22: The Soap Maker of Correggio, Leonarda Cianciulli | Italy

[00:00:00] You are listening to The Evidence Locker Today's episode is brought to you by Audible.

[00:00:12] Audible is offering our listeners a free audio book with a 30-day trial membership.

[00:00:17] Just go to audibletrial.com-fordslash-evidence-locker and browse the unmatched selection of audio

[00:00:24] programs, download a title free and start listening.

[00:00:28] It's that easy.

[00:00:30] Go to audibletrial.com-slash-evidence-locker

[00:00:36] Our cases have been researched using open source and archive materials.

[00:00:41] It deals with true crimes and real people.

[00:00:44] Each episode is produced with the utmost respect to the victims, their families, and loved

[00:00:50] ones.

[00:00:54] Albertina was concerned about her dead brother's wife.

[00:00:59] The two sisters-in-law always looked out for each other, but Virginia had changed.

[00:01:05] All she could talk about was a job in Florence that would bring her back to her glory days

[00:01:09] as a world class soprano, but it all sounded too good to be true to Albertina.

[00:01:15] If Albertina had to be perfectly honest, the 50-something Virginia trying to get back

[00:01:20] on stage was probably not the best idea.

[00:01:24] Her voice wasn't as strong as it used to be and she was a bit out of shape.

[00:01:29] The whole Florence thing made no sense.

[00:01:32] She didn't even know where she would stay once she got there.

[00:01:36] It was coming up to Christmas of 1940 and Virginia was gone.

[00:01:41] She had sold her home in all her belongings and left Corregio without saying goodbye.

[00:01:46] Albertina felt uneasy about her sister-in-law's set into departure and decided to talk to

[00:01:51] Virginia's friends and hear if they had heard any news.

[00:01:55] After comparing notes on Virginia's stories about Florence, they realized that something

[00:02:00] simply didn't add up.

[00:02:02] She told different versions of her plans to three of her closest friends.

[00:02:07] Virginia was in a big place and people kept an eye on each other's business.

[00:02:12] A woman told Albertina that she had seen Virginia enter a neighbor's house on Saturday

[00:02:17] the 30th of November.

[00:02:20] She knew Virginia because they had often met at the neighbor Leonardoci and Julie's home.

[00:02:26] After an hour and a half, Virginia had not left and the woman thought she would join

[00:02:31] the ladies who were probably having some coffee in treats.

[00:02:35] She knocked on Leonardo's third floor apartment door but was surprised that Leonardo was alone.

[00:02:40] There was no sign of Virginia.

[00:02:43] Leonardo invited her inside but the woman declined as there was the foulest smell coming from

[00:02:48] a boiling pot in the kitchen.

[00:02:51] Never in her wildest dreams which she had imagined what was cooking at 11, Viecavoire on that

[00:02:57] Saturday night.

[00:03:35] It was born in 1893 and the town of Montella not too far from Naples.

[00:03:41] Her mom, Amelia, was raped by a man called Mariana Gianculi and when she felt pregnant with

[00:03:48] Leonardo her parents forced her to marry her rapist.

[00:03:53] Needless to say, Leonardo grew up in a loveless home.

[00:03:57] Her mother's hatred towards her father affected how she felt about the child.

[00:04:02] She despised her.

[00:04:04] She was very poor and had to make do with what they had.

[00:04:08] Leonardo was undernourished and sickly due to the lack of attention she received from her

[00:04:13] mother.

[00:04:14] When Mariana passed away, Amelia remarried but that did not solve any of her financial worries.

[00:04:22] The Leonardo was a solitary child who had invented many imaginary friends.

[00:04:28] She was a bit of a tomboy and her teachers remarked that although she didn't have many

[00:04:32] friends, she was jovial at school but things were different at home.

[00:04:38] Leonardo's mother, Amelia, was extremely emotionally abusive towards her.

[00:04:44] So much so that Leonardo attempted to commit suicide as a child.

[00:04:49] She tried to hang herself but either the rope was too long or it snapped.

[00:04:56] Reportedly when her mother found her and realized what she had done, she said,

[00:05:02] Leonardo, are they commit suicide successfully or don't bother at all?

[00:05:08] In her teenage years, Lingannara became more sociable.

[00:05:12] She was always drawn to older men she did not like her peers.

[00:05:16] She found the boys of her own age to be silly.

[00:05:20] For guidance, she often visited a Romani or Gypsy to foretell her future.

[00:05:27] Lingannara was a highly superstitious woman who always believed in spells and magic.

[00:05:32] One fortune teller predicted that Lingannara would marry and have many children but that they

[00:05:37] would all die.

[00:05:39] Not long after, she met a man who worked as a clerk in the registry office in Montella.

[00:05:45] Rafaeli, Pansardi, was much older than 23-year-old Leonardo so it's safe to say he was exactly

[00:05:52] her type.

[00:05:54] The couple married in 1917 against the wishes of Leonardo's mother Amelia.

[00:06:00] The marriage angered her because she had already arranged for Leonardo to marry another man.

