Leonarda Cianciulli (November 14, 1893, Montella, Province of Avellino – October 15, 1970) 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.

Early life

Cianciulli was born in Montella. 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.

Murders

In 1939, Cianciulli heard that her eldest son, Giuseppe, was to join the Italian army 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 sacrifices. 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 Pola, but convinced her to tell nobody of the news. She further convinced Setti to write letters and postcards 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 memoir (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, 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 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 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 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-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 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 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.

The Correggio soap-maker

MURDERER: Leonarda Cianciulli
VICTIMS: Faustina Setti, Francesca Soavi, Virginia Cacioppo
PLACE AND DATES: Correggio (RE), 1939 - 1940
MATERIAL EVIDENCE: hammer, hacksaw, kitchen knife, axes, hatchet, trivet
PROVENANCE: Reggio Emilia, Public Prosecutor’s Office, 1949

Born in Montella di Avellino in 1893 and marked by an unhappy childhood, in 1914 Leonarda Cianciulli married Raffaele Pansardi, a clerk in the registry office, and went to live in Lariano in Alta Irpinia. In 1930 an earthquake destroyed their home, and the couple moved to Correggio, in the province of Reggio Emilia. Leonarda had seventeen pregnancies: three were miscarriages, while ten of the children died at a tender age. The four surviving children were to be protected at any price, for Leonarda had not forgotten the words of a gypsy fortune-teller who many years earlier had predicted a terrible fate for her: “You will marry and have children, but all your children will die.” Later she had had her palm read by another gypsy, who told her: “In your right hand I see prison, in your left a criminal asylum.” In 1939, when she heard that her eldest and favourite son Giuseppe was to join the army, as Italy’s entry into the war became increasingly imminent, Leonarda decided what she had to do: she had to make human sacrifices to save her son’s life. She had three friends, lonely middle-aged women who would give anything to escape from the routine and solitude of Correggio. All three asked Leonarda for help, and she decided that the time had come to act.

The first to fall into her trap was Faustina Setti, the oldest, drawn by Leonarda’s promise that she had found her a husband in Pola. Leonarda convinced the woman not to tell anyone about the news. On the day of her departure, Faustina went to say goodbye to her friend, who convinced her to write some letters and postcards to her friends and relatives, which she was to send as soon as she reached Pola, telling them that everything was fine. But Faustina Setti never reached Pola: she was killed with an axe by Leonarda Cianciulli, who dragged the body into a closet and cut it into nine parts, gathering the blood in a basin. Then, as she wrote in her 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.”

The second victim was Francesca Soavi. Leonarda had promised her a job at the girls’ school in Piacenza. On the morning of 5 September 1940, she went to say goodbye to her friend before setting off.

The script was the same: Leonarda convinced the woman to write two postcards, telling her she should send them from Correggio to inform her acquaintances that she was leaving, but without saying where she was going. Leonarda then attacked the woman and made the second “sacrifice”. The third and final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former opera singer, then 53, reduced to living with her memories of the past, in poverty. Leonarda offered her a job in Florence as the secretary to a mysterious theatre impresario, begging her not to tell a soul. Virginia was enthusiastic about the proposal, and kept the secret. On 30 September 1940 she went to Leonarda’s house, where: “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.”

Virginia’s sister-in-law, whose suspicions were aroused by her sudden disappearance, and who had last seen her going into Leonarda Cianciulli’s house reported the facts to the Police Superintendent in Reggio Emilia who, by following the many clues left by the murderess, unmasked “the soap-maker”. Under questioning Leonarda Cianciulli immediately confessed to the three murders.

The court found her guilty of the atrocious crimes, and sentenced her to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum. She died in the women’s criminal asylum in Pozzuoli on 15 October 1970, struck down by cerebral apoplexy.