Leonarda Cianciulli
Encyclopedia
Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian
serial killer
. Better known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio
", she murdered three women in Correggio between 1939 and 1940, and turned their bodies into soap
.
and had an unhappy childhood. Her mother Emilia Marano, did not love her because her pregnancy was due to a rape.
While still a young girl, Leonarda attempted suicide twice. In 1914 she married a registry office
clerk, Raffaele Pansardi: her parents didn't approve that marriage, as they planned her to marry another man. Leonarda claimed that on this occasion her mother cursed them. The couple moved to Lariano
in Alta Irpinia
. Their home was destroyed by an earthquake in 1930
, and they moved once more, this time to Correggio, where Leonarda opened a small shop and became very popular as a nice, gentle woman, a doting mother and a nice neighbour.
Cianciulli had seventeen pregnancies during her marriage, but lost three of the children to miscarriage
; ten more died in their youth. Consequently she was heavily protective of the four surviving children. Her fears were fueled by a warning she had received some time earlier from a fortune teller, who said that she would marry and have children, but that all of the children would die. Reportedly, Cianciulli also visited another Gypsy who practiced palm reading, and who told her, “In your right hand I see prison
, in your left a criminal asylum
.” Cianciulli was a superstitious woman, and seems to have taken these warnings very much to heart.
in preparation for World War II
. Giuseppe was her favorite child, and she was determined to protect him at all costs. She came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifice
s. She found her victims in three middle-aged women, all neighbours. Some sources record that Cianciulli was something of a fortune teller herself, and that these women all visited her for help; others state merely that they were friends of hers seeking advice. Whatever the reason, Cianciulli began to plan the deaths of the three women.
, but convinced her to tell nobody of the news. She further convinced Setti to write letters and postcard
s to relatives and friends; these, to be mailed when she reached Pola, were merely to tell them that everything was fine.
On the day of her departure, Setti came to visit Cianciulli one last time; Cianciulli offered her a glass of drugged wine
, then killed her with an axe
and dragged the body into a closet. There she cut it into nine parts, gathering the blood into a basin. In her memorial (titled "An embittered soul's confessions") Cianciulli described what happened next in her official statement:
Some sources also record that Cianciulli apparently received Setti's life savings, 30,000 lire
, as payment for her services.
. Like Setti, Soavi was convinced to write postcards to be sent to friends, this time from Correggio, detailing her plans. Also like Setti, Soavi came to visit with Cianciulli before her departure; she, too, was given drugged wine and then killed with an axe. The murder occurred on September 5, 1940. Soavi's body was given the same treatment as Setti's, and Cianciulli is said to have obtained 3,000 lire from her second victim.
said to have sung at La Scala
. For her, Cianciulli claimed to have found work as the secretary for a mysterious impresario
in Florence
; as with the other two women, she was told not to tell a single person where she was going. Virginia agreed, and on September 30, 1940, came for a last visit with Cianciulli. The pattern to the murder was exactly the same as the first two; according to Cianciulli's statement:
From Cacioppo, Cianciulli reportedly received 50,000 lire and assorted jewels.
grew suspicious at her sudden disappearance, and had last seen her entering Cianciulli's house. She reported her fears to the superintendent of police in Reggio Emilia
, who opened an investigation and soon arrested Cianciulli. Cianciulli immediately confessed to the murders, providing detailed accounts of what she had done.
Cianciulli was tried for murder in Reggio Emilia in 1946. She remained unrepentant, going so far as to correct the official account while on the stand:
She was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.
Cianciulli died of cerebral apoplexy in the women's criminal asylum in Pozzuoli
on October 15, 1970. A number of artifacts from the case, including the pot in which the victims were boiled, are on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome
.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
serial killer
Serial killer
A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...
. Better known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio
Correggio, Italy
Correggio is a small town and comune in the Province of Reggio Emilia, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in the Po valley. As of 2007 Correggio had an estimated population of 23,108....
", she murdered three women in Correggio between 1939 and 1940, and turned their bodies into soap
Soap
In chemistry, soap is a salt of a fatty acid.IUPAC. "" Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. . Compiled by A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford . XML on-line corrected version: created by M. Nic, J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN...
.
Early life
Cianciulli was born in MontellaMontella
Montella is a town with 7,979 inhabitants, comune in the province of Avellino, Campania, Italy. The zone was inhabited already in the neolithic period. The town was born like Sannites' village in the I millennium a.C., to become a Municipality of Roman empire and town under the...
and had an unhappy childhood. Her mother Emilia Marano, did not love her because her pregnancy was due to a rape.
While still a young girl, Leonarda attempted suicide twice. In 1914 she married a registry office
Civil registry
Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database is called civil register or registry, or population registry. The primary purpose of civil registration is to create legal documents that are used to...
clerk, Raffaele Pansardi: her parents didn't approve that marriage, as they planned her to marry another man. Leonarda claimed that on this occasion her mother cursed them. The couple moved to Lariano
Lariano
Lariano is a comune in the Province of Rome in the Italian region Lazio, located about 35 km southeast of Rome on the Alban Hills....
in Alta Irpinia
Irpinia
Irpinia is a region of the Apennine Mountains around Avellino, a town in Campania, South Italy about 40 km east of Naples...