[00:06:05] In fact, she had wanted Lingannara to marry a cousin whom she thought to be best suited

[00:06:10] for her purely for financial reasons.

[00:06:14] Lingannara was pinned to be the family's ticket to riches and because she had married Rafaeli,

[00:06:20] all of that had gone up in smoke.

[00:06:22] Lingannara was extremely superstitious.

[00:06:24] Lingannara strongly believed that her mother cursed their marriage.

[00:06:28] Shortly after the wedding, the couple had a baby girl but she died of the Spanish flu,

[00:06:34] the epidemic that killed millions of people worldwide between 1918 and 1919.

[00:06:40] Lingannara was convinced it was her mother's curse that had caused the death of her child.

[00:06:46] After a couple of years, Lingannara and Rafaeli couldn't stand living with the constant

[00:06:51] fear of Amelia's curse and decided to move farther south to Rafaeli's hometown of

[00:06:56] Lauria.

[00:06:58] Both Rafaeli and Lingannara worked while they lived in Lauria, but in 1927 Lingannara

[00:07:03] was charged with fraud and sent to prison.

[00:07:07] It is not clear what job she did or what the fraud case against her was but it was significant

[00:07:12] enough to get her locked up.

[00:07:15] On her release because of the shame that she had brought to Rafaeli's family, the couple

[00:07:20] moved yet again, this time over two hours north to Las Adonia.

[00:07:27] They were still settling in in 1930 when a massive 6.6 magnitude earthquake struck the

[00:07:33] area.

[00:07:34] 1,400 people were killed and left homeless.

[00:07:39] Among them, Lingannara and Rafaeli.

[00:07:43] They took whatever they could salvage from their home in ruins and moved across the country

[00:07:48] to settle in the city of Corregio in northern Italy.

[00:07:52] Corregio had 20,000 inhabitants at the time.

[00:07:55] It was the second largest town in the province of Regio Amelia but it was still not a city.

[00:08:03] In the 1920s, the province of Regio Amelia, like most of Italy, experienced tension between

[00:08:09] fascists and anti-fascists.

[00:08:13] Despite all the political friction, the small town of Corregio managed to exist under

[00:08:18] the radar.

[00:08:20] Life carried on with its normal routines of work and raising families.

[00:08:24] It was part of the fascist mindset that a good fascist woman should bear as many children

[00:08:29] as possible.

[00:08:31] Fascist band all literature on birth control and increased penalties for abortion declaring

[00:08:36] both crimes against the state.

[00:08:39] In 1933, there was a celebration of motherhood at the Palazzo Venezia where a crowd of mothers

[00:08:45] were blessed by Il Duce himself, Mussolini.

[00:08:50] The target for families were to have five children.

[00:08:54] Then they were rewarded.

[00:08:55] He gave 6,000 lira cash and 1,000 lira insurance policy.

[00:09:01] Lingannara was a fervent fascist and altogether she felt pregnant 17 times.

[00:09:07] She miscarried three times and lost 10 additional children all before their 10th birthdays.

[00:09:14] In the end, she only had four children left, three boys and one girl.

[00:09:20] Traumatized by all the deaths, fear was taken over her whole existence.

[00:09:26] She could not forget what the fortune teller had told her all those years before.

[00:09:31] She would marry and have many children but they would all die.

[00:09:37] What made her ever more anxious was the fact that she was convinced that all her hardships

[00:09:42] and the constant deaths in her household was a direct consequence of her mother's curse

[00:09:47] on her and Raphael.

[00:09:51] That is perhaps why they chose to settle in the small and assuming town of Corregio

[00:09:55] far away from her mother.

[00:09:58] They needed protection from the evil eye, homologchio.

[00:10:02] That is the cursed place on them by Amelia Giancciulli.

[00:10:07] She also bought into the legend of Bafana.

[00:10:10] Today Bafana is a married Italian witch who plays the same role as Santa Claus but she

[00:10:16] does not deliver presents to kids over Christmas time.

[00:10:20] She delivers candy.

[00:10:22] Only to kids would have been good all year though.

[00:10:25] Parents will warn their kids I'll tell Bafana or if the kids are misbehaving Bafana will

[00:10:30] come and take you away.

[00:10:32] The latter is the more sinister shadow of the legend Bafana swoops up 90 kids and takes

[00:10:38] them home to her child-guzzling husband.

[00:10:42] Leonardo often used this image to explain the deaths of her children.

[00:10:46] Once, she visited a palm reader who foreshadowed more dark times for Leonardo.

[00:10:53] The gypsy read her first palm and saw that Leonardo would go to prison some day.

[00:10:58] The other palm revealed that she would also go to an asylum for the criminally insane.

[00:11:05] Leonardo was concerned but she could not let the prediction make her change course again.

[00:11:11] Corregio was a good place to be and that is where she had wanted to stay.

[00:11:15] Once in Corregio, Bafana barely managed to find a job at the registry office and Leonardo

[00:11:21] rolled up her sleeves too.

