The Soap-Maker of Correggio

Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian murderess best known for having turned her victims into teacakes and soap.  The teacakes were served to the community and her own family.  The soap was given as gifts.

Miss Cianciulli was born in Montello, Province of Avellino in Southern Italy on April 14, 1894.  Her childhood was marred by personal struggle, and after two failed suicide attempts, she married a man without her family's blessings.  Going against their wishes, she felt, would haunt her the rest of her life.

A series of unfortunate accidents, miscarriages, and ten deceased children culminated in the murder of three townswomen in Correggio where her husband and she had finally settled.  She was considered a pillar of the community and was sought out by local women as a fortuneteller, which gave her an incredible ability to manipulate her chosen victims.

The murders started in 1939.

Faustina Setti--  Miss Setti was the first of her victims, a fifty year old spinster who paid 30,000 lire for Miss Cianciulli's help in finding a husband.  After claiming she had located a suitable match, Leonarda instructed her to write letters indicating she was fine for her family members.  She was to tell no one of the marriage and mail the letters upon arrival in her future husband's village.

When Faustina came for a final visit to say farewell, Leonarda drugged her with a glass of wine and used an ax to cut her victim's body into nine pieces while collecting the blood in a basin.  The following is an account of the incident from Leonarda's personal memoir, An Embittered Soul's Confessions.

I threw the pieces into a pot, added seven kilos of caustic soda, which I had bought to make soap, and stirred the whole mixture until the pieces dissolved in a thick, dark mush that I poured into several buckets and emptied in a nearby septic tank. As for the blood in the basin, I waited until it had coagulated, dried it in the oven, ground it and mixed it with flour, sugar, chocolate, milk and eggs, as well as a bit of margarine, kneading all the ingredients together. I made lots of crunchy tea cakes and served them to the ladies who came to visit, though Giuseppe and I also ate them.

Francesca Soavi--   Francesca, the second victim, paid 3,000 lire to have Miss Cianciulli find a job for her.  Cianciulli claimed she had a found a position for the woman at an all girl's school and that Francesca should write letters to her family saying all was well that were only to be mailed when she arrived in her new home.  Like the first victim, Miss Soavi was drugged with a glass of wine and hacked to pieces, her parts being made into cakes and soap.  The murder took place on September 5, 1940.

Virginia Cacioppo--  The third and final victim was said to have paid 50,000 lire when Leonarda supposedly found her a secretarial position for an impresario in Florence.  The scheme went much the same as the previous murders.  Letters were to be written to her family but only mailed after her move was completed.  No one was to be told until then.  During her farewell visit with Leonarda, Virginia was drugged, cut into pieces and her body disposed of.

This is what Cianciulli had to say about her final victim.

She ended up in the pot, like the other two...her flesh was fat and white, when it had melted I added a bottle of cologne, and after a long time on the boil I was able to make some most acceptable creamy soap. I gave bars to neighbours and acquaintances. The cakes, too, were better: that woman was really sweet.

Leonarda was eventually caught and charged with the crimes when Miss Cacioppo's sister-in-law became suspicious over her sudden disappearance and had been last seen entering Cianciulli's home.  After being arrested, she confessed to the murders and provided vivid details, even going so far as to correct the official account while on the witness stand.

She served thirty years in prison and a further three in a criminal asylum where she died on October 15, 1970 of cerebral apoplexy.

The X Tombs

I recently watched a fascinating documentary on a PBS station regarding the discovery and investigation of the X Tombs in Rome.  Discovered in 2003, these tombs are a series of chambers found in the X quadrant of the Catacombs of St Marcellinus and St Peter along Via Casilina in Rome, Italy.  They contain thousands of male and female corpses all compacted together and neatly ordered.  Archaeologists have yet to determine their identity or even their cultural origins, and the excavation has been ongoing since 2005.

Carbon dating indicates the individuals died in waves beginning in the late first century AD and ending in the early third century, but only a handful of clues remain as to their identities and causes of death.  Archaeologists heading up the research, most notably mass grave specialists Dominique Castex and Philippe Blanchard and head archaeologist Raffaella Giulliana, indicate there aren't any signs of physical trauma, ruling out the possibility they were Christian martyrs or soldiers killed in battle.  That leaves disease as a likely culprit.  DNA investigations are ongoing in an attempt to find genetic evidence that may remain locked in the skeletal remains.

