The Perfumer Who Helped 600 Women Murder Their Husbands

Giulia Tofana was a professional poisoner. But she didn’t kill anyone herself. Instead she sold her own brand of poison. It was invented by Giulia’s mother. Giulia sold the concoction, called Aqua Tofana, to other women. They used it to get rid of their abusive husbands. Giulia Tofana was born in Palermo in 1620. Her mother was the infamous Thofania d'Amado. She was executed for murdering her own husband, in 1633. Giulia moved to Naples and then to Rome. She had a deep sympathy with women trapped in loveless marriages. So she started selling poisons to set them free. Giulia opened an apothecary shop as a front. Officially she sold cosmetics. Giulia concocted powders and liquids to enhance women’s beauty. But her best selling product was Aqua Tofana. The deadly poison was disguised as a cosmetic product.  It came in the form of a face cream or oil. When sold in bottles, it was often labeled as "Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari." This was the name of a popular healing ointment for blemish. In reality, Aqua Tofana was a cocktail of lead, arsenic, and belladonna. Many of these ingredients were used in cosmetics at the time. So Aqua Tofana was unlikely to arouse suspicion. The poison was measured in drops. 

The first dose was normally diluted. It caused exhaustion and physical weakness. The second dose would bring on stomachaches, vomiting and dysentery. The third or fourth dose were lethal. Aqua Tofana was completely tasteless, odorless, and colorless. As a result, physicians believed the victim had died of some disease. The slow nature of the poisoning was crucial. The "mortally ill" husbands had time to get their affairs in order. The "grieving widows" were left with the inheritance. The poison offered women an "early Italian divorce." Giulia was careful to only sell products to ladies that she knew. Only her daughter and trusted employees knew the truth. It lasted until one customer got cold feet. She added a few drops of Aqua Tofana to her husband’s soup. But then she panicked, begging him not to eat it. She revealed the criminal activities of Giulia Tofana. Giulia got word that the authorities were after her. She hid in a local church. But then a rumor began to spread that she'd poisoned the city’s water supply. Giulia was arrested and tortured. She confessed to killing over 600 men between 1633 and 1651 in Rome alone. In July 1659, Giulia Tofana was executed. Her daughter and 3 employees were also executed. All of them had been found guilty of murder. They were killed in Rome's Campo de' Fiori. Some of Giulia's clients were also punished. But Giulia Tofana became a posthumous legend. In 1791, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart claimed to have been poisoned. More than a century after Giulia's death, the composer exclaimed:

“I am sure that I have been poisoned. I cannot rid myself of this idea. Someone has given me Aqua Tofana and calculated the precise time of my death.”