Yours Cruelly, ElviraAt only eighteen months old, Cassandra Peterson reached for a pot on the stove and doused herself in boiling water, resulting in third degree burns over 35 percent of her body. She miraculously survived, but burned and scarred, the impact would stay with her and become an obstacle she was determined to overcome. Cassandra left home at fourteen and supported herself as a go go dancer. By age seventeen, she was performing as a showgirl in Las Vegas.