Rotten Mango - #39- She Made SOAP From Her Victim's Bodies (Serial Killer Leonarda Cianciulli)

Episode Date: February 15, 2021

The famous soap maker was giving away free soaps & tea cakes from her beloved soap shop.  The neighbors were ecstatic to take home their luxurious bars of soap that they got for free and couldn't wait to test them out...  They wouldn't know till it was too late that the Soapmakers recipe included the bodies of her victims.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Before we get started, I just want to say thank you to Stephanie Harlow for making some of the most extensive research, deep dive on this case. I watched Stephanie Harlow's three hour two part series on the soap maker of Corasio and that thing blew my freaking mind. Okay, the amount of extensive research that she goes into the way that she tells the story. If you guys don't know, Stephanie Harlow is an amazing true crime YouTuber and she always has such good information that she goes in depth with in her videos. If you guys really want to get sucked into it, you need to go watch that series. It's called the soap maker of Corazio

This little mini-sode won't even do it justice, but let's get started But it being by the boom. It's a mini-sode and this one is So lame this is gonna be crazy Imagine imagine a serial killer. It almost feels like a baking a murder, a baking a mystery type title, which it's kind of like It feels like it's from a movie, but it's actually real life It's the fact that this serial killer turns our victims into bars of soap So that you could wash your bodies with these bars of soap a soap maker and Italy becomes a serial killer and Sell soap that's made out of body fat like you know there's a movie about that right

what is a classic it's got to be based off of her though really famous for this so the movie yeah from what I can remember I watched it in the film class I believe you took a film Yeah, yeah, yeah. That explains a lot, right? So I think they just steal like fat from rich people. You know, rich people, they suck your fat out of your body to make you skinny. Yeah. Yeah, and then- Like, liposuction.

Yeah, and that what they do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So they broke into these factories to steal the fat from rich people. Oof. And they make it into soaps, sell it to rich people. Oof. Rich people on rich people crime is my favorite. That rich on rich crime.

To the moon! To the moon! They don't call it body wash for no reason. Oh, that was a good one. So this is about Italy's first female serial killer. This is kind of an old and day story. Don't click out because honestly you need to know about it This is absolutely marbles her name was lianarda chian chali. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right

But I'm gonna try so what she would do is she would kill women turn them into cakes like biscuits cookies cakes And then she would have these little lunchons where all of her friends would come over They would eat these bloody cakes. They would literally be made from blood of her victims. And then she also created soaps and body washes. I mean, she just took it to another level. And in this situation, I feel like usually we're like, well, let's talk about Leonardo's life. Like, what's her childhood?

Like, what made her go down the career path of, I don't know, killing women and then turning them into bars of soap. We gotta start with her mom. Because this is a completely fascinating story in the most tragic way possible. So Amelia did Nolfi. This is Leonardo's mom, and she was born in the town of Mantella, Italy,

which is known for their chestnuts. I hear it's a very beautiful small town, but I feel like that's every town in Italy. They're always like, it's a beautiful small town. It has beautiful mountains in the surrounding areas, and Amelia, her family was really well off. Like they were religious, they had a lot of influence in that town, they were well respected, and Amelia was known to not only be coming from this family of

just wealth and prestige and status, but she was fucking pretty. She was beautiful. So with her status and her beauty, people just thought she had unlimited opportunity and picking husbands Like she could marry way above her own class, you know the ultra rich because of her beauty And so back in the day what they would do is that you would have tons of suitors Now what's very fascinating is that you would go on these dates But you would have to have a shop around to meet with these dates So even if you're like 15 and you're like going on dates looking for your future husband because back in the day like the life expectancy was like what 40 something

50 something. Okay, no, I think it's like 60s. But like you would get married really, really quickly and you would need a shaperone to be there with you so that they could promise everyone that your virtue was still intact. Meaning like there would be an old lady at all of your dates making sure you don't do it so that they know that you're a virgin on your wedding night because that is so important right. So one day Amelia was meeting up with a suitor in his gated estate and there was a shop around there and they were like hey you know now that you're going home do you want us to take you home in our little car or carriage whatever like what do you want and Amelia was like you

know what it's a nice summer day. I'm just gonna walk home. Like my house is just down the village. Like it's not that far. It's a scenic walk. It's gonna be okay. The sun is still out. And so she proceeded to leave the gated estate by herself and just walk home, right? Now there was a man by the name of Mariano Chi and Cheli. I'm gonna call him the rapist from now on. I'm not gonna remember his name, okay? So he had been watching her for a while. He had this thing towards Amelia.

So first of all, he was in his 40s and she was probably like 14 or 15 during this time. And he had this obsession with Amelia Denolfi for multiple reasons. The first being that, I mean, she was beautiful. There were tons of suitors looking at her. There were so many men who wanted to marry her right but secondly he was so upset like he is an unemployed poor man who came from an equally poor family in the village they lived in the poorest part of town and she was just

this rich little girl who had everything handed her and he would never get to date her he would never get to talk to her because of her status of where she came from. So it was almost like this resentment and also just insane infatuation. He was just a freaking creep. So he had been watching her for multiple days at this point, just stuck in around town. And on that day, he had followed her to the estate

and he had seen her walk in with her suitor, do their little suit and things, you know. And he chugged a cheap bottle of wine outside and then saw that she was walking home alone and thought that, okay, well this is my moment. And so he drags her into the nearby empty fields and he starts raping her. Now, here's the crazy thing. Back in the day. They didn't really teach people about sex Like there was no sex education class girls really didn't go to school like if anything girls learned how to be a good hostess and

How to like I don't know make fucking flower arrangements or some shit like that But they didn't really have like a school education So there was no one to teach them about hey, this is how babies are made. Hey, this is how you do it, right? So she actually had no idea teach them about, hey, this is how babies are made. Hey, this is how you do it, right? So she actually had no idea what was about to happen to her. He dragged her into the field and he starts kind of like pulling up her dress and she kept telling him that she doesn't have any money. She genuinely thought that he was trying to like grab for a purse or some money and she

was just like, I don't have any money on me. And then he raped her and he just walked away and left her in the field. So she laid in the field for hours, just in confusion, in shock, in pain. Finally she walks home and she immediately just like gets into bed. Doesn't even change out of her clothes, just completely traumatized. The next morning, there's blood everywhere on her clothes, her thighs, and even though she had no idea what sex was, she was immediately just felt shame.

She just felt like this is something that you can't tell anyone that has happened, because not, they're not even going to feel sympathy for you, they're just going to look at you like you're dirty. And so she just did not tell anyone, did not tell her parents, and just acted like nothing happened, cleaned herself up, proceeded with the day, but she was still traumatized from this. So like every day, this is a small town. She would see him out and about She would go to the market

She would go meet up with her suitors and he's like the town drunk is kind of how people phrase it So he's always roaming the streets just drinking cheap wine like just being an absolute rapist douche face, right? And so she would constantly see him and she had nobody to talk to about any of this like imagine being 16 and going through this and you just can't even talk about it. It's insane. Now months pass and there were servants working in the Dinoffy house, like they're that rich.

So they've got tons of servants and they're the ones like cleaning up all the bed sheets, cleaning up the bathrooms and like back in the day, like our shed, they didn't have like birth control, they didn't have like, you know, tampons. And so a lot of the times when girls would get their periods, it would just kind of like leak onto the bed. It would be all over the bathroom a lot of the times, right?

And the servants would clean it up once a month because it happens every month. But they had notice that she hadn't had her period in months. They were like, I don't remember the last time that I cleaned up any like bloody bed sheets. So they go to the denalfi parents and they're like, Hey, your daughter's not blaming like is she pregnant? Could she be pregnant? We don't know. It's just very suspicious. So the parents, they approach Amelia and

they're like, which one did it to you? Which suit her? Which respectable man from a respectable family disrespected you like that? Who took your virtue? Who took your virtue? And so Amelia at first is like, I don't know what you're talking about. I've never done it. Like, I don't know like what you're talking about like this doesn't make any sense Nobody disrespected my virtue. I don't even know what that means And then the dad was like I'm gonna go out there and knock on every fucking suitors door and demand to know Who stole the virtue of my daughter, right? And so finally a Miliya confesses to everything. She's like, I was walking home alone after that date and I was dragged into a field and this old guy, you know, the town drunk, he raped me, all of these things happened. And now what do you expect the parents to do?

Like go arrest a dude? Yeah, I thought so too. Like go arrest the dude, go throw a fit. I mean, you're talking about an influential family. They could probably get him arrested. They could probably get him, I don't know, sent away, do all these crazy things, they didn't track him down, they didn't kill him, they didn't do any of this, they invited the rapist and his family over for dinner. Because the only way that this pregnancy didn't destroy the family reputation is for them to get married. What? So the decision was made by Mariano the rapist, his parents, by the way he's like 40, okay? And Amelia's parents everyone decided that she was to marry him. She did not have a choice in any of this. Amelia was forced to marry her rapist. Wait, how do you explain such thing? I mean...

