Murder, Mystery & Makeup - Was it Sacrifice or Serial Killer?? Leonarda Cianciulli

Episode Date: February 13, 2024

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! You can call Leonarda a lot of things: a bad friend? Yeah. A bad matchmaker? Most definitely? A bad mother? I don’t know…to be fair she did all of this to protect her kids. What do you think? Did she take mother’s protection a little too far? Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian ________ :  :    F O L L O W    M E     :  : Discord: https://discord.com/invite/baileysarian Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d  RECOMMEND A STORY HERE: [e-mail]  Business Related Emails: [e-mail] Wanna Send Me Something? Bailey Sarian 4400 W Riverside Dr. Ste 110-300, Burbank, CA 91505 ________ Right now, you can get an exclusive 20% off your first order at https://www.thrivecausemetics.com/MAKEUP. Go to https://www.Zocdoc.com/MAKEUP and download the Zocdoc app for FREE. Then find and book a top-rated therapist, psychiatrist, or psychologist today. 

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have your back. They have the receipts. Get 25% off at ritual.com slash clinical. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hi friends, how are you today? Hi, my name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday. If you are new here, hi, my name is Bailey Sarian. My name is Bailey. I never just say Bailey. My name is Bailey. My name is Bailey. And on Mondays, I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin. And I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would say subscribe.

Or just keep watching or not, you know, whatever, it's fine. But today I wanted to talk about soap. Yeah, soap. You know her. You've used her. She's been around for quite some time. Our story starts with a younger woman. Her name is Emilia and she lived in Montello, Italy.

It's the late 1800s. And let me tell you, okay, look, it's a wild time in Italy. Everyone was very conservative, extremely Catholic, traditional and judgmental to say the least. You get married when you're young, have babies, then you die. Catholic, traditional and judgmental to say the least. You get married when you're young, have babies, then you die. That was the woman's role. Like, yay, it's so fun.

Amelia is born into this. So there was a man who lived in the same area as Amelia and his name was Mariano. And this guy, he was not a nice man. Oh no, he was not. He was actually disturbing. He ends up raping Amelia and then she became pregnant by that rape.

It's the 1890s and the belief is that if you're pregnant and you are unwed, you better marry that man before anyone catches you pregnant out of wedlock. You don't wanna be seen pregnant without a husband. That would bring great shame to that person. And also the family name, which is a big no-no. You don't wanna get shunned from your family. It's all you had.

Shit, had nothing else going on. It's safe to say that Amelia, she did not want to marry this guy. Fuck no, right? But her parents made her marry him. Poor thing. I was thinking about this and I was like, it was probably, that was probably like a common thing, huh? Like, fuck. So Amelia gave birth to her baby, Leonardo, in April of 1893. Now it was said that once Leonardo was born, her mother, Amelia, didn't exactly bond with

her baby. I think for reasons that maybe we can obviously kind of figure out here. Okay. But sources go as far to say that Amelia actually despised her daughter. I mean, to her, it was a reminder of the trauma she had experienced and the fact that she had to marry the dude who like, you know, she was resentful, which is understandable. I get it. But really sad for the baby, Leonardo, because she was completely neglected. It was said that Leonardo,

she grew up just starving for love, you know, love and attention, and she just never got it. It's safe to say that it's just all around bad news here because Leonardo as well did not have a great upbringing. Well, when Leonardo becomes a teenager, you know, teenagers, hormones are whooshing and washing. And she's like trying to explore her sexuality a little bit. So she's like getting a taste of different men out there. And she said that she preferred, you know, much older men, silver foxes, silver daddies.

And yeah, so she's just getting a feel for all the guys out there. And she's sick of hearing from her mother, Amelia, who is pushing her to marry someone who has money. She's like, you need to marry someone up. You need to marry someone with money. That's all that matters. I mean, obviously financial gain is there, but it would also just raise the family's status quo and just give the family and Leonarda just security so they can live life and not worry every moment, you know?

