Women of Controversy: Giulia Tofana

Womanica

Wonder Media Network and iHeartPodcasts

Society & Culture, Education, History

4.3 • 920 Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Giulia Tofana (c. 1620) was a 17th century Italian apothecary with a dark secret. Unhappily married women visited her shop in Rome to purchase her specially formulated, slow-acting poison. When their husbands mysteriously died of “sudden illnesses,” authorities struggled to trace the true cause of death—poison—back to Giulia.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before there was internet fraud and phone scams, there were always swindlers.
0:05.4	Female swindlers too.
0:07.4	Discover the stories of women from the past who not only survived, but thrived as con-artists and thieves.
0:16.6	How did they use their feminine characteristics to swindle in a world where men made the rules?
0:24.0	Join me, Lucy Worsley, historian and author, and my all-female team in ladies swindlers, wherever you get your podcasts.
0:34.2	Before we get started, just a heads up that this episode contains mentions of violence.
0:41.0	Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
0:45.9	This month, we're talking about women who found themselves at the center of controversy, whether deserved or not.
0:52.4	In 17th century, Italy, hiding in plain sight existed a thriving criminal
0:57.6	magical underworld. Alchemists, fortune tellers, self-proclaimed experts in black magic.
1:05.2	This network of enterprising backdoor dealers provided solutions for common ailments,
1:10.3	from toothaches to unrequited love.
1:13.2	Today we're talking about a woman credited for supplying wives with a secret weapon for escaping
1:17.7	their marriages, a deadly and untraceable poison. Please meet Julia Tafana.
1:26.5	The historical record of Julia's life and crimes is fuzzy at best. It's believed
1:32.1	she was born in Palermo, Italy, around 1620. There's also evidence that suggests her mother
1:38.0	was executed for poisoning her husband in 1633, when Julia was a teenager. This might have served as the inspiration for Julia's
1:47.0	decision to start dabbling in poison-making herself. By early adulthood, Julia was a widow as well.
1:54.4	She and her daughter relocated from Palermo to Naples before eventually settling in Rome.
2:00.3	Julia established an apothecary shop in the bustling city,
2:04.2	but her business had a dark secret,
2:06.4	one that would soon become highly useful to hundreds of women.
	...

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