For women living in 17th-century Italy, life was not easy, especially if you were trapped in an abusive marriage. Women had no choice but to stay, but Giulia Tofana changed the game.
She was both a serial killer and a hero. Across Italy, more than 600 men died at her hand after their wives fed them a poison she had concocted.
Giulia Tofana was born in 1620 in Sicily. Her mother, Thofania d’Amado, was executed in 1633 for murdering her own husband. At the time, Giulia was just 13 years old.
Rumor has it that Giulia’s mother taught her how to make the special poison. Either way, Giulia was skilled at brewing up all kinds of tinctures and remedies.
She moved from Sicily to Naples to Rome, selling toxins to women who were stuck in bad relationships with no other way of escaping.
She formed a close-knit circle of trusted individuals to help her run her business. These included women who were widows, outcasts, and beggars.
On the surface, she sold cosmetics, such as powders and liquids. But her best-selling product was something much more potent: Aqua Tofana.
Aqua Tofana was packaged to look like a face cream, and the bottle featured a picture of St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children and unmarried people who helped young women and girls out of harm’s way.
In reality, Aqua Tofana contained lethal ingredients. It was a mixture of arsenic, lead, and belladonna.
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The first dose would cause symptoms like exhaustion and physical weakness. The second dose would bring on vomiting, stomach aches, and dysentery.
By the third or fourth dose, the victim would drop dead several days later. The poison was undetectable, and the cause of death was usually attributed to some kind of unknown illness.
Giulia was careful about who she sold her products to. Unfortunately, one young woman slipped through her vetting process. This customer had purchased Aqua Tofana and administered it to her husband in his soup.
However, she panicked and changed her mind at the last minute, stopping her husband from eating the soup. Giulia’s criminal activities were then exposed.
She found out that her cover had been blown before authorities could arrest her, so she was able to flee to a local church. But a rumor began to spread about how she had poisoned the city’s water supply, and severe action was taken by the government.
It was said that she was tortured for her crimes and executed in Campo de’ Fiori in Rome in 1659, along with some of those in her circle.
Other historical accounts say that she died in 1651 without anyone knowing that she was behind the poisonings.
Giulia gave women power and protection when they had no other way out of their situations. History may label her a poisoner, but she challenged social rules in a way no one else was able to.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