They're pushing her to marry up a rich guy. Living during this time must have just been really not, not ideal, must have been really boring, honestly. Being told once in a day you can't do anything, then you have to get raped, and then it's just like, then you just have to push out babies all the time, and then you get called a witch, and it's like, oh, fuck. It must have sucked. Well, when Leonarda turns 21, she falls in love with a much older man, and his name was Rafael. He worked as a clerk, and he unfortunately didn't have a lot of money to his name.

So when Leonarda's parents found out, they were obviously pissed. Unfortunately for them, Rafael was just a humble clerk who didn't make a lot of money. But Leonarda, she stood her ground no matter what her parents said. And she was going to marry this man no matter what her parents said, and she was gonna marry this man no matter what. Obviously, this made Amelia, her mother, very, very upset to the point that she actually put a curse on Leonardo, which to you and I doesn't sound that scary, right? Like, oh, you cursed me, darn it.

Back then during this time, look, if you were cursed, if somebody put a curse on you, that was it. It was over for you. I mean, this was serious, okay? Italians were literally cursing each other with actual witchcraft, like pretty often. It was wild. Everyone's cursed.

And they took it very seriously, okay? Okay, do you believe me? So lots of casual witchcraft happening over there. But like, what else are you gonna do in the early 1900s? There isn't much else, okay? Okay, do you believe me? So lots of casual witchcraft happening over there. But like, what else are you gonna do in the early 1900s? There isn't much else, right? Good for you. Good for you, do your witchcraft, yeah. So despite her mother's objections

and the fact that she put a curse on her life, hopes and dreams, Leonarda didn't care, okay? She went ahead and married Raphael. And for a while, I mean, her dreams. Leonarda didn't care, okay? She went ahead and married Rafael. And for a while, I mean, her only goal was to have a family, provide a home, and lots of love to children, and just to be a different mother than her own mother. That was what Leonarda wanted to do.

Probably the only goal, really. Well, after the two got married, they went on to try and start a family, have some children. But sadly, like things did not come easily for Miss Leonardo. She became pregnant on 17 different occasions. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I said 17. Now only four of Leonardo's children survived. She had several miscarriages, stillbirths, and many dying after their birth. So poor thing, going through it. So it's fair to say Leonardo truly believes there's a curse on her. Do you blame her? Absolutely not. I'd be like, yep, cursed. Damn it. Shit. So with limited options,

Leonardo, she decided to seek some guidance from a fortune teller. Now, back then, fortune tellers were big in smaller parts of Italy where people believed in the occult, like did the practicing of it. But when she goes to see a fortune teller, it's sad because this person does not make her feel any better about her future. This fortune teller tells Leonardo that she will live to, quote, see all of her children die, end quote. She's like, great, cool, okay, thanks. So this is leaving her, again, feeling that the curse is real, and also she's just feeling very uneasy and high with anxiety, as many of us probably would be. But she continues to go see

this fortune teller and also different fortune tellers as well, and palm readers and stuff like that. And the news like doesn't give better for her. A palm reader looked her dead in the eye and said, on one hand, I'm seeing you'll end up in prison. And on the other hand, it's showing that you're going to end up in a criminal asylum. That's what your palms are telling me. Thank you for your time. Yeah, so again, Leonarda just seems to keep getting bad news. Look, I hope they offer a discount if it's only bad news. They should, right?

I mean, sure. Give them a break. So it's at this point that Leonarda kind of just, like something goes off mentally. Everything seems to shift for her. She was now just fixating on making sure that like her children were going to stay alive. Again, I don't really blame her, right?

Now out of her children, she did have a favorite and she made it very clear. Her favorite child was her oldest son, Giuseppe. It's the oldest son. I mean, it's always the oldest son, right? Well, the curse strikes again. I'm not even kidding. There's a big earthquake. It hits her town. Massive earthquake. Now, this earthquake kills more than like a thousand people and destroys a ton of different buildings. It's just really big. Leonardo and her husband's home collapsed.

