where he tortured people in the cells. Apparently there has been discoveries of decapitated skeletons with their skulls placed alongside the pierced bodies.

-Dracula used various means of torturing including, cutting of limbs, blinding, strangulation, burning, cutting off noses & ears, mutilation of sexual organs (especially in women), scalping, skinning, exposure to the elements or to wild animals and boiling alive.

-Another story similar to the burning of the poor was that Vlad gave a feast for his boyars and their family to celebrate Easter. Vlad was well aware that many of these were part of a conspiracy that led to his father's assassination and the burying alive of his elder brother, Mircea.

During the feast Vlad asked his guests how many princes had ruled during their lifetimes. All the guests present had outlived several princes. One answered that at least thirty princes had held the throne during his life. Vlad immediately had all the assembled guests arrested on the spot. The older boyars and their families were immediately impaled. The younger ones and their families were marched north from Tirgoviste to the ruins of a castle in the mountains above the Arges River. Being determined to rebuild this ancient fortress as his own he forced the boyars to labor for months rebuilding the old castle with materials from another nearby ruin.

They were forced to continue on even though their clothes fell from their bodies and they were naked. Very few of these people survived the building of Castle Dracula.

the remaining ruins of what the enslaved boyars were forced to build

-The Vatican (apparently) still has some secret reports on Vlad sent to Pope Pius II in Rome.

-Vlad had some obsession with female chastity. Maidens who lost their virginity, adulterous wives and unchaste widows were all targets of Vlad's cruelty. Women often had their sexual organs cut out of their breasts cut off. They were also impaled upon red hot stakes through the groin coming out the mouth. One poor unfaithful wife was executed by being skinned alive and impaled after having her breasts cut off in a square in Tirgoviste - her skin was placed beside her on a table.

- Reportedly, his first wife committed suicide by leaping from the towers of Dracula's castle into the waters of the Arges River rather than surrender to the Turks.

-In 1976, the Romanian government issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of Vlad's death.

the ruins of Dracula's Castle

-Whilst imprisoned at one time Vlad couldn't help himself but torture small animals - they were quite often found impaled upon small stakes.

And so the legend of this terrible ruler continues on today - he has been immortalized in film and the legend of Vlad the Impaler Dracula will never die.

Gypsy legend sais that dracula returned to earth 200 years after his death - they say he looked similar to his old self but was less violent and fitted in well with the times. They also say that he never died and carries his coffin around with him still to this day.