Yeah, so they kind of explained it to everyone as if they like fell in love or something. Oh. Yeah, so he- Oh, because I think maybe some back in the days, she can be married to anyone else, or nobody else what want to marry her. Yeah. So Mariana the rapist, he's so excited.

I mean, not only did he commit this really atrocious crime, and he's getting away with it. Like, he's not even going to jail for it or getting any sort of punishment, but he's actually getting rewarded. Now for it or getting any sort of punishment, but he's actually getting rewarded. Now, he gets to marry this girl of high status. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean

that he's gonna become high status. It's actually the opposite. You become the status of your husband. So, it's not like he's moving into this beautiful home. It's the fact that she's getting kicked out of the house and moved into the poorest part of the town. So, it's not even that, but it's the fact that he gets to run around town and say, look, this is my bitch.

Because that's the type of guy he was. So the parents just kind of abandoned her. They abandoned her completely. So she was kicked out of our house. She had servants. She had all these beautiful things. She had to leave all of that, moved to the poorest part of town where she was expected to use an outdoor bathroom that she shared with the neighborhood people.

It was like a hole in the ground, and everyone just like shat in the hole in the ground. Yeah. Okay. So it's really intense. I mean, it's a complete lifestyle change, first of all. Secondly, she doesn't even know this guy. Like, this guy is not a suitor, she didn't go on dates with him, it's not a family friend that she feels like she can trust.

And most importantly, this is her literal rap rapist the guy that's responsible for the most traumatic painful thing that has ever happened to her And now he's her freaking husband So their first night together as husband and wife he raped her Repeatedly and kept raping her throughout their entire marriage. She did never she never wanted to have sex with him Okay, which completely understandable, right? And it was just disgusting. He didn't want to get a job and it was really impatient with Amelia So I know that a lot of people aren't gonna have a lot of compassion for her right now because it's like well I mean everyone has to do chores, right?

But Amelia grew up in a household where she had servants since the day that she was born and because she was of that status It was expected that whoever she married had the same amount or more servants, so there would never be any need for her to waste her time learning how to do the dishes, learning how to do the laundry. And so no one was teaching her, but she was just suddenly expected to do it

while she's pregnant. So she's freaking confused. She's trying to learn how to do these dishes. She doesn't know, like she keeps breaking dishes, and he would beat her violently while she was pregnant, because she would break a dish or didn't do the laundry correctly, any of these things. He would beat her, he would rape her, then he would go out drinking, sometimes he wouldn't even come home for days, and he would brag around town.

He literally told all of the other friends that he would get drunk with, guys, this is the way you do it. If you see someone that's unattainable of higher status, obviously you can't become their suitor because their parents would never allow you to date someone of that status because we're broke bitches. So what you do is you rape them. You rape them, get them pregnant and the parents will feel so much shame that they will give you their daughter. As if like women are just possessions. So he was like, that's how you get a wife. And all of the guys were like was like, that's how you get a wife. And all of the guys were like,

wow, that's how we get a wife. And Amelia was completely thrown out by her family and high society in Italy. They didn't want anything to do with her. So the way that high society talked about it, like all of Amelia's former friends, family friends, family members, they never talked about the rape.

They just talked about if you don't want to fall from grace, marry a proper man and don't sleep around. So everyone phrased it as if Amelia was just sleeping around with people and ended up getting pregnant by a broke guy. And that was her fall from grace. Nobody ever mentioned the fact that she was raped. Because the parents never told anyone, right?

So it just made it seem like, oh, well, she's just marrying to him and we don't really talk to her anymore. And so everyone just assumed, oh, like that little girl was sleeping around. And also on the other side of the spectrum, the poor families that she was now surrounded by, they had no sympathy for her. They knew that she was raped

because he was going around town talking about it. Amongst his people, it sounds really weird to say that, but like you get it. Amongst know this community and they didn't care. They were like well, that's what you get for being a spoiled little bitch Like they were just like born with a silver spoon. This is your fall from grace. Why would I have any sympathy for you? And so there was just nobody in this entire town that she could talk to that even cared about what she had gone through if anything It made it seem like hey, this is all your fault. So like everything's still the same I guess. For rape victims they're like this is all your fault okay and so she finally gives birth to a daughter by the name of Leonarda Chan-Chelli. Yes now we're back to the soap lady okay. Now

Amelia when this baby is born I would love to say that she just has like this motherly bone. She was like, oh my god, this is my baby, you know? But she didn't. She like looked at this baby and was like, you were the reason that I lost everything. Like you're the reason that I lost my family, my friends, my high status, everything. If I had just gotten raped and didn't get pregnant,

then I would still be there. I wouldn't have to tell anyone. I would still marry someone else, but like you were the frickin' reason. And she hated this baby. And she had to look at this baby every day and face the fact that this baby is the reason that she technically lost everything. Which like, I'm not agreeing with this thought process.

The society is the reason she lost everything plus Mariano. I mean, I can see that she's so young and you know, there's so much trauma that she's not categorizing correctly, so she's just putting it on this baby. And now babies aren't the most understanding when they pop out. They're not gonna be like, hey, mom, are you tired? Like, I'mma just take a chill pill. Like, they're just gonna keep crying. They're gonna keep you up at night. They don't care that you just push them out of their vage, and like, they're recovering from all of this. They're just gonna keep crying. And so Leonardo, she's crying all night, Amelia staying up all night, she's upset,

she doesn't even know how to take care of a baby. So back in the day, you know, all these rich families, they had nannies, and Amelia herself was raised by like a group of nannies, so how would she know how to change a diaper? And so she slowly starts resenting her more and more and more, and life keeps getting harder, and everything was a reminder at this point

that this baby and this pregnancy is the reason her life is shitty. So Leonardo obviously had a shitty childhood. She was physically abused all the time. She was verbally abused all the time. She had no love, no affection, no hugs, none of that. She was constantly bullied by both of her parents and Amelia made sure to let Leonardo know you're the reason that my life is fucked. Like every day she would wake up and be like good morning, you're the reason I woke up in this place. Like it's just really intense. So she starts raising this baby. And now Nariano, fatherhood did not do shit to the rapist. Like he didn't get softer, he didn't suddenly turn into a law-abiding citizen. He continued to waste the little money that

they had on drinking. And one day, he just like doesn't come home for days. I believe that this point Leonardo was maybe like five or six years old, right? For the first couple of days, Amelia doesn't care that he hasn't come home because it always happens. But eventually, she's like, oh, my husband really is missing. So she goes around town and she's like, hey guys, have you seen my husband? And one of his drinking buddies is like, oh yeah, he's in my house right now. She walks into the house and he's knocked out with a high fever in a comatose state. So she's like, okay,

well why don't you guys help moving back to our place so that I can take care of him because I'm a loving wife and so all of the drinking buddies are like for sure for sure. So they help carry this comatose man the rapist back into his home and then Amelia just proceeds to fucking forget about him. She was like, bye! And just left him to die on the bed. So her thinking was, if he wakes up, fine, whatever, we're just gonna act like then this never happened. If he doesn't wake up, then he's dead, which means I'm a widow, which means I can get married again. And they, I don't even think they had money for a doctor, to be honest, but it seemed more like it was a choice for her

She just didn't care about him honestly. Could you blame her? And so he ends up dying Yeah, he doesn't end up dying. They have a funeral now Leonardo doesn't remember anything about her dad other than the fact that she remembers like a couple of beatings that he gave her But she doesn't remember at the end of the funeral after everybody left her mother spat on his grave and said good fucking riddance like something along those lines and in Italian and then they just like left okay. Now this point Amelia is freaking ecstatic. She's like yes, okay, we're just going to ignore like the past five years like I still look good like I still look hot.