So they went to live in Correggio. Yeah. So the curse, again, might be legit. So the two, they pick up, they move. And then once they get settled into their new place, the marriage between Leonardo and Raphael, at this point, they've been together for 16 years, just completely fell apart. The two ended up deciding to separate. Well, to be fair, like I don't think she actually decided to separate because they separated because he went to jail. Yeah. That curse. That freaking curse, man. Damn that curse. I was here making fun of it, but you know what, Leonardo? I forgot. Yeah, I guess like Raphael wasn't really that great of a guy. It got to a point where he was just

drunk like all of the time. And then on top of that, he got caught for embezzling money. So, and it was from his job. So he was fired. He was charged with fraud. And then he was sent to prison. Now it's kind of weird. Nobody really knows what happened to Raphael after the marriage. This is just what's been said.

Because record keeping back then was not good, was not great. So nobody can really confirm or deny, like, did he go to prison or like, maybe did he just disappear? Because after we get through today's story, it got me thinking like, she mighta, she mighta. The curse, her husband being a total shithead, the earthquake, kids dying. I mean, just everything. Now this seemed to be like the breaking point for Miss Leonardo. I mean, how much could one person take? Jeez. Leonardo was not going to let any of this ruin her life. So Leonardo decides that she's going to make a new life for herself. And she did what most women do after a divorce or just like an overall hard life. She started making her own soap. Good for her. Good for her. Hobbies are great. I need some. Leonardo ends up

moving into like onto the third floor of a building. And it was like right next to a canal. And out of her building, she would sell herbs, baked goods, soaps. And she was like very popular amongst the locals. They all knew her. It just sounds so cute, right? The people in town would describe her as, quote, the plump middle-aged woman with salt and pepper hair.

She had a reputation for dealing with the occult and residents often asked her to reveal their future. She's a woman of many traits. So yes, she was known in the town. People liked her, I think. Doesn't this give you Julia Tofana vibes? I know, I was thinking the same thing. I was like, oh my god, were they like around the same time? Awkward Tofana. She's like kind of going towards that way, right? If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm so sorry, you're missing out. And let me tell you, Leonardo, she was real pissy

because this was like the late 1930s and everyone was feeling very unsure about like what the future held. So now we're entering into another chapter of Italian history. It's the rise of the dictator Mussolini and World War II, both not great for Italy, just in case you didn't know. People were literally starving to death during this time.

There was a lot of food shortages that were going on and it was said to be just really rough. And the town that Leonardo going on, and it was said to be just really rough. And the town that Leonardo lived in, it seemed to be hit really hard because there were numerous reports of people constantly leaving town to find better opportunities and honestly just food elsewhere. So the town that they were currently in just was not on the up and up. Leonardo, though, she was still going through it with her curse. Leonardo found out that her favorite son was going to war. It was her worst nightmare. She was spiraling after this. I mean, again, it's just, this is what the fortune teller

told her, like, she's gonna see her kid die. I don't know, she's gonna lose her son in the war, you know? So she's freaking, she's freaking out. Even though Leonardo was having her own meltdown, she was still like considered the pillar in her community because everyone again was like struggling, unsure about their own future. And Leonardo was there to kind of always have answers for everybody. Over time, she started to also evolve and she kind of turned into a little matchmaker. Like she knew everybody in the town and hello, she can easily match people up. Love that. Yeah, she did it all. Matchmaking. So with that being said, it only made sense when one day in 1939, a friend of Leonardo's, her name was Rabidi, she came over to her house and was

looking for some help. Leonardo's friend came from very humble beginnings. She was said to be uneducated, but most importantly, unmarried, right? You cannot be unmarried. And Rabidi told Leonardo that, you know, she's about to turn 50 and she didn't want to spend the rest of her life alone. So her friend offers her money. She's like, look, I will give you my life savings if you set me up with somebody. And she wanted this more than anything. And even Leonardo would say that she could see like how bad her friend wanted this. And she agrees to help her out for a fee, of course. She's not gonna do it for free. She's like, how much? 30,000 liar?

