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Close to half of marriages end in divorce, which some might see as representative of the moral decay of society. But back in 17th century Italy, when divorce was not at all a thing, hundreds of women married to abusive husbands employed Giulia Tofana to poison them.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: July 16, 1659--
Born in 1620 in Palermo, Sicily, Giulia invented her namesake Aqua Tofana out of arsenic, lead, and belladonna. It was colorless and tasteless and could easily be mixed with water or wine to send some dude off to wife-beater hell. She spent 20 years manufacturing and selling the stuff, and business was so good she had employees help her in the production. This was a time when women had no rights or protection from their husbands. If he wanted to beat the shit out of her, that was fine. Unlike now where we take domestic abuse seriously. Wait. Fuck.
How did she get away with it for so long? Well, science was in its infancy, and it’s not like these folks knew how to run a tox screen. And it wasn’t a hey honey drink this and then he’d take a sip and his tongue would swell and he’d keel over right away. It took a number of doses, and the victim got progressively sicker over several days then just fucking died. And before the advent of modern medicine people just fucking died all the time. Prior to the 19th century you had only a 50% chance of seeing your 15th birthday. Dying from Aqua Tofana didn’t look that different from croaking from any number of diseases prevalent at the time. Another “benefit” of the poison is that it gave the dude time to “get his affairs in order” and even repent of his sins so he could go to heaven, so the wife didn’t even need to feel that guilty.
Tofana mostly plied her trade in Naples and Rome. She was known as a friend to women married to abusive men. She instructed them not only on how to use the poison, but how to act afterward to alleviate suspicion. She told them to wail and weep and even demand that the body be examined to determine a cause of death, knowing the doctors of the day wouldn’t be able to discern shit.
But one of her clients ratted her out. Other clients who loved her spirited her away to a church, which granted her sanctuary. The cops busted in anyway and dragged her away for questioning. FYI, “questioning” in 17th century Italy meant torture. They tortured the shit out of her. And she not only confessed to helping kill over 600 men but gave up some of her clients. Giulia Tofana was executed for her crimes on July 16, 1659, along with her daughter and three of her employees. Several of her clients met a similar fate.
It’s possible parts of this story were exaggerated by misogynists to make women look bad.
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