Leonarda Cianciulli: The Soap-Maker of Correggio

Leonarda Cianciulli became one of the most infamous women in Italian criminal history after three women disappeared from the town of Correggio between 1939 and 1940.

The case became notorious not simply because Cianciulli murdered her victims, but because of what she claimed to have done with their bodies afterward. According to her own confession, she dismembered the women and used their remains to produce soap and sweets.

Known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio", Cianciulli eventually confessed to three murders. But the story behind the killings is more complicated than the sensational nickname suggests. Money, deception, superstition, fear of losing her children, and her deeply held beliefs all became intertwined in a case that captivated Italy during the years surrounding World War II.

Her story also raises an important historical question: how much of Cianciulli's explanation for the murders reflected her genuine beliefs, and how much was an attempt to explain or justify her crimes?

Who Was Leonarda Cianciulli?

Leonarda Cianciulli was born in Montella, in the Italian region of Campania, in 1894. Historical sources differ on some details of her early life, and much of the surviving information comes from accounts attributed to Cianciulli herself.

She later married Raffaele Pansardi and eventually moved with her family to Correggio in northern Italy. The couple had several children, although Cianciulli experienced repeated pregnancies and the deaths of many of her children.

Those losses became extremely important to the story she later told about her life.

Cianciulli became increasingly interested in fortune-telling, palmistry, astrology, and other forms of occult and folk belief. In Correggio, she was known not only as a homemaker but also as someone who practiced fortune-telling and interacted with people seeking advice about their futures.

Her fears surrounding the safety of her surviving children eventually became central to her explanation for the murders.

The Curse and Cianciulli's Obsession With Her Children

One of the most persistent elements of Cianciulli's story was her belief that her family was cursed.

According to accounts attributed to her, she had received ominous predictions from fortune-tellers and believed that tragedy repeatedly followed her family. She also claimed that her mother had cursed her around the time of her marriage.

Cianciulli reportedly became especially terrified of losing her surviving children after experiencing numerous miscarriages and childhood deaths.

Later, she claimed that she became convinced that some kind of sacrifice was necessary to protect them.

This explanation became a major part of her defense and subsequent mythology. However, it is important to distinguish Cianciulli's own explanation from independently established facts. The historical record establishes the murders and her conviction; her supernatural interpretation of those events came primarily from her own accounts.

Leonarda Cianciulli's Three Victims

Between December 1939 and November 1940, Cianciulli killed three women in Correggio:

• Faustina Setti

• Francesca Soavi

• Virginia Cacioppo

The women had something important in common. They were acquaintances of Cianciulli, lived relatively independently, and were vulnerable to promises of a better future.

Cianciulli exploited that trust.

Faustina Setti

Faustina Setti was the first known victim.

Setti was an older unmarried woman who wanted to find a husband. Cianciulli told her that she had found a suitable man for her in another city.

The promise gave Cianciulli an opportunity to make Setti's disappearance appear voluntary.

According to the investigation, Setti was persuaded to prepare letters and messages that would make it appear as though she had left Correggio and was beginning a new life elsewhere. This created a period of time during which her absence would not immediately raise suspicion.

Setti was killed on December 18, 1939. The University of Milan's criminal-history archive identifies her as the first of the three confirmed victims.

Cianciulli later described dismembering Setti's body and destroying the remains.

Francesca Soavi

The second victim was Francesca Soavi, who was killed on September 5, 1940.

Soavi was looking for employment, and Cianciulli told her that she had found an opportunity for her elsewhere.

Once again, Cianciulli allegedly convinced the woman to make arrangements that would make her disappearance appear ordinary.

The pattern was similar to the first murder: Cianciulli gained her victim's confidence, provided a reason for her to leave, and then killed her.

Investigators later concluded that Cianciulli had used the women's belongings and money for her own purposes, adding a financial element to the case.

Virginia Cacioppo

The third victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a 59-year-old former opera singer.

Cacioppo was reportedly promised work in Florence. Like the other women, she was given a reason to believe that she was leaving Correggio for a better future.

But Cacioppo never left Cianciulli's house alive.

She was killed on November 30, 1940, becoming the final confirmed victim.

