Aqua Tofana~The 17th Century Serum That Killed Hundreds Of Husbands
Aqua Tofana~The 17th Century Serum That Killed Hundreds Of Husbands The deadly poison Aqua Tofana came in a pretty bottle. It was colorless, odorless, and tasteless. For almost 20 years in 17th-century Italy, hundreds of women used it to stealthily kill their husbands. Their motivations may have differed, but the results were the same. The poison worked quickly and quietly and killed without leaving a trace. By the 1650s, it’s estimated that Aqua Tofana killed some 600 people. For women living in 17th-century Italy, marriage could be a cage. They had few options aside from finding a husband, and once they had one, it was impossible to leave. But a woman named Guilia Tofana had a solution. Born in Palermo, Italy, around 1620, Guilia Tofana knew a thing or two about death. When she was just 13, a woman named Thofania d’Amado, possibly Guilia's mother, was executed for killing her own husband with poison. In the aftermath, Tofana carried on her mother’s legacy using her old