[00:11:23] She started her own business, a shop which she ran from home.

[00:11:28] Soon, they could afford a spacious apartment.

[00:11:31] They also had a maid.

[00:11:34] At her shop, Leonardo sold used clothing and used furniture.

[00:11:39] There was always sweet pastries and coffee on offer too as Leonardo was obsessed with baking.

[00:11:46] The shop was always filled with women and chatter.

[00:11:50] Everybody enjoyed her cakes.

[00:11:52] She hardly ever left home as her shop was there and everyone congregated at her home.

[00:11:58] The women who visited Leonardo's shop were mainly neighbors.

[00:12:03] Everybody thought she was a kind and friendly person, a good mother to her four children.

[00:12:08] People flocking to her home and for the first time, she felt that life was good.

[00:12:13] It seemed that the curse had lifted and she finally felt free and safe.

[00:12:20] Leonardo loved to advise friends on personal issues.

[00:12:24] Because of her lifelong obsession with fortune telling, she became a bit of a fortune teller herself.

[00:12:30] Her customers trusted her and came to her specifically to have their futures predicted.

[00:12:36] They often visited her and had a cup of coffee or a glass of wine while Leonardo did terror

[00:12:41] readings or practiced palmistry.

[00:12:44] She was a robust woman who spoke with passion and conviction and she would invite groups

[00:12:50] of friends to listen to poetry readings as well.

[00:12:53] At this time, before televisions weren't every home, people listened to the radio daily.

[00:13:00] The emotion fueled speeches of Hitler and Mussolini graced the radio airwaves.

[00:13:05] Leonardo had a way with words and was seen as a charismatic woman with a perceptive intuition.

[00:13:12] Rafael L. didn't quite settle into life in Corregio as well as his wife did.

[00:13:18] He hardly spoke to anyone and he would only go out to the cinemas.

[00:13:22] He lost his job and started drinking excessively.

[00:13:26] The following effect of the Great Depression also affected Italy and jobs were hard to come

[00:13:31] by.

[00:13:32] Rafael L. struggled to find another job, and Leonardo soon tired of his drunken presence

[00:13:38] in the home.

[00:13:40] According to her, she kicked him out.

[00:13:43] After leaving the family home at 11 via Cavore in Corregio, no one knows what happened

[00:13:49] to Rafael L. Pensardi.

[00:13:52] Some people think he may have returned to his hometown of Lauria.

[00:13:56] Others wonder if he had a more sinister fate.

[00:13:59] Either way, there was no public record of Rafael L. and no accounts of his whereabouts

[00:14:04] after he left.

[00:14:07] Leonardo reverted to her maiden name of Gianculli and took charge of the home as a single mother

[00:14:13] of four.

[00:14:14] And she was a loving mother too, despite never experiencing the love of a mother herself.

[00:14:20] Her eldest son, the handsome olive skinned and dark eyed Giuseppe, was unashamedly her

[00:14:25] favorite.

[00:14:26] By 1939, Leonardo was in her forties and things were good.

[00:14:33] She kept a tidy home and were spread of her baking skills.

[00:14:38] Business was okay, and she felt that she was a part of the community.

[00:14:42] She worked hard at home to make ends meet.

[00:14:45] It was common practice for Italian country housewives, with limited means at the time,

[00:14:49] to make their own soap and candles.

[00:14:52] Sop was made by boiling the pork bones and cartilages in caustic soda.

[00:14:58] This was a process that usually took place outdoors due to the stench that it produced, but Leonardo

[00:15:03] had a big pot on her stove inside the kitchen which she used for soap making.

[00:15:09] In the same year, Hitler's troops invaded Poland and the stage was set for the start of

[00:15:14] World War II.

[00:15:16] Mussolini's Italy was still undecided whether to enter the war or not.

[00:15:21] But with all the unrest in Europe, Italy had to be vigilant.

[00:15:25] The government called on its young men to join the army and preparation for war.

[00:15:31] Much to Leonardo's anguish, her two eldest sons were drafted to join the Italian army

[00:15:35] too.

[00:15:36] That included the apple of her eye, Giuseppe Pensardi.

[00:15:41] Something broken Leonardo.

[00:15:43] She was convinced she was about to offer another child the feed buffana's gluttonous

[00:15:47] husband.

[00:15:49] One night she had a dream.

[00:15:51] A Madonna holding a child in her arms came to her.

[00:15:55] The Madonna wanted Leonardo to sacrifice innocent human lives in exchange for her children.

[00:16:02] Being superstitious as she was, Leonardo agreed.

[00:16:08] She made a deal with forces that be and decided to sacrifice innocent others to take her children's

[00:16:13] place in the afterlife.

[00:16:16] To be safe, she felt she needed to sacrifice four people in order to save her four children.

[00:16:25] Leonardo did not have to look too far to find her victims.

[00:16:29] So many vulnerable women visited her often, seeking guidance and advice.

[00:16:35] She knew their innermost fears and desires and started to plot the demise of her first

[00:16:39] victim, Faustina Setti.

