She Was An Italian Serial Killer Who Made Teacakes And Soap Out Of Her Victims
Between 1939 and 1940, an Italian serial killer named Leonarda Cianciulli murdered three women because she believed human sacrifice would protect her son during World War II. She became known as the “Soap-maker of Correggio.” Keep reading to learn exactly how she earned that title.
Leonarda Cianciulli was born on April 18, 1894, in the southern Italian town of Montella. Her life was turbulent from the start.
She tried to take her own life twice before reaching adulthood. In 1917, she married registry clerk Raffaele Pansardi and claimed that her mother cursed her because she disapproved of the union.
Over the course of her marriage, she experienced great tragedies. For instance, she had 17 pregnancies but suffered three miscarriages.
The couple also lost 10 of their children, who died at young ages. As a result, Cianciulli became extremely protective of her living children.
In 1927, she was imprisoned for fraud after creating fake account information at the financial institution where she worked.
When she was released, the family moved to Lacedonia, only to lose their home in the Irpinia Earthquake of July 23, 1930.
After the tragedy, she went to a palm reader to have her fortune told. Years ago, she had gone to a fortune teller who told her that all her children would die young, which basically turned out to be true.
Cianciulli hoped that life would start looking up, but it never did. The palm reader saw prison and a criminal asylum in her future.
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At the start of World War II, Cianciulli’s son Giuseppe announced that he was joining the Royal Italian Army. Cianciulli had already lost 14 children and was deathly afraid of losing Giuseppe, too.
So, she turned to human sacrifice in an attempt to save her son from perishing in the war. Her first victim was Faustina Setti.
She invited Setti to her home, claiming that she wanted to introduce her to someone. She then had Setti write reassuring letters to her family members and gave her a glass of wine mixed with sleeping pills.
Finally, she murdered Setti with an axe. Cianciulli proceeded to chop Setti’s body into nine pieces and drained her blood in a basin.
She made soap and teacakes from Setti’s remains and served them to her neighbors. Cianciulli and Giuseppe also ate the teacakes.
“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,” stated Cianciulli.
“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 teacakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.”
She reportedly took Setti’s life savings of 30,000 Italian lire, which was supposed to be payment for her matchmaking services.
Cianciulli killed her second victim, Francesca Soavi, on September 5, 1940. She lured Soavi to her house by claiming she had lined up a teaching job for her and convinced her to write letters to her friends about the new opportunity. Then, she drugged Soavi, killed her with an axe, stole her money, and baked her into teacakes.
Her third and final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a soprano who once sang at the La Scala opera house in Milan.
Cianciulli had promised her a job in Florence. On September 30, 1940, she killed Cacioppo in the same way as her other two victims.
Cianciulli baked her body into teacakes and made soap, giving out bars of it to her neighbors. However, Cianciulli would not get away with murder for long.
Cacioppo’s sister-in-law did not believe the letters she wrote and had even witnessed Cacioppo entering Cianciulli’s home.
She reported Cacioppo’s disappearance immediately. When the police came to investigate, they found incriminating evidence in Cianciulli’s home.
At first, she denied everything, but when the police began to suspect Giuseppe, she confessed to the murders. In 1946, she was found guilty and was given a 33-year sentence. She spent her time in prison crocheting and baking. On October 15, 1970, she died of cerebral apoplexy at the age of 79.
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