Leonarda Cianciulli: The Soap-Maker of Correggio

The House of Secrets in Correggio

In the quiet northern Italian town of Correggio, Reggio Emilia, neighbors remembered Leonarda Cianciulli as a kind woman — generous, maternal, even charming. She ran a small shop, told fortunes, and offered advice to those seeking luck or love.

But behind her tidy kitchen door, Leonarda hid a secret that would shock Italy and horrify the world. By 1940, she had murdered three women, dissolved their bodies in caustic soda, and turned the remains into soap and pastries.

A Life Cursed by Loss

Born on April 18, 1894, in Montella, southern Italy, Leonarda grew up believing she was cursed. Her mother resented her; her childhood was filled with misery, seizures, and superstition. After several suicide attempts, she married Raffaele Pansardi in 1917 against her family’s wishes.

Tragedy followed. Out of seventeen pregnancies, ten of her children died young and three ended in miscarriage. Only four survived. That unimaginable grief forged her obsession with fate and witchcraft — a belief that sacrifice could change destiny.

The Mother and the Prophecy

When her beloved son Giuseppe prepared to enlist in the Italian army before World War II, Leonarda was consumed by fear. A fortune-teller told her that to protect him, a life must be offered in exchange.

To Leonarda, the logic was terrifyingly simple: if she killed others, she could save her son.

Victim One: Faustina Setti

On December 17, 1939, Faustina Setti, a lonely spinster, visited Leonarda to discuss a supposed marriage arrangement in Pola. Leonarda urged her to tell no one. That day, Leonarda struck her with an axe, dismembered her, and boiled the body in caustic soda.

“I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda… After everything had melted, I poured it into buckets and emptied them into a septic tank,” she later confessed.

Victim Two: Francesca Soav

In September 1940, Leonarda offered Francesca, a former schoolteacher, a job in Piacenza. The pattern repeated — an axe, a cauldron, and her eerie ritual of collecting blood. She mixed it with flour, sugar, and chocolate to bake tea cakes for neighbors.

Victim Three: Virginia Cacioppo

Her final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a retired opera singer lured with a promise of secretarial work in Florence. On September 30, 1940, Leonarda ended her life and, in her own words:

“Her flesh was fat and white… I made some of the most acceptable creamy soap.”

and Confessed

Virginia’s disappearance drew attention. Her sister-in-law grew suspicious and told the police, who found human remains and diaries in Leonarda’s home.

During interrogation, Leonarda confessed without hesitation. She insisted she had killed to protect her son, claiming:

“If I had killed three, I saved one — my Giuseppe.”

At her trial in Reggio Emilia in 1946, she was almost theatrical — correcting the judge, describing her methods with pride, and showing no remorse.

Sentence and Death

Leonarda Cianciulli was sentenced to 30 years in prison and 3 years in a criminal asylum. She died in 1970 in the asylum of Pozzuoli. Her iron cauldron and tools are still displayed in the Criminological Museum in Rome — grim relics of one of Italy’s darkest crimes.

A Legacy of Horror

Leonarda’s story forces us to confront the blurred line between maternal love and madness. Was she a cold-blooded killer or a deluded woman shaped by grief and superstition?

Her life remains a macabre parable: when fear and folklore mix, even love can become lethal.

Sources:

• Italian Court Records (Reggio Emilia, 1946)

• Antonio Boschi — “Blues e leggende nelle terre di Po”

• University of Bologna Criminology Archives

• Wikipedia (IT & EN): “Leonarda Cianciulli”