1. Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian serial killer.
33 Facts About Leonarda Cianciulli
1. 2.
Leonarda Cianciulli was born in Montella, Avellino, in what was then the Kingdom of Italy.
3.
In 1917, Cianciulli married a registry office clerk, Raffaele Pansardi.
4.
Leonarda Cianciulli's mother did not approve of the marriage, as she had planned to marry her to another man.
5.
Leonarda Cianciulli later claimed that on this occasion her mother had cursed them.
6.
In 1921, the couple moved to Pansardi's native town of Lauria, Potenza, where Leonarda Cianciulli was sentenced and imprisoned for fraud in 1927.
7.
Leonarda Cianciulli was very popular and well-respected within her neighbourhood.
8.
Leonarda Cianciulli had seventeen pregnancies during her marriage but lost three of the children to miscarriage.
9.
Consequently, Leonarda Cianciulli was heavily protective of the four surviving children.
10.
Leonarda Cianciulli's fears were fuelled by a warning she had received some time earlier from a fortune teller, who said that she would marry and have children, but that all of the children would die young.
11.
Reportedly, Leonarda Cianciulli visited a Romani who practised palm reading, and who told her, "In your right hand I see prison, in your left a criminal asylum".
12.
In 1939, Leonarda Cianciulli learned that her eldest son and favourite child, Giuseppe, was going to join the Royal Italian Army in preparation for the Second World War.
13.
Leonarda Cianciulli was determined to protect him at all costs and came to the conclusion that his safety required human sacrifices.
14.
Leonarda Cianciulli found her victims in three middle-aged women, all neighbours.
15.
The first of Leonarda Cianciulli's victims, Faustina Setti, was a lifelong spinster who had come to her for help in finding a husband.
16.
Leonarda Cianciulli told her of a suitable partner in Pola but asked her to tell no one of the news.
17.
Leonarda Cianciulli persuaded Setti to write letters and postcards to relatives and friends.
18.
Leonarda Cianciulli killed her with an axe and dragged the body into a closet, where she cut it into nine parts, gathering the blood into a basin.
19.
Some sources record that Leonarda Cianciulli apparently received Setti's life savings, 30,000 lire, as payment for her services.
20.
Leonarda Cianciulli claimed to have found her a job at a school for girls in Piacenza.
21.
Leonarda Cianciulli gave her drugged wine and killed her with an axe.
22.
Leonarda Cianciulli disposed of the body in the same way as Setti's and is said to have obtained 3,000 lire from her second victim.
23.
However, unlike the first two victims, Leonarda Cianciulli melted the body to make soap.
24.
From Cacioppo, Leonarda Cianciulli reportedly received 50,000 lire, assorted jewels and public bonds.
25.
Leonarda Cianciulli even sold all the victims' clothing and shoes.
26.
Leonarda Cianciulli reported her fears to the superintendent of police in Reggio Emilia, who opened an investigation and soon arrested Cianciulli.
27.
Leonarda Cianciulli did not confess to the murders until their suspicion fell on her son, Giuseppe Pansardi.
28.
Leonarda Cianciulli then provided detailed accounts of what she had done to absolve her son from any blame.
29.
Leonarda Cianciulli was tried for murder in Reggio Emilia in 1946.
30.
Leonarda Cianciulli remained unrepentant, going so far as to correct the official account while on the stand:.
31.
At her trial in Reggio Emilia last week Poetess Leonarda Cianciulli gripped the witness-stand rail with oddly delicate hands and calmly set the prosecutor right on certain details.
32.
Leonarda Cianciulli was found guilty and sentenced to thirty years in prison and three years in a criminal asylum.
33.
Leonarda Cianciulli died of cerebral apoplexy in the women's criminal asylum in Pozzuoli on 15 October 1970.