[00:16:43] Faustina was one of Leonardo's regular customers.

[00:16:46] She was a 73 year old unmarried woman who had never had much luck in love.

[00:16:52] She was a sad and lonely woman who had made it her soul mission in life to find a romantic

[00:16:57] partner.

[00:16:59] Leonardo saw an opportunity and seeing as Faustina clung to every fortune that came from Leonardo's

[00:17:05] lips, it was not too hard to put her plan into motion.

[00:17:09] Leonardo told Faustina the name of a man whom she was destined to marry in the town of

[00:17:14] Pola, just inland from the Adriatic Sea.

[00:17:18] It was purportedly a wealthy friend of Leonardo's who was eager to meet a caring woman.

[00:17:25] Leonardo even produced fake letters from her so-called friend from Pola.

[00:17:29] If you'd like to imagine, Leonardo was essentially the 1930s version of an online dating platform.

[00:17:36] She'd match two profiles and moderate communication between the two.

[00:17:42] The romance heated up in the letters and Leonardo encouraged Faustina to explore the relationship

[00:17:47] as it was destined to be.

[00:17:50] She also employed Faustina to keep it a secret because the small town housewives of

[00:17:54] Corregio could have been jealous.

[00:17:59] Faustina was over the moon and followed Leonardo's instructions to the letter.

[00:18:04] With encouragement from Leonardo, she also sold her house and other belongings, cashing

[00:18:09] out before she made a new start in Pola.

[00:18:12] It was a bold move for someone who had lived in the same town for most of her life.

[00:18:16] On the morning of her intended departure, Faustina went to a local hairdresser to have her

[00:18:21] hair done.

[00:18:23] She dyed her gray hair blonde and was giddy with excitement.

[00:18:27] She could not contain herself and mention to a woman in the salon that she was able

[00:18:31] to meet the man of her dreams and start a new life with them.

[00:18:35] Faustina paid and left on a high, a new look for a fresh start.

[00:18:40] Sadly, this was the last time Faustina said he was ever seen alive.

[00:18:47] Before leaving for Pola, as agreed, Faustina had one last stop to make.

[00:18:52] 11 via Cavour, Leonardo's home.

[00:18:57] It was a week before Christmas and the streets were white with heavy snow and the smell of

[00:19:01] homemade capilletti came from all the kitchens his family's prepared for the festivities.

[00:19:07] Nervous and excited, she was happy to see her friend one last time.

[00:19:12] Leonardo shared in her excitement and poured the both of them some wine.

[00:19:16] Sensing Faustina's apprehension to make the big move, Leonardo suggested she wrote letters

[00:19:21] to her friends in Corregio.

[00:19:23] A final goodbye.

[00:19:25] She could post the letters once she arrived in Pola.

[00:19:28] The letters had to explain why she left and that she did not intend on returning.

[00:19:34] Minutes after writing the letters, Faustina felt a bit hazy, tired, which she did not

[00:19:39] know was that Leonardo had spiked her drink.

[00:19:43] As soon as the trusting Faustina was knocked out, Leonardo used an axe, adulterer a single

[00:19:49] blow on the head from behind.

[00:19:52] Faustina was killed instantly.

[00:19:56] Leonardo did not want her children to see Faustina's body, so she dragged her into a cupboard.

[00:20:02] She left her in the cupboard overnight as she carried out her no more nightly routine.

[00:20:07] The next morning, she waited until her son Giuseppe left home before she went to work.

[00:20:14] She chopped Faustina's body up into nine individual pieces.

[00:20:19] The blood was drained into a basin to make disposal faster.

[00:20:24] Leonardo later wrote about what happened next in her memoirs, and embittered soul's confessions.

[00:20:31] I threw pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda which I had bought to make soap

[00:20:36] and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick dark mush that I poured

[00:20:40] into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank.

[00:20:44] As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven,

[00:20:50] ground it, and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk, and eggs, as well as a bit of

[00:20:55] margarine, kneading all the ingredients together.

[00:20:58] I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, but Giuseppe

[00:21:03] and I also ate them.

[00:21:06] That is the world's best coffee.

[00:21:09] Many believe that it comes from a small region on Hawaii island.

[00:21:13] Kona Hawaii.

[00:21:15] Kona coffee is grown at high elevations on two volcanoes, ideal conditions for spectacular

[00:21:21] gourmet coffee.

[00:21:23] Mountain Thunder Coffee Plantation Online at mountainthunder.com is where to find the finest

[00:21:29] in 100% Kona coffee.

[00:21:32] For a limited time, we're offering 10% off current and future orders and two free ceramic

[00:21:38] mugs when you join our coffee club.

[00:21:41] Again, that's mountainthunder.com.

[00:21:44] Aloha!

[00:21:48] The Thifty Housewife knew in pre-war time Italy how to be resourceful.

[00:21:53] She used everything.

[00:21:55] Nothing went to waste.

[00:21:57] That is why even Fostina's dried blood was made into cakes.

[00:22:01] Imagine what went through her mind as friends commented on her crunchy cakes as she watched

[00:22:05] them eat them.

