Made of a mixture of lead, arsenic, and belladonna, Aqua Tofana contained some of the same ingredients as normal cosmetics at the time, which helped it to blend in on a woman's nightstand or vanity. It came in a bottle or a powder case often labeled as 'Manna of St Nicholas of Bari,' a popular healing ointment for blemishes. That front made it easier to disguise her best-selling product: Aqua Tofana.Īqua Tofana was a coveted face cream or oil used by Italian ladies looking to preserve their youth… or procure a status of widowhood.

She sold powders and liquids to enhance women's beauty. To those not in the know, her business was cosmetics. With the help of her daughter, a group of trusted associates, and possibly a priest, Giulia launched an underground ring of criminals from her apothecary shop. Harboring a soft spot for women trapped in loveless, suffocating relationships, she started selling toxins to help them escape.

She moved from Sicily to Naples to Rome, expanding her black-market trade. It's been rumored that d'Amado passed down the recipe for her best-performing poison to her daughter, but even if that wasn't the case, Giulia herself was skilled in brewing all kinds of tinctures. Her mother was the infamous Thofania d'Amado, who was executed for murdering her own husband in 1633. Giulia was born in Palermo in the year 1620. The solution? Mariticide.Īnd no one was more skilled at crafting and packaging deadly poisons for Italian ladies in the 17th century than Giulia Tofana. Even if their spouse didn't physically harm them, the accepted idea that women were property meant wives didn't get much say in the shape their lives took. That third option was the preferred choice among the wealthier class - women stuck in bad marriages with violent husbands who couldn't count on the law for help. They could marry and hope that their husband treated them decently, they could remain single and rely on sex work to survive, or they could become a widow. They had no standing in society and few opportunities to better their situations. Because in 1633 Italy, the unlimited power afforded to men meant that women of those times often suffered untold abuse. No, it begins as all truly terrifying horror stories do: with unchecked patriarchy. Naturally, this story doesn't begin with that bowl of soup. This is the story of one of those times - when a bowl of soup brought down 17th-century Rome's most notorious assassin. Sometimes, the most inconsequential moments can change the course of history.

Luca perfume poison