THE SOAP-MAKER OF CORREGGIO

With the words ‘Don’t tell a soul,’ Leonarda Cianciulla, sealed the fate of her three victims in the northern Italian village of Correggion in-between 1939 and 1940. Although the number of her victims is small in contrast with more prolific serial killers, she is interesting not only because there are few woman serial killers generally but also because of the nature of her crimes, not least the manner in which she disposed of the bodies of her victims.

“The Soap-Maker of Correggio”, as Leonarda Cianciulla has become known was born on November 14, 1892 in Montella, Italy. She did not enjoy a happy childhood and her relationship with her mother was not loving, perhaps in part because she was the daughter of a rapist. Her parents disapproved of her plans to marry Raffaele Pansardi, an office clerk because they had made plans for her to marry a wealthier man. She claimed that her mother cursed the couple and so they moved to Lariano in Alto Irpinia. History does not reveal whether her mother of Romany descent, but if she did curse her daughter and son in law that was not to be the last part that the supernatural would have to play in her life and her crimes.

Leonarda’s home was destroyed by an earthquake in 1930 so she and her husband decided to move to Correggio. The villagers regarded her as a nice woman who doted on her children and she was considered he to be a pleasant neighbour. Perhaps they felt just a little sorry for her because she had lost no fewer than seventeen children, three to miscarriage and ten during their youth.

Her remaining three children were her pride and joy and she was extremely protective of them, not least because of a warning she had received from a gypsy that all her children would die. Leonarda being a superstitious woman took this warning to heart. Her victims may well have wished that she had considered the advice given to her by another fortune-teller a little more deeply, namely that she would spend time in prison and in a psychiatric hospital. Unfortunately, she did not.

War in Europe in 1939 led to Leonardo’s eldest son, Guiseppe being conscripted to join the Italian army. He was her favourite child and she was determined to save him from death in combat. To do so she turned to the dark arts. After studying black magic she concluded that three deaths were required in return for the life of her son. Leonarda was a well-regarded match-maker in the village and a reliable fortune teller too; both skills helped to endear her to the villagers and they would also be put to good use by her in the commission of her crimes. She began to plan her crimes with intricate care. Three lives had to be sacrificed so that her son, Guiseppe might live.

Faustina Setti, in common with all three victims was a middle aged spinster. Faustina consulted Leonarda because she was in need of a husband, but perhaps she also wanted advice from the spirit world too, given Leonarda’s skills as a fortune teller. Doubtless Senorita Setti was delighted to learn that Leonarda had been able to find a match for her, namely a gentleman who lived in nearby Pola. Her happiness at finding a husband late in life and her anxiety not to lose him may well have led her to obey Leonarda when she advised Senorita Fausina “don’t a tell a soul’. It might also explain why she readily agreed to provide Leonarda with letters to be sent to her friends and relatives to allay any fears that they might have about her safety and to demonstrate that she was happy in her new life. That decision was to cost Faustina her life. Leonarda also pocketed her thirty thousand lira life savings for good measure.

One can only imagine the excitement that Faustina was feeling when she accepted a drink of wine from Leonarda on the day she was to meet her new husband. The wine was drugged of course and once unconscious Leonarda despatched her swiftly with an axe and dragged her lifeless body into a closet. She cut the body into nine parts and tossed into her pot; the blood was collected into a cooking basin. Seven kilos of caustic soda that had been bought to make soap was added to the body parts, which was then stirred until they dissolved into a thick, dark mush that was poured into several buckets before being emptied into a tank. Leonarda waited until the blood had coagulated and then dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs. The mixture was placed back into the oven where it was cooked into crunchy tea cakes that were served to the ladies of the village when they called for afternoon tea.

The second victim was one Francesca Soavi. She was a teacher and Leonarda claimed to have found a prestigious job for her in a woman’s college in Piacenza. Again, Leonarda was able to pursuade her victim not to tell anybody about her good news and to provide her with letters to be sent to her friends and family, presumably in the fear that somebody might obtain the teaching post that she both desired and had paid her three thousand lira to procure. Given Leonarda obtained thirty thousand lira from Faustina Setti, one can only assume that teaching posts were easier to obtain than husbands in 1930s Italy, but it should be noted that Leonarda also stole the savings Francesca had expected to use to establish herself in her new post.
Leonarda’s final victim was Virginia Cacioppo. Another middle aged woman who was somewhat overweight; she was a soprano and had performed at La Scala. Perhaps she craved a return to the limelight and that was why she was easily convinced not to tell a soul of her good fortune in obtaining a position as a secretary for an impresario in Florence. She obediently provided postcards to be sent to her friends in common with the first two victims. She shared their method of death and drank a glass of drugged wine that was swiftly followed with death by the axe. She too ended up in Leonardro’s pot and was transformed into what she later described as a creamy soap. It would seem that the flesh of over-weight women might taste better than those of thinner woman because Leonardra reported that the cakes were tastier than that of her two previous victims.

The third killing proved to be Leonarda’s downfall. The killing complete, she had fulfilled her ambition of three deaths not to mention gaining fifty thousand Lira from Virginia together with her jewels. But Senorita Cacioppo’s sister in law was suspicious at her sudden disappearance. She had seen Virginia enter Leonardo’s home and received a letter from her that included details of how she had obtained her new found position. The Police were called and quickly arrested Leonardra, who confessed her crimes freely.

At her trial, the prosecution’s case was that Leonarda was motivated purely by greed, they relied on the evidence of the money and jewels that she had acquired as a consequence of the killings to support their case. Leonardra denied that she had killed for money and asserted that she had done so to protect her son, Guiseppe. It was alleged by the prosecution that he too was involved in the crimes because Leonarda was considered too small and dainty to have killed the three woman and disposed of their bodies. Leonarda convinced the police otherwise by demonstrating with knives and saws that she could dismember a body in twelve minutes when taken to the local morgue and so her son was released without charge. She was not able to convince the court that she was completely mentally unstable though and she was sentenced to thirty years in prison, although the jury did also sentence her to an additional three years in a mental asylum and, in fact, she died in the Pozzuoli Criminal Asylum in 1970.

During the course of her trial, Leonarda stated that she had gifted the copper ladle she had used to commit her crimes to the nation to help in the war effort, it is now on display together with the pot that she used to boil her victims at the Criminological Museum in Rome. So, if you are ever in Rome and have a few moments free after visiting the Forum and the Colleseum, you might just want to drop in at take a look at the tools of the Soap Maker of Correggio.