What I found most interesting, however, wasn't the mystery of their identities but the manner of their burial.  Many individuals bear similar funerary practices, indicating a certain percentage of the corpses belong to the same cultural group.  The corpses are positioned with their legs outstretched, ankles touching, and their arms flat against their sides.  Their shoulders are tightly compressed which indicates the bodies were bound tightly, and then the individual bundles were covered in plaster.  Traces of powdered amber and gold thread were found inside.  One corpse still wears a black ring around his or her finger.  Gold earrings were also discovered.  All of this attests to the individuals being wealthy.

The bodies were then stacked inside the tombs.  Most were laid out in neat rows and layered one on top of the other, but a few were turned slightly on a precise axis.  According to the documentary, the tombs contained more bodies than would have fit were the bodies still covered in flesh and soft tissue, another indication they were interred in waves.  A group of people were placed inside and allowed to decompose over time before another layer of bodies was added.

In the end, the documentary postulated that the tombs may contain members of the Equities Singulares Augusti, the personal cavalry of the Roman emperor, and their wives.  They would have been comprised of members who hadn't been born in Rome and may have come from Northern Africa.  No one can say for certain, though, and the investigation still continues.  I look forward to following the details.

If you would like to read further, this was a fascinating article that goes into more detail.

Viking Lands of the Dead

Any serious inquiry into the collective mythology for the people known as the Vikings is fraught with difficulties.  First, who were the Vikings?  They were a group of people who originated in Germanic, Nordic, and Scandinavian areas.  They were travelers with the most sophisticated seafaring technology of their day, so they quickly spread throughout the world, even making it as far as North America.  The Vikings weren't any one group of people, so looking into their death practices and beliefs about life after death is going to turn up thousands of different traditions.

Second, concrete evidence on their beliefs is scarce.  Their traditions were much more orally based.  Myths were passed down through spoken word and the telling of stories, songs, and poetry.  What written information we have comes to us through Christian scholars who lived hundreds of years after the golden age of the Vikings and told through a very Christian world view.  What men like Snorri Sturluson, who is credited as having wrote the Prose Edda, tell us about Viking mythology must, therefore, be taken with a hearty amount of skepticism.  

Having said all that, I wanted to take a look at some of the Viking mythology regarding their beliefs in the afterlife.  Is there anyone on the planet who hasn't heard of Valhalla, the hall of Odin where men who die in combat go for an eternity of feasting and revelry?  It's been popularized in modern media, but where do all the poor saps go who aren't among the honorable dead?  The answer to that question is that they go to one of many different death realms, and I was interested in looking into the subject.

Valhalla:  Odin holds court in a great hall for the honorable dead in Asgard that is decked out with spears, shields, and imagery pertaining to the warrior's life.  Here, half the warriors slain in combat (we'll get to the other half in a minute) spend their afterlife practicing their martial skills in preparation for the coming of Ragnarök.  Each day is spent in glorious combat, and each night, their wounds are miraculously healed, allowing them to spend their evenings drinking and feasting.  These warriors will join Odin during the final battle of Ragnarök when he fights the great wolf Fenrir.  They, along with their leader, will be slain, allowing life to eventually be reborn into another iteration.

So how does one get into Valhalla?  Actually, the act of dying in combat isn't what punches your proverbial ticket.  Odin (or one of his Valkyrie) only has to admire your bravery and fighting skills.  He then orders that you be slain in combat in order to to join him in his afterlife training ground.  

Fólkvangr :  Now to the other half I mentioned a minute ago.  Those honorable dead who don't go to Odin wind up in Fólkvangr where Freya, goddess of fertility, love, and death, holds court in a beautiful meadow.  There is much less information to be found about this land of the dead.  Requirements for entry don't seem to be as rigorous, though, and women are permitted here.  A couple of instances in the old sagas describe women who die by honorable means (this usually involves killing themselves when their husbands die in combat) joining Freya in Fólkvangr.  