[00:22:07] Her plan had worked.

[00:22:09] And to make things even better?

[00:22:11] After selling her home in all her belongings, Fostina had 50,000 lira in her handbag when

[00:22:16] she went to say goodbye to Leonardo.

[00:22:19] But the plan was not complete.

[00:22:21] Leonardo's center sun just set me to Paula on summer other errand and instructed him to

[00:22:26] post the postcards written by Fostina.

[00:22:30] Fostina was an unwitting accomplice in her own death.

[00:22:33] When her friends received the letters, they were happy preposting and her absence was explained.

[00:22:39] Nobody suspected that she had never made it to Paula.

[00:22:43] The next year in 1940 Italy joined World War II, fighting alongside Germany.

[00:22:51] On June 10th, Mussolini made his memorable speech announcing the hour appointed by Destiny

[00:22:58] had arrived as he declared war against Great Britain and France.

[00:23:04] The fear of losing one of her sons in Gulf-Doliannard a chi and chouly all over again, she needed

[00:23:10] to make another sacrifice.

[00:23:13] This time she would not stray far from the plan that helped her to successfully murder

[00:23:17] and dispose of her first sacrificial victim.

[00:23:20] Again, she stuck to someone she knew, one of her regular visitors and clients, 55-year-old

[00:23:27] Francesca Soavi, known by everyone, is Clementina.

[00:23:33] Clementina was a widowed schoolteacher in search of employment.

[00:23:37] Corregio was a town with a woven fabrics industry and there wasn't much work around.

[00:23:42] She was lonely and became friends with Leonardo.

[00:23:46] Leonardo's fortune telling intuition instructed Clementina to go to Pia Cenza, a larger town

[00:23:52] also in northern Italy.

[00:23:55] In Pia Cenza, there was a teaching job at an all-girl school that was perfect for her.

[00:24:00] Again, Leonardo told her prospective victim not to mention the fact that she found the

[00:24:05] job because it was written in the stars.

[00:24:08] She assured her that they could write postcards or letters to her loved ones once she was ready

[00:24:13] to leave.

[00:24:15] But she warned Clementina that telling people could change the course of her destiny.

[00:24:22] Leonardo followed the same checklist.

[00:24:25] Clementina sold up and visited Leonardo as she was leaving Corregio.

[00:24:29] On September 5, 1940, Leonardo served her a glass of drug-laced wine and once she had

[00:24:35] passed out, attacked her from behind.

[00:24:39] She boiled up the schoolteacher's remains and made them into homemade bars of soap and

[00:24:43] tea cakes.

[00:24:46] The tea cakes were served to her neighbors yet again, Leonardo being the average sweet and

[00:24:50] charming hostess.

[00:24:53] Two weeks later, a couple of Clementina's friends received postcards from Pia Cenza, telling

[00:24:58] them about her happy new life.

[00:25:01] Her friends were happy to hear that Clementina was doing well and that she had finally found

[00:25:05] a job she had so desperately wanted.

[00:25:08] Unfortunately for the gold-digging Leonardo, Clementina did not have quite as many assets

[00:25:13] as her predecessor in death, Fostina Sede.

[00:25:17] Clementina's life savings were only 3,000 Lira but it was enough to see Leonardo through

[00:25:22] for a while.

[00:25:25] An old student of Clementina's grew restless when she hadn't seen her around for some

[00:25:29] time.

[00:25:31] She remembered Clementina loved going to Leonardo's for coffee and conversation and thought

[00:25:35] the friend Clementina often talked of would know something.

[00:25:40] The former student knocked on Leonardo's door and asked her if she had seen Clementina.

[00:25:45] Without batting an eyelid, Leonardo told her that Clementina had gone to a better place.

[00:25:51] One has to wonder if the younger one was invited in for coffee and cakes.

[00:25:56] Realizing how easy it was to make sacrifices of innocent people, Leonardo started preparation

[00:26:01] on her third victim.

[00:26:04] Virginia Cacciopo was a grand aim, and once famous soprano who had graced the stage of

[00:26:09] Milan's legendary La Scala Theatre.

[00:26:13] She was filled with glamorous memories of her life in the city and yearned to have another

[00:26:17] go at happiness in her life.

[00:26:19] She was 53 years old, her husband had passed on and her grown-up son had moved away.

[00:26:25] She found the doneness of provincial life stifling.

[00:26:29] Grasping at straws and looking for guidance, Virginia went to Leonardo Cacciopo, who by

[00:26:33] this time had quite the reputation for telling fortunes and serving delicious cakes.

[00:26:39] Leonardo knew exactly what her story would be to coax Virginia to sell up her home in

[00:26:44] Corregio.

[00:26:46] She told her that there was an opportunity in Florence, the city of art and music.

[00:26:52] Virginia would be the assistant to a theatre in Versario and it would pay very well.

[00:26:57] The job was just to get a foot in the door because there was also the promise that she

[00:27:00] could audition to work as a singer again.