Cacioppo's disappearance ultimately proved crucial to the investigation.

Her sister-in-law, Albertina Fanti, became suspicious after Cacioppo vanished. Fanti had seen her enter Cianciulli's home and did not see her leave. Her concerns eventually helped bring the disappearances to the attention of investigators.

What Did Leonarda Cianciulli Do With the Bodies?

This is the part of the case that earned Cianciulli her infamous nickname.

According to her confession, she dismembered the bodies and attempted to destroy the remains through boiling and chemical treatment.

She claimed that she used the bodies to produce soap.

She also claimed that she used blood from the victims in preparing sweets.

The details became some of the most sensational elements of the case, but modern retellings sometimes present every detail of Cianciulli's account as unquestionably established fact.

The historical record is more complicated.

Cianciulli herself described the process during questioning and in her later writings, while investigators also recovered physical evidence connected to the murders. The University of Milan's archive records that the bodies were dismembered and that Cianciulli reported using caustic soda in the process of destroying them.

The case became so closely associated with the alleged production of soap that the nickname "La Saponificatrice di Correggio", or "the Soap-Maker of Correggio," followed her for the rest of her life.

How Was Leonarda Cianciulli Caught?

The murders might have remained hidden longer if not for the disappearance of Virginia Cacioppo.

Cacioppo's sister-in-law refused to accept the explanation that she had simply left town.

Investigators began looking into Cacioppo's disappearance and eventually connected it to the earlier disappearances of Setti and Soavi.

The women had all known Cianciulli.

That connection became increasingly difficult to dismiss.

Investigators also began following financial and physical evidence connected to the missing women. Searches of Cianciulli's home produced evidence that strengthened the case against her. The investigation eventually turned into a murder inquiry.

Cianciulli was taken into custody in 1941.

At first, she did not simply provide a complete confession. According to historical accounts, investigators gradually obtained more information about the disappearances and the evidence surrounding them.

Eventually, Cianciulli confessed to all three murders.

The 1946 Trial

Leonarda Cianciulli was finally brought to trial in Reggio Emilia in 1946.

The trial began in June and concluded with a verdict on July 20, 1946.

Prosecutors argued that financial motives played an important role in the murders. Cianciulli, however, presented a very different explanation.

She maintained that the killings were connected to her desire to protect her children from death.

This distinction became important during the trial because Cianciulli's mental state was closely examined.

A psychiatric evaluation was conducted by Professor Filippo Saporito, and the court ultimately found Cianciulli to be partially mentally incapacitated under the legal standards of the time.

She was convicted of the three murders along with offenses involving the destruction of the bodies and theft.

Her sentence was:

30 years in prison, followed by at least three years in a criminal asylum.

Her son, Giuseppe Pansardi, was also implicated during the investigation, but he was ultimately acquitted. The Italian criminal-history archive records that the Court of Cassation confirmed Cianciulli's sentence in May 1948.

Was Leonarda Cianciulli Mentally Ill?

Modern articles sometimes describe Cianciulli as having paranoid schizophrenia or another specific psychiatric disorder.

That claim should be treated carefully.

Cianciulli was evaluated by psychiatrists during the legal proceedings, and the court determined that she was seminferma di mente, generally translated as being of diminished or partial mental capacity under the Italian legal system of the period.

That is not the same thing as establishing a modern psychiatric diagnosis such as schizophrenia.

Her behavior was certainly shaped by extraordinary beliefs. She was deeply interested in fortune-telling, magic, superstition, and the idea that supernatural forces could affect the fate of her family.

But assigning a modern diagnosis to a historical figure based primarily on decades-old accounts can create a misleading impression of certainty.

What can be established is that the court considered her mental condition significant enough to affect her legal status and sentence.

The Money Motive vs. the Sacrifice Theory

One of the most interesting questions surrounding the Cianciulli case is why she killed.

There is no single explanation that completely resolves the issue.

Cianciulli claimed that she was making sacrifices to protect her children.

Investigators and prosecutors, however, identified a financial component. The three women had money and possessions, and the historical record indicates that Cianciulli benefited financially from the crimes. The University of Milan's archive explicitly records both an economic motive and a sacrifice motive in its documentation of the case.

