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Leonarda Cianciulli "The Soap-maker" pt. 2


The second victim was Francesca Soavi. Leonarda had promised her a job at the girls’ school in Piacenza. On the morning of 5 September 1940, she went to say goodbye to her friend before setting off.
The script was the same: Leonarda convinced the woman to write two postcards, telling her she should send them from Correggio to inform her acquaintances that she was leaving, but without saying where she was going. Leonarda then attacked the woman and made the second “sacrifice”. The third and final victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former opera singer, then 53, reduced to living with her memories of the past, in poverty. Leonarda offered her a job in Florence as the secretary to a mysterious theatre impresario, begging her not to tell a soul. Virginia was enthusiastic about the proposal, and kept the secret. On 30 September 1940 she went to Leonarda’s house, where: “She ended up in the pot, like the other two (…); her flesh was fat and white, when it had 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.”
Virginia’s sister-in-law, whose suspicions were aroused by her sudden disappearance, and who had last seen her going into Leonarda Cianciulli’s house reported the facts to the Police Superintendent in Reggio Emilia who, by following the many clues left by the murderess, unmasked “the soap-maker”. Under questioning Leonarda Cianciulli immediately confessed to the three murders.

The court found her guilty of the atrocious crimes, and sentenced her to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum. She died in the women’s criminal asylum in Pozzuoli on 15 October 1970, struck down by cerebral apoplexy.









                                                                                        Article by Azzurra Furnari

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