“Soap maker of Correggio” murders three women

BY BRYN FAWN Opinions Editor & PR Chair

Italy is known for its many delicacies, such as risotto, cheese and wine. However, what if the beloved granny of your village fed you a pastry made of your favorite next-door neighbor?

Leonarda Cianciulli, or The Human Flesh Soap Maker, earned that title rightfully. She was born in 1894 and lived in Italy. In her career of murder, she killed three women. She would turn their flesh into soap and dried their blood to use in tea cakes. She was the first recorded female serial killer in Italy.

Cianciulli had a difficult upbringing. She had many siblings, and her mother was unhappily married. She had attempted suicide twice before adulthood.

Cianciulli was superstitious, and had her future foretold to be devastating.

Her mother also supposedly cursed her, after Cianciulli married a man her parents’ disapproved of.

Reportedly, a fortune teller told her, “In your right hand I see prison, in your left a criminal asylum.”

Cianciulli moved to Correggio, Italy with her husband. That is where she built her reputation as a doting mother and kind neighbor. She assisted those around her when necessary and was a trusted elder.

Cianciulli had 14 children, but 10 died in their youth. Cianciulli grew overprotective of her remaining children, especially her favorite son, Giuseppe. World War II soon came, and Giuseppe enlisted himself into the war. Cianciulli felt distraught over this news. She could not bear the thought of losing her son to the bloodthirsty war. Cianciulli then became convinced that the only way to save her son was to make human sacrifices.

Cianciulli was known in her community as a loving mother and kind neighbor. It is unclear, but Cianciulli may have been a fortune teller herself, or was a trusted elder and community members often sought out advice from her. Cianciulli committed her first murder in 1939. Faustina Setti was her first and oldest victim. Setti had come to Cianiulli for counsel on finding a fit husband. Cianciulli told Setti there was a man waiting for her in Pola, Italy and instructed Setti to prepare for her departure.