. Their home was destroyed by an earthquake in 1930
1930 Irpinia earthquake
The 1930 Irpinia earthquake occurred at 00:08 UTC on 23 July 1930. It had a magnitude of 6.6 and caused 1,404 deaths. The epicenter was close to the borders between the regions of Basilicata, Puglia and Campania.-Tectonic setting:...
, and they moved once more, this time to Correggio, where Leonarda opened a small shop and became very popular as a nice, gentle woman, a doting mother and a nice neighbour.
Cianciulli had seventeen pregnancies during her marriage, but lost three of the children to miscarriage
Miscarriage
Miscarriage or spontaneous abortion is the spontaneous end of a pregnancy at a stage where the embryo or fetus is incapable of surviving independently, generally defined in humans at prior to 20 weeks of gestation...
; ten more died in their youth. Consequently she was heavily protective of the four surviving children. Her fears were fueled by a warning she had received some time earlier from a fortune teller, who said that she would marry and have children, but that all of the children would die. Reportedly, Cianciulli also visited another Gypsy who practiced palm reading, and who told her, “In your right hand I see prison
Prison
A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...
, in your left a criminal asylum
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
.” Cianciulli was a superstitious woman, and seems to have taken these warnings very much to heart.
Murders
In 1939, Cianciulli heard that her eldest son, Giuseppe, was to join the Italian armyArmy
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
in preparation for World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Giuseppe was her favorite child, and she was determined to protect him at all costs. She came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
s. She found her victims in three middle-aged women, all neighbours. Some sources record that Cianciulli was something of a fortune teller herself, and that these women all visited her for help; others state merely that they were friends of hers seeking advice. Whatever the reason, Cianciulli began to plan the deaths of the three women.
Faustina Setti
The first of Cianciulli's victims, Faustina Setti, was a lifelong spinster who had come to her for help in finding a husband. Cianciulli told her of a suitable mate in PolaPula
Pula is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, situated at the southern tip of the Istria peninsula, with a population of 62,080 .Like the rest of the region, it is known for its mild climate, smooth sea, and unspoiled nature. The city has a long tradition of winemaking, fishing,...
, but convinced her to tell nobody of the news. She further convinced Setti to write letters and postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
s to relatives and friends; these, to be mailed when she reached Pola, were merely to tell them that everything was fine.
On the day of her departure, Setti came to visit Cianciulli one last time; Cianciulli offered her a glass of drugged wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, then killed her with an axe
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
and dragged the body into a closet. There she cut it into nine parts, gathering the blood into a basin. In her memorial (titled "An embittered soul's confessions") Cianciulli described what happened next in her official statement:
I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.
Some sources also record that Cianciulli apparently received Setti's life savings, 30,000 lire
Lire
Lire is a French literary magazine covering both French and foreign literature. It was founded in 1975 by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Bernard Pivot.-External links:*...
, as payment for her services.
Francesca Soavi
Francesca Soavi was the second victim; Cianciulli claimed to have found her a job at a school for girls in PiacenzaPiacenza
Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Piacenza...
. Like Setti, Soavi was convinced to write postcards to be sent to friends, this time from Correggio, detailing her plans. Also like Setti, Soavi came to visit with Cianciulli before her departure; she, too, was given drugged wine and then killed with an axe. The murder occurred on September 5, 1940. Soavi's body was given the same treatment as Setti's, and Cianciulli is said to have obtained 3,000 lire from her second victim.
Virginia Cacioppo
Cianciulli's final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former sopranoSoprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
said to have sung at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
. For her, Cianciulli claimed to have found work as the secretary for a mysterious impresario
Impresario
An impresario is a person who organizes and often finances concerts, plays or operas; analogous to a film producer in filmmaking, television production and an angel investor in business...
in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
; as with the other two women, she was told not to tell a single person where she was going. Virginia agreed, and on September 30, 1940, came for a last visit with Cianciulli. The pattern to the murder was exactly the same as the first two; according to Cianciulli's statement:
She ended up in the pot, like the other two...her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbours and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better: that woman was really sweet.
From Cacioppo, Cianciulli reportedly received 50,000 lire and assorted jewels.
Discovery and trial
Cacioppo's sister-in-lawSister-in-law
A sister-in-law is the sister of one's spouse, the wife of one's sibling, or sometimes the wife of one's spouse's sibling...
grew suspicious at her sudden disappearance, and had last seen her entering Cianciulli's house. She reported her fears to the superintendent of police in Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
, who opened an investigation and soon arrested Cianciulli. Cianciulli immediately confessed to the murders, providing detailed accounts of what she had done.
Cianciulli was tried for murder in Reggio Emilia in 1946. She remained unrepentant, going so far as to correct the official account while on the stand:
At her trial in Reggio Emilia last week Poetess Leonarda gripped the witness-stand rail with oddly delicate hands and calmly set the prosecutor right on certain details. Her deep-set dark eyes gleamed with a wild inner pride as she concluded: "I gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war...."
She was found guilty of her crimes and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.
Cianciulli died of cerebral apoplexy in the women's criminal asylum in Pozzuoli
Pozzuoli
Pozzuoli is a city and comune of the province of Naples, in the Italian region of Campania. It is the main city of the Phlegrean peninsula.-History:Pozzuoli began as the Greek colony of Dicaearchia...
on October 15, 1970. A number of artifacts from the case, including the pot in which the victims were boiled, are on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
.