Strange Sight | CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND UNSOLVED CASES

Leonarda Cianciulli

[OVERVIEW]

Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian woman who became infamous after killing 3 women and turning them into soap and cookies between 1939 and 1940.

She was nicknamed Soap-Maker of Corregio

[EARLY LIFE]

Her exact day of birth varies from source to source but it is believed she was born in 1894.

Leonarda was a product of rape. Because of this her mother absolutely hated her. At the time Leonardas mother would have been shunned for having a baby alone. With no other options to choose from her mother had to marry her rapist.

As a child she attempted suicide twice because of the emotional neglect from her mother.

Leonarda wanted to take her own life in her hands so in 1917 she married a registry office clerk, Raffaele Pansardi. Her parents did not approve of this as they had arranged another marriage for her. She was than shunned from her family. She has also claimed she believed that her mother cursed the new couple as a way to make their lives harder for disobeying her.

The couple moved to Pansardi's native town, Lauria, in 1921. It was here that Leonarda was charged with fraud and imprisoned in 1927.

She knew that the town would publicly shame her so when she was released they moved to Lacedonia. When everything seemed to be looking up for them tragedy struck once again.

In 1930 an earthquake destroyed their home, forcing them to move once again, this time to Corregio, where they would remain.

There she opened a soap shop and was very respected and loved in the neighborhood.

Cianciulli had 17 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 young. Reportedly, Cianciulli also visited another Romani who practiced palm reading, and who told her, "In your right hand I see prison, in your left a criminal asylum."

[MURDERS]

In 1939, Cianciulli learned that her eldest son, Giuseppe, was going to join the Italian Army in preparation for World War II. Giuseppe was her favourite child, and she was determined to protect him at all costs. She came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifices. She found her victims in three middle-aged women, all neighbours. Cianciulli said she was something of a fortune teller herself, and that these women all visited her for help.

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 partner in Pola, but asked her to tell no one of the news. She also persuaded Setti to write letters and postcards to relatives and friends. They were to be mailed when she reached Pola, 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. 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 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."

Francesca Soavi was the second victim. Cianciulli claimed to have found her a job at a school for girls in Piacenza. Like Setti, Soavi was persuaded 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 5 September 1940. Soavi's body was given the same treatment as Setti's, and Cianciulli is said to have obtained over $3,000 from her second victim.

Cianciulli's third and last victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former soprano 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 instructed not to tell a single person where she was going. Virginia agreed, and on 30 September 1940, came for a last visit to Cianciulli. The pattern to the murder was the same as the first two. However, unlike the first two victims, Cacioppo's body was melted to make soap. 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."

[DISCOVERY AND TRAIL]

Cacioppo's sister-in-law 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 did not confess to the murders until they believed that her son, Giuseppe Pansardi, was involved in the crime. She confessed to the murders, providing detailed accounts of what she had done to save her son from any blame.

Cianciulli was tried for murder in Reggio Emilia in 1946.

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 15 October 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.