The Soap-Maker of Correggio

I want to preface this post by saying that pretty much all the information known about this case comes from the accused’s own 700 plus page memoir ‘Confessions of a Bittered Soul’ which she wrote whilst in custody. This has often raised questions about the authenticity of the information.

The Soap-Maker of Correggio lured her victims in under false pretences, drugged them, dismembered their bodies and made both soap and tea cakes out of their remains. She is also said to be Italy’s first known female serial killer.

Childhood & Marriage:

Leonarda Cianciulli was born in April 1893 in Montella, Italy and was the product of her mother Emilia being raped by Mariano Cianciulli. Once discovering she was pregnant Emilia was forced to marry the father of her child. Leonarda claims that as a child she suffered from being impoverished and from the emotional abuse of her mother. Her father died, who was the main breadwinner of the family, leaving the family even poorer. Emilia remarried although the family still remained poor. As a child, Leonarda attempted to kill herself, however, some say this was much later in life after she had committed her crimes and was in custody.

In 1917, aged 23, Leonarda married Raffaele Pansardi, a registry office clerk. Her parents did not approve of the marriage as they had already arranged for Leonarda to marry someone else. Leonarda claims her mother put a curse on their marriage, this escalated her belief in superstitions. She had met a gypsy woman years earlier who told her ‘you will marry, you will have children, but all your children will die.’ The newly married couple moved to Pansardi’s hometown of Lauria, Portenzain in 1921. By 1927, Leonarda was imprisoned for fraud for 10 months and 15 days. After her release, they fled to Lacedonia to avoid embarrassment. Then the 1930 Irpinia earthquake destroyed their home and they finally settled in Correggio, Reggio Emilia. Her husband continued to work but had a meagre salary that was not enough to support their family. Raffaele was also known to be a heavy drinker. In Correggio, Leonarda opened a small shop. Although considered an eccentric woman, she was well-liked and respected by everyone.

During their marriage, Leonarda had 17 pregnancies. She lost 3 to miscarriage and 10 did not make it past infancy. This left 4 that survived. She was known to be massively overprotective of her remaining children. The loss of so many children only continued to fuel her superstitious nature.

After being abandoned by her husband and with the outbreak of the second world war, Leonarda began to worry for her eldest, and favourite, child Giuseppe who was of age to be enrolled in the army. She was determined to protect him at all costs and thought that the only way was to make human sacrifices to God in order to protect the life of her son. 

Due to being so well-liked by the local community, Leonarda could easily select her victims. She chose women who had little to no family who wouldn’t be missed or reported missing.

Victims:

Faustine Setti was a lifelong spinster in her seventies who longed to find a husband. Leonarda told her she had found a suitable husband for her in Pola. She persuaded Setti to write letters and postcards in advance that would later be sent from Pola. On 17th December 1939, Setti was drugged with wine, killed with an axe, cut into 9 pieces and a basin was used to collect the blood. 

In her memoir, Leonarda wrote: ‘I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the 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 claim that Leonarda charged Setti 30,000 lire as payment for finding her a husband.

Francesca Soavi was a kindergarten teacher who Leonarda had promised a job at the Piacenza girl’s boarding school. She also had Soavi write letters to loved ones beforehand. Son Giuseppe later went to Piacenza and posted the letters for his mother but did not know why. Soavi was murdered on September 5th 1940 in the same manner as Setti. Leonarda supposedly gained 3,000 lire from Soavi.

Leonarda’s third and final victim was much more well known and probably caused her to be caught.

Virginia Cacioppo was a former soprano in her mid-50s. She had often sung at La Scala, a famous opera house in Milan. Lured with the promise of secretary work in Florence, Cacioppo was killed in the same manner as the other two victims. However, her remains were mainly made into soap.

Leonarda claimed: ‘She ended up in the pot, like the other two… her flesh was fat and white, when it 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.’

Leonarda also gained 50,000 lire from Cacioppo’s murder in cash and assorted jewels. She also sold all of Cacioppo’s clothing and shoes.

Discovery & Trial:

Cacioppo’s sister reported her missing and stated she last saw her sister entering Leonarda’s home. The superintendent of Police in Reggio Emilia soon opened an investigation and Leonarda was arrested. She only started confessing after she believed that her son Giuseppe had also been arrested in connection with the murders. Leonarda gave a very detailed account of all 3 murders to save her son from blame. It then took 6 years for her to go to trial due to WW2.

The trial started on the 12th June 1946 in Reggio Emilia and many doubts emerged that Leonarda would not have been able to commit all the murders by herself. Legend says she was secretly taken to a local morgue and proved she worked alone by dismembering a corpse in under 12 minutes. She was proud of her work saying, ‘I gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war…’

On the 20th July 1946, Leonarda was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years in an asylum and 30 years of incarceration. She entered the asylum and never left. Leonarda died aged 77 on 15th October 1970, at the women’s criminal asylum in Pozzuoli of cerebral apoplexy. (Brain bleed) 

There are still many reminders of the crimes of the Soap-Maker of Correggio. Tools, including the pot in which the bodies were boiled, have been on display at the Criminology Museum in Rome since 1949.