It is therefore possible to examine the murders without accepting Cianciulli's supernatural explanation at face value.

Her beliefs may have influenced her actions while financial exploitation also played a role.

The surviving evidence does not require the case to be reduced to a single motive.

What Happened to Leonarda Cianciulli?

After her conviction, Cianciulli spent years in prison and psychiatric confinement.

She eventually died on October 15, 1970, in Pozzuoli, Italy.

She had spent roughly three decades in custody following her arrest.

Her case did not disappear with her death.

The objects associated with the investigation became part of the historical record. Some of the tools and other artifacts connected with the murders were preserved and later displayed at the Criminological Museum in Rome. The University of Milan's criminal-history archive notes that the murder implements have been preserved there since 1949.

The Strange Legacy of the Soap-Maker of Correggio

Leonarda Cianciulli remains one of the most unusual figures in the history of Italian true crime.

Her case contains many of the elements that continue to attract public fascination: missing women, deception, superstition, murder, alleged cannibalism, the destruction of human remains, and a defendant whose explanation for her crimes was radically different from the prosecution's theory.

Her story has also appeared in books, documentaries, television programs, theater, and other works of popular culture.

But the most important part of the case may be the distinction between what Cianciulli said and what investigators were able to establish.

Her own account portrayed her as a mother desperately attempting to protect her children from a supernatural fate. The prosecution presented a woman who deliberately targeted vulnerable acquaintances and profited from their deaths.

The truth may contain elements of both.

What is not in dispute is that three women trusted Leonarda Cianciulli, entered her home, and never came out alive.

Leonarda Cianciulli: Key Facts

Full name: Leonarda Cianciulli
Born: 1894, Montella, Italy
Died: October 15, 1970, Pozzuoli, Italy
Nickname: The Soap-Maker of Correggio
Confirmed victims: 3
Known murder period: 1939–1940
Victims: Faustina Setti, Francesca Soavi, Virginia Cacioppo
Location of murders: Correggio, Italy
Arrest: 1941
Trial: 1946
Sentence: 30 years in prison plus at least 3 years in a criminal asylum

Frequently Asked Questions About Leonarda Cianciulli

Why was Leonarda Cianciulli called the Soap-Maker of Correggio?

She became known by that name because she claimed to have used the remains of her victims to produce soap after destroying their bodies.

How many people did Leonarda Cianciulli kill?

Cianciulli was convicted of killing three women: Faustina Setti, Francesca Soavi, and Virginia Cacioppo. The murders occurred between 1939 and 1940.

Who was Leonarda Cianciulli's first victim?

Her first confirmed victim was Faustina Setti, who was killed on December 18, 1939.

Who was Leonarda Cianciulli's last victim?

Her final confirmed victim was Virginia Cacioppo, a former opera singer who was killed on November 30, 1940.

Why did Leonarda Cianciulli kill?

Cianciulli claimed that she committed the murders as sacrifices intended to protect her children from death. Prosecutors also identified financial motives, and the historical record indicates that she benefited from the victims' money and possessions.

Was Leonarda Cianciulli legally considered mentally ill?

The 1946 court found Cianciulli to have diminished mental capacity under the legal standards of the time and ordered psychiatric confinement as part of her sentence. This should not be automatically equated with a specific modern psychiatric diagnosis.

When did Leonarda Cianciulli die?

Leonarda Cianciulli died on October 15, 1970, in Pozzuoli, Italy.

Final Thoughts

The story of Leonarda Cianciulli is disturbing not simply because of the brutality of the murders, but because of the extraordinary mixture of fear, superstition, personal loss, deception, and financial exploitation surrounding them.

Cianciulli presented herself as a mother attempting to save her children from an ominous fate. The evidence presented at trial told a story that also involved calculated deception and material gain.

More than eighty years later, the case remains difficult to separate from the mythology that grew around it.

But beneath the sensational nickname and the infamous stories about soap and sweets are three real women—Faustina Setti, Francesca Soavi, and Virginia Cacioppo—whose lives ended after they placed their trust in someone they knew.

That is ultimately what makes the story of the Soap-Maker of Correggio so chilling.