[00:27:04] This was exactly what Virginia wanted to hear, and Leonardo knew it.

[00:27:09] He asked Virginia to be discreet about the job, as Leonardo was having inalisted affair

[00:27:14] with Set in Versario.

[00:27:16] She would have hated bringing a scandal into her lover's life, especially since he had

[00:27:21] promised to take her friend, that is, Virginia, under his wing.

[00:27:27] The Leonardo instructed her to sell her home so she could buy a nice place in Florence.

[00:27:32] She pressured Virginia to move quickly and do what was required, as it would be a pity

[00:27:36] if Virginia missed out on the opportunity of a lifetime.

[00:27:41] Virginia did as she was told and visited Leonardo one last time before she left for Florence.

[00:27:47] On the 30th of November 1940, she had her last glass of wine as she was writing postcards

[00:27:53] to her loved ones.

[00:27:55] By this time, the Leonardo knew the drill and went to work swiftly.

[00:28:00] In fact, the murder and dismemberment of Virginia took place in less than one hour in 40 minutes.

[00:28:08] Of the disposal of Virginia's body, Leonardo later remembered.

[00:28:12] She ended up in the pot like the other two.

[00:28:15] Her flesh was fat and white.

[00:28:17] When it had melted, I added a bottle of cologne.

[00:28:20] And after a long time on the boil, I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap.

[00:28:26] I gave bars to neighbors and acquaintances.

[00:28:29] Their cakes too were better.

[00:28:32] That woman was really sweet.

[00:28:35] The Leonardo took Virginia's glamorous clothes and jewelry and kept it in a safe place

[00:28:40] in her home on Vicavore.

[00:28:43] Virginia's sister-in-law, Albertina Frankie, was very concerned about Virginia's whereabouts

[00:28:48] and started an active search for her.

[00:28:51] She reported Virginia missing to the police, but they felt that she was a grown woman and

[00:28:56] it was her prerogative to leave had she wanted to.

[00:28:59] There wasn't enough evidence to suggest that she was a victim of foul play.

[00:29:04] Albertina was frustrated, but decided to do a bit of sleuthing herself.

[00:29:09] She visited Virginia's friends and asked them to tell her everything that Virginia told

[00:29:14] them before she disappeared.

[00:29:17] As it turned out, despite Leonardo's instruction to keep her new adventure quiet, Virginia

[00:29:22] was so excited she couldn't keep the secret of moving the Florence to herself.

[00:29:28] She confided in three close friends.

[00:29:31] In each conversation, Virginia gave different reasons for her departure.

[00:29:36] Albertina and the friends found this very peculiar and were certain that Virginia was trying

[00:29:40] to hide something, made them feel very uneasy about her safety.

[00:29:45] In looking for information about Virginia, Albertina also came across rumors about two other

[00:29:51] missing women who had disappeared under similar circumstances.

[00:29:55] Albertina went to police again, presenting them with the evidence she had been able to

[00:29:59] gather.

[00:30:01] She told them that there were three women, including her sister-in-law who had disappeared

[00:30:05] after being promised a new start and a new location by their fortune teller.

[00:30:10] The testimony of the neighbor whose sovereignty in Virginia entered the artisan without leaving

[00:30:14] again was crucial, as she was the last person who had ever seen the soprano alive.

[00:30:20] The superintendent of the province of Reggio Emilia, commissary Sarral, was known as a clever

[00:30:26] in painstaking investigator.

[00:30:29] When Albertina told him everything she had learned he decided to find out a bit more about

[00:30:34] Leonardo Cienchulia.

[00:30:37] As 1940 was turning the leaf to change into 1941, Leonardo was spending money like crazy.

[00:30:44] People who knew her and her limited means grew suspicious of her.

[00:30:48] Where did all this money come from, all of a sudden?

[00:30:51] She even gave an expensive piece of jewelry to one of her friends, a piece of jewelry that

[00:30:57] once belonged to Virginia Caccielpo.

[00:31:01] Police were asking questions and people were talking.

[00:31:05] Not only the letters started flooding into the police station, voicing suspicion of the

[00:31:09] fortune telling shopkeeper.

[00:31:11] Things were heating up for Leonardo.

[00:31:14] When ordered to create a diversion, she went to police and laid a claim of defamation

[00:31:18] against Albertina for spreading rumors and untrudes about her.

[00:31:23] But there were no solid leads yet.

[00:31:25] And police in Corregio knew better than to arrest the person purely based on rumors and

[00:31:29] accusations.

[00:31:31] So they followed the money.

[00:31:33] Two separate people, one a priest and the other a local cheesemaker, wanted to cash in

[00:31:38] bonds that they had recently taken over.

[00:31:41] The bonds were to the value of 35,000 lira and were originally taken out by Virginia Caccielpo.

[00:31:48] When questioned by police, both men denied knowing the origin of the bonds but could tell

[00:31:53] police that they had obtained them from a woman named Leonardo Ciantulli.

[00:31:58] This was the clenture, the damning evidence police were searching for.

