'Correggio soap dish': the murderer who soaped her victims

In the early 1930s, Leonarda Cianciulli was still very young when she first visited a seer and, of course, was very shocked when she heard that in the future all her children would die. Startled, she visited another gypsy who read her hands and said that on her right she saw a prison, and on her left a sanatorium. Predictions not happy, no?

And apparently both predictions were right - or Leonarda was conditioned to make them come true. She owned a small shop in the town of Correggio, Italy, and was seen as a kind, nice, and well-liked person by everyone who knew her. Behind this popular image, however, was a woman who became pregnant 17 times, having miscarried on three occasions and seeing 10 other children die at a young age.

It was to protect the remaining four children that the superstitious Leonarda decided to sacrifice human lives as some form of security - especially after finding out that her favorite, Giuseppe, had just joined the Italian army on the eve of World War II.

The first victims and the tea cakes

Faustina Setti was desperate for a husband, and she turned to kind Leonarda for help, as the shopkeeper was also seen as an advising and kind woman. Cianciulli told Faustina that he had found the perfect man in a nearby town, but asked that it be a secret between them.

Leonarda then persuaded Setti to leave some letters ready to be sent to her family and acquaintances when she arrived in this other city, saying that all was well.

On the day of the trip, Faustina decided to say goodbye to Leonarda, who offered a glass of wine to her friend. The only detail is that there were drugs in the drink, and as soon as Faustina Setti passed out, Cianciulli struck her with an ax and took her body to a small room to cut it into nine pieces. What happened next is a description of the killer herself:

"I threw the pieces in a pan, added 7 kg of caustic soda, which I had purchased to make soap, and mixed it all together until the pieces dissolved into a dark paste that I then poured into several buckets which I then emptied into a bucket. The blood that remained in the sink, I waited for it to coagulate, put to dry on the stove, mashed and mixed with sugar, chocolate, flour, milk and eggs, and some margarine, mixing all the ingredients. I served tea and served all the women who came to visit me, and Giuseppe and I also ate some. "

There are records that even say that Leonarda received all the savings of the victim - about 30 thousand lire -, as payment for the aid.

Shortly after Faustina's death, it was Francesca Soavi's turn to be deceived by Leonarda, who this time told her victim that she had found her a job in Piacenza.

The methods varied little: Leonarda convinced Francesca to keep it secret and write the same letters saying that everything was fine. And again, on Francesca's last visit before traveling, Cianciulli put drugs in the victim's wine glass and proceeded with the execution using the same ax.

Soavi's body received the same treatment as Francesca's, being dissolved in caustic soda and then poured into a pit. This time Leonarda pocketed 3, 000 lire.

The last victim, the soaps and the "Correggio Soap Dish" arrest

Virginia Cacioppo was an Italian soprano who sought help from Leonarda Cianciulli to get a job. The killer, like the other two, promptly got a secretary position for a businessman in Florence. Virginia was supposed to keep it a secret too, but apparently she didn't make the letters to say it was all right.

The modus operandi of the murder was the same. "She also ended up in a pan, like the other two ... But her body was fat and white and when it melted I added some perfume. After a long time of melting, I managed to make more acceptable creamy soaps. I gave some bars for neighbors and acquaintances. The dumplings, too, were better: that woman was really sweet, "confessed Leonarda.

The ironic murderer received, as payment from Cacioppo, 50, 000 lire and various jewels. But what she didn't count on was that the victim's sister-in-law would suspect Virginia's disappearance and warn local authorities.

As the victim was last seen entering Leonarda's house, the police superintendent opened an investigation, and soon Cianciulli was arrested. She confessed the crimes without any remorse and gave all the details of how they happened.

Leonarda Cianciulli was sentenced in 1946 to 30 years in prison and another three years in a sanatorium. The killer died in 1970, at age 78, in a bizarre coincidence (or not) with the prophecy that was made to her in her youth.