     Important Note:  I wish I lived in a fantasy world where people cared enough about the goings on in the lives of women to write down accounts other than those pertaining to childbearing and that which revolves around men.  :End Important Note

Hel:  This death-place is also referred to as Helheim, a place loosely thought of as the home for the common dead and Snorri describes in the Prose Edda as the place for "those who die of sickness and old age."  It's ruled over by the giantess called Hel who is also Loki's daughter.  She is described by Snorri as a "half black and half flesh-colored giant woman."  Later, he goes on to describe Helheim as a bleak and isolated place where souls are locked away behind high walls and imposing gates.  However, there is much speculation that Snorri's descriptions were influenced by his Christian upbringing.

We also find a brief description in the Poetic Edda concerning the tale of Baldr's Dream.  Here, Odin rides into Hel's high hall where he finds benches decked with arm rings and a dais made of gold and with mead abounding in preparation for the arrival of Baldr's spirit.  This imagery contradicts Snorri's description of Helheim being an isolated, bleak place.

Later, Hermóðr, who is described in the Prose Edda as Odin's son, is incited by Frigg to ride into Helheim in order to ransom Baldr's spirit and return him to Asgard.  Riding aboard Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged stallion, he is described as traveling for nine nights down a deep, dark valley before arriving at a bridge.  A giantess waiting there instructs him that Baldr has already passed into Helheim, so he rides northwards and downwards until arriving at a tremendous gate.  Sleipnir leaps over it, allowing the pair to enter into the great hall.  Hel agrees to relinquish Baldr's soul but only if all things dead and alive wept for him.

Náströnd:  This place exists inside Helheim and is also referred to as Corpse-Strand.  It's a special vault described in the Eddas as a place where "drops of venom fall through the roof vent."  Níðhöggr, a giant dragon, sucks on the bodies of the dead and wolves tear at corpses of men.  Murders, oath-breakers, and seducers are housed here.  I also came across a brief mention of a place referred to as Niflhel.  Interpretations indicate this is a place beneath Helheim where dead men go to disappear when their families stop making grave offerings, but the term could just overlap with the ideas of Helheim.

Helgafell, the Holy Mountain:  This death-realm only relates to Icelandic tradition.  This is a pleasant place where the dead can go to be close to their living kin and where their kin can go to make offerings and conduct rituals geared toward the dead.

Rán's Hall:  Viking sailors seemed to believe that drowning at sea meant their souls were collected by Rán, the goddess of the sea and one of several goddesses of death.  They sometimes carried gold with them as a gift or offering to her.  There is a saga that indicates people took not finding a body as a good sign, that it was and indication they had been taken to Rán's hall, which she shared with her husband and nine daughters.

Naturally, this information is all very simplified and open to interpretation, because we just don't have a wealth of material surviving from the golden age of these people.  All archaeologists can do is make educated guesses on how fundamental afterlife mythology was when it was in practice.

While preparing for this blog entry, I learned more about their practices and cleared up a few misconceptions I had believed prior to looking into the actual mythology.  Maybe someone else will find the subject as fascinating as I do.  Oh, and I found this thesis paper an interesting read.

Aztec Lord of the Dead

Mictlantecuhtli (meaning Lord of Mictlan) is the chief death god in the Aztec pantheon and is king of Micltan, the lowest and northernmost section of the Underworld where he lives with his wife Mictecacihuatl.  He is depicted as a humanoid figure with either a skull in place of a head or wearing a skull mask.  It's worth mentioning that many of the Aztecan deities are depicted as either having skulls for heads or wearing clothing incorporating the skeleton or bones.  Because of the close nature between life and death, this was considered a sign of fertility, health, and abundance.

Aztecan belief, much like Viking mythology, separates souls into three different categories.  Those who die of natural causes such as old age and disease belong in one category.  The second category contains those who die honorable or heroic deaths; this includes men who die in combat, people who are sacrificed, and (I was pleasantly surprised to learn) women who die in childbirth.  Category three is comprised of those who die of non-heroic deaths.  I haven't found any information on what entails dying a non-heroic death.

