Giulia Tofana

Italian poisoner, mid-1600s. Operated in Palermo, then Naples, then Rome.

Aqua Tofana

Her signature product — an odourless, tasteless poison sold in small vials. Composition: arsenic + lead + belladonna. A few drops in food or wine killed slowly enough that the death looked like wasting illness rather than poisoning.

Marketed almost exclusively to women trapped in abusive or unwanted marriages. Sometimes disguised as cosmetics ("Manna of St Nicholas of Bari") to pass undetected in a household.

Network

Ran the operation with her daughter Girolama Spara and a small circle of accomplices. Distribution was by word-of-mouth through women's networks.

Arrest and execution

Caught in Rome around 1650s after a customer lost her nerve and confessed to a priest, who alerted authorities. Tofana fled to a church for sanctuary; mob pressure (rumours she was poisoning the water supply) forced her surrender.

Tortured, confessed to roughly 600 deaths between 1633–1651 (figure is disputed — likely inflated by interrogators or propaganda). Executed by strangulation in 1659 along with her daughter and three accomplices in Campo de' Fiori, Rome.

Cultural afterlife

Modern feminist retellings cast her as a folk-heroine helping abused women escape. Historically she ran a paid contract-killing service; both framings have evidence.

Mozart, on his deathbed (1791), reportedly told his wife he believed he'd been given Aqua Tofana — the poison was still a household reference 130 years after her death.