Leonarda Cianciulli

Leonarda Cianciulli (born November 14, 1893 in Montella , † October 15, 1970 in Pozzuoli ) was an Italian serial killer , also known as the soap maker of Correggio ( Italian la Saponificatrice di Correggio ).

Life

Leonarda Cianciulli was born as the only daughter of Emilia Marano and Mariano Cianciulli in Montella in Irpinia . She did not have a good relationship with her mother, which worsened after her father's death and her mother's remarriage. It also appears that Leonarda suffered from some form of epilepsy in her childhood . All in all, all available information about Cianciulli comes from her autobiography “Le confessioni di un'anima amareggiata” (English: “The confessions of a bitter soul”), the reliability of which is strongly questioned.

In 1914, at the age of 21, she married Raffaele Pansardi, a surveyor, much to the displeasure of her family; on the bachelorette party she broke off all contact with them and especially with their mother. The couple first moved to Lauria, Potenza and, after an earthquake in 1930, to Correggio , Reggio nell'Emilia , where Cianciulli opened a small clothing store and also worked as a matchmaker and fortune teller . Her unemployed husband became an alcoholic , to whom she finally no longer allowed access to the shared apartment, and who soon disappeared without a trace.

Leonarda Cianciulli had been pregnant 17 times since they were married, but suffered three miscarriages and ten of their children died as infants ; only four of their children survived. Until she was arrested, she was known as a kind, sociable woman and devoted mother.

Murders

At the beginning of the Second World War in 1939, the only daughter Norma was at a convent school and the two younger sons Bernardo and Biagio attended a grammar school. The eldest son Giuseppe, her favorite child, was already studying in Milan , and it was to be feared that he would be called up for military service; an unbearable thought for Cianciulli. In her memoirs, she explains that she learned magic to ward off evil influences and ultimately made human sacrifices to keep her son safe, but in fact she committed her first murder before Italy entered the war. Her victims came from her immediate neighborhood, three elderly, unmarried women who sought advice and with whom she had a long friendship.

Faustina Setti

The first and oldest victim was Faustina Setti, an unmarried seventy-year-old illiterate woman . Cianciulli explained to her that she had found a possible husband in Pula who she would like to get to know. On the day of their planned departure, the women met at Cianciulli's house to discuss final details, where Setti dictated a letter and postcards to her. After her arrival, the elderly woman wanted to send the postcards to relatives to let them know that she had arrived safely, and the letter she wrote herself contained a draft will in favor of Cianciulli. At this meeting, Cianciulli poisoned her victim with wine, dragged it into a closet, and killed it with an ax. She divided the body into nine parts and collected the blood in a container. In her book written in prison, she describes the act as follows:

“I tossed the pieces in a saucepan and added seven kilograms of caustic soda that I bought to make soap. Then I stirred until I had a dark, viscous mass, which I divided into several buckets, I emptied the rest into a cesspool. I waited for the blood to clot, then I dried it in the oven, ground it, and then mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk, eggs and a little margarine. I made a lot of crispy biscuits out of them, which I distributed to my guests and visitors, but Giuseppe and I ate them too. "

Francesca Soavi

The second victim was a teacher who had offered Cianciulli a job as head of a girls' school in Piacenza . As with her first victim, she convinced Soavi to write postcards to friends and relatives to inform them of their plans. On September 5, 1940, she also administered poisoned wine to her second victim and killed it with an ax before "processing" the body.

Virginia Cacioppo

The third victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former soprano singer . Cianciulli told her about a possible employment as the right hand man of a theater agent in Florence. Again she persuaded her victim not to tell anyone about the trip and to keep all preparations a secret before killing her last victim on September 30, 1940 in the same way as before. She later wrote about this murder:

“It ended up in the pot, like the other two too (…), but its meat was fat and white: when I had dissolved everything, I added a bottle of perfume and cooked it for a long time until I got a very creamy soap. I distributed bars of soap as gifts to neighbors and friends. The sweets are also better: this woman was really cute. "

Discovery and Trial

Concerned about the whereabouts of her sister, from whom she received no more news, the sister of the last victim, Albertina Fanti, turned to the police in Correggio, the last known residence of Virginia Cacioppo. The other two victims had also been reported missing there, and it was noticed that Cianciulli's account had received large amounts of money from her "friends". Following a tip-off, the police finally searched Cianciulli's house, where they found the jewelry of the last victim.

She was arrested and, after making a full confession, the trial against her began in Reggio nell'Emilia in 1946 . During the course of the trial, her defense tried to convince the court of her eldest son Giuseppe Pansardi's complicity, but Cianciulli vehemently denied this. The criminal psychologist Filippo Saporito later confirmed that the accused was partially insane , whereupon she was sentenced to 30 years in prison and then to three years in a foster home for the mentally disabled . Cianciulli only served 24 years of this sentence; She died on October 15, 1970 at the age of 77 in Pozzuoli Prison after a stroke .

Some of the objects, such as the ax and the pot, which were used as murder weapons and instruments, can now be viewed in the Crime Museum in Rome .

Web links

• rowohlt-theaterverlag.de
• Time Magazine : Foreign News: A Copper Ladle (English)

literature

• Carmela Maria Barbaro: La strega del sapone. Storia del caso della saponificatrice di Correggio. Albatros, Rome 2010, ISBN 978-88-567-2801-9 (Italian).
• Erika De Pieri: La saponificatrice. Cronaca a fumetti (= Cronaca nera 3). Edizioni BeccoGiallo, Ponte di Piave 2005, ISBN 88-85832-12-1 (Italian).
• Cinzia Tani: Assassin. Quattro secoli di delitti al femminile (= bestsellers 975). Mondadori, Milan 1999, ISBN 88-04-46876-9 (Italian).