Episode 505: Leonarda Cianciulli: The Soap-Maker of Correggio

Having lost several children to childhood illnesses, Leonarda Cianciulli was very protective of her surviving children and was willing to do anything to protect them. So, when the deeply superstitious Leonarda was warned by a fortune teller that all her children would die at a young age, the forty-six-year-old shopkeeper determined that the best way to keep her son alive was to offer human sacrifices in exchange for Giuseppe’s safety. Ove the course of a year, Leonarda murdered three local women and disposed of their bodies with caustic chemicals, using any remaining biological evidence in the creation of soaps, candles, cookies, and cakes, which she shared with others in her community.

Thank you to the lovely David White, of Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research assistance :)

References

Baltimore Sun. 1946. "Rendered her friends to wax, she says." Baltimore Sun, April 28: 3.

Eddy, Cheryl. 2015. The Superstitious Murderer Who Turned Her Victims Into Cake And Soap. June 23. https://gizmodo.com/the-superstitious-murderer-who-turned-her-victims-into-1713486930.

Green, Ryan. 2019. The Curse: A Shocking True Story of Superstition, Human Sacrifice and Cannibalism. Unknown: Independent.

Museo Criminologico. 2006. The Correggio soap-maker. September 12. http://www.museocriminologico.it/correggio_uk.htm.

Ortiz, Genoveva. 2022. The Deadly Soap-Maker of Correggio: The True Story of Leonarda Cianciulli. unknown: True Crime Seven.

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WHAT A STORY

I listened to this twice back to back because the twists had me going “huh??” And of course the girls make the story come to life and really enjoyable 5*

Great one!

This reminded me of Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street and makes me wonder if that play was in some way inspired by these true events…great job Alaina!!

Maybe the children died from cystic fibrosis

Maybe all her children died due to cystic fibrosis which wasn’t known then… it’s genetic so it’s possible