I still got my looks you know I'm still young technically like of what she's like in her early 20s max. She's like I got it all. I'm going to take my baby. I'm going to go back to my family's house and I'm going young technically like of what she's like in her early 20s max. She's like I got it all I'm gonna take my baby. I'm gonna go back to my family's house And I'm gonna knock on the door. They're gonna find me a new suitor and I'm gonna go on these little shopper own dates And I'm gonna marry a new man maybe the new man that I'm a really it's not gonna be you know the craziest most respectable Family in town, but at least like a middle-to-opera class dude You know and so she goes to her family's house and they're just like listen

middle to upper class dude you know and so she goes to her family's house and they're just like listen. Our society, our high society has just stopped talking about your scandal so like if you come back then the rumors are gonna start up again and our reputation would just be ruined and we can't really risk it so you gotta go and they just slam the door shut on their faces and Amelia was like what the fork now she's completely alone not only a shield loan and a single mom but it's the fact that women didn't have job opportunities back in the day. So like, how is she going to make money to support her

and this child? Not that she cared about the child. And so Amelia was like, OK, I'm going to marry a middle class man. Like, it's not going to be the best man or upper class. I'm not going to have like the luxuries that I used to have. I'm not going to have servants, but at least I won't get raped and beaten and at least I have good food and it'll be okay And so she starts going on all these dates with these middle class men and they really really liked her and she thought her

Pro was that she's beautiful. She's charming, but she was trained like an upper class woman Which is a lot of money back in the day, you know, to get all these trainings to like, I don't know, fucking poor tea, okay? And so she's like, I am a catch. And so everyone went on these dates with her, but again, they always said she's a fun time, but she's just not a respectable woman. No single mother who is a widow is a respectable, mariable woman, even in the middle class, you know, that's what they said, even in our class lady, you got to get out of here. And so she starts hanging out with some illegal people. I'm talking guys that were involved in like organized crime, like think like the Italian mafia but on a tiny scale.

So they were con men, mob people, thieves, they just lived like a dangerous life. Yeah, she just really got into it because they did have money, you know, they had a legal money and they were very frivolous to spend it. They're like the people that easy uh, easy come, easy go. Like more, like, let's say $5 comes in, they'll spend 10 type of people. So she just marries one of them and she didn't think that this was her future. She was just like, hey, this is my meal ticket for right now. Like, I just need a shelter and then maybe I'll figure it out.

And he had bought her tons of beautiful clothes, like these crazy lavish gifts. And Leonardo was just left at home all the time. So she's like five or six, and she would have to feed herself. Her parents would go out on these crazy fancy dinners and just leave her to just try to find some food somewhere, and she was constantly by herself. She was considered baggage for most of them,

and Amelia would still constantly tell her how annoying she is, and just how much she hates her. So by the age of 13 years old, she tries to take her own life. She made a news from bedsheets and she tried to hang herself from the ceiling, but the knots like they came untied and she fell, she crushed and bruised her vocal cords and her entire body was bruised up because it wasn't like a small little stool that she fell off of. And she couldn't talk for a week

because of her vocal cords they were bruised and her mom didn't even notice. Like her mom didn't even ask like, hey, why is your neck red? Like why can't you talk? Hey, why are you so bruised up? Like she didn't even care. Then a year later, she tried to commit suicide again

and failed again. So she was super miserable, she was so depressed, but because she was approaching her teenage years, she did have her mother's good looks. That's what everyone said. She was beautiful. And so suddenly, as they would go through town, everyone would say, oh my god, Leonardo is so beautiful, Leonardo is so beautiful. And Amelia started caring for her daughter.

Because she was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. This could be my meal ticket. She could marry a respectable man whose young, she's young, she's attractive. She does have connections with her high society. She is of the Dinoffy line, you know, even though I had a fall from grace, she still is just this young innocent girl with her virtue intact. And so I could get her a respectable husband. And you know, I think it's still common to this day, like if you marry into like a better

family, a lot of the times they will take care of like your parents, right? Just like make sure that they're not starving. And Amelia was like, this is great. So she starts going scouting. So what they would do back in the day is they wouldn't just be like, Hey, who do you like? The parents would do everything behind the scenes. So the parents would go on these crazy lunches, these like matchmaking tours,

and they'd be like, okay, like tell me the specs about your son, and then they'd be like, tell me the specs about your daughter, and they would be like, okay, so this is going to be like their first date, and then, oh, okay, then he's going to be dating this girlfriend in it, because, you know, they would do everything. So she became part of that crowd where she was scouting for potential suitors for Leonardo. Now, she did this without ever telling Leonardo

that she was doing this, not because she thought Leonardo would be against it, but she didn't really care for her opinion. Like, it didn't even cross her mind. You know, it's like when you bring your kid to the doctor's office, like, are you gonna ask your kid if they wanna go? Like, you're just like, you gotta go, let's go. you when you bring your kid to the doctor's office like are you gonna ask your kid if like they want to go Like you're just like you gotta go. Let's go

So that was kind of the situation and so she starts talking to all of these people and a lot of the moms are interested You know, I wouldn't say there were maybe as high status as who Amelia was being scouted with But they were pretty high status. They had money. They had scouted with, but they were pretty high status. They had money, they had servants, they had a respectable family, and so these doors just start opening up, and she started really enjoying this attention. She was getting. She was back in high society, being the mom of a sought after young lady. So like they're trying to woo the parents, you know, all of these young men's parents are like buying her gifts to be like we would love to set our children up with you, you know. And so she was going to these ladies lunches, these

branches, and she just was having so much fun that she didn't even want to set her up that quickly. She was like the longer this last, the more fun that I'll have. Now during this time, Leonardo starts falling in love with someone. By the name of Raphael Panzari, he was older, he was, I believe, I think he was like a widow or something, he was a low paid government clerk and he was super nice, but he was super broke. And she just didn't care because she was like at least he's stable and not abusive and not a rapist and not a beater and it's gonna be fine. Like I think I love him. So he proposes and she accepts so she skips on home and she's like, oh my god, mother You'll never guess I'm finally out of your house because you freaking hate me anyway

So I'm getting married to Raphael and Amelia was so pissed off now you would think that Amelia would be like listen I'm pissed off because I've been working my ass off trying to get you a suitor trying to get you in upper class suitor Come on, dude, you know, you would think that she would say all of this But instead, Amelia Amelia was like, um no, if you ever marry this guy, I'm never gonna approve of it. So of course, what do you think Leanne Arda is thinking? Do you think that she's sitting there thinking, oh, it's because my mom wants me to do better?

No. Leanne Arda is like, my mom is so evil. She wants me to stay in this house so she can use me as her punching bag so that she can continue to psychologically torture me. She will never be happy for me. She will never be happy for me. She will never be a good mom. So you know what?

Fork you mom. I'm leaving an Amelia curses Leonardo and says, you will live a miserable life until the day that you die. And then that was the last words she ever spoke to her. Never went to the wedding. They would bump into each other because like I said, it's a small town would never speak to her ever again Now here's a part that's forked up. Leon or I have believes in superstitions That's how she was raised her mom always believed in curses supernatural stuff like rituals

She always told her daughter that these are real and so now she fully believes that she's cursed And it's just like lingering in the back of her mind every single day and it just kind of came at like a self-fulfilling prophecy that's how I think curses work so a lot of the times I do get asked because we do like these cases on witchcraft I believe so much like minds are so powerful yeah so I believe if someone cursed me I wouldn't necessarily believe in the curse itself but like knowing my stupid ass brain it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy yeah I'd be like yeah for sure and so Leonardo tried really hard in her marriage like she, it would be a self-fulfilling policy. It would be like, yeah, for sure. And so Leonardo tried really hard in her marriage.

Like, she wanted it to be perfect. She wanted to be the perfect wife, but she had a lot of self-hate. Like, anytime she messed up the chores even a little bit, she would start having full on mental breakdowns. And her husband was like, hey, like, it's okay. Like, the laundry's fine. And she would continue to cry. She always considered herself a failure. And just felt like she was never good enough.

And eventually it even started fucking with her physical health, so she would have these like violence seizures. She had insomnia, she had, I mean, I wouldn't diagnose her, but like, I feel like she's, she's got some crazy anxiety, like off the charts. Now she did want a ton of children so she was kind of like the opposite of her mom. She's like listen my mom sucked us so I'm gonna have kids and I'm gonna treat them so well. I'm gonna have a ton of them and I'm gonna be the best mom that this town has ever fucking seen. I may not have

money but I'm gonna be an amazing mom. So since the day that they got married they've been trying to conceive and every time it just like wouldn't work. Like she just wouldn't get pregnant. And so finally, there was like this traveling fair that was coming through the village. And part of this fair, they had fortune tellers that were gonna be there. And so a lot of people were excited.

You know, Leonardo was excited. And she goes, she sits down on the chair. And before she even lets the fortune teller read her palms, she does a huge red flag. She's like, listen fortune teller, I don't want you to be that alarmed because I'm like a cursed woman I've a curse on me. Yamma mom cursed me. So like when you read my hands, you'll probably see it Just don't be alarmed by this black magic And so of course the fortune teller is like you don't say give me your hands. Take a long look at them and says

Oh, man. Oh man Leonardo You're not going to die. But you will live very long and it'll be a very sad life. You'll actually outlive all of your children. Oh, my God. And this is like her one dream is to like be a good mom and to be like, have a good family, right? And so she's like, what are you talking about?