Okay. Leonardo has a quick turnaround. And she tells her friend, look, I got the perfect guy for you. First of all, he lives in another town. Step one, great. I guess he lived in southern Italy. So she's like, you would have to move. But, you know, he's great.

He has money. And Rabidi was, like, excited about that. move, but you know, he's great. He has money. And Rabidi was like excited about that. She did not mind having to relocate for that day. I mean, everyone was leaving the town. So it was like no big deal that she too would have to move. She's like, okay, great. Second, Rabidi needs to write letters to her family and friends and tell them that she was super happy, like living her best life before she left to meet her new boo. Kind of weird, right? Leonardo tells her like, oh, don't worry about it. I'll send the letters for you, but you have to write them now, which is like, okay, pause. Pre-writing letters. Come on. We've done some murder mysteries, remember?

Pre-writing letters. But I guess it didn't weird her out. She didn't think anything of it. Again, this is a different time. Who knows what they were thinking? Maybe she just trusted Leonarda, because it's her friend. I mean, sure, I'll write some letters, whatever.

You're gonna get me a man? Great. Well, on December 17th, 1939, Rubidi took Leonarda's advice and she left her with letters and then she left town and no one had ever heard from her again. You know, maybe she got lost or maybe something else happened. Once again, Leonardo, she became the talk of the town and she was now the go-to person for fortune readings and matchmaking. Plus, she also was like a job recruiter.

Again, whatever you needed, she had you covered. This lady just, you know, good for her. So the following year, a widower named Francesca comes to see Miss Leonardo. And she's feeling kind of desperate. Now, this time, though, she wasn't looking for a man. She was actually looking for help finding a job. Francesca made most of her money in child care and the war was just like devastating her business. So Leonardo once again pulls out her connects and tells her like, I got you girl, don't worry. I got you. So she tells Francesca

that she found the perfect job as a headmistress of a fancy boarding school in a town nearby. Francesca's like, oh my God. Yeah. You know, like, oh my God. Thank you. Aw. Thank you. Leonardo gives her the same set of like weird rules. You need to give me some money. You need to write your family some letters. Don't tell anyone any details of where you're going. And that she basically, once she's done writing those letters, she has to leave right away. What's a rush?

I don't know. So she convinces Francesca to leave her like all of her furniture so Leonardo canarda can like sell it for her and then she would uh send the profits to back to francesca in the mail i mean that leonarda she's just so selfless well francesca she does what she's supposed to and on september 5th 1940 francesca she leaves her home and never heard from again yeah vanished poofished. Poof. Two women from the same town, coming from like the same home. Hmm. Hmm. Well, Francesca's family, they weren't very worried about her, okay? They even stopped by Leonardo's to ask like if she had heard from her. And it was very unlike Francesca to not communicate with the family what she's doing, what's going on, blah, blah, blah. So this was

a little weird. Leonardo though, she reassures them that everything is fine. She's probably just busy with work. I mean, she got this new job. She's probably busy. So, Leonarda gifts the family some of her homemade soaps as, like, feel-better gifts and sends the family on their way. Just a few months later, again, someone else out of a job because of the war shows up at Leonarda's door. Now, her name was Virginia, and she was 53 years old and an opera singer. And wouldn't you know it, I mean, just like that, Leonardo had the perfect job for her. She's like, oh my god, this is crazy. I have the perfect job for you. Come on in. Anyway, Leonardo would find this out-of-work opera singer a job working as a secretary for a theatrical producer in Florence. Now, it would cost her like 50,000 lire, no liar, it would cost

her some money. And also she wanted some precious gems, which I personally love that, precious gems. It just sounds so magical. So Virginia agrees to the money and the gems and then Leonardo tells her the rules just like as the ones previously. And this time her instructions were even like a little bit more strict than the other girls. She told Virginia that she had to tell absolutely no one any details about the job or when she was leaving. So Leonarda is telling Virginia that she needs to hurry up,

