Leonarda Cianciulli

Italian homicidal maniac. Afflicted with epilepsy from the time she was a kid, she attempted suicide twice. At 17, she married Raffaele Pansardi with whom she managed to become pregnant 18 times. She lost 14 of the babies in a row; four children survived birth.

In 1930, they moved to Correggio where she began to read cards, working as a fortune-teller. A few years later, she separated from her husband. When Leonarda's first-born son, Giuseppe, was called into military service in 1939, her anxiety over the possibility of losing him tipped her over the edge into madness. She became convinced that she needed to make a spell with a human sacrifice to defend her children.

On 18 December 1939, Leonarda killed Faustina Setti, boiled her body and made soap. She did the same with Francesca Soavi on 4 September 1940 and with Virginia Cacioppo on 30 November 1940.

Apprehended, she was found to be mentally impaired and was condemned to 30 years in an institution for the criminally insane. Leonarda died on 16 October 1970 of an apoplectic fit.