Oh, my God. Is this why I haven't been getting pregnant because this is my mom's curse? And so she goes on and she's like, Oh, you talking about? Oh my god, is this why I haven't been getting pregnant? Because this is my mom's curse. And so she goes on and she's like, oh my god, the curse is real. The curse is real. She has more seizures. She has worse insomnia. She has more anxiety attacks. And then finally, she gets pregnant.

So she's so scared of this curse that she's so anxious has more seizures during her pregnancy. And she lost the baby three months into her pregnancy, which then again, only reinforce the curse in her brain. So Raphael at this point, he's like, listen, we should get out of town. Like this, you keep talking about this curse that your mom has said on you, like let's just get out of this town then. We'll start fresh.

I can find a clerical job that probably pays more in a different town, like slightly bigger town and you know, it'll be okay. And it was kind of hard for them. They were really tied on money because she couldn't get a job. So not only were there not a lot of job opportunities, but like maybe if she could have been a servant, that could have eased the financial pressure, but I mean, she was just having seizures all the time. Like there was just no way she could hold down a job. So they go back to Raphael's hometown. and this place is even more beautiful than the first place. Like this place has a warm climate. It's beautiful. It's like on the side of a cliff it looks

like and his family lived there and they loved her. The extended family loved her. So like the mother-in-law, the dad-in-law, just like broader and open arms and she got pregnant. This was like her miracle baby. So during the entire pregnancy, she wasn't even nauseous. Like it was so smooth, so easy. Her family, Rafael's family came every day to take care of her. It just was the best pregnancy ever. So she gives birth to a son by the name of Giuseppe. He's like, that makes sense. That is a very Italian name, yes. And she has this new obsession now, not to be the perfect wife, but to be the perfect wife but to be the perfect mom She would stand up all night over his cradle just watching him sleep like all night

And she started having seizures again because she was so stressed out about something we now call like sudden infant death syndrome Sits which like infants will die in their sleep suddenly and it's very traumatizing for parents I'm sure but you know back in the day much more common. Because there's a lot more diseases. There's a lot less, like the mortality rate for kids was really, really low. It was to the point where a lot of families in the 1800s, they would even get attached to all the children until they like hit like maybe 15.

They're like, oh, you're gonna live. Like, I'm gonna start loving you now because I know you're gonna live. Because like when they're seven, it's like you wanna love them, but like what if they die tomorrow? You don't want to be traumatized, right? So it's kind of like this. There's a way to raise kids. That's a way to raise kids.

That's a way to raise kids. Like a number of kids. Yeah. We never know, okay? Yeah. So I'll withhold the love and affection until you're 18 and the next 10 Bundy. Okay. It'll be great. And so she starts

having these seizures, they have tons of financial anxiety which only worsens her seizures and she gets pregnant 17 times in this town. She had three miscarriages, 14 of them were actually birthed, 10 of them died before they reached adulthood, 7 of them actually died before they were three years old. died before they reached adulthood. Seven of them actually died before they were three years old. His mouth is wide open. Oh my God, so how many is left? One? Um, four.

Oh my God. Yeah. So she'll get pregnant more after this hometown. But she ends up with four kids, I believe, a family of six. So her, her husband and four kids. Holy cow. OK, so that makes sense. I mean, that's just, I mean, what kind of trauma is that?

You thought I was kidding. He was like, oh, yeah, that's a cute way to raise kids. He, haha. And I'm like, so all of them died. Yeah, yeah, it was that bad. And so she thought the curse was coming back. She's like, oh my god, what's happening? So again, everything starts getting worse.

Her physical health starts getting worse. Most of her children died because they got some sort of sickness before they were three years old. So she became like a tiger mom. Her children were also living really miserably because she was a tiger mom. They weren't allowed to go outside and hang out with other toddlers.

So they were just stuck at home, completely isolated, like quarantined before 2021. Just inside the house. If they were hanging out inside the house and one of them accidentally fell, she would have like a full blown panic attack and she would just watch them sleep for days Like she wouldn't go to sleep. She would just stand at their door watching them in their bed sleep Multiple nine to send her out because she was like that bruise is gonna kill my kid. It was really bad

Now Raphael and his family they did try to help but they just didn't know like how like what how what can you like you can't even be like It's gonna be okay because it's not like you can't even be like it's gonna be okay because it's not, like you can't even assure that it's gonna be okay. And so Leonardo at this point has to get a job because so many kids mean so much more money and at one point you know they were alive so they were eating a lot and they were you know using up finances. So Rafael says I secured you a cleaning job at the bank and here's the best part. It's an overnight cleaning job. So I work during the day, you stay at home, and then at night, all of me and the kids are just gonna be sleeping.

What bad could come when we're sleeping? And you go to the bank, and you don't have to talk to anyone. It's closed, and you just clean, and we will have much more money. So she eventually ends up enjoying the job. She is an introvert, so she liked the fact that nobody else was there, cleaning calm her anxiety a lot. So she would just clean clean clean clean clean clean. She also loved learning about like different chemicals that could help her clean. Like I

think it was just really satisfying for her. She was on clean talk you know what I mean? And even though both parents were working it still wasn't a great wage. Like they wear paycheck to paycheck essentially. And then the worst thing possible happened. Her 10th child died while she was at work. He died in his sleep. So she comes home and they tell her about her son. And instead of like falling apart, like everyone expected, everyone expected her to be a complete mess, understandably, right? But she became very determined. She was like, you know what? It's okay.

It's okay, guys. Everything is going to be okay. Yeah, she was like eerily calm and everyone's like, what the fuck? And so she decided I just need to make a lot more money so that I can move my family to the countryside because in the countryside there's fresh air and less disease.

So we're going to live just in open field With not a lot of people completely isolated. I just need the money to buy some land in the countryside, right? So she goes to the bank at night and because she's a cleaning lady She doesn't have access to the bank vault or anything like that But she does have access to the books. So she starts writing in her own shit She literally like made the record show that suddenly she had an account with a balance in it at this bank. So the next day she goes to the bank to withdraw the money that she had fake written into their books.

And she's like, I do have an account here. The account number is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I should have like this much money in there. And I want to, I want to take out all the money, right? And the bank, they just kind of like laughed at her. They were like, how do you even think that you would get away with this like what are you doing and so they called the cops I'm sure they ran to the cops and she was arrested and charged and sentenced to one and a half years in prison oh man I thought she was like a really clever oh my god she's like the actor system. She said to the moon Wall Street Bets. So again, she wrote, she wrote, $1 million.

And her name. Check. And so at this point, prison for women was completely different in Italy. It was actually church controlled. So there wasn't a lot of female prisoners. So it was controlled by the church and by a group of nuns and nuns are not known to be they're very nice. They're very, you know, strong in their faith, but they're very Disciplined like they're known to be very disciplinary. That's kind of just like their lifestyle, right?

And so it was run by nuns and they controlled the female prisoners and they worked them to the bone. They got free labor So again, I guess nothing has changed. And there was no regulation of any sorts. If this was worse than male prisons, they would even just like tackle on more years to your sins if you just didn't agree with them. Like if they were like, hey, how religious are you? And you're like, a little bit,

they'd be like, fucking, you're staying for another year. And it'd be like, what? What are you, what's happening? But she was released on time because, you know, she was used to having a crazy mom. And she just kind of used those tactics of staying low, keeping her head, keeping our tail between our legs, and just doing her chores.

So the nuns actually really liked her. So they released her on time. Now when she gets back home 18 months later, Raphael had lost his job because of her bank incident. Like it's a small town. No one's going to be like, oh, well, you and your wife are completely separate people. It was like, what kind of person are you

that you married a conwoman? And so his family didn't want anything to do with him either. They were just like, listen, we saved up. And we're going to give you all of our life savings, but you got to get out of town. Like it's just best that we just act like we don't know each other anymore. So they gave them what little money that they had,

and they skipped town. And they moved all over again and they started renting a house over a river and they started becoming very happy. So everything seemed to be getting better for Leonardo. Raphael gets a better clicking job. Leonardo stays home all day with the kids. They even have a safe yard that the kids can plan,

so it's like ultra amazing. And everything seemed super peaceful. Now that's when she decides to go to the fortune teller in town. Leigh and I don't know. And so the fortune teller is like let me see your palms. I'm gonna read your palms and she says, in the right hand I see prison and in the left I see the mental. Now, this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Like, I have never read, there's a book on this entire case. I have never read something that was more in my brain of like, oh my god, this is really a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So mental asylum's back in the day were actually even scarier than prison because she had just gotten out of a very creepy prison. But mental and siloums were just kind of places where people would stick the unwanted from society. Like, they weren't even mentally ill most of the time. Sometimes they would just be like, I don't know, maybe, you know, signs that they were gay or asexual or depressed or like kind of sad or sometimes they would be sent to a mental and silent if they were caught masturbating. And they were like, that's a mental illness masturbation.