write the letters, leave them on the table. Like she needed to hurry up because somebody could quickly scoop up that job. So she needed to get moving ASAP. And on November 30th, 1940, Virginia does exactly that. And just like the others, she's never heard from again. This time though, things went a little differently. People weren't just going to ignore Virginia's disappearance because little did Leonardo know that there was an actual eyewitness who saw Virginia's last whereabouts. And it wasn't at a theater in Florence. It was at Leonardo's front door. Oh, okay. Virginia's relatives, they go straight to the police once they notice that she's been gone for a while, okay? And they tell the police that the last place she had been seen

was going to Leonardo's house. So that's when the police are really starting to put the pieces together. And they're like, hey, it's kind of weird that like all three of these women were known to visit Leonardo and just so happened to disappear. So they go ahead, police go down and interview Leonardo. But like they didn't even think she did anything, okay? To everyone, including the police, she was just like an eccentric middle-aged woman. And you know, you could go to her and she'd tell you your fortune give you some soaps and herbs and like you know nothing to see there and as soon as police arrived at Leonardo's house it was said that she was just so charming she offered them some coffee to come on in have a seat

she's just a great hostess They talked about her ex-husband and she raved about her beloved son Giuseppe and how devastated she was that he was off fighting the war. It was actually believed that her son Giuseppe was the one who was like behind the disappearances. That's what police originally thought. So yeah, no signs were pointing to Leonarda herself. Now, just like a lot of these stories during wartime, some of the details aren't exactly known, but what we do know is Leonarda ends up at the police station for questioning.

Now, either the police brought in her son for questioning and then Leonarda panicked and like headed over there. I read an article that said that. Or she went down there herself. Either way, it doesn't matter because what we do know is that she was questioned by police. And the second they questioned her on the disappearance of these three women, Leonardo confessed instantly to her crimes. Yeah, she didn't even like kind of resist or anything. She was like, yep, me. I think because she truly believed in her reasoning, you know, like, I'm not sure.

I'm always trying to figure these people out. And it's just like, you're not going to figure them out. You're just not Bailey. Let it go. That's why I'm here though. Anyways, the three women were missing. Leonardo tells the police, yeah, like those three women aren't missing. They're actually dead. Leonardo had murdered them all brutally. And again, she, she had a reason to justify this. So she believed. When the troubles of war started and Giuseppe was sent to fight, Leonardo, she wanted to make sure, or she wanted to find a way to ensure that her son would be protected. She remembered something she had read in a cult book. And it said, quote,

"'That one paid for a life with another life.'" I mean, to her, I guess it was clear as day. Like this was it. This was what she had to do. Leonardo had to take a life so her kids didn't lose their lives. It was like a sacrifice. And unfortunately, poor Rabidi was the first life she chose to take. So on December 17th, 1939, again, Rabidi stops by Leonardo's place to say goodbye before she goes to meet her new man.

She's got her bags packed and she's got her family letters and she's like just all ready to go. She only meant to stop by Leonarda's place, but Leonarda is like, oh my God, you should like stay for a little bit. You know, we should celebrate this new chapter in your life. So she pulls out a bottle of wine, pours her BD a glass, and after a few sips, her BD fully passes out.

Leonarda had drugged her. Next, Leonardo said that she picks up like a huge sharp axe and hacks her unconscious body to death. She then pulled Rabidi into a dark room where no one could see what she was doing and that's when she decides like, well, she's like, I have to find a way to get rid of the body. So her first thought is like, okay, let me go get a bone saw. Yeah. So she picks up a bone saw and cuts off Pura Biti's legs right at the knee. And then Leonardo placed a basin under the legs so the blood could, like, drain out. And then once it's all drained, Leonardo puts the blood bucket aside. And the next she lays Rupiti's body down face up

and gets to work dismembering it with the bone saw. With her face like staring right at her. Leonardo did not care if that face was looking right at her. She picks up her bone knife and then cuts the body up into nine pieces. She then headed right on over to a kettle and she decides to get like boiling, a boil going. She drops in the first set of her beauty's body parts, the hands and the legs, one by one and then adds caustic soda, which is a chemical that breaks down fat and grease to break down the body parts.

