Leonarda Cianciulli Italian serial killer Date of Birth: 14.11.1893 Country: Italy

Biography of Leonarda Cianciulli

Leonarda Cianciulli, also known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio," was an Italian serial killer. She was born on November 14, 1893, in Montella, Province of Avellino. Cianciulli had a troubled childhood, claiming that her mother did not love her because she was conceived through rape. As a young girl, she attempted suicide twice. In 1914, she married Raffaele Pansardi, a civil servant, against her parents' wishes. They had a son named Giuseppe, who would later become her favorite child.

The couple moved to Lariano, and in 1930, their house was destroyed in an earthquake. They relocated to Correggio, where Cianciulli opened a small shop and gained a reputation as a kind and caring woman, a loving mother, and a friendly neighbor. Throughout her marriage, Cianciulli experienced numerous pregnancies, but only four of her children survived infancy. She had 17 pregnancies in total, with three ending in miscarriages. A fortune teller had predicted that all her children would die, which led Cianciulli to fiercely protect the surviving ones.

Cianciulli also visited a palm reader, who predicted a future of prison and a psychiatric hospital for her. In 1939, when she learned that her eldest son, Giuseppe, would be conscripted into the Italian army for World War II, Cianciulli was determined to protect him at any cost. She believed that human sacrifices were necessary and identified three of her middle-aged neighbors as her victims.

The first victim was Faustina Setti, an unmarried woman who came to Cianciulli for help finding a husband. Cianciulli instructed Setti to write letters and postcards to her relatives and friends, pretending that she was moving to Pola. On the day of her departure, Setti visited Cianciulli and unknowingly drank drugged wine. Cianciulli then killed her with an axe, dismembered her body, and turned it into soap by mixing it with caustic soda.

Francesca Soavi, another neighbor, fell for Cianciulli's claim of finding her a job at a girls' school in Piacenza. Like Setti, Soavi wrote detailed letters to friends about her plans, not knowing they would be her undoing. She also drank drugged wine during her farewell visit to Cianciulli and was murdered with an axe. Cianciulli turned her body into soap as well.

The last victim, Virginia Cacioppo, a former opera singer, believed Cianciulli when she said she had found her a job as a secretary in Florence. On September 30, 1940, Cacioppo visited Cianciulli, drank the drugged wine, and met the same fate as the previous victims. Cianciulli cooked her flesh until it turned into a thick, dark mass and used it to make pastries, which she shared with her neighbors and acquaintances.

Suspicion arose when Cacioppo's relatives discovered her sudden disappearance and realized she was last seen entering Cianciulli's house. They reported it to the police in Reggio Emilia, leading to Cianciulli's arrest. She quickly confessed to the crimes in great detail. Cianciulli received a sentence of 30 years in prison and three years in a psychiatric hospital, just as the palm reader had predicted.

Cianciulli died of a cerebral stroke in a women's psychiatric hospital in Pozzuoli on October 15, 1970. Items related to her crimes, including the pot used to cook her victims, are on display at the Criminological Museum in Rome.