[00:32:03] On the first of March 1941, police arrested Leonardo at her home on Via Cavor.

[00:32:11] Doctors watched as she was marched to the holding cells, just around the corner from her home.

[00:32:16] When questioned, Leonardo admitted that all three women had been to see her before their

[00:32:21] departures and that all of them had entrusted her in selling their belongings in the shop.

[00:32:26] She sold second hand clothing and furniture after all.

[00:32:29] That's why she had the woman's clothing in her possession.

[00:32:33] Investigators asked her to explain how she got her hands on Virginia's bonds.

[00:32:38] When Leonardo used her poetic rants to talk it away, she could not give them a straight

[00:32:42] answer.

[00:32:43] It was evident that she tried to dodge telling the truth.

[00:32:48] At Via Cavor in number 11, police could not find any traces of blood.

[00:32:53] The house was spotless.

[00:32:55] Remember this was in 1941 before scientists knew that Luminol was a helpful tool in detecting

[00:33:01] blood evidence.

[00:33:04] It was only a couple of years later in 1947 that scientists Walter Speck discovered that

[00:33:10] blood triggered a reaction.

[00:33:13] Amazingly, officers searching Leonardo's home discovered a fragment of Faustina's

[00:33:17] dentures.

[00:33:19] Her dental technician confirmed that it had been made by him.

[00:33:22] There were also human skull fragments in the kitchen, partially soaked up with caustic

[00:33:26] soda.

[00:33:28] Police knew that Leonardo had lured the women into her home and murdered them.

[00:33:33] Never convinced the motive was greed, that she wanted her victims' money and belongings.

[00:33:39] It was hard to believe that a woman could have committed such heinous and physically challenging

[00:33:42] murders, police felt that someone had helped her.

[00:33:46] Soon, after Leonardo's own arrest, her beloved Giuseppe was arrested for assisting

[00:33:51] his mother in committing the murders and disposing of their bodies.

[00:33:55] When Leonardo heard about Giuseppe's arrest, she confessed to everything and made it clear

[00:34:00] that Giuseppe had nothing to do with it.

[00:34:03] Police were not convinced and both Leonardo and her son remained in police custody.

[00:34:09] She was firstly taken to prison in Belona, but later that same year she moved to the asylum

[00:34:14] for the criminally insane in the adverse province of Cacera da under the care of the renowned

[00:34:19] Italian psychiatrist, Philippo Saperito.

[00:34:23] She remained there until March 1943, two years after her arrest.

[00:34:29] In this time, he wrote her memoirs and embittered soul's confessions.

[00:34:35] It was a 700-page, handwritten rant.

[00:34:38] It was only after reading the memoirs that authorities learnt about her real motive for murdering

[00:34:43] her friends.

[00:34:44] She viewed them as sacrifices so that she would not lose any more of her children.

[00:34:51] After reading it, the professor declared her in firm of mind.

[00:34:55] In his psychiatric evaluation of Leonardoci and Julie, Dr. Saperito diagnosed her with

[00:35:00] hysterical psychosis and a totally sick mind.

[00:35:05] The investigative section of the Court of Appeal of Belona, on the other hand, accused

[00:35:09] of psychiatrists of having been bewitched by the robust and poetic fortune teller and considered

[00:35:15] the criminal to be fully imputable.

[00:35:18] They felt her alleged motive and even the act of writing the memoir was all a part of

[00:35:23] a ploy to appear more insane than she actually was.

[00:35:27] If the Clareden saying, she would have had a better chance to escape the death penalty.

[00:35:31] It would only be 1946 before the case went to trial, five years after Leonardoci and

[00:35:37] Giuseppe's arrests.

[00:35:39] Bear in mind that the timing was very bad.

[00:35:42] It was the height of World War II.

[00:35:44] By 1946, Mussolini was dead and Italy worked toward rebuilding a peaceful future.

[00:35:52] Leonardoci and Giuseppe found themselves to be quite this sensation.

[00:35:56] After a period of war and death on the battlefield, no one expected a mother of four to be killing

[00:36:01] people and boiling them up in her eventual kitchen.

[00:36:05] In 1946, Italy also had a referendum to decide whether it would become a republic or not.

[00:36:13] At the time of the mother and son's trial, there were many international journalists in

[00:36:17] Italy who became aware of this so-make-or-story.

[00:36:21] The sort of story made waves all around the world as far as Australia.

[00:36:26] Drows of people formed an angry crowd inside the courtroom.

[00:36:30] The trial was like going to the cinema to watch a horror film, but it was much better

[00:36:35] as this was a real life horror and they wanted to hear all of the gruesome details.

[00:36:40] Way back when, this is what people did for entertainment.

[00:36:45] Trial kicked off on June 12th.

[00:36:48] The parents and sons sat next to each other in the dock, behind Black Iron bars as the

[00:36:52] crowd looked on.

[00:36:54] The Inard was indicted, a 15 counts of imputation, and there were nine counts against Giuseppe.

[00:37:01] Giuseppe looked bewildered for the most part, while the Inard seemed to love the drama

[00:37:05] of the situation.