Science. She like stirs this kettle until the body parts turn into a thick, dark mush. And as soon as it's the right consistency, she pours the mush into a bucket and then walks over to the septic tank and pours it down. Yeah, I'm giving you her whole recipe, the secret recipe. She then walks over to the basin of blood. The blood had been sitting there for a while while she's been cooking. So it's all thick, cold and coagulated, which I guess was perfect for what Leonardo

wanted to do next. So she picks up the thick, like sticky globs of blood and then spreads it across a baking sheet. Then she like preheats the oven at about 350 degrees for about 14 minutes. Sprinkle on that. I'm just kidding. I don't know if she did that, but she did bake the blood until it was completely dried out. And then after that, she would like ground that into a blood powder and then she got to work baking with it. She would combine the blood powder with flour, sugar, butter, milk, and all like the

usual baking ingredients. Anyway, from Rabiti's powdered blood, Leonarda bakes delicious tea cakes. It's like, I know, interesting how she knows how to do all these things. Like the whole like dismembering a body and, but you know, she must have read many leather bound books. I mean, to make matters worse, it was said that Leonarda, she even have read many leather-bound books. I mean, to make matters worse, it was said that Leonarda, she even like served these cakes to her friends in town and that she even ate some of them herself. But most importantly,

she sent some to her son, Zeppi, to share with his friends at war. Thanks. Yeah, she really did serve the human cake to her son, her favorite son. Well, Leonarda had convinced herself if Zeppi ate the human cake to her son, her favorite son. Well, Leonarda had convinced herself if Giuseppe ate the human cake and lived, then she did the right thing

by following the occult savior son guide. Leonarda said Giuseppe wrote to her, which further proved that he was safe from the war and thanked her for the treats. And this is when she knew she was right. That book was right. The key was a life for a life. This is like, she's like confirmed.

But like I had mentioned earlier, Italy was in a state of crisis in World War II. I mean, everyone was tense and Leonardo wasn't an exception. So then Leonardo tells the investigators Francesca's story, which was very similar to Rabidi's. Francesca had stopped by Leonarda's house on her way out. She invited her into her home, drugged her wine, and then killed her with an axe while she was unconscious. Same thing.

She did that same process. She drained the blood, dismembered the body, and had the same plan as before and turned her blood into tasty little tea cakes. And again, no surprise, no surprise, she did the same thing with Virginia. The same thing with Virginia. But she noted, Leonardo noted, that the way the fat broke down in the cooking process, She referred to Virginia as creamy, which is, yeah. And when she baked Virginia's blood into the cakes, she apparently said Virginia was a, quote, very sweet woman. Yes. Did she really have to comment on the taste? She sure did. And she did. She was like, yeah, very sweet, LOL.

This time though, when she cooks for down Virginia's body parts in the kettle, she adds like extra ingredients, chemicals, sprinkles in a bit of perfume, parfum, cologne, and lets the mixture cool down. And she turns her creamy ass body into soap bars. Bars of soap. Do you remember when she gifted soap? So I had a moment where I thought like, okay, Leonardo, she knew she was going to kill these women. Maybe in her own like sick, twisted way, she thought she might as well make

some money off of their bodies to survive which is why maybe she turned them into soap but that kind of goes against what i just said earlier because she gifted some people with soaps i think it was just a straight sacrifice i think she knew exactly what she was doing i don't know most of the soap made out of her friends was just given away so i don't know why but of the soap made out of her friends was just given away. So I don't know why, but it feels like such a specific thing that only like female serial killers would do. No, it kind of reminds me of Fight Club.

