Everything You Know About Leonarda Cianciulli is Wrong

It’s time to head over to Little Italy, folks. And by little, we mean the big one. Big Italy time!

Who’s Leonarda Cianciulli?

Leonarda is one of the most famous serial killers in Italy and is often referred to as The Soapmaker of Correggio. In less than a year, Cianciulli murdered three women and claimed to dissolve their bodies in caustic soda and used their remains to make crunchy tea cakes and soap.

I’m sorry, what?

You read all that correct. Cianciulli took the lives of Faustina Setti, a 70 year old spinster; Francesca Soavi, a schoolteacher; and Virginia Cacioppo, an ex-soprano who spent her days telling people how good her life was when she was a soprano. What did all these women have in common? Cianciulli wanted their money and felt like if they disappeared, no one would look for them. As she worked as the town psychic and palm reader, she was privy to these women’s deepest secrets and desires. By leveraging that and applying a bit of psychological manipulation, she was able to convince the women to leave town without telling anyone where they were going. She even successfully convinced them to write letters in advance of their safe travels to mail upon their arrival. These letters were instead sent by Cianciulli. To dispose of the bodies she dissolved them using caustic soda (which Olivia mistakenly refers to as an acid even though it is very much a base as she, someone with a degree in chemistry, should be aware) and dumped the sludge in a cesspool. It was with Cacioppo’s body that she claimed to use the fat to make soap. 

While this all sounds very gruesome, there is special emphasis on the word claimed. While it is true that she killed these three women, the rest is not so black and white. Many of what is known in the true crime community was written by Cianciulli herself in her 700+ page memoir titled Confessioni di un’anima amareggiata (Confessions of a Bitter Soul). While it seems that the English-speaking community ate up her macabre stories of abuse, human sacrifice, and blood rituals, Italian-speakers are less amused. During her research, Olivia quickly realized the inaccuracies in the English sources. She began researching with Italian Google in one hand and the Chrome Google Translate extension in the other. Quickly, she found that there were not only inconsistencies in the stories but outright rumors and lies taken as truths.

How is that possible?

We don’t know the answer to that one. What we do know is that Cianciulli’s gruesome acts are hotly contested in Italy and far more efforts have been dedicated to reading and interpreting her memoirs. In fact, many believe that these memoirs are mostly fallacious and possibly written so that she could further weave her web of blood sacrifice and astrology for the sake of her court case/gaining sympathy.

Blood sacrifice and astrology?

Typical Aries woman.

So then this was all a lie?

Yes, but also no. Olivia hardly paints a black and white picture of the events, but rather lays out all the information coherently in English, to the best of her ability. There is clearly enough discussed to cast doubt on Cianciulli’s confessions and memoir, but the story is much richer than Olivia anticipated and replete with details on the chemistry of dissolving a body, the tracking of a government bond, and blood stained jewels.

This sounds a tad conspiracy-y.

You could call it that. It’s far more apt to say that this is a story of how far a woman will go to satisfy her greed rather than a story about a woman who believes human sacrifice will save her son from being killed in WWII.

How else can I learn more?

Clearly, listen to the episode. But beyond that, you’ve run into Olivia’s predicament. We will attach the most helpful links below, but they are unfortunately all in Italian. After some round table discussion, Olivia didn’t feel comfortable promoting information she felt was misleading and also publicly disproved on the podcast for an hour and a half. We recommend a Chrome extension or consulting your local Italian-speaker.

Was Olivia mean to the true crime community?

Yes, but only a little. Tune in to better understand the outrage and the cryptic blog post.

NOTE FROM BROOKE: Olivia worked really hard on this episode and went beyond the call of duty to make sure she reported the truth. If you found this episode enlightening, leave a review here and shout out this episode to make her feel really nice. Thanks for turning your dial our way!

[Good] Resources:

https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonarda_Cianciulli

http://www.scenacriminis.com/scienze-forensi/memoriale-di-leonarda-cianciulli/

http://www.ilmamilio.it/m/it/rubriche/criminologia/11416-leonarda-cianciulli-la-serial-killer-di-correggio.html

https://www.museocriminologico.it/index.php/2-non-categorizzato/120-omicidi-caso-cianciulli2

https://www.letturefantastiche.com/la_saponificatrice_di_correggio.html

https://www.focus.it/cultura/storia/545745165-il-caso-cianciuli-32653