10 Terrifying True Stories That Would Work Perfectly As Horror Movies

From one grisly serial killer to another, Leonarda Cianciulli was an Italian woman who committed three gruesome murders between 1939 and 1940. In her youth, Cianciulli visited a fortune teller and was allegedly told that she would have many children, but that they would all die young.

The prophecy seemed to come true, with Cianciulli becoming pregnant 17 times, suffering three miscarriages and seeing ten of her children die in their early years. Four of them survived, and Cianciulli became obsessive about keeping them safe. So, when WWII broke out and her eldest son signed up with the army, she decided that the only way to protect him was through human sacrifice.

Acting as a fortune teller, Cianciulli slaughtered three women, poisoning them with wine and finishing them off with an axe. From there, her crimes took an even darker turn as she made soap from her victims' bodies and used their blood as an ingredient in teacakes, which she later shared among her guests and family.

Any film of Cianciulli's life would be a difficult one to watch, but there can be no denying that she will go down in history as one of the most obscure and psychologically disturbing murderers of them all. An Italian movie of her life was made, but we'd love to see a big-budget, English-language exploration of this very scary serial killer.