Yeah, but this lady was real life. So it's a little bit more fucked up. And when we think about it, Leonarda hid her crime in an everyday product that you would never even think twice about. Leonarda seemed to have some good intentions in handing out these soaps for free. I mean, during this time, just like the food, there was also a soap shortage at the time, so people needed it.

I'm just like, why? What I'm getting at is, like, people weren't asking questions about where their free soap was coming from, especially if it was coming from someone well known and liked in the town as Leonarda. I mean, I don't really ask where my soap comes from, so who, yeah. And honestly, if Virginia's family didn't see her at Leonarda's house, she probably would have gotten away with it

for a little longer. Who knows? Maybe even like forever. Well, in 1940, Leonarda was charged and waited in prison for her trial. And this was really bad timing, very bad timing, because Leonardo had to wait for World War II to play out before she could like go to trial. So she ends up sitting there for six years in an Italian prison. But when Leonardo finally stood trial six years later in 1946, it

was said that she was oddly calm, like really calm. She even told the authorities with pride, quote, I gave the copper ladle, which I used to skim the fat off the kettles, to my country, which was so badly in need of metal during the last days of the war, end quote. And they're like, all right, thank you for your donation. Thank you. All right. Yeah. So she donated the metal because they needed it. She's like, see, I'm a good person. And then when she finally went to trial, she spent six years in prison. You know what she did? She'd been working on a 700 page handwritten confession of all of her crimes and it was called, quote, "'Confessions of an Embittered Soul.'"

I'm trying to find it at the library. I probably can download it. So right away when Leonarda plopped down that 700 page confession, people are like, "'Oh my God, there's no way you did this.'" I mean, Leonarda wasn't very literate and she also didn't have a lot of education. So sitting down to write a passionate confession, let alone 700 pages,

seemed really ridiculous. And many believe that she didn't do it. But I don't know, you guys. I mean, again, you're in prison. What are you doing for six years? Staring at a wall? No, you're probably going to learn to read and write. Just saying. I don't know. Just saying. Many scholars believe that there's no way in hell she wrote this confession, that maybe she had help from somebody else or like somebody wrote it for her, like her son. They really wanted it to be the son. And maybe it was, but like, I don't know.

I don't think so. I think it was Leonardo. Maybe they just couldn't accept it or something. Either way, many of the very specific details of the case that we know today are actually from her confession. And one thing most agreed on is that the confession from Leonardo definitely helped her get a psychiatric diagnosis, aka she was able to avoid the death penalty. Leonardoarda was sentenced to three years in an asylum and 30 years in prison.

In the end, in 1970, at the age of 77, Leonarda had a stroke and died in prison. No one knows what happened to her kids. And Leonarda's reputation lived on in many different ways. In 1977, an Italian filmmaker turned her story into a movie. There was also a play called Love and Magic, which is an interesting title, actually. Also, the tools that Leonardo used in her murders,

I am not kidding, like the ax and the pots, are actually preserved at the Criminology Museum in Rome. Road trip? I'm down. I would go see itiminology Museum in Rome. Road trip? I'm down. I would go see it if I was in Rome. I'm sorry, I would. Just out of curiosity. Because to me, this story sounds so fake. So it's like, if you actually physically could see,

see the thing that she used, it'd be like, whoa, that shit's real, you know? Like sometimes these stories are so crazy. I'm like, is this fucking real? Is this real? Like she really did that, huh? I don't know. Some people have mixed feelings about Leonardo. Like she's not really a murderer or a serial killer because she was doing it as a sacrifice to save her sons and some believe like, eh, this is different between

being a psycho killer and someone who wants to, you know, save her sons. But at the end of the day, she killed people. Okay? So yeah. And that, my friends, is the story of Leonarda Cianciulli. What's her name? Like the soap bar killer or something. I'm sure it's something like that, right? I forgot. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. You make good choices. Please be safe out there. And I will be seeing you guys later. Bye. Don't trust your bar soap.