So there you go, the rest of your life in this mental insidial. It was just weird, okay? They would just stick them into this building and let them die in their own filth. Like that was a mental asylum. So she starts freaking out at this point and she gets pregnant again and she gives birth to another child and now the seizure has come back

because she couldn't even hold and she was not a good mom at this point. She wouldn't even hold her children because she was scared that she would have a seizure and drop them Now babies need a lot of physical love. That's like the whole thing There's so much like psychology behind it that I wish I could get into one day But she just didn't get emotionally attached to any of them because she thought they were gonna die now every night She would put her children down they would go to sleep and she would just walk off into the village She started hanging out with like the fortune teller group. She started asking questions about rituals She started studying everything that was of the occult rituals how to get rid of curses

This kind of became her new obsession. She was like, you know what? I'm not gonna get emotionally attached to my kids until I know how to get rid of this curse and during this time a couple months Pass and the harvest festival comes around which is like a time where everyone in the village goes to the fields so that they can harvest. I don't know what that means, but they like work side by side in the fields and then they just like play and drink at night and then they go to sleep on the fields. And it's like a whole village thing. And I mean, it's free labor, but I think maybe you reap the benefits later. I don't know how it works.

They're like a harvest, the fields, the whole village. Yeah, it's just harvest all the but is it like owned by the village? Yeah, so like you get a little bit of food later. No, isn't that everybody has their field usually? Oh, I don't know, but like they were all working side-by-side just like a community effort Sometimes when it's ready to harvest you have to harvest it very quickly. Otherwise they may go bad. Are you a farmer? My god, he's so good. That's my grandparents. Oh yeah, his grandparents are so good with stuff like this. I can't even keep a smile just alive. And so she's out there with all of her family and they're kind of enjoying herself. I mean she doesn't feel as much pressure because the whole community is there. Everyone's just trying to make

this a fun experience and they all go to sleep that night and there was a fucking earthquake that night. One of the worst in Italy's history, it was a 6.6 magnitude completely destructive and the crazy thing is because it was the harvest festival, most of the residents were sleeping in the fields which saved most of the lives. And they watched from the field their entire town just crumble. It was just crumbling. They said it was like an earthquake where you felt like the waves. It wasn't even just shaking. It was like this crazy wave and then they just saw their town crumble to the ground. Wow. And the kids? The kids were safe, but they were, I mean, emotionally destroyed and traumatized, I'm sure,

right? So their entire town is destroyed, so her family of six, her husband and her kids, they now have to leave and find a new home. So this time they move even further away into this small town and they, they really like this town. I believe it's called the Karejio, yeah? The, they were sleeping all door, right? So that saved them.

Yeah. But that could be such a good sign, you know? Yeah, but she was like, oh my god, it's the cars. Yeah, she didn't think it was like, wow, like at least a lot of this village is alive, you know? But she was like, that's my mom, you know? Fucking Amelia, back at it again! Bap, bap, you know? She was just really upset. And so they move into this small town, and they were really welcoming, like this town loved this family,

which makes this story even more sad. So they were like, oh my god, it's the, you know, the Raphael and Leonardo. And they knew that they were coming from the place at the earthquake at hit, so they were treated like refugees. They immediately helped Raphael get a clerical job. They helped them rent this house that was connected to this unused shop next door. So they were like, if you need to use the shop, you can start selling stuff if you have a craft, you know? Soaps. Um, you know, she's living in this apartment.

And Leonardo, at first she hated everyone. She was just super depressed. Like people would come over and bring food. They would bring clothes for the family. And she would just stare at a wall. Like the ladies remember her just staring at walls, just acting like they don't even exist. Now the rest of the family, they were well loved

by the community. And the woman they did not give up, they kept trying with Leonardo. They were like, it's okay. Obviously she's depressed. She has every reason to be. So we're gonna keep on trying. We're gonna keep on trying.

They kept inviting her to all these lunches, these branches, and they would just talk mad shit about their husbands. They were like, they suck, and Leonardo would offer up some helpful advice, because, you know, despite everything, Raphael was a very caring husband. Like, he never left her side, he stuck with her through everything, and so she had a pretty good, I wouldn't say it was like the best romantic relationship, in spite of everything it was good, you know. And so she started giving them advice of like, well this, this might make the relationship a little bit better and then these women, they would take that advice, they would go home, try it, and sure enough it would work. So they started kind of coming to her for advice. They were like, you're like the queen of advice. And she felt like this was incredibly fulfilling, Like people needed her now. Like people wanted to be around her, people wanted to listen to what she had

to say. And she would even do things like write poetry and she would read it to her friends at like lunchens. And they would just like clap. And then she'd be like, thank you, thank you so much. Right. And people said it was beautiful. And so she's like, okay, I want to start something. Like I want to become someone now. So she starts deciding to sell things out of the shop right next to her house and she decided it was going to be soap. She's like soap. You know, she has a lot of knowledge of chemicals because of her cleaning jobs.

So she thinks she can come up with a superior recipe to soap. So she ordered all these fancy perfumes and oils from France, and she cleaned the empty store. I mean, she was a perfectionist of anything, so it was beautifully done, beautifully decorated, and she made a perfect recipe for soap and gave it to all of the friends in the area to try, and they loved it.

So much so that her grand opening of her soap shop, everyone showed up, and they all bought bars of soap, but her soap was so fucking good, that she started getting orders from all over Italy, from high society women. They were like, have you heard of this woman? Her name is Leonardo. She's like this older Italian woman now, and she's fucking selling soap in this small little town. Yes, she was trending. They were like, we need that soap. Okay. And so she became successful to the point where Rafael could literally stop working And she still had enough money to support the entire family plus save for emergencies in the future

So she was made she was the bread winner She was like my soap is taken over Italy at one point people said she was probably like the diptych of soaps in Italy Like she was killing it in the soap department. It was crazy And so townspeople not only went to her for soap, but they slowly started going for her for advice and palm readings. So this town of Caragia was, so everyone in Italy was pretty Catholic. It was during this time it was incredibly religious, but some towns were so religious. Like they were just like the Catholic church and nothing else or you die. And then some towns they were religious. Like they were just like the Catholic church and nothing else, or you die.

And then some towns, they were religious, yes, but they also kind of fancied, maybe the supernatural, they kind of were intrigued by fortune tellers and they wanted to get their fortune read. And this was one of those towns so she had this big market of people being like, can you read my palms? And she's had a lot of experience with this, right?

And so they would go to her, buy some soap, get their poems read, they would pay for that. And she just had, she started collecting, she started collecting books from all over Italy of the occult of supernatural, of rituals, of spells. And she had one of the biggest collections of magical and supernatural books in Italy at the time. And she was super proud of it. And she wanted more power, more success. And she was super proud of it. And she wanted more power, more success, and she wanted to help more people. So she even had pen pals all across Italy that have heard of her.

And at one point, she becomes known as the front person of protection spells in Italy. Like anywhere you are in Italy, if you needed a protection spell, you would go to the town of Caragio and meet up with Leonardo. Like she was known for this and soap. Kind of a protection spell, you would go to the town of Karejio and meet up with Leonardo. Like she was known for this in soap. Kind of a weird combo, but I get it. And so, you know, she had all these pen pals who would write her and then send her more books to add her to her collection and she just had this obsession.

So this was kind of like two birds with one stone. So she wanted to get more knowledgeable and magic so that she could finally get rid of the curse because now she's experiencing happiness and she's setting herself up for success. All she needs to do is get rid of this stupid curse. But also getting, you know, knowing about this magic made more people come to her. It made her more credible. It made her more rich and more successful and more trusted in the community. She even started selling occult things. Like she would sell these little protection, I don't know the word for it, but they're like these little cloths

and you put herbs specific on what that person needed. So like if that person was that, then you would put specific herbs, specific stones, maybe sometimes a picture of like a saint in there and then you would sew it up and they would carry it with them everywhere. Kind of like a talisman, like a good luck charm, right? Kind of like carrying a crystal, something like that, right?

I'm gonna get canceled for that. I know someone's gonna send me an email that's like just really raging about it. I'm sorry, but like you get what I'm saying, right? And so she would sell that. So it became like this weird atmosphere of like business, but also for herself, but also like she wants to feel needed and it was just too much of it all in this one thing, in this one pot.

Honestly, sounds like something that people was on TikTok today. I know, this whole thing sounds so TikTok-y. Like even right now, I'm on small business talk and I see so much soap. I see so much soap. Yeah, soap and these like, yeah, like fucking crystals and stuff.