As the mythology goes, Quetzalcoatl made an arrangement with Mictlantecuhtli to retrieve the bones of their divine ancestors from the Underworld.  The lord of Mictlan changed his mind, however, and Quetzalcoatl and his twin, Xolotl, were forced to steal them.  Some of the bones were dropped during their escape and shattered.  The various races of mortals were created from these bones, and our imperfections are caused by the broken pieces.

Mictlantecuhtli was often paid homage to by ritual cannibalism.

Rosalia Lombardo

My interest in Rosalia Lombardo, also known as The Sleeping Beauty, started after seeing her featured in an episode of Scariest Places on Earth that used to run on ABCFamily.  This was back before I knew about the wonders of the internet (I was a late bloomer,) so I spent years remembering this little girl and being unable to look up appropriate information on her.  Thankfully, that was rectified when I joined the Age of Enlightenment.

Unfortunately, there isn't a wealth of information to be had.  Rosalia was born in December of 1918 in Italy and died just two short years later on December 6, 1920.  A recent investigation produced non-invasive CT scans of her body from which doctors upheld reports that she died of bronchopneumonia.  More detailed information of the CT scans can be found here.  Her father, rumored to be Mario Lombardo, secured permission for his child to be entombed inside the Capuchin Catacombs  in Palermo, Italy (one of the last bodies to be interred there) and contracted Alfredo Salafia to prepare her body for the afterlife.  She was placed inside a glass coffin, covered in a silk blanket, and adorned with an amulet of the Virgin Mary.

Dario Piombino-Mascali, who has published a study on the mummies of the Capuchin Catacombs, tracked down Salafia's descendants in 2009.  He discovered the formula used to preserve the body from remaining memoirs and paperwork.  The embalming process included formalin (a disinfectant and tissue hardener,) salt (to leach moisture from the tissue,) zinc (a petrifying agent,) salicylic acid (another preservative,) and glycerin (to preserve the organs and prevent over-drying.)  The results of this formula have been remarkable, and her internal organs remain intact but for minor shrinkage.

An unusual phenomenon has garnered attention from the the paranormal community.  Temperature and atmospheric variations inside the catacombs cause Rosalia's eyelids to appear as though they are opening, revealing a sliver of intact eyeballs.  This has led some to believe her spirit remains near her body, and some intrepid paranormal enthusiasts claim her body can become host to any wandering spirits in the area.

Recently, Rosalia's body has begun to show signs of deterioration.  Her skin is becoming discolored and spotted, and her hair is lightening from its natural brunette color.  Some blame this on changes in the atmosphere inside the tomb while others claim it's a result of the high traffic she draws to the catacombs and camera flashes.  For a time, a National Geographic expedition moved her glass coffin into a sealed, glass enclosure filled with nitrogen gas to prevent decay, but her body has since been removed and returned to its original location inside the catacombs.

The Footage That Started My Research

Note:  The Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo are considered a must-see tourist attraction.  If you're ever in the area, it might make a fascinating destination.

Introduction

Death and the unknown hold profound places in our psyche.  Dying is one of the few universals in life.  We're all guaranteed to be born, and we're all guaranteed to die, and as we age, we become more and more fixated on what happens in the great beyond.  Do we go to a better place?  Do we transition into another plane of existence?  Do we become worm fodder and cease to exist?  These are questions no living person can answer no matter how advanced our science has become or how spiritual we consider ourselves.

In this blog, I intend to pursue a subject that is of great interest to myself and a good portion of the rest of the world: Death and the study of the remains that are left behind.  Obtaining a degree in archaeology only furthered my interest in human remains and the cultural phenomenon and beliefs surrounding dying and the afterlife.  Ancient Egyptian funerary practices, the Viking ritual of a funeral pyre, and modern embalming and mortuary science are just some of the subjects I might touch upon.

By no means am I an expert on the subject, and this isn't meant to be a definitive source of knowledge.  But maybe some readers will find what I have to say during my exploration interesting.  If so, I would love to hear from you.

Cheers