[00:37:07] When she was called to testify on her own behalf, she brought the theatrics.

[00:37:13] Never once did she sow any signs of remorse.

[00:37:16] The official account of the Inard's time on the stand says,

[00:37:21] At her trial in Reggio Emilia last week, poetously Inard adripped the witness stand rail with oddly

[00:37:27] delicate hands and calmly set the prosecute right on certain details.

[00:37:32] Her deep-set dark eyes gleamed with wild inner pride as she concluded,

[00:37:35] I gave the copper ladle which I used to skim the fat off the pot to my country which

[00:37:41] was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war.

[00:37:45] Her claim of herself was slow for her country did not have much of an impact on the jury.

[00:37:52] The Inard explained to the court that her mother had cursed her when she had married

[00:37:55] Rafa Yelli Pansardi.

[00:37:57] She told them about her miscarriages, all the children who died, losing everything in the

[00:38:02] earthquake in Las Adonia.

[00:38:04] To protect her remaining children, she had to sacrifice someone in their place.

[00:38:09] She honestly believed that her victims would be reborn and that the evanescence of their

[00:38:13] bodies would give them a new form of life purified by pain.

[00:38:19] I did not kill because of hatred or greed, but only because I am a mother.

[00:38:24] Leonardo said trying to pull it the heartstrings of all mothers who had lost children.

[00:38:30] There were many who were grieving for sons who had died in the war and she hoped that

[00:38:33] would make her appear more sympathetic.

[00:38:36] The Inard stressed that although Giuseppe was the one who had posted the postcards, he had

[00:38:41] no idea what it was about.

[00:38:43] He thought he was doing it on behalf of his mother's friends.

[00:38:47] He also took some bones and body pieces which Leonardo had wrapped in butcher's paper

[00:38:51] and thrown them in the river, but he did not know the packages contained any human remains.

[00:38:57] She said that Giuseppe had no knowledge of the murders and only acted on her instructions.

[00:39:04] The judges still felt that Leonardo could not have acted alone.

[00:39:08] It would have taken a long time to dissect the bodies.

[00:39:11] The one hour forty minutes in which she killed and disposed of Virginia Cachiopo could

[00:39:16] not have been done by one woman alone.

[00:39:20] At this time Leonardo rose to the challenge and said that she could prove that she had acted

[00:39:26] alone.

[00:39:28] She marched the judges, the doctors and the police to the Reggio Emilia Morgue and expertly

[00:39:34] dissected a corpse into nine pieces in an astonishing twelve minutes.

[00:39:42] Giuseppe struck everybody who followed the case as an intelligent and educated young man.

[00:39:48] He was devastated about the situation he found himself in.

[00:39:52] His defense portrayed him as an unfortunate victim caught up in the storm of his mother's

[00:39:57] crimes.

[00:39:59] At the end of the trial, he was acquitted of all charges.

[00:40:04] Leonardo applauded and whistled as she celebrated his acquittal.

[00:40:09] The court did not fall for Leonardo's stories of superstition and sacrifice.

[00:40:14] She swindled her three victims out of their life savings and murdered them.

[00:40:19] The time she took to brainwash them and convinced them to sell up all their belongings made

[00:40:23] her crimes premeditated and callous.

[00:40:27] Leonardo was found guilty of triple murder and aggravated theft.

[00:40:32] Interestingly, she was found to be of semi-informed mind.

[00:40:37] Her sentence was not only a 30 year life sentence but she was also to spend three years in a criminal

[00:40:43] asylum exactly like the palm tree predicted all those years before.

[00:40:50] In 1946, she was lucky not to have been given a death sentence for her crimes.

[00:40:57] The past away October 1970 of a stroke at the age of 76 after spending only 24 years

[00:41:04] at the women's criminal asylum in Putsuli, never spending one night in prison.

[00:41:10] It is rumored that she was a model prisoner who loved to bake and offered her biscuits around.

[00:41:16] Nobody would eat them.

[00:41:18] They were afraid that they would be cursed or poisoned by some magical substance.

[00:41:24] Leonardo Cianculi was Italy's first and only female serial killer of the 20th century.

[00:41:31] Tools she used to dismember and dispose of the bodies around display at the Criminological

[00:41:36] Museum in Rome.

[00:41:39] She will also be remembered as the lady who gave the word, Saponifi, to turn into soap,

[00:41:45] a whole new meaning.

[00:41:50] If you'd like to read more about this case, have a look at the resources used for this

[00:41:54] episode in the show notes.

[00:41:57] Also visit and like our Facebook page at facebook.com forward slash evidence locker podcast

[00:42:04] to see more about today's case.

[00:42:06] If you like our podcast please subscribe and Apple Podcast or Stitcher or wherever you

[00:42:11] get your podcasts.

[00:42:13] We would also appreciate if you could review the episodes as it gives us some street

[00:42:17] crit in the world of podcasting.

[00:42:20] This was the evidence locker.

[00:42:22] Thank you for listening.