I swear. So she starts feeling in control and it was like this vicious cycle like the more that she studied magic the more she believed the curse exists. And then she would study more the more she thinks oh my god this curse is so powerful. How am I gonna do this? So she starts practicing protection spells and starts selling it to customers around the neighborhood and she's like doing all these spells for everyone. People would literally travel all over from Italy for these protection spells and then world war two hit.

Now her business didn't crumble, but her family life starts crumbling because remember Giuseppe, her first, an oldest son? Well, he's still alive at this point and he was trying to get away from his mom. Like he was literally this stereotypical like I love my mom but she is overbearing. I don't ever get to go out and hang out with friends like this is crazy. I just want to like grow up for once and he has been trying and trying and trying and

there was no way that he could get away from his mom. But if he enlisted in World War II, it's not like, hey, mom, I hate you. It's like, hey, mom, I'm gonna go fight for our country and bring honor to our family. You know, and so he enlisted without her knowledge. So like, they would go around to neighborhoods and be like, hey, sign up here to go fight in the war.

Wow, times were different. Times were different, okay. So they were like, hey, sign up here to go to war. And so he wrote his name down, which is a binding contract. And was like, I'm going to war. Now one day she goes to work. Leonardo goes to work and everyone's gathered outside her soap shop and they're like, oh my god.

Leonardo, you have raised such a good young man. Your family, I, since the moment you moved into our town like We loved you and your son is so brave. You're so brave. You are the perfect mom And she's like what the fuck are you talking about and they're like he's gonna fight for our country And she's like what the fuck are you talking about? So she rushes home Confirms with him that he joined the war and she was a fucking wreck because she knew because he wasn't old enough to know what happened in World War One but she was around so she knew either he's gonna

die in battle or he's gonna come back a dead man like he's gonna come back a shell of a man is what they said like just a lot of PTSD like World War Zer Wow so either way she's gonna lose her son one way or the other so she's like Oh, no, not this again. This is the this is the curse and they're like what do you mean this is the curse? And she's like think about it. This is a character development curse They want me to feel happy and successful and good and now they're gonna snatch it all the way from me That's the curse so she starts studying magic more because there was a couple of months before he had to actually go into the army and he would be home. So she starts just calmly

studying magic and then she decides that she's going to go into something called like alchemy, which has like this, you know, the alchemist is like this whole thing. But there's only one rule that's very important. I am so not knowledgeable about alchemy or really anything Sorry, but there is this one rule which we're pretty familiar with The rule of equal exchange so in order to obtain something you have to sacrifice something because that's balance So in all these movies you see that if you want to save a life you have to sacrifice another life You can't just like make a life come back even vampire diaries has some shit like that. I think okay It's like a theme in life and so she was damn, like I'm trying to save my child's life.

So now I have to sacrifice another life. There's no other way. And I think what's fascinating is that she wasn't really a serial killer in the sense that she wanted to kill people. It seemed like she just became one in this desperate attempt to like make this magic thing work. Fun fact, she actually really hated violence. So back then it was a lot cheaper to buy live chickens and then take it home and then kill it and then eat the chicken, but she would pay extra so the butcher would kill the chicken for her because she just did not like the side of blood. Like it just kind of made her queasy. I'm like that. I hate the side of blood. My knees get wobbly and it's really weird and I have to bend them.

Anytime I get a paper cut you'll see me suddenly like kneeling on the ground. And it seems dramatic, but it's just like my knees get uncomfortable. I don't know why. And so she's like, well, I need to keep my son alive. So how do I do this? I need to not get caught though, because I need to make sure that I see this spell through, because it's not just the fact that she chopped, chopped, killed somebody. There's a lot of steps to it. It's a whole ordeal. So she says, how am I going to do this? Oh my God, a customer.

I have, I mean, people come in and out of my house in this shop every single day. The only way to make sure that I have the time and the privacy to carry out the rest of the smell is if I commit murder inside my own shop. So she's like, okay, well, let me think of my first victim. So she finally settles on Fistina Settie. She was in her like late 50s and she had been a customer for over a year. So she was actually really close friends with Leonardo and she had never been married. She was a 50-year-old something virgin and she was really upset about it. You know, she really wanted to be married and men in

this area at the small town, they were either all married or just like wanted to marry someone their own age, like not a 50 town, they were either all married or just wanted to marry someone their own age, like not a 50-year-old woman. And so, women didn't want to be her friend because they thought that she had a man-repelling disease that was contagious. So, kinda like corona, but men are scared of it. So, they were like, if we spend too much time with her,

we're gonna get this men-repelling disease and then we can't get married. So, she just had a really lonely life. She didn't have anyone, and she pretty much was paying Leonardo for companionship. That was kind of the situation. She would go in and be like, read my palms all day, I'll pay you for it. And she would just talk to her about nonsense.

She was using this as connection. And so she was like, this is gonna be easy. So Leonardo tells her, hey, I found you a husband. You suck what? Yes, Vistima. I have been mailing him. Like we've been mailing, um, like, corresponding with each other for a while now and I'm excited for you guys to meet. I even sent him. I mailed him a picture of you, Vistima, and he fell in love. And so she's like, you don't say really? You don't say? We're wherever it is you live. And she's like, well that's a problem.

He's not a local, you know? And he does live in a very far village, so you will need to go there to meet him. But wow, he's such a kind man. He's got a good job. And he loves you. And so Fistima, she's like, okay, like when do I head out to this town?

Like what do I do? And so Leonardo's like, okay, so this is what you're gonna do You're gonna go home pack up all your stuff tomorrow. Your journey will come. You're gonna come to my place I'm gonna send you off and you're gonna go in this little carriage and go to the far village But you need to write letters that I can mail out for you You need to tell your family that you're finding love because they're gonna get worried and if you tell them now in person They're gonna try to stop you. I mean imagine they're gonna be like, why are you going to this far village for a man? Like, no, you don't even know him. But would you rather stay here and be alone forever or meet the love of your

life? So Fassima was like, fuck yeah, bye. And so she writes all her letters. She comes the next morning super excited and she's just nervous. So Leonardo is like, okay, give me the letters you wrote. I'll mail those out once you're gone and you packed your stuff. That's great. Here, take a glass of wine because you look so nervous. You're gonna calm down your nerves before this trip. And so if I see him, I was like, oh my god, thank you so much. She starts chugging the wine and she notes that it's a little bit bitter. And she's like, oh, this one's a little bitter. And she started to feel super sleepy. And she starts falling to the ground, and Leonardo gets up, grabs an axe from behind the counter, and as Fistima starts getting drowsy, Leonardo said, sorry, and slam the axe down,

but she wasn't looking, because like I said, she hates blood, and this time it went into her shoulder. So she let that, this painful cry. So then Leonardo, she's like, fuck, I gotta do it right. So she opens her eyes and smacks it down on the top of her head. She bonked her with an axe. And then she proceeded to dismember her into nine separate pieces and hung her up in the back of the soap shop to drain her blood into these little like buckets, like these basins underneath the dismembered body parts. She starts cleaning up the shop, cleaning up the kitchen,

and she grabs the blood, puts it on cookie trays, and bakes them into the oven so that they can get dehydrated because she needs to bake cookies with it or cakes with it. So the protection spell only works if you sacrifice the life of another, and the person you're trying to save consumes it, and you've got their flesh and blood inside of you, but also all over you. And so she made these tea cakes mixed

the blood with some flour, some sugar, some butter and made these little cakes out of it. They were a bit dry. They tasted very irony is what people said. And her husband ate some, she ate some, she gave some to Giuseppe. And now the protection spell was inside of him but needs it on the outside.

So she starts putting all of her dismembered bloodless parts into a pot with some caustic soda. And now the protection spell was inside of him, but needs it on the outside. So she starts putting all of her dismembered bloodless parts into a pot with some caustic soda, which is how she made soap. And so she started trying to dissolve these, you know, body parts and it was super strong. Caustic soda is super crazy. It goes through like bones and hair eventually, right? And now it's been hours, it's been on the pot. She looks into it.

And it's like this hours, it's been on the pot, she looks into it, and it's like this thick dark mush! And she's like, what? You would think that she's disgusted by this because she just murdered someone, right? But she's like, that doesn't meet my standard of soap making! I'm a perfectionist. This is disgusting. This bell is gonna be shitty because this is a shitty soap bar. So she starts crying and just throws the sludge of remains down like the sewer. She's just like, by friend, and just threw it down the sewer. And she just felt like she took a life without even saving her sons. It was all for nothing. So she's like, okay, well, I gotta try again. She sent out the letters

from Fistima to all of her family members, and she even proceeded to gossip about Fistima with all of the ladies at lunch, and they'd be like, what kind of man would want a married old woman? And she was like, I know, Ryan and they would all eat those tea cakes that she made while they're talking about Fistima, they're eating Fistima and they don't even know it. Well, that's what she get for talking shit, honestly. I'm kidding. And so Leonardo starts believing, okay, wait a minute, the equal exchange rule was broken because I'm trading the life of this old boring sad lady for the life of my young vibrant son. So I need someone who's happier, right?

So she decides on another woman by the name of Francesca, who was about 50 years old, but she had a pretty fulfilling life so far. She was a schoolteacher, her husband recently died, but she had lived this entire life of being in love and all of these things with her husband. And so she had gotten fired from her job recently because she had left to take care of her husband and then he died and now she was broke and jobless. So she's like, well, Francesca, I have a job opportunity for you. Come over to my shop and let me tell you about it. So she comes over and she says, there's this elite school in Italy.

And I know that's because you know, high society women love my soap. And this is where the richest of Italian send their children. And they're looking for a live-in elite school teacher for children, for young girls. And I said, you'd be the perfect fit. And they want to hire you. So you would have to move there. You would live in this place. Now here's the crazy thing, you know how rich people are, they value their privacy. So they don't even want commoners to know that this school exists. They don't even want to act like it's an Ivy League. They're like, no, it doesn't even exist.

It's a seahour club. You can't tell anyone where you're going or what you're about to do or else they're going to fire you because that's their first thing. They value, you know, confidentiality. And she was like, what? Okay, that's perfect. This is the best thing ever. I get to board with them.

I get to live there. I get to eat there. I get to, I get paid. Like what else can I want? So she gets so excited. She packs her bags. She writes those letters that Leonardo told her to write. And she comes the next morning ready to start her trip her journey to the elite school and

That's when the in-art is like you look so nervous. You need to drink this glass of wine You're nervous. They're gonna get the best of you So she hands her the glass of wine and she falls to the ground and she's passed out now And this time Leonardo was like well with festima. I didn't collect enough blood So the tea cakes were a little dry So this time as she put the buckets around her before she even axed her, so none of the blood would get wasted. She was trying to be like fucking sustainable and shit.

Crazy. And so she dismemberes the body, and this time she notice something. So Fistima, the older woman, she was very frail. She was really thin. She was really just like a very petite woman. But this time with Francesca, she had like a layer of yellowish fat.

Just like you were saying. Yeah. That Fassima didn't have. And so she made biscuits and cookies from her blood and fat. And it was good. She said it was almost electric that you would take a bite. And there was like almost like the static energy in your mouth. And she believed that she was tasting magic. Now here's what's even crazier. Leonardo was actually a really good baker. Even to this day, there are world renowned bakeries in Italy that still use Leonardo's recipes. Because she wrote a recipe book later. That's what I was thinking too. Imagine like the soap recipe, the clothe recipe.

Yeah, people still use her recipes. I mean, minus like people go to Italy for their tourists Americans are like Stephanie told me that you guys are killing people in the back Who the fuck is she for small and no But like you know, they still use her regular recipes is it also because she's a killer serial killer? No, they don't even tell people it's her recipe her recipes are that good Yeah, that these like like world renowned Baker They don't even tell people it's her recipe. Her recipes are that good. Yeah. That these like world renowned bakery chefs in Italy will still reference her recipes.

Not because she's a killer, they don't even market it. They just, you know, she got some good ass recipes, right? I think they're also super authentic. And so she started putting her into the soap mixture with the caustic soda. She made these cookies, everyone ate them, said it was delicious. And when she looked at the soap mixture, and again, didn't work. So she's like, what the frickin' fork? So she in a fit of rage

threw the pot on the ground, which is like really dumb, and she burned her hands, because she didn't use pot holders. So then she asked her son to help get rid of this soap sludge that was just a bad batch. And he remembered throwing it down the septic tank being like this little weird but didn't say anything about it because his mom's a little weird right. So this is her new plan. She needed to kill someone but it needed to be a sacrifice. That was a whole part of the thing that she wasn't doing. She didn't feel any guilt for these killings. Like she felt a little bit sad that her time was wasted and then she was running out of time before her son goes to the army, but she didn't feel absolute grief and mourning for these people. That's not an equivalent sacrifice because she would feel

grief and mourning if her son had died, so she needed to kill someone that everyone in the community would be sad if they died, and that she too would be sad if she died. And so she chose a woman by the name of Virginia, who was a local celebrity. She was a talented singer. She even sang at famous opera houses all around Italy, and she finally retired, and she was a single woman, because she had been working on her singing the whole time.

So she came to live with her brother and her family in this small town, and she just was so kind and so humble, but also like super talented. So everyone loved her. At first Leonardo really hated her because she was like, oh no, all the townspeople care about her opinion, you know? What if her advice is different from my advice?

What if people go to her for advice? But then one time Virginia came in by soap at her soap shop and she said it was so hard to hate her. She just was so sweet and so humble and just like this really nice person, she never was uppity. She just had all these crazy thoughts that a lot of small town people didn't have. So Leonardo loved talking with her. They would actually become best friends because they would talk about the life outside of small towns and Leonardo would be like, oh that sounds amazing.

The friendship was also validating for her because if someone like Virginia wanted to spend time with her then Leonardo sure must be important, right? Everything that goes against her and her mom told her entire life and so she decided Virginia had to be the next sacrifice. So Virginia stops by and tells her that she's leaving town one day to explore Italy and that is when she starts panicking and she's you know know Virginia is like I want to perform more like I'm getting older I know but I just want to perform and do what I love until I die and so Leonardo is like you know what let me let me read your palms and so she reads her palms and she said oh I

know where you should go okay let me look into this right and she's like okay that's a little bit weird. Now Virginia leaves. Here's the thing with Virginia. She's, she's pretty smart. So like the other two women, they were incredibly desperate. I think they were intelligent, but they were desperate. With Virginia, she's not that desperate. She's just like, whatever, fine, okay.

And so for the next couple of weeks, she keeps telling Virginia, I have an opportunity for you. And she starts feeding her little bits and pieces here and there. She's like, oh my God,'s this very I can't believe I'm telling you this I'm not supposed to tell you this Virginia Okay, so there's this really wealthy financier in Florence, you know, and he he set up all these opera houses He donated most of the money to set up the opera houses that you've already sung out and he just Values his privacy, right? So he wants someone to manage his business affairs. You know, he needs someone to go into these opera houses, make sure that

they're conducting it the right way, that they're doing everything correctly, but he doesn't want to go because you know, he doesn't want his face out there. So he needs someone who knows the scene to manage all of this stuff, you know. God, I can't even be telling it, Virginia stop, I can't tell you these things. And so Virginia was like holding on to every word, I can't even be telling it, Virginia's stop. I can't tell you these things. And so Virginia was like holding on to every word. She's like, oh my God, and for the words. Oh my God, that's right up my alley. And so she was like, yeah, well, I have been recommending you

to him because he is a good client of mine. He gets his fortunes read with me. And I said that you'd be a great option. And he said that he's even seen your perform and he loved it. And he would even maybe think about putting you back on the stage. And so Virginia was like, oh my god. Now, the thing is, Virginia wasn't that suspicious because, you know, she spent a lot of time

around rich people, and she was like, this is literally what rich people sound like. They're fucking weird. And so she's like, this is amazing. So she does the same thing. She packs her bags. She writes her little letters, and she goes to the soap shop. Now, she had noticed that the soap shop was closed and nobody was really around, so she thought it was weird and she questioned Leonardo about it. Like, hey, what's going on? I've got all my bags. Why are you close today?

And Leonardo was like, well, it's our last moment together, so let's have a sip of wine. And she gives her a red wine, and Virginia is like, oh, no, it's fine. Like Florence isn't too far. Like, I want to make sure I'm clear-headed when I meet my new employer. And she's like, no, drink the wine. And she's like, I don't want it. And she's like, drink the fucking wine, Virginia. And they get into a fight. And Virginia's like, she's the weed, okay fine. And she drinks the wine and passes out on the ground. Now this time Leonardo does something a little bit different. So Virginia, she did have money. Not a lot, but she had more than what Leonardo made in a year in her suitcase. Like that was her life savings ready to go.

She was wearing diamonds, she was wearing her fur, she was wearing the most expensive clothes. And so she pocketed all of it and even took off her expensive clothing and jewelry before she axed her up. And so she murdered her. Now she realized that she too had a layer of fat just like Francesca, but it wasn't yellow. It was more of like this milky creamy texture than anything. And so she gets excited, and she was like, I knew this was the perfect sacrifice, and she made tea cakes out of her blood and started creating soap. She even

went into Virginia's suitcase and grabbed the entire bottle of perfume Virginia was wearing, and put it in the soap. And she quote, said, and I quote, that woman was really sweet. She said this was some of the best tea cakes and soaps she had ever made in her entire life. So she goes home with those soaps and tea cakes and she draws a bath for her old son, Chuseppe, full ground dude. And she demands that he get into the bath because she's going to watch, wash in with soap. Like a full ground man. Could you imagine your mom coming up to you and be like, I'm going to, I'm going to like make you get naked and I'm going to wash you. And he's like, no, I'm not going to do that. Like you're weird. What's wrong with you, mom? Like I'm not doing this shit. Like this is why I want to leave. Like what's wrong with you? And she was like, no, I'm not gonna do that. Like you're weird. What's wrong with you, mom? Like, I'm not doing this shit. Like, this is why I wanna leave.

Like, what's wrong with you? And she was like, no, I need to make sure that this soap touches every part of your body. And so he's like, no, I'm not gonna, no, like you're what's wrong with you. And so much fighting happened. And finally, he just gave in and just got into the bathtub naked. And she literally went all over him.

Like all over his pain with that soap. It wasn't like sexual in nature from her perspective, but I mean I can only imagine how traumatizing and violating it is right and so he said that he was super pissed He couldn't even look at her afterwards and then after he she forced fed him those t-cakes because like could you imagine Are you really in the mood to like eat your mom's cookies afterwards? You're like fuck you mom, right? And so she force fed him, tea cakes made out of Virginians blood, and that was the Virginia soap that she had used all over his body. And it completely wrecked their relationship, you know?

It's just like, things weren't gonna be the same after that when you violate your full grown son like that. It's just, it's gonna be weird. And she wasn't done, like she knew that he wasn't gonna love her after this, but at least he would be safe at war So the next day she goes back to the soap shop and she starts gifting the soap bars to family and friends And they all said it was her best batch yet and she fed all the ladies her tea cakes Now this is when Virginia's sister in law starts getting suspicious because you know a couple of letters had come from a Like nearby town's post office that by the way like Leonardo had said just sentppe to go mill all of these letters. Okay. She got a couple of letters but suddenly the

little interstubed stopped coming which is very not normal of Virginia because she was really close with her sister-in-law. That doesn't make any sense. So she starts investigating, finds out that Leonardo is super close with Virginia and started asking her things. Now, Virginia's sister-in-law, here's something you need to know. She's a really religious woman, super religious. And she goes to the soap shop, buy soap, ask Leonardo about that day. And Leonardo is like, you know what, why don't I read your palms? Now, I'm not entirely sure what happened at that palm reading session, but that is when Virginia's sister-in-law realized Leonardo was guilty. Because her way of manipulating was insane. So I think when people went to read poems with Leonardo, they went in open-minded. But

with her, with Virginia's sister-in-law, she went in very close-minded. First of all, she's religious. Second of all, she thinks that you kidnapped her sister-in-law. She's not going to be like, oh, let me just listen to everything you have to say, right? So she went in there and she'd be like, I am sad. And then Leonardo would be like, ooh, let me just listen to everything you have to say, right? So she went in there and she'd be like, I am sad. And then Leonardo would be like, you know why I think you're sad? Because your sister-in-law is moving on with life without you. You know, and it was just very like manipulative. She was just like, this lady is really fucking good, right?

With manipulating people. And she probably manipulated Virginia to maybe, I don't know, rob her. And so she starts just asking around all the neighbors. And all of the neighbors said, oh yeah, I remember Virginia going in that day. Like I remember, she had her suitcase, she was dressed in her best fur. I remember that day. Now nobody had witnessed her leaving. Which nobody thought was suspicious because nobody's just waiting outside the soap shop waiting

for the customers to go in and out. It just said they were just doing their own thing. So she starts going to the police and they start investigating. And they start investigating not only her disappearance, but Festima and Francesca's. The police immediately confirmed that they were all with Leonardo the day that they all disappeared.

And they start thinking about, okay, well what's going on? What's going on? They question Leonardo and she's like in her 50s and she's like this old Italian woman. And they're like, did you kill them? And she's like, what are you talking about? Do you not know you idiots that most women in town have been to my soap shop and my house?

And I've advised them all at one point. Like this is nothing strange. And so they're like, you know what? It can't be her. I like that to smig any sense. And so they start investigating the letters that were sent to the families. And when they asked the post office workers, they all said it was Giuseppe dropping them off. So please, you're like, well this makes more sense. It's not this old soap making fucking lady. It's her son that's like robbing these women or maybe even assaulting them. We don't know.

And so they start investigating. They get a warrant. They search the entire house plus the soap shop. And they believed that Giuseppe killed them for their money because they found their Su cases of all their clothes and Virginia's fur's, Virginia's diamonds and he gets arrested brought in and Leonardo Shows up and tells them to stop this nonsense because she's the real killer and now all of them were like listen Thank you, but like Italian moms do be doom in that, you know They be very protective

of their sons. So we don't really believe you lady, like someone calm her down, give her a cup of tea or some shit, okay, like we get it, right, we get it, we understand. And so she's like, no, I'm serious, I'm dead ass. And they're like, okay, cap, no facts, pants, I don't even know, okay, I don't know what TikTokers are saying these days. And so they're like, they just don't believe her her And she goes on to tell them the whole gruesome story She's like so then I found a smell spell and I asked them out by dismember them I made these little t-cakes you want one and they're just like okay first of all your story kind of makes sense But it doesn't go along with anything like you are this 50-year-old short little Italian woman

You don't have the strength to dismember people. And she said, okay, take me to the local morgue. So they do and they find a dead body and she dismembered that dead body within like 10 minutes, which is really astonishing that they let her do that, but I think different times. Yeah, yeah, so she'd like dismembered that body. She's like, let me show you. Yeah, I won't tell you, let me show you. Yeah. And so that's when everyone starts realizing what she did. And Giuseppe was there.

He starts throwing up. And he starts just fucking snitching on her. He was like, she's always been fucking crazy. Like, she's got all these books on which graph go start our place again. And she's weird. She totally do this. Did this?

Like, he just really ratted her out. And she didn't care. She was happily taking a jail because at least her protection spell on her son had been done. Now the whole community, they turn on her. So Raphael tries to support her while she's in jail, but he was jobless, he was depressed. All of the kids, they left home, they changed their names, had no connection with their family anymore. And before trial even started for Leonardo, Raphael died. And just that we went to war before trial without even saying goodbye to her.

And the trial, I mean, she just seemed like she had lost it. She was making jokes about the murders. She was like losing her mind. She, at one point, the prosecutor, whoever was like, do you even think like, caustic acid can even dissolve a body to make soap? Like, that just sounds so far fetched. Like like how do we know you're not making shit up And she got so pissed and she's like fucking bring in our body and bring in the caustic soap and I will show the jury How you can dissolve it?

Don't question my soap making abilities and they were just like okay So they found her guilty and they found her insane so she would spend a part of her sentence in a mental asylum and part of it in a prison. Do you remember that fortune teller reading on the right hand they see prison on the left hand they see a mental asylum and this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I'm not saying she was cursed. I'm just saying she needs all accountability for everything that she's done but holy fork. And so she goes to prison first and she was doing really well in prison. Like she would read poems, she would give advice. She started working in the kitchen and baked goods and everyone loved her baked goods in

prison. She wrote an autobiography slash recipe book while in prison. And those are the recipes that a lot of famous Italian bakeries still reference in their baking. Wow. They say it's some of the most authentic Italian baking recipes ever written. So then she gets transferred to a mental asylum to finish out her sentence. And this is when her seizure started up again. She starts losing her sight and she had hemorrhaging in her brain.

So she died in her sleep one year before she was to be released from the mental asylum. And it's kind of ironic how she died. So there was, she had caustic soda poisoning. So the fumes of the caustic soda had gone into her brain and started like dissolving parts of her brain. So then her brain would start bleeding. And so it's ironic that how she murdered her victims was also how she ultimately came to die. So there's no record of what happened to her children because they all did change their names. There is record of Giuseppe entering the army and getting based in a foreign country, but that area where he was based, the Italian army got taken as prisoners of war.

So in that area, right? So there's no record of him being on a prisoner of war list, his name. So a lot of people think that he died in battle. So the spell didn't even work. So it just ended up being all weird. See, I think this is really one of those stories of, first of all, don't kill people. It's like an auto-empirus hero killer. But also, like, you try to help someone so much that you end up just losing them anyway. Like she lost him before he went to war with that whole soap nonsense and go in a jail and ruining his life.

So that's the story of the serial killer, Italy's first female serial killer who happened to turn her victims into soap. Think about that when you use your body wash. And I'll see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode and I hope you guys enjoy this one. Let me know your thoughts and I'll see you guys